OM | The Blog Dare Day 13

{PROMPT} It's your call. 

I started a meditation practice this week. I'm on day six and I'm really taking to it. The overarching theme, at least the theme that's resonating most with me, is the idea that meditation doesn't actually bring you peace.

Wait. Say what?

Nope. Meditation does not actually attract calm, shiny, nirvana love and light into your life.

When we sit still long enough to quiet our energy and finally get our mind to chill out, we feel more peaceful and calm and joyful and all that. Of course we do. But...that's not something we went out and found or even something we attracted to our life. It is our natural state. We uncovered it. All we managed to do through meditation is clear out all the crap that's cluttering our every day life, everything that's preventing us from living in our chilled out natural state. Meditation, then, is the practice of letting go of anything that disturbs your natural state.

Sure, you're saying right about now, that's obvious. How are you just now learning this, you moron, you may also be saying. Listen. Here's the deal: We tend to associate peace and calm with an achievement, with movement, with seeking and searching and finding it. Think Eat, Pray, Love. Searching. Movement. Active. Go find it. We move we go we travel we pursue peace and we pursue calm. We do this in so many different many ways. I mean, hell, I did it when I signed up for the Chopra Center program. I was moving, I was searching, and I was active in my attempt to find a peaceful calm.

Now - compare that to my realization I shared earlier:

Mediation is being still long enough to clear your mind of everything that prevents you from living in your natural state of calm. 

That is so full of hope. That puts me in such a state of optimism and rainbows. Think about it...it's already here. I already have it. Granted, I have quite a lot of proverbial crap to clear out of the way, but at least I know that at my core I'm calm. Not just on vacation and not just on lazy weekends. All the time. It's in there.

Dear Self, you can keep trucking as is, or you can finally tune in. It's your call.

Love,
me


This post is part of The Blog Dare series.

Most like myself | The Blog Dare Day 12

This post is part of The Blog Dare series...in the sense that it's part of me writing every day. However, this prompt is from The Brave Girls Club Soul Care Summer. Their rules: One sentence, one minute, one paragraph, no more, no less, no editing. Go.

{PROMPT} What made me feel most like myself today?

I saw Before Midnight. I left the movie feeling exactly the same way I did when I left the previous two; which is to say, as though I'd been punched in the gut. They are so raw and the rough edges are shockingly beautiful. All three films take my breath away. I felt most like myself in that theatre because those movies emotionally transport me to a time that I was actually most authentically myself, and most authentically loved for it. It's the happiest and the saddest I've ever been. The gut punch is a complex cocktail of feelings. God, I still miss him.

Remember to... | The Blog Dare Day 11

{PROMPT} That's what I want, too. 

by the lovely Jessica Swift

Love,
me


This post is part of The Blog Dare series.

Deal with it | The Blog Dare Day 10

{PROMPT} We'll deal with it together. 

It was profound. I know.

Love,
me


This post is part of The Blog Dare series.

My Creative Cocoon | The Blog Dare Day 9

{PROMPT} Taking steps to fix it...

I've written a lot about creativity lately. Like, a lot. Summary: I've come to the conclusion that creativity cannot be a luxury in my life. Creativity is in fact a very necessary way through which I interact with this world and I need to intentionally cultivate it every single day. Creativity is not a passive thing for me or something that will just happen without a plan. Something that happens without a plan is called hulu.

When I wrote about enthusiasm for The Declaration of You book tour, I jotted out a little laundry list of ways I'd recently invested in rebuilding my creative mojo. With the Blog Dare prompt today, it seems an appropriate time to cultivate a more thoughtful list of bits and pieces and random goodies that are helping me get my groove back. I'm a bit of a magpie right now. I'm running around like crazy collecting shiny objects...all in the name of building a new creative home for myself.

Kelly Rae Roberts

Brace yourself, Reader, and get your clicker finger ready for a litany of link love. I discovered much of this goodness because I gave myself permission to get lost in link after link after link. Eventually I ended up weaving a big cocoon of creativity for myself (my magpie nest is now a butterfly cocoon, try and up). I feel like I'm absorbing so much right now and I will eventually bust out with something awesome (I'm now an exploding sponge). I'm not sure what will come of all this, but that's not the point right now. For me to even say that and now break out in a panicked sweat is a big big deal.

Here are the goodies I've rounded up so far...

