"The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.” — Alan Alda
When I think of being creative I think of writing. That’s just me, my take on the boldest of journeys—to hear the call of something magical stirring within and giving it form, painstakingly or lovingly bringing it to the light of day. Creative expression.
Words are my magic carpet of choice. They take me to distant galaxies and into unexplored universes within myself. Words upon the page, my own or those of someone else, do “it” for me.
What does “it” for you? What speaks so loudly in the recesses of your heart that you cannot deny its voice? What begs to be born, honed, cultivated so that when the process is done you can sit back with satisfaction, knowing that you’ve given birth to a public rendition of your most intimate self?
As human beings we are created and it is a sacred expression of our essence to extend ourselves outward, to create, and in so doing we re-create ourselves. Creative expression is what it means to be a human being—literally. We make things. We can’t live any other way. Every movement outward, a step upon the sidewalk, a word offered in conversation, is a creative expression. True, some may seem mindless, haphazard actions in a world full of billions of such actions. And then there are others: gestures and actions with intentional thought behind them, propelled by passion, fueled by desire to be something more. Something meaningful, useful or beautiful.
In that very moment, when intention and desire attach to a thought or gesture, creativity is born. And so are we. Our essence, our truest self, sparks into form, like a long-smoldering ash becomes a flame. Life is breathed into our idea and we cannot stop ourselves from giving full expression to it. And as we do, we are made anew through our unique course of action. We are creators and we are re-created when we express ourselves. Without being able to do this, we will die, emotionally and spiritually. Creativity is oxygen for the soul.
No matter what stage of creative expression, you find yourself in, or how you do so, you will find yourself in this issue of Buddha Chick Life. Our gifted writers shine brightly, sharing their unique selves with you through words and ideas that stir the soul. They want to stir yours so that you too will dive deep, grab on to your creative treasures, and bring them to the surface for all to see.
Feeling creatively stuck or don’t know where to begin?
•Linda Lyzenga offers the perfect jumpstart with “In Touch with Her Creative, Sacred Self.”
• Mary MacGown Breckman helps with “You Can Find Your Passion!”
• Lisa Erickson provides insight in “Awakening Your Creative Energy” by opening the sacral chakra.
Need some new ideas? Want to expand and explore your creative self?
• Investigate Laura Hegfield’s path, “Creativity IS a Spiritual Practice.”
• Try your hand at “Creating a Mandala” with Kate Wolfe-Jensen.
• The unborn poet in you might enjoy, “Sacred Poetry as a Bridge into Joy” by Ingrid Goff-Maidoff.
And if you need a nudge of inspiration to make that final leap, to give physical form to your creativity:
Settle in with “The Creative Journey” by Kaveri Patel who invites us to never give up—even if our creative expression is rejected by others.
She writes, “If they could not connect with the writing, I still considered myself blessed for the opportunity to explore my psyche and celebrate my life with words.When I released the need to please, my authentic voice began to sing and shout through dreams and poems.”
May it be so for each of us.
May our authentic voices rise and meld, dance and mingle, a unique resounding for all to hear. Our self-expression will re-create us. It will re-create the world.
Bowing to the Muse in You,
Jan Lundy, Editor
Note: Please be aware that this issue of BCL is a combined one for June and July. We’ll return with a new issue on August 1. Enjoy your summer!
Janice Lynne Lundy is the editor of "Buddha Chick Life." She is passionate about supporting women on their life journeys. Whether it is through online or in-person workshops or retreats, as an Interfaith Spiritual Director in private practice, or writing, her dedication to the spiritual journey is evident. She is the author of four personal/spiritual growth books for women, her newest being, Your Truest Self: Embracing the Woman You Are Meant to Be (Sorin Books). She is a student of Vipassana and a teacher of Metta. She calls the peace-filled shores of Lake Michigan home. Her website is AwakenedLiving.Com where you can subscribe to her daily "Beads of Wisdom."
A flower buds and opens in the hand, creates an inner sense of joy and peace despite the faces leering from the crowd, the voice that whispers in the night.
Each petal and leaf is pearled by rain and sunlight, changes shape in the shifting sky and sings a different song just as poems do within an image or a metaphor, in the struggle to get it right.
Light grows and senses fill with petrichor, vivid colour, scents and somewhere in a dream lies divinity ethereal as the moonlight.
