creativity Archives

This is the time to check in to the calling of your heart

June 18, 2018

You become mature when you become the authority in your own life.

Joseph Campbell, Reflections on the Art of Living

A Quiet Writing deep-dive Tarot Narrative each Monday to share intuitive guidance, wisdom and insights from aligned books – for the week and anytime…

This week: this is the time to check in to the calling of your heart

Theme for the week beginning 18 June

The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards deck – #36 Take a past, present, future walk.

After last week’s message of making the most of our new life opportunities and not wasting time, hopefully we have started to focus in a little more. This week’s message urges us to take time for a check in on alignment with the calling of your heart.

Sometimes as we venture on new paths, we can get side-tracked, trying to do all the things that come at us. In this we can lose our creative identity. The theme card for this week encourages us to take a walk in nature to check in to the past, present and future as a way of aligning ourselves.

Advice from the Life Design Cards Guidebook for #36 is to take a walk in nature and for the first ten minutes focus on the past. Then take ten minutes to focus on the present, then ten minutes to focus on the future. What powerful advice!

Notice what comes up for you. What metaphors do you see in your immediate environment as your thoughts percolate?

Checking in in this way helps to work out how aligned to are to the true calling of your heart. There is nothing like being in nature and the power of metaphor as a way to check in.

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 18 June

Tarot Narrative:

It’s time for a check in against past, present and future. And how you really feel about it all. Let your feelings be the guide as you look at the master plan, the bigger picture of what you’re building. And if something feels really right or strong, take that step towards it, listening to the calling of your heart.

Cards: Queen of Cups and Three of Coins from the Spolia Tarot and #36 Come to the Edge from Wisdom of the Oracle.

Check in to the calling of your heart

Last week we had the Six of Wands and Nine of Coins combining with a strong message to stop, have a quiet celebration but keep moving. The focus was on appreciating how far you have come and seeing what the next steps are. This week the Queen of Cups and Three of Coins come together to suggest it’s time to check back in to the calling of your heart.

It’s time to look at feeling as your guide and your emotional side as your key resource. Feelings can be very useful, and sometimes we can downplay them as we work more from our head. Perhaps we overplay them too at times. But this week is all about tapping into the heart of your authentic work and checking back in to see if you are on the right track.

The Three of Coins reminds us that we are looking at building our work in the world on a large scale. What’s the big picture and the grand plan? Are you clear on where the pieces of what you do each day fit with the whole? Do the priorities that you work on each day align? Are you feeling lost in some way?

Recently we’ve done some important work in stepping up to our goals; we’ve celebrated successes and reaching milestones. Now we are encouraged to spend time this week seeing how our work aligns to our long-term creativity and building the cathedral of our work. How it fits with the calling of your heart.

How will you check back in with the calling of your heart?

I created this image above many years ago – a layered lino-cut called ‘Poetry as Art’. For me, creativity is all about the sacred creative. We might be sitting there at our desk in our quiet place writing but it connects to a wider landscape. The building of our work in the world and a higher spirituality and calling.

We are encouraged this week to check in to that calling of the heart and to see if we are on track. The Queen of Cups tells us it’s all about feeling and emotions as our guide. We may have found ourselves too much in our head lately or too cluttered with ideas. This week is about our authentic heart work as a touchstone to what to do and where to focus.

The Three of Coins reminds us that this in the context of our long-haul creativity and plans. And the Wisdom of the Oracle card, Come to the Edge also encourages us to listen to our heart and soul, not our head. We are invited to see where a leap of faith or intuitive step into our big vision might be calling us at this time. If we tune into our heart and authentic heart work, it will be easier to feel aligned with the possibilities.

This image via pexels.com

Book notes: Reflections on the art of living

You become mature when you become the authority in your own life.

Joseph Campbell, Reflections on the Art of Living

This quote from Joseph Campbell popped up for me for this week. I came across it via Danielle LaPorte’s White Hot Truth and it’s from the Joseph Campbell book, Reflections on the Art of Living. These books and any others that you know will help you tune in to your heart’s calling is encouraged reading this week. This week is all about being the authority in your own life and getting clear of other influences. It’s great to be inspired by others but we need to swim in our own lane and weave those creative influences in our own way. It’s about knowing and honouring our influences but not being over-shadowed by them. Boundary setting of all kinds also might be important this week and White Hot Truth is an excellent resource for thoughts on setting boundaries.

