
“Bridge of Contemplation” from the Connection Photography Collection available in my shop.
Are you happy? Truly happy?
My grade 6 teacher didn’t think that “being happy” was an appropriate response to “What do you want to be when you grow up?”.
My answer remains unchanged, however, and the Dalai Lama agrees:
“The purpose of our lives is to be happy”.
So how do we do that? The answers, I’ve often been told, are within.
I thought I fully understood what that meant.
I considered myself a good listener when it came to my Spirit Calls, living a life of passion and purpose.
As I’ve written in a previous post, I’ve followed my intuition around the world, constantly growing and stretching my comfort zones.
In 2015, however, I realized that my listening skills weren’t as good as I thought.
Although I’d followed my inner guidance, devoting all my time to building my website and artist career, I was still operating with the beliefs and emotional coping patterns learned in childhood.
I pushed myself too hard and became the toughest boss I’d ever had.
My self-imposed expectations, pressures, and judgments were taking their toll. I could physically feel the anxiety and stress. Fear started running the show.
I became too busy to listen to the gentler voices inside, so my body became the communication channel. It protested.
As Dr. Gabor Maté writes in his book “When the Body Says No – The Hidden Costs of Stress”,
“What has happened is that we have lost touch with the gut feelings designed to be our warning system… (T)he salient stressors in the lives of most human beings today – at least in the industrialized world – are emotional. Just like laboratory animals unable to escape, people find themselves trapped in lifestyles and emotional patterns inimical to their health. The higher the level of economic development, it seems, the more anesthetized we have become to our emotional realities.”
Fortunately, years of mindfulness training helped me recognize the energetic tremors and physical stress, but childhood conditioning kept me pushing longer than was healthy.
I was determined to be good enough, strong enough, perfect enough, etc. Sounds familiar?
The cost of repressing, denying, avoiding, or overreacting to our emotions, is high. We’ve been paying it all our lives.
As children, we learned to fulfill the conditions of everyone around us, trying to make them happy and ignoring our own emotional guidance system.
The result is that many have lost touch with the messages of their bodies, minds, and spirits and end up in a state of physical, mental, or spiritual dis-ease.
We end up unhappy and unhealthy.
Luckily, I stopped denying what was happening before I burned out. Instead, I chose to re-establish harmony, balance, and alignment.
This wasn’t easy – leaving the computer for even a day initially made me more anxious. It’s pretty scary jumping off the hamster wheel when you think it’s going somewhere…
As Abraham (a group of evolved spiritual teachers channelled through Esther Hicks) explains,
“Until the stakes are really high, most of you are … chronically holding yourselves away from the vibration of alignment that is so natural to you, so a little bit of attention to how you feel as a determination to feel better more of the time will take an effort.”
Hearing the same message from spiritual and medical experts helped me accept that I was still hanging on to beliefs and emotional coping patterns that no longer served me.
“A major contributor to the genesis of many diseases … is an overload of the stress induced by unconscious beliefs. If we would heal, it is essential to begin the painfully incremental task of reversing the biology of belief we adopted very early in life. Whatever the external treatment is administered, the healing agent lies within. The internal milieu must be changed. To find health, and to know it fully, necessitates a quest, a journey to the centre of our own biology of belief. That means rethinking and recognizing – re-cognizing: literally, to “know again” – our lives.” Dr. Gabor Maté.
My career choices may have been aligned with my purpose and previous intuitive guidance, but the anxious vibrations I was putting out into the world weren’t bringing back the results I wanted – either in my business or in my being.
I was off track. I had to get back on. As Abraham says,
“when you relax and get back on track, you can feel the clarity, abundance, your worthiness, fun, vitality, eagerness, and passion, and life feels good.”
So that’s what I did. I got off the computer, traveled to see my family, connected to Source through nature, painting and inspirational podcasts, and I’ve kept a better balance ever since, even if I’m currently participating in another online business course while also reviewing last year’s course.
But I’m much happier and healthier now.
Hearing Aids for Your Transformational Journey
We have access to Divine Guidance all the time – we simply have a tendency to listen more when dire circumstances cause us to stop and pay attention.
Why wait that long? The answers truly are within. They’re in the stored emotions calling to be healthily expressed and released as well as in our moment-by-moment emotional gage.
