Client Packages

I love sending packages. 

I love making them. 

I love the walk to the post office. 

I especially love waiting for them to arrive! 

It has always worked in my life to have little items laying around that are little reminders of the things I value, the things I want to make, the people I admire, the future that is waiting to be created, the intentions of others, and my own intention.

So when a new coaching client signs up with me I begin a creative quest to put together a distinctly unique, carefully crafted, inspiration package full of wild and sacred little items. Some of them end up being part of fulfilling soulwork, others just serve interesting reminders along the journey.

The ultimate way for me to serve the world would be to make little packages for people who would appreciate an intentionally curated, inspiration package full of little creative bits and pieces to help them routinely connect to themselves and live fully each day. 

BLISS.

Life Mapping in Winnipeg

I'd like you all to meet Wild Sacred's newest born project "Life Mapping" - a visual journey of self-discovery that activates your memory and engages your imagination. Using colour, symbol and text, you are led through an enriching, introspective and multi-layered creative process as you map out your unique visual narrative – past, present and future.

I'm kicking it off with a 2-day workshop hosted by ACI Manitoba in Winnipeg on August 28th & 30th from 6pm-9pm.  

in/out of the box

My friend and fellow life coach Mariona Riera said it the other day. For some reason I couldn't stop thinking about all the ways you can end this sentence: when you're in the box...

... people are labeled.

... people are dollars.

... you're not in any other box.

... there are limitations.

... people can't cry or go for a nap.

... someone wants to tape it up!

... you're trying to find a way out!

I have always been most comfortable on the fringe.... at the far edge of a parking lot, close to the bus stop where I can see the BIG PICTURE. I like to draw things into context because that's how my brain works and this is how I feel useful and valuable. Being in a box is my worst nightmare, however I am currently exploring the possibility of working with the box. I'm willing to try working with the framework, just not in it -- and I want to do this as an artist, not as a consultant, as an ARTIST.

I want to deconstruct the box. (Thank You Jacques Derrida) I want to turn boxes inside-out, wear boxes on my head, and make stencils out of boxes, remix the box, fill boxes with beans and shake them up! I want to do it this way because I really do feel that I have a responsibility to re-define how artists are valued, demonstrate other ways they can make traditional work environments better and even create vibrant and dynamic non-traditional environments. 

To some extent being an artist means being stuck in an outdated box. People assume you are an object maker -- you draw, paint paintings, and build sculptures. You're "un-hirable" because not everyone can read what's hiding behind the technical skills. Break out of this box for a minute and explore the other skills required in order to have an artist mindset and you have someone who can:

• offset the right-brained deficit
• think critically and question the status quo
• translate concepts visually, kinetically, or experientially
• dream of what's possible and create imagined realities
• work with metaphor, narrative and emotion
• stimulate expression, begin a dialogue or thought exchange
• risk, experiment and innovate

When you're OUT of the box, you are set free into a world of possibility - to dream, to transition, to re-create yourself and your life. The artist in you knows how to do this. The question is, will you let it?

What's your tree? How do you climb it?

This past Tuesday I went to see Julia Butterfly Hill give a talk on Leading Lives of Purpose, Passion and Power: Turning Inspiration Into Action. She delivered a message from the heart with humour, authenticity, passion and power. I was 18 went she climbed up Luna, the tree she called her home for over two years. Since then she's evolved and started many ventures, one of them is an organization called What's Your Tree?, with a mission to help people find and focus on their purpose. I have been thinking about this idea of finding one's tree... specifically asking myself, what is it that burns in me so strongly that I would be willing to face the depths of my own humanity for, and dedicate myself tirelessly to? 

What's my tree?

I have always been curious about...well, pretty much everything! I think all life experience is an opportunity to bring new awareness of oneself, a deeper learning. In yoga it is the Niyama: Swadyaya (self-study); study of sacred texts; any practice that investigates the self; any study that helps you to understand and know the deeper layers of being. I like to try new things -- all the time! I have always been this way and probably always will be. I know and love this about myself. Once in a while I set about getting good at something, but rarely do I have the patience to practice anything long enough to ever master it. I don't think this way of living is a problem -- at least I don't anymore. Historically this aspect of self has not always been a virtue. For years I felt shame for having eight fingers in eight different pies. The problem came when the opinions of others started to matter more to me than the opinion I had of myself. Some people might label this kind of behaviour as a lack of focus, lack of commitment, lack of ability to sit still, lack of __________. When you start to take on these beliefs and absorb them into your system, you can start to doubt who you are, or worse, question your worth. This is how negative spirals can start a crisis of identity. Luckily I found ways (yoga, meditation, coaching, art) to spiral up, out and into the air, once again free to dream and live in possibility.

"I'm an idealist. I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way." 

