Unfolding My Potentials

Big birthday yesterday.  Probably the most public I've been about my birthday in a long time.  I have felt so Loved!  Messages, calls, gifts; getting to share time, cupcakes, laughs, and silence with people I've been lucky enough to come in contact with in my life.  Celebrations flowing over days. Reminding me that time isn't about our constructed "days" and "hours"... It's much more fluid.  Transitions don't occur in a cut and dry time-frame. I feel a little silly that I was Worried about letting go of my twenties; to coalesce all my time and experience into my 30th year of life.  Worry was completely unnecessary (as it often is...). I've really never felt so Loved, Accepted, and Supported.  My birthday experience reiterated that I'm in the right place and the right time with all the right people. YOU are included! At the end of yesterday, I found myself unsure of how to process all this Love!  It was int...

Last night commenced a new round of Visual Journaling, held in a new space. Today, I am reflecting on the night, and process. I return to my pages. I read, observe, accept, and soak up the images until next week's group... I see fluid communication with words, images, colors, layers, compounded by pages. Can't define them to understand, must open heart to FEEL in order to understand. The group, the process, the products are not linear; therefore easy to define.  Such as life... There's something about Visual Journaling in a group... Sharing time, space, creativity with other individuals.  Arriving, with or without a plan Being surprised. Laughing. Connecting with others.  Finding safety.  Healing. Current events, motherhood, childhood, art processes, metaphors Coming together. Community. Being part of a greater whole.  Delight. Offering pieces of ourselves. Being welcomed. Unconditional love amongst family, friends,...

Hey there! If you follow my Instagram or Facebook, you may have noticed that the Visual Journaling group is starting back up! Last fall, it took place weekly at Art Exchange in downtown Long Beach, then it hibernated through the winter to begin again this upcoming Monday April 23rd in its NEW home at Inspyr Arts on 4th Street. *Please see the bottom of this post for the when, where, and how info.* This group is very special to me.   I love it because it supports adult "artists" AND "non-artists" in a creative self-care  practice . One cannot hope to "finish" their Visual Journal in one day, and that's also not the intention of keeping any journal.   The intention of this process is self-care.  Adding a page.  A page is a part of the book.  It is not the whole.  It can help us to acknowledge that self-care is ongoing bits and pieces, occurring here and there.   I believe this helps take the pressure ...

I wasn't sure what I wanted to write about today.   Feeling scattered.  I know what's technically on the day's agenda: Attend meeting with a group of amazing, creative, entrepreneurial females. Go to work for a few hours. But there's always more than that on my mind and in my heart.  Mind: Light a candle, do laundry, vacuum the apartment, wash my hair, feed myself, write grocery list, buy groceries, read a book, check agenda items off list, connect with other humans... Heart: Compassion, excitement, fear, wonder, determination, love, and so much more, in varying amounts and combinations.  And more and more. I'm feeling busy, but not at ease in it. I have worry of being swept away; not grounded; losing connection with my Self; becoming lost; forgetting something... These happened in my past when I thrived on being "busy", therefore, "productive." But, I define these words differently now... Lastly, I'm ack...

A favorite saying of mine is, "Stop 'should-ing' all over yourself." It's funny, but also true. Sometimes it's easy to look at life with a critical eye and a negative perspective leading to thoughts such as: I should do this.  I should be that.  I should be meditating regularly.  I should exercise.  I should read more books, watch more documentaries, be more active in politics, create more art... and so on. We can get caught in a spiral of beating ourselves up because we're not meeting certain expectations. And how does that help us?  Does it get YOU excited about doing any of those things? For me, all the "shoulds" make me just wanna give up!  Which is the opposite of what I want. When I notice myself getting caught in the "shoulds" (sometimes it's immediate, but other times, it might take a day or two!!), I try to shift my perspective into letting myself be, as I am, in that moment. This is the same as accepting mysel...