How to Shift Your Perspective

 The collage made sense: an experienced writer surrounded by readers and books.

Author Collage 7.2020

But later, while glancing at the collage, my perspective shifted.That is, I’ve thought of writing as a solitary occupation. A renegade act. But what I had thought of as solitary now appeared collaborative and connected. I had learned to write in front of a television with my family around me. In later years, I’d write at the kitchen table while they were in the living room. I love journaling in crowded coffee shops. Editing in the company break room. This shift in perspective was eye-opening and I want more!  

1. To shift your perspective try this: write down your current point of view about a tiny trouble.
2. Put on your walking shoes and allow 30 minutes. Leave the earbuds at home and your phone in your pocket. Walk the neighborhood, the beach, the streets.
3. Your intention is to notice what you like with the walking prompt. "I like..."I like that yard, that plant, that purse, that mask!
4. The mind chatter will chime in at walking step #2. "A red door! I was going to have a red door. That reminds me to go to Home Depot..."
5. When you notice you are lost in thought, simply come back to “I like” on the next step.
6. When you are back home, write down a couple sentences about how you feel about your tiny trouble or about the walking prompt. 

Shift happens when we allow ourselves movement and the moment.

The Resolution Solution

This year, I'm not making any resolutions.  I only have one goal: to enjoy life more. That’s it. It’s how I focused on finishing writing projects this year, even while my brain hollered about music. Focused presence feels finer than anything I've tried.

I know what it takes to feel fit: morning pages and 15 minute meditations before work. After work, exercise before Netflix.  In between I juggle writing projects, monthly collage calendars, learning Instagram, connecting with friends, and reading. Lately, I've been reading about writing and reading great writing.

Here's an image that keeps my heart on the lighter side of goal-tending. When a pilot sets his course, the plane doesn’t fly in a straight line. Instead, it constantly makes adjustments. In this way, it reaches its intended target. 

Detail from 2019 October Calendar collage

I’ve set my heart on presence. Emotional guidance is my auto-pilot.

Esther Hicks describes it this way. This thought makes me feel a little better. This thought feels a little worse. Thought by thought, action by action, I show up for my sweet California life.

Where are you headed in 2020? 

Heart Agenda

It's the second Monday of the month and I'm up an hour early. I've already had tea and wrote my 3 morning pages. My next step is to review my weekly appointment book. I like to balance fun stuff---Soul Collage on Wednesday---with a few simple To Do's. 

Hoping I won't just be transcribing last week's To Do list. 

Next, I'll trick myself into exercising by adding two yoga appointment times to the calendar...in pencil. 

Each week it's the same process: creating a loose roadmap in the direction I want to go. And I'm always aiming for a light-hearted, expansive feeling.

I used to struggle to get things done. Note "trick myself into exercising." But I've learned that if I simply move toward a feeling that I want, rather than a goal such as getting into shape, the To Do list takes care of itself. 

Heart Agenda. Collage from 5/3/15. 

The Pissosity of Presence

Once I woke pissed at the cat for having the audacity to walk across my pillow, announcing it is time to get up because she was hungry. I wanted to walk across God's pillow myself, announcing “Hey, I am here. Feed me.”

Of course, if I did that God would only answer back, "You have a full fridge, get up and get it yourself."

After I fed the cat, I felt guilty for being mad.



Playing monsters with brothers baby Michael and Larry Larry Lawrence.

This afternoon I was hanging on the patio with a friend, feeling tender by recent personal events. My friend is an energy worker. That means she not only feels me heading towards TILT, but she sees how I am energetically locked in on TILT. This is not unlike a heat-seeking missile. If my setting is stuck on guilt...then all I'm going to attract is guilt.

This is why I kinda love the energy of mad. Mad means I have the gumption to shift my locked-in energy by actually feeling and releasing mad, then and there, in the moment. Only then can I move on. Lately I've noticed that some people don't allow themselves to feel this energy. Instead, in an effort for peace, they stuff down anger or frustration and pretend peace. I understand the fake-it-til-you-make-it adage, but in the case of strong feelings,  this is only putting a finger in the damn! to stave off an all-consuming  flood.