~ Carl Sandburg, Poet

My favourite card in the Tarot is called The Fool. I like to think of myself as a wandering fool who laughs at the joke. The Fool is the beginning and the end; the question and the answer. What am I born to do? What is my calling? What is my destiny? What is the legacy I want to leave in the world? All big questions to answer and I can't help but think of the fool's journey. His path is to travel through all the human archetypes, live out all the multiple selves, this is his path. I love the big questions, but I'm not sure they're necessarily meant to be answered. More and more I see them as being lived through. My spiritual practice is an inquiry into the experience of yoga, of union, of the the merger of opposites. To have an inquiring mind about where life takes you, how to live the answer in the question is a sacred practice -- the practice of living. While I do believe that everyone has a calling, looking at life purpose as a question you are living out might serve as an antidote to the stress-box of thinking you have to "figure it all out" now.

How do we live the big questions? 

How do we  play the fool? How do we honour the sacred in this wild world? How do we dance in the fire? How do we embrace the mystery, lean into the unknown? How do we live lives of purpose, passion and power? How do we turn inspiration into action? How do we brave the storms of life? How do become vessels for our life's work?

Life is a great pilgrimage. At the fork in the road, one person goes left, another goes right, and as the great sages always remind us, all paths lead to the same end. Put your hand on your heart, put one foot in front of the other and just start w a l k i n g.

You Already Know

This morning was talking to my best friend. We were reading old emails from a few years ago when we were in very different places in our lives living with big questions about who we are and what we wanted out of life. Our communication to each other was often framed as though we were speaking out loud, to our own hearts and as I read page after page of the personal struggles of that time, some key phrases stuck out. And then the most amazing thing happened - I realized was that the answers I was looking for at the time were all there..................IN THE EMAILS! 

It was as if I was reading various perspectives on my life at the time, from different people living inside of me. I was seeing how I unconsciously gave voice to them all: the lover, the empowered independent, the mother, the visionary, the girlfriend, the daughter, the artist. 

In deep inquiry, I naturally called upon and gave voice to my multiple selves.

Encoded in that email, I discovered that I already knew what I wanted at the time. Not the logistical stuff, but the feeling and the vision for my life was already very real inside of me. All I had to do was say yes! to what was alive inside me, trying to grow. Eventually I did say yes, but in the moments of trying to figure-it-all-out I remember feeling limited by the options in my life. I was conscious of only a few realities that existed in my mind and reading those emails was like seeing a schizophrenic mind battle between my multiple selves, all of them wanting to lead the next phase of my life. But the reality of who I wanted to be when closed my eyes... that I always knew and as evidence to it's power (conscious or not) I am *now* in the vision I had of myself two years ago.

The reason why I share is is that all this law of attraction stuff has me thinking a lot about the choices we think we have and the power we think we have to create the reality we want. I don't believe in rules for attracting what you want. Naturally, I think your heart knows and the best thing you can do, is get to know your own heart and listen intently. How to do that is really of your own creation, but it can help to look to the past to recognize patterns in your life, or better develop an awareness of all your multiples selves and understand who's taking the lead right now! Pay close attention to what you already know - you are wiser than you think.

What's driving you, moving you, shaking you, rocking you?

I LOVE THIS WOMAN.

Listening to Gabrielle Roth speak about our bodies and our minds makes so much sense to me. Founder of 5Rhythms™, here is an excerpt of an interview for a workshop at OMEGA. 

Every time I watch this (and i watch it pretty regularly) I want to shout out:

"YES! I am dancing through life. It is my work and I love it!"

Personal Inquiries:

What is your relationship to chaos? 

How do you ground?

What is your practice of letting go?

What is your practice of connecting to your body?

How are you celebrating 'BEING' a human 'BEING'?

Intermediate Yoga with Tama Soble

Things I learned:

• Letting the whole body breathe. Great visual to aid in dropping down.
  

• Alternate Breathing - Different than Alternate Nostril Breathing, Alternate Breathing is about cultivating awareness of the entire body by bringing your attention to different parts of the body. Breathing in/out with attention to the right side of the body, breathing in/out with attention to the to the whole body, breathing in/out with attention to the left side of the body, breathing in/out letting the whole body breathe.

• Anchoring the pelvis in forward fold, letting the lumbar spine round in inflection.

• Spinal rolls into rolling into bridge.

• Consciously releasing the pelvis into the floor while doing leg stretches and twists.

• Consciously working either side separately in breath and movement to increase awareness of strengths and weaknesses on either side.
  

• Nausea from bridge and wheel can arise from a blood circulation issue.

• Preparation for Wheel I: start with pushing hands into the ground while rolling up into bridge.

• Preparation for Wheel II: pressing right hand into floor beside head, grounding right foot, press the body up and over tot he left. Repeat on other side making sure the inactive side stays relaxed.
  

• Using Little Boat pose (pavana muktasana) in between leg stretches to further release the pelvis.

• Supine Twist (supta matsyendrasana) with the an outstretched leg becomes about the spine and less about the leg during the twist.