November 10th, 2016
I generally read one book per week. However, for some time now, I have been reading a book by Eric Pepin, Meditation Within Eternity. I read it because I saw a review of this book on Facebook and it was described as holding the key to experiencing deeper meditations. I have been struggling to create a regular mediation practice. Like many other moms, I have a hard time finding some time to myself. I generally try to meditate right after the girls have gotten on the school bus or during my shower. At the end of the day, I am so tired that I fall asleep during the deep breathing exercises that precede the actual meditation. I thought this book might hold the key.
The book is really intense and I tried to stay focused but found my mind drifting. It's one of those deep books with profound concepts that take some time to wrap your mind around. Pepin explains that we often meditate in order to calm our bodies but that we shouldn't be focusing on our bodies because it holds us down in this realm. What we need to do is realize that we are energy and this body is simply a container that relays sensory information to us so we can experience life on earth. If we are trying to reach higher realms, we need to free ourselves from our bodies.
He introduces the reader to the concept of frequencies. Our non-physical, energy self is at a higher frequency. We need to practice meditation in order to access higher frequencies, it's a progressive process. Eric compares this to changing lanes on a highway and how we need to accelerate in order to get to the far lane. Our vibration needs to match higher realms in order for us to change lanes. We learned that our energy gets stored in objects and spaces like when you walk into a room and feel that someone just had a fight in there. We affect each other with this energy. One person smiles at you, changes your mood, you smile at the next person and the chain reaction goes on. Our emotions are reflected in our energy fields which far surpass our physical bodies. In this way, people can be drawn to us, repelled by us or even be changed by ur very presence. In order to transform negative energy trapped in a space or object, we can move objects around or think pleasant thoughts while being in the room or holding the object. We can also create a positive experience to replace the old associations.
We then learn to differentiate between the brain which is physical and the mind which is energy. When you control the brain, the part that distracts you during meditation, you will expand your mind, meaning your awareness and soul. We need to be removed from our busy, rushed world to make space for contemplation, to figure out who we are inside. As we learn to escape the confines of our body during meditation, we return to our state as energy. Our thoughts create our frequency. If we think negative thoughts, it becomes harder for us to achieve higher states.
The book teaches us to sit in half-lotus and focus on three of the chakras, touching each one with our fingers in order to stay rooted there. As we spend time on each chakra, exploring it, we help the energy flow throughout our bodies, aligning all the chakras. The third eye chakra helps us develop our psychic abilities, opening us up to the universe and different ways of knowing. I was very excited to learn these techniques but, at the end of the book, there is simply an invitation to visit the book's website to be guided through a meditation.
While the concepts in this book provide food for thought, it is advertised as a 'how-to' book, showing you how to meditate. This is false. There is a great deal of jargon and description of what will happen to you or what is available to you once you reach a higher level of meditation but there is very little information on how to get there. I was very disappointed in the book. I will practice what I learned on pages 114-117 and will visit the website to try the meditation but the amount of time I devoted to reading this book has not brought me closer to deeper meditation. This is a book about energy, a new way to see the universe, our relationship with God and our role in the grand scheme of things. Meditation is not the focus of this book. I shared the book with two other spiritual people for whom I have a great deal of respect. Neither of them could stick with the book. They had no interest in borrowing it when I was done. Eric is the founder of the Higher Balance Institute (www.higherbalance.com). You can also find his videos on You Tube.
I will work on creating the time and space I need to practice his process and I'll let you know how it turns out.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Showing posts with label Book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book. Show all posts
Thursday, 10 November 2016
Friday, 4 November 2016
The mother of all stories; local author seeks moms willing to contribute to book
November 4th, 2016
Jennifer Westendorp from The Kemptville Advance, wrote this article about my book in order to get more moms to step forward and share their stories. Thank you Jennifer! If you know any mother who would like to share her story, please send her my way.
http://www.insideottawavalley.com/community-story/6945860-the-mother-of-all-stories-local-author-seeks-moms-willing-to-contribute-to-book/
The mother of all stories; local author seeks moms willing to contribute to book
Every mother has a story to tell; of love, heartbreak, exclusion, judgement, friendship, frustration, pure joy, insomnia or guilt. Mothers have been through it all.
Local author and art therapist Anne Walsh has set out on a mission to gather these stories and compile them into a book all mothers can relate to.
And she wants your help.
“I am writing a book called Mommy Monologues, which is basically a book about motherhood,” explained Walsh.
Working as an art therapist has shown here that often mothers feel alone.
“Mommy’s have monologues running through their heads; I didn’t make it to an activity at my child’s school, I wasn’t there for them, I didn’t get this done, my child doesn’t have their boots on like everyone else, they left without mittens.”
Motherhood has become a competitive sport, said Walsh.
“Where there is competition, there is no vulnerability, so people don’t see you need support. Meanwhile, people are struggling and nobody knows.”
The goal of the book is to break through the barrier of taboo; to show struggling doesn’t mean you’re a bad mom.
“I want to show the variety of mommy monologues,” said Walsh. “To show moms they are not alone.”
When you think about motherhood, you see images of the ‘soccer mom’ or ‘working mom,’ she explained.
“There are so many more varieties out there; moms who adopted, moms who are gay, moms with addiction issues, moms with mental health issues or who have kids with mental health issues. There are all these different types of moms out there with no community. All they see are moms who are able-bodied and not struggling, so they feel isolated.”
“What I want to do is interview all these moms,” she continued. “I am looking for moms from all walks of life. I want to hear it all. My goal is for every mother to be able to pick up this book and be able to find her story.”
Walsh, who has interviewed 10 moms so far, hopes to include stories from about 100.
“I’ve talked to many moms about this and a lot of them say ‘oh, you wouldn’t want my story in your book.’ They don’t feel like they are good enough to be included. I want to honour all stories by putting them in the book. No story is insignificant.”
If you are interested in sharing your story with Walsh, email her directly at artnsoul@ripnet.com or send her a message on Facebook. People who participate do not have to use their real name in the book.
Jennifer Westendorp is the reporter for the Kemptville Advance. She studied journalism-print at Algonquin College. Her interests include reading, writing and being outdoors.
Jennifer Westendorp from The Kemptville Advance, wrote this article about my book in order to get more moms to step forward and share their stories. Thank you Jennifer! If you know any mother who would like to share her story, please send her my way.
http://www.insideottawavalley.com/community-story/6945860-the-mother-of-all-stories-local-author-seeks-moms-willing-to-contribute-to-book/
The mother of all stories; local author seeks moms willing to contribute to book
Every mother has a story to tell; of love, heartbreak, exclusion, judgement, friendship, frustration, pure joy, insomnia or guilt. Mothers have been through it all.
Local author and art therapist Anne Walsh has set out on a mission to gather these stories and compile them into a book all mothers can relate to.
And she wants your help.
“I am writing a book called Mommy Monologues, which is basically a book about motherhood,” explained Walsh.
Working as an art therapist has shown here that often mothers feel alone.
“Mommy’s have monologues running through their heads; I didn’t make it to an activity at my child’s school, I wasn’t there for them, I didn’t get this done, my child doesn’t have their boots on like everyone else, they left without mittens.”
Motherhood has become a competitive sport, said Walsh.
“Where there is competition, there is no vulnerability, so people don’t see you need support. Meanwhile, people are struggling and nobody knows.”
The goal of the book is to break through the barrier of taboo; to show struggling doesn’t mean you’re a bad mom.
“I want to show the variety of mommy monologues,” said Walsh. “To show moms they are not alone.”
When you think about motherhood, you see images of the ‘soccer mom’ or ‘working mom,’ she explained.
“There are so many more varieties out there; moms who adopted, moms who are gay, moms with addiction issues, moms with mental health issues or who have kids with mental health issues. There are all these different types of moms out there with no community. All they see are moms who are able-bodied and not struggling, so they feel isolated.”
“What I want to do is interview all these moms,” she continued. “I am looking for moms from all walks of life. I want to hear it all. My goal is for every mother to be able to pick up this book and be able to find her story.”
Walsh, who has interviewed 10 moms so far, hopes to include stories from about 100.
“I’ve talked to many moms about this and a lot of them say ‘oh, you wouldn’t want my story in your book.’ They don’t feel like they are good enough to be included. I want to honour all stories by putting them in the book. No story is insignificant.”
If you are interested in sharing your story with Walsh, email her directly at artnsoul@ripnet.com or send her a message on Facebook. People who participate do not have to use their real name in the book.
Jennifer Westendorp is the reporter for the Kemptville Advance. She studied journalism-print at Algonquin College. Her interests include reading, writing and being outdoors.
Friday, 21 October 2016
Book of the Week-Living an Inspired Life
October 21st, 2016
I just finished reading Wayne Dyer's, Living an Inspired Life. I always enjoy his books, they make me think and, sometimes, after his book has changed the way I see things, my life is better. Every improvement of my mind, leads to a higher quality of relationship with my loved ones and with the state of my life in general.
In this book, Wayne shows us what an inspired life looks and feels like, providing examples from his own life and from other mentors. You take some time to be quiet and to connect with your Source, every day. You have a plan for your life and you are open to signs and synchronicity that steer you in the right direction. You value your health so you make time to nourish your body, rest and spend time with other high energy individuals. You hold onto your vision for your life without becoming attached to outcome or led by your ego. You know that your Source knows what you need and you search for the clues to the next step. You also recognize that all people and experiences are intended to move you forward on your path.
Wayne reminds us that we are each a piece of that Source, that we are connected, powerful and creative. He warns against judging others, dismissing their role in our life and holding back the forgiveness that may set us free. He suggests that we protect our vision for our life from the scrutiny and criticism of others. We also need to avoid media, entertainment and people who expose us to violence, hatred and fear. This pulls us away from our Source.
We are also guided to see our bodies as healthy because that is our normal state. We are bombarded with messages by media that encourage us to worry about our health. There is a pill for every ailment and we are told that 1 in 10 or 2 out of 5 will get this ailment, leading to fear and dis-ease. As we align with Source through time spent alone in silence, we may need to make changes in our lives. In order for our life to bloom, we may need to correct some of our behaviours (addiction, negativity etc) and end some relationships or change employment.
We can move in the direction of our inspired life by noticing what excites us and taking action in that direction. We don't always know how we will get there but if we say yes to life, follow our intuition and simplify our life, we will be moving in the right direction. Wayne encourages us to retrieve our child spirit: joyful, trusting, playful and full of hope and surrender our ego. The ego restricts us because we are working for the payoff, we want the reward and acknowledgement. In order to get out of our ego and into spirit, we can practise giving generously to others without any expectations. We must declutter our schedule as well as our space because there will be no room for inspiration if our minds are full and our life is hectic. That is why it is wise to slow down, do what we enjoy, spend time in the service of others, connect in nature and take small steps, recognizing opportunities as they come your way.
Obviously, this is an ideal way of life but, just making any adjustment in this direction can lead to more joy, peace and fulfilment.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
I just finished reading Wayne Dyer's, Living an Inspired Life. I always enjoy his books, they make me think and, sometimes, after his book has changed the way I see things, my life is better. Every improvement of my mind, leads to a higher quality of relationship with my loved ones and with the state of my life in general.
In this book, Wayne shows us what an inspired life looks and feels like, providing examples from his own life and from other mentors. You take some time to be quiet and to connect with your Source, every day. You have a plan for your life and you are open to signs and synchronicity that steer you in the right direction. You value your health so you make time to nourish your body, rest and spend time with other high energy individuals. You hold onto your vision for your life without becoming attached to outcome or led by your ego. You know that your Source knows what you need and you search for the clues to the next step. You also recognize that all people and experiences are intended to move you forward on your path.
Wayne reminds us that we are each a piece of that Source, that we are connected, powerful and creative. He warns against judging others, dismissing their role in our life and holding back the forgiveness that may set us free. He suggests that we protect our vision for our life from the scrutiny and criticism of others. We also need to avoid media, entertainment and people who expose us to violence, hatred and fear. This pulls us away from our Source.
We are also guided to see our bodies as healthy because that is our normal state. We are bombarded with messages by media that encourage us to worry about our health. There is a pill for every ailment and we are told that 1 in 10 or 2 out of 5 will get this ailment, leading to fear and dis-ease. As we align with Source through time spent alone in silence, we may need to make changes in our lives. In order for our life to bloom, we may need to correct some of our behaviours (addiction, negativity etc) and end some relationships or change employment.
