why water your soul?

Watch on Vimeo

Recently I was asked, "Why a program in December?" 

My answer: Because we teach what we most need

In today's video, I share a story about how being neck deep in survival mode and wearing guilt like a shawl brought me to a place of not wanting to do anything for the holidays. Which led me to deeply see how we make our expectations of this time of year a thick layer on top of all the day-to-day living that continues in December. 

What if you let go of some of those expectations and in doing so created more space for joy, light, and the truth of what you most need right now?

Water Your Soul is an invitation to trust you are not alone in feeling whatever this time of year brings up for you.

It's about making simple moves in December that will help take away from the chaos, not add to it.

It's about being right here giving yourself the gift of replenishing you even as you also give to others.

A beautiful group is already gathering in our private Facebook space where we are checking in each day and beginning to share stories and connect. We "officially" begin December 1.

Click here to learn more and join us.

Please email me any questions you have.

what would happen?

In February of 2011, I was having a day that invited me to question my worthiness, my enoughness. I was feeling stuck in an old story of not being able to hear the kindness of others because my own self-doubt was so loud.

This contrast pushed me to give myself a pep talk of sorts. I turned on my microphone and recorded the words I would say to you if you were sitting across from me at my kitchen table needing an invitation to see that you are enough. The words became a love note to myself, to you, and when I came across the recording again this past weekend, I transcribed it (with a few little edits) and felt moved to share these words with you today (you can hear the original recording by clicking on "what would happen" at the end of this post):

As you sit in your corner today, what would happen if you just believed that your story matters?

What would happen if you just owned all the phrases that you say to others, the way you sign your emails to the ones you love, the way you encourage your friends with all of their pursuits in their life, what would happen if you owned that same belief that you have for your friends for yourself?

What would happen if you looked in the mirror and saw the beauty that others see when they look at you?

What would happen if you gave yourself permission to let hope bloom inside you?

What would happen if you listened to yourself when you experienced joy, if you listened to why, if you noticed why the joy comes up inside you when it does?

What would happen if you let go of wishing you were someone else and walked to the mirror and met for the first time the real you whose waiting inside you?

What would happen if you believed the kind things people say and write about you?

What would happen if you took the next compliment someone gives you and believed it?

What would happen if you quit looking at the phrase “I am enough” and thinking “oh yeah one day I’ll believe that” and instead just took it as part of your personal truth?

What would happen if you believed the phrase I am enough was part of your personal truth?

What would happen if you walked to the mirror right now and looked at yourself and saw the beauty that those who love you see?

What would happen if you walked to the mirror and let go of looking at the person reflected back at you and thinking “oh I wish her hair looked…if only she was…if only she was…” and instead of thinking if only she was, if you looked at the person reflected back at you and saw who she is?

What would happen if the next time the little girl inside you who loves to play with paint and paper or fabric or color or her camera or words, what would happen if you listened to her and let her play?

What would happen if you stopped trying to be that person that you aren’t and don’t want to be?

What would happen if instead you just were yourself?

What would happen if you walked across the room, down the hall, and found that mirror and looked at the person reflected back at you and chose love?

What would happen if you believed people when they paid you a compliment?

What would happen if you said, “you’re welcome” when someone said, “thank you” instead of saying, “oh it was no big deal”?

What would happen if you walked down the hall and looked in the mirror and chose to see love and chose to use love when you looked at the person reflected back at you?

What would happen if you spoke to yourself as softly and calmly as you speak to those you love? 

What would happen if you gave yourself the same space to just do the best you can that you give so many others?

What would happen if you walked down the hall and looked in the mirror and chose love when you looked at that reflection?

What would happen if you just believed that in this moment, in your corner, you are enough?

***

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What Would Happen

an idea...

Inner Excavation edits . Spring 2010

In 2010, I had two babies: One was a curious, joy-filled, now-soon-to-be two beana named Ellie Jane. The other was an invitation to be curious and look inward and find your inner poet + capture the world through your lens + make something 144-page book named Inner Excavation.

And as those two creations found their way into the world, life turned a bit upside down as Ellie’s health and newborn needs pushed me to focus solely on her.

afternoon nap . late July 2010

Inner Excavation started shipping from Amazon while we were at Seattle Children’s Hospital when Ellie had her open-heart surgery in the fall of 2010. I simply didn’t have space to think about it. And the lack of space around this truth means I actually haven’t even reread my book. 

(I’ve wanted to write this here for a long time - this piece about how I haven’t really let in joy about my book being in the world because there wasn’t space for it because I was in this place holding fear and love as my daughter had life-saving surgery. And then I was in that place that is life with a baby who becomes an on-the-move toddler who is still overcoming health stuff.)

But sitting here with the sun coming in through the windows while my daughter sleeps down the hall, I am thinking about how I am ready to open the pages of my book and read it and work through some of the prompts again.

And I’m wondering if you want to join me?

I’m thinking this summer here on the blog. Kind of like a read along meets a free ecourse. Probably seven weeks with the seven chapters + a Flickr group where we can share what we create from the prompts in the book + some guest posts from a few of the book’s incredibly inspiring contributors. And videos from me where I share some new thoughts about the topics in the book and share my new responses to some of the prompts.

I would love for you to come along…

PS After such an awesome delightful response (thank you!), I have put together an information page here. And you can sign up for the Flickr group over here.

creating space within

Sometimes you need to simply pause right here, find your breath, and remember the truth that rests inside you.

To pause and breathe and remember to trust what you know.

Today, through this video/guided mediation, I am inviting you to do just that.

