A few weeks ago, Eleanor and I went to Point Defiance park to walk around the rose garden. We were working with prompts from Chapter 2 of Inner Excavation and using our senses to explore.
It was awesome. I let her use my phone to take photos of whatever she wanted, giving her the prompt of "find your senses," which she quickly expanded to "find flowers in every color of the rainbow."
While she took photos and ran around, I took photos too. With my "big-girl camera." I snapped lots of flowers but also captured Eleanor at 6.
What I found on my camera today made me so very happy I got my big camera out and just had fun.
Capturing everyday life through our lens helps us gather evidence of the beautiful, messy, real life we're living every single day. This evidence in turn pushes us to see the ways we're already living the life we sometimes long for. We see examples of the ways we slow down and really enjoy our loved ones, how we take the time to notice the simple beauty around us, and how we honor our own needs. And sometimes a photography practice actually invites these moments of mindfulness and love into our lives.
Gathering evidence is one powerful way to navigate The And Space. Try it and see what happens. Then come back and let me know what you unearth.
This summer, Eleanor is joining me (and more than 300 others) for the Inner Excavate-along, the read-along meets create-along of my book Inner Excavation.
And it's awesome. She's teaching me so much as she dives into the prompts and does things her way.
At the beginning of any course I teach, I invite participants to create an intention for themselves. I wanted to teach this to Eleanor as well. So we read the introduction at bedtime a few weeks ago (she asked such awesome questions: Did you really write all of this? How did you know what you wanted to say?) and talked about what an intention is. The next day, she came up with this as her intention and wrote it in her journal.
Play. Have fun. Make mistakes that I can fix.) She's working on spelling the words she knows and was delighted when she spelled fix as "fixe" so she could fix a mistake right away!
I want to always remember that.
As we dive into each chapter, we're reading some of it together (especially the introductions) and then talking about the general themes. Then we work with a couple of prompts that I choose. (Depending on the age of your child, you could choose them together, work through all of them etc. Ellie is 6, so I'm going with what makes sense for her.)
So far, it has felt like the most important pieces I'm sharing are the different ways to "tell your story" - through photos, words, color, and any other way that makes sense to you. We're gathering words, going on walks to take photos, and also sitting down with our journals and creating with what we've gathered.
Sometimes, I give her a jumping off point based on the prompts in the book if we don't already have a plan. I'm gently pushing her to write her own stories without asking me to spell every word; she's pushing back that she wants to learn how to spell the words she doesn't know.
I'm also learning how to stay quiet when I have an idea of what we might create and she's diving in and just having fun without needing any instruction. And I'm also figuring out ways to teach - "look what happens when you do this with your watercolor brush" and encouraging her to be curious and experiment. And I'm trying to let go of my expectations of how this experience "should" look.
So basically, the usual parenting lessons with a big side of color.
And hopefully along the way, I'm giving her even more tools to express herself, her stories, her feelings, her dreams. Yes yes yes.
I'm also remembering that I need my own time where I can write my stories down, so I'm creating little pockets of alone time to do that too.
There's still time to join in this summer's free Inner Excavate-along. You just need the book! The course is always available and new folks are joining us every day in our magical Facebook group. You can buy the book here and sign up for the course emails here.
There's this space between all the roles and the chatter in your head and others' expectations and misunderstandings and wonderings. There's this space that exists between the inhalation and exhalation. A pause you can find if you slow down enough.
If you pay attention.
On the days when you might be wearing the same clothes you wore the day before, when you need a shower, when the way things are isn't quite the way you thought they would be, find that pause. And then another. And then another after that. See if you can find you - the you who isn't buried by the shoulds - in that space.
And when you do, take a photo and let yourself be seen (by the one person who knows you best of all: You).
If I was writing the introduction to Inner Excavation today, I would include the quote above because this idea of asking the questions and then answering them through self-expression and play and words and photos and journaling and color and connection - that is what my book is all about.
When I think about the timing of things - when the book came out, where the online world and social media were five and a half years ago, where we were in our relationship to self-portraits (that we now call selfies!), where I was in my own understanding of how to launch a book and run a business - combined with Ellie's birth and her surgery - I sometimes want to go back into that path behind me and just pluck my book right from the timeline and then come here and say:
Dear beautiful soul,
I wrote a book just for you. It's about cultivating a relationship with the one person who knows you best of all: you. It's about practicing self-care through writing and taking photos and sometimes getting messy with paper and color and paint and glue. It's about holding out your camera and looking at yourself in the eyes and saying, "Yes, I see you." It's about creating a foundation to help you build a bridge between daily life and the longings inside you.
This book contains so many practices that you can turn to again and again throughout your life so that you are always deepening your relationship with yourself (and in turn your relationship with others and all that is greater than you).
I hope you'll check it out and give yourself that gift of exploring and opening up to the stories inside you.
