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creative transition

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Cora Pacheco – Sacred Creative Stories of Transition

August 18, 2020
Cora Pacheco

Having left her paralegal role and with some newly freed up time, a woman seeks to engage more deeply with her personality, creativity and intuitive skills and self as a guide for the future.

Cora Pacheco joined the Sacred Creative Collective for community and support in going deeper on her intuitive practices. She was seeking clarity on where these important skills could take her in a new phase of life. Building on personality insights, Cora traversed realms of archetypes and shadow work to deepen her intuitive knowledge for herself and for others.

I asked alumni from the Sacred Creative Collective to share their experiences and how group coaching contributed to self-understanding and future directions. Cora took the time to reflect on her journey in life and the Sacred Creative Collective via these interview questions. I am grateful to Cora for sharing her wisdom and learning. Cora’s journey shows how working with a coach and a group can help us embrace the creative and intuitive sides of our personality in a deeper way and without fear.

Enjoy and may Cora’s story inspire your own intuitive search for wisdom!

Can you please tell us a little about yourself and your transition journey? What led you to want to make a deeper, more creative shift in your life?

Five years ago when I was 50, I left my profession as a paralegal prosecutor to stay at home as a full-time caregiver to my children, one of whom has a developmental disability.  I was burned out and needed to focus on priorities.  Then, two years ago, in a serendipitous development, my daughter moved in with her much-loved and fun support worker.  Suddenly, my life changed again, and I had time to rest, re-group and decide what was next.  I had delved into abstract painting already but I wanted to set some goals and have some accountability, as I find it difficult to keep myself motivated and moving forward with projects.  Sacred Creative Coaching came at just the right time for me to explore some goals and how to move forward. 

intuitive learning

What are some of the challenges you have faced when it comes to living in alignment with your creative desires and aims?

As an INFJ, (which I discovered whilst delving into Personality Stories with Terri), I need quiet time alone to recharge and a personally attuned process which helps “set me up” for creative work.  It seems that I need a lot of free, open time (during which I can read inspirational material, pull some tarot cards or delve into my personal astrology, for example) in order to inspire my creative juices.  For me, it’s easy to let my responsibilities take over and just not find the time to be creative or, as is often the case, I remain in research and learning mode without much output.  I have come to realize that self-expression and creativity are important components in my life, but I do seem to need help with keeping myself on track and focused. 

Can you please describe your focus now and how you are working more in line with what is sacred and creative for you?

I have developed my morning routine which includes coffee time, reading, journaling, sometimes including dreamwork, and sometimes pulling tarot cards for myself. I’ve noticed that I need to be inspired and then I feel I can create something or share something; for example, a tarot reading for the collective, on my Instagram page.  I also aim to get out for a walk every day, sometimes in nature. After completing the Sacred Creative Collective program, I started a business as a tarot reader, as I was enjoying delving into the card meanings and using my intuitive abilities to deepen my spiritual practice.  This was a big step for me, fully “stepping out of the spiritual closet”, and letting myself be seen.  I created a website for the business, known as Eagle and Star Tarot and spend time writing occasional blogposts and Instagram posts for the business. 

intuitive learning

What helped you to develop your skills and new/renewed focus?

Over the last few years, I’ve taken several courses, including obtaining a certificate as a Positive Psychology Coach from the Wholebeing Institute, and courses in tarot.  I also did the Personality Stories with Terri, as already mentioned.  During the Sacred Collective Coaching program, one of my goals was to deepen my knowledge of tarot.  One of the things I realized as I went through the collective coaching process and working with Terri, as funny as it may sound, is that it’s ok to like what you like, even though others may find it weird or unappealing.  It also helped me to explore some of my limiting beliefs and shadow tendencies, like people pleasing, which keep me from moving forward and stepping fully into my personal power. 

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What does creative transition look like in your life now and what are you proud of?

