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? 

Accessing Our Inner Wisdom

Now that you have your completed your calendar collage, you are ready to dialogue with the images. You will use your non-dominant hand.

This is the hand you do not normally write with.

We use the non-dominant hand to access the right-brain,

which is the seat of our emotions and inner wisdom. 

Step 1.

Take a moment to find a quiet place to sit with your collage.

Give yourself 20 minutes minimum.

Step 2.

Close your eyes and take several breaths.

Release any tension, thoughts or anxiety.

Step 3.

Allow your gaze to take in all of the images on the collage.

Let yourself get curious about one of the images. 

Step 4.

Using your non-dominant hand let the image write about itself in the first person.

Allow it to tell its own story.

What part of you is it expressing? What are its qualities? Why is it on your collage?

Step 5.

If you notice any critical voice regarding the journal writing itself or this process,

simply take a breath and release it. 

This naturally occurs whenever we are trying something new.

Step 6.

With your dominant hand, write down any insights from this exercise.

You may want to write about how the process itself felt to you.

The more you view and write with these images, the more insights you will uncover.

Next post: Learn how to have a written dialogue with your collage. 

June Collage Calendar

July Collage Calendar

Focusing On Your Creative Self

Create a monthly vision board of out magazine images for work or home. Yes, you’ll be creating a collage for April but don’t let that stop you! There’s plenty of year left.

Gather a calendar, a few magazines, scissors, glue sticks, journal and pen and a bag for scraps.

Create your space. Find a quiet space where you won’t be disturbed for at least an hour. You can listen to music, but choose instrumental. You want a peaceful atmosphere to access your intuition. Take a break to make tea, etc. But try to finish the collage in one session.

Select a Creative Self. Once settled take a moment to center and close your eyes. Allow yourself to relax. As you breathe allow an image of your creative self to arise. This self is your partner in your collage creation. Silently ask it to reveal itself to you in an image.

Open your eyes. Select a magazine and flip through the pages, scanning for your creative self image. It can be a flower, a sunset, a child. The creative self on this calendar was the woman in the center of the kids. Cut out your image and set it aside where you can see it.

Find a focus. Choose a theme for the month. Themes can include a new home, a healthy lifestyle or having a relationship. In above example, I didn’t use a theme, but simply choose the images that I liked.

If you have a theme write it out in a simple phrase. “My ideal home.” “A healthy body.” “Inner peace.” Place your phrase next to your creative self image.

Grab what Grabs You. Quickly flip through the magazines and tear out images or phrases that grab you. Don’t trim, just pull out the entire page. Dig that bright alligator pillow? Grab it. At some point you’ll probably hear an inner grouch grumbling complaints like “Oh, that doesn’t go with the theme,” or “this won’t work.” Don’t listen to that critical voice.  This is your time. Just keep moving. Drown out doubt with the sound of your magazine being torn. This is a fast process. If you find an article you want to read, set it aside.

Select & Trim. Once you gather several pages of images, it’s time to sort. Look at your Creative Self image and phrase. Decide which images feel right. This is an intuitive process, so don’t think too hard. First, sort the pictures into two piles: Yes and Maybe. Don't use the scissors yet. Wait until the next step.

Design. Take your Creative Self image and place it in the center of your calendar page. Now place the images around it. Overlap images, use a small piece of a landscape, set one image inside the other. Trim all of the Yes images and set the Maybe pile aside. Don’t glue yet. This is only the design phase.

Talk Back to the Critic. Once the design is done, stop. Gaze at your layout and listen for any grousing from the critic. Now take your journal and set a timer for 2 minutes. Quickly jot down any internal negative chatter. Don’t filter. Just let the words flow onto the page. After two minutes, stop.

Read what you wrote. Notice how your body feels. If your chest tight? Feeling tired?

Next, reset the timer for two minutes. Hold your pen and imagine you are a feisty little kid that’s going to talk back to the critic. Now read the words again. Start the timer and quickly scribble your response. Let that critic have it. Four letter words allowed. When the timer goes off, read your response out loud at least three times. Really talk back. Take a few minutes to write about what you experienced.  