Louise Hastings: I never knew I wanted to be a writer and only took up the pen after suffering a severe bout of anxiety and depression a couple of years ago, and that was initially just to scribble something down in a journal every day. In the process of that scribbling, I discovered a joy for wordplay and poetry. There’s something about allowing my thoughts and emotions to breathe through the power of the medium that has been profoundly healing for me. You can read more of my poetry at http://louisehastings.net/
In the practice of sacred poetry, joy is both the presence and the felt experience of that vast and holy realm of unspoken spaciousness which exists within and around us and is nearly impossible to diminish, define or name. We also call this consciousness, or God, Mystery, or Love. Ordinarily, it is hard to talk about something so infinitely large without sounding superficial or trite- or without using so many words that we become confused or tangled up in them. Sacred poetry gives us the gift not merely of the discussion of but the transmission of this indescribable spaciousness as it is a felt resonance, a kind of fragrance, and also a presence between and around the poem’s own words and lines.
Sacred poetry is not written to baffle the intellect, disgust the senses or to secure admiration for the writer. The intention of sacred poetry is one of transportation, remembrance, witness, and affirmation. We turn to sacred poetry for spiritual sustenance because it emits a resonance which speaks to the heart, and which brings us into alignment with the field of consciousness and love, the vibration of oneness, and the joy of deepening our intimacy with ourselves and the world.
Reading a poem, allow yourself to be washed in its mystery. Don’t feel you must understand it. Instead, allow yourself to feel it- to absorb some of its essence. Sacred poetry emerges from nothingness- from the unnamable, unspoken spaciousness, and also exists within it~ with an awareness and a reverence for it, and in service to it. The poet practicing sacred poetry may choose words with multiple meanings, or with roots that go centuries deep: words born of words that were born of other words which were born from the vast unspoken spaciousness. The Tao Te Ching suggests that this unknown, unknowable realm is even older than God.
Writing a poem is also an exercise in entering into this realm. Perhaps you begin with a whole pile of words, scribbles and stories that you have been collecting in your journal. Then you select one word, or a small group of words and put it over on a blank page. What surrounds that word or group of words is the realm of unspoken spaciousness- consciousness. Now, carefully, respectfully, with love, humility, devotion, reverence and surrender, you tune your heart to listen for which words might come next.
You are building a temple now ~ a sacred threshold, doorway or bridge both within this realm of consciousness and also into it. The hope is that the reader will be able to, through the gift and strength of the poem, enter into that realm, spend a little time there, raise their own awareness and experience of it, and ultimately grow their spacious and conscious heart. The hope is that we internalize and then make manifest the joy we discover in the poem.
Whether you are reading or writing sacred poetry, I hope you enjoy your practice. Take this fanciful joy. let it bloom inside you like an orchid. Let it open you like a window. Let it lift you up to ride the wind. Oh, Beautiful Soul, pitch your tent in this field of joy and adventure out from there…
Take this fanciful joy. Let it bloom inside you like an orchid. Let it open you like a window. Let it lift you up to ride the wind. Oh, Beautiful Soul, pitch your tent in this field of joy and adventure out from there…
As Good Church Lady, I’d never thought of myself as a creative – that was God’s job to create and he had finished his work and rested on the seventh day. On the other hand, Uncovered Buddha Chick is learning to live more and more out of her true self. Something awoke in me late last year–an expression of my sacred self as a creative–creative, yes, an artist? Perhaps, for what is an artist but one who creates?
This month’s theme, "Creativity: Expressing Our Sacred Selves," invites each of us here to consider that we ALL, as sacred spiritual beings, are brimming full of creativity. I now believe that as image bearers of the Creator, creativity is inherent in our sacred selves – our true selves. As a spiritual being, I want to co-create & collaborate with the Divine.
Ahh, but I’m not an artist you might say. Wait a minute! Let’s take a look at that word, creativity, and its synonyms, and see what possibilities might arise for you. (There’s noting like the dictionary and thesaurus to lend expanded understanding to words. The following definition is from dictionary.com, my best friend as a writer and one who simply loves words.)
Creativity defined: the state or quality of being creative. Creativity is the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination. Creativity is the process by which one utilizes creative ability.
Now, in light of the definition, consider alternate meanings of the concept of creativity and I dare say that each of you dear readers will see that you, too, are a creative soul: Cleverness, genius, imagination, imaginativeness, ingenuity, inspiration, inventiveness, originality, resourcefulness, talent, vision.
