Today, in this week’s installment of my series dedicated to sharing some things I’ve found that help me to feel a little more comfortable when I’m having a Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad, No Good Day, I am very excited to be hosting Amy Goetz of the barefoot phoenix, who is here to give us all permission to pamper.

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In today’s world we are not often encourage to take care of ourselves. In fact we are often encouraged to push harder, do more, and work through the pain. This has to stop. So many beautiful people turn up on my doorstep exhausted, depleted, and depressed because they just couldn’t do or give enough.

I’d like to offer up some permission to start to choose yourself first and some easy-peasy ways to make that happen. Because me first= o.O [look of confusion and maybe some horror]

First I’d like to reassure you that it will not be easy to choose yourself first. It will be very uncomfortable in fact. Especially if you are a parent or care-giver. We are taught that others come first, that it is selfish to crave or desire time to ourselves or god-forbid pampering-haha! We can have pampering if we treat someone else or if we were given it as a gift.

But what if I told you that you could actually give more, and do more if you took care of yourself first.

I know… but I’m going to plant the seed and hope that it grows into a great big flower of stolen moments of renewal and retreat and indulgence.

I’m also going to leave a permission slip here at the end so you can print it out and hand it over. Let the paper ask for you, then it’s not really you asking. I’m kinda sneaky like that!

So to start us on a adventure in self-care here are some tiny ways you can start to recharge your batteries and take better care of yourself. As a practitioner of reflexology I have come to learn how amazing our feet are. Here is an opportunity to get to know your soles and discover how deep relaxation can go when we release the tension held in the feet.

Reflexology is built on the belief that there is a map of the entire body reflected in the feet, hands and ears.  Each side of the body is reflected in the foot, hand or ear of the same side. Reflexology works by clearing nerve pathways and helping re-establish and soothe the communication systems of the body so everything can work better. Knowing this, you can play with finding body discomfort and where it might be reflected on a reflexology map.

Because reflexology works so closely with the nervous system, a lot of pressure is not necessary. Nerve pathways are triggered upon contact.  Remember this when working on yourself, don’t over do it; pressing hard enough to bruise does not make reflexology work faster. In fact it slows everything down. Also, be sure and take good care of yourself by not over working your thumbs, or by working in awkward positions.

To unwind from your day, one of the simplest things you can do is add a tiny bit of stretching to your life.  Move your body and it will reward you with fewer aches and pains and greater ability to adapt, process and release the stresses of everyday life.

The most important ways to move your feet are:

Ankle Circles: slowly rotate the ankle in both directions 10-15 times. Ankle circles stretch and strengthen all the major muscles that move your foot and will release tension from overuse, standing, exercise, and lack of use (sitting).

Point and Flex: slowly point your foot as much as you can, gently hold this extreme position for 2 seconds, and then release. Flex your foot as much as you can, again hold it at this extreme for 2 seconds and repeat 10-15 times per foot. If you find yourself starting to cramp, gently ease off and reverse movement and with the next repetition do not go to such an extreme.

Inversion and Eversion: slowly rotate the arch of the foot towards your head and hold this movement for 2 seconds. Then reverse motion so the arch faces away. I like to call this one “conducting the orchestra” as the movement in the foot resembles arm movements used in conducting. Again repeat this exercise 10-15 times and if your foot starts to cramp gently ease off and reverse the movement.

These things can easily be done while watching television, before you get out of bed in the morning and under the desk or the dining room table. [see how I am helping you multi-task here-I know you are busy]

Cramping: If you experience cramping during any or all of these stretches, this is an indication that the muscles in your feet are weak and need exercise. Please reduce the number of repetitions for each exercise and instead take 2 minutes 4-6 times a day, spending 30 seconds doing each one 3-5 times.

Take a foot roller to work and keep it in a desk drawer, while sitting at your desk throw it on the floor and roll your feet. A foot roller can be a fancy one you by with ridges and poky bits or it can simply be a tennis or golf ball. You can also roll the ball between your hands, oh those hard working hands would love you so. Find the ouchy spots or the yummy spots and hang out here for 10 seconds to a full minute.

Soak your feet. You have over 7,000 nerve ending in each foot all yammering away about this and that. The quickest way to calm them down, and your whole body is to submerge them in water. Use a big bowl, fill it with hot water and if you want to get fancy some salts or essential oils.

I have so many more suggestions for I am on a mission. But I don’t want to take up all of your time, I’d rather you got to soaking or stretching. You can join me every Monday through the end of the year in a conversation about teeny tiny ways you can take 5 minutes just for you every day. Please join in, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Each week features a different setting or style of mission in permission. Here is week one.

amy! the barefoot phoenix is on a mission to help people see they are allowed to choose self-care first. she wears stripy socks, talks to faeries, reads tarot cards and does reflexology. when she is not with clients, you can find her sipping tea with her cat chaos on her lap trying to write interesting and brilliant things, her latest endeavore is the permission to pamper ebook.