How can you listen to the calling of your heart?

So how can you move into listening to the calling of your heart?

This week’s cards suggest we need to get back to our creative roots, our motivation, our why.

I’ve been feeling a little scattered lately. I’m making huge steps like becoming a Certified Beautiful You life coach – I’ll share more about this journey later this week. I’ve also been pulling together my Jung/Myers-Briggs Personality Stories personality assessment, ecourse and coaching package. Both the product of a long-term investment in my skills and ways I can take my learning forward.

But I’m finding I’ve got a few too many ideas and also feeling the influence of others’ work. It’s great to have ideas and be influenced but in the end, we have to get back to what we are shaping through our work in the world. Whether it’s a creative project, creative business or a more wholehearted life, what it is the authentic heart of it?

I’m feeling I need to get back to the calling of my heart this week as I bring all this work forward. What is it all about? Where does my own creativity fit with all of this? What am I sharing and why? How is my writing going as the authentic heart of my business?

Tips for tuning into the heart of your calling

Here are some tips for checking in to the calling of your heart this week. Take time to reflect and journal on any that catch your attention:

take a past, present, future walk: The activity from our Life Designs theme card offers the opportunity of insight as we tune into our senses, outside in nature, getting out of our head and reflecting for 10 minutes on each of the past, present and future. What metaphors arise?
blog from the heart: How can blogging become more heart-centred and a guide to your calling? Blogging is a fabulous way to shape your work, listening to your authentic heart, honing your voice.
scope your business overall: Play with the scope of your business overall from a feeling point of view. Create a visual collage about what your work is about and see what comes through.
see where the pieces fit: Take time to reflect on where you are putting your energies. See if the pieces fit with the whole and where you can adjust for better alignment.
balance input and outputs – Make a list of inputs (books, courses, personal development, money out) and a list of outputs (creative products, services, certification, money in, project results). See if it is aligned with where you want to go. Check in to: Are you focussing too much on inputs with few results? Is your creative well running dry? Do you keep doing courses or reading books when you need to create your own work in the world? How can you get this in better balance?
taking risks: What’s the heart risk that might help you take that big step towards your vision? What will help you move through fear and do your own bigger work in the world?

Thoughts for this week

I recently received Jen Carrington’s latest Letter via email and she is singing the same song about how we work on our businesses and creative projects. Her words:

Because here’s the thing I’ve learned over and over again from my clients, creative friends, and my own business journey too: success – real, meaningful, change-your-own-life success – comes from diving deep and building and running your business on your own terms. From doing things your own way, from building your own intuition and vision as a business owner, and from knowing what noise will serve you and what noise isn’t worth your focus and energy too.

Here’s to a week of working out which noise serves you and which noise detracts you from your own cathedral like vision of your work.

Love to hear your thoughts!

I’d love to hear about what checking in to the calling of your heart means for you! All best wishes for a week of resetting direction and priorities by using our heart as our guide and knowing the true nature of our work in the world.

May you find that taking a few moments to check in with your heart’s work brings joy and focus. And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

You can work with me to help tap into that inner wisdom and magic guidance. Free 30-45 minute coaching consults chats are available so please get in touch at terri@quietwriting.com to talk further. I’d love to be a guide alongside to help you conduct creativity and magic with spirit and heart in your own unique way. And to help you ignite the psychological links in your passions!

You can download my free 94-page ebook on the 36 Books that Shaped my Story – just sign up with your email address in the box to the right or below. You will also receive updates from Quiet Writing and its passions. This includes personality type, coaching, creativity, writing, tarot and other connections to help express your unique voice in the world.

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

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New life, new wings, new opportunities – making the most of it

June 11, 2018

We are more than the sum of our wounds.

Sharon Blackie, If Women Rose Rooted

A Quiet Writing deep-dive Tarot Narrative each Monday to share intuitive guidance, wisdom and insights from aligned books – for the week and anytime…

This week: new life, new wings, new opportunities + making the most of them

Theme for the week beginning 11 June

The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards deck – #18 Produce no waste.

After last week’s message – Taking a leap of faith with structure + the gift of surprise – this week is all about moving more fully into that new life. If you’ve been following along with my daily Tarot Narratives (now on IG stories @writingquietly), you may have noticed the Five of Cups popping up a few times (3 times in the past 8 days!) accompanied by the Eight of Swords in one instance. All of that seemed to be about not getting lost in disappointment or grief, in what could have been or what has been lost.