We can move in the direction of our inspired life by noticing what excites us and taking action in that direction. We don't always know how we will get there but if we say yes to life, follow our intuition and simplify our life, we will be moving in the right direction. Wayne encourages us to retrieve our child spirit: joyful, trusting, playful and full of hope and surrender our ego. The ego restricts us because we are working for the payoff, we want the reward and acknowledgement. In order to get out of our ego and into spirit, we can practise giving generously to others without any expectations. We must declutter our schedule as well as our space because there will be no room for inspiration if our minds are full and our life is hectic. That is why it is wise to slow down, do what we enjoy, spend time in the service of others, connect in nature and take small steps, recognizing opportunities as they come your way.
Obviously, this is an ideal way of life but, just making any adjustment in this direction can lead to more joy, peace and fulfilment.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Monday, 12 September 2016
Black Card Books
September 12th, 2016
What an amazing weekend! I attended the, Publish a Book and Grow Rich Bootcamp with Gerry Robert and his team. This is a free event spanning the entire weekend from Friday night to Sunday at 5pm. I have so many books in me, just wanting to get out, vying for my attention. I decided to attend this bootcamp because I heard about it, as serendipity would have it, right after I proclaimed to my husband that I was determined to publish a book. I saw it as a sign but I wasn't sure what to expect.
On Friday night, as all 200 attendees registered, workbooks were handed out. I didn't know anyone so I leafed through this document and was tempted to just sit somewhere with a coffee and work my way through it. Everything was in there from choosing my primary objective, identifying my target population, creating a blueprint for my book, getting it funded before I even started writing it, publishing the book and marketing it. I was so excited to read all this content. It was like finding a treasure map, right there in plain sight.
Gerry Robert showed up. I had received clips of the bootcamp via e-mail so I was familiar with his charisma and had heard some of his jokes but there is nothing like seeing him in person. This guy spoke to us pretty much non-stop for three days and I never felt bored. He weaves personal stories with visits from successful authors via Skype and carefully selected slides. He combines this with assignments from the workbook to keep us moving.
I've self-published two children's books, two short stories in a collective works, a deck of art therapy cards and will be releasing my first book in French in a matter of weeks. I know first-hand that getting the book done is rarely the hard part. It's moving the book and raising awareness about your book that can be challenging. As Gerry shared his tricks of the trade with us, I was thinking what a difference this would have made for me when I released my first book. I kept thinking, of course, that makes sense!
We got tips on writing, marketing and speaking. I enjoy public speaking. I would love the opportunity to speak about any of my books. Gerry taught us how to get invited to speak and then sell or give our book to audience members as a marketing tool. What I learned about getting advertisers through interviews and selling one bonus chapter to a co-author as a way to fund my book was pure genius.
I left the conference with clarity and purpose. There were publishing packages available at the conference. I don't have that kind of money at this time but, thanks to everything I have learned for free, I can now prepare the path of success for my book. Today, I will review all my notes and organize a step by step process for my next book. I feel so prepared and excited!
Thank you Gerry Robert for empowering me to do what you have done-start with nothing but grit and determination and end up on top.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
What an amazing weekend! I attended the, Publish a Book and Grow Rich Bootcamp with Gerry Robert and his team. This is a free event spanning the entire weekend from Friday night to Sunday at 5pm. I have so many books in me, just wanting to get out, vying for my attention. I decided to attend this bootcamp because I heard about it, as serendipity would have it, right after I proclaimed to my husband that I was determined to publish a book. I saw it as a sign but I wasn't sure what to expect.
On Friday night, as all 200 attendees registered, workbooks were handed out. I didn't know anyone so I leafed through this document and was tempted to just sit somewhere with a coffee and work my way through it. Everything was in there from choosing my primary objective, identifying my target population, creating a blueprint for my book, getting it funded before I even started writing it, publishing the book and marketing it. I was so excited to read all this content. It was like finding a treasure map, right there in plain sight.
Gerry Robert showed up. I had received clips of the bootcamp via e-mail so I was familiar with his charisma and had heard some of his jokes but there is nothing like seeing him in person. This guy spoke to us pretty much non-stop for three days and I never felt bored. He weaves personal stories with visits from successful authors via Skype and carefully selected slides. He combines this with assignments from the workbook to keep us moving.
I've self-published two children's books, two short stories in a collective works, a deck of art therapy cards and will be releasing my first book in French in a matter of weeks. I know first-hand that getting the book done is rarely the hard part. It's moving the book and raising awareness about your book that can be challenging. As Gerry shared his tricks of the trade with us, I was thinking what a difference this would have made for me when I released my first book. I kept thinking, of course, that makes sense!
We got tips on writing, marketing and speaking. I enjoy public speaking. I would love the opportunity to speak about any of my books. Gerry taught us how to get invited to speak and then sell or give our book to audience members as a marketing tool. What I learned about getting advertisers through interviews and selling one bonus chapter to a co-author as a way to fund my book was pure genius.
I left the conference with clarity and purpose. There were publishing packages available at the conference. I don't have that kind of money at this time but, thanks to everything I have learned for free, I can now prepare the path of success for my book. Today, I will review all my notes and organize a step by step process for my next book. I feel so prepared and excited!
Thank you Gerry Robert for empowering me to do what you have done-start with nothing but grit and determination and end up on top.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Tuesday, 6 September 2016
Book of the Week-Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
September 6th, 2016
My mother bought me the new Harry Potter book for my birthday. I was excited to read it but I thought I would save it until the girls were back in school as a special treat. One day, I was having a bad day. I had cabin fever and wanted to go out. It was a beautiful day. My husband was at work. My daughters were playing in their room and did not want to change out of their pyjamas to go anywhere. I was grumpy. I had read reviews of the new Harry Potter book, dampening my excitement. I learned that it was written as a play and that some people were disappointed. I decided to start the book. My rationale was that it would be a shame to save the book until September 6th only to be let down.
I thought I would read one chapter, just a sneak peek. Well, I couldn't put it down. I read the entire book within a few days, staying up late, getting up early. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The book is written as a play but you get used to it after a few chapters, once you know the characters.
I remember the thrill of reading the very first Harry Potter novel. A young boy, orphaned, hated by his relatives, neglected and abused, who finds out he is special and is taken to a place where he belongs. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child felt like starting over again. We find out which characters from the first book end up together and we meet their children. Harry's son picks up where his dad left off and the adventure continues.
Another aspect of this book that I enjoyed was time travel. As Potter and his friend try to correct a mistake from the past, they realize that everything happens for a reason. Each change to the past leads to a significantly altered reality in the present, generally not a positive one. Rowling has weaved in some important themes-the reputations we inherit from our parents, the complex relationship betweens parents and their children as they grow up and, the desire to prove oneself through some kind of rite of passage.
I generally favour self-help books but this novel was a refreshing change. Rather than analyze my life, the relationships I have with those around me, my personality, purpose or conflicts, I was transported into another world. Reading fiction stimulates your imagination. It provides a break from everyday life and, a distraction from any worries. Instead, you let the author take you on a journey. You feel various emotions, learn different points of view and are exposed to new ideas.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was not at all disappointed. I am currently reading a spiritual, self-help book, I can't help in, I am drawn to them. However, I am grateful for the adventure that this work of fiction has provided for me.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
My mother bought me the new Harry Potter book for my birthday. I was excited to read it but I thought I would save it until the girls were back in school as a special treat. One day, I was having a bad day. I had cabin fever and wanted to go out. It was a beautiful day. My husband was at work. My daughters were playing in their room and did not want to change out of their pyjamas to go anywhere. I was grumpy. I had read reviews of the new Harry Potter book, dampening my excitement. I learned that it was written as a play and that some people were disappointed. I decided to start the book. My rationale was that it would be a shame to save the book until September 6th only to be let down.
I thought I would read one chapter, just a sneak peek. Well, I couldn't put it down. I read the entire book within a few days, staying up late, getting up early. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The book is written as a play but you get used to it after a few chapters, once you know the characters.
I remember the thrill of reading the very first Harry Potter novel. A young boy, orphaned, hated by his relatives, neglected and abused, who finds out he is special and is taken to a place where he belongs. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child felt like starting over again. We find out which characters from the first book end up together and we meet their children. Harry's son picks up where his dad left off and the adventure continues.
Another aspect of this book that I enjoyed was time travel. As Potter and his friend try to correct a mistake from the past, they realize that everything happens for a reason. Each change to the past leads to a significantly altered reality in the present, generally not a positive one. Rowling has weaved in some important themes-the reputations we inherit from our parents, the complex relationship betweens parents and their children as they grow up and, the desire to prove oneself through some kind of rite of passage.
I generally favour self-help books but this novel was a refreshing change. Rather than analyze my life, the relationships I have with those around me, my personality, purpose or conflicts, I was transported into another world. Reading fiction stimulates your imagination. It provides a break from everyday life and, a distraction from any worries. Instead, you let the author take you on a journey. You feel various emotions, learn different points of view and are exposed to new ideas.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was not at all disappointed. I am currently reading a spiritual, self-help book, I can't help in, I am drawn to them. However, I am grateful for the adventure that this work of fiction has provided for me.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Friday, 15 July 2016
10-10-10 and Decision Making
July 15th, 2016
This is my last blog until August 1st. I will not be writing during my mother-in-law's visit to our home.
I have been reading about a decision making technique called 10-10-10. When you have important decisions to make in your life, you ask yourself what impact your decision will have in ten minutes from now, in ten months and in ten years.
This seems simple but, as the book describes, it forces you to examine your values. I know that for myself, life changed after having my daughters. My goals were no longer the same. Therefore, I had to identify my new values in order to make a satisfying decision. I knew that I wanted to be present for my daughters, married to my husband into old age and healthy enough to enjoy my life. Those values are what led me to leave a well-paying, toxic job to stay home with my daughters. Those values guided me when I decided to work through every single issue that arose between my husband and I.
We all have different values based on our upbringing, our experiences and our temperament therefore the same decision will not have the same outcome for two different people.
This past week, when a friend's husband suddenly passed away, I was shaken. I thought about my days spent cleaning the house instead of playing with my children. I reconsidered my food choices and lack of exercise. What if I had a heart attack too. Would it be worth it just to eat those chips or that cinnamon roll? I imagine myself growing old, fit and active in my community. I always see myself as an elderly woman, doing yoga, barefoot, on a beach. That's not going to happen if I'm stuffing my face with salty and sweet treats.
Whether your decision is about work, love, parenting, health or personal growth, the 10-10-10 formula will take your values into consideration and force you to look at the big picture. Author Suzy Welch, presents a variety of case studies and shows the reader how analyzing the short term and long term consequences of a decision allows people to gain some distance from the situation, explain the decisions to others and involve them in the decision making process.
Try it out for yourself. Think about a decision that has been weighing you down. Create a general list of your values. Then, consider the impact of your decision in ten minutes, ten months and ten years. To me, the ten years timeline is always the telling part. It's helpful to describe the ten year scenario in writing, to feel what that outcome would be like and create a collage.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
This is my last blog until August 1st. I will not be writing during my mother-in-law's visit to our home.
I have been reading about a decision making technique called 10-10-10. When you have important decisions to make in your life, you ask yourself what impact your decision will have in ten minutes from now, in ten months and in ten years.
This seems simple but, as the book describes, it forces you to examine your values. I know that for myself, life changed after having my daughters. My goals were no longer the same. Therefore, I had to identify my new values in order to make a satisfying decision. I knew that I wanted to be present for my daughters, married to my husband into old age and healthy enough to enjoy my life. Those values are what led me to leave a well-paying, toxic job to stay home with my daughters. Those values guided me when I decided to work through every single issue that arose between my husband and I.
We all have different values based on our upbringing, our experiences and our temperament therefore the same decision will not have the same outcome for two different people.
This past week, when a friend's husband suddenly passed away, I was shaken. I thought about my days spent cleaning the house instead of playing with my children. I reconsidered my food choices and lack of exercise. What if I had a heart attack too. Would it be worth it just to eat those chips or that cinnamon roll? I imagine myself growing old, fit and active in my community. I always see myself as an elderly woman, doing yoga, barefoot, on a beach. That's not going to happen if I'm stuffing my face with salty and sweet treats.
Whether your decision is about work, love, parenting, health or personal growth, the 10-10-10 formula will take your values into consideration and force you to look at the big picture. Author Suzy Welch, presents a variety of case studies and shows the reader how analyzing the short term and long term consequences of a decision allows people to gain some distance from the situation, explain the decisions to others and involve them in the decision making process.
Try it out for yourself. Think about a decision that has been weighing you down. Create a general list of your values. Then, consider the impact of your decision in ten minutes, ten months and ten years. To me, the ten years timeline is always the telling part. It's helpful to describe the ten year scenario in writing, to feel what that outcome would be like and create a collage.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
10-10-10 and Decision Making
July 15th, 2016
This is my last blog until August 1st. I will not be writing during my mother-in-law's visit to our home.