You can play with amy! on facebook https://www.facebook.com/bfphoenix?ref=ts or twitter @AmyCreatesStuff
You can find more about reflexology on her website :: barefootphoenix.com/reflexology/about-reflexology/

use the permission slip up until it is so worn you have to print a new one!

Today, in this week’s installment of my series dedicated to sharing some things I’ve found that help me to feel a little more comfortable when I’m having a Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad, No Good Day, I am very excited to be hosting Joy Agcongay, from whom I’ve been learning about the practice of Going On A Silent Retreat

1. How were you first introduced to Silent Retreating?

I was interested in creative writing and joined a local weekly writing group. Sharing my writing was hard and the weekly pace was difficult for me to keep up. The writing teacher offered weekend workshops, a format which I found worked for better me. I liked having the time to go deep and explore without distraction.

I continued to follow what interested me, trying out other forms of creativity beyond writing. I’ve explored different mediums and approaches including art journaling, painting, welding, encaustics and bookmaking.

A few years ago, I discovered that a local poet offered silent writing retreats at a monastery in Big Sur. In all honesty, I was drawn to the writing and the location. Writing in a monastery, YES!

The silent part was more of an intellectual curiosity. It was a challenging, yet powerful experience for me. I love going deep and exploring. I love the solitude. I loved being witnessed and not critiqued. I was surprised to find that I enjoyed being silent in community.

I got hooked. I now do silent retreats twice a year.

 

2. How did you transfer/translate the idea of going away from home to attend a retreat at an actual retreat center into something that you can do whenever you want, wherever you are?

Outside of retreat, I’m prone to anxiety and not as gentle and kind as I want to be with myself. I was talking with a friend and said, “I feel more like myself when I’m at retreat. Too bad I can’t feel like this when I’m at home.” Well, DUH!

It’s become an important part of my self-care.

Achieving an emotional state at home similar to what I feel when I’m on retreat is sort of a quest for me in the same way people want nirvana or enlightenment: exploring but haven’t found it.

Our daily lives are full, so I find it a constant dance to find flow and space in any given moment.

I still overcommit myself and get anxious. But I know silence is something I can pull out of my toolbox at any time to reconnect with what’s true for me, not anyone else or anyone else’s idea of what I need to be doing or feeling. It’s a work in progress.

 

3. Was it hard for you at first to be alone just you and your thoughts? Have you found things that have helped to make that a bit easier?

Yes, I found it hard at first even though I think of myself as a quiet person. My inner dialogue at first wanted to rebel against it! I do think it’s normal to struggle with silence. As a society, we think that silence is not as powerful as being loud. We’re drowning in information. We numb out when we go online, or watch TV.

You know the saying, “The end justifies the means”? We’re lauded when we sacrifice parts of ourselves, our experience, journey and the process for the sake of efficacy, productivity, or the end product.  We’re not very mindful as a people. We don’t want to face ourselves.

As we excavate the layers, oftentimes we get uncomfortable. It can be part of the process of settling into the silence, but sometimes silence is welcome like a soft, warm blanket on a cool night.

When I attended my first yoga class, I found corpse pose, savasana, to be excruciating. I could not lie still. And that was only a few minutes! Call it meditation, or prayer or mindfulness, but giving yourself permission to start a practice of intentional silence like that is one way, even if you start out doing it for  30 seconds.

My tolerance for and ability to be alone with my thoughts have increased over the years. That’s not saying that it doesn’t get uncomfortable at times, but I have built enough resilience to trust the process and ride out the discomfort. It may not seem like it, but it always passes when I  greet it with loving self-compassion and forgiveness instead of fighting it every step of the way.

 

4. Can you give us some examples of how you Silent Retreat as you go about your everyday life?

In the car, I sometimes choose not to listen to music and stay present. I notice how hard I’m gripping the steering wheel or if my shoulders are hunched. I check in with my breathing. Oh, and I imagine I’m riding in a bubble, so I don’t pick up anyone’s road rage!

When I’m at home, I’ll fold laundry or wash dishes without distraction. Something about the circular motion of my hand sweeping around the contour of the rim of a dish soothes me. I think about how the rituals of tending to the details of your home is important…dare I say, sacred. Sort of a metaphor of tending to the spirit with care and intention.

I garden, so I pay attention to the sound of hummingbirds, the crunch of a leaf under my foot or take in the smell of the soil and how it crumbles between my fingers.

If I am not at home, or running errands and feel like I’m living out of my head too much–I start tripping and bumping into things, which is a sign that I’m not paying attention–and need a change in environment, I can get close to the spirit of silent retreat with a walk on the beach, in the forest or other natural setting, a museum, nearby park, bookstore, library or my garden.