This card, “Produce no waste”, helps us to reflect on where we might be losing energy, effort or time as a consequence of what we’ve been through. What habits has it led to? Have we become adept at putting things off instead of actually doing them? Are we wallowing in something rather than moving on?

Advice from the Life Design Cards Guidebook for #18 is:

Explore your use of time. Establish what needs to be maintained in your life. Scrutinize your perceived priorities. Look out for signs of procrastination. Is there anything else being wasted?

What can we waste: time, opportunities, connection, energy, resources, space… so many things.

Today’s narrative, led by this card, encourages us to see where we are moving to and how we are moving there. We are looking ahead rather than behind to check we are making the most of the opportunities of this new life.

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 11 June

Tarot Narrative:

You’ve come a long way through and out. Take some time to celebrate but reflect also on what you can do with this time, your resources, what you’ve built so far. The unfamiliar beckons as a way of taking yourself, your creativity and projects into a new life with new wings guiding you to a higher space.

Cards: Six of Wands and Nine of Coins (Pentacles) from the Spolia Tarot and #50 No Place Like Home in protection (reversed) position from Wisdom of the Oracle.

Moving on and into new life ways

Last week we had the Emperor and Seven of Wands encouraging us to take some risks and a leap of faith in our creative projects. The Emperor especially prompted work with structure and an overall plan or in Jung/Myers-Briggs terms, some Extraverted Thinking – some frameworks and order.

I don’t know what your week was like this past week but I achieved some major goals. This included some that had been begging to be finished for a while. I just had to put a bit of structure in place and do the work and, voilà, long term goals were achieved.

I’m feeling pretty good about that but as this week’s narrative asks us, what does that moment of satisfaction and achievement bring with it? Is it time to sit back and do less? Time to celebrate and kick up our heels? The Six of Wands and Nine of Coins combine with a strong message this week to say: yes stop, have a quiet celebration but keep moving. Appreciate how far you have come but it’s also time to keep doing and seeing what the next steps are.

Where will you go with your new set of wings?

The Six of Wands from The Wild Unknown Tarot sums up the message of this card so well:

The obstacles have been relentless, but now is not the time to look back upon them. The more pressing question is: where will you go with your new set of wings?

Whatever you have been through recently, it’s time to look forward. It’s an opportunity to celebrate and recognise the wins, in case you missed noticing them. But then to see where they will take you.

The ‘No Place Like Home’ card from the Wisdom of the Oracle deck has turned up two days in a row in the same position – protection or reversed. This card in this position counsels us not to get too comfortable and not to sit on our laurels. (Note also the laurel imagery in the Spolia Nine of Coins card!) Especially if we have been through a tough time, it’s easy to develop the habit of putting things off. We are encouraged via the Wisdom of the Oracle for this card to do something different and find a new path:

Choose something unfamiliar and trust that there you will find a new normal that supports your spirit.

This image via pexels.com

Book notes: New life and moving on from pain

It is true that we have to do a good deal of inner work before we have anything meaningful to offer the world; it is true too that we must recognise our wounds and incorporate them into the ground of our becoming. But we need also to stop licking them. We are more than the sum of our wounds.

Sharon Blackie, If Women Rose Rooted

The initial theme card about focusing on producing no waste suggested a focus on wasted time and other resources. It’s a fine balance between moving through pain to new life and getting lost on the way. It might be getting stuck in the habit of loss or disappointment. This means we can lose energy in negative ways rather than channelling it into the positive.

It could be getting carried away with celebrating our successes and missing the next opportunities. Perhaps it’s taking the safe way instead of the unfamiliar, the “exquisite risks” that last week’s message also suggested to us. We might choose heading home instead of the opportunity of a new adventure.

How can you move into new life in a new way?

So how can you move into new life in a new way, making the most of new opportunities?

The Six of Wands and Nine of Coins are both positive cards: we are rising up, feeling a sense of victory. We are finally feeling self-sufficient, independent, achieving creatively. But what are the next steps? There’s a sense of needing to do something different and unfamiliar to ride this new wave with optimism.

I’ve made big leaps in the past week or so. I’ve finalised my Jung/Myers-Briggs Personality Stories personality assessment, ecourse and coaching package. I am currently testing it with some fellow life coaches and a friend who is also a Myers-Briggs practitioner. Then I’ll be able to fine-tune it with feedback and release it more widely. After a long-term investment in my skills and this project, I’m ready to step into it. This week’s narrative is encouraging me to think a little differently with how I work now I’ve reached this point. Where am I going with these new wings? Am I wasting time and energy anywhere? Am I aligned? Am I making the most of what I’ve created?