For your sake and all those around you, listen. And seek help when you need it.
There are many empowering tools available to help you on this transformational journey. I offer 3 (see Custom Services in the menu tabs). Think of these as hearing aids.
In selecting tools that resonate with you, you’re creating the necessary expectation of healing that enhances their benefits. You create the intention and open yourself to happiness.
As Dr. Maté and Abraham both teach, whichever modality of treatment or empowerment tools people choose, the key to healing and happiness is your willingness to ask the questions and make informed choices in alignment with your true essence.
It’s important to remember though, that alignment with your Higher Self -happiness – is a moment-by-moment process.
It takes time, patience, practice, and unconditional love.
It’s worth it! You’re worth it.
What is your body saying? How are you feeling? What hearing aids do you believe will best help you?
Please don’t wait until your body says no to start listening.
When a 2D Community Becomes 3D
/in Life By DesignI may have organized city-wide festivals and love being on stage, but entering a room of 600 strangers isn’t something I look forward to.
If you’re an introvert or empath, you can relate.
That’s why I was so surprised last month in San Diego when I experienced the power of a 2D community becoming a 3D one.
It’s all because of Facebook.
I’m one of those who joined social media really late in the game. I wanted to participate in my online course discussion groups.
At first, that was overwhelming too.
My B-School group had over 2000 students in it! It took me a while to accept that I couldn’t read everything or help everyone. I had to trust that I’d see what I was meant to see and let go of the rest.
The support and help I received when I had a question was amazing! I truly learned the value of a 2D online community during that course.
So when I joined Lisa Sasevich‘s Speak to Sell online course for big-hearted entrepreneurs this year, I brought that collaborative spirit to its Facebook group. The exchange was rich.
It really helped me get more out of the course. I didn’t have to figure it all out on my own.
We also had group calls with Lisa, and I managed to get my questions answered on many of them.
So when I got to her bootcamp in San Diego, things were a lot different than the huge workshops I attended before the age of social media.
I can’t tell you how many people came up to me and hugged me or said things like:
I wasn’t a stranger surrounded by strangers. Names and thumbnails were now real live people I’d shared with online. We could skip the small talk and connect at a deeper level.
My willingness to stretch my comfort zones by joining social media (and learn not to get swallowed up by it) led to a truly heart-warming real-life community experience.
For that I am grateful!
Oh – and it also helped me find 3 great roommates to share the expenses with. Now we’re friends and in our own little mastermind group!
What’s your favourite 2D online Group? Name 1 benefit of being a part of it in the comments below. I’d love examples and stories.
Divine Storytelling Time: Patricia’s Intuitive Reading
/in Inspiration, Intuitive ServicesPatricia’s Visual Gift – part of the Intuitive Reading Package
There’s nothing like an example to help understand the transformation a service can help provide.
So today, I’m thrilled to share part of Patricia’s experience with her Intuitive Reading Package.
You’ve heard me say before that when I connect to your Higher Self and team of Divine Helpers on your behalf, they “download” their messages through these Disney-Pixar-like visions filled with symbolism to decipher. As we’re all connected through Divine Consciousness, I can channel this for people all around the world – no schedule necessary.
It’s an entertaining and fun way to find clarity and in this case, comfort.
Part of the process is for you (the client) to enter this experience with an open heart and the curiosity of a child playing detective.
The other part is to decide what these symbols and story mean to you, so you can translate them into inspired action. Guidance is useless if you don’t act on it.
I don’t do the interpretation for you. No one is better at understanding what something means to you than you are. It’s all part of helping you develop your own intuitive muscles.
For example, bread crumbs may remind one person of bonding with their grandmother while feeding the pigeons, but will symbolized being lost to someone who grew up reading the fairy tale Hansel & Gretel.
There’s nothing more empowering than coming up with your own decisions based on the meaning you find in the information your Guides provide through the 3 parts of your intuitive reading package.
Please note that I knew very little about Patricia before doing this reading.
Patricia Shares:
Spirit Calling Card spread
It’s I Patricia who thanks you for sharing this with my readers. Not only have you helped me understand how my gifts are serving you, but helping others to feel whether this is something that would serve them too.
If something about this experience spoke to your heart, pay attention. Is your Spirit calling you to work with our own Divine Storytelling Time?
