Archive for the ‘bringing out your gifts’ Category
Sunday, March 18th, 2012
I remember flying along this gorgeous coastline in Baja, Mexico, with my husband Jon. It was before I got my pilot’s license, and so when he urged me to stop photographing and take the controls, I got instant butterflies. 95% of me wanted to fly, but the 5% that was terrified had the capability of ruining everything.
This makes me think of the beginning of my career, when I was a classroom teacher worried about maintaining discipline. Even on days when I had 95% of the class involved and focused, I was always afraid of that 5% that might take those controls away from me.
If “flying” is a metaphor for the 95% of us that knows how to break free of gravity and soar, we still have to learn to deal with the 5% that suspects we might crash at any moment. I call this “communicating with the controllers,” which is Lesson 5 in my book, Flying Lessons.
The challenge of this lesson is dealing with negative feedback. That might include the kind of inner voice I heard when my husband urged me to take the controls and I was afraid I couldn’t do it. Or, it might be outer feedback, like the kind I would get from disruptive students.
I would submit that our reaction to both kinds is fear: fear of the fear we feel, or fear that we will not be able to stay in control. Or fear that we were incapable all along; thinking we were was just a lie. And fear can hijack a good intent, a calm mind, an open heart and a good experience.
The lesson I learned from Clio, my flight instructor, was about discernment. Which voices are telling the truth that will keep you safe and set you free? And where is your true voice, which you need to use when standing up for yourself is the answer.
Here’s a summary of Clio’s advice:
1. Be kind. The 5% may be afraid. Fear can make them (whether they are outer or inner voices) say terrible things. Take that into consideration.
2. Be fair. Remember, they are the 5%. Are you listening to the 95%, or are they just invisible, their hands folded politely on their desks, their voices muffled behind their modest smiles…What if you asked them to raise their voices in song?
3. Ask for help. Ask your partner, your friend, your angels, your guides, your God, whomever you trust the most for help. For listening. For caring. For hugs. For company. The 95% of the controllers are trying to help you survive.
4. Keep the whole journey in mind. Remember, it’s this part that is hard. The big picture journey probably has a much more beautiful arc to it.
5. Remember, everything is relative. You sometimes think the world is coming to an end. When yours looks like that, so does the larger one. Still, there are those other times when all is glowing, when the leaves of every tree are on fire with sunlight, and when the moon is huge and white and all-knowing. When life is holy. When you are perfect, just as you are.
Tags: consciousness, Flying, Flying metaphor, inner peace, living today, managing fear, perception, Photography, Self, spiritual practice, ups and downs
Posted in aviation, bringing out your gifts, children as teachers, coaching, conscious evolution, consciousness, creativity and empowerment, Flying, happiness, healing, loving ourselves, nature as mirror, nourishing ourselves, Photography, seeing oneself, self image, self-healing, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, spiritual practices, Tools for seeing ourselves | 2 Comments »
Sunday, February 26th, 2012
“The soul-bird is waiting inside. Even if you have locked it in a cage, it is waiting to fly.”
from Flying Lesson #4
Lesson #4 contains a key moment, when you as a participant in the story, or the coaching or the retreat process, realize that there is indeed a soul-bird inside you who is longing to fly, and who was born to fly and knows how.
Next you realize that as a normal human, you have protected this soul-bird by building a cage around it, and have spent a lot of life strengthening and polishing the cage. At some point you may have forgotten that you actually ARE the soul-bird. You may have forgotten to the degree that you thought you were the cage.
But, no blame. This was just a mistake, not anything unchangeable. You’re right on time. It was just part of your development to concentrate on the cage. Now you are called to do and be something different.
Here’s the good news: Since you constructed the cage, you are the one who can open the door.
Now is the moment of choice.
Can you trust that little soul-bird to do what it came here to do? What adventure will it embark on when it spreads its wings?
This is what you’ve longed to do and be.
Open the door.
Tags: consciousness, Flying, Flying metaphor, Nature and the soul, perception, Photography, soul
Posted in aviation, Being, bringing out your gifts, coaching, conscious evolution, consciousness, creative imagination, creativity and empowerment, Flying, Guided imagery, loving ourselves, new life, nourishing ourselves, Photography, returning to essence, seeing oneself, self-healing, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, Tools for seeing ourselves, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
Sometimes I cringe when I meet someone who asks me what I do. Answering either “life coach” or certainly “energy medicine practitioner” or for sure, “shamanic practitioner” can lead to immediate Eyes Glazing Over Syndrome.
Sometimes I do better when I tell a client story, but the best approach is asking questions. Like, “Have you ever had the feeling that something is missing in your life, even if you’ve read a lot of books, had therapy or tried meditating?” (At this point, I am checking for “Woo Woo, Checking Out Now Syndrome.)