Love, Liz
Today, I can't go back in time.
But I can stand behind these words and invite you to still come along. I have a stack of books here in my studio just waiting to get into your hands. I have a free ecourse (and a free private Facebook group) that begins June 27th. And I'd love to walk beside you.
Let's ask the questions and get messy and have fun exploring our answers.
Together.
Because you aren't alone over there as you find your way and long to tell your stories.
Join me this summer for another round of the InnerExcavate-along! We start Monday, June 27th!
It's the read-along meets create-along six-week journey into my book Inner Excavation.
It's my way of helping you take my book off of your shelf and actually work through it so you can get all the juicy goodness and learning you can out of it. Yes!
All you need is the book, the course itself is FREE! We'll share our stories and what we're creating and finding in a private Facebook group.
And for a limited time, Inner Excavation is just $16 plus shipping (list price $24.99). You can find it right here in my shop and then sign up for the read-along below.
I hope you'll join me and invite some friends to come along.
A Little More About the Book
In Inner Excavation, I gathered up many of my favorite ways to unearth pieces of who you are using the mediums of poetry, photography, and mixed media.
This book is really about using self-portraits to tell our stories.
Through the prompts and examples in this book, you'll be inspired to take photos of the everyday beauty around you (and even turn the camera on yourself), find the poet inside you, play with the art supplies you probably already have in your home, and take time to seek stillness in your daily life.
Most importantly, you will explore new ways to dig deeper into the stories just waiting inside you.
How the Inner Excavate-along Works
Each week you'll receive 3-4 emails from me that follow along with the chapters. I've chosen one prompt to dive deeper inside each week, and you can play along with that one or choose the one that speaks to you the most from that chapter. I share some more words about the chapter and my take on the prompt I've chosen to explore. There are videos that I recorded during the first round of this course a couple of years ago, and the course also includes some updates from when I played along last summer. And of course, there will be some new surprises along the way as we journey through it together again.
Simple art supplies if you'd like to play with the art prompts in the book (here's a peek at what I took into my dig site last year)
How to sign up:
First you need the book. After you have the book in your hands, all you need to do is sign up below. (And after the course is over, you'll receive my (almost) weekly newsletter about more adventures in telling our stories and creative self-care, which you can unsubscribe from at any time.)
If you signed up last year and want to come along, you'll need to sign up again.
Join the Inner Excavate-along
Be sure to take the time to confirm you signed up via the confirmation email you'll receive from me via MailChimp. This step is really important or you won't receive the course emails.
To answer a few questions I've received:
Is this only for people who buy the book from you now?
If you already have the book you are invited to come along! I'm so delighted to have those of you who have had my book from the very beginning join us. You can also check my book out from your local library and you might even find a copy at a used bookstore. You can also buy Inner Excavation online at Amazon and other online bookstores.
What supplies do I need?
I've listed a few above, but all you really need is a notebook and your curiosity and an open heart. You could just work through the writing prompts. You could use your phone to have fun with the photography prompts. And you could take simple art supplies like crayons and colored pencils and magazines to dive into the art prompts.
Let this be simple.
I will share supply resources as I share my own responses to the prompts along with a brief supply list of items I'm carrying with me into my dig site.
Do I really need the book?
We'll be reading through the book together, so the stories being shared and prompts people will be responding to in our Facebook group are all in the book. They won't be listed somewhere else.
And, there's an energy exchange here that is really important to me (and hopefully is to you too). Meaning, I gathered up all these juicy prompts and shared stories in the book and asked a few artists to join me, and I put them all together in a book that I'm holding out to you right from my heart. And now I'm inviting you to come along and dive into it all with me in a private Facebook group where I'll be holding space and cheering you on. So yes, the course is free, but having a copy of the book from whatever means works for you feels right to me. If you don't have the book and don't plan to get a copy, this course really isn't for you.
What if I'm traveling during the course?
The awesome thing about this course is that the emails arrive in your inbox and you can work with them whenever you have time. So you really don't get behind, you just go through the course at your pace. The Facebook group will remain open indefinitely, so you can share and connect whenever you want to.
I signed up but I haven't received any emails yet. What's going on?
Your first email should come within hours after you sign up. If it hasn't arrived, be sure to check your promotions folder. Often course emails appear in different folders in your inbox, so be sure to watch for it there. Also check spam and even do a quick search for my name to see if your email is hiding somewhere. Because so many of us check our email on our phones, often it's been accidentally deleted or archived. Also, if you use a plugin like unroll.me, you might not receive the emails due to your settings, so be sure to check them.
Why is the course free?
One of my biggest hopes is to help women get out of this loop: Buying more "stuff" and ecourses and books to help them tell their stories and live their dreams only to watch them get overwhelmed and not actually do the "stuff" they want to do.