I’ve been known to visit Catholic churches, temples and shrines and other sacred places when I travel and need a break. The need for places of silence is pretty universal.

 

5. Can you give us some suggestions for how a “newbie” can start to make some space in their lives for Silent Retreating?

I am not someone who subscribes to the concept of silent retreat being centered on “seriousness” and even stillness. Sitting still in silent meditation is challenging!

But I do turn distractions off, such as TV, music and my computer. I would also let people in your environment know that you are entering silence.

Walking meditation is a great way to introduce yourself to silence.

If you do yoga, at the end of class you have time to integrate what your body has done, called savasana. I’ve found it’s good training to be comfortable with silence, especially in community.

Driving or commuting in silence.

Being mindful and silent when preparing a meal, or preparing tea, or eating the meal, or drinking the tea.

It’s translatable to many things we do. It’s ultimately about creating an intention and doing what you need to do to support that intention.

I don’t know if this is true for everyone, but having a “start” and “end”, a signal or ritual that you are entering and leaving silent retreat also helps frame the time as something slightly out of ordinary time. It’s a way to honor the process. Some people bookend with the lighting and snuffing out of a candle. I tend to keep it simple and declare in my mind, “I am entering silence/going into silent retreat” or “I am leaving silence/silent retreat.”

As I mentioned earlier, you can get close to the spirit of a silent retreat being in nature, a park, museum, bookstore, library or place of worship.

 

 

6. What are some of the things you’ve received from your Silent Retreating?

I’m more grounded and solid. Yes, I can be perfectionistic and a taskmaster. I get anxious and I can get really, really angry. I cry a lot. I laugh. I care deeply for animals. I eat fried food. I’m an unapologetic nerd. I must be part monk, but sort of an everyday mystic type. Silent retreating contributes to a deeper appreciation of my whole experience as a human being. It’s all OK and I accept all those experiences as part of who I am. I can certainly laugh more at myself.

I find that I more easily discern between noise and important information better because I’m just slightly more attuned to what doesn’t resonate for me. So I suppose you could say I’ve developed more self-trust and connection to my intuition.

I’ve gotten more in touch with what’s true for me without the layers of what I’ve been taught, societal expectations. When I get quiet, I’m aware of my inner dialogue, which can be so very unkind. I catch on sooner when I’m making up rules that aren’t real or if I see that I’m making things harder on myself than they need to be.

When I’m in a group in a social situation and feel safe, I’m comfortable enough to say what I think instead of keeping it inside. I may not pull out the “I’m on silent retreat” and dramatically leave the room, but I will take in a breath and say something like, “No need to worry about me. I’m just feeling quiet.” I notice that gives other people permission to relax into more calm. I think that’s been one of the more surprising things about being comfortable in silence…you give people permission to do the same.

 

Bio

Joy Agcongay is a gentle marketeer for overwhelmed entrepreneurs and avid creative/silent retreater. You can find her marketing website at joyagcongaymarketing.com and occasional chronicles of retreating at adventuresofjoy.com. In 2012 she’s offering a Playful Marketing Expedition for entrepreneurs who want to learn a gentle, slower-paced approach to developing a marketing practice. You can sign up for the 2012 Playful Marketing Expedition notification list here.

Today, in this week’s installment of my series dedicated to sharing some things I’ve found that help me to feel a little more comfortable when I’m having a Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad, No Good Day, I would like to link to some audios we can all listen to in order to help soothe the Upcoming Weeks Of Crazy.

(This post isn’t going to look pretty with graphics and all that, because, guess who got to have an unplanned root canal yesterday morning?! Important Side Note: Dear Life, please stop kicking me in the fact, kthxbye.)

1. Emergency Calming Techniques by Havi Brooks. I have been a student of Havi’s (in her Kitchen Table program) since 2009, AND I got to go to The Playground and meet her this past January, so I can vouch for the absolute awesomeness of everything she does. She totally walks her talk.

2. Shannon Wilkinson and Heidi Fishbach. On their own, Shannon and Heidi provide fantastically soothing products, but then they decided to team up and combine their powers by offering an Audio + Potion Alchemy package, with a custom-designed audio from NLP Practitioner and Hypnotherapist Shannon, and a handmade lotion by Massage Therapist, Mood Detective, and Potion Master Heidi. I cannot recommend these highly enough.

3. Color Alignment Meditations by Lynne Morrell. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, then you know that Lynne and I are total  Partners In Crime And Adventure, and that she is just one of the most amazing people I’ve ever known. Plus, she is really damn good at her job as a Personal Life Coach and Certified EFT Practitioner. So go-listen-be soothed.