Tips for moving ahead with new life opportunities

Here are some questions and tips for moving ahead with optimism into new life opportunities. Take time to reflect and journal on any that catch your attention:

aligning your time: Where are you wasting time? Where have you developed habits from another time that aren’t serving you now?
do things differently: As the saying goes, if you always do what you’ve done, you’ll always get what you’ve got. So how can you do things differently and embrace the unfamiliar in your work? What course or book might help you break new ground? Or where can you move ahead without any courses or books, instead creating your own?
notice where you are stuck: Where are you doing things because you’ve always done them that way? Check in and see if it’s still serving you.
the “new normal”: Which parts of your life feel like the “new normal” you want more of? In getting to this new phase, what helped you? Who helped you? How can you do more of that?
go outside your comfort zone and natural preferences – This was mentioned last week but the unfamiliar keeps popping up as a source of new opportunities now. Do the opposite of what you normally do and see what arises for you! Go to an event if you are introvert. Stay inside and explore your creative thoughts more if you tend to want to go out a lot.
let go: There is an element of letting go of the past and other attachments in all of this too. This post with some great quotes on letting go just popped up so sharing it with you.

Thoughts for this week

Celebrate where you’ve got to – all that hard work and vision over time. But don’t lose the momentum and keep focused on the new. Reframing and resetting offer wonderful opportunities for rising even more strongly now.

Love to hear your thoughts!

I’d love to what this message of moving ahead with a new life, new wings and new opportunities sings to you! All best wishes for a week of celebrating how hard we’ve worked but also moving ahead into a new normal with an optimistic mind-set.

May you find that taking a few moments to celebrate and reflect brings new opportunities and new ways of working. And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

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Finishing on a high note – closure, letting go and moving on

Movement, stillness and navigating challenging times

Your body of work: the greatest gift for transition to a bright new life

Butterfly feature image via pexels.com

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Taking a leap of faith with structure + the gift of surprise

June 4, 2018

We can’t learn to see if we can’t keep our eyes open. In just this way, staying open to the unexpected expands the openness of our heart.

Mark Nepo, The Exquisite Risk

A Quiet Writing deep-dive Tarot Narrative each Monday to share intuitive guidance, wisdom and insights from aligned books – for the week and anytime…

This week: taking a leap of faith with structure + the gift of surprise

Theme for the week beginning 4 June

The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards deck – #45 Take a leap of faith with your ideals

After last week’s message – choosing the best thoughts to make a lighter way – this week is all about taking risks and a leap of faith. We’ve had a time of Introverted Intuiting and working on our work in the world in a more visionary introverted kind of way. Now it’s time to do something with all those thoughts and maybe all that behind the scenes work. It’s time for taking a leap of faith in many different ways and also seeing what can support and inspire us.

This message of taking a leap of faith has come to me twice in 24 hours: via the Life Design cards deck and also the Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards. So I pass this message on to you here. Aine, the Celtic goddess and fairy queen, says: “Take a risk, and put your heart’s true desire into action!”

Advice from the Life Design Cards Guidebook for #45 is:

Expand your awareness through the gathering of unfamiliar experiences.

Today’s narrative, led by the synchronicity of these theme cards, encourages us to take a leap of faith. Elements of structure and surprise are in there as we navigate the unfamiliar with some safe supports.

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 4 June

Tarot Narrative:

It’s time to take some risks especially on work you’ve been imagining and planning for a while. Put in some structure, order and plans to help control your fear and manage any risks. Also to achieve progress over time, step by step. This will build confidence and help fight any inner or outer challenges. Work out what’s important to you as a source of strength and guidance. And take a leap of faith now for surprise learning and inputs!

Cards: The Emperor and Seven of Rods (Wands) from the Morgan Greer Tarot and #45 Time to Go in protection (reversed) position from Wisdom of the Oracle.

Taking a leap of faith with support

Last week we had the Nine of Swords and Judgment and it was all about watching our inner thoughts and trying to lighten them. This week we head into taking our creative thoughts and projects out in to the world in some way. Having potentially worked on our self-talk and self-love in a big way this past week and moved on and through, it’s time to take some risks and a leap of faith in our creative projects. This week begins with a yin energy focus as we intention comes in to being more. Taking risks to get our work out in the world is highlighted this week.