Kelly Rae Roberts
She's my muse. As in a Greek goddess of inspiration sort of way. Her work, blog, book, e-book, and general existence on this planet is what first cracked open the door and let a dusty sliver of creative light peek through. So much love.

Radical Self Love
No nonsense, ballsy, funny, smart, radical self love brought to you by Gala Darling. She may be wrapped up in sticky sweet girly pink bows, but this shit's for real. Her e-book/audio book is called Love & Sequins. I mean, come on. To listen to her read it in her cheeky Aussie accent is pure delight.

Mapping Desire(s)
The fabulousness of Danielle LaPorte is overwhelming, to be honest. Completely overwhelming in the most beautiful, terrifying, spiritual, profound way. Somewhere deep down inside I know that The Desire Map will change life as I know it. I haven't started that journey yet because I want to get a better footing with all this before I tackle it. It's going to be a doozy. For now, I stalk her on social media and get her Daily Truth Bombs in my inbox (sign up on her website).

Color. Color. Color. 
One of the authors of The Declaration of You, Jessica Swift is not only a full-time artiste extraordinaire but also the author of her own book, Jump Trust Repeat. I haven't read it yet, but I have purchased her colorful brainstorm/planner/inspiration guide of sorts. I love playing with it and synthesizing my Happiness Project goals. I also receive her daily color + words of inspiration in my inbox. Worth it. Do it.

Writing with Light
Along with my creative soul sister Jen who lives in Portland, I'm enrolled in an online photography course taught by Laura Valenti Jelen. I just blogged about it right here. Reconnecting with my passion for photography - in a more intentional way that simply Instagramming all day every day - has been an awesome exercise for me.

Owning My Badassness
Jen Sincero's book needs no annotation. Read it. Just trust me. Four of my girlfriends are now reading it and they told me to tell you to do it.

Getting Sensual
Sign up for Susannah Conway's monthly newsletter and, for free, you'll receive her 74-page ebook about exploring your senses...all with a creative end in mind. She also has a (free)  planner/calendar/reflection workbook (similar to Jessica's) that is an awesome way to intentionally move through the year. I want to take this e-course about blogging from the heart, this e-course about photography, this e-course about writing your dreams into reality, and this e-course about unravelling 'it all' and then putting 'it all' back together. Want want want. 

OM
One of the primary barriers to me manifesting all this creative moxie is the fact that my life moves too quickly. It's like, really fast. Every day. I'm trying to change that. I'm redefining what success means to me and I'm allowing myself to fill slower spaces. Deepak is helping me. So is Oprah...with Deepak. My friend Cristina also emailed a ginormous list of Hay House hippie resources, but I haven't had time to work my way through that message yet. Oh, irony. 

Go Mighty
Is it silliness to put "make a life list" on my bucket list, where it's waiting patiently to be crossed off? Because that's what's happening with me. The awesomeness of Mighty Life Lists is a lot to get my head around. I also want to go to Camp Mighty. For now, I just follow Maggie Mason around and dream of the day that I'll dare to do this. Seriously. Poke around this site. Be amazed. They recently posted 31 profiles of incredible people living out their life lists (the profiles are on tumblr, so you need to scroll and dig a little bit).

When I Grow Up
Michelle Ward is the other author of The Declaration of You and a creative career coach. I haven't hired her as a coach (whether I was ready for it or not is irrelevant because she's booked solid due to her awesomeness), but I do subscribe to everything she puts out there and it's awesome stuff. Sign up for her newsletter and you get access to her Dropbox site packed full of free resources! She has a bunch of books that are on my wish list. She also interviews inspiring grown-ups who have smashed the creative career glass ceiling and made it work (scroll down to the archive section toward the bottom for free access to all the videos).

There's more, but this will do for now. Welcome to my world as of late. It's pretty in here, huh?

You know who.

One meta comment about all of this: Like attracts like. It's true, people. It's true. Attach whatever New Age terms or ancient philosophies you want to this fact, but it's true by any name. It's a very simple and also very complex truth that as you raise your frequency and tell The Universe what you want (in my case, for now, proactive creativity), The Universe will respond. Immediately. Once you really mean it. It's like drinking from a firehouse, so be ready for whatever it is you're asking for (and be clear and specific) because it will come to you. Truth.

Love,
me

P.S. What did I miss? What do I need to know about? What links should I be clickety clacking? Post in the comment section and join the conversation.


This post is part of The Blog Dare series.