The Process of Doing Our Creative Work Alters Us In Beautiful Ways. 

“Your smile reminds me of chrysanthemums on a summer day in early June when they first bloom, you’re beautiful like violets and marigolds and violets in the afternoon. Like the sun when it shines through the clouds you light up the room.”

~”Chrysanthemum” lyric by the new Minnesota band TOAD (GAH! love this song-  so dance-y and hopeful!)

#fanart art by me- inspired by this wonderful song!

5 FEEL GOOD Things I Want to Share with YOU!

1. What would it look like to treat your work like it is a treasure or sacred?  A few months ago, I was wondering how to proceed with my art making.  I have been painting and making digital art on and off all year, but it has become a huge priority for me, soulwise.  Despite how important I sense it is, I get lost sometimes.  I went to Alice, my spirit companion (who happens to be in elephant form) and when I asked her about how to grow my art making, she invited me to treat my work as if it were a treasure. Immediately, I thought about framing one of my larger paintings on canvas, professionally.

“But!! That would cost money!!!” , scoffed my inner (miserly) accountant.  I gently reminded them that it was OK. I had the money to spend for this project.  Feeling shy as I handed it to the framing person and paid, I worried. Did they think it “worthy” of framing?   It turned our beautifully and I enjoyed seeing my art treated like a treasure for a few months at home.  Then my sister contacted me and requested to purchase some art from me.  I was so touched! And I felt so proud and happy to ship it to her STAT.  It was the perfect piece for her.  The way we treat what we create matters.  Or maybe you need to invest in a tool that would elevate your work and treat the work as a treasured process?  What it would it look like to treasure your creative work?

2. How to be a light in the darkest season.  The holidays are SO ODD.  Every year I forget how dark it can get.  Yes, of course there is beauty. But there is also grief.  …Elevated expectations (followed by the yet deeper disappointments). ….Missing the ones who are no longer with us or those who can’t come home.  And, let’s not forget the historical holiday hurts of the past that gurgle up from the Grinch-y swamp.  In moments, this past weekend, I felt caught between tending to my beloved Dad, to my partner and to my children….each with their own unique needs + desires (not to mention my own).

I remembered that the solution is to spend time with a Higher Power. Like, I think I need to DOUBLE the time I already spend praying, meditating or walking in nature alone with myself.  I did a good bit of this on Friday and Saturday and, miraculously, tempers were soothed, there were unexpected joyful moments of easy connection and the closed doors of hearts (including mine) swung open once again.

3. The Modern Marriage Is Weighted Down With MUCH Baggage According to Eli Frankel at Northwestern University in Chicago (he writes a lot like Dan Pink or Michael Pollan)  This podcast interview with him fascinated me and gave me insights into my own relationship.

“As we’ve increasingly sidelined our other friends and relatives, we’ve expanded our spouse’s responsibility for helping us fulfill our deepest emotional and psychological needs. Success typically requires not only compatibility, but also deep insight into each other’s core essence –the sort of insight that helps us know what type of support is most beneficial under which circumstances. Developing such insight typically requires significant investment of time and energy in the relationship.”

“All or Nothing Marriage”  a book by Eli Frankel offfers some strategies to elevate your marriage/partnership!

4. Our Environments are FULL of Cues!  Be sure that they are the cues you want around. By engineering it, you can change your outcomes. I’ve used this idea to make more art, to quit caffeine and to play more ukelele to make a few. 3.5 minute video is here. Changing your environment will change your habits!

5. The Process of Doing Our Creative Work Alters Us In Beautiful Ways.  When I finished writing my memoir, Swimming with Elephants, Something in me softened towards myself. I stood a little taller. I understood with more clarity what had been going  on inside of me for the previous 46 years.  Each time that I paint a painting, or write a story, something similar happens.  I stand a little closer to that sacred fire. I see my own beauty…even if only for a moment. It can even approximate ecstasy in moments!  It can also be very scary to start!

Tell your story.
Shout it. Write it.
Whisper it if you have to.
But tell it.
Some won’t understand it.
Some will outright reject it.
But many will
thank you for it.
And then the most
magical thing will happen.
One by one, voices will start
whispering, ‘Me, too.’
And your tribe will gather.
And you will never
feel alone again.
~ L.R. Knost

Want to write with the supper of others who’ve been there? With a tribe of like minded souls?

Learn more about Let’s Fly Together….our “get your book written in 2023” program!

Last day for early bird price is Thursday Dec 1st!

6.  Bonus Old Lady Make Up Find! Wait, is that shamanic? Our beautiful non-binary child Charlie has become somewhat of a makeup savant.  They were impressed that I owned a tube of this and I really love it- (I like “Dawn” and “Beam”  I use on cheeks and also (OLD LADY TIP) at hairline and sometimes a touch just below my eyebrows to make me look more ALIVE, LOL!  I’m planning on looking as alive as possible until I’m not! It makes you moist and meaty and not dry and crepey!
(me with dawn on cheeks and at hairline!)

I’ve got room in the schedule for YOU!  You can book divinations, coaching, shamanic healing and shamanic mentoring HERE. 

with love,

Sarah

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P.S.  Is 2023 the year you are going to commit to getting your book written?  If so, Inger Kenobi and I have an amazing program for you!

Together we can do what we could never do alone!

WRITE YOUR BOOK IN 2023

After watching countless writers struggle to give their book the time and the energy it needs and deserves – and after overcoming oh-so-many obstacles ourselves – we’re excited to show you a different path. A flight path, if you will, where:

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• you’ll be supported, uplifted, and on a roll
• you’ll learn in-depth writing tools and strategies that work
• you’ll stop fussing, nitpicking, and itching to ‘improve’ everything
• you’ll forge a sacred bond between you and your book
• you’ll break free from writer’s block and inner drama
• you’ll isolate what you want to write about from what you think you should write about
• you’ll schedule pleasure breaks and celebrate your wins
• you’ll get to say, ‘I wrote a book!’ ​

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We guarantee: When you show up for yourself and your amazing book, you are going to feel the incomparable feeling of being in integrity with yourself.

READ more and register by Dec 1 for the early bird discount!

If you’re an alumni, hit “reply” to this email and I can send you a discount code.