I have been reading about a decision making technique called 10-10-10. When you have important decisions to make in your life, you ask yourself what impact your decision will have in ten minutes from now, in ten months and in ten years.
This seems simple but, as the book describes, it forces you to examine your values. I know that for myself, life changed after having my daughters. My goals were no longer the same. Therefore, I had to identify my new values in order to make a satisfying decision. I knew that I wanted to be present for my daughters, married to my husband into old age and healthy enough to enjoy my life. Those values are what led me to leave a well-paying, toxic job to stay home with my daughters. Those values guided me when I decided to work through every single issue that arose between my husband and I.
We all have different values based on our upbringing, our experiences and our temperament therefore the same decision will not have the same outcome for two different people.
This past week, when a friend's husband suddenly passed away, I was shaken. I thought about my days spent cleaning the house instead of playing with my children. I reconsidered my food choices and lack of exercise. What if I had a heart attack too. Would it be worth it just to eat those chips or that cinnamon roll? I imagine myself growing old, fit and active in my community. I always see myself as an elderly woman, doing yoga, barefoot, on a beach. That's not going to happen if I'm stuffing my face with salty and sweet treats.
Whether your decision is about work, love, parenting, health or personal growth, the 10-10-10 formula will take your values into consideration and force you to look at the big picture. Author Suzy Welch, presents a variety of case studies and shows the reader how analyzing the short term and long term consequences of a decision allows people to gain some distance from the situation, explain the decisions to others and involve them in the decision making process.
Try it out for yourself. Think about a decision that has been weighing you down. Create a general list of your values. Then, consider the impact of your decision in ten minutes, ten months and ten years. To me, the ten years timeline is always the telling part. It's helpful to describe the ten year scenario in writing, to feel what that outcome would be like and create a collage.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
This is my last blog until August 1st. I will not be writing during my mother-in-law's visit to our home.
I have been reading about a decision making technique called 10-10-10. When you have important decisions to make in your life, you ask yourself what impact your decision will have in ten minutes from now, in ten months and in ten years.
This seems simple but, as the book describes, it forces you to examine your values. I know that for myself, life changed after having my daughters. My goals were no longer the same. Therefore, I had to identify my new values in order to make a satisfying decision. I knew that I wanted to be present for my daughters, married to my husband into old age and healthy enough to enjoy my life. Those values are what led me to leave a well-paying, toxic job to stay home with my daughters. Those values guided me when I decided to work through every single issue that arose between my husband and I.
We all have different values based on our upbringing, our experiences and our temperament therefore the same decision will not have the same outcome for two different people.
This past week, when a friend's husband suddenly passed away, I was shaken. I thought about my days spent cleaning the house instead of playing with my children. I reconsidered my food choices and lack of exercise. What if I had a heart attack too. Would it be worth it just to eat those chips or that cinnamon roll? I imagine myself growing old, fit and active in my community. I always see myself as an elderly woman, doing yoga, barefoot, on a beach. That's not going to happen if I'm stuffing my face with salty and sweet treats.
Whether your decision is about work, love, parenting, health or personal growth, the 10-10-10 formula will take your values into consideration and force you to look at the big picture. Author Suzy Welch, presents a variety of case studies and shows the reader how analyzing the short term and long term consequences of a decision allows people to gain some distance from the situation, explain the decisions to others and involve them in the decision making process.
Try it out for yourself. Think about a decision that has been weighing you down. Create a general list of your values. Then, consider the impact of your decision in ten minutes, ten months and ten years. To me, the ten years timeline is always the telling part. It's helpful to describe the ten year scenario in writing, to feel what that outcome would be like and create a collage.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Friday, 8 July 2016
Book of the Week-Deliberate Receiving
July 8th, 2016
This week's book caught my eye at Chapter's. The author, Melody Fletcher, uses plain language and you can sense her quirkiness from the very first page. I felt that her book would be interesting and entertaining so I bought it.
The premise of the book is that you can basically create your reality and it very closely resembles The Secret. She instructs readers to figure out what they really want and focus on it. The twist is that she believes that we need to figure out the emotion tied to the experience we desire. For each of us, an experience will bring on an emotion. This has a vibration. If we can tap into that emotion, we can start attracting the experience.
Melody explains that we all start off on a spectrum of emotion and, if what we are trying to manifest doesn't vibrate at the same frequency as our current emotion, it won't be a match. She takes the reader through a series of emotional stages. You identify where you are on the spectrum then progressively raise your vibration by connecting with that emotion. Acknowledging your emotion and releasing it moves you up the spectrum until you reach the emotion that matches your experience.
The book warns us not to sabotage our manifesting through letting our beliefs limit what we think is possible for us or focusing on what we dot want or reacting negatively when we receive what we requested because it comes in a different form than we expected.
I recognized that I was in the frustration stage. My belief is that if I work hard, I will be rewarded and successful. When this doesn't happen I feel frustrated. When someone is in the frustration phase, they take action thinking it will speed things up, they get pushy and impatient. I am definitely in this phase. The encouraging thing is that the next phase after frustration is hope so I am basically on the threshold. I wrote down her advice for this phase which is to stop trying to control this by forcing it to happen, focus on what I want and align my energy to the emotion of this desire then let synchronicity show me the next step. When I fall out of this energy and I start to doubt that manifesting is possible, I can ask myself; "What if this does happen?" Asking this question quickly gets you excited and thinking positively.
The very day that I read this, I learned a lesson about frustration through my daughters. They are home for the summer. My intention is to have fun with them, to create memories over the summer and feel connected to them. I had planned to take them to a movie ten minutes away from our home. They have movies for $5 at the municipal centre over the summer and I like to take advantage of this every year. This week's movie was The Little Prince. I saw the previews and thought it would be a great movie. Within ten minutes, the girls were saying they didn't like the movie and wanted to leave. I was really enjoying it. I asked them to give it a try. They were squirming, whispering complaints to each other and looking over at me, waiting for the signal that they could stand up and leave. I was feeling very frustrated. I had just paid for this movie and, not only were they not giving it a chance, I wasn't going to get to see it. We left. I took them out to get groceries. They complained that the store's air conditioning was too cold. I consulted my grocery list and rushed around to get ingredients for supper. They saw a cosmetics counter and started looking through the eye liner and lipstick. I told them I was done with my groceries. They weren't cold anymore, they wanted to linger and explore the cosmetics. I took them home.
As I prepared lunch, I thought about my morning and how different my vibration was from what I had intended. I realized that I was experiencing a parallel in my personal and business life. I felt frustrated by my daughters' lack of compliance with what I had envisioned. I wanted to bond with them and have fun. To me, that meant going to the movies. I was controlling the experience. I decided to just focus on what I wanted for the rest of the day. They were playing together so I focused on de-cluttering closets in the house. I have been wanting to do this for some time but I was always playing with the girls. I got a bunch of de-cluttering done, they played together and then they initiated play with me. They wanted to become mermaids and we dressed up and pretended to be mermaids. We had a great time, they led me through it and I was able to achieve the experience I was seeking. My eldest later sang songs for me and impressed me with her beautiful voice. Then my youngest sat on my lap while I read the pile of books she selected.
I learned my lesson. I get clear about what I want, I figure out the feeling that this experience would grant me and I tune in to my emotions. The better I feel, the closer I am to manifesting. Challenging emotions are a message that I am not moving in the right direction. This book was entertaining at first then I felt overwhelmed and confused. Chapter 11, the one that teaches you to move up the spectrum, was the most interesting part of the book and where I learned the most.
I will continue to apply its principles and see where it leads.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
This week's book caught my eye at Chapter's. The author, Melody Fletcher, uses plain language and you can sense her quirkiness from the very first page. I felt that her book would be interesting and entertaining so I bought it.
The premise of the book is that you can basically create your reality and it very closely resembles The Secret. She instructs readers to figure out what they really want and focus on it. The twist is that she believes that we need to figure out the emotion tied to the experience we desire. For each of us, an experience will bring on an emotion. This has a vibration. If we can tap into that emotion, we can start attracting the experience.
Melody explains that we all start off on a spectrum of emotion and, if what we are trying to manifest doesn't vibrate at the same frequency as our current emotion, it won't be a match. She takes the reader through a series of emotional stages. You identify where you are on the spectrum then progressively raise your vibration by connecting with that emotion. Acknowledging your emotion and releasing it moves you up the spectrum until you reach the emotion that matches your experience.
The book warns us not to sabotage our manifesting through letting our beliefs limit what we think is possible for us or focusing on what we dot want or reacting negatively when we receive what we requested because it comes in a different form than we expected.
I recognized that I was in the frustration stage. My belief is that if I work hard, I will be rewarded and successful. When this doesn't happen I feel frustrated. When someone is in the frustration phase, they take action thinking it will speed things up, they get pushy and impatient. I am definitely in this phase. The encouraging thing is that the next phase after frustration is hope so I am basically on the threshold. I wrote down her advice for this phase which is to stop trying to control this by forcing it to happen, focus on what I want and align my energy to the emotion of this desire then let synchronicity show me the next step. When I fall out of this energy and I start to doubt that manifesting is possible, I can ask myself; "What if this does happen?" Asking this question quickly gets you excited and thinking positively.
The very day that I read this, I learned a lesson about frustration through my daughters. They are home for the summer. My intention is to have fun with them, to create memories over the summer and feel connected to them. I had planned to take them to a movie ten minutes away from our home. They have movies for $5 at the municipal centre over the summer and I like to take advantage of this every year. This week's movie was The Little Prince. I saw the previews and thought it would be a great movie. Within ten minutes, the girls were saying they didn't like the movie and wanted to leave. I was really enjoying it. I asked them to give it a try. They were squirming, whispering complaints to each other and looking over at me, waiting for the signal that they could stand up and leave. I was feeling very frustrated. I had just paid for this movie and, not only were they not giving it a chance, I wasn't going to get to see it. We left. I took them out to get groceries. They complained that the store's air conditioning was too cold. I consulted my grocery list and rushed around to get ingredients for supper. They saw a cosmetics counter and started looking through the eye liner and lipstick. I told them I was done with my groceries. They weren't cold anymore, they wanted to linger and explore the cosmetics. I took them home.
As I prepared lunch, I thought about my morning and how different my vibration was from what I had intended. I realized that I was experiencing a parallel in my personal and business life. I felt frustrated by my daughters' lack of compliance with what I had envisioned. I wanted to bond with them and have fun. To me, that meant going to the movies. I was controlling the experience. I decided to just focus on what I wanted for the rest of the day. They were playing together so I focused on de-cluttering closets in the house. I have been wanting to do this for some time but I was always playing with the girls. I got a bunch of de-cluttering done, they played together and then they initiated play with me. They wanted to become mermaids and we dressed up and pretended to be mermaids. We had a great time, they led me through it and I was able to achieve the experience I was seeking. My eldest later sang songs for me and impressed me with her beautiful voice. Then my youngest sat on my lap while I read the pile of books she selected.
I learned my lesson. I get clear about what I want, I figure out the feeling that this experience would grant me and I tune in to my emotions. The better I feel, the closer I am to manifesting. Challenging emotions are a message that I am not moving in the right direction. This book was entertaining at first then I felt overwhelmed and confused. Chapter 11, the one that teaches you to move up the spectrum, was the most interesting part of the book and where I learned the most.
I will continue to apply its principles and see where it leads.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Tuesday, 28 June 2016
Book 0f the Week-TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking
June 28th, 2016
I came across the new book put out by Chris Anderson a few weeks ago at the Kemptville Public Library. I was intrigued. The book provides great tips for people who'd like to try public speaking. The more I learned from this book, the more I could see how these same tips could be applied to writing a book as well.
The most challenging part of any speech is choosing a topic. You need to have a clear focus for your speech, something that an audience will find interesting. Chris encourages you to think about what makes you unique, that only you could share.
Once you have your intention, you need to find a structure to present this idea to the world. This depends on who you are speaking to and for how long. Chris describes a speech as a journey so you take the audience through steps from presenting your idea to how it applies to their lives, showing them why it matters to them.
Since TED talks last 18 minutes, the presenter must hook the audience, keep them curious and share information that teaches them something they didn't know-gifting them with new insight.
The book shares great tools on how to deliver a successful speech. It shows you how to connect to the audience so they see a human being speaking to them, someone who is fully present and engaged. Then we are taught about the power of storytelling to bring the audience into our world. Next comes the importance of explaining our idea in clear language-taking baby steps as we open their minds to new concepts. Chris also reveals tricks to persuade an audience to see things differently without coercion. He explains that we can engage them to come to the same conclusion as us through their very own "detective" work.