More and more as I live into and out of my true self, inherent creativity in all sorts of mediums have been begging to come out. Listening with love to the invitation to explore my inner artist, I’m beginning to establish a creative, contemplative practice. What does this look like after my inner artist was given permission to come on out and play? I wish I could say that I create masterpieces everyday but, truth is, most days I don’t do any art.
This month’s invitation to contribute to this topic of "Creativity: Expressing Our Sacred Selves," gives me a gentle nudge to begin again. Here is a reminder to practice “beginner’s mind.” To be open to opportunity and possibility and enjoy the process—letting go of the need to create a perfect product.
Imagine…what inspires you? What mediums might you explore? Here’s an invitation for you, too– Where in the day to day do you see beauty, truth and goodness? What might ignite that creative spark - kindle the possibilities of creativity in you?
Here’s what I’ve been exploring: Butter cream frosting Creative writing Poetry Knitting Colored pencils and paints Photography Setting a lovely table Each of these is creative expression….
What inspires you?
Hanging in my sewing room is a beautiful calligraphy piece by Janet Casey which reminds me that
Creative People… Break Routine Entertain the Absurd Give up on conformity Frequently think like children Take a break leave time to dream Step beyond the obvious and the expected Pay attention to & nurture their ideas Welcome ideas from everywhere Think outside the b o x Make lots of mistakes Sleep on it
This quote by Neil Gaiman prompts: "Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art. "
When was the last time you’ve gotten in touch with your inner artist – responding to the invitation to let her explore? What is your preferred medium to express your sacred self? I’d love to hear.
May you see beauty, truth and goodness. May you be inspired. May you be resourceful. May you express your creative, sacred self with joy.
Previously know as Undercover Buddha Chick, Uncovered Buddha Chick is learning to live more and more out of her true self - to live authentically. To live simply. To live without fear – or, at least, to be courageous in the face of fear. To live with an open heart. Through mindfulness, metta and loving-kindness and self compassion practices self awareness is being cultivated. With eyes wide open to see and ears to hear what’s really going on within herself, she is learning transparency. In the process, pre-conceived notions, prejudices and judgments are being released. Her longings for authentic community are being met, in part, on the pages of Buddha Chick Life. Having come out of the shadows to live clear, calm and wise, she wants to be a better human being. She is me. Is she you?
The more I read, write, learn, heal and understand the more I come to realize that life is really simple. Know what you want. Say what you want. Think of God often as you focus on what you want and be grateful for every single detail. The rest is history. Your thoughts create your reality. Your gratitude creates blessings. Be aware of what your right or wrong is. Know what you stand for. Know what purely and truly makes you feel amazing and loved. Know what feeds your God-self. Know what is sacred to your soul. Then think of it, speak of it, dream of it, live it and share it.
Mention your Intentions
Will you mention your intentions For the day that is under way?
Will you think and speak of what you want? Will you thank God for all you are blessed to know? Will you let His sparkle be your glow? Will you let it be known that you intend to Feel in flow and let his whisper gently blow You towards a day of wows and whoas?
Feel the sun on your skin as you awaken. Open your eyes and expect miracles and surprises. Know you are free to go out into today to see and find them.
We are sure to laugh. We are free to dance. We can lay down and feel the earth on our back. We can look up to glance At the blue skies And watch each fluffy cloud flutter by.
If you say so it is so, Don’t you know? So plant your smiling seeds first thing each morning. Decide your day will be magnificent and amazing. Decide each bite, hug, butterfly and moment is a blessing.
As your day ends and you grow sleepy and tired, Remember all the happiness you were able to acquire. And know you’re able to create each desire With a daily mention of your intentions. Happiness is a decision.
Choose love each morning, noon and night. Choose God as your guiding light. Choose to know no wrong and do only what feels right. These choices are what leads us to an abundance of serenity and delight. Miracles are our birthright. God bless you as you create new loving insights. God bless you as you create our world and yours with love and light.
Danielle, in her own words: I am a young woman seeking out ways to help and heal my life. I am releasing my fears and worries to enlighten and lift my being in order to better myself, my children and the world around me. I am learning to be responsible for my energy and my contribution. I live in tiny town in the middle of Illinois on 2 beautiful sandy lakes surrounded by family. I have 14 beautiful healthy nieces and nephews and 2 amazingly bright children that help me to live life on the silly side. Children are so pure and free to be. They inspire me to let loose and live optimistically. Danielle writes the column "Buddha Babies."
Honoring Creativity in Motherhood: Keeping your cup running over!