The tarot cards drawn along with the focus on a leap of faith provide guidance as to what will help us make that leap positively.

Firstly, the Emperor encourages us to work with structure and an overall plan. In Jung/Myers-Briggs terms, some Extraverted Thinking – some frameworks, logic and order will help us make a leap of faith with support.

In The Creative Tarot, for The Emperor, Jessa Crispin talks about C.S. Lewis and his approach to writing the Chronicles of Narnia series. Lewis plotted out the whole series in advance which led to increased consistency of his work. An INTJ personality type, he was weaving together his Introverted Intuiting with his Extraverted Thinking.

If you are planning a leap of faith in getting your creative work out in the world, use structure and a plan to help you. This was you will know where you are going in some senses so that leap of faith in writing or creating something new and innovative is supported.

This image via pexels.com

A leap of faith and self-belief

Another key support in the process of taking a leap of faith is self-belief. As the Seven of Wands reminds, sometimes we need to fight for what we believe in. This might be fighting for time, space and attention to get our work done. It might be working through issues that arise or countering naysayers. Perhaps it is shoring up our sense of belief that our work is needed in the world. Sometimes “you have to fight yourself down too” as Jessa Crispin reminds us for this card in The Creative Tarot.

As you craft your creative projects and take a leap of faith, see how you can strengthen self-belief as a key ingredient. Like putting in some order and structure, strengthening our self-belief is another valuable support as take risks and leap into the unknown.

This image via pexels.com

Book notes: A leap of faith and the gift of surprise

Our capacity for surprise is often an unused blessing.

Mark Nepo, The Exquisite Risk

A leap of faith can also bring with it surprises. Staying open to the unexpected means we can make the most of any leaps of faith and their gifts. But we need to keep our eyes open and we need to keep our heart open as we move.

Mark Nepo highlights ‘The Gift of Surprise’ in his book ‘The Exquisite Risk’. Taking a leap of faith also implies we are letting go a little to see what comes. Whilst we might put some structure around our leaping, like a safety net, still we can move from the known to the unknown.

It might be putting down the first words of that novel that has been in your heart for years once you finally create a tentative outline. This structure helps you have the self-belief to be able to get those first words down, knowing they will go somewhere. And in that, the surprise of what appears can arrive. The seeds of ideas have the chance to grow.

How can you leap ahead with structure and surprise?

So how can you actively leap ahead, honouring both structure and surprise?

For me, these Tarot Narrative readings are a way of doing that each week. I have the basic structure of a tarot reading, a blog post, the tarot narrative work I have developed over time. But I never know what the message is or what I will write about until I do the intuitive work.

I’m working on my Jung/Myers-Briggs Personality Stories personality assessment and learning. I’ve had this plan in my head for over 18 months now. It’s new territory in many ways including for me as a new way of working. Recently, I’ve put my head down and created the container and structure. I’ve done the work and am now testing it with fellow creatives, coaches and Jung/Myers-Briggs professionals. The somewhat scary leap of faith in putting this work out into the world is next but the structure has helped me make that leap. Beginning to talk about it has brought some surprising linkages I hadn’t thought of and offers of help.

Tips for leaping ahead with structure and surprise

Some tips for leaping ahead with structure + surprise:

make a transition plan for where you want to be; that guide and safety net will help you move
create a plan for your creative project so you can make a start eg an outline, a timeline, a visual map
work with Instagram challenges that provide some structure but also some freedom. I am going to join in with Quiet Writing Wholehearted story author, Shalagh Hogan for her monthlong Creativity Challenge #OurCreativeJune this month. But any time on OG there are great challenges that provide structure while you provide the surprises!
go to an event you are interested in that breaks new ground for you – an Instameet, a conference – or message more directly an online creative whose work you feel a connection with.
go outside your comfort zone and natural preferences – if you usually do your social media lives outside, go inside and vice versa. See what arises for you! Go to an event if you are introvert. Stay inside and explore your creative thoughts more if you tend to want to go out a lot.

Thoughts for this week

Leaps of faith don’t have to be entirely without support. Use structure and order to help you. Shore up your self-belief so you feel strong inside and can counter any challenges. Value the element of surprise and new learning that comes from stepping outside your comfort zone.

Love to hear your thoughts!

I’d love to how this message of taking a leap of faith with support and surprise resonates with you this week.

