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If you wanted to make a change in your life or to your stance in life...what would that be?  What would you be willing to do to make that happen?  These are important questions and questions which a fine group of young women are asking themselves right now!  They have written their intentions...claiming their act of power!  Next they will create the expression of that declaration...their act of expression.  It is an amazing thing to watch these ladies sit with the discomfort and the chaos that can come with asking these questions.  It takes courage and effort to take a new stance, to put a  new spin on any aspect of your life.  I wonder what your answers to these questions might be...What would your new stance look like...The young lady in this photo has taken her "warrior woman" stance and it is beautiful to me.  How might you show up in the world as your true expression of warrior woman.  
Women, You Must Learn to Be Warriors

Women, you must learn to be warriors
Now when times are dark and our men
Are afraid to tell us what is in their hearts.
there is so much trouble in our land
That is is up to you to decide
Which direction the wind must blow

Women, you are our tree of life
Just as you were a long time ago
When a man said:  carry my seed.
If you go forth from this darkness,
Telling our story of courage and survival,
Then our tree will grow strong with your words.

Women, do not worry about tomorrow.
Even when daylight is long in coming,
The sun remembers its place in the sky.
Take this blue shawl of knowledge and
Wrap it around your daughters, telling them'
That women must not be afraid to be warriors.

From 'Spirit Walker' by Nancy Woods
 
 
It all began roughly one year ago during a retreat that I was planning for a group of people.  I was setting up massage sessions and yoga sessions and art groups and who knows what else...in this process, I met someone; a woman who was offering to lead a session of Zen Touch.  We sat at a table in the middle of a large meeting room; a place where people come and go all moments of the day.  As I sat with her I felt this bubble around us and it was as if it was only the two of us talking in the midst of all the activity.  Have you ever had that experience with someone you meet?  It hasn't happened very often for me so I knew that this lady was something special or at least that we had a very good connection.  We talked about everything under the sun...my work, her work, our dreams, hopes and wishes.  I learned that she practiced homeopathy and massage therapy and that she worked as a doula.  We parted company and she was set  to lead the Zen Touch session. 

The retreat came and went and I knew that I needed to see this lady.  I had a fairly chronic problem with some female issues and was in great need of bodywork as the woman I had worked with for years had recently moved out of state.  So I set an appt. with her for bodywork.  When I entered her office ready for a massage, I quickly discovered that there were other plans in place.  She took a physical, mental,emotional and spiritual history querying me about the origins of my cycle issues, life history, patterns and much, much more.   As the story unfolded, it became clear that I wasn't there for a  massage but that what I really needed was her wisdom around homeopathy.  I left her office with a feeling of hope and excitement.  I knew that she had really heard the fears, worries, dreams and physical manifestations that result from those thoughts and I knew that she would work hard on my behalf to help me walk this journey. 

What I have come to learn is that Homeopathy is not only science but also artistry. This kind of work takes time and reflection.   She spent a month reviewing all my indicators, matching them to homeopathic matrices and provings and at the end of that month, she had made a decision about which remedy would be best for me.
 
 
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I can often be heard asking people to tell me their story.  I'm interested and I know that I can learn so much from hearing other people's experiences...with this in mind, I begin my next series of entries to tell you about a new and yet old story unfolding for me.  It is my hope that the telling of this story may help others in some small way...

I have been on a bit of a journey for a little while now and more recently have been working with an amazing woman who specializes in homeopathy.  While not entirely serious or grave, I have struggled with some physical symptoms that require my attention.  What is beautiful about the homeopathy process is that, like my orientation, homeopathy believes that illness originates in mental and emotional processes.  Certainly there are "organic" origins but much of what ails begins in our noodle!  She took a history unlike any that I have ever experienced.  This woman knows more about me inside and out than any other practitioner I've met.  She can now listen to something I say and tell me what my core feelings are in absolutely accurate terms.  She uses all of this data to analyze what my constitutional needs are and to recommend a remedy to help support me in moving towards greater balance.  There is amazing science behind this and I will, in the next few posts, insert links to this fascinating research.  In any case, the journey that I would like to share with you over the next several entries will tell the story of what it has been like to walk this road.  The remedy brings to the forefront of your experience a you like you might not have known or seen in awhile.  The lessons are immense.  This is not a magic pill that erases all symptoms but rather a natural counterpoint that requires the user to do their work.  It has taken me into interesting art, writing, dream work and reflection.  The intelligence of the process is astounding.  My commitment is to write a little each day for the next couple of weeks until I get the story out.  Much more to come...
 