Jennifer Niedzielski
In the Zone
Whether its gardening, writing, running, cooking, singing, meditating, and yes, even mothering, when we’re in the “zone,” we know it. We lose sense of time, stop thinking (about all the other stuff we have to do), become immersed in the moment, and feel in effortless control. There is no doubt, being in the zone is exhilarating. It’s energizing. It’s inspiring!
That’s why it’s essential to mindful mothering. A mindful mama knows that when she expresses her creativity, she aligns herself with the universal creative life force. This life force flows directly from her inner-source of all inspiration; her sacred self. It’s from regularly visiting this place that she fills herself up with positive, pure energy. For a mindful mama knows, she cannot give to her children what she doesn’t first give herself.
Creativity and Mothering
Our children are little mirrors of our inner landscape. When we feel happy and content, they feel happy and content. When we harbor anger and resentment, they display it in their actions. That’s why as mothers we need to take exquisite care of our emotional health. Cultivating and expressing our creativity is essential to our emotional well-being. When we create, we allow for the joy, bliss, and positive energy that flows from our sacred place to fill our hearts. When our hearts are full, we can mother wholeheartedly.
Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to neglect our creative instincts. “Too many women are overwhelmed by the awesome responsibilities of home, work, and relationships, and have lost touch with their creative voice” (The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women, Gail McMeekin). As we attempt to accomplish the long list of daily “to do’s” and meet everyone’s needs before our own, we can inadvertently neglect our(very real) need to be creative.
Neglecting our creativity hinders our mothering. Mothers need a creative outlet while raising children because it protects her and her kids from great unhappiness and stress. “Self-fulfilled people have more positive energy available for the challenges of parenting” (G. McMeekin). Filling ourselves up through our creative endeavors makes us more effective, happier, mindful mamas.
Clearing the Way for Creativity
“To be fully creative, you must notice what fuels your creative energy… and map out your life accordingly” (McMeekin).
What energizes you? What are you pulled to create? Perhaps it’s a meal, a serene environment for your family, a vision board, peace of mind through meditation, a work of art, or a stronger body through exercise. So many different things have the potential to energize us. But we have to know what these things are and create the space to do these things in order to allow for the universal creative life force to energize and inspire us.
If it has been way too long since you’ve been in the “zone,” it’s time to get back to yourself-- your sacred self, that is! Seek some solitude, mama. Yes, it’s a rare and precious commodity in the life of a mother, but it’s also a necessary prerequisite for activating your creativity. For it’s often in solitude (not necessarily silence) that we hear the whispers of our sacred self; whispers that ignite our creativity and remind us of our passions.
Protecting and honoring our time to express our creativity is essential to mindful mothering. The investment we make in our creative ourselves is a direct investment in our child’s well-being. Every time we allow for the universal creative life force to flow to us, we allow for this infinite passion, love, and joy to fill us up and flow through us... out to our children.
Jennifer Niedzielski is a teacher, writer, mother of three young daughters, and the co-founder of Mindful Moms Network™. After teaching in the traditional classroom setting for over 12 years, she is transcending classroom walls to inspire and teach women how to reclaim their calm and take exquisite care of their mind, body, and inner-selves amidst the chaos of mothering. Through Mindful Moms, it is her intention to create a nurturing and supportive community for moms that encourages Inward Development through the Art of Mothering.
Creativity is natural. It is good to find your creative expression, the inner essence of your creative being. You will feel good, in tune with life and vibrant when you are in this mode. It’s healthy.
My recovery from serious illness some years ago was aided by opening once again to my creative side. I began to paint again, the flow across the page intertwined with colour vibrations, transformed me. I took a textile course. The lushness and textures touched my soul. I began to write, created a TV series, "Binka," for children about my two wonderful feline companions and their antics.
I’d been closed by too much left-brain activity in my educational career so now I was playing, experimenting and opening whilst luxuriating in the process.
I’ve moved ahead from those days and now write every day on my own and with female friends on line joyously and how my heart, spirit and soul lifts with this. A practicing artist and photographer, Life Music instructor, I enjoy a creative life and help others through challenges.
You may feel you are not creative in any way but by looking at what gives you enjoyment in life, you will notice what draws you creatively. Is it in re decorating your home, polishing your car, finding an accessory to go with a new outfit, something that appeals to you in nature such as the colour of the sky, the sea or flowers, taking photographs, running each day taking a different route or simply making marks on a surface while you are making a phone call. All of these tap into your creative juices.
Our sacred self knows how to be in the flow of positive energy that helps us vibrate into the truth of who we are and helps us to create the life that we want.