I work with clients all around the world from a distance and without the need to set a specific time. Click here for more information, testimonials, and to buy yours.
Get Your Butt Moving!
/in Life By Design, My TravelsLots of photos for you today!
————
Trust me. This isn’t easy. I’ve been blogging at least twice a week for years! But I’m slowing down for the summer.
I’ll be posting every Tuesday, but skipping Thursdays to spend more time outside. I need the air, the beauty, the exercise. I hope that’s OK with you.
You see, I was smart and arrived 2 days early for my business bootcamp at the Paradise Point Resort in San Diego. I also stayed 2 days after it.
It felt soooooo good to walk on the beach, kayak around the island, swim in one of the 5 pools, and bike in nature for at least an hour every day. See photos below.
So I came back with a commitment to get my butt moving outdoors this summer.
It’s so easy to spend full-days both in the studio and at the computer. I tend to overdo it. Working at home has been fantastic in many ways, but I don’t get off my butt as much as I’d like to.
So I’m listening to what my body, mind, and spirit had to say as soon as I hopped on that bike in San Diego.
What freedom! What joy! I sang with glee as I explored the deserted trails around the island at 6am. I didn’t stop after I got in the kayak either. Bliss!
So I’m shopping for a bike these days. I sold my 30-year-old men’s 10-speed Peugeot as part of my pre-Vienna fundraiser. Now it’s time for a hybrid that can handle St. John’s hills and the gravel trails on the old rail bed. Exciting!
I’m also choosing to walk more, especially in the early evenings instead of defaulting to Netflix. I had some great river & canal walks with my Dad in Ottawa after San Diego. I went from palm trees to tulips! I also went from cool California weather to a heat wave!
But it was back to freezing once home in Newfoundland (Yay! I don’t do heat very well.)
And so far so good. I had a lovely hike up Signal Hill next to downtown with my friend Janice. I’m also taking my work strategy sessions to Bowring Park. I’d much rather walk & talk with clients and collaborators than sit in a coffee shop.
So what about you? Are you going to get your butt moving too this summer? Sound crude, I know. Sorry. But trust me, it’ll love you for it. Haven’t you heard? Sitting is the new smoking!
What’s your favourite form of outdoor exercise? Comment below.
Oh – and if you’re in the mood for a bit of inspiration between posts, just come visit the archive. You’ll find lots there!
Here’s to our health!
What do others see when they look at you?
/in Life By Design, Paintings“Exaltation” prints available
That’s what one of the participants told me after my Ignite Your Intuition workshop at last month’s Body Mind & Spirit retreat.
I was doing what I love with open-minded, open-hearted soul seekers. Not only had I been sharing my life experiences and teaching how to use intuition, I spent 40 minutes channeling a reading for the group and witnessing transformation all around me.
How could I not be radiant?!
It’s the same when I’m painting or channeling in the studio!
If you’re connected to Self and Spirit – you can’t help but light up the room.
So my first question to you is:
“How can you bring more of what you love into your life? At home? At work? During your free time?”
I was grateful for the mirror. I was obviously on track.
But as I told her, I don’t look / feel that way nearly often enough.
“I AM” (24″ x 36″) – acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas.
Truth be told, when I look at myself in the mirror after a day of working on the administrative or marketing sides of my business, I don’t see what she saw.
There lies the challenge.
Our job is not only to do what we love, but also love all we do.
So my next question to you is:
“How can you connect to your Self and Source while working on the tasks that just need to be done?”
Until I have the resources to hire others who are passionate about doing the parts of my business that I’m not, I need to bring more curiosity and childlike wonder into all parts of my days.
I’m open to advice / musings on this. Please comment below.
P.S. I created these sister paintings to represent the radiance that comes from connecting to Self and Source day and night – both literally and figuratively. Can you feel the energy coursing through her as she aligns with her soul to vibrate as both a physical and spiritual being?
When the Body Says No
/in Life By Design“Bridge of Contemplation” from the Connection Photography Collection available in my shop.
Are you happy? Truly happy?
My grade 6 teacher didn’t think that “being happy” was an appropriate response to “What do you want to be when you grow up?”.
My answer remains unchanged, however, and the Dalai Lama agrees:
So how do we do that? The answers, I’ve often been told, are within.
I thought I fully understood what that meant.