This is my way of saying, "Let's take one of the books off of our shelves and really dive into it in community and see what we find. Let's get out of the gathering of ideas phase and actually get to the doing. Let's hold hands as we go so we can gently hold each other accountable and help one another push throug the hard moments." It's my way of helping you build a bridge from your daily life to more really good days.
I see you there heart beating in your hand, words pour from it amid tears, old stories, and new-found wisdom. I see you choosing, building, stepping forward to claim the path. I see you loosening the grip on the envy, the misunderstandings, the way it shoud have been. I see you sloughing it off (sloughing so much off) so you can feel the light upon your new-grown skin. I see you stepping forward onto this ready ground.
And you are so beautiful.
*****
We're just finishing Chapter 4 of Inner Excavation as part this summer's Inner Excavate-along. That chapter steps into self-portraiture as a way to tell your story and rereading it inspired me to want to tell more stories using this tool that is so dear to me. This week, I've been sifting through my archives finding self-portraits I haven't edited or shared. A series I took last summer in Taos pushed me to play with the prompt "I see you" and uncover some truths from then and from now. It's felt like I've had a lot of stories I've wanted to share in this space but they have remained close to me or shared in snippets in conversations here and there for months. But I'm ready to let them start dripping out in poem notes and stories and photos.
If you'd like to play along and join in the Inner Excavate-along, you're invited to sign up at any time. Learn more right here.
As more than 500 people join in for this summer's Inner Excavate-along, I want to share what I'm bringing with me.
This is similar to the group of items I brought with me the last time around, but there are a few new fun additions. I decided to put them all in one of my blessings baskets so that I can easily grab them for an afternoon at the park or the backyard. I'm notorious for piling things on top of things, so these baskets are a huge help to keep projects that I work on outside the studio all on one place.
Here's an upclose look at the supplies.
And here are the details:
I'm using the same journal I used previously. It's a Picadilly sketchbook, and it has a lot of pages and is only about 25% full right now. And I just spotted this same one at a crazy clearance price at Barnes and Noble! (You can check if they have it at your local store too.) Here's a similar journal at Amazon.
And yes, I covered that whole journal cover with washi tape and then covered the ends on the inside with a large piece of scrapbook paper. I heart washi tape. So I'm bringing some more along with me. My current favorites are this set from MT and this chevron stripey set my One Move Retreat gals will recognize.
If I feel moved to stamp any words (like chapter titles or simple prompts), I'm going to use these lowercase stamps.
I've gathered up a few coin envelopes, manila tags, and other little envelopes and scrapbook papers (and I might dive into my stash as needed).
Because I've been really into watercolor washes and writing with watercolors, I'm tucking in watercolors (similar to these; mine our originally from Target but they don't seem to carry them) and these brushes.
I have a few photos I've been putting aside that I might want to use, but I'll also take some new ones. The square photos are from Sticky9, which is my current favorite source for square photos that are the size I like for journaling. You can easily choose your Instagram photos and place a quick order. They also print fun square magnets from your IG photos. (Use code FRIEND10W9P for 15% off your first order!)
I plan to use my iPhone for all the photos I'll take (though that might change). I'm going to use my Instax Share printer to easily print some of my photos. I am in love with this printer for many reasons, including that it uses the same "film" as the regular Instax mini instant camera uses (and I have a lot of it) and it is easily portable so I can print anywhere, including the park or a coffee shop. I might also use my new Canon Selphy. Both connect wirelessly to my phone, which is so darn awesome. I'll be writing an article about these printers (and a few others) soon, but here's what I'd say: If you don't currently have a printer that connects to your phone and you want one, the Selphy is awesome because it prints 4x6 plus it easily prints IG photos square (you just have to trim off the ends). The Instax is super fun! But the Selphy is great for every day. (Oh and my phone case is totally a Reading Rainbow aka Brainbow that you can find here.)
I'm putting all the photos, tape, and other small things in my favorite Blue Q kitty pouch for ease.
Here's what I want you to remember though: The best Inner Excavation supplies are the ones that bring you joy and the ones you have on hand. So bring the supplies that make you happy!
Feel free to ask any questions in the comments and I'll answer them there.
Note: Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission or credit if you purchase through the links.
*****
Come along and join the Inner Excavate-along! It's the read-along meets create-along of my book Inner Excavation. A group of readers started on July 6, but you can join in any time. This offering is ongoing and the Facebook group will be open indefinitely. The group is full of encouraging dear souls who are supporting one another as we each move through the book at our pace. So whether you join us in July or November, you'll be welcomed and supported. You can also move through the course without the FB group. It is totally optional. Read all about the Inner Excavate-along right here.
This summer I'm bringing back the InnerExcavate-along!
It's the read-along meets create-along six-week journey into my book Inner Excavation. This time we're going to have a private Facebook group to share our stories and peeks into what we find in our dig sites.
