Comfort is the foundation for creativity and creativity is the flower
that gives off the fragrance of service.

Dear glorious seekers,

I have a beautiful storm in my brain; it's an inspiration I'm hoping will sweep the world, reminding everyone -- especially you, dearest one -- that we are each utterly and completely okay in this moment, utterly beautifully okay. That to be feeling exactly how you are feeling, experiencing exactly what you are experiencing, being exactly who you are being, right now, and accepting it, is the purest definition of beauty I know.

So to celebrate this message and spread the word, I'm declaring May 15th Freedom From Self-Improvement Day -- and creating postcards to print out and spread around your life, buttons to add to your websites and blogs, and a list of ideas on how to cease improving for a moment, and an interactive website to embrace it all.

The genesis of this day is simple: I want to encourage others to embrace their beautiful, perfectly imperfect selves. Ideas:

• Get some sidewalk chalk and scrawl, "YOU ARE ENOUGH" on the sidewalk outside your local high school.
  
  
• Make a list of your "shortcomings" (as you perceive them) and choose one to embrace -- if not for a lifetime, then just for a day.
  
  
• Resolve to refrain from beating yourself up over your eating choices for just 24 hours.

What would encourage you -- and other men and women -- to let go of the so-very-toxic "shoulds?" Share your ideas with us. How have you found peace in imperfection? What areas of yourself are hardest to accept?

Send your thoughts and ideas to Jen@jenniferlouden.com -- if we use one in any way during our promotions for Freedom From Self-Improvement Day, we'll enter you in a drawing for the book or CD of your choice from our store.

Imperfectly,

Jen

Paula Russell who wrote the daily Instant Soothing column for !link_cq for three years has launched the most amazing tour business, taking small groups of women to Italy. I'm hoping to convince my mom to take one of Paula's trips. I give this my very highest recommendation. Put it in your list of dream resources and visit Paula's blog about books for fantastic book suggestions.
Time of Your Life Tours
Paula's Book Talk

In celebration of
You:
She who is brave enough to desire
the sea's gray waves, the hawk's cry, the moon's shadow
She who is willing to seduce life
        to kneel at its beauty and kiss it,
        full on the mouth

In celebration of:
YOU

• FRE* Teleclass: Nurturing the Muse on May 8th. Sign up at !link_muse
  
  
• Mother's Day at Bellevue First Congregational Church UCC, Bellevue, WA - May 13, 2007
  
  
• Live Your Healthiest Life! Day Retreat for Women to Recharge, Renew, and Rebalance, Chattanooga, TN - May 26, 2007
  
  
• The Luscious, Creative Self-Care Retreat at Kripalu Retreat Center, Lenox, Mass. - June 22-24, 2007
  
  
• Writing Naked on the Beach: Romancing your creative genius, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, July 19-21, 2007

Further details at !link_whatsnew

Self-Care Minder
See more info on the four moods of self-care.

Depleted. Our souls crave beauty as much as our bodies crave nutrients. When you're feeling bone weary and sucked dry, could it be that you're thirsting for something tender -- a quiet moment of solitude, as you drink in the dew-lit morning and fog-shrouded streets? A complicity between your bare toes and the hot soil of your garden bed? A stroll through a playground, listening to the gleeful clamor and twirls of unbound children? Seek beauty, in a lush apricot-tinged rose in a vase on your kitchen counter, or in the perfect velvet pink of your lover's earlobe. It is everywhere. Soak it in. Allow it to feed you.

Resource: The Writer's Almanac podcast. Every day, the "voice," Garrison Keillor, reads a short poem. What better way to start the day?

Daily Photo Blogs. Search by city to see a collection of gorgeous photos from around the world. Check out the Stayton (Oregon) Daily Photo Blog for a huge dose of eye candy from Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Tapas/Heat. Paying attention is one of the most powerful means to bring more of something into our lives. Where is beauty in your world right now, when you look up from the computer or the page (if you printed out this newsletter and took it to bed with you)? How might you document it?