Glue the Collage. Now it’s time to glue. Take your time. Now that the critic voice has been dealt with, the images might end up in a new arrangement. This is natural. Before gluing, flip the image over and see if there is a picture on the other side that you like better. You may be surprised. This is the time to add images from the Maybe pile.

Reflection. Hooray, you have a finished collage! Journal about the process and the images. View your collage for at least 15 minutes a day. Allow the images to speak to you, and reflect on their meaning. Be choosy if you decide to share. Pick someone who is supportive, not judgmental. Remember, this is your vision. Share as little or as much about the process as you feel guided.

Next month, you’ll learn techniques on how to work with your vision board.

Check out dorothysegovia.com for more information on Visioning(R).

The Anatomy of Space

February 2019 Calendar Collage

There are a lot of opportunities to listen in this noisy world. But listening starts with the inside. What's on the inside is present, immediate and now. 

Joy is here. Emotions are here. Trust is here. We are here. Sometimes shame is here.

I was at work when shame took over. It moved in with the rush of over-explaining a mistake to my boss. I noticed it right away and stopped. She noticed it too and said "it's okay, it's okay." "Thanks Mom! I joked."

The word "gutted" swirled around as I raced back to my desk. 




Safely back in my cozy cubby cubicle, I acknowledged 'shame is here.'  Then I listened. 'How do I know?' Well, my face is warm, my energy is in my chest. My mind is picturing tortilla chips. 

Shame: a hulking tangled blob that makes me want to eat. 

Instead I breath and create space. 
Instead, I walk, call my sponsor, then a trusted friend and leave messages. "I'm really excited! I made space for shame instead of chips."

Back at work, a healthy snack grounded my energy while I gazed at my February collage.

I noticed the swirling, tangle of the Chihuly blown-glass image. My eye was then drawn to the four people in the bottom right. The caption reads "The Spaces team..."

Space. This is what collage teaches: how to create internal space for our never-ending expansion. 

The art of collage is listening. 
What is your embodied heart saying?

😕😔😯😞😌😃

Interested in having a collage party with your pals? 
Visit www.dorothysegovia.com

To learn about the connection between emotions and food check out the book End Emotional Eating by Jennifer Taitz. 

The Exquisite Expansion of Being

January 2019 Collage

Today at work I took the cellophane off of the wall art, and tacked them into place. This felt like an open, wiggly thing to do. One wise comment was "it looks like your committed to staying."

I park my car pointing in the direction back home; I leave parties when it's time--without bothering to find the host. Better to send a "loved the party" email complete with pics.

So I'm not sure what "committed" means. But it has more to do with being present than leaving or staying ever could.
That's what my collage created out of a 2018 calendar is all about: being.
I collage because it's messy, get down fun. I speed through magazines, grabbing images that grab me. Sorting and trimming and gluing, oh my! Any image goes. The process is deeply embodied and soul satisfying. At the end...ta da!!!
This year, I'm blogging about hanging with my hanging. Each month a new collage, and a whole lot of heartfelt deliciousness. 

Join me as I talk about the Creative Self, your heart's desire and the exquisite expansion of being.

Vacation Diver

I'm busier than ever, working full-time and hanging out with my creative trifecta: writing, music and visioning.

But hey, it's spring and time for friends and wine, and the new episode of Nashville is next week. The only way to stay calm is to DO less and DOWNLOAD more.

Downloading is the voice with the answer that lands in your belly on the way to work, when you first wake, or maybe its 2am--and you just know.

Because I practice the morning pages---first thing---I'm able to write some of the download info: "name it Anatomy of a Vision Board," and "text Leyla," and all sorts of wondrous whisperings that I have forgotten already. But they have been captured in my body to be remembered as needed.

Downloading answers saves all kinds of worry, hurry and drama. Heeding my own quiet voice leaves more time to be a vacation diver: diving into the adventurous moment and leaving planning for sleep.

Vacation Diver: Say Yes, Soul Collage.

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. 