 
I've been working on getting this particular blog entry written for a couple of weeks.  First, technical difficulties...then,  life happens!  Well, here I am finally able to sit down and think about this amazing piece of work done by many of the teens and adults that I have worked with.  The question is posed...what is the face you present to the world?  What are the parts of you that you keep hidden?
This is always a very interesting process of reflection for me as I know that I have a very strong image that I present to the world.  I make great effort to hold integrity and to share  who I am in a genuine and authentic way.  In doing this exercise recently, I was surprised to see that there is still so much work to do to keep my inner and outer experiences in alignment.  How often do we put on a smile when we really feel hurt?  How often do we deny our inner voice in order to keep the peace?  How often do we compensate in situations that we ought to stop?  What questions do you need to ask yourself in reflecting on your inner and outer faces?  What would you like to do to integrate those aspects?  Which inner faces do you choose to keep hidden and for good reason?  This is a challenging exercise but one that I find to be well worth it AND every time I engage in the task, I am pleasantly surprised!
 
 
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When you allow the art to just flow amazing things can happen.  I created this piece of art during a particularly turbulent time,  I was drawn to this angel and spent a great deal of time cutting her out and just admiring her.  When I found the child on the stepping stones, the words, "no point in worrying",  fell in my lap.  What I love about the piece is that it is a great source of comfort and a reminder that there really is no point in worrying. 

I was having a conversation wtih someone, I'm sorry I can't remember who, and they were sharing wtih me a story about worry.  It went something like this.  They were listening to a speaker who was discussing worry with them.  He told them that worry is an absolute waste of our energy.  For if you are worrying about something over which you have no control...well, what's the point of worrying.  You have no control over it anyway.  If you are worrying about something over which you do have control then...what's the point of worry...do something about it.  I LOVE this story and the way it came right on the heels of creating this art.  This is what I mean by the act of creativity will take you places.  Like a bottle one might find on the shoreline, open it and there is a message inside.
 
Inner Work 07/22/2009
 

One of the greatest gifts of working with the 'tools' of expressive arts is opening  the door to consciousness.  People wonder how it is that doing a piece of art or looking at your dreams or writing can do this.  The truth is that the expressive arts is a path into the unconscious and that it speaks in the same language as the unconscious; that is, the language of symbol and metaphor.  Think about a time that you had a really vivid dream.  You awoke with that feeling of 'wow'.  Notice the kinds of images and symbols that filled the dreams, the way that images moved with fluidity and that time and space were not limiting factors.  This is very much the way it is when working in the various modalities of expressive art. 

I find that many of us want to have quick theoretical answers and yet we feel so dissatisfied as we move back into our lives.  Why is this so?  Well, I read something yesterday that really answered this question for me...take a look:

" In the world of the psyche, it is your work, rather than your theoretical ideas, that builds consciousness.  If we go to our own dreams and sincerely work with the symbols that we find there, we generally learn most of what we need to know about ourselves and the meaning of our lives, regardless of how much we know of the psychological theories involved.  The point of inner work is to build consciousness.  By learning to do your own own inner work, you gain insight into the conflicts and challenges that your life presents.  You are able to search the hidden depths of your own unconscious to find the strengths and resources that wait to be discovered there." 
~Robert A. Johnson in Inner Work, page 13

A good place to start is to get a notebook and begin to write down your dreams.  Set your intention to awake and jot down the images.  It can be really interesting to see where your dreams will take you and, better yet, what they are trying to teach you!