I love the idea of a photo a day. What power a visual record of the details of your daily life can generate! Not a photographer? Neither am I which is why I love the point and shoot digital camera my husband bought (for himself, I might add). It's free and if I like a picture, great. If not, delete delete delete. If you don't have a camera, you could make a sketch a day, or an ATC (artist trading card) a day, or a cupcake a day? The possibilities are gorgeously endless when it comes to capturing – and generating -- beauty.

Then make an offering of what you notice at Jen's blog: !link_beauty

Resource:
Artist Trading Card gallery. You'll be awed by what artists have done with these 2.5 x 3.5" canvases.

Everyday Matters. Danny Gregory, artist and author, is one of the biggest proponents of the benefits of a daily drawing practice. Find inspiration and ideas on his site.

Joyful Desire. Beauty in America has become too exclusive rather than inclusive, too narrow (and starved) instead of voluptuously loving and broad. We can blame fashion magazines, television, the proliferation of strip malls and Pottery Barns that make conformity and uniformity the keywords of the day or we can notice where we are willing to celebrate diversity, rather than fear it.

We lose our connection to All That Is when we decry our differences. Just as the world is losing thousands of species of flora and fauna every year, we can find our own brand of uniqueness becoming extinct. It's trite but blessedly true: There is only one of you. If you don't embrace the "you" you were meant to be, it is no less a travesty than the extinction of the passenger pigeon or the sea mink.

Designate yourself an endangered species and create a safe environment in which you can flourish. We need you and your desires so you can fully and beautifully manifest your gifts in the world.

Resources:
Watch this film from Dove, then forward the link to every woman you know who feels bad about her looks. Right on, Dove!

Effortless Service. A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. --Albert Einstein

Resources:
A far out talk by spiritual teacher Adyshanti on You Tube.

The Life Organizer Bracelet - Mindful Jewelry to Beautifully Balance
Jewelry and life organizing? Who would have thought...? But when artist Deborah Moskowitz gifted me with this bracelet at a recent book signing, I knew I had to share it with the whole community.

This handcrafted sterling silver bangle bracelet is more than just a gorgeous fashion accessory -- it's a reminder of how to live a connected, soul-centered life. Imprinted with the five steps of the life organizing process -- Connect - Feel - Inquire - Allow - Apply -- the limited-edition bracelet will prompt you to check in with your soul.

!link_bracelet

You can also pick up Jen's newest book, The Life Organizer: A Woman's Guide to a Mindful Year and the companion CD at ComfortQueen.com.
!link_lo

The LoudenMouth Podcast feed is available through iTunes. Subscribe. You can also do a search on Jennifer Louden or LoudenMouth using iTunes. Or if you are using an RSS feed to keep up with the Podcast, the click for the feed. If you need further info check out our Podcast 101.

Resources You'll Love

These fleece blankets silkscreened with positive affirmations are a great way to warmly live intentionally. Affirmagy

Are you struggling to make your business a success? Is fear keeping you from promoting your work? Do you love what you do but go blank when you try to tell others about it?
Then stop by my friend Molly's web site and order her program Authentic Promotion an evolutionary marketing program that turns marketing and promotion into a path of increasing self-awareness, authenticity, and right livelihood. It shows you how to achieve authentic prosperity, taking you step by step through the new ways of thinking and being, so you can promote your work with integrity and authenticity.

Eric Maisel's groundbreaking new book, Ten Zen Seconds, marrying the best techniques of East and West, provides a brand new tool for instant stress reduction and a healthier outlook on life. Hailed by Library Journal as perfect "for anyone interested in improving his or her ability to center and to become calmer and more powerful," Ten Zen Seconds is your next step in mindfulness practice. Available everywhere; or visit http://tenzenseconds.com.

Get Unstuck & Get Going on the Stuff that Matters is the award-winning self-coaching program and tool from Canadian Coach of the Year, Michael Bungay Stanier. Get clear on your challenge, generate up to 125,000 new possibilities (really!), and learn the secret of doubling the likelihood of doing what you want to do.