There is a great deal of practical advice throughout this book, from what to wear, whether to stand or sit and, the decision to use of visuals and technology or leave them out. An entire chapter is devoted to whether you should write out and memorize your speech or speak without notes. I find that it's best for me if I talk out loud about my idea first. Then I write the main concepts on a post-it and I try to create my speech around those points. Once I have a good flow from one concept to the next, I can rehearse it anywhere without my notes: in the shower, while I drive, as I cook supper etc. It becomes natural. If I have notes written down, I keep looking at my notes, I can never figure out where I am in the page and I tend to lose the intonation in my voice, not good.
If you are nervous about public speaking, as many people are, there is advice on ways to conquer your nerves and deliver a winning speech. The book teaches you how to start your speech, how to end it and ways to be innovative. The last chapter is philosophical. It urges us to share our story because we learn from one another and become better collectively as a result. If you plan to try public speaking, this book is an absolute gem. I have started writing out an 18 minute speech on the importance of prosocial education in our public education system. You never know. If you had 18 minutes to deliver a meaningful speech to impact a large audience what would it be?
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
I came across the new book put out by Chris Anderson a few weeks ago at the Kemptville Public Library. I was intrigued. The book provides great tips for people who'd like to try public speaking. The more I learned from this book, the more I could see how these same tips could be applied to writing a book as well.
The most challenging part of any speech is choosing a topic. You need to have a clear focus for your speech, something that an audience will find interesting. Chris encourages you to think about what makes you unique, that only you could share.
Once you have your intention, you need to find a structure to present this idea to the world. This depends on who you are speaking to and for how long. Chris describes a speech as a journey so you take the audience through steps from presenting your idea to how it applies to their lives, showing them why it matters to them.
Since TED talks last 18 minutes, the presenter must hook the audience, keep them curious and share information that teaches them something they didn't know-gifting them with new insight.
The book shares great tools on how to deliver a successful speech. It shows you how to connect to the audience so they see a human being speaking to them, someone who is fully present and engaged. Then we are taught about the power of storytelling to bring the audience into our world. Next comes the importance of explaining our idea in clear language-taking baby steps as we open their minds to new concepts. Chris also reveals tricks to persuade an audience to see things differently without coercion. He explains that we can engage them to come to the same conclusion as us through their very own "detective" work.
There is a great deal of practical advice throughout this book, from what to wear, whether to stand or sit and, the decision to use of visuals and technology or leave them out. An entire chapter is devoted to whether you should write out and memorize your speech or speak without notes. I find that it's best for me if I talk out loud about my idea first. Then I write the main concepts on a post-it and I try to create my speech around those points. Once I have a good flow from one concept to the next, I can rehearse it anywhere without my notes: in the shower, while I drive, as I cook supper etc. It becomes natural. If I have notes written down, I keep looking at my notes, I can never figure out where I am in the page and I tend to lose the intonation in my voice, not good.
If you are nervous about public speaking, as many people are, there is advice on ways to conquer your nerves and deliver a winning speech. The book teaches you how to start your speech, how to end it and ways to be innovative. The last chapter is philosophical. It urges us to share our story because we learn from one another and become better collectively as a result. If you plan to try public speaking, this book is an absolute gem. I have started writing out an 18 minute speech on the importance of prosocial education in our public education system. You never know. If you had 18 minutes to deliver a meaningful speech to impact a large audience what would it be?
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Monday, 13 June 2016
Book of the Week-Life Loves You
June 13th, 2016
As I sat at my computer to write today's post, I caught a glimpse of my post counter-this is my 100th post. Hooray! This has been an interesting adventure so far. Only a handful of people have read it and that's ok. I am still learning about blogging and I am treating it like an extension of my journal. I explore topics of interest to me and try to stick to my commitment to write every weekday. Initially, I planned to write seven days a week and have a specific topic each day but that didn't work for me. Weekends are for family and if I am grumpy because I haven't been able to write my blog, that has a negative impact on my loved ones. They are the most important people in my life. Hence the decision to only write on weekdays. I also write about whatever comes to mind. Otherwise I am trying to research a topic or pin down a 40+ year old woman for an interview. I am enjoying this pace and I think a few topics will emerge over time. I may end up with a very different blog by the time the year is over. So, on with today's post...
I wanted to share Life Loves You by Louise Hay and Robert Holden. I heard about this book when I tuned into the Hay House Summit. Robert Holden is one of the interviewers for the summit and he mentioned the book a few times. I saw the book at Shopper's Drug Mart a week or two after the summit. It caught my eye and I took it home.
The book documents conversations between Robert Holden and Louise Hay. The premise of the book is that life shouldn't be painful. This doesn't mean there are no obstacles but we stop struggling and try to understand what is happening instead. Each chapter shows us how to love ourselves and live our best lives with lessons, quotes, a look into the interactions between Robert and Louise and, finally, my favourite part, some practical activities to act on this new knowledge.
Louise is known for her mirror work. The book starts with the use of mirror work to boost our feelings of self-love. In her practice, she sits in front of a full-length mirror with clients. She says people struggle to look at themselves and say: "I love you!". The first step is becoming comfortable in our own presence.
In chapter 2, we add affirmations that empower us to believe in our worthiness. Readers learn to say yes to life by surrendering their struggle and tapping into their wisdom. I love affirmations. I learned many of them from other books by Louise Hay. Here is my favourite affirmation from You Can Heal Your Life, "The more love I use and give, the more I have to give. The supply is endless." and "I earn good money doing what satisfies me". The first time I read these affirmations, they felt so good in my heart, my body vibrated. They get transferred from one journal to the next because I don't want to ever forget them.
Chapter 3 was a very fun adventure, becoming aware of what brings me joy and creating a visual representation of it as if it were already true in the present. I have my vision board in my walk-in closet. I see it every day when I am getting dressed and I look at it every night before bed.
In the fourth chapter, we are guided to recognize when we fell out of love with ourselves as well as everything we have come to believe about our life and our role in our own story. The reader is encouraged to forgive others and him/herself in order to thrive and fulfill his/her destiny. This was a heavy chapter and I had to take a breather here.
The following chapter was all about gratitude, a topic that is gaining popularity. Last year, I discovered the power of gratitude when I started writing down ten things I was thankful for and why in my journal every day. I had to say thank you out loud as I read what I had wrote. This activity did more than make me feel good. It changed my interactions and attracted opportunities into my life at a ridiculous speed. If you are feeling stuck right now, try this out and see where it leads.
Next, we are taught how to receive. If the universe is abundant, you are loved and you are worthy then all you need to do is say yes and remain open in order to receive. I first realized that I was not able to receive when I was in Toronto studying to become an art therapist. I had noticed years earlier when I was doing theatre that I found it easier to exhale than to inhale. This became significant as I analyzed my personality. I realized I thrive on doing special things for others. However, I have a difficult time letting others do stuff for me. I am very self-sufficient and that feels safe to me. I know I won't let myself down but it doesn't give loved ones the satisfaction of loving me back. When we had our car accident two years ago, I was concussed and I relied on my mother and husband to help me. I had to say no to my daughters. The experience helped me to see that my relationships were out of balance. I have recently explored my blockages when it comes to receiving money. I have worked on those as well. Life is fascinating, always a journey.
The final chapter encourages us to feel safe and loved enough to pour our love back into the world. We are guided through a meditation that helps us bless everyone from our loved ones to our enemies and extending out into the universe.
I thoroughly loved this book. It sets a good pace, is an easy read and leaves you feeling giddy with love. Blessing to all of you!
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
As I sat at my computer to write today's post, I caught a glimpse of my post counter-this is my 100th post. Hooray! This has been an interesting adventure so far. Only a handful of people have read it and that's ok. I am still learning about blogging and I am treating it like an extension of my journal. I explore topics of interest to me and try to stick to my commitment to write every weekday. Initially, I planned to write seven days a week and have a specific topic each day but that didn't work for me. Weekends are for family and if I am grumpy because I haven't been able to write my blog, that has a negative impact on my loved ones. They are the most important people in my life. Hence the decision to only write on weekdays. I also write about whatever comes to mind. Otherwise I am trying to research a topic or pin down a 40+ year old woman for an interview. I am enjoying this pace and I think a few topics will emerge over time. I may end up with a very different blog by the time the year is over. So, on with today's post...
I wanted to share Life Loves You by Louise Hay and Robert Holden. I heard about this book when I tuned into the Hay House Summit. Robert Holden is one of the interviewers for the summit and he mentioned the book a few times. I saw the book at Shopper's Drug Mart a week or two after the summit. It caught my eye and I took it home.
The book documents conversations between Robert Holden and Louise Hay. The premise of the book is that life shouldn't be painful. This doesn't mean there are no obstacles but we stop struggling and try to understand what is happening instead. Each chapter shows us how to love ourselves and live our best lives with lessons, quotes, a look into the interactions between Robert and Louise and, finally, my favourite part, some practical activities to act on this new knowledge.
Louise is known for her mirror work. The book starts with the use of mirror work to boost our feelings of self-love. In her practice, she sits in front of a full-length mirror with clients. She says people struggle to look at themselves and say: "I love you!". The first step is becoming comfortable in our own presence.
In chapter 2, we add affirmations that empower us to believe in our worthiness. Readers learn to say yes to life by surrendering their struggle and tapping into their wisdom. I love affirmations. I learned many of them from other books by Louise Hay. Here is my favourite affirmation from You Can Heal Your Life, "The more love I use and give, the more I have to give. The supply is endless." and "I earn good money doing what satisfies me". The first time I read these affirmations, they felt so good in my heart, my body vibrated. They get transferred from one journal to the next because I don't want to ever forget them.
Chapter 3 was a very fun adventure, becoming aware of what brings me joy and creating a visual representation of it as if it were already true in the present. I have my vision board in my walk-in closet. I see it every day when I am getting dressed and I look at it every night before bed.
In the fourth chapter, we are guided to recognize when we fell out of love with ourselves as well as everything we have come to believe about our life and our role in our own story. The reader is encouraged to forgive others and him/herself in order to thrive and fulfill his/her destiny. This was a heavy chapter and I had to take a breather here.
The following chapter was all about gratitude, a topic that is gaining popularity. Last year, I discovered the power of gratitude when I started writing down ten things I was thankful for and why in my journal every day. I had to say thank you out loud as I read what I had wrote. This activity did more than make me feel good. It changed my interactions and attracted opportunities into my life at a ridiculous speed. If you are feeling stuck right now, try this out and see where it leads.
Next, we are taught how to receive. If the universe is abundant, you are loved and you are worthy then all you need to do is say yes and remain open in order to receive. I first realized that I was not able to receive when I was in Toronto studying to become an art therapist. I had noticed years earlier when I was doing theatre that I found it easier to exhale than to inhale. This became significant as I analyzed my personality. I realized I thrive on doing special things for others. However, I have a difficult time letting others do stuff for me. I am very self-sufficient and that feels safe to me. I know I won't let myself down but it doesn't give loved ones the satisfaction of loving me back. When we had our car accident two years ago, I was concussed and I relied on my mother and husband to help me. I had to say no to my daughters. The experience helped me to see that my relationships were out of balance. I have recently explored my blockages when it comes to receiving money. I have worked on those as well. Life is fascinating, always a journey.
The final chapter encourages us to feel safe and loved enough to pour our love back into the world. We are guided through a meditation that helps us bless everyone from our loved ones to our enemies and extending out into the universe.
I thoroughly loved this book. It sets a good pace, is an easy read and leaves you feeling giddy with love. Blessing to all of you!
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Friday, 20 May 2016
Book of the Week-Brain on Fire
May 20th 2016
I could not put this book down. A young journalist has created an amazing life for herself. She is living in a flat in New York, working for the New York Post and, dating a great guy when, suddenly, her life is turned upside down. Every relationship is put to the test, she can no longer do her work and, worse, she has no idea what is happening to her or how long it will last.
Susannah Cahalan walks us through her journey from illness, psychosis, hospitalization and diagnosis to healing. As she describes her behaviour, you can't help but wonder how terrifying this meltdown must have been for her. I was thinking about all the individuals who are admitted to psychiatric hospitals with the wrong diagnosis. Susannah was lucky to have parents and a boyfriend who loved her and became her advocates. When doctors refused to acknowledge that anything was wrong, when specialists labelled her with diagnosis that didn't fit all her symptoms, her parents persisted, they asked questions and requested second opinions.
At first, she thought she had bedbugs and decided to have her apartment exterminated. Then she forgot an important meeting at work where she normally shares ideas for the coming week's newspaper articles. Thirdly, she started throwing away files containing important stories she had worked on even though she is normally a hoarder. She also got a bad migraine which was a new experience for her. She continued behaving out of character when she searched her boyfriend's computer and apartment for any traces of betrayal. She became nauseous, felt tingling then numbness in her left hand which later spread all the way down the left side of her body to her toes.