I considered myself a good listener when it came to my Spirit Calls, living a life of passion and purpose.
As I’ve written in a previous post, I’ve followed my intuition around the world, constantly growing and stretching my comfort zones.
When the Body Says No
In 2015, however, I realized that my listening skills weren’t as good as I thought.
Although I’d followed my inner guidance, devoting all my time to building my website and artist career, I was still operating with the beliefs and emotional coping patterns learned in childhood.
I pushed myself too hard and became the toughest boss I’d ever had.
My self-imposed expectations, pressures, and judgments were taking their toll. I could physically feel the anxiety and stress. Fear started running the show.
I became too busy to listen to the gentler voices inside, so my body became the communication channel. It protested.
As Dr. Gabor Maté writes in his book “When the Body Says No – The Hidden Costs of Stress”,
Fortunately, years of mindfulness training helped me recognize the energetic tremors and physical stress, but childhood conditioning kept me pushing longer than was healthy.
I was determined to be good enough, strong enough, perfect enough, etc. Sounds familiar?
Re-Aligning
The cost of repressing, denying, avoiding, or overreacting to our emotions, is high. We’ve been paying it all our lives.
As children, we learned to fulfill the conditions of everyone around us, trying to make them happy and ignoring our own emotional guidance system.
The result is that many have lost touch with the messages of their bodies, minds, and spirits and end up in a state of physical, mental, or spiritual dis-ease.
We end up unhappy and unhealthy.
Luckily, I stopped denying what was happening before I burned out. Instead, I chose to re-establish harmony, balance, and alignment.
This wasn’t easy – leaving the computer for even a day initially made me more anxious. It’s pretty scary jumping off the hamster wheel when you think it’s going somewhere…
As Abraham (a group of evolved spiritual teachers channelled through Esther Hicks) explains,
Hearing the same message from spiritual and medical experts helped me accept that I was still hanging on to beliefs and emotional coping patterns that no longer served me.
My career choices may have been aligned with my purpose and previous intuitive guidance, but the anxious vibrations I was putting out into the world weren’t bringing back the results I wanted – either in my business or in my being.
I was off track. I had to get back on. As Abraham says,
So that’s what I did. I got off the computer, traveled to see my family, connected to Source through nature, painting and inspirational podcasts, and I’ve kept a better balance ever since, even if I’m currently participating in another online business course while also reviewing last year’s course.
But I’m much happier and healthier now.
Hearing Aids for Your Transformational Journey
We have access to Divine Guidance all the time – we simply have a tendency to listen more when dire circumstances cause us to stop and pay attention.
Why wait that long? The answers truly are within. They’re in the stored emotions calling to be healthily expressed and released as well as in our moment-by-moment emotional gage.
For your sake and all those around you, listen. And seek help when you need it.
There are many empowering tools available to help you on this transformational journey. I offer 3 (see Custom Services in the menu tabs). Think of these as hearing aids.
In selecting tools that resonate with you, you’re creating the necessary expectation of healing that enhances their benefits. You create the intention and open yourself to happiness.
As Dr. Maté and Abraham both teach, whichever modality of treatment or empowerment tools people choose, the key to healing and happiness is your willingness to ask the questions and make informed choices in alignment with your true essence.
Active Listening
It’s important to remember though, that alignment with your Higher Self -happiness – is a moment-by-moment process.
It takes time, patience, practice, and unconditional love.
It’s worth it! You’re worth it.
What is your body saying? How are you feeling? What hearing aids do you believe will best help you?
Please don’t wait until your body says no to start listening.
Living Simply by Simply Loving
/in Life By DesignDoes clutter overwhelm you?
Do you carry more debt than comfortable?
Do you overcommit to projects you’re not passionate about?
Do you make choices that aren’t aligned with your true desires?
It’s common, especially if you’ve shaped your life according to social expectations. The results are often a sense of emptiness and attempts to fill that void.
Once you’ve understood why we clutter our lives, it becomes easier to simplify – to identify what is truly important to you and let go of the rest. That’s living simply.
My Story
People have been asking me about simplifying since the early 90s. I’d left my “dream job” with the government to teach English in Czechoslovakia (a shock to some). When I returned a year later, I realized I’d spent more on storage than my salary overseas. Still, I didn’t regret my decision!
