Counting Down, Flying Free, and Vlogging

Believe it or not, I find myself a bit tenuous about all the new technology that's coming our way.

When I hear news of yet one more techno wonder, my techie-challenged self—the gal who likes to write the old-fashioned way on real paper, hold real books in her hands, and Bay gaze—screams "Eeek! Please don't make me do that!"

And as much as I may resist the technology (I swear I was the last person on the planet to use email!), I know it is wise for a writer/teacher to engage this way.

And to spread her wings and fly. 

It seems that "blogging" as we know it is on the way out. (Who determines these trends anyway?)

And VLOGGING is "in."

So this weekend I took the leap, spread my wings, and soared off the cliff into Vlogging.

Here is the result.

My new Video Blog for Awakened Living.com. (see below)

I'll be doing 1 - 2 videos a week, based upon your questions. 

Yes, send me your questions about how to live an awakened life—how to live more peacefully, aware and awake; more compassionate and mindful; more healthy and whole—whatever is bogging you down and keeping you from live as the calm, clear, wise woman you are.

I'll answer them on the VLOG. Fun!

Subject of today's video?

"What is meant by one's "truest self"?

Enjoy! And I'm eager to receive your questions!

Awakened Living with Jan Lundy: Living as Your Truest Self from Jan Lundy on Vimeo.

I'm counting down to the start of my next 12-month Sacred Journey course: Embodying Your Truest Self. It starts Monday, March 5, so I thought the subject was fitting. There's still plenty of time to sign-up.

This is the ONLY Sacred Journey course I will be offering this year, so if you're on the fence about joining in—Take the Leap and Fly—now!

Learn more here. 

All Ears: Listening to Our Wise Body

Mornings have been a bit different at my house these days.

I still rise gently and begin my day quietly with reflection, a bit of reading, Bay gazing. But something is noticeably missing. It's my beloved coffee.

I've been a coffee aficionado for years. I relish good coffee, heavily laced with real cream. Having my doubts about the healthiness of drinking it though, I made sure mine was organic. The cream too. I really love coffee. (Did I emphasize that enough?)

But now it's gone. Removed from my life. Maybe forever. 

Dairy too.

Moan ... 

I'm trying my best to live without it because I have to. My body was beginning to whimper when I did drink it. And soon it began to ache; to well up in agony from the partaking of it. Pain demanded that I stop.

Gallbladder.

Ouch. Big ouch!

After 3 gut-wrenching attacks (literally), I finally listened to my sage body which was trying so very hard to let me know that the foods I was eating—and what I was drinking—was not helping, but hurting.

Throughout my life, time and again, my body's wisdom has risen up to do this, to scream, "Stop!"

"Stop pushing me." "Stop rushing." "Stop stressing." "Stop IT," whatever the IT was because it knew, inherently, that what I was doing was not good for me.

Our body knows. It does. It has a unique wisdom all its own which can tell us—even before something horrible happens—that we must take heed and honor it's call. But do we?

Some of us are very tough cookies and we are certain we can push through or ignore the signs of physical distress. After all, how we can we really afford to STOP? There is always so much to do; so many deadlines to meet; so many chores, errands, responsibilities!

But body wisdom wins out ever time, despite our resistance. 

For me, it took 3 attacks to get the message. No more coffee. No more heavy fats. No fried foods. No sugar or chocolate.

My nun-like existence has now taken on the flavor of "ascetic."

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. Well, just a little. I know I will be better for these choices in the long run.

Which brings me to this. If I am to continue to embody my truest self, I have to recommit to the 2nd Transformational Truth: I Trust My Body's Divine Connection. 

I took this Truth as my own many years ago, but as life changes (as we change), it's prudent to recalibrate oneself. To listen up. To make healthy new lifestyle choices depending on what our body is trying to say.

So I am. 


What's your body been telling YOU lately? Has your inner wisdom been trying to get your attention? Does your beautiful body need doses of kindness—dietary changes, exercise, or pampering? Does it need to slow down, to rest and restore itself?

I hope you will listen up too so that your divinely sourced body is well-served.