4. Fabeku Fatsumise: Business Awesomeizer, Suck Exorcist, Sonic Alchemist. Fabeku has one of the biggest, most generous hearts of anyone I’ve ever known. Plus, he is the best Namer Of Things Ever. I know this because he created the Don’t Lose Your Shit Kit, first introduced a couple of Christmases ago, and still as necessary and awesome as ever.

5. Goddess Leonie Dawson. Leonie is the most prolific creator that I’ve ever met. And one thing she is very good at creating are meditations, for all different kinds of circumstances.But perhaps the thing she is best at (in my admittedly biased opinion) is spreading love. Not in a hokey, goofy, silly way, but in a raw, honest, ability tune into the joy of Creation and then use that to remind us of just how loved we all are.

6. Andrea Schroeder. The other most prolific creator I’ve ever met. I’ve taken a bunch of her courses and loved them. They are all about creativity, creating, magic, and you. And how can you not love someone who runs The Creative Magic Academy? Another powerful creator of ridiculously helpful meditations.

Today, in this week’s installment of my series dedicated to sharing some things I’ve found that help me to feel a little more comfortable when I’m having a Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad, No Good Day, I am very excited to be hosting Maryann Devine, creator of The Society of the Secret Play Date.

1. How did the idea for Secret Play Dates idea come about?

It was the weaving together of multiple threads.

One thread: I knew I needed more play in my life, more light-heartedness. I started to recognize that play could mean more than just being silly (which doesn’t come so easily to me). It means experimentation, and cultivating curiosity.

Another was the awareness that a lot of the people who hang out at smArts & Culture are doing creative things, and that creative people often have trouble with straight-up business stuff like writing a marketing plan. I wondered how to make that easier for them, maybe using visual techniques.

Havi Brooks was encouraging me along the same lines.

A third thread was the desire to bring more making into my life. Since I was a child, I thought of myself as an artist, and more than ten years ago, I deliberately gave that up. I found myself yearning to make something by hand — anything.

So all of those ideas came together to form Secret Play Date, but I still hesitated because I didn’t feel I had enough experience to lead people in it.

That’s when Havi suggested that I just invite people along, rather than wait until I felt ready, so that’s what I did.

2. What kind of projects have you worked on during your Secret Play Dates?

Oh, my goodness, what HAVEN’T I worked on?

When I first started Play-Dating, I thought it would be about getting concrete business stuff done.

I worked on business planning, sales copy, blog posts, project brainstorming, service revisions, tax preparation — you name it.

Then I started to realize that I could Play-Date the internal stuff, too.

I played with my tendency to think small. I worked through fear and anxiety that came up around a new project. I Play-Dated with my ideas about limitations.

I realized that there is nothing you can’t Play-Date, and Society of the Secret Play Date members are constantly inspiring me.

3. What kind of shifts or epiphanies have shown up for you as a result of Secret Play Dating?

Interacting with a couple of things that are related — ‘going big’ with my business, and a specific project (the Summer House talks) that I wanted so much to do, but felt out of my league at the time.

Through a number of Play Dates I realized that I had a lot of ambivalence about ‘going big’ — lots of negative associations. I came up with a better metaphor — growing wings — that feels so much freer and more exciting to me.

As I Play-Dated with the idea that became my Summer House conversations (a series of audio interviews), I was able to brainstorm and write while giving space for my monsters to speak their piece — they had their own separate Play Date with paper and markers. They had a grand old time.

Since I had that metaphorical shift around ‘growing wings,’ and worked through my anxieties about taking on a project that seemed too ambitious, I’ve felt much more confident in planning new, exciting things for my business. And I’ve gone ahead and done that.

4. Can you talk a bit about layer cake-ing?

Well, I could call it alternating, but layer cake sounds much more delicious, no?

Layer cake-ing is doing a bit of work and a bit of play in short, doable blocks of time. Maybe 10 minutes of writing blog posts, followed by 10 minutes of knitting, and repeating that.

I find it very helpful to layer-cake things that are tedious, like filing. I used layer-caking to get my tax documents together for my accountant this year, which is both tedious and something I really hate to do.

Layer-caking it with bits of collaging made it far more palatable, and I got it done quickly.

5. Do you have any new or upcoming stuff you want to talk about?

Yes, a couple of things!

‘A Day of Secret Play‘ happens on October 29. It’s an all-day play-date with your project. Joy Agcongay will join us to talk about silent retreating and how we might experiment with it in our daily lives, and in our Play Dates. The last ‘Day of Play’ was amazing — people made ridiculous progress with their projects, and it was so satisfying to set aside a full day to Play Date as a group.

The other thing is ‘Why Not Now?’ It’s a two-week intensive course/brainstorming lab/support group/hang-out for people who want to get their project out into the world, and it starts October 31.

(I actually came up with ‘Why Not Now?’ on our LAST ‘Day of Secret Play!’)