Her nausea grew and she suspected she had the flu. Her first diagnosis came back as possibly having mono. Her senses amplified (the smell of people around her, the vibrations from the music, the oily taste of food). She lost her appetite and was experiencing a disconnect from the people around her, not participating in discussions and feeling indifferent to the concert she had just experienced. She was also having emotional outbursts leading to panic attacks. Her perception of space became distorted, she would reach for the handle and be way off, the walls looked tall and narrow, she couldn't follow the flow of conversation. She was experiencing insomnia for days and, finally, she had her first seizure.
This was the beginning of her life in hospital where she was studied, medicated, strapped down and misdiagnosed over and over again until Dr. Souhel Najjar recognized her symptoms as Anti-NMDAR Encephalitis, an illness where one's immune system starts attacking the brain. The treatment was "to reduce the body's inflammation with steroids. Then flush the body of the antibodies with plasmapheresis, and further reduce and neutralize the antibodies with IVIG"(p.162).
This is an excellent book because it is written by Susannah who experienced all these symptoms and is able to relate what she went through at every stage of the illness's progression as well as during every step of her long recovery. Every psychiatrist, physician, nurse or parent of an individual diagnosed with a mental illness should read this because it illustrates the problem with quick diagnosis. Many illnesses resemble others and it takes time, observation and tests to find the right match. Thank you Susannah for sharing your journey. I hope everyone who reads this will go out and buy this book. If you love learning about our complex brains, you will not be disappointed.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
I could not put this book down. A young journalist has created an amazing life for herself. She is living in a flat in New York, working for the New York Post and, dating a great guy when, suddenly, her life is turned upside down. Every relationship is put to the test, she can no longer do her work and, worse, she has no idea what is happening to her or how long it will last.
Susannah Cahalan walks us through her journey from illness, psychosis, hospitalization and diagnosis to healing. As she describes her behaviour, you can't help but wonder how terrifying this meltdown must have been for her. I was thinking about all the individuals who are admitted to psychiatric hospitals with the wrong diagnosis. Susannah was lucky to have parents and a boyfriend who loved her and became her advocates. When doctors refused to acknowledge that anything was wrong, when specialists labelled her with diagnosis that didn't fit all her symptoms, her parents persisted, they asked questions and requested second opinions.
At first, she thought she had bedbugs and decided to have her apartment exterminated. Then she forgot an important meeting at work where she normally shares ideas for the coming week's newspaper articles. Thirdly, she started throwing away files containing important stories she had worked on even though she is normally a hoarder. She also got a bad migraine which was a new experience for her. She continued behaving out of character when she searched her boyfriend's computer and apartment for any traces of betrayal. She became nauseous, felt tingling then numbness in her left hand which later spread all the way down the left side of her body to her toes.
Her nausea grew and she suspected she had the flu. Her first diagnosis came back as possibly having mono. Her senses amplified (the smell of people around her, the vibrations from the music, the oily taste of food). She lost her appetite and was experiencing a disconnect from the people around her, not participating in discussions and feeling indifferent to the concert she had just experienced. She was also having emotional outbursts leading to panic attacks. Her perception of space became distorted, she would reach for the handle and be way off, the walls looked tall and narrow, she couldn't follow the flow of conversation. She was experiencing insomnia for days and, finally, she had her first seizure.
This was the beginning of her life in hospital where she was studied, medicated, strapped down and misdiagnosed over and over again until Dr. Souhel Najjar recognized her symptoms as Anti-NMDAR Encephalitis, an illness where one's immune system starts attacking the brain. The treatment was "to reduce the body's inflammation with steroids. Then flush the body of the antibodies with plasmapheresis, and further reduce and neutralize the antibodies with IVIG"(p.162).
This is an excellent book because it is written by Susannah who experienced all these symptoms and is able to relate what she went through at every stage of the illness's progression as well as during every step of her long recovery. Every psychiatrist, physician, nurse or parent of an individual diagnosed with a mental illness should read this because it illustrates the problem with quick diagnosis. Many illnesses resemble others and it takes time, observation and tests to find the right match. Thank you Susannah for sharing your journey. I hope everyone who reads this will go out and buy this book. If you love learning about our complex brains, you will not be disappointed.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Wednesday, 18 May 2016
The Story of Poobum and Pompom
May 18th, 2016
I was minding my own business when a Fed Ex truck pulled up to my home. As I made my way to the front door, he deposited two boxes and left. I scanned the boxes, expecting them to be filled with products for my husband's work. To my surprise, they were addressed to me. I recognized the label-Burnstown Publishing. These were my books. I was shocked!
I wrote some children's books on my iPad years ago. Meredith Luce, a local illustrator, agreed to illustrate my first book, Have You Hugged Your Alien? two years ago. It was well received and it became part of my series of workshops for elementary schools. Meredith illustrated the second book, The Story of Poobum and Pompom last fall. We had hoped to hit the markets at Christmas but two things happened: 1) The book wasn't printed until January and, 2) when it did get printed, it was all mixed up. Meredith and I were bummed.
I set out to find a publisher and went through a variety of quotes. When I spoke to Tim Gordon at Burnstown Publishing, I felt like I was at the right place. There were many parallels between what he was trying to accomplish and my hopes for my books. It has been a long road but I have my book, I can hold it in my hands and read it to my children. Now all I have to do is set a date for my book launch. I am hoping it will be at the public library in Kemptville before the end of the school year.
The Story of Poobum and Pompom is about sibling rivalry. Poobum the dog has this fantastic life then his parents decide to adopt a kitten. The book documents their relationship from rivalry to friendship. My inspiration for this book came from my own experience with my two lovely daughters. My eldest, Molly, had a great life filled with lots of love and attention. When my youngest, Stella, was born, it was a huge adjustment. My eldest felt betrayed. She was very angry and tried to harm her sister on a daily basis.
She went from despising her sister to tolerating her over the first year. Then, as Stella grew and became more interactive, Molly started doing things to make her laugh like her "boom chicka boom" song. When Stella started eating solids, Molly enjoyed feeding her and, she was present when Stella took her first steps. It wasn't until Stella was approximately 2 1/2 years old that Molly decided they would be friends. Molly would hold her hand or hug her. By then, Stella had learned to keep her distance so she wasn't sure what to make of this newfound affection. However, slowly, they grew to like each other, become play mates and seek each other out.
They had their own world and, eventually, we were no longer invited to join in. I was so happy when I first heard them giggling and signing together. It was all going to work out. As a parent, you want your children to get along. When they don't, it's very painful. You worry about the future. You wonder if you did anything wrong. Your children are fighting, hurting each other's feelings and you are stuck in the middle.
Once they became friends and were enjoying their time together, I could relax. They each had their own room but they chose to sleep in the same bed for years because they could talk and giggle after bed time. Once they were both in school, they had lots of inside jokes and, even though I wish I could still be in the loop, I am glad that they love each other and look out for one another.
The book is meant to start a dialogue between a parent and child about the difficult transition from only child to older brother or sister. I want children to know their feelings are normal and they are still loved. I'd like to reassure parents that this is a transition, that it will be ok. I am proud of this book and I hope lots of families read it together.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
I was minding my own business when a Fed Ex truck pulled up to my home. As I made my way to the front door, he deposited two boxes and left. I scanned the boxes, expecting them to be filled with products for my husband's work. To my surprise, they were addressed to me. I recognized the label-Burnstown Publishing. These were my books. I was shocked!
I wrote some children's books on my iPad years ago. Meredith Luce, a local illustrator, agreed to illustrate my first book, Have You Hugged Your Alien? two years ago. It was well received and it became part of my series of workshops for elementary schools. Meredith illustrated the second book, The Story of Poobum and Pompom last fall. We had hoped to hit the markets at Christmas but two things happened: 1) The book wasn't printed until January and, 2) when it did get printed, it was all mixed up. Meredith and I were bummed.
I set out to find a publisher and went through a variety of quotes. When I spoke to Tim Gordon at Burnstown Publishing, I felt like I was at the right place. There were many parallels between what he was trying to accomplish and my hopes for my books. It has been a long road but I have my book, I can hold it in my hands and read it to my children. Now all I have to do is set a date for my book launch. I am hoping it will be at the public library in Kemptville before the end of the school year.
The Story of Poobum and Pompom is about sibling rivalry. Poobum the dog has this fantastic life then his parents decide to adopt a kitten. The book documents their relationship from rivalry to friendship. My inspiration for this book came from my own experience with my two lovely daughters. My eldest, Molly, had a great life filled with lots of love and attention. When my youngest, Stella, was born, it was a huge adjustment. My eldest felt betrayed. She was very angry and tried to harm her sister on a daily basis.
She went from despising her sister to tolerating her over the first year. Then, as Stella grew and became more interactive, Molly started doing things to make her laugh like her "boom chicka boom" song. When Stella started eating solids, Molly enjoyed feeding her and, she was present when Stella took her first steps. It wasn't until Stella was approximately 2 1/2 years old that Molly decided they would be friends. Molly would hold her hand or hug her. By then, Stella had learned to keep her distance so she wasn't sure what to make of this newfound affection. However, slowly, they grew to like each other, become play mates and seek each other out.
They had their own world and, eventually, we were no longer invited to join in. I was so happy when I first heard them giggling and signing together. It was all going to work out. As a parent, you want your children to get along. When they don't, it's very painful. You worry about the future. You wonder if you did anything wrong. Your children are fighting, hurting each other's feelings and you are stuck in the middle.
Once they became friends and were enjoying their time together, I could relax. They each had their own room but they chose to sleep in the same bed for years because they could talk and giggle after bed time. Once they were both in school, they had lots of inside jokes and, even though I wish I could still be in the loop, I am glad that they love each other and look out for one another.
The book is meant to start a dialogue between a parent and child about the difficult transition from only child to older brother or sister. I want children to know their feelings are normal and they are still loved. I'd like to reassure parents that this is a transition, that it will be ok. I am proud of this book and I hope lots of families read it together.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Wednesday, 11 May 2016
Book of the Week-The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha
May 11th, 2016
Prior to our trip, I ran out of time to go into town and purchase a book. The Happiness Equation caught my eye on a table at Walmart. It's a thick and heavy book, impractical for a trip but it appealed to me and I purchased it anyways.
I like to read when the Vincent and the girls have gone to bed. I curl up on the couch with a cosy blanket, enjoying the quiet. This book had me hooked from the start. It's filled with quirky little diagrams and observations.
Neil talks about this community that lives long, healthy, happy lives. The key is "Ikigai". They all have a sense of purpose, a reason to get up every day. I started to think about my Ikigai. My daughters are mine-loving them, nurturing them and teaching them the important stuff in life. What is your Ikigai?
The author then divides the week into three buckets of 56 hours: one for sleep, one for work and a third to pursue our passion. I was impressed with this, 56 hours per week to pursue my passion. That sounds like a lot! My passions are learning, reading, teaching, creating, writing, public speaking and offering art therapy workshops to children and adults.
In the book, Neil describes how being at work provides social interaction, structure, intellectual stimulation and a story (you are part of the company's story re: who they are and what they are trying to accomplish). He explains how our delusions about retirement being the golden years where we get to do nothing rob us of the four Ss (social, structure, stimulation and story). We are meant to keep working and if we love what we do then it doesn't feel like work.
He believes happiness is only 10% affected by our circumstances, the other 90% comes from our perception. He explains that we pursue success thinking it will make us happy but we need to focus on our happiness first. Neil differentiates between three types of success: making money, earning the respect of others and, feeling proud of ourselves. As long as we depend on others to feel successful, our achievements will never be enough. That's why it's so important to find our bliss and dive in, then we can feel fulfilled.
We are encouraged to achieve a more balanced life by dividing our time evenly between doing and resting. In order to make time to think, Neil recommends we limit the number of choices we make every day to avoid decision fatigue and use that energy constructively. He also believes we need tighter deadlines so we have no time to procrastinate. One of the ways he did this was having 5 minute speeches at his meetings. That way people would get to the point. Everyone felt that their time was well spent. He also proposes having some down time where you can not be reached or distracted so you can just feed your brain.
My favourite part of the book was the three tests on page 245. The point of these tests is to find your authentic self. The tests consist of three questions:
1) What would you do on a Saturday morning if you had no obligations (you are completely free to do what you'd like)?
2) How do you feel when you put yourself in a new situation?
3) Who are the five people closest to you and what do you love most about them?