I'd love to serve up a steaming hot cup of coffee for myself right now as the snow falls heavy and white outside. I just know it would warm me—body and mind.

But it wouldn't warm my soul. It would negate Inner Wisdom. Staying true to this new path laid out by Her is more important. I'd rather embody a Truth than deny it.

But oh, is it tempting!

Something opens our wings. Something makes boredom and hurt disappear. 

Someone fills the cup in front of us: We taste only sacredness.

~Rumi

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is the 2nd Transformational Truth something you need to honor more often? If so, consider joining me for my newest Sacred Journey Course: Embodying Your Truest Self.  

This 12-month pilgrimage into your Wise Self begins March 5. Done online, in sacred community, we will learn, grow, laugh and cry together—all the way home to our truest selves!

Due to scheduling changes, this is the ONLY 12-Month Sacred Journey Course I will be offering in 2012. 

Please join us. Learn More.


Photo credit by Stuart Miles

Eating, Praying, Loving Together

Dear Friends,

I'm counting the days before my next big Sacred Journey begins.

Why do I say big?

Because whenever we listen to our wise heart—the essence of who we are and who we can be—we know something BIG is about to happen.

I feel that in my bones myself because in 13 days I will be embarking on a year long pilgrimage with some very courageous women.

And when we step off the familiar shores of our lives ... stepping into a conveyance (a boat, an airplane, a rickshaw, on the back of a camel, an online course) that will take us to new and unfamiliar terrain, it takes gumption!

Have you got some of that? Because if you do and you are ready to take THE pilgrimage of YOUR inner life, this is it. 

It's the journey into your truest self.

So many of us these days are just getting by. Just settling for what life hands us. We know that we'd feel a whole lot better if we were living and speaking our Truths. Living with peaceful minds and loving hearts. Living a spiritual life of our own making—not something someone has handed to us or is pressuring us to follow.

But we feel stuck and don't know how to break through. Perhaps we've read plenty of spiritual growth books and attended workshops with spiritual luminaries. (I know, I've done my share of this!)

But to live—really live and embody—the spiritual truths we SAY we hold dear is something else altogether. 

To live as our truest self is the biggest journey of all.

And when we finally get the gumption to take it—to say "I'm living life on my own terms with my spirit leading the way!—then we embark.

For those of you who have read the book (or saw the movie), Eat, Pray Love, my next spiritual journey course, "Embodying Your Truest Self" IS the eat, pray, love journey.

Except we are doing it on the internet with a dedicated group of women like you—with a trusted guide (me) so you don't have to stumble along alone like Elizabeth did.

I hope you will consider joining us. We'd love to have your companionship. You can learn more about the Sacred Journey HERE.

By the way, would you like to meet my newest spiritual journey companion, Claire?

Claire is one of the women who has registered for "Embodying Your Truest Self" and is so excited that she's actually launched her pilgrimage early and is full steam ahead!

She's writing about this at her blog and she gave me permission to share the link with you.

http://the-leave-taking.blogspot.com/2012/02/post-4.html

Claire has gumption! Despite having had a stroke a few years ago and learning how to do just about everything all over again, she is on on the Journey.

And I am so proud of her and so glad we are journeying together!

Beginning March 5, you and I can journey together in this way too.

Learn More.   March 5 is right around the corner.

Your ship awaits!

"I have been and still am a seeker, but I have ceased to question stars and books; I have begun to listen to the teachings 

my blood whispers to me."

Herman Hesse in Sweat Your Prayers by Gabrielle Roth

Come Back to Center

The pace of life being what it is, no wonder we get off center so easily.

Television, traffic, the demands of others, responsibilities, the never-ending "To Do List"—each one of these contributes to living in disharmony with our truest self. At least it can for me ...

Though life feels complex, it is amazingly simple to come back center; to drop back into feelings of peace and happiness right where we are. It's just remembering to do so.

Any of us can begin by setting a powerful intention to "come back" when we have gone away ... when we have drifted off, once again, into fields of worry, overwhelm, busyness. This intention, firmly held, can return us to fragrant meadows of joy.