My creative transition has been about recognizing that I actually am a creative being (we all are!), and that being creative in some form, whether it’s doing abstract painting or writing a blog or Instagram post, is good for and necessary for me.  I’m proud of myself for being someone who is curious and a lifetime learner and for taking the time to work on my personal development through the courses and coaching that I’ve taken. 

What are your next steps?

My next steps are to continue working on building my community on Instagram at Eagle and Star Tarot, sharing insights and readings, as well as growing my business as a reader.  I also want to continue doing things that I enjoy such as walking in the woods, day-tripping and hopefully more travel. 

intuitive learning
Cards from The Wild Unknown Tarot deck

Thank you for sharing your sacred creative story with us, Cora!

And for the images curated from your intuitive journey, story and business.

If you would like to shape your sacred creative life with the help of a coach and the camaraderie of a community, I would love to support you. You can find out more about the Sacred Creative Collective here.

The Sacred Creative Collective is current open for enrolments with an early bird opportunity until midnight Saturday 20 February 2021 AEDT.

If now doesn’t feel like the right time, get on the waitlist to hear about the next round of the Collective. We’d love you to join us! Places are limited. Get on the Waitlist to be the first to know. You also get Exclusive Early Bird access and save!

You can connect with Cora on Instagram and via her website: Eagle and Star Tarot.

Cora Pacheco

inspiration & influence wholehearted stories

Elizabeth Milligan – Sacred Creative Stories of Transition

August 14, 2020
sacred creative life

In France, a woman seeks space and a way to slow down and reconnect with her creative energy and many passions. Elizabeth Milligan joined the Sacred Creative Collective for community and support in getting clarity and focus on her creative spirit and projects.

Elizabeth has undertaken deep and reflective inner work in the Sacred Creative Collective. Committed to personal growth, she has worked to understand and focus her naturally expansive personality. Finding heart-centred frameworks and structure has been key to honing in how to shape and finish her creative projects.

I asked alumni from the Sacred Creative Collective to share their experiences and how group coaching contributed to self-understanding and future directions. Elizabeth took the time to reflect on her journey in life and the Sacred Creative Collective via these interview questions. I am so grateful to Elizabeth for sharing her wisdom and insights. Being a group coaching program, community and collective wisdom is an integral element of the learning and process. Elizabeth has been a passionate contributor, sharing her insights and learning to shed light on her own journey and to help others alongside her. As she does in this interview!

Enjoy the read and may it inspire your sacred creative life!

Can you please tell us a little about yourself and your transition journey? What led you to want to make a deeper, more creative shift in your life?

I’m someone who has been searching for something my whole life.  I never really knew what that was so I ended up chasing new jobs, new careers, moving to new countries, learning new languages.  I was generally always looking for something different, exciting, new.  I was always learning and I’m still constantly learning.  I’m a very curious person and this can lead to many avenues opening up for exploration.  It can also become overwhelming and unsettling though, and I think this was what was happening to me.  I needed to stop.  To calm down, slow down and get back to my centre.  To find what it was that was really important to me and put my focus there. 

I took a sabbatical of sorts when I accepted a year-long house-sit for an old French farmhouse in the countryside.  It was my chance to stop, slow down and centre myself.  Through doing this I started to rediscover my sense of play and discovery and this came out in creative ways.  Writing, blogging, photography, collage-making, painting, baking, potion-making.  Living closely with nature, hiking the fields, swimming in the rivers, following the cycles of the moon and the seasons instilled in me a deep sense of calm and well-being and for the first time in a long time I was able to take a step back and assess things.  I realised I had lost important parts of myself.  My creative energy had been focused in other areas and I wanted to get this back, to rediscover those lost parts of myself and bring them into my daily life, whilst also letting go of the parts of myself that were not really me.

sacred creative life

What are some of the challenges you have faced when it comes to living in alignment with your creative desires and aims?