Stabbed in My Happy Heart

A couple of weeks ago, while sorting through my non-dominant hand (NDH) drawings created over the past year, I came to this soothing realization: I’ve felt like shit plenty of times before and I am still here.

Last month I started one-on-one grief counseling sessions at the hospice center. Counseling was recommended by a friend who said that since my mother’s death on March 27th my face has looked tight; I’ve been angry.

Last month I experienced mornings of waking up and forgetting for 5 minutes that my mother died.

After writing my 3-morning pages, I sat in front of my current collage and journaled with the Watch Image, though the answer seemed obvious.

Collage Detail: I Want to be A Published Author

“It’s my time. What do I want to do with my time?”

I want to be enjoy myself, I thought. And I know enjoyment is easier when I allow myself to express all of me. 

This is different than my usual belief of "if I'm not feeling positively fabulous all of the time, then something is wrong."

It's time to set myself free from this silly, repetitive habit of thought, that actually makes me feel much worse than crying when it's time to cry; and laughing at the latest Dave Barry essay.

So, just for today, I allow myself to be stabbed in my happy heart.

Dorothy Segovia is the author of My Body, My Car: How to Coach Yourself Through Life's little Accidents. For more info on how collage and Creative Journaling can help you express, visit www.writeinside.com. To learn how 3-part collages can help you unleash the creative solution to any obstacle, visit Dorothy's Visioning(R) post.

My Joy is Your Joy

It is 1 month and 6 days since Mom died. The funeral with the cemetery burial and gathering at the home is done. I have alternately been okay, yet not. My mind plays a continuous loop of "Mom died, Mom died, Mom died, Mom died," 24/7.

By day, I bury the grief mantra with a busy day job combined with Lyle Lovett tunes on my iPod. By night, I run errands and binge watch the 6th season of Private Practice on Hulu, and nosh on popcorn, cheese-puffs, gummy bears and Big Macs. It is my spiritual practice to limit wine at home.

I know this time will not last long; I don't pretend that this is the first time I am giving myself a break by chowing down my feelings, or tuning them out.

But feelings are different than a looped thought tape announcing "Mom died."

For several days after Mom first passed, I was overwhelmed with waves of complete joy. I decided this was Mom, and that she had returned to her happy Self before her long, slow decline.

"I want to be a published author" collage. 1.28.15

As an expressive arts teacher, I keep myself in tune by having a Vision board on standby. My theme for the year is "I am a published author" which was created in January. Four days after my mother died, this is the dominant hand/non-dominant hand conversation with the image of the Masked Woman. At the time I created the collage, I had no idea why I picked this image. (When selecting images for a themed vision board, the rule is to initially "grab what grabs you" and to allow the sorting / arranging/ gluing steps to determine what stays on the board.) 

3/31/15

DH: Dear Masked Woman, who are you?

NDH: I am a sub-personality of grief and mourning and weeping.

Masked Woman detail.

DH: How do you feel?

NDH: Honored.

DH: Why?

NDH: Because you give time and ceremony to me.  You are a healer woman.

DH: What do you want me to do?

NDH: Let me out when it is time and know that my joy is your joy and that happiness does not dishonor the grieving process at all.

DH: Thank you.

Making time for all of our feelings honors all parts of ourselves. Taking time to create art gives us room to catch our breath, catch up to our bodies and know that "all is well, everything is well, and all good manner of things, shall be well." 

Our Allowance Receiver Meter

I recently lived a manifestation of my new collage. And it relates to what Esther Hicks, the popular speaker of the Abraham talks, calls The Art of Allowing.

I was in a Dodge Dart rental. Driving home after work on Highway 46 was an act of spontaneity. While driving, I realized I was inside the image of the car pictured on my collage. That is, I was in a squeaky clean new car, driving through rolling hills...listening to an Esther Hicks CD.

The next day, I decided to write to the image using the Dominant Hand/Non-dominant method. This method used both hemispheres of the brain to let our heart speak. Basically, we have a conversation with the image by asking questions with our dominant hand and answering with our non-dominant hand.