What helps you come back to center?

For me, fragrance is one of the elements that brings me back. It is one of my "spiritual tools." ("Take a whiff, root yourself right here," it says.) And it is also embedded within my long-held intention that the sacredness of nature will somehow find me and bring me home to myself when I have wandered.

For the past few days, I have been enjoying the fragrance of a beautiful gift I received from a friend at Christmas time. She knows how much I love flowers and gardening and how much I miss my garden in the winter. She sent me a basket with bulbs that I could force and grow indoors in the white of winter. Red tulips have brought much joy and brightened my inner landscape.

But it is the hyacinths that have taken over now. They assail my senses whenever I walk through the room. They also invite me back to center. The scent is so strong, I cannot help but pause, take a breath and a whiff and allow delight to fill me once again.

Gratitude fills me too. Gratitude for beauty and the flowering of friendship. Each one a special gift of the Spirit.

To Cindy - thanks for the posies and the gift of presence. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Come back to yourself with the help of my next Sacred Journey course starting soon: 

"Embodying Your Truest Self."

In an intimate and safe community of like-minded women, we'll invite the Sacred into our day-to-day living for peace that lasts and lasts ...

Learn More.



(Photo courtesy of Dundee Photographics)

Making A Lasting Change - Part II

Making a Lasting Change in 2012 ~ Part II

If you want to make a lasting change any time in your life (did you notice the word “lasting”?) there are 4 powerful mindsets that must be in place for us to do so.

In my post of January 11, I presented the first one: “Readiness.” You can read that entry here.

Today the second mindset ...

2. Passion

Once we are committed to making a change, a burning desire is required to fuel our efforts. A namby-pamby, apathetic, carefree approach to anything does not result in great change. We must want something so strongly we can feel it, taste it, touch it. Only then is it truly within our grasp.

Ask any woman who has lost a great deal of weight. She will tell you that her success finally came when the picture of her thinner, healthier self was so strong in her mind that no other image was acceptable. Oprah Winfrey is a great example of this. With single mindedness of purpose, she chose to recreate her physical self despite overwhelming odds and a self-proclaimed food addiction. (Read her candid account of this in her book, Make the Connection.)

Any one of us can do the same if we fall in love with a new ideal of ourselves and zealously pursue it.

My question for you is then, how passionate are you about making this change? Do you really, really, really want it? Can you feel it results deep in your bones?

I’ve had that feeling and harnessed that passion of purpose before. One of the most recent times was my (many-yeared) journey to find inner peace. I had become so unhealthy, so stressed and overwhelmed that to feel truly peaceful within me became a burning passion.

It took many years of searching, making lifestyle changes, and incorporating spiritual practices into my daily life that would bring about the results I’d previously only dreamed of. I, literally, ached to feel calm and to live a more serene life.

I finally made it. I reclaimed my life, my self, my health and, today, I live in an entirely new way. Peace is mine. The journey to get there is the journey of Your Truest Self.

Passion was the mindset that got me there. I was so passionate about my spiritual life journey and sharing what I’d discovered with other women that I could not let my vision go—despite plenty of naysayers.

I don’t know if I will ever write a book again that took so much effort, blood sweat and tears—and passion! It was an extraordinary journey but, very honestly, I think it might be the “work of my lifetime.”

Friend, do you have the passion it will take to bring about the change (or outcome) you desire? I surely do hope so!