Neil says the five regrets of the dying are all related to authenticity. It's important to be true to yourself in order to live a happy life. What keeps us from being authentic? Fear. That is why we are encouraged to take action every day. Is there something we can do, even something small to move towards happiness ad fulfillment? Do it. The more we do, the more confident we become in our ability to get things done.
This book really got me thinking and moving in the right direction. Here is another question for you to consider...If you did not need any money, what would you do with your time? Where would you be? Who would you spend time with? What activities would you continue to pursue? Can you find a way to bring this into your life now?
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Prior to our trip, I ran out of time to go into town and purchase a book. The Happiness Equation caught my eye on a table at Walmart. It's a thick and heavy book, impractical for a trip but it appealed to me and I purchased it anyways.
I like to read when the Vincent and the girls have gone to bed. I curl up on the couch with a cosy blanket, enjoying the quiet. This book had me hooked from the start. It's filled with quirky little diagrams and observations.
Neil talks about this community that lives long, healthy, happy lives. The key is "Ikigai". They all have a sense of purpose, a reason to get up every day. I started to think about my Ikigai. My daughters are mine-loving them, nurturing them and teaching them the important stuff in life. What is your Ikigai?
The author then divides the week into three buckets of 56 hours: one for sleep, one for work and a third to pursue our passion. I was impressed with this, 56 hours per week to pursue my passion. That sounds like a lot! My passions are learning, reading, teaching, creating, writing, public speaking and offering art therapy workshops to children and adults.
In the book, Neil describes how being at work provides social interaction, structure, intellectual stimulation and a story (you are part of the company's story re: who they are and what they are trying to accomplish). He explains how our delusions about retirement being the golden years where we get to do nothing rob us of the four Ss (social, structure, stimulation and story). We are meant to keep working and if we love what we do then it doesn't feel like work.
He believes happiness is only 10% affected by our circumstances, the other 90% comes from our perception. He explains that we pursue success thinking it will make us happy but we need to focus on our happiness first. Neil differentiates between three types of success: making money, earning the respect of others and, feeling proud of ourselves. As long as we depend on others to feel successful, our achievements will never be enough. That's why it's so important to find our bliss and dive in, then we can feel fulfilled.
We are encouraged to achieve a more balanced life by dividing our time evenly between doing and resting. In order to make time to think, Neil recommends we limit the number of choices we make every day to avoid decision fatigue and use that energy constructively. He also believes we need tighter deadlines so we have no time to procrastinate. One of the ways he did this was having 5 minute speeches at his meetings. That way people would get to the point. Everyone felt that their time was well spent. He also proposes having some down time where you can not be reached or distracted so you can just feed your brain.
My favourite part of the book was the three tests on page 245. The point of these tests is to find your authentic self. The tests consist of three questions:
1) What would you do on a Saturday morning if you had no obligations (you are completely free to do what you'd like)?
2) How do you feel when you put yourself in a new situation?
3) Who are the five people closest to you and what do you love most about them?
Neil says the five regrets of the dying are all related to authenticity. It's important to be true to yourself in order to live a happy life. What keeps us from being authentic? Fear. That is why we are encouraged to take action every day. Is there something we can do, even something small to move towards happiness ad fulfillment? Do it. The more we do, the more confident we become in our ability to get things done.
This book really got me thinking and moving in the right direction. Here is another question for you to consider...If you did not need any money, what would you do with your time? Where would you be? Who would you spend time with? What activities would you continue to pursue? Can you find a way to bring this into your life now?
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Sunday, 13 March 2016
Book of the Week-Year of Yes
March 12th, 2016
I am so excited to share this book with you. I purchased this week's book at the pharmacy. I recognized the author's name, Shonda Rhimes. I knew that name but I coudn't figure out how I knew it. As I read through the book I learned that she is a writer and has written many successful television series such as Grey's Anatomy. I never watched that show so I still don't know why her name was so familiar.
I read the book in three days. It was just one of those books. Shonda and I have a great deal in common. As a child, she had this active imagination and she liked to sit in the pantry and invent people, places and stories. When she became famous and was suddenly in the spotlight, out of her comfort zone. Shonda worked very hard but she tried to become invisible. She ate her emotions, stuffing them deeper, silencing them, numbing herself in the process. She gained weight and said no to the many networking opportunities that were presented to her. She was successful but tired and unhappy.
One day, her sister reprimanded her for saying no to everything. This accusation sat in her brain and simmered until she came to the conclusion that her sister was right. She did say no to everything. This kept her safe and comfortable. She wasn't challenging herself. Shonda decided she would commit to saying yes to every opportunity that presented itself over the course of a year. She faced her fear of public speaking and her discomfort with the small talk that is required during social obligations. She stopped suppressing her emotions with food, worked out, ate a healthier dit and lost over 100lbs. She dived into difficult conversations and speaking her truth became easier. She worked through her identity as a mother, accepting that she was a career woman who had help from a nanny and did not have time to bake goods for the bake sale. She found the courage to turn down an engagement to a wonderful man because she doesn't want to be married.
As she says yes to people and opportunities, she becomes more clear about what she wants and what she doesn't. She loses a few friends who do not like the new direct, happy, assertive, fulfilled person she has become. However, she gains peace and self-love. She is grounded and the friends she has are true friends. On page 178, she writes: "The point of this whole Year of Yes project is to say yes to things that scare me, that challenge me. So in order to YES a problem, I have to find whatever it is inside the problem that challenges me or scares me or makes me just freak out-and then I have to say yes to that thing". She calls this new approach to life, becoming a "badass".
Throughout the book, Shonda talks about the joys and challenges of motherhood. She has to re-connect to her playful self. As an adult with many responsibilities who lives in her head, she must train herself to be in the moment and play. She commits to turn off her phone at 6pm every day and, as much as she can, not work on weekends. She decides she will say yes every time her children want her to play or listen to them because she can generally give them 15 minutes then they move on to something else. She talks about the judging that happens among women: the working moms against the stay-at-home moms and she wonders why we can't just mother in our own way and be supportive of each other. She points out the need for support as mothers, how we used to get that from neighbors, friends and families but that is rare these days with everyone doing their own thing. She relates a story of her desire to style her hair like Whitney Houston when she was younger. She was so discouraged by her failed attempts until she was informed that Whitney wore a wig. Being a mom is like that, we imagine every other mom has got it all under control and this puts pressure and unrealistic expectations on us. If we are honest with each other and admit our need for support or, that we have a great network of support helping us, it creates a space for moms to reach out for help without feeling any shame about it.
I absolutely loved this book. It was empowering, thought-provoking and inspiring.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
I am so excited to share this book with you. I purchased this week's book at the pharmacy. I recognized the author's name, Shonda Rhimes. I knew that name but I coudn't figure out how I knew it. As I read through the book I learned that she is a writer and has written many successful television series such as Grey's Anatomy. I never watched that show so I still don't know why her name was so familiar.
I read the book in three days. It was just one of those books. Shonda and I have a great deal in common. As a child, she had this active imagination and she liked to sit in the pantry and invent people, places and stories. When she became famous and was suddenly in the spotlight, out of her comfort zone. Shonda worked very hard but she tried to become invisible. She ate her emotions, stuffing them deeper, silencing them, numbing herself in the process. She gained weight and said no to the many networking opportunities that were presented to her. She was successful but tired and unhappy.
One day, her sister reprimanded her for saying no to everything. This accusation sat in her brain and simmered until she came to the conclusion that her sister was right. She did say no to everything. This kept her safe and comfortable. She wasn't challenging herself. Shonda decided she would commit to saying yes to every opportunity that presented itself over the course of a year. She faced her fear of public speaking and her discomfort with the small talk that is required during social obligations. She stopped suppressing her emotions with food, worked out, ate a healthier dit and lost over 100lbs. She dived into difficult conversations and speaking her truth became easier. She worked through her identity as a mother, accepting that she was a career woman who had help from a nanny and did not have time to bake goods for the bake sale. She found the courage to turn down an engagement to a wonderful man because she doesn't want to be married.
As she says yes to people and opportunities, she becomes more clear about what she wants and what she doesn't. She loses a few friends who do not like the new direct, happy, assertive, fulfilled person she has become. However, she gains peace and self-love. She is grounded and the friends she has are true friends. On page 178, she writes: "The point of this whole Year of Yes project is to say yes to things that scare me, that challenge me. So in order to YES a problem, I have to find whatever it is inside the problem that challenges me or scares me or makes me just freak out-and then I have to say yes to that thing". She calls this new approach to life, becoming a "badass".
Throughout the book, Shonda talks about the joys and challenges of motherhood. She has to re-connect to her playful self. As an adult with many responsibilities who lives in her head, she must train herself to be in the moment and play. She commits to turn off her phone at 6pm every day and, as much as she can, not work on weekends. She decides she will say yes every time her children want her to play or listen to them because she can generally give them 15 minutes then they move on to something else. She talks about the judging that happens among women: the working moms against the stay-at-home moms and she wonders why we can't just mother in our own way and be supportive of each other. She points out the need for support as mothers, how we used to get that from neighbors, friends and families but that is rare these days with everyone doing their own thing. She relates a story of her desire to style her hair like Whitney Houston when she was younger. She was so discouraged by her failed attempts until she was informed that Whitney wore a wig. Being a mom is like that, we imagine every other mom has got it all under control and this puts pressure and unrealistic expectations on us. If we are honest with each other and admit our need for support or, that we have a great network of support helping us, it creates a space for moms to reach out for help without feeling any shame about it.
I absolutely loved this book. It was empowering, thought-provoking and inspiring.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Tuesday, 8 March 2016
Book of the Week-Happiness The Mindful Way: a practical guide by Ken A. Verni
March 5th, 2016
My husband gave me a gift card for Indigo books on Valentine's Day. I really want to be a more focused, grounded, mindful person so when I visited the Indigo store in Barrhaven, I was searching for a book on mindfulness. Some of you may be thinking, you don't need a book about mindfulness, just sit down, be quiet and listen to your breath. This is true but my brain is more receptive to information presented in books. I absorb the information and then I am able to apply it. So, I got a book.
Happiness the Mindful Way is a very thorough book. I chose it because, when I looked at the Table of Contents, I knew I would learn something new.
The book teaches the basics of mindfulness. You learn to switch from doing (which we do most of the time in our race to get everything crossed off our "to-do" lists) to being (as in present in this moment). Ken Verni talks about the importance of acknowledging our thoughts then learning to sweep them away with an imaginary broom. For children, he suggests imagining that they are cats watching a mouse hole, each thought that pops up is a mouse and must be swatted. I like that metaphor.
Next, he turns to emotions and explains that we can notice the emotion and allow it to pass through us without identifying with it. We accept it with compassion. He provides a variety of ways to deal with stress, recognizing triggers and patterns. He also examines our concept of happiness and warns us that we often define our happiness as achieving some fantasy that we project into the future. This prevents us from recognizing happiness in our current life.
Then we learned a variety of mindfulness meditation techniques from focusing on the breath, concentrating on an object, noticing sensations with our five senses, scanning our body, walking meditation, becoming a sturdy mountain and, my new favorite, loving kindness meditation.
I just had a very busy week, preparing for a workshop with 25 teenagers while translation a newsletter for the Canadian Art Therapy Association. I was having issues with technology. You may notice typos as I have been unable to switch my computer back to English. I was very stressed. I tried getting five minutes of mindful breathing into the start of my day and focusing on gratitude through my Gratitude Jar which I started in January. However, the most helpful thing I did was try Loving Kindness meditation.
You start by sitting comfortably and focusing on your breath then you think to yourself: "May I experience loving kindness for myself. May I enjoy happiness, health and peace". That's it, you just sit with these two sentences in your mind and breathe. I felt so much more positive and at peace. The goal is to then entend this wish to others starting with people you love the most, then acquaintances and finally, people you do not like. I used it when my husband was behaving in a way I did not understand. I sent him love and my feelings eased up. Can you imagine how much better our world would be (or, on a smaller scale, our community) if everyone practised this meditation on a daily basis?
Here are the most helpful tips I learned from this book:
You can be mindful anywhere (sitting in a chair, taking your shower, driving somewhere)
Intruding thoughts and strong emotions should not be repressed, embrace them and let them go
Send love to yourself as often as you can, it makes you a better person, more compassionate
Send love to others, including people you don't like, it releases you from the energy that bonds you to them.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul@ripnet.com
My husband gave me a gift card for Indigo books on Valentine's Day. I really want to be a more focused, grounded, mindful person so when I visited the Indigo store in Barrhaven, I was searching for a book on mindfulness. Some of you may be thinking, you don't need a book about mindfulness, just sit down, be quiet and listen to your breath. This is true but my brain is more receptive to information presented in books. I absorb the information and then I am able to apply it. So, I got a book.