Maryann Devine hates to say she teaches classes. She’d rather think of it as inviting you along for the ride. She blogs about creativity, scrambles her brain with Shiva Nata, and enjoys snacks.

Today, in this week’s installment of my series dedicated to sharing some things I’ve found that help me to feel a little more comfortable when I’m having a Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad, No Good Day, I want to tell you about a few new purchases I’ve made over the past few months.

1. Tangle Teaser

This is the only brush in my entire (as of Saturday) 39 years that has ever gotten out all of the tangles without hurting. It’s like magic. And of course I am all for anything that is pain-free.

2. Thera Cane

I haven’t been able to get massages for a while  because they started making me feel worse (Dear Fibro: SUCK IT),  so the Thera Cane has been a godsend. I use it with the Aardvark Essentials Ease, Please Lotion, and I’m able to get a good bit of relief from all my knotted-up muscles.

3. Chronic Pain Tracker App

I finally realized that I’ve had no idea whatsoever how to speak “doctor”. I communicate in long, meandering stories which I think express the necessary information clearly and completely. But I have finally come to understand that my doctor actually needs things like facts, and data. And this app is fantastic in helping me track the information he needs. It will also compile your information into various charts and reports which you can either print out and take with you to your appointment, or email to your doctor.

(None of these links is an affiliate link. Just sharing some things I thought you all might like.)

Today, in this week’s installment of my series dedicated to sharing some things I’ve found that help me to feel a little more comfortable when Im having a Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad, No Good Day, I am excited to be featuring once again the fabulous Michelle Russell, of Practice Makes Imperfect. She discusses what is quickly becoming one of my most helpful coping/coaching techniques, which is learning how to discover and live “enoughness” in all the different aspects of our lives. So welcome, Michelle!

I know you’ve done a lot of work as a professional organizer, editor, etc. Did the “perfection” required in those kind of jobs help spark the creation/birth of the concept of “enoughness” for you? Or was it something else?

Those areas of work weren’t the spark, but they were definitely part of the fuel that kept the fire burning once it was lit. Especially the professional organizing—when clients are paying you to help solve their problems, you have to stay focused on the specific outcomes they want. So I had to learn to get past my own love of organizing (yep, I’m weird that way) to get to the core of what would be enough to satisfy my clients. They were always satisfied with so much less than what I wanted to do! Fantastic teachers of enoughness. 🙂

What really sparked my realization that I’m an “enoughist,” though, was a lot of musing about a whole constellation of loosely related ideas and ideals—things like minimalism and voluntary simplicity, concern for the environment, my geeky love of organizing, the exponentially rising pace of technological change, the tyranny of choice we’re faced with as consumers, the relentless barrage of media we’re exposed to, the importance of getting “grounded” in our bodies, and the high value of present-moment awareness. I sensed that these things were all meant to be part of my work, but I couldn’t figure out how to connect the dots.

Then one day it hit me. Yep, in one split second, like the proverbial lightning bolt. All these issues deal with knowing when to say either “enough’s enough, already” or “wait, I don’t have enough of this.”

What is it about “enoughness” that so excites and inspires you?

It’s such an overall solution to so many problems at once! Let’s take one small example. A woman—let’s call her Cherie—is a mid-level manager, working mom, and general high achiever. She wishes she had more time for her husband and kids. She wants to eat healthier food and lose some weight. She feels guilty about the expensive gym membership she’s barely using. She also feels bad about her environmental footprint, but she just doesn’t have the time to bike or take the bus instead of drive, make trips to the local food co-op, do her own cooking, etc. She wishes she had time to just relax occasionally. She desperately wants some sense of control over her life.

When Cherie finally stops and takes the time to assess her situation, she realizes she can make a few small changes without much effort. But these changes can add up to a LOT. Let’s take just one example—coffee. Cherie realizes that making her own coffee in the morning actually takes less time than standing in line at Starbucks. She can do something different and feel equally satisfied; her own coffee is good enough. That one tiny decision can result in a whole cluster of positive results, such as these:

• Buying coffee in bulk saves Cherie a whole lot of money over time.
• She buys her own travel mug (or even better, dusts off the one that’s been gathering dust on top of the fridge), so right there, that’s about 300 less disposable cups used and tossed per year.
• Morning coffee-making becomes a small ritual, which is a lot more pleasant than standing impatiently in line waiting for the barrista to catch up with all the customers’ orders. She’d much rather stand and watch the birds eat from the feeder in their backyard tree.
• Cherie is able to leave the house a few minutes later in the mornings, so now she gets to help her two daughters pick out their clothes for the day. Intimate and fun bonding time.
• She discovers a brand of organically grown, fair trade coffee that she really likes. Now she’s helping out real individuals, not huge multinational corporate entities, while enjoying her daily cup o’joe.
• A few of her work colleagues notice her travel mug and get inspired to start bringing in their own coffee.  That’s now well over 1,000 less paper cups headed for the landfill each year, because of just a few people and one small change.
• One of those colleagues is on her firm’s Green Committee. He decides to find out whether there’s room in next year’s budget to purchase travel mugs for all company employees across the country. The financial upside is that after this one-time expense, the cost of break room supplies would be reduced. Good for the planet, good for the company.
• Maybe Cheri’s office even starts sourcing organic coffee . . .