When you choose to live more in alignment with your desires and aims there is always a certain amount of letting go that is necessary.  I’ve always found it difficult to let go.  I have the tendency to hold onto things “just in case” which also goes for knowledge, jobs I’ve done in the past, past experiences.  I’ve found it difficult to commit to a deeper, more creative life because I’ve doubted that it would be sustainable.  This has made me want to hold on to jobs or opportunities even if they’re not the best situation for me in terms of my well-being.  So it’s been a case of two steps forward and one step back.  However, the more I am able to commit to and trust in my creative projects and way of life, the more I am able to let go.  It’s a slow process but necessary if we are to make space for those things we are more aligned with.

Another obstacle was to do with society and the culture of what constitutes “real work”.  Although I’ve never gone down the conventional route, I’ve still found it hard to be supportive of my own creative desires and aims.  I feel like I’ve looked at myself and judged myself through a lens that is not my own.  It’s an external lens that I’ve adopted as my own and judged myself through.  It’s harsh and it’s self-sabotaging so this has been an interesting challenge to overcome as I never before realised that most of the blocks I faced were self-made.

sacred creative life

Can you please describe your focus now and how you are working more in line with what is sacred and creative for you?

My current focus is on bringing together my knowledge as a trained aromatherapist and my love of art and painting in a more sustainable way.  I love creating calming rituals around essential oils and strongly believe that bringing ritual and scent together can be a beautiful healing experience and one that creates a wonderful sense of space and calm for our creative work.  I’m working more in line with what is sacred and creative for me by allowing myself to work more intuitively and using my relationship with nature to inspire and guide me.

sacred creative life

What helped you to develop your skills and new/renewed focus?

For a long time I felt kind of splattered, where I couldn’t get focus and was jumping around through different projects but not giving anything my full attention.  It felt like I had to choose and I didn’t want to as everything felt important to me, but the result was a lot of procrastination and never getting anything done.

I started working with Terri last year because the idea of living a sustainable, sacred creative life was really important to me.  I just had no idea where to start.  Through following Terri’s programme I realised a lot about myself.  I became able to accept all the parts of myself that felt they were pulling me in different directions and start to see how these parts can support each other and work together if I give myself the right framework and enough freedom to be myself. 

Looking at personality type (I’m INFP), archetypes (Creator/Alchemist), tendencies (I’m a Rebel of course) and many other areas really led me on a deep journey of discovery and one that will continue over time.  It allowed me to take a deep breath, lay everything out in front of me, and start to see where things could fit together and how my different types and tendencies would support me.  I now feel more able to bring things together in my own way through my own unique view and experience and I now have the confidence to move forward with my ideas.

sacred creative life

What does creative transition look like in your life now and what are you proud of?

I have more freedom to move forward with the projects I want to work on.  I’m able to step out of the confines of society (and my own self-limiting beliefs) and more closely live the life I want.  I’ve gathered up the lost parts of myself and welcomed them back into my life, feeling bolder and more fully able to embrace them as I move forward.  I’m proud of the deep work I’ve done to get to know myself better and of all the skills I’ve learned through flexing my creative muscles – painting, photography, writing, blogging.  Most of all I’m proud of not giving up on myself.  Of listening to my inner voice as it softly called me and nudged me in the right direction, allowing me to find my way home.

sacred creative life

What are your next steps?

My next steps are to finish my new website where I bring my art and aromatherapy together.  There is also a survey on there for a research project I’m working on around combining ritual and scent.  I’d like the website to house a working portfolio of my artwork – nothing too finished and polished but more a place for discussion and self-realisation.  And towards the end of the year I hope to open up slots for online consultations to help others choose and safely use essential oils in their creative practice.

Thank you for sharing your sacred creative story with us, Elizabeth!

And for the beautiful images curated from your art and life story.

If you would like to shape your sacred creative life with the help of a coach and the camaraderie of a community, I would love to support you. You can find out more about the Sacred Creative Collective here.

The Sacred Creative Collective is current open for enrolments with an early bird opportunity until midnight Saturday 20 February 2021 AEDT.

