365 Inspirations—330: Setting Intentions

Leading a Workshop at Kalani on the Big Island, Hawaii on Intuitive Writing

"I had let go of WAITING for anything. I had moved on to the next creation and while I was in the act of creating, this good news came through. And that is how it has happened again and again...."—Katherine Jenkins

Yoon and I are offering a very special retreat for the New Year. It's called Setting Intentions: An Intuitive Writing, Collaging and Yoga Retreat. You can find out more about it on the side bar of this blog or on my Yoga and Writing Retreats page HERE.

I am a BIG believer in setting intentions. All the best things in my life came to me by doing this. I have notebooks/journals full of pages which state my intentions and an art presentation book full of collages (like vision boards) that I've created on retreat and in my own free time.

I can tell you one thing I've learned for sure: These methods, which activate a different part of the brain, WORK.

But they don't work in the way you'd like them to. The intentions you set for your life come when they are ready to come. Sometimes they slip through the back door or sneak up on you when you've completely forgotten about them.

If you are waiting for something to happen, you may be waiting for a lifetime. The best things in life come when you least expect them to. Of course you have to do the groundwork, but let go of the outcome. It's that simple.

Lots of people quit before they even start. The road may seem long or difficult, but I truly believe that the FIRST STEP is just as important as any other step towards living a life that is uniquely yours.

Intuitive writing, which I'll talk more about in my retreat, has helped me in uncovering my subconscious mind. That's where the juice of life lies. If you've ever had a hunch, a vivid dream, an inner calling or a gut feeling, you are tapping into that authentic part of yourself that wants to be front and center in your life but has somehow taken a back seat to the 'rational,' 'practical,' or 'realistic'. Not that these aren't important in life, but they've somehow taken over the wheel completely.

They took over the wheel in my life and still sit on my shoulder and tell me to 'get real' from time to time.

But what is 'real'?

Intuitive writing and collaging are playful ways of bringing back that childlike innocence and purity to our lives. Somehow, in our need to be mature or grown up, we've lost touch with that purity. Instinctively, we all know what makes us happy and what fills us with joy, but it's easy to lose touch with that as we get older.

Do you feel happiness and joy in your life? Do you like the way your are living? Are you completely satisfied with your life?

If you can say "yes" to all these questions, I congratulate you!

I wasn't able to say "yes" to all those questions. I didn't know what I really wanted until I started to creatively explore this area of my life through writing and collaging. Meditation and yoga also helped shed light on that inner part of myself that had been buried beneath a pile of 'have tos' and 'shoulds'.

Many years ago, while in a long course of meditation, I saw an image of my very first book. I saw the title Lessons form the Monk I Married. I saw the entire book, with all its pages and chapters, as if someone had flipped it right in front of my face.

At first, I was irritated by this. After all, I was there to meditate. I was in a serious, long course of meditation. I wasn't supposed to be daydreaming about a book.

But it kept coming back again and again and again...

In 2012, that book was traditionally published exactly how I saw it in my mind's eye.

A few days ago I was lamenting that I hadn't heard much about my book lately from my agent. I was worried and thought I needed to do something more.

Today, while I was working on material for my upcoming retreat in January, my agent contacted me to let me know that I had received an offer for the simplified Chinese rights of my book. That meant that my book would be available in Mainland China! The complex Chinese rights had already sold, which covered Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong, but this was the cherry on the cake and I did NOT know it was coming.

I had let go of WAITING for anything. I had moved on to the next creation (my upcoming retreat) and while I was in the act of creating, this news came through. And that is how it has happened again and again....

Only through my own experience can I say for sure that this works.

I invite you to attend my upcoming retreat to experience how you might put these tools to use in your own life. If you can't attend, perhaps you know a loved one, family member or friend who might find this retreat useful. I'm also available for personalized Skype sessions on this topic.

And now a few questions for you...

Do you feel you are living the life you were meant to live? If not, what would it take you to get there?

365 Inspirations—94: A Day Alone

"Language... has created the word 'loneliness' to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word 'solitude' to express the glory of being alone."—Paul Tillic

I spent the day alone. It was good for me. I feel I'm going to need more days like today. I needed a day to have the option of doing absolutely nothing.