After that, each time I followed my spirit calls (10 cities in 4 countries), I de-cluttered even more.
I wouldn’t have been able to afford living my life’s purpose debt free otherwise.
Lightening the load in all areas of life, however, does a lot more than reduce the number of boxes that need storing or shipping. It reduced the weight of old energies tied to old ways of being and doing.
This is not about lack, however. In fact, my life is rich! After studying art in Austria, Bali and Italy for a year, I returned to the island of Newfoundland, Canada in 2014 to devote myself full-time to developing my art and intuitive business.
Clutter as a Form of Imitation Love
About 5 years ago, I became conscious of the link between simple living and unconditional love.
Listening to Dr. Greg Baer’s audiobooks and videos on Real Love, I understood how we compulsively try to fill our emptiness with whatever feels good in the moment—money, anger, sex, alcohol, food, violence, power, conditional love, approval of others, and more.
Do any of these substitutes look familiar?
There’s nothing wrong with praise, power, safety, and pleasure – only when they’re used unlovingly.
Dr. Baer provides highly practical advice on becoming more unconditionally loving and loved. As you become so, the confusion and clutter will gradually disappear from your life.
Two Steps to Simplifying
Good news! De-cluttering doesn’t have to wait until you are perfectly loving.
The Universe abhors a vacuum! So when you de-clutter any aspect of your life (space, time, finances, relationships, etc.), it will naturally fill the void with what is in alignment with your Highest Good, especially if you’ve set that intent.
How do you do this?
First, you identify what’s important to you.
Then, let go of everything else.
I’m not talking about reneging responsibilities or rejecting society. I’m talking about finding creative ways to live in line with your heart and your purpose.
This in turn has led to my living a life of greater intention, integrity, and success (my own definition of it).
This will look so very different for everyone.
Living simply is about living true to your purpose, whatever that is.
How? You can use certain de-cluttering “rules” to get rid of physical stuff.You can use resources like “Your Money or Your Life” to transform your relationship with money and start living with financial integrity, intelligence, and independence.
You can start saying “yes” to some things and “no thank you” to others.
Last, you can increase the amount of unconditional love in your life – the true source of all happiness and the best de-clutterer of all.
Is It Worth It?
The more I’ve exercised non-attachment, the more I’ve created room for the Universe to fill with new experiences and abundance that’s more aligned with who I am and what I need for each new chapter of my life.
My path is even richer now that I’ve realized the strong link between love and simplifying.
As I continue my journey of exploring and expressing the beauty of love (for myself and others), I can vouch that it takes care of much of the clutter caused by the pursuit of imitation love.
What can you do to start simplifying today?
You can start small with some of the dozens of suggestions from online lists, or delve deeper into what drives your soul.
You and those around you deserve a simpler life. It truly is a loving thing to do.
I’d love to hear what action steps you’d like to take this month. Please share in the comments below.
Cleaning Up the Red Light District
/in Life By Design“Shifting” from the Transformation Collection.
I’ve lowered my standards. It was dirty.
I confess, it’d been over a month since I’d done it.
It used to be a weekly thing when I had a cat.
Or maybe it’s because I got spoiled when they came in once a week to clean-up in the international student residences in Vienna in 2013/14.
Either way, I’ve relaxed about the state of my living space and studio. I’m still tidy… I just don’t clean very often.
But oh! how satisfying it was to see those little red lights flash when my Aristocrat rolled around the floors doing what it does best.
Do you know what I mean? Is your vacuum equipped with dirt sensors that light up when it sucks up unwanted debris?
I love it! There’s something in me that finds it so satisfying to experience that “Before and After”contrast .
It’s like giving myself a fresh start. It marks the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one.
After an intensive period of working on an energy painting and other projects, it felt great to clear the energy.
I washed the drop cloths, rolled up the tarp, tidied up, vacuumed, scrubbed a little, and voilà!
No more red lights!
It feels awesome to start a new project in a freshly cleaned space. And when it truly needs it again, I’ll take my Aristocrat for a stroll and delight in watching its red lights flash.
What can you relax on in your life? How would it serve you?
New Painting & Prayer: “Beyond Illusion”
/in Life By Design, Paintings“Beyond Illusion” (24″ x 48″) -SOLD
This is a process piece – a channeling of the energy I needed in my life.