If now is not the right time for you, get on the Waitlist to be the first to know next time. You also get Exclusive Early Bird access and save!

You can connect with Elizabeth on Instagram and her beautiful website is HERE! You can also read Elizabeth’s Wholehearted Story My wild soul is calling here.

sacred creative life

inspiration & influence wholehearted stories

Valerie Lewis – Sacred Creative Stories of Transition

August 11, 2020
sacred creative stories

In London, a creative soul finishes her corporate role and seeks ways to blend her many passions into a new way to live and thrive. Valerie Lewis joined the Sacred Creative Collective in February 2020 for support and community in shaping her unique creative transition and vision.

It’s been inspiring hearing how Valerie has embraced the many diverse creative dimensions of her life and found focus in taking them forward. With commitment and step by step actions, she is negotiating her life shift positively, bringing the threads of her body of work over time together.

I asked alumni from the Sacred Creative Collective to share their experiences and how group coaching contributed to self-understanding and their future directions. Valerie reflected on her journey in life and the Sacred Creative Collective via these interview questions. I am so grateful to Valerie for taking the time to share her wisdom and insights from her transition. Being a group coaching program, the community and collective wisdom is an integral element of the learning and process. It was so wonderful to have Valerie as a vital part of the group sharing her special brand of wisdom and gaining strength and skill for the onward journey. And to be able to share her sacred insights here with you.

Enjoy the interview with Valerie! May it inspire you.

Can you please tell us a little about yourself and your transition journey? What led you to want to make a deeper, more creative shift in your life?

My current transition journey started about 2 years ago, as I became more and more conscious that I was heading towards the age of 60. Aspects of my day job were moved to a different department and my role had become less meaningful; and the beginning of last year when I started on a group programme with a Web Designer & Digital Strategist in learning how to revamp my website – I found myself withdrawing somewhat from the programme as I had a deep urge to ‘go within’, reflect and do some deep thinking about what I wanted for myself in the 3rd phase of my life, which would also mean some changes to the purpose of my website, what it reflected and who it was aimed at/served.

sacred creative stories

What are some of the challenges you have faced when it comes to living in alignment with your creative desires and aims?

One of the main challenges I believe I have faced, is coming to terms with the fact that I am multi-passionate. 

In my early 30’s I consciously made the decision not to climb the corporate career ladder. Mainly because deep down inside of me it just didn’t appeal. I wanted to feel free to pursue or find my “passion” outside of the day job. This decision through the next 20 and more years caused me a lot of internal anguish as I often thought there was something wrong with me for being so undecided and perhaps coming across as flaky/a lost soul.

Outside of my day jobs, I threw myself into undertaking courses, lots of reading, and dabbling in varied interests from, introductory counselling, interior design, colour therapy, personal styling, energy healing and holistic therapies, working with my intuition alone and through attending a few spiritual development classes, and with tarot/oracle cards and providing intuitive readings, some life coaching, and over a 10 year period or so, also making and selling my craftwork and bead jewellery.  All with the aim of trying to fit with the then societal norm of finding a one true passion.  I realise I don’t fit so neatly into any box. It’s taken me a long time to accept and feel truly comfortable with this fact.

I came across a quote a couple of years ago, and it so resonates, as I realise that over the years that is what I have been doing (following the tugs that come from my heart)!

“Follow the tugs that come from the heart. I think that everyone gets these gentle urges and should listen to them. Even if they sound totally insane, they may be worth going with”. ~ Victoria Moran

Naturally, I can’t realistically follow all my passions at the same time. Some I’ve learnt (and still learning) to blend together and refine to represent who I authentically am and what I have to offer/support others with, whilst some passions will remain in the hobby sphere.  But, I am always learning.  That is a huge part of who I am.

Can you please describe your focus now and how you are working more in line with what is sacred and creative for you?