I did that until mid-morning and then I went out and bought party supplies for a friend's party I'm hosting at my house on Saturday. I also bought food.

I didn't hurry with these tasks. I took my own sweet time. Now I'm back home and resting. My husband will be home from his yoga class soon. He also spent the day on his own in downtown Seattle at the library and a few other places.

Even though I love spending time with my husband, I think it's good for couples to have time apart. It helps, sometimes, to be in silence and hear what is happening inside.

I'm teaching a full load Monday-Wednesday, but this quarter I have Thursday-Sunday off. Those three days I'm working are pretty packed and my schedule is quite tight, but it's worth it to have a chunk of time off to pursue my writing again. Not just blog writing, but book writing!

I'm working on a second book. I'll let you all know more about it later. I plan to run off on a few solo writing retreats in June and September....but for now I'm going to read a book and go to sleep.

Have a good Thursday everyone...

Do you like spending time alone?

365 Inspirations—86: Beauty in Nothingness

"I want to live in communion with nature. I want to hear her calls and her messages. I want to listen deeply. For there, I believe, all the answers lie."—Katherine Jenkins

Beauty can be found everywhere in Hawaii. Everywhere you look there are palm trees and flowering trees like hibiscus and plumeria. Where we stayed in Kapoho, the trees and leaves towered over us on many roads. It felt like we were in the jungle. Nature out there is vibrating and pulsating.

But in the Volcano National Park, you can see the starkness of nature. You can see how the lava flow took everything with it and how it took millions of years for just one plant or insect to make its appearance again. Still, on many parts of The Big Island, that nothingness is there.

I think this is the beauty of the island. It has primordial feel. You start to understand how the world began. There's wind, earth, fire and water. All the natural elements mingling together to give new life.

On the Big Island, I understood so much more. I realized that humans, with all there gadgets and technology, have perhaps lost touch with where we came from and how we came here. That perhaps we aren't the most intelligent beings.

On the Big Island, I saw locals communicate with dolphins and swim with them. I saw that they had a connection to the wildlife and the emptiness there. They were all interconnected.

Have we lost this?

I've never felt more alive than I have on this island. Even though I live in Washington State, which is known for its nature, mountains and trees, it also has an urban sprawl like all other cities.

In most cities, everything is created for the comfort of humans with not much thought about how nature plays a part in it all.

Seeing this red flower blooming brightly in the blackness of the crater in Hawaii brought me back to a time before humans. A time when the earth lived in harmony with all that was around it.

There was a time when humans communicated with this nature, when life was centered around it.

I want to live in communion with nature. I want to hear her calls and her messages. I want to listen deeply. For there, I believe, all the answers lie.

Do you commune with nature often? Where do you do this and how do you feel?

365 Inspirations—55: No Plans

“It's a funny thing, how much time we spend planning our lives. We so convince ourselves of what we want to do, that sometimes we don't see what we're meant to do.” —Susan Gregg Gilmore

It's Sunday and I have no plans, really.

On Saturday, we had friends over for dinner and we went shopping and cooked a meal together. Normally when friends come over, I try to have the dinner ready, but they wanted to be part of the process and it worked out great! I also learned a new way to prepare steaks and now I've got plans for my Crock Pot.

Today is Sunday and I have no plans or commitments, but I do have a very long list of things to do. I purposely left Sunday free. I am one of those people who needs lots of free gaps in my schedule where I may or may not attack my to-do list. I just want to have the option.

I know people who schedule things down to the last hour of their weekend. I could never do that. I think we all need unstructured time to just relax and see what pops up.

I feel particularly tired today because last night from 2:30-3:30AM, a helicopter circled the neighborhood where I live in Seattle. It was so loud it felt like they were going to land in my backyard. I still don't know what it was all about.

Needless to say, I was exhausted today from not being able to sleep. I spent most of the afternoon at home and just recently went and ran a few errands.

Tonight I'm actually going to try and attack a few things on my "to-do" list, but I  also hope to read and relax.

We'll see what happens!

Do you like to plan your weekend out or do you like to have unstructured time on the weekend?