You get the idea. Tiny changes can have massive effects over time without much in the way of extra effort. And Cherie herself feels calmer, saves money, gets more time with her kids, and drinks better-tasting coffee. All from one very tiny distinction about what is enough for her and what is unnecessary. She likes the results of that little experiment so much that she decides it’s time for another one. Maybe she can ditch the gym membership and take some short nightly walks with her husband? It would be nice to have more time to connect . . .

How would you describe your definition of “enoughness” ?

I’d define enoughness as the level at which you feel satisfied but not overburdened.

But that needs to be coupled with an understanding of what I mean by “satisfied.” For a whole variety of reasons, we’ve been conditioned to associate pleasure with so-called “peak experiences,” so that in essence we’ve become adrenaline junkies—it gets harder and harder for us to experience pleasure unless it’s constantly increasing in intensity. This is one of the reasons why so many of us feel jaded, empty, and depressed these days. We need to re-learn how to experience life’s simple pleasures again, and how to feel satisfied and empowered by moving toward our goals in small incremental steps.

So—reaching for a definition that’s not too wordy—I would say that enoughness is the level at which you feel satisfied in a calm, solid, non-adrenaline-fueled way, while steadily pursuing your important goals without feeling overburdened by what’s in your life.

That might not pass muster within rigorous academic or scientific circles, but it’s good enough for now. 🙂

Have you found any kind of relationship between being able to arrive at “enoughness”, either by yourself or with your clients, and “soothing”?

Ohhhh, yes. Yes, yes, yes!!! Absolutely. There are two things my clients tend to experience as a result of our work together—clarity and relief. This can take many forms, but in a nutshell, you feel a tremendous amount of relief once you’re able to see all of your commitments and goals clearly in one place, possibly for the first time ever. And that’s before you even start actually doing any of them.

Then it gets even better when you start chipping away at all the excess in your life. Many people are afraid of the whole concept of minimalism or voluntary simplicity because it carries connotations of lack, poverty, doing without. But that’s not what it’s about at all. (It’s also why I prefer the term “enoughism” to “minimalism.”) It’s about deciding what is truly important to you, and making room for more of it. You do this by figuring out which things in your life you honestly want for yourself, and which you’ve been viewing as requirements because our society, or maybe someone specific, told you that you should care about them. And gradually, bit by bit, you start getting rid of the latter. Shedding the “shoulds.”

I’m not saying this is an easy process. It takes a lot of introspection, and sometimes a letting-go process that feels frightening at first. But the more you start to live out of your own decisions about what’s important, the more profoundly soothing and nourishing your daily life becomes. There’s nothing more satisfying, and deeply, deeply restorative than expressing your authentic self.

Are there any particular tools you’ve found that particularly help with cultivating “enoughness” for yourself or your clients?

One of the coolest new tools I’m using is The ImageCenter from a company called VisualsSpeak. I’m one of the charter members of this program, which uses the Internet for long-distance coaching sessions. Together, my client and I decide on a key question aimed at the heart of whatever result they’re looking for. The client then uses that question as a prompt for quickly constructing a collage of pictures in answer. We are often mutually astounded—in good ways!—by what the process reveals.

(Important Interruption: I have had one of these sessions with Michelle, and it was freaking AMAZING! I’m still feeling little ripples of discovery, even though it’s been a month or so since our session.)

Using images is incredibly powerful because it engages the whole brain—not just the analytical, thinky-mind side, but the deeper, more intuitive and creative side, too. The ImageCenter helps my clients do things like hone in on their personal values, understand the stories they’ve been telling themselves, discover what’s blocking them, and more by bypassing the more usual left-brain, verbal approach and dipping into the unconscious, which is just itching to have its say. The results I’ve seen so far with the ImageCenter are amazing. I’m encouraging all my clients to try it out at least once.

Do you have anything new coming up that you’d like to talk about here?

I do! I’ve spent the last handful of months simmering with the whole concept of enoughness, letting it all bubble and stew inside of me. Now I’m ready to start blogging regularly again. By the time you post this interview, I should have a nifty little e-gift ready for anyone who signs up for my e-mail list through the blog. Soon to come—a monthly newsletter with subscriber-only content.

Also in the works—and this is the first place I’m announcing it publicly, so there you go—is a kind of enoughness manifesto. Except that I’ll be calling it a “messifesto.” 🙂  It should be available on my blog within a matter of weeks, and will be free of charge for anyone to download, print, and share.