I intended to write to the entire image of the car, but became interested in the little diamond shaped antennae above the back windshield.

DH: Dear Diamond on Car, who are you in my collage?

NDH: I am your allowance receiver meter.
DH: How do you feel?
NDH: Like I am flying along ready to continue the journey!
DH: Why do you feel that way?
NDH: Because you are open to listening to your Self in a way that you never had before.
DH: How can you tell?
NDH: How excited, content and satisfied are you?
DH: Why, I feel the best and most excited in a grounded way, than I ever had before.

To take this understanding even further, antenna's are how we perceive our environment. That is, when you encounter someone in a bad mood, do you take it personally? If you aren't able to complete a project on your own, do you seek help or just give up? Do you allow yourself to enjoy a vision for your future, or do you habitually cut the dream off as soon as it appears because you can't imagine how it will happen?

Allowing ourselves to perceive through our heart, feel our joy, practice visioning and use right-brain journal techniques, keep life's magic alive.

What are you visioning for yourself today?  

Happy New Vision Board

Last week I created a vision board for the year. The best thing about the workshop was having the facilitator hold the creative space so I could listen to my to heart. I was able to relax and let go of my everyday life.

Vision Board January 2015

The first step was to find a Creative Self symbol. The reason is that we want to listen to our intuitive guidance about our desire. Marianne Williamson says it best. "What do I want? Now what do I really want?" Creating a vision board is about wanting something so we can have a state of being, rather than a goal to strive after. After all, we set goals because we think it will make us happier.

I chose the image of a woman wearing glasses as my Creative Self. After placing this image in the center of the page, I meditated for a few moments and let my non-dominant hand (to access the right brain) write "I want to be a published author."

Creative Self image

This is not surprising.

I've been a blogging, songwriting, magazine-published journalist for years. But I want to publish the books that I am creating. Not self-publish, although that is a wonderful start. I want my books to be published by a publishing house: small press, big press, online, off-line, down the line. Those details don't matter. What matters is that when it comes to desiring, then pasting that desire to a board for ourselves to see, well, the devil really IS in the details.

I'm talking inviting the Critic to join me for the ride.

First off, the reason for calling this negative rant in our minds the Critic is to distance ourselves from this voice. The Critic is really a negative thought pattern running loose in our mind. After the process of selecting, sorting and arranging the images that depicted my focus phrase, I allowed the Critic to speak. The reason is that I wanted a chance to talk back. But I can't do that until I journal the rant. Using the dominant hand for the Critic voice externalizes the thought. Using the non-dominant hand to answer back allows the inner child to stand up to this scary voice.

DH.

Critic voice using dominant hand

You just read that the publishing industry is dead. So maybe you can be a self-published author with your cute little books, but that's it.

NDH:

You don't have the capacity to do anything but complain. You're not my guide. You're not even on my team. I'm following my Creative Self.

Inner Child voice using non-dominant hand

After this 10-minute exercise, I was ready to glue the images to the page.

Now, here's what the Creative Self had to say. (I use the dominant hand so I can be a left-brained interviewer. The Creative Self answers with the non-dominant hand.)

DH: Dear Creative Self, tell me about yourself.

NDH: I love wanting to be a published author. It launches a fun creative play list that flows seamlessly into my wonderful life. Delight and joy and trust and love in the journey to published author starts with me. 

Delight and joy? I say YES!

Next month...the first image manifests.

Learn more about this journaling process with my book My Body, My Car: How to Coach Yourself Through Life's little Accidents. Part memoir,I wrote this self-guided workshop so you can blast through the blocks that stand between you and your dream.It even includes a music CD.  For more information, visit WriteInside.com 

The Next Wandering Step

Now that I've achieved my dream: living in a safe and sacred home in Ventura, I've been reluctant to create another collage. I don't want to trick myself. Being in the safe and sacred home in Ventura happened when I showed up at a particular house, with a particular warm and loving family. And here I was hoping that my collage meant that I was going to be living and working in Ventura. Well, I did. But what I meant when I created the collage was that I be working and living in Ventura longer than four days.