But I persist. “Do you ever feel confused about your purpose? Or feel that your passion for your life has gone flat?”
Even though such complaints are vague, most of us have experienced them. Someone who says “Absolutely not” would probably not want life coaching or any personal development enrichment.
In reality, we have all experienced feelings that some might call burnout, and others might describe as being out of balance. Even someone who has never quite found that path, that center, usually can recognize these symptoms. The vocabulary isn’t important. And so…what?
I would call the feeling of being in our center, on our path, feeling passion and purpose “the pilot’s seat.” And I would say that the one who has taken the pilot’s seat in such moments must be the essential self. The one who is all about our life force, or soul.
Sometimes the essential self manages to take the pilot’s seat “by accident,” or really without our effort. In those moments we might call grace, we simply know and we simply are.
When you’ve been there, it’s painful to be dislodged from the pilot’s seat, or to have it commandeered by sub-personalities, or by the ego, who is not well-connected to essence.
Sometimes just the awareness of being off-center is enough to correct the situation. Other times, we need help. We need tools. Here are some to consider:
- Deep talk, soul sharing with a friend or advisor who listens well
- Traveling into invisible realms for guidance, through meditation, prayer, dreams or shamanic journeying—or my Sand Spirits Insight Cards!
- Any breathwork or meditation system that leads you back into your heart
- Asking the Great Mystery for help
- Work with changing old beliefs and releasing old patterns
If any of this resonates with you, I invite you to call me for a complementary phone consultation. Or if this has helped you remember your own tools, please add your comment!
Tags: Being, centering, centering techniques, consciousness, Essence, Flying, Flying metaphor, inner landscape, living today, managing change, meditation, perception, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, spiritual practice
Posted in bringing out your gifts, centering techniques, coaching, conscious evolution, consciousness, Dreams, Flying, happiness, healing, Imagination, inner landscape, meditation, mindfulness, Photography, returning to essence, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, seeing oneself, self-healing, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, spiritual practices, Tools for seeing ourselves | No Comments »
Thursday, January 12th, 2012
The world needs your genius. You have genius, you know. Every one of us does. Your genius is your “original medicine,” as Angeles Arrien put it. It is unique medicine. So if you keep it from the world, the world will never see it again.
Taking the pilot’s seat means bringing out your genius. It means remembering what Marianne Williamson reminded the world about our greatest fear: that we are really great. Playing small, she reminded us, serves no one.
When we ask the biggest part of us—the oldest, most essential, wisest part of us—to be pilot of our lives, we invite our genius to be seen and to be at work in our lives.
It’s strange, isn’t it, that this invitation seems to require courage from us. How could raising the level of our performance and bringing out our greatness be a fearsome thing? Who is it who says it’s scary?
I think it is the child within, the egoic one who is afraid of being exposed, afraid of attack, afraid of shame, failure, and afraid its worse suspicions about our real nature will be proven right. But what does the one within you who is capable of observing this voice say about those arguments?
My larger voice—my essential self—says they are illusions. She says they are the energy of fear incarnate. And not the kind of fear that serves as a valid warning. The kind of fear that cripples.
And so, if there is an inner wrestling match about who should climb into the pilot’s seat and run our lives, how do we deal with this small, fearful one who would sabotage our authentic power? I think we just name her. And then recognize her need for comfort. Hold her as we would any child. Let her know this is not her decision. Let her know we will not leave her behind.
And then, as therapist Terry Real says, peel her sticky fingers off the flight controls, move her over to the passenger seat, and climb in and begin flying.
There’s no time to do otherwise. The world needs your essential self right now.
Tags: consciousness, Essence, Flying, Flying metaphor, perception, Photography
Posted in authenticity, aviation, Being, bringing out your gifts, calling, conscious evolution, consciousness, creativity and empowerment, Flying, inner landscape, loving ourselves, Photography, returning to essence, seeing oneself, self image, self-healing, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, Tools for seeing ourselves, women's empowerment | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
I walk along the Pacific coast of the Baja peninsula. The stones at my feet are thrown across the sand like a random galaxy, and I connect their dots, picking out constellations. As the tide encroaches, waves wash up stones and other objects. Suddenly, I have company—a mystical sand woman! Her head is a glowing coral stone that seems to contain her facial features. Streaks of iron filings paint an aura around her head and give her a clear neck, shoulders and gown. She silently declares to me that she is a sand spirit, a form here for a fleeting moment.
I photograph these forms for four days, not touching anything. Back at home, I am delighted with the images, but still have no idea what I’m going to do with them. Two weeks later, I go in for a routine mammogram and am diagnosed with breast cancer. The rest of the story is about how the Sand Spirits become part of my healing journey and eventually part of others’ journeys as well.