My focus now, is to provide a healing, empowering, Personal Growth Facilitation/Life Transitions Coaching service – primarily for people who have experienced a significant life change (such as loss of a child or someone else dear to them, redundancy, relationship breakdown etc) – which incorporates and blends some of my interests (such as Reiki, meditation, mindfulness, journaling, vision collage work and maybe in the future – depending on how comfortable I feel with Covid-19 and health/safety measures – massage therapy).  Also to make sure I build in time for my creative craft based passions.

sacred creative stories

What helped you to develop your skills and new/renewed focus?

My focus has been renewed following deep reflection and also being made redundant from my full-time corporate role at the beginning of this year.  Leading up to the redundancy, I was aware that I wanted some support for what I wanted to do with my life coaching and website post redundancy, but wasn’t quite sure of what that might look like and where it might come from. 

What helped me was attending a small intimate one day goal setting workshop hosted by Sylvi Hussain (Transformational Coach) at the beginning of the new year. This led to more reflecting and I felt within, that once I left employment, and attempted to give new structure to a new way of living, I would like some support with this and also to be held accountable, as I developed and enhanced some skills, and further give shape and definition to my vision and goals. In a most serendipitous way Terri’s Sacred Creative Collective answered my call, providing me with the support and community I felt I needed to be in action!

What does creative transition look like in your life now and what are you proud of?

I would say creative transition is for me, as described above.  Through the Sacred Creative Collective, I became more familiar with the concept of ‘self-leadership’ through Terri’s presentations and group coaching sessions, and in many ways I have been practising this (i.e. striving to live in accordance with my values, getting to know who I was through various modalities such as oracle/tarot, astrology and numerology and a basic understanding of my personality type, etc), but this was reinforced and greatly enhanced during my time in the Sacred Creative Collective.  

It has been a long journey and I am most proud of listening to my introverted intuitive self, even when I doubted it and felt confused and being true to myself, and knowing when to reach out to others (who are ahead of me in their journey) for support and guidance when I need it.  It was also good to have it reaffirmed that there is nothing wrong with being multi-passionate and not fitting neatly into anyone box, through the other women I met in the Collective who had all led interesting and varied lives and were also going through a similar transitional journey leading to a life that was more enriched and meaningful to them through pursuit of their passions.

sacred creative stories

What are your next steps?

Although I certified as a Life Coach back in 2006 it is an area I have not consistently focused on, and so much has changed since then in the coaching world (back then, for example, niching was not a thing, nor social media as we now know it). So at the moment a lot of my time has been spent getting myself up to date on what is happening in the coaching world, getting accepted and listed as a coaching partner on a digital community website for the over 50’s, working on a client welcome pack, refining wording for my offering, etc and before the year ends look at how I can use my Instagram account to promote and market my services and get paying clients and may seek coaching for this aspect. 

I also have some personal creative projects to undertake (i.e. a couple of abstract paintings to do for my living room wall, selling off the rest of my handmade jewellery stock etc) and more writing – for my own blog and a few guest posts and email newsletter.  A neighbour also gave me a large bag full of dried lavender….so I’ve lots of lavender sachets to make for Christmas stocking fillers!  Using the goals and actions template from my time with the Sacred Creative Collective I am reminded of my overall vision and goals for my business and personal life, and strive to set actions and review and update every two weeks. 

Thank you for sharing your sacred creative story with us, Valerie!

And for the beautiful images curated from your life story.

If you would like to shape your sacred creative life with the help of a coach and the camaraderie of a community, I would love to support you. You can find out more about the Sacred Creative Collective here.

We are enrolling soon for an 8 March start and 6 months of community, creativity and wisdom. We’d love you to join us! Places are limited.

The Sacred Creative Collective is current open for enrolments with an early bird opportunity until midnight Saturday 20 February 2021 AEDT.

If now is not the right time for you, get on the Waitlist to be the first to know next time. You also get Exclusive Early Bird access and save!

You can connect with Valerie at her beautiful website Visualise and Bloom and also on Instagram.

sacred creative stories

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