If not, do whatever you need to do to get psyched about you. You and your life are oh, so worth it!

~~~~~~~~~

I'm so pleased to announce a new 12-Month Sacred Journey Course, based on my book Your Truest Self.

What a joy it will be to travel with you—intimately!—through the 12 Transformational Truths. With kindred women, we'll create Sacred Community (in a secure online "classroom") and be each others' best traveling companions for one full year. Wow!

Together we will EMBODY our truest selves—finally! We'll live rich spiritual lives and engage life from our fullness. No more shrinking, hiding, being less than we are meant to be. What a beautiful journey we will have.

I hope you will join me. Class beings March 5.

Registration has begun! Read more and register here.

Photo image credits (top) photostock

The Glory of Growth

It's late winter in Michigan and I'm noticing how my heart is longing for greenery ... for glimpses of the first delicate shoots of spring to peek up from the brown earth.

The soul season of Spring naturally invites us into a time of growth—just like what I imagine grasses, flowers, and trees must feel like (if they could). As if a divine warm wind is whispering to them, "Grow, grow!" So they do ...

Are you hearing these whisperings for yourself? Is your soul urging you to explore, expand, break through the ground of your own being? 

If so, we could be good companions you and I, because I've been hibernating this winter, growing some very special new roots and blooms—all for the purpose of supporting our spiritual growth.

I imagine you have read about at least one of them—BuddhaChick.Org—an interspiritual growth "campus" and community offering courses, retreats, and mentoring for women who desire to live with inner calm, clarity and wisdom. It's a safe and sacred place for discovering our truest selves.

My next bit of exciting Spring growth news is this:  

You can join the kindest women's community on the web for a song ~ well, actually for FREE for the month of March. 

Dharma Sisters Circle is for you if you are a woman who loves interacting and learning with women who are passionate about living with inner calm, clarity, as their wise selves. Kind women. Smart women. Gifted women. Women like you!

If you are ready to grow some more—especially in the virtues of mindfulness, lovingkindness, and compassion—and you want to do it in a safe, secure community, this is the place for you. 

Do you have 2 more minutes to find out if you're a Dharma Sister? Please watch!

Oh, I hope you are a Dharma Sister because I am having the time of my life with these women. I have to honestly say I have NEVER been in a community of women that is so genuine, so lovingly kind and caring. It is definitely MY community on the deepest level. I hope it will be yours too!

To celebrate our Grand Opening, try out your Dharma Sisters Circle membership for 30 days for FREE!

If at the end of your free month you’re not excited to continue being part of this incredible community, just drop us an email and your account will be canceled.

If you're LOVING it, do nothing, and your account will be billed $15.95 each month following your trial period. You may cancel your membership at any time.

And, by the way, this month is the perfect month to join because one of the leading spiritual teachers of our day, Sylvia Boorstein, is our Guest Teacher. We are sitting at her feet learning about how to live more mindfully, with ease and joy. We're all feeling more calm already! Sylvia is the author of Happiness Is an Inside Job: Practicing for a Joyful Life and an interspiritual gal after my own heart—a practicing Jew and a Buddhist meditation teacher. 

Why not try out a test run with us and see how you like us? 

You're guaranteed a warm welcome!

Dharma Sisters Circle. Org

And here's my last bit of Spring hurrah ... 
My newest online course!

Many of you have read my book, Your Truest Self: Embracing the Woman You Are Meant to Be.

I'm now teaching a 13-Lesson online class based on the book. It's self-paced for a busy woman like you!

We're digging deep, navigating through the 12 Transformational Truths and loving ourselves more each day. Guided meditations will relax you. Contains 6+ hours of audio guidance from me. Reflection activities will challenge you and help you get to know, accept and live as your "essence"
with grace and joy!


You are guaranteed gentle companionship as you create a spiritual life of your own making, break through fears, learn to live your Truths courageously, and open your heart to others—even to people who may not understand this unique spiritual path you walk.

If you are ready to live as your truest self 
and you want me to personally guide you through it, 

this course is definitely for you. 
It would be my pleasure to serve you in this way!

 Learn more about "Your Truest Self, The Course"

These are my Springiest announcements, lovely friends!

I wish you the most glorious season of growth ever! If I can support you in your blooming, don't hesitate to contact me. I am here and readily available to answer your questions or offer personal mentoring.