It’s a prayer that took weeks to form in my heart and on canvas.
May this painting help you connect to all that is palpable and normally imperceptible as it activates your intuition, your heart.
I’m so glad I helped birth this baby into being!
Many layers of flowing paint and detail-work have completely disappeared beneath what you see here. Interestingly, so have the pictures I took of them.
That’s OK. The process itself and the Connection that came from it remains.
Even if you can’t see those first layers, their energy is part of what activates this portal into the Universal Energy Flow.
Both this painting and prayer have been co-created for you.
Namaste.
Beyond Illusion – A Prayer for True Sight
Dear God and Guiding Spirits
Angels of Light and Love,
Help me perceive the world
Through the Eyes of the Soul
Help me understand that my vision of “reality”
is limiting my growth, my clarity,
My ability to create transformation.
Release me of my limiting perceptions
So I may travel to the realms
Where Light and Colour
Make spiritual expansion possible.
Teach me to discern through inner knowing
That I may bear witness
To Your Radiance, Protection,
Holy Light and Power.
Open my heart with dragonfly medicine
So I may see below the surface –
Beyond the illusion
Of what I accept as reality.
May your Winged Ones,
Come from the world of nature spirits
And bring their magic
Into my everyday experience.
I welcome their messages
From the elemental world.
Ease me into my deepest truth
So I may decide for myself, with You
What everything means.
Help me shift my perception inward
So I may let go of hindering judgments.
Help me evaluate
Both my intentions and attention
So I may focus on the heaven
that is here and now.
Guide me beyond
The veil of illusion
As I go within to commune directly with You.
I feel You resting there, Peace.
Make room.
I’m coming in to lie beside you.
So be it.
“Beyond Illusion”
24″ x 48″
Mixed media on gallery-wrapped canvas (no framing required): acrylics, blue agate stone (protection, strength, harmony), mica (love & compassion)
SOLD
If you’re feeling called to bring one of my energy-infused intuitive original paintings into your home or office, click here. If you’d like a painting or photography print, click here.
Transform Pain – a Guided Visualization Meditation
/in Guided Meditations, Life By DesignAre you ready to transform pain in any area of your life?
Imagine rewriting the script of your movie right now.
What part would you change? How would you change it?
Is the pain in your personal or professional life? Does it affect both?
Is it in your body? In your mind? In your relationships?
I channeled this 23-minute Guided Visualization during a live meditation group gathering.
May it help you create the life you want.
Note: It’s best enjoyed with headphones.
Feel free to come back and do it again. And please share with those you feel might benefit.
P.S. If you’d like to do / download a different one, sign-up here and I’ll send the access link to your email.
Q & A Video: What Kinds of Paint Do You Use?
/in PaintingsI’m a huge fan of Golden Artist Colours – a professional grade acrylic paint company from the States. Yes, it’s expensive, but you get what you pay for. I know because I’ve tried many other kinds in my time.
What many don’t know is that acrylic paint comes in 3 viscosities, or thicknesses. Most people are familiar with “heavy body” paint. It’s thick like toothpaste. I was never a big fan of these.
I prefer both “fluid ” (flows like a heavy cream) and high flow (flows like water). These act more like the acrylic inks I started playing with in the late 80s when I finally found my artistic medium of choice.
The beauty with professional acrylic paints is that there are no fillers or extenders. There’s the same saturation of pigments in all 3 thicknesses. No dilution. That’s why there’s no comparison to dollar store paints that don’t use the same quality of pigments and are full of chalk and other fillers.
Golden Artist Colours also has a whole line of gels, mediums, and varnishes to play with.
When I lived in Saskatchewan, I splurged by buying small containers of every gel and medium they had on offer. Then I just played in the studio until I found the ones that connected me to creative freedom and joy.
Art is part science. It’s good to know how materials work to get the most out of them and to make sure your paintings last.
But art is also about embracing the mystery. It’s about learning and playing with Spirit through the creative process.
There are no mistakes. There’s only learning and layering until one day you say: This one’s done. Next!
Keep playing until you find what speaks to you.
I almost failed art in high school, but that’s just because I hadn’t found my medium.
Thank God (literally) I didn’t give up!
P.S. They invited me back for a solo exhibition a few years later 🙂