Instead I am wandering between Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. This afternoon I let myself follow a clearly marked trail through the orange groves in Cayucos, trying to find the fence line. Yesterday morning I was standing on the deck of a home on the back bay in Los Osos with a cup of tea, and last week I was in Carpinteria buying asparagus at Farmer's Market.

In my search for the "right job" and the "right place" it is easy to lose sight of what my heart knows. My heart knows that right now is a pretty good place to be if I like being buzzed by hummingbirds and don't mind the cute-faced dog Sammy-Sam-Sam sticking his black and white snout on my lap, hoping for another Premium Saltine.

 

I didn't know I needed to walk through groves of oranges and lemons, or listen to the birds chirping above traffic. But my heart knew. My heart knew that I needed to rest in the sun on a ranch without cell service and barely an Internet connection. My work today is looking up how to tell the difference between flying bald eagles or hawks when they are circling the valley. I'll also need to look up the meaning of lizards and deer on an animal-medicine card website.My heart has led me to a place where a lovely woman named Grace walks every night down the long road to follow the constellations. My heart has always known me better than my head does and for that I am grateful.

What does your heart know in this moment???

Please be bold, comment!

Stepping into the Dream Stream

Recently, after receiving guidance to do a specific task, I had to call transformational guide Leyla Atwill, author of Ten Secrets of Living Your Dream, for a phone rescue. See, I've been applying for job interviews in Ventura, but I clearly got the download to go ahead and apply for work in Arroyo Grande. I did try to make myself feel better by stating that “well, Arroyo Grande is on the way to Ventura,” but waaaaahhhhhh!!! I want to be in Ventura already and feel that anything less is failure.

Leyla told me to think about it like this:

“The length of time it takes for me to accept and allow Ventura, is equal to the time it takes to manifest Ventura.”

Now I'm just scared.

According to her book, the top secret is for me to feel love for where I am, right now. This is the most important work that I can do. Developing a self-love practice is at the core of reaching my dream. The reason is vibrational alignment. If I feel as if not being in Ventura right this second is coming up short, then I'm coming from lack, which is a feeling place of not being enough.

However, if I see myself standing on the shore of a big river, with Ventura on one side and me on the other, my intuition to take action towards Arroyo Grande represents a stepping stone in the river. I can't jump the whole river at this point, but I can step across the water, stone by stone.

Now the question becomes, can I love myself while standing on an Arroyo Grande stepping stone on the way to Ventura? If not, why not?

These questions are presented as a guide to recognizing habits that keep me from wading into the river in the first place; habits that I have developed as a coping strategy to avoid uncomfortable feelings.

Once when a friend and I were hiking in the Angeles Crest mountains near Pasadena, we crossed a small but swiftly moving stream. We had to step quickly across four or five stones to continue the hike. As we approached, we saw a couple on our side of the stream. The man was standing next to a woman crouched on the bank staring into the water. She seemed hypnotized. He seemed impatient.

Her analysis paralysis kept her from taking the first step. I know this feeling well. In my quest to unwind the feelings behind procrastination and doubt, it is easy to get caught crouching at the edge of the water. Paralysis is different every week, sometimes every day. Television, DVDs—especially the educational ones, ice cream and even voracious attendance of 12-step meetings, can keep me from following my guidance.

That crouching woman could have easily been me. But I trusted my buddy's sure-footed step. I watched where he placed his feet and quickly followed. This is the same as trusting my guidance. Quite frankly, when I look back across all of the streams that I have crossed, my inner guide has never left me stranded.

Despite my hesitation or my enthusiastic jumping into the stream for an icy swim, as long as I was listening, I have always safely reached the opposite shore.

Right now Ventura is my dream. It symbolizes expansiveness, opportunity, and connection. These qualities do not live in Ventura, they live in me.

“The length of time it takes for me to accept and allow Ventura, is equal to the time it takes to manifest Ventura.”


Leyla Atwill is a transformational coach in Los Osos. She creates a safety net for her clients to recognize, embody and release the habits and choices that keep them from reaching their goals and dreams. She can be reached at (805) 439-0268.