To open to your creative self, you may need to de-clutter your mind, relax, meditate or listen to some beautiful inspiring movement to shift your vibrations and then see what magic comes dancing onto the stage of your life.
Break away and get creative and express the reality of the divine you!
Rosemary is Creator, Healer and Mentor and helps people to transition to transformation.
Rosemary loves nature, lives in a beautiful environment and enthuses about the sea. Photography and Art are part of her toolbox and she is aware of the ‘soul touch’ of any who come into contact with her work. She strongly believes in the healing power of nature and loves to walk in the countryside and in the woods surrounding her home not far from London.
She has been writing for many years and is passionate about her subject. In her home country of UK, she studied beyond English at college, Creative Writing, Writing for Children, Children’s Fiction, Picture Book, Short Story Writing and has written a column in a local newspaper as well as theatre crits, articles and has had many poems in anthologies. She has read her work at events. Rosemary was the Creator of Binka, the children’s television series.
Currently she writes on line with women’s groups and takes writing workshops as part of her Creative Empowerment series to help people to open and to create from the heart.
In addition she has created A Book For Now and Another Book For Now which have uplifting and helpful sentences in them alongside some of her own artwork. A few of her other Self Help books are Fraught With Thought, The Magic of Life, Conscious Wellbeing and Look, Live, Survive and a Book Of Children Now. She has been working on another book.
I am attracted to this phrase from John O’Donohue’s Anam Cara: “The body is in the soul” (p. 53). I turned to collage to discover its meaning.
The body, my physical home, is not just a container or a vessel. She is in the soul. She lives in and as part of the soul. As such, she is not alone, not fending for herself, but held in the shelter and embrace of the soul.
The soul is alive and unbound, impressionable, full of vitality and fluidity, always responding to the moment. And yet, I often experience my body as bound—contained within the confines of my skin, held in and separate. What if my body, living in my soul, as part of my soul, were not bound up in this separate physical package? What if I could remember that these skin boundaries are actually porous and permeable, allowing energy to move in and out of me, to meet and mingle with others?
My body gives my soul a way to connect with others. She is affected by life and she is intimate with all of life. My soul knows physical life through my body—tastes it, smells it, sees it, hears it, touches it, feels it...mindful experiencing of these senses, being sensuous, is to be in the presence of my soul, and is to be embraced in Presence.
Blues and oranges are the colors that my husband and I (in that order) love and are attracted to. For many years, I thought orange was too bright, garish, overdone. As I have learned to appreciate it over the past several years, I feel that I am also embracing my own vitality and life force energy. It warms me, feels radiant with life, invites me to joy, passion, and sensuality.
Images echo how nature, like the soul, holds and embraces and tends to us. She is our home, out of which we arise and flourish, and back to which we return. These images reveal the life, the movement, the fluidity, the beauty, and also the solidity and presence of the body in the soul. Held in the embrace of the soul, my body is safe, grounded, able to drop her boundaries and dip into the water of life.
Katy: What I really love is to be involved in the art and practice of life—in co-creating and allowing/inviting beautiful spaces, gardens, and parts of myself and others to emerge. I am drawn to beauty, order, and balance in all things, and I find that this dance is a lifelong journey full of many deep learnings. I am an Enneagram teacher, a singer (original and traditional, celticky, and medieval music), an Interfaith Minister and spiritual counselor, a Certified Laughter Yoga Leader and life-practitioner, and a student of the Diamond Approach Work. I am blessed to share my life with my husband Dave Hall, and love to be involved with life, music, spirituality, and art in order to keep my creative, expressive, intuitive, passionate juices flowing.
Sacred Feminine energy, women in general, have learned to give of their own sustenance, of their very body, often times until they are left physically and emotionally spent. Feeling depleted and empty, we look for validation, approval, and worthiness from others outside of ourself. Not finding it in the external, one is left feeling shamed, blaming self, and overcompensating to fill the emptiness. Our vessel runs dry.
You must give to yourself what you seek in the external. You must give yourself love, attention, pleasure, support, creativity and appreciation. It is an act of sacred devotion to Love yourself. Spirit requires this devotion from you, because Spirit needs your gifts poured out into the world as love and service. In truth, you can only give and serve from your surplus, your overflowing full cup. It is the creative juices from Self-Love that feeds you and fills your cup to overflowing. When you know this, you make decisions and follow through with action guided by Self-Love.