My friend went on to explain that when we are children, we move through feelings quickly. One moment we are fighting with our siblings. The next moment, we are best buds. As we become socialized, we hang onto certain emotions rather than allowing them to move through us. This wreaks havoc with our bodies as well as our creativity. 

I'm not saying that it is appropriate to inappropriately act-out or dump on others. Our feelings are for US. If we are open to them, we will be naturally guided to the right expression. Right expression may be telling someone how you feel; or right expression may be simply drawing, painting or dancing out the energy.

It is our duty to be present and FEEL our FEELINGS, not judge them, or stuff them. Again, stuffing only leads to harmful behaviors. By honoring our true emotions, we gift ourselves with presence.

What energy is present in you now???

The Fire of Creativity

Write Inside November 2008

I’m sitting on the hearth with my 2nd cup of Oolong tea, keeping warm on a brisk Cambria morning. The heater has gone out – so huddling up to the fire or actually exercising are my only options of keeping warm. As fire meets pine cone for that nice popping sound, it finally sounds like fall. I’ve been house sitting since September. I’m in between my old life in Santa Barbara and following my heart to a new life further up the coast in Capitola. In the meantime I am writing a workbook and recording the accompanying music CD.

While this is a sweet, creative vagabond life, living a vagabond life is not easy. For one thing, to do it in a conscious, soul way, you must make decisions from your right brain intuitive mind, as well as the left brain, rational mind. I think of it like this: my scared self wakes up and screams “Dude! What the hell are you doing recording your CD today! You don’t have enough income! You need to find a job! You need to find a place to live! Look at that interest on that car loan! I thought you were moving!”

I have succumbed to this voice during previous transitions and the result was feelings of fear, worthlessness and anxiety. This does not mean I do not take rational steps. I simply start with right brain processes then apply the left brain thinking to support the intuitive information. It means that I make a Visioning® collage based on the book Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams by Lucia Capacchione. When I begin, I have a vague notion of a collage about my new life. But as I work through Step 1 the theme of my collage becomes apparent. “My Santa Cruz County life is joyfully peaceful.” I make a double-sided collage on standard size paper. During the process, I play instrumental music. I am happy and feel like a child.














Collage works because I need a visual map of my dream. It works because it takes what I think I need, a job and place in Capitola, and funnels it through my right brain to come up with a statement that feels grounded: a joyfully peaceful life. Visioning® works because it incorporates our shadow energy. While there are many methods of collage, often called Treasure Mapping or Vision Boards, if they aren’t dealing with the part of the brain called The Critic, Shadow, or Monkey Mind, then chances are the dream isn’t going to manifest. The reason is because it is easy to have a dream, but often, our dreams get kicked to the side by rational, linear thinking. Because Visioning® taps into the Critic voice during Step 5 we develop the tools for standing up for our dream.

I trust this journey to Capitola. While I occasionally worry about what I don’t have – a known job with a rental agreement in my hand, I also practice living my dream by writing my goal in present tense: “I now have a two bedroom house and a fun, rewarding, financially abundant career.” Instead of running from fearful thoughts, I balance its messages. After all, if my mind is calling me “Dude,” when clearly I am an adult woman, then blindly following its instructions wouldn’t be my best choice. But the process of feeling my anxiety and using art to move that anxiety is a good choice.

In the same way that I build my fire, I build a life that I want. First, I light the desire of small twig kindling: let the fire get hot. Add small branches of Visioning® and let that burn. Make a tepee of two new musician friends in Capitola – and voila! With a blessing of an updraft of air and I’m enjoying the warmth of a well built fire.

I relish this spot on the hearth, tea in hand waiting for the logs to ignite; waiting for the sun to shine on my writing desk. This morning, my proud effort is giving birth to something creatively nurturing and warm. Yes I still need to move to Capitola. But while a two-bedroom house is my target: being joyfully peaceful is the journey.

May you live joyfully in the fire of creativity,

Dorothy

I am on hiatus from Visioning® events while I write my workbook and accompanying music CD, “My Body, My Car.”

To read more of my writing visit: www.writeinside.com

To purchase Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams, visit: www.luciac.com