All best wishes for a week of going outside your comfort zones and stretching your creative projects and business. In the end, that’s the value fo being creative – enjoying the process and seeing what comes up for you – and for others.

May you find that a leap of faith can be an exciting way to progress your creativity and life passions. It also can be an important way to help others in their work through our example and what we create.

As Steve Pressfield reminds us on what of my favourite quotes of all time from ‘ The War of Art’:

Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.

And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

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Choosing the best thoughts to make a lighter way

May 28, 2018

Through meditation, observe your mind observing the world.

Lisa McLoughlin, Life Design Cards, #48 Stay bewitched by your own consciousness

A Quiet Writing deep-dive Tarot Narrative each Monday to share intuitive guidance, wisdom and insights from aligned books – for the week and anytime…

This week: choosing the best thoughts to make a lighter way

Theme for the week beginning 28 May

The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards deck – #48 Stay bewitched by your own consciousness

After last week’s message to start work and ignite magic from your unique passions, it’s a time of going within again. We have had this card a couple of times before so it seems to be a favourite for Quiet Writing! No surprises really, given it’s all about meditating, going quietly within and playing creatively with our mind. It seems a very Introverted Intuiting kind of card to me. And that type of cognitive processing is about withdrawing from the world to find an insight or higher perspective, according to Dario Nardi in ‘Jung on Yoga’ (more on this below!)

Advice from the Life Design Cards Guidebook is:

Through meditation, observe your mind observing the world. Play out creative inspirations with art, pure fantasy and dreams.

Today’s narrative, led by this theme card, encourages us to withdraw a little and choose best thoughts to make a lighter way.

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 28 May

Tarot Narrative:

It’s a time of change or perhaps you are just coming out of a tough time where much shifted. As you work through this time, be aware of your own consciousness and whether you are filling it with flowers and growth, or swords that might damage you. Wield what will help you to shed skins and move into a lighter time.

Cards: Nine of Swords and Judgement from the Spolia Tarot and #12 A Change in the Wind from Wisdom of the Oracle. Loving the Spolia Tarot!

Watch the thoughts you are choosing

Last week we had the King of Wands and Ace of Coins and it was all about moving ahead on our creative projects. It was a very yang energy week and I achieved an enormous amount of things I have been trying to get to for ages. How did you go? Did you have that same experience of lots of forward action?

I noticed too though that the fear and doubt started to creep in. As we put ourselves out there with our creative projects, all kinds of thoughts can step in. This week we are encouraged to ground ourselves by choosing the best thoughts to make a lighter way.

It’s amazing when we are reaching new goals and putting our ideas into action how the negative thoughts can come. The Spolia Nine of Swords captures this perfectly symbolising all those daggers of thought that can stop us from moving and fill us with fear. As Jessa Crispin reminds us for this card:

This is the card of waking up at 4am with your head spinning, letting you know all the ways you are letting yourself down….We can spin demons out of thin air.

Choosing the best thoughts and clearing your mind

So this time calls for a strategy of going within and choosing our best thoughts – flowers instead of swords – and clearing the mind. Whatever works for you to clear your mind – yoga, walking, swimming, running, knitting, colouring, drawing – will help to clear the air. That way you can begin to choose the best thoughts – the more creative ones – rather than the dark ones that make you doubt yourself.

The challenges of current or recent times are potential sources of growth. They can feel very tough but as the Judgement card suggests with its imagery of a snake shedding its skin, it’s all about transformation. And part of the transformation is choosing the best thoughts to take us forward instead of dwelling on any mistakes or shortcomings. It’s a whole lot lighter that way.

As I was swimming this morning, I was reflecting on how the act of swimming is a kind of yoga for me as I breathe in and out very deeply for about half an hour. In that process, as I float and move, I feel much lighter. And much like yoga, the thoughts come and go as I come back to focusing on my breath and movement. The practice of my body moving through salt water.

In this process, I go within and access my own consciousness and inspiration often comes intuitively. It’s easy in this way to choose the best thoughts rather than the “waking at 4am” style of thinking, full of fear and doubt.

This image via pexels.com

Book notes:

Withdraw from the world and focus your mind to receive an insight or realization. Check if synergy results. Try a realization to transform yourself and how you think.

