HOLIDAY BOOK SALE
My Mom bought a new house near me -- I couldn't be happier!!! We don't want to move all our inventory and so it's your opportunity to stock up on goodies. Perfect for teachers, best friends, mother-in-laws, older babysitters, and anyone else who needs some comfort! I do write a heartfelt inspiration in each book but I can't personalize by name. Still, a very cool personal touch.
Ways to Save:
- Buy The Life Organizer: A Woman's Guide to a Mindful Year and get a F**R*EE Life Organizer Companion CD! Save $14.99
- Buy Comfort Secrets for Busy Women and get a FR**EE journal Save $6.95
- Buy The Woman's Retreat Book and get a FR**EE Audio Sacred Pause Retreat: Listening to the Question (mp3) Save $12.95
- Buy anything else and get 35% off*!! Use the coupon code "holidays".
*Sorry no discount on our Specialty Items.
Dear Women Who May Also Know the Inky Darkness Before, During and Sometimes After Big Change,
 On my blog, I've been writing about burning -- and so have many amazing women and men -- how many things that have defined me are burning away. There isn't much of me left and mostly, that feels great. I trust, really trust, this is a perfectly right, fruitful, precious life passage that is making room for the next phase of my life to be born... and some days, oh some days, it's feels poppy, dry, vastly horrible, maybe like what an oyster feels when it's all sand gritting away at its most tender insides with no pearl (yet) to show for the pain. I am ready for some ease, some fun and I know it's up to me to open to that ease and fun by practicing excellent self-care -- in a richer, wilder, more honest way than I ever have before.
What do you do when you're in the darkness and you need to take great care of yourself but you have so little energy or willingness to do so?
Consider the ideas below as a taste of the evening workshop I'll present at the Yoga for Depression Retreat, January 5th - 12th, 2008 Tucson, Arizona.
This is the best R&R retreat I've ever attended -- this will be my second year. Be sure and tell Amy that I sent you. If you attend, say hi!
- Walk outside every day -- tell yourself you are just going to walk to the end of the block or the end of your yard, and if you don't want to go any farther than that, that's fine, you don't have to but get outside, even in the cold or wet or flooding or snow or wind like we've had these last few days in Washington.
- Write down everything that feels painful, overwhelming, impossible or scary -- write for five minutes or three pages or however long feels good.
- Speak to yourself like you would you best friend and let her cajole you into eating a big salad or pile of cooked greens and some light protein instead of a Diet Coke and popcorn.
- Sip a tad of one of these bottled wonders: I swear Pure Passion lifts my mood, Pure Endurance makes it impossible not to exercise, and Pure Mind makes me super focused and creative. DOES CONTAIN CAFFEINE. I buy two cases at a time -- free shipping and Whole Foods and other health food stores carry the tea bags which work but not as well as the blends in bottles.
- Pour yourself a big pitcher of water and sip at it all day -- add some lemon to wake up your senses.
- Do only what you want which isn't the same as what your mood tells you you want -- read more...
- Walk with someone you like; make a date to walk in the early morning, get your blood going first thing but be sure it's someone cheerful but not too cheerful or you might have to slap them silly.
- Practice yoga with Amy -- just put it in the DVD player and hit play without insisting you do anything else!
- Do alternate nostril breathing when you first wake up or pick up Amy's Breathing to Beat the Blues one of my very best self-care tools.
- Do something creative, no matter how small -- I keep my big cheap art journal out on my desk with a smattering of oil pastels, water soluble crayons, pencils, a glue stick, and some collage images and I doodle whenever -- sometimes for only a minute and it boosts my mood. If you don't know where to start, the always inspiring Teesha Moore of ArtFest fame is offering an art journaling retreat called Play January 31 to February 4, 2008 in Port Townsend, Washington. I'm hoping to go -- and there are only a few spaces left so download the particulars right at the top of this page and then tell Teesha I sent you and email me so we can meet up. You might also like this very cool card deck of art journaling ideas.
- Read The Feeling Good Handbook by David Burns but don't read the whole thing -- open to chapter 2-9 and simply do an exercise without reading much at all.
- Visit TheWork.org, download a Judge your Neighbor worksheet, fill it out, then do a free session with a volunteer.
- Talk to someone you really like everyday, even if you haven't spoken to them in years; if you can't call, email them -- let some love in even if you think it won't help
- Start taking 1000 EU's of omega 3's everyday and eat fish three to four times a week -- counrtries where fish is consumed this much suffer from depression 50 times less than countries (like the U.S.) where fish is consumed less than once a week.
- Take in some good news – Try Ode or GoodNewsNetwork.org/ and while you are at it, turn off the TV especially any regular news program -- studies have shown this is the single easiest thing you can do to raise your mood
Visit my blog and share what you do to raise your mood when change is happening, identity is shrinking or you are simply DOWN IN THE DEPTHS – writing about what you do will remind you you know more and do more than you think and sharing the ideas will uplift others.
TAKE A LIFE ORGANIZING WORKSHOP WITH ME
A super duper amazingly fun cheap truly helpful way to start the new year -- and cheap!
Portland Oregon
Saturday January 12, 2008
11 am to 2 pm
Cost: $35
You are deeply grateful for so much of life, and yet, you sometimes fantasize about being able to stop everyone and everything (including aging!) until you're caught up. In this timeless space, you'd have enough time and energy to feel your way to your next steps: ways to share your gifts. We'll explore the life organizing process especially rediscovering authentic desire, learning from your life insights and creating simple daily practices to stay in touch with your center and live your truth. This is a rare opportunity to work with me in a small group while exploring my new book.
Visit http://www.newrenbooks.com/events/main.html for how to register
GOOD BOOKS AND BOOK LIKE THINGS FOR GIFT GIVING
(I like them a lot or want them a lot!)
For the writer artist or writer want to be artist (that's me!)
Writer's Brush: Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture by Writers
For the scrap-booker or crafter
The Art of Personal Imagery by Corey Moortgat
For anyone who loves funny writing and great illustrations
The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman
For the writer who wants to lose weight or the journaler who write to bring consciousness to her life
The Writing Diet by Julia Cameron
For the spiritually hungry person in your life
Natural Radiance: Awakening Great Perfection by Lama Surya Das
For the Joseph Cornell want-to-be or the collector of strange items
Altered Curiosities: Assemblage Techniques and Projects by Jane Ann Wynn
AND
Secrets of Rusty Things: Transforming Found Objects into Art by Michael Demeng
For the Poet or Poetically Curious
Poet's Choice by Edward Hirsch
For the Harried
http://www.lulu.com/content/1251343
For the Cutting Edge
http://www.indieartsdvd.com/Previews.htm
For the Way Ahead of the Crowd or Those that Travel a Bunch
Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device
COMFORT THOUGHTS
My Daddy used to say, "When the going gets tough, the tough go on their nerve."
But what do we go on, we paragons of toughness, we guerilla girls of taking care,
when our nerves are worn through, when our shoes are without soles, our souls without tread?
What do we go on?
Perhaps we don't
go on, that is,
at least for awhile.
(And hopefully not in the same track when we do, again, go.)
Perhaps we pause or even -- gasp! -- stop (common alternative: grind to a halt)
Perhaps we flounder and panic and grasp and bribe God to please, let us keep going
but then
sometimes slowly
sometimes greedily
even gracefully
we discover what lies beneath above beyond
the push, the prod, the poke
what has always been there and always
will
be
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