***

If you feel called to continue the conversation about ways to create space within you and around you, come along to the next session of Create Space that begins next week. This will be the last time I am offering this class until next year (perhaps the last time in this form), so if you have been feeling called to join in, I hope you will. Learn more about Create Space and register here.

brain lint :: journaling

The first sentence of this page of my journal says, "this is the page where i am going to just dump the stuff that i don't need to hold onto like worry and not enoughness and how the **** will i get it all done..." Since writing those words, I have turned to this page and filled it with uncensored fears when I get distracted while working.

The idea to do this came to me while I was working in my red Smash journal that houses ideas for my ecourses and other online projects I am working on. While putting these ideas to the page, I can find myself pulled by the "what ifs" and the "shoulds" and how the list goes on. On this day, I was writing down ideas for a possible ecourse connected to the project Jen Lee is producing that will be out later this spring (will share more about this project soon! we are having so much fun putting the finishing touches together before it all goes to print), and I had a flurry of a brainstorm that got me very excited. But then I got stuck as some gremlins came up. So I flipped through the journal to another section to give myself a break from thinking about this idea and came to this page that said, "Brain Lint." 

Yes.

Because this is exactly what the not enoughness is sometimes: lint that is just taking up space where something else could reside.

I love how my Smash journals often provide just the prompt I need when I am working. They really seem like magic sometimes. (Not kidding.) You can read the other posts in this journaling series inspired by my excitement over my first Smash book here.

An Invitation

Reserve a few pages in your journal for some uncensored brain lint. Let it be a safe space for you to let that not enoughness or the fears or the worry land so you can lean into the real work.

And consider joining us over in the Notes for the Journey Flickr group where we are sharing pages from our journals and where we are journaling. Also, if you are on Instagram, a group of us are using the hashtag #journeynotes when we share our journals. Oh and if you use an app like Instagram, you can easily use the blur feature to blur out your personal journaling but still share your photo. 

a self-care letter :: journaling

a page in my creative wholeness journal (in the eco-green smash journal)

I am deeply enjoying the conversations about journaling that have been happening since I posted my first video two weeks ago. Some of you have mentioned that my posts have encouraged you to get back to journaling; some of you have emailed me and said you are going to try your own version of a "creative journal" where you hold yourself accountable to the big dreams or the day-to-day business stuff. I am guessing some of you just kind of fell in love with the Smash journals when you saw them. Some of you are trying the "Jen Lee-inspired method" of keeping one main notebook/journal of everything. I just love how these conversations are unfolding and I so appreciate you sharing your experiences with me.

Seeing your journals pop up on Flickr and Instagram and Twitter made me think that it would be fun to have a journaling Flick group where we could cheer each other on and share ideas and pages and other good things. I have decided to call the group "Notes for the Journey" because that is what journaling feels like for me; notebooks and journals in all their forms become a place to capture pieces of ourselves that often become the notes we piece together to make sense of our experiences.

This group isn't just for Smash journals or business journals. It is simply a group to share photos of your journals and where you journal. You might share the pages inside your journal, notes about how your are journaling, and so on. If you are trying to create a daily journaling practice, you might post a photo each day of your journal and the mug of tea you drink while you write. If you are a journal buying addict (ahem...I now know I'm not the only one), you could share your finds. My hope is that we can support each other through sharing photos. I know it will help me hold myself accountable just a bit more so I keep going with this practice.

Just click here to join the group and start sharing (you will need a Flickr account). 

UPDATED :: A group of us is now using the hashtag #journeynotes over on Instagram if you want to join in.

As I focus on my own journaling habits and needs, I will continue to share what I am discovering and talk about how holding myself accountable is affecting me. I also plan to share some prompts or invitations every now and then that might inspire you to write in your own journals (or on your blogs). In that spirit, I want to tell you about an exercise I did this week.

A Self-Care Letter

As I mentioned in my previous posts about my new "creative wholeness journal," I have a section about self-care. In this section, I am listing my go-to self-care practices so that I can turn to them when I begin to notice I am feeling depleted but also when I just have a few minutes to myself and need a place to begin.

Earlier this week, I turned to the page shown in the photo above and decided to write myself a gentle reminder to rest. I thought about all the women I have connected with through the Be Present Retreats during the last three years. I thought about the stories they have shared and the ways in which we have held the space for one another as these words are spoken aloud. I thought about you and you and you and what I would most want to tell you if you needed a reminder to rest so that you could keep living your dreams into reality. And then I wrote the words in letter form right into my journal.

An Invitation

In your journal, write yourself a self-care letter that tells you whatever you most need to hear in this moment. Maybe you need a reminder to rest or to pay more attention to when you are hungry or maybe you need to give yourself permission to write and dream and know you are enough.

*****

A few people have emailed asking about where I have purchased my Smash journals. Here in Tacoma, there is a local store called Artco Crafts that is carrying them and has them on sale right now. I have also seen the accessories at Michael's and their website indicates the stores carry the journals. Amazon has quite a few Smash journals and products available (and they have the best prices I think). It looks like they are available at Paper Source. Please share any shops where you have seen them.

Blessings and light,

Liz

in this moment (an invitation)

in this moment, i stand under blue sky and breathe in the fresh air and know:
when i quiet my mind and lean into trust, i often realize that i innately know what the next step should be.

***

Inspired by a prompt in Chapter 1 of my book Inner Excavation, I felt moved to take my camera outside and capture "where I stand" today and then pair the photo with an "in this moment" note that gently pushed me to honor what I know today.

An Invitation

I would love to see where you stand today...where you are in this moment...what you know. Tell me in the comments or link to your blog or Flickr with an answer. 

Hope your weekend is full of many good things (and rest),

Liz

on this day...

as you open your heart to all that is to come,

may you always remember that beauty is waiting inside this moment

may your mind rest in the space you create with each breath

may you trust compassion when facing uncertainty

may your spirit feel the lightness of truth and love 

yes

yes

yes