Thanks, Jenny—you ask great questions, and this all feels like an excellent lead-in to all the things I’m going to be doing over at PracticeMakesImperfect.com, so it worked as a great prompt for me to sum up some of my own thinking. Not to mention that it was just plain fun!

 

This is just a quick note to update you on some of the cool new things being offered by the people who’ve been featured here in the “A Little Bit Of Soothing Wednesdays” series.

1. Heidi and the Aardvark have released a new potion , “Presence: Curiosity + listening = Magic! Wear Presence and watch the world change, without forcing, without pushing or pulling anything.” They have also introduced their new line of Pulse Point Potions:

“Pulse Point Potions are 10 ml. (1/3 oz.) of concentrated potion that you can roll onto your wrists, neck, collarbone or wherever you want their magics. Pulse Point Potions are no muss no fuss to apply, and, given their size, easy-peasy to unobtrusively carry in your pocket.”

Click here to  read my original interview with Heidi.

2. Lisa B., of Zen At Play has a new, free ebook out titled “23 things you might not know about you“; “a love note of encouragement to your glorious self,” and “A gathering of wise, gentle nudges to remind you of your magnificence, your sense of possibility, your beauty and your truth.”

Click here to read my original interview with Lisa.

3. Life Coach, NLP Practitioner, Hypnotherapist, and All-Around Awesome Babe Shannon Wilkinson now has a gorgeous new home on the Internet at Perception Studios. net.  She has also started offering Monthly No Cost Group Coaching Calls on the second Tuesday of each month. Says Shannon,

“During the call, I’ll cover a specific topic, share some strategies to help you coach yourself out of the stuck place, then I’ll take questions and do some live coaching. At the end of the call you get to relax as I guide you through a perception shifting experience.”

Here are the scheduled topics so far:

• May 10: Overcoming Overwhelm (**this call was recorded and is available for purchase on the website**)
• June 14: Moving through Inertia
• July 12: Power of Perspective

Click here to read my original interview with Shannon.

4. The next “Bite The Candy” with Cairene MacDonald is scheduled for Thursday, June 30. You can find out more information as well as sign up right here.

Clilck here to read my original interview with Cairene.

5. The first installment of the next book in the Amnar series by Isabel Joely Black, “Amnar: The Excision” will be released on the Amnar blog tomorrow. You can also purchase the three previously released books in the series on your Kindle.

Click here to read my original interview with Joely.

6. Andrea Schroeder has opened up the next session of her Creative Dream Incubator. Due to a mix-up on dates, she is extending the registration until Wednesday, June 1 at noon CST.

And she is also offering the first session of the Creative Journal Magic e-course ( http://www.creativemagicacademy.com ) starting on June 13.

Enjoy!

Today, in this week’s installment of my series dedicated to sharing some things I’ve found that help me to feel a little more comfortable when I’m having a Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad, No Good Day, I am excited to be featuring Andrea Schroeder, Creative Journaler Extraordinaire.

1. Hey, Andrea, and welcome! Thanks so much for coming to visit with us today! Now,  I know you have a few different sites and many different offerings. Could you give us a quick overview of all the things you are up to online?

My “original” blog is here: http://www.ABCcreativity.com which is where Creative Journaling and Creative Meditation collide in sparks of Creative Magic.

My Creative Dream Incubator blog is here: http://www.CreativeDreamIncubator.com which is all about growing your creative dreams.

And I am starting something new – a whole Academy of Creative Magic.  Right now it’s just one little thing but I will be growing it over the summer:
http://www.CreativeMagicAcademy.com

2. How long have you been doing this kind of work? What are some of the ways it’s changed your life?

I’ve been doing this kind of work, like as work I do for other people, for about four years.

I’ve been doing this kind of work, like as in using these tools for working on my stuff, for about fifteen years.

And I don’t know that I could possibly list every way it’s changed my life.  It’s been so magical and amazing and that’s why I am so passionate about sharing it with others.

The main thing is that it helps me be more me and believe in me.  It’s helped me to break through limiting patterns and beliefs and make big sweeping positive changes in my finances, my health, my self esteem and my career.  It’s helped me to be a heck of a lot happier.

3. What do you hope that other people receive from what you do?

Above all I want to help them believe in themselves and believe in their dreams.  Because when you’ve got that – everything is possible.

4. Have you ever used what you do in the context of art therapy, or working with people like us who live with long-term health challenges?

I have never done a course specifically for people with long-term health challenges, but I have certainly had people with all sorts of health challenges participate in my courses, and as private clients.  What I found is that people who are suffering from something can really benefit from that little bit of relief that comes when you’re in that bubble of creative magic.