It's my way of helping you take my book off of your shelf and actually work through it so you can get all the juicy goodness and learning you can out of it. Yes!
All you need is the book, the course itself is FREE!
And for a limited time, Inner Excavation is just $16 plus shipping (list price $24.99). You can find it right here in my shop.
It's been so much fun sending out copies to you over the last couple of weeks + sending copies to your friends who you're inviting to join you. Thank you for your support beautiful souls!
Note: A group of readers started on July 6, but you can join in any time. This offering is ongoing and the Facebook group will be open indefinitely. The group is full of encouraging dear souls who are supporting one another as we each move through the book at our pace. So whether you join us in July or November, you'll be welcomed and supported. You can also move through the course without the FB group. It is totally optional.
A Little More About the Book
In Inner Excavation, I gathered up many of my favorite ways to unearth pieces of our stories using the mediums of poetry, photography, and mixed media.
This book is really about using self-portraits to tell our stories.
Through the prompts and examples in this book, you will be inspired to take photos of the everyday beauty around you (and even turn the camera on yourself), find the poet inside you, play with the art supplies you probably already have in your home, and take time to seek stillness in your daily life.
Most importantly, you will explore new ways to dig deeper into the stories just waiting inside you.
How the Inner Excavate-along Works
Each week you'll receive 3-4 emails from me that follow along with the chapters. I've chosen one prompt to dive deeper inside each week, and you'll be invited to choose the one that speaks to you the most from that chapter. I share some more words about the chapter and my take on the prompt I've chosen to explore. There are videos that I recorded during the first round of this course a couple of years ago, and I'll be sharing a few updates and thoughts as I work through the prompts beside you again.
Simple art supplies if you'd like to play with the art prompts in the book (I'll share some more ideas in an updated post in a few days)
How to sign up:
First you need the book. After you have the book in your hands, all you need to do is sign up below. (And after the course is over, you'll receive my (almost) weekly newsletter about more adventures in telling our stories and creative self-care, which you can unsubscribe from at any time.)
Be sure to take the time to confirm you signed up via the confirmation email you'll receive from me via MailChimp. This step is really important or you won't receive the course emails.
To answer a few questions I've received (updated!):
Is this only for people who buy the book from you now?
If you already have the book you are invited to come along! I'm so delighted to have those of you who have had my book from the very beginning join us. You can also check my book out from your local library and you might even find a copy at a used bookstore. You can also buy Inner Excavation online at Amazon.
What supplies do I need?
I've listed a few above, but all you really need is a notebook and your curiosity and an open heart. You could just work through the writing prompts. You could use your phone to have fun with the photography prompts. And you could take simple art supplies like crayons and colored pencils and magazines to dive into the art prompts.
Let this be simple.
I will share supply resources though as I share my own responses to the prompts along with a brief supply list of items I'm carrying with me into my dig site.
Do I really need the book?
We'll be reading through the book together, so the stories being shared and prompts people will be responding to in our Facebook group are all in the book. They won't be listed somewhere else.
And, there's an energy exchange here that is really important to me. Meaning, I gathered up all these juicy prompts and asked some colleagues to join me in sharing stories of our journeys into our dig sites, and I worked hard to put them all together in a book that I'm holding out to you right from my heart. And now I'm inviting you to come along and dive into it all with me in a private Facebook group where I'll be holding space and cheering you on. So yes, the course is free, but having a copy of the book from whatever means works for you feels right to me. If you don't have the book and don't plan to get a copy, this course really isn't for you.
What if I'm traveling during the course?
The awesome thing about this course is that the emails arrive in your inbox and you can work with them whenever you have time. So you really don't get behind, you just go through the course at your pace. The Facebook group will remain open indefinitely, so you can share and connect whenever you want to.
I signed up but I haven't received any emails yet. What's going on?
Your first email should come within hours after you sign up. If it hasn't arrived, be sure to check your promotions folder. Often course emails appear in different folders in your inbox, so be sure to watch for it there. Also check spam and even do a quick search for my name to see if your email is hiding somewhere. Because so many of us check our email on our phones, often it's been accidentally deleted or archived. Also, if you use a plugin like unroll.me, you might not receive the emails due to your settings, so be sure to check them.
Why is the course free?
One of my biggest hopes is to help women get out of this loop: Buying more "stuff" and ecourses and books to help them tell their stories and live their dreams only to watch them get overwhelmed and not actually do the "stuff" they want to do.
This is my way of saying, "Let's take one of the books off of our shelves and really dive into it in community and see what we find. Let's get out of the gathering of ideas phase and actually get to the doing. Let's hold hands as we go so we can gently hold each other accountable and help one another push throug the hard moments." It's my way of helping you build a bridge from your daily life to more really good days.