I invite you to explore using the Sand Spirits in your own personal life, to activate the ocean of wisdom inside you! They will help you find your purpose and passion, help solve practical problems, facilitate deeper communication and bring out the healer within.
On Saturday, October 8, you can set aside 6 hours just for you and give yourself the gift of working with a tool that will show you how to move ahead in any area of your life and evolution. For information and to register, copy and paste this link into your browser: http://tinyurl.com/sandspirits.
Tags: beauty, consciousness, creative imagination, Essence, inner landscape, inner peace, living today, musings, Nature and the soul, perception, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, spiritual practice, The Beauty Way
Posted in authenticity, bringing out your gifts, consciousness, creative imagination, Creativity, creativity and empowerment, Guided imagery, happiness, healing, health, Imagination, inner landscape, nature as mirror, nourishing ourselves, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, seeing oneself, self image, self-healing, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, spiritual practices, Tools for seeing ourselves | No Comments »
Friday, December 3rd, 2010
I haven’t blogged in a long time. Not sure what the block has been about it, but these things happen. So in order to take action, I drew a Sand Spirit Card. Let’s see what it has to say about procrastination and blocks:
What I see in this photograph is a holy-looking figure wearing a robe and holding its hands in prayer. (Is that what you see?) Below it is a smaller figure. I’ll talk to the larger one. Who are you? I ask it.
“I am a representation of your higher self, talking to your ‘lower’ or more materially-oriented self.”
And what do you have to say to my smaller or lower self about procrastination? I ask.
“First, it’s normal. We all are changing all the time, and sometimes during periods of transition we cannot stick to our old routines. So, just forgive yourself and move on when this happens.
Second, when you realize that you’re motivated to begin, or at least dissatisfied with your waiting, just dive in. Beginning is at least half the battle.
Thirdly, have faith that all the prayers you offer about being able to be more of your real self, about contributing to the world and about manifesting more wisdom…all these prayers are heard, and their answers have perhaps been percolating during your hiatus. So consider the possibility that even your procrastination has served a purpose.”
Wow. OK, I answer. I feel relieved, and grateful for this wisdom. Thank you, Sand Spirit.
Now it’s your turn. What do you think about these three comments about procrastination and blocks? Are they true for you? If so, how will you apply them?
And what do you see in this Sand Spirit image? I look forward to a dialogue with you!
Tags: perception, Photography, procrastination, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, transitions
Posted in authenticity, bringing out your gifts, Imagination, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, Tools for seeing ourselves | 3 Comments »
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
I love using the Sand Spirit Insight cards to reveal a personal myth that might give you insight into a theme in your own life.
Choose three cards from the pile face down, or just think of three numbers between 1 and 36 and pick those. I chose #33, #16 and #11.
From a completely intuitive place, use the three “illustrations” to stimulate a story that pours out with the least amount of thinking possible. Here’s mine:
One day a mother was thinking hard about how to juggle all the activity and all the dynamics in her family. She had a very colorful, very vibrant family, but sometimes they all were confused and troubled by the changes among them and in the world. They were looking for signs about the Divine path they all might follow.
At times the mother despaired, feeling the grief that surrounded her own helplessness, and wondered if all her experience counted for anything.
Into her dreamtime flew a strange and comical bird, who in his serious form showed her how hunched over she might become if she took all the weight of the world upon her shoulders. Another way, he pointed out, would be to take it all lightly, like a sweet and funny story that was really based on love and on how alike we all are.
See how this story might have helped me? What do you see in the three cards? What story would you tell? Myths, especially when they come from ourselves, give us the gift of the big picture, the universal. This takes us out of the small world that entraps us when we forget that we are all connected and part of one Creation. The spirits from the sea evidently want us to remember that while we are all drops, we are part of the great ocean!
Tags: consciousness, Flying metaphor, inner landscape, living today, managing change, musings, perception, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, transitions, ups and downs
Posted in bringing out your gifts, coaching, conscious evolution, consciousness, creative imagination, creativity and empowerment, Guided imagery, happiness, healing, Imagination, inner landscape, managing change, nature as mirror, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, seeing oneself, self-healing, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, Tools for seeing ourselves | No Comments »
Thursday, August 19th, 2010
Sand Spirit #13
Today I drew this Sand Spirit, and had this dialogue with it. First, I asked, “Who are you?”
And I “heard” it answer, “I am a reflection of your essence, which is similar to the essence of every human, but also unique.”
“And why, out of all the images I could have chosen, did I choose you today?” I asked.
“Well, because this is a day when it would be good for you to remember your true essence and to recognize the true essence in all others. That way you can forgive your own limitations and the limitations of others, just by remembering who we all really are.”