I look forward to seeing you seeing at an event, up close and personal, or online in one of our sacred communities.

As you rise up in the morning with a smile in your heart

May you feel the warmth of the sun on your face

And smell the beauty of the season in the air.

And may peace be yours ...

"Inner peace is ours, one breath at a time."

Let Your Star Shine!

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. 

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? 

Actually, who are you not to be? 

You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. 

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people 

won't feel insecure around you. 

We are all meant to shine, as children do.**

~Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love

Believe it not, as a young girl, I loved doing homework.
I know, call me crazy, but there were payoffs:

~ I loved the feeling of getting something accomplished (still do)

~ I had an innate love of learning that was never quite satisfied (still have it)

~ I liked getting gold stars.

Do you remember getting those small foil gold stars on your papers in school? Gosh, how my heart danced with glee when there was at least one gold star at the top.

What would you give yourself a gold star for today? 

What did you do right? What are you proud of yourself for? 

As human beings we may focus more on what is going wrong in our lives than what is going right. As women, we often self-deprecate, self-criticize, and turn down compliments. We do not toot our own horn. Many of us were taught that doing so, in fact, was unladylike.

As we embody our truest selves more and more each day, it is good and wise to focus on our brilliance. Not from an ego standpoint, mind you, but as a stepping stone to embracing ourselves as the women we are meant to be. 

Giving ourselves gold stars is an important act of self-affirmation, self-acceptance. It says, 'Good job, lady, keep on keepin' on!

So, this is my challenge for you today.

What can you give yourself a gold star for?

And while you're at it, why stop at one? How about 2 or 3, or a whole paper full.

I'm eager to hear how you are shining!

I'll begin ... 

(**To read this poem, "Everyday Grace" in its entirety, visit M. Williamson's website: www.marianne.com)

What Stage of Life Are You In?

I was visiting some of my fave blogs yesterday and was delighted to re-discover something I'd pretty much forgotten.

At Twila's (Twi Chi—Book Floozy—a fabulous blog for women seekers), she reminded me about Joan Anderson's books (which I loved!) and her list of the "10 Phases of a Woman's Life."  This was wonderful to read again.

Now,  I'd read something similar years ago in Joan Borysenko's landmark book, The Woman's Book of Life. Though, Dr. Joan claims that women develop and thrive in 7-year cycles. You may recall that Joan is one of the 12 Holy Women in Your Truest Self. She represents the tenth Transformational Truth: "I Trust the Divine Timing of My Own Unfolding.

With Twila's permission, I am re-posting the list she shared. Consider this:

* 0-7 childlike wonder

* 7-14 the beginning of hormonal activity

* 14-21 unfurling sexuality

* 21-28 being affirmed by a man-the desire to procreate

* 28-35 birthing, mothering, caretaking, putting others first

* 35-42 leaving self out but occasionally looking beyond

* 42-49 menopause approaching – is this all? a desire for self-love

* 49-56 birthing of a mature psyche – a desire to go away, live without rules and become more instinctive

* 56-63 choosing one’s true purpose, work, vocation, finding one’s individual reason for being beyond the roles

* 63-70 reflection – becoming the watchwoman, recasting all that one has learned, being whatever one has become

Truly, I had to laugh out loud when I read this because this list fits me to a T! All the phases fit, including the most recent ...

At exactly age 49, everything shifted in me and I found myself going inward, becoming hermitlike, wanting only to nurture myself body, mind and spirit (and to create from that place.)

This past summer I turned 56, and there was another big shift. I settled into my true vocation (spiritual mentoring), let go of the roles I'd previously aligned myself with  (especially those that felt inauthentic), and felt more fire and passion come into my life than ever before.

How about you? Does this list bear out your experience?

If so, where do you find yourself? If not, why, and where are you?

~~0~~

Just a note: The "Women on the Edge of Evolution" —a free online teleconference series with visionary women—continues and I must say this. If you are a woman who cares deeply about the planet and our future as human beings you absolutely MUST take a listen. They are now being archived, so you can listen to them any time you want. (Click here.) I just listened to Barbara Marx Hubbard (who is 80 and so very wise!), and am still reeling with excitement about what I learned. Wow! I hope to post on this soon.

