October 31, 2011

Article

Ah! Cold at last. I do love the chill in the air and the change in the plants. Living in a forest, we welcome the half of the year when the leaves are gone and our vistas open up. Space to see far. Space to dream large.

Work continues on the Jeannine Parvati and Monica Shaft memorial library. One room is done and shelves are going into another room this week. Hooray. Books are being dusted and shelved. Z Budapest blessed the space for us last June. Grand opening next June. Put it on your wish list.

A big “thank you” to everyone who helped during the Halloween work weekend. We got lots done, including pressing fresh apple cider. Yum!
We will have three more work weekends in the next month and look forward to working and playing with you during any or all if them.

This weekend finds me traveling to Massachusetts to teach at one of my favorite venues: Rowe Camp and Conference Center. This marks 25 years of teaching there! Amazing. It will be a witchy, magical, mystical, shamanic spiraling weekend of women and songs and plants and dreams and weed walks and passionate discussions. Maybe I will see you there.
If not, perhaps in dreamtime.

Stay warm. Love yourself.

Green blessings.
Susun

 

Watch Susun discuss Hawthorne for the heart:


Click here to watch on Youtube.

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Your Creative Sanctuary by Sara Deutsch, M.S.

Wise Woman Mentor Facilitator of CREATIVE AUTOBIOGRAPHY-Telling Your Story

To help you visualize or imagine the environment most nurturing for you, take a few moments to read the directions below. Then, set a timer for 5 minutes and describe your fantasy. Include as many details as possible in writing, and perhaps a quick drawing.

YOUR FANTASY STUDIO

Imagine creating your own play studio or creative sanctuary. You have abundant resources and can have anything you wish. Where do you want it to be? Mountains, beach, desert, the bottom of the ocean? Another planet? Design your studio or retreat space. Decorate and furnish your retreat with the materials, colors, and textures you find most pleasing. Listen to the sounds or silence of your environment. Notice the smells. What are your feelings as you enter your space? Peace? Anticipation? Expectation? Fear? Now, supply your studio with the materials and tools you want to use.

You can have inks, paints, musical instruments, clay, computer, food, fabrics, or anything else you choose. See yourself entering your creative space in a spirit of adventure, play, openness, and self-acceptance. Imagine yourself experimenting, expressing yourself, following your creative impulses with complete freedom from judgment; or, if fears or blocks come up–accepting and expressing them. See yourself at home in the sanctuary you created where there are no mistakes and it’s safe to play and explore the unknown.

BRING YOUR FANTASY DOWN TO EARTH

Define the essential, important and frivolous elements of your fantasy. For example, peace and quiet may be essential; a pink velvet couch in the form of a cupped hand is probably not. How does your fantasy space compare with the creative space you have available to you in your current environment? How can you make your real life conditions more like your fantasy space? How many essential elements of your fantasy situation can you bring into your real-life situation? Act on the intuitions and insights revealed by your fantasy. You might, for example, discover that you can make a corner of your bedroom into a play space. Or, you may find that turning off phones and playing a tape of ocean waves helps recreate the mood of your fantasy studio. Preparing a nurturing inner space begins with a firm commitment to devote five minutes each day to some form of creative meditation, whether you are happy or miserable, sick or well, motivated or not. It also involves a commitment to let go of distractions and expectations, and to acknowledge and accept all aspects of who you are.

COMMITMENT TO PLAY

Think of your creativity as water in a rusty pump. At first, there is resistance–the handle sticks and the water that comes out may be sparse and orange with rust. But as frequent use loosens the rust, pumping becomes smoother and easier, and soon the water flows clear and abundantly. You can release your fountain of creativity by accepting everything that comes from you in the spirit of interested detachment. No matter what happens, don’t stop! Draw, paint, sing, sound through your feelings.

FIVE-MINUTE MAGIC

During a “freeflow writing” session, in a class called “Your Mind is Better than you Think!”, we wrote as fast as we could for five minutes, no matter what, without stopping. As the bell rang, signaling the end of the five minute session, a 55-year-old retired engineer stood up, “Where did this come from?” he demanded. He read his three-page poem about the universe, the evolution of life and the awakening of the creative spirit. He had never written a poem before or thought much about such things. He had never written so fast and unfalteringly. How had he not known he was capable of such miracles?? Why had he spent his whole life locked away in only one room of the infinite mansion of his mind?

You can do things in five minutes of concentrated and relaxed attention that you couldn’t do in hours! You will surprise yourself by your spontaneous poems, paintings, drawings, plans or songs, completed just as the timer rings! The speed generated when you “keep going, as fast as you can without stopping, no matter what,” breaks down the habitual inhibition of your inner “critic”, releasing your infinite creativity. Be surprised!
Have fun!

Join Sara Deutsch for a FREE Teleseminar on Wednesday, November 9th at 8pm EST.
Autobiography is a gift of memory we give ourselves, and a priceless heirloom that can be passed down to family members. Learn more about telling your story as vignettes, short stories, myths, poems, fables, or even as chapters in your novel.
Sara Deutsch, M.S., (Ph.D.abd) draws from doctoral study in psychology, psychobiology, east/west Psychology, years in a contemplative order, cross-cultural adventures, multimedia explorations, and 25 years of teaching Creative Autobiography.
Click here to Register!

 

Visit Sara Deutsch’s page on Wise Woman University to see her courses.

 

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Wise Woman Radio

Susun Weed interviews White Feather, a holistic nurse, certified Wolf Clan teacher, herbalist and Buddhist practitioner. She is the founder of Catskill Mountain Herbals and author of the Seven Directions Movement Meditation book. She works in the Wise Woman Tradition and shares the Wisdom Wheel Teachings of the Wolf Clan as requested by Grandmother Twylah Nitsch (Yehwehnode – Two Wolves).

Listen Here

 

Published by wwezine on October 31st, 2011 Tagged Ezine Articles

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