Happiness the Mindful Way is a very thorough book. I chose it because, when I looked at the Table of Contents, I knew I would learn something new.
The book teaches the basics of mindfulness. You learn to switch from doing (which we do most of the time in our race to get everything crossed off our "to-do" lists) to being (as in present in this moment). Ken Verni talks about the importance of acknowledging our thoughts then learning to sweep them away with an imaginary broom. For children, he suggests imagining that they are cats watching a mouse hole, each thought that pops up is a mouse and must be swatted. I like that metaphor.
Next, he turns to emotions and explains that we can notice the emotion and allow it to pass through us without identifying with it. We accept it with compassion. He provides a variety of ways to deal with stress, recognizing triggers and patterns. He also examines our concept of happiness and warns us that we often define our happiness as achieving some fantasy that we project into the future. This prevents us from recognizing happiness in our current life.
Then we learned a variety of mindfulness meditation techniques from focusing on the breath, concentrating on an object, noticing sensations with our five senses, scanning our body, walking meditation, becoming a sturdy mountain and, my new favorite, loving kindness meditation.
I just had a very busy week, preparing for a workshop with 25 teenagers while translation a newsletter for the Canadian Art Therapy Association. I was having issues with technology. You may notice typos as I have been unable to switch my computer back to English. I was very stressed. I tried getting five minutes of mindful breathing into the start of my day and focusing on gratitude through my Gratitude Jar which I started in January. However, the most helpful thing I did was try Loving Kindness meditation.
You start by sitting comfortably and focusing on your breath then you think to yourself: "May I experience loving kindness for myself. May I enjoy happiness, health and peace". That's it, you just sit with these two sentences in your mind and breathe. I felt so much more positive and at peace. The goal is to then entend this wish to others starting with people you love the most, then acquaintances and finally, people you do not like. I used it when my husband was behaving in a way I did not understand. I sent him love and my feelings eased up. Can you imagine how much better our world would be (or, on a smaller scale, our community) if everyone practised this meditation on a daily basis?
Here are the most helpful tips I learned from this book:
You can be mindful anywhere (sitting in a chair, taking your shower, driving somewhere)
Intruding thoughts and strong emotions should not be repressed, embrace them and let them go
Send love to yourself as often as you can, it makes you a better person, more compassionate
Send love to others, including people you don't like, it releases you from the energy that bonds you to them.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul@ripnet.com
Sunday, 28 February 2016
Book of the Week-The Power
February 27th, 2016
I have been reading The Power by Rhonda Byrne because, when I was browsing the books available at the public library, its bright orange cover caught my eye. As I began reading this book, I recognized many of the concepts from The Secret: you have a choice every day whether to focus on the positive aspects of your life or not and, based on this decision, you will either get more positive experiences or negative ones. Whatever you give to others comes back to you so you need to be mindful of what you think, say and do to others. Your thoughts affect your feelings.
We think we are reacting to what has happened to us but the universe responds to us and our feelings are a strong magnet. Whatever we feel most intensely about is what will be increased in our life. There is no distinction between whether we are a good person or a bad person, whether this is a good feeling or a bad one. Strong feeling equals attraction. When you feel anger for someone, you are bringing more of them in your life because of the intensity of your feelings. She suggests noticing what you love and focusing on that. List the people, places, activities, objects you love, notice them in your environment and this is what will grow, opportunities to spend time with those people, visit those places or obtain these objects. Your feelings are a frequency like a radio station and you attract people and circumstances that match this frequency. I you want to bring different people and experiences in your life, adjust your frequency.
Rhonda explains that we are co-creators with the universe. We must be able to imagine what we want. What would it feel like to be this way, to do this, to have this? Once you are clear about what you want and what that would look like, you need to feel as though it were true. She encourages people to surround themselves with cues that their desires have manifested. If you want to go on a trip, you don't focus on the fact that you can'y afford it. Instead, you search the internet for hotels and save a few options on your Favourites page, you buy your swimsuit and sunglasses, you wear sunscreen every day so you smell like you are on holidays, you visualize the warm sand and salty sea air. You tell people how much you love that place and list everything you love about it. You may even print off a photo of your destination and stick it on your fridge. The possibility of going there feels more and more real. Your love for this place and your visualization become a magnet, drawing this experience closer to you.
I don't know if you ever watched Seinfeld. In one episode, George started a program to help reduce his stress. Whenever he had a negative thought, he would stop himself and repeat the words: Serenity Now. By the end of the episode he had a full on nervous breakdown. The author clarifies that there is no need to resist or fear negativity. You are not trying to suppress negative feelings, you just don't amplify them. You focus on what you want and what you love to increase your frequency so your energy matches your desires and you become a magnet for it. Negativity can exist but it doesn't dominate your thoughts, your are too busy imagining the positive outcomes. She describes an exercise to help you release your negative feelings. You imagine that each negative emotion is a wild horse that you climb onto and ride. Then you can choose to get off the horse.
Rhonda emphasizes that we are good enough now. We don't need to work harder, be skinnier, smarter, more of anything, we are fabulous as we are and life is our catalogue. We just need to choose what we want and keep loving it. If we concentrate on our lack, as in, "I would love to do that but I'm broke so it's never going to happen", then we are creating that story for our life, we associate bad feelings to that experience therefore we repel it. She warns against feeling envious of others who have achieved what we are striving to accomplish or feeling discouraged by our lack of results. These further associate negative feelings to our desires, placing them out of our reach.
In order to elevate your frequency, you need to feel as much love as possible for yourself, the people in your life and as many aspects of your life as possible. Gratitude is an expression of love so when you say thank you or you take time to acknowledge how important someone is to you, you are spreading love all around you. Life should be fun so if you focus on what you enjoy and spend time feeding your imagination with your desires while appreciating what you have, this is the key to success. This is true for money, health matters, work and relationships.
This is a feel-good book and it may seem a bit simplistic, just pick what you want from the catalogue, visualize it and send love to it and, presto, you get it. However, I do believe there is power in focusing on what you want, feeling it with every sense so you can imagine your life as it would be if your desires were manifested, watching your negative self-talk, writing down ten things you are grateful for each day and creating a vision board so you can visualize what your ideal life would look like. Is it all baloney? I will try it out and report back. Let's see what happens.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
I have been reading The Power by Rhonda Byrne because, when I was browsing the books available at the public library, its bright orange cover caught my eye. As I began reading this book, I recognized many of the concepts from The Secret: you have a choice every day whether to focus on the positive aspects of your life or not and, based on this decision, you will either get more positive experiences or negative ones. Whatever you give to others comes back to you so you need to be mindful of what you think, say and do to others. Your thoughts affect your feelings.
We think we are reacting to what has happened to us but the universe responds to us and our feelings are a strong magnet. Whatever we feel most intensely about is what will be increased in our life. There is no distinction between whether we are a good person or a bad person, whether this is a good feeling or a bad one. Strong feeling equals attraction. When you feel anger for someone, you are bringing more of them in your life because of the intensity of your feelings. She suggests noticing what you love and focusing on that. List the people, places, activities, objects you love, notice them in your environment and this is what will grow, opportunities to spend time with those people, visit those places or obtain these objects. Your feelings are a frequency like a radio station and you attract people and circumstances that match this frequency. I you want to bring different people and experiences in your life, adjust your frequency.
Rhonda explains that we are co-creators with the universe. We must be able to imagine what we want. What would it feel like to be this way, to do this, to have this? Once you are clear about what you want and what that would look like, you need to feel as though it were true. She encourages people to surround themselves with cues that their desires have manifested. If you want to go on a trip, you don't focus on the fact that you can'y afford it. Instead, you search the internet for hotels and save a few options on your Favourites page, you buy your swimsuit and sunglasses, you wear sunscreen every day so you smell like you are on holidays, you visualize the warm sand and salty sea air. You tell people how much you love that place and list everything you love about it. You may even print off a photo of your destination and stick it on your fridge. The possibility of going there feels more and more real. Your love for this place and your visualization become a magnet, drawing this experience closer to you.
I don't know if you ever watched Seinfeld. In one episode, George started a program to help reduce his stress. Whenever he had a negative thought, he would stop himself and repeat the words: Serenity Now. By the end of the episode he had a full on nervous breakdown. The author clarifies that there is no need to resist or fear negativity. You are not trying to suppress negative feelings, you just don't amplify them. You focus on what you want and what you love to increase your frequency so your energy matches your desires and you become a magnet for it. Negativity can exist but it doesn't dominate your thoughts, your are too busy imagining the positive outcomes. She describes an exercise to help you release your negative feelings. You imagine that each negative emotion is a wild horse that you climb onto and ride. Then you can choose to get off the horse.
Rhonda emphasizes that we are good enough now. We don't need to work harder, be skinnier, smarter, more of anything, we are fabulous as we are and life is our catalogue. We just need to choose what we want and keep loving it. If we concentrate on our lack, as in, "I would love to do that but I'm broke so it's never going to happen", then we are creating that story for our life, we associate bad feelings to that experience therefore we repel it. She warns against feeling envious of others who have achieved what we are striving to accomplish or feeling discouraged by our lack of results. These further associate negative feelings to our desires, placing them out of our reach.
In order to elevate your frequency, you need to feel as much love as possible for yourself, the people in your life and as many aspects of your life as possible. Gratitude is an expression of love so when you say thank you or you take time to acknowledge how important someone is to you, you are spreading love all around you. Life should be fun so if you focus on what you enjoy and spend time feeding your imagination with your desires while appreciating what you have, this is the key to success. This is true for money, health matters, work and relationships.
This is a feel-good book and it may seem a bit simplistic, just pick what you want from the catalogue, visualize it and send love to it and, presto, you get it. However, I do believe there is power in focusing on what you want, feeling it with every sense so you can imagine your life as it would be if your desires were manifested, watching your negative self-talk, writing down ten things you are grateful for each day and creating a vision board so you can visualize what your ideal life would look like. Is it all baloney? I will try it out and report back. Let's see what happens.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Thursday, 18 February 2016
Book of the Week: Girls on the Edge-Part 2
February 18th, 2016
Girls on the Edge is truly an extraordinary book. I wrote about the first half of the book last week where the author, Leonard Sax, describes the challenges faced by today's teenage girls. In the second part of the book, we look at how parents can help their daughters develop into healthy, well-adjusted women. There are three chapters, each devoted to the development of a different aspect of girls: mind, body and spirit. I have learned so much as a parent and as a woman.
In the chapter on the development of our daughters' minds, Dr. Sax warns us that we are rushing our children to learn too much, too quickly. He refers to the classic music we play while our baby is in utero and the flash cards so children are ready for kindergarten. He makes a compelling case for postponing formal education. He suggests that we spend more time with children outdoor, learning through hands-on experiences rather than from reading about life in books. He believes that pushing children to learn in a formal setting before the age of seven is detrimental. They are not developmentally ready to sit still and listen for hours and they start to associate school and learning as a boring chore. He quotes research that demonstrates that children who are taught formally too early, learn in order to please others and are less likely to learn actively or read for fun. His tips for parents, other than postponing their schooling and exploring the real world outdoor is to buy simple toys that stimulate the imagination and force children to interact with their environment (nothing with button or a screen), think "dump trunk". When your seven year old is ready for school, you are encouraged to look for schools with lots of unstructured time, outdoor learning and physical activity that promote curiosity and creativity. The author then explains the importance of all-girls schools especially once they reach puberty because the way girls learn is different than the way boys learn. Also, girls do better academically in an all-girls environment because they are not distracted by the presence of boys. Research found that girls in all-girls schools based their self-esteem on the way they act more than on the way they look. This doesn't mean boys and girls never see each other. The schools can organize opportunities for both genders to mingle without any pressure so they learn to work together and interact. One of the most important elements of an all-girls school is to have teachers who really care about the students and make time to get to know them personally. There can even be a "tattle box" where girls can write a note to the teacher. A second box can also be available for "secret compliments" if someone wants to compliment another student. Bullying among girls is dealt with from day one. There is a discussion about rules, a contract is typed up and all students sign it. The contract is displayed in the class and if anyone breaks one of the rules, an appropriate consequence is enforced. Having caring teachers who are trained to present curriculum in a way that engages girls, helps them enjoy learning and develop their minds.