Here's where the miracle happens. When you have filled yourself up with Self-Love, Pleasure, Nutrition, Rest, Healthy Boundaries, Creativity, Self-Appreciation, Spiritual practice—the most Spiritual act of Self-Love is to give your love to another, especially one who challenges you to love, one you may not want to love, one you have "issues" with. This generosity opens the ocean of waters and fills your Divine sacred vessel to a never ending of overflow.
Truly such Spiritual Self-Love will stir up the shadow as no other. To deeply feel into the sacred Self, to be able to see and express our value, beauty, and power, this is to experience the very essence of the Divine Feminine. The magic and miracle of being a woman is that our Shadow turns us toward the Light. What we see in our Spirit is the Light of our own Love reflected. The Divine Feminine lives and breathes through each of us. Her vibration is expressed both individually and collectively. When we choose to recognize and honor the Divine Feminine, we are choosing to recognize and honor our own sacred Selves.
This is the powerful Divine Feminine, for She is We and We are She. We are all holy women, the daughters, the priestess, the Goddess container, the sacred chalice of all mysteries, the Great Mother of All That Is. There is no separation. When Self-Loving, individually powerful Women gather to stir each other's shadows, support each other's growth, reflect each other's Light, and work together, Sacred Feminine power is reclaimed in the collective body. She emerges as a loving, transformative creative energy. Natural order and balance is restored. That's how Sacred Spirit Self-Love changes the world. It is the only thing that can.
What you hold, may you always hold. What you do, may you do and never abandon. But with swift pace, light step, unswerving feet, so that even your steps stir no dust, go forward securely, joyfully, and swiftly, on the path of prudent happiness, believing nothing agreeing with nothing which would dissuade you from this resolution or which would place a stumbling block for you on the way, so that you may offer your vows to the Most High in the pursuit of that perfection to which the Spirit of the Lord has called you.
(English version by Regis J. Armstrong, OFM CAP & Ignatius C. Brady, OFM Original Language Italian)
Belonging Here: A Guide for the Spiritually Sensitive Person
A Book Review and Giveaway!
Linda Lyzenga
Courtesy of the publisher, Sounds True, we are delighted to feature Judith Blackstone's wonderful new book as a reader Giveaway. Be sure to leave a comment below the Review to be entered into the drawing to win. A winner will be chosen July 31.
"Although we are all capable of spiritual awakening, people who are drawn to the spiritual path often possess, from their earliest years, a particular kind of openness or sensitivity." ~Judith Blackstone
If this statement resonates with you then perhaps you’d be interested in reading Belonging Here – a Guide for the Spiritually Sensitive Person by licensed clinical psychotherapist Judith Blackstone, an innovative teacher in contemporary spirituality. In this book, based on her own personal story and exploration and application, theories and practices of fundamental (non dual) consciousness, she introduces the reader to the reality of Spiritual Sensitivity.
In the first three chapters that make up Part One of the book she walks the spiritually sensitive person through eight exercises that help one embody spiritual awakening through the Realization Process. The Realization Process understands spiritual realization to be an embodied experience of spaciousness and fluidity – of greater awareness - of inhabiting one’s body through core breath exercises. She then explores effects of trauma on the body & offers great hope for healing from trauma by practicing fundamental consciousness.
Part Two considers the challenges of Spiritual Sensitivity
the challenge of sensitivity / thin skin and of becoming resilient
the challenge of deep fragmentation and becoming more grounded
the challenge of being happy when one hears the cries of the world
being authentic – living out of their intuitive reality
and acceptance of the stranger – one’s true self.
In these five chapters she invites the reader to more transparency, fluidity of emotions, sensations and perceptions through seven more exercises that engage and strengthen the inner core.
Progressing through the chapters, reading personal accounts of clients who were helped by these exercises was like watching a time lapse opening of a flower. The stories related were beautiful expressions of spiritually sensitive people awakening to themselves and to those around them with compassion, unconditional love and spiritual maturity.
Just released, this is the latest of Dr. Blackstone’s numerous books published bySounds True where she is recognized as one of their contributing authors and teachers.
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Leave your thoughts here and you'll be entered into our Giveaway drawing. We'd love to hear from you!
Are you a spiritually sensitive person?
You may also enjoy reading an excerpt from the book found here.
Judith Blackstone, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychotherapist in New York and an innovative teacher in contemporary spirituality who has shared the Realization Process with students across the US since 1987. Her published works include the books The Enlightenment Process and The Empathic Ground and the audio learning The Realization Process. http://www.judithblackstone.com
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