A big part of my training does involve healing work, and I have worked with clients and help them activate their body’s innate ability to heal.  I have had some dramatic results, (You can read about that here: http://www.abccreativity.com/2011/02/09/new-thought-healing-practitioner/ ) but I don’t present myself as someone who does this, as there are no guarantees.  But I would eventually like to do an online creative journaling course on healing work (I have done these in person).

5. Bearing in mind that we are generally dealing with some kind of pain, or fatigue, or other illness-related limitation on any given day, could you maybe give us some suggestions for a very easy way to make some art a la Andrea?

The real magic in my creative work comes from me being where I really am. Writing how I’m really thinking.  Painting what I’m really feeling.

So I would suggest starting right there.  Write out what sucks.  What hurts.  What is annoying.

Really get in touch with how it feels.  What colour is it?  Paint over your words with that colour.  Scribble.  Add other colours in.  Write some more if more words come to you.

Just take what you are feeling inside and put it down onto the paper.

Being able to see it outside of you can be profoundly transformative.  It can give you inspiration and information.

And sometimes it can provide relief.  Obviously you have a big and painful physical component to what is going on, and Creative Journaling is not a cure for that.  But beneath that there are also many emotional things happening – like judgment and resistance and frustration.  Being sick sucks and it triggers all sorts of emotional stuff.  Creative Journaling can ease those parts of it, which can sometimes provide some relief from the physical components too.

6. Do you have any new or any upcoming  offerings you’d like to tell us about?

I do!

I have a new session of the Creative Dream Incubator e-course ( http://www.CreativeDreamIncubator.com ) starting on May 30.

And the first session of the Creative Journal Magic e-course ( http://www.creativemagicacademy.com ) starting on June 13.

Thanks so much for inviting me over Jenny.
I love what you’re doing here.
xoxo
Andrea

Today, in this week’s installment of my series dedicated to sharing some things I’ve found that help me to feel a little more comfortable when Im having a Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad, No Good Day, I am excited to be featuring  one of my recent favorite blog posts written by my friend, Michelle Russell, of Practice Makes Imperfect. Enjoy!

Molecules Charged with Conspiracy, Intent to Overwhelm

FRONTAL LOBES, BRAIN – Intracellular police apprehended several fleeing epinephrine molecules after a high-speed chase through the sympathetic nervous system yesterday, sources say. Pursuit began in the adrenal glands, where the molecules were surprised during an attempt to induce breath and heart rate acceleration, and continued up the spinal cord to the brain, where they surrendered to frontal lobe authorities.

The apprehended molecules are part of a band of roving hormones know as the Adrenalinos. Upon questioning, they divulged the existence of a much larger underlying conspiracy, which includes a plot to lure humans into overwhelm mode by providing them with a never-ending stream of self-improvement tasks to perform.

Complicit in this plot is Magic Bullet, a wanted criminal known for his aggressive attempts to coerce people into the serial use and subsequent disposal of various systems, products, methods and concepts to solve their (often deliberately blown out of proportion) problems.

Bullet, who has been operating in the neuronal shadows for many decades, has proven elusive. This is largely due to his strategy of masterminding and directing groups of independent operatives such as the Adrenalinos. He is particularly adept at working with the mass media, which regularly launch highly effective advertising campaigns for the aforementioned products and systems.

Apparently Bullet believes in his own innocence, as evidenced by a synaptic tape recently delivered to frontal lobe headquarters. Its contents reveal that he views his work as beneficial. “Because of what I do, people are always primed and ready for action,” the tape states. “I also provide a constant supply of new hope.”

But such hope is false and detrimental, claims noted habits researcher Dr. Y.U. Doothings. “Humans lose the vital component of self-trust,” he states. “They pursue a Magic Bullet item or agenda, but when it doesn’t deliver the promised results quickly and painlessly, they drop it—and then blame themselves for their inability to follow through. Self-esteem tends to sink lower and lower with every repetition of this cycle. The resulting cost to each individual organism, as well as to society, is high.”

“The best way to escape the influence of Magic Bullet is simple avoidance,” counsels Chief of Police Otto Nomic. “But that’s almost impossible in modern society. Therefore, citizens should be remain alert and aware when venturing into common problem areas, such as health and body image, personal finance, and relationship issues.

“However, false Magic Bullet claims can be found almost anywhere,” he concludes. “Remember the old saying—‘If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.'”

Meanwhile, the captured Adrenalinos have been taken into custody for an as-yet undetermined period. A formal hearing before the Superior Vena Cava is scheduled for this Thursday. Should the epinephrine molecules be willing to undertake public service activities such as parasympathetic nervous system activation or vagus nerve functional upgrades, their incarceration time could be shortened considerably.

—special report filed by Medulla Oblongata, A.P. Nervewire

Michelle Russell  helps people discover what “enough” looks like to them through one-on-one coaching, online seminars and teleclasses, and her blog. She is also on Twitter as @joyfulmess .