In the chapter on the development of the body, we learn about some of the factors that create a belief that boys are better at sports and keeps girls from participating in physical education and sports. Again, boys and girls are different, boys are better at "targeting moving objects in space", girls are better "at tasks that require balance". Most of the games played in school (soccer, volleyball, basketball), promote the boys' skill set, not the girls'. Another factor is that boys overestimate their skills at sports and boast about them. Girls are more realistic therefore, they believe the boys when they brag about their competence. More girls play sports but most coaches are men. This is a third factor that promotes the belief that sports are more for boys because the experts are men. Once again, the approach for girls and boys differ. Girls may not be as concerned about winning. They may prefer to learn and develop their skills. If a male coach is very competitive, doesn't play a girl because he wants to win or prefers another player because she is more competitive, chances are, the girl will stop enjoying the sport and may stop playing. Girls are also at a higher risk of injury because her muscles are not developed the same way as the boys. If the coach is unaware of this and does identical warm-ups for both genders, the girls may end up with an injury. It's best for girls to play a variety of sports so they are not always using the same muscles. Concussions don't meet the same criteria in girls as they do in boys therefore girls can have a concussion and go undiagnosed. As a parent, it's important to choose physical activities our daughters like. If she doesn't like team sports, she may prefer yoga, martial arts or kayaking. It's important to keep her active but equally crucial to ensure she is enjoying the activity. Again, having all-girls physical education is better for girls after puberty. Otherwise, they are less likely to play against boys. When they do play in a co-ed class they are less likely to show off their skills and more inclined to sit and watch.
The third chapter about spirit was my favourite. Many people from our generation have moved away from organized religion so when teen girls explore religion and spirituality, we may feel anxious or out of our depth. However, it's normal for girls to start asking questions as they reach puberty about what they believe, why they are here and, what they are doing with their life. Parents have the biggest influence in helping girls find the answers to those questions. Simultaneously, a girl's sexuality is awakening. If she doesn't find her way spiritually, she may turn to sexuality. This leads to disappointment as girls pursue the wrong guy or get too invested in early relationships giving away their control to boys. Spiritually, they need to balance their feminine and masculine energy and decide how to express these aspects of themselves. This process is important but we are busy convincing them and ourselves that there is no difference, we are all the same, so they don't get the guidance they need to find the perfect blend that is unique to them. Instead, they are exposed to media images of what is feminine and masculine which are superficial. If they turn their back on spirituality and dive into sexuality at an early age, they realize that it can not fill them up at the core. They still feel empty. They haven't learned to become a woman. The author lists so many benefits for girls who belong to a religious or spiritual group, I will not list them all but there are numerous advantages. One major bonus of these groups is that girls spend time with multiple generations of women and feel like they belong to a community. We have an important role to play in developing our daughters' spirituality. This can involve praying together, attending services, meditating or communing with nature. Developing a girl's spirit will help her get through difficult times and provide a sense of purpose for her life. Having some time to be quiet, to discuss her beliefs and yours, to be grateful and to feel connected to something greater will help her develop her spirit. Girls need a community of women of various ages to show them what it means to be a woman. They need to see these women regularly. Teenagers these days have more knowledge than they need but it's only in communities of women that they can learn the wisdom that is essential to become their own woman.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Girls on the Edge is truly an extraordinary book. I wrote about the first half of the book last week where the author, Leonard Sax, describes the challenges faced by today's teenage girls. In the second part of the book, we look at how parents can help their daughters develop into healthy, well-adjusted women. There are three chapters, each devoted to the development of a different aspect of girls: mind, body and spirit. I have learned so much as a parent and as a woman.
In the chapter on the development of our daughters' minds, Dr. Sax warns us that we are rushing our children to learn too much, too quickly. He refers to the classic music we play while our baby is in utero and the flash cards so children are ready for kindergarten. He makes a compelling case for postponing formal education. He suggests that we spend more time with children outdoor, learning through hands-on experiences rather than from reading about life in books. He believes that pushing children to learn in a formal setting before the age of seven is detrimental. They are not developmentally ready to sit still and listen for hours and they start to associate school and learning as a boring chore. He quotes research that demonstrates that children who are taught formally too early, learn in order to please others and are less likely to learn actively or read for fun. His tips for parents, other than postponing their schooling and exploring the real world outdoor is to buy simple toys that stimulate the imagination and force children to interact with their environment (nothing with button or a screen), think "dump trunk". When your seven year old is ready for school, you are encouraged to look for schools with lots of unstructured time, outdoor learning and physical activity that promote curiosity and creativity. The author then explains the importance of all-girls schools especially once they reach puberty because the way girls learn is different than the way boys learn. Also, girls do better academically in an all-girls environment because they are not distracted by the presence of boys. Research found that girls in all-girls schools based their self-esteem on the way they act more than on the way they look. This doesn't mean boys and girls never see each other. The schools can organize opportunities for both genders to mingle without any pressure so they learn to work together and interact. One of the most important elements of an all-girls school is to have teachers who really care about the students and make time to get to know them personally. There can even be a "tattle box" where girls can write a note to the teacher. A second box can also be available for "secret compliments" if someone wants to compliment another student. Bullying among girls is dealt with from day one. There is a discussion about rules, a contract is typed up and all students sign it. The contract is displayed in the class and if anyone breaks one of the rules, an appropriate consequence is enforced. Having caring teachers who are trained to present curriculum in a way that engages girls, helps them enjoy learning and develop their minds.
In the chapter on the development of the body, we learn about some of the factors that create a belief that boys are better at sports and keeps girls from participating in physical education and sports. Again, boys and girls are different, boys are better at "targeting moving objects in space", girls are better "at tasks that require balance". Most of the games played in school (soccer, volleyball, basketball), promote the boys' skill set, not the girls'. Another factor is that boys overestimate their skills at sports and boast about them. Girls are more realistic therefore, they believe the boys when they brag about their competence. More girls play sports but most coaches are men. This is a third factor that promotes the belief that sports are more for boys because the experts are men. Once again, the approach for girls and boys differ. Girls may not be as concerned about winning. They may prefer to learn and develop their skills. If a male coach is very competitive, doesn't play a girl because he wants to win or prefers another player because she is more competitive, chances are, the girl will stop enjoying the sport and may stop playing. Girls are also at a higher risk of injury because her muscles are not developed the same way as the boys. If the coach is unaware of this and does identical warm-ups for both genders, the girls may end up with an injury. It's best for girls to play a variety of sports so they are not always using the same muscles. Concussions don't meet the same criteria in girls as they do in boys therefore girls can have a concussion and go undiagnosed. As a parent, it's important to choose physical activities our daughters like. If she doesn't like team sports, she may prefer yoga, martial arts or kayaking. It's important to keep her active but equally crucial to ensure she is enjoying the activity. Again, having all-girls physical education is better for girls after puberty. Otherwise, they are less likely to play against boys. When they do play in a co-ed class they are less likely to show off their skills and more inclined to sit and watch.
The third chapter about spirit was my favourite. Many people from our generation have moved away from organized religion so when teen girls explore religion and spirituality, we may feel anxious or out of our depth. However, it's normal for girls to start asking questions as they reach puberty about what they believe, why they are here and, what they are doing with their life. Parents have the biggest influence in helping girls find the answers to those questions. Simultaneously, a girl's sexuality is awakening. If she doesn't find her way spiritually, she may turn to sexuality. This leads to disappointment as girls pursue the wrong guy or get too invested in early relationships giving away their control to boys. Spiritually, they need to balance their feminine and masculine energy and decide how to express these aspects of themselves. This process is important but we are busy convincing them and ourselves that there is no difference, we are all the same, so they don't get the guidance they need to find the perfect blend that is unique to them. Instead, they are exposed to media images of what is feminine and masculine which are superficial. If they turn their back on spirituality and dive into sexuality at an early age, they realize that it can not fill them up at the core. They still feel empty. They haven't learned to become a woman. The author lists so many benefits for girls who belong to a religious or spiritual group, I will not list them all but there are numerous advantages. One major bonus of these groups is that girls spend time with multiple generations of women and feel like they belong to a community. We have an important role to play in developing our daughters' spirituality. This can involve praying together, attending services, meditating or communing with nature. Developing a girl's spirit will help her get through difficult times and provide a sense of purpose for her life. Having some time to be quiet, to discuss her beliefs and yours, to be grateful and to feel connected to something greater will help her develop her spirit. Girls need a community of women of various ages to show them what it means to be a woman. They need to see these women regularly. Teenagers these days have more knowledge than they need but it's only in communities of women that they can learn the wisdom that is essential to become their own woman.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Friday, 15 January 2016
Book of the Week-Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
January 15th, 2016
Big Magic was on my wish list this Christmas. However, there was some confusion and I ended up with, The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto which is not usually my type of book but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is beautifully written and I couldn't put it down until it was done. It made me want to pick up a guitar and learn to play Flamenco. Then I started reading Diana Leeson Fisher's new book, The Accidental Farmwife and, just like that, the urge to devote myself to Flamenco music died. I had moved on. Diana's book revived my dream of owning chickens, a goat and a vegetable garden.
Last week, I went to Indigo Books in Barrhaven with my girls and bought Big Magic. I was eager to read it and gain some new wisdom or tips I could integrate into my workshops. The book wasn't what I expected. I read it in its entirety and many parts made me laugh but it's an unusual book. It feels like a pep talk or motivational speech for writers. Basically, the author explains that we all have a treasure buried deep within us that we can choose to unearth. She encourages the reader to write for the pleasure of it and not take it so seriously. She describes the way a creative calling or idea comes your way and waits for your collaboration. If you ignore it, it will keep going until someone else produces the exact same thing and you think: "That was my idea". The author, Elizabeth Gilbert, warns the reader to avoid the common mistake of believing that you must suffer for your art. She assures us that it is possible to enjoy, and surrender to, the process. She also instructs artists to follow their curiosity rather than wait for a deep passion to emerge. The goal is to stay busy and keep moving. When she feels stuck, she may pursue a new interest and find that her creative flow has returned.
The section that was most inspirational to me was devoted to an artist's work ethic. Elizabeth has pledged that she will write throughout her life no matter what: success, failure, lack of inspiration, no motivation etc. She doesn't "burden" her art with the expectation to make a living. Therefore she worked other jobs for money while she continued to write until the success of Eat, Pray, Love. This was a new way of perceiving my passion. Much of what I do: write and publish children's books, offer workshops to children or to women in their 40s, 50s and 60s, interview people for the local paper and write this blog, feeds my soul. I thoroughly enjoy all of it. I become conflicted when I try to earn a certain amount of money from my work. Then, the success of the work is determined by my pay as opposed to my sense of purpose. It may be worthwhile to work for money during the day at a stress-free job and enjoy my calling in the evenings and weekends, unconcerned with the financial aspect of these endeavours. Food for thought!
Big Magic was on my wish list this Christmas. However, there was some confusion and I ended up with, The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto which is not usually my type of book but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is beautifully written and I couldn't put it down until it was done. It made me want to pick up a guitar and learn to play Flamenco. Then I started reading Diana Leeson Fisher's new book, The Accidental Farmwife and, just like that, the urge to devote myself to Flamenco music died. I had moved on. Diana's book revived my dream of owning chickens, a goat and a vegetable garden.
Last week, I went to Indigo Books in Barrhaven with my girls and bought Big Magic. I was eager to read it and gain some new wisdom or tips I could integrate into my workshops. The book wasn't what I expected. I read it in its entirety and many parts made me laugh but it's an unusual book. It feels like a pep talk or motivational speech for writers. Basically, the author explains that we all have a treasure buried deep within us that we can choose to unearth. She encourages the reader to write for the pleasure of it and not take it so seriously. She describes the way a creative calling or idea comes your way and waits for your collaboration. If you ignore it, it will keep going until someone else produces the exact same thing and you think: "That was my idea". The author, Elizabeth Gilbert, warns the reader to avoid the common mistake of believing that you must suffer for your art. She assures us that it is possible to enjoy, and surrender to, the process. She also instructs artists to follow their curiosity rather than wait for a deep passion to emerge. The goal is to stay busy and keep moving. When she feels stuck, she may pursue a new interest and find that her creative flow has returned.
The section that was most inspirational to me was devoted to an artist's work ethic. Elizabeth has pledged that she will write throughout her life no matter what: success, failure, lack of inspiration, no motivation etc. She doesn't "burden" her art with the expectation to make a living. Therefore she worked other jobs for money while she continued to write until the success of Eat, Pray, Love. This was a new way of perceiving my passion. Much of what I do: write and publish children's books, offer workshops to children or to women in their 40s, 50s and 60s, interview people for the local paper and write this blog, feeds my soul. I thoroughly enjoy all of it. I become conflicted when I try to earn a certain amount of money from my work. Then, the success of the work is determined by my pay as opposed to my sense of purpose. It may be worthwhile to work for money during the day at a stress-free job and enjoy my calling in the evenings and weekends, unconcerned with the financial aspect of these endeavours. Food for thought!
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