There's still time to sign up or learn more. Go here. 

And guess what?! This has become the largest gathering women EVER on the planet. More than over 25,000 women are engaged in this. I hope you will join us!

~~0~~

P.S. I just learned my book, Your Truest Self, is now available on Kindle for $9.99. Just in time for the approaching holidays. Hooray!

(Image courtesy of http://www.women.qld.gov.au)

I Trust My Body's Divine Connection

 If anything is sacred, the human body is.

~Walt Whitman

To be able to experience the Divine One moving in and through me in everyday life, has been a journey of many years. I remember feeling it as a young girl while sitting in church, walking through my grandmother’s garden, or lying beneath the stars at camp. It was a deep knowing that “surely God is in this place,” as the song goes. That Spirit was all around me, radiating through stained-glass windows, flowers, or constellations and, at the same time, within me, experienced through my body, if I would allow myself to feel it.

As a woman on pilgrimage into her truest self, I can’t help but wonder what happened along the way. Where did do we as women lose that divine connection we may have felt through our bodies as young women? Likely, it happens in early adolescence when we became overtly conscious of our physical selves. In our preteen years, we begin to doubt, even distrust, our bodies. Bellies and breasts are changing. We are being transformed into someone else without our conscious involvement or permission. Is it a wonder that at this formative period of our lives we begin to develop suspicion about our bodies?

Combine this self-doubt with societal and religious implications that our bodies are bad (a source of temptation), inferior (the “weaker sex”), and flawed (in need of improvement), and we have a good case for amnesia, forgetting our body as a conduit to the Divine. For centuries now, we’ve internalized these messages, so it is not surprising that most women truly dislike and mistrust their bodies.

From adolescence on, it seems, our bodies are not our friends: They are enemies we wage war against through diets, radical exercise programs, cosmetic enhancement, even surgery. We may believe that our bodies betray us again and again. They do not look or behave like we think they should: They gain weight; miscarry or are infertile; cyclically rage (PMS/menopause); sag, fall out, fall apart through aging; become chronically sick or ravaged with disease—all without our having a say in the matter. Who can trust a “friend” who acts like that? 

Knowing this, what a stretch of the imagination it is for us to conceive of our bodies as sacred! To believe they are magnificent containers created by the Divine to house our souls on earth. And, perhaps, even more important than this, that our bodies are a direct means of communication with our Source. 

Yet it is only through our bodies that we can have a truly intimate relationship with the Holy. Our mind, which can conceive of "God" through thought, is housed within our brain. Our senses—sight, hearing, and smell—provide the stuff of which our thoughts and feelingsabout the world are made. Our sense of touch, along with internal body responses—heartbeat and breath— attune us to the world outside of our bodies, alerting us there is something of significance there. Our lips give voice to this experience. Our hands and feet creatively express our understanding of this experience. Our bodies, therefore, are the ultimate vehicle through which we communicate with the Divine. This vessel, this body, is a sacred conduit for the flow of Spirit.

Jay Michaelson (author of God in Your Body) says that our greatest spiritual achievement on a personal level is not to transcend the body (as some spiritual systems would advocate), but to fully embrace it, to join the body and spirit together so we are, at last, whole human beings, not fragmented versions of ourselves. I agree ...

The journey into our truest selves is dependent upon our ability to realize that our bodies are sacred. For a number of years now, I've been living out the 2nd Transformational Truth in Your Truest Self: I Trust My Body's Divine Connection. I am healing my body issues and embracing this vessel as a wise guide more and more each day. I am learning to listen to it, honor its wisdom, and follow its lead. How about you?

Where are you on this journey to reclaiming your body as sacred? 

And/or how do you experience the Divine through the vehicle of your body?

I am eager to hear ...

I'll go first!

And be sure to make a comment today or tomorrow to win—yes!—another copy of Your Truest Self. I am giving one away right now. Remember, it's birthday time and I'm giving away books all month.

And congratulations to  Kel (Leaping Kangaroo) and Lisa (She Who Is Honoring Her Sparkle) who won a copy of YTS from last week's post. Hooray for you! Enjoy with my blessings.

~~~~~

Photo of "Festival Dancers"by Thomas J. Abercrombie.

http://photography.nationalgeographic.com