“Thank you!” I say back. And then I ask, “Do you have any other message for me?”
“Yes, I think it would be great to concentrate most on the gift you see me holding in my left hand. This is a reflection of the unique gifts you have to offer the world, and the unique gifts everyone has to offer. Keep asking yourself what yours might be, and what each person’s might be also.”
“I will, Sand Spirit. Thank you for your wisdom.”
And what do you see in this Sand Spirit? What would your answers be to the questions? I would love to hear some.
Tags: beauty, Essence, inner landscape, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, Self, spiritual practice
Posted in bringing out your gifts, conscious evolution, creative imagination, Guided imagery, Imagination, inner landscape, loving ourselves, nature as mirror, Photography, returning to essence, seeing oneself, self image, self-healing, shifting how we see | No Comments »
Thursday, July 29th, 2010
Blue Morpho
This is my favorite Costa Rican Butterfly, which I got to see again at a Butterfly farm, where the trained guide held this one in his hand for us to see and appreciate. The butterfly facts of life he shared were stunning to me, and made me think again about the subject of transformation.
Did you know that caterpillars have within them “imaginal cells” that carry the blueprints of their future lives as butterflies? I think of these almost like photographic negatives, and also like the luminous field that surrounds us all. This energy carries a blueprint of what we might become as well, and that’s why it’s so important to “clean” this field as often as possible and to keep gathering light energy around and within us. We want those blueprints or negatives to carry the highest and best possibility that we will then manifest in form.
Are we like imaginal cells in our society, who all carry blueprints of transformational possibilities for the planet? I like to think so. What do you think?
I found it amazing to hear that caterpillars also have wings! They aren’t visible, but they are incorporated into the caterpillar’s body. During their stay in the chrysalis, the wings begin to unfold so they can be available when the chrysalis breaks down and the butterfly emerges.
Perhaps we too have wings of sorts–forgotten angelic parts that are within us. When our time come to break out of this form, I like to picture those wings unfolding and presto! Flight!
Finally, one more fact about the Blue Morpho delighted me. The wings are not really the beautiful sky blue they appear to be; they are transparent. From ground level, one can look up at the morpho and see that the wings are transparent. But the top part of the wing reflects the sky, and so appears to us to be exactly the sky’s color.
So we too may not be the “color” we appear to be to others. We are really light beings, and so we reflect what is around us. In reality, we are transparent, light-filled. And all our colors, though beautiful, may be illusions.
And so how is all this butterfly stuff useful? Well, for me it helps me to remember that there is “more than meets the eye” in every person and every situation. If much of what I see is illusion, then I must continue to train my inner eye to see the invisible, and to bring that vision into my life that I might see more clearly and use that vision to become a wiser, clearer, more loving human being.
Tags: beauty, consciousness, Flying, Photography, The Beauty Way
Posted in bringing out your gifts, conscious evolution, consciousness, creative imagination, death and new life, Flying, Imagination, inner landscape, nature as mirror, seeing oneself, shifting how we see | 4 Comments »
Saturday, June 12th, 2010
Can you believe this ceiling? It’s part of the Boulder Teahouse, a building originally from Tajikistan that was shipped to CO in pieces and re-constructed. Sitting in that environment with my daughter Laura and my recently graduated grandson, Simon, I wondered what it would be like to live in a culture so steeped in beauty that it is all around you and in you. I imagine, perhaps with too much romanticism, that it would be more difficult to be cruel or thoughtless if you were surrounded by evidence of human creativity and crafstmanship. And, perhaps it would be harder to get lulled to sleep than it is entering a shopping center that looks like any other shopping center in the country.
If it sounds like I’m an architectural snob, I admit this is probably true. I’m in California right now, where architecture in certain areas has been preserved and maintained and honored. I love wandering past Craftsman and Victorian houses, admiring the romantic Spanish colonials and appreciating how the landscaping frames and enhances the buildings. Architecture is part of our highest human expression. To me, dull and repetitive architecture is a sign that the creative spirit has gone to sleep or is not being honored. What happens to a society that has stopped valuing beauty in our surroundings?
We don’t have to be part of that trend. No matter where you live, you can use your imagination and creativity to enhance your nest. What are new ways to put together your belongings that will be an expression of you and your appreciation for beauty? Just the exercise of thinking about this can fire up your awareness and your creativity. When that’s at work, other things in your life can change as well, because you will be awake as a creative being.
What can you take away or add or re-arrange? I’d love to hear your ideas and solutions!
Tags: consciousness, Creativity, inner landscape, living today, perception, Photography, The Beauty Way
Posted in bringing out your gifts, creative imagination, Creativity, creativity and empowerment, Imagination, inner landscape, seeing oneself, shifting paradigms, The Beauty Path | No Comments »