Dario Nardi, Jung on Yoga – for Keen Foreseeing (Ni Introverted Intuiting)

Today’s theme is all about going within and finding ways of choosing the best thoughts. And this is a kind of Introverted Intuiting or keen forseeing. There are eight cognitive processes including four extraverted and four introverted in Jungian psychology. Introverted Intuiting is one of these processes. It’s highlighted this week for going within and finding those bewitching thoughts in our own consciousness.

Dario Nardi describes this Introverted Intuiting as ‘Transform with a Higher Perspective.’ This energy and cognitive process is valuable for us as we seek to change and shed old ways that are no longer helpful. Moving past the dark Nine of Swords thinking and into lighter ways of working, we can engage with our creativity.

‘Jung on Yoga’ is a fabulous resource on finding psychological balance through yoga and the chakras as well as through working with your cognitive processes and psychological type. It is particularly valuable on the Transcendent function and provides a contemporary perspective on conflict as a source of growth and how to work with this. As Dario Nardi states:

The tension of opposites is your fuel for growth.

Tips for choosing the best thoughts

So how can you actively work on choosing the best thoughts? For me, it’s finding the self-leadership strategies that help me settle and work with my personality type. It might be different strategies for different times too. As Dario Nardi’s work on neuroscience, cognitive processes and self-leadership reminds us, it might be about stretching our cognitive options to suit the environment and demands up on us.

You might like to read up too on self-leadership and being the Captain of your Own Life via this great free ebook. My piece on ‘Anchors of self-leadership in seas of change‘ is there along with fellow Quiet Writing contributors Elizabeth Milligan and Lynn Hanford-Day. Just click on the image to read – it’s free! It’s all about finding ways of choosing the best thoughts and quieting the darker ones.

A huge thanks to all fellow contributors and heartfelt gratitude to Angelique Desiree who conceived the idea, pulled us all together and created this beautiful ebook every step of the way. Enjoy some fantastic reading on wholehearted self-leadership and being captain of your own life as this week invites us to do.

Thoughts for this week

Going within and choosing the best thoughts to help us chart our course is highlighted this week. Judging what is best can be relative, but certainly finding the self-leadership strategies that you know will settle you will help you move with grace and calm.

Love to hear your thoughts!

I’d love to how this message of staying with your own consciousness and its more introverted and intuitive practices resonates with you this week.

All best wishes for a week of going within to settle into choosing your best thoughts in creativity and life focus.

May you find that shedding the skin of darker thoughts is easier and that your path is lighter. And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

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Start work, ignite magic from your unique passions

May 21, 2018

If you’re waiting for divine inspiration, you might be waiting forever. Start the work and see what happens.

Jessa Crispin, The Creative Tarot for the Ace of Coins

A Quiet Writing deep-dive Tarot Narrative each Monday to share intuitive guidance, wisdom and insights from aligned books – for the week and anytime…

This week: start work + ignite magic from your unique passions

Theme for the week beginning 21 May

The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards deck – #41 Seize the moment to creatively direct raw energy.

After last week’s message of retreating within especially to find approval, we are encouraged this week to get out of the gate. Just look at all that fire and strength in this gorgeous card! And the language: “seize the moment”, “raw energy”. After the regrouping of the oast week, it’s time to create and be outward in our work. The energy to start work we may have been planning or imagining is highlighted now.

Advice from the Life Design Cards Guidebook is:

Express your personality and create outward symbols of your inner state.

Today’s narrative, led by this theme card, encourages us to ignite our passions into action and start work. The moon phase also is in favour of this as we move from a yin to a yang state tomorrow.

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 21 May

Tarot Narrative:

It’s time to ignite those passions into action. You have been feeling between worlds for a while now but having regrouped, start work. Whatever magic you have been imagining, whatever creativity you have been contemplating, shift into active work with it now. Just start, learning as you go. The pleasure of creating and learning will lead to mastery and expressing your unique passions in the world as only you can.

Cards: King of Wands and Ace of Coins from the Spolia Tarot and #3 Between Worlds from Wisdom of the Oracle. My first draw from the magic Spolia Tarot!

Start now to master passion and creativity

Last week we had the Knight of Wands focusing our attention on pursuing our passions and creative projects. But we were encouraged to hunker down a little and work out our direction and priorities. I know the last week has been a big one for me in working out my priorities. I’ve been concentrating on how to swim in my own lane and not to try to do everything at once. I had to spend some quiet time reflecting to make progress. Now I am clearer and this week is the time to start work.

Do you have ideas you are very passionate about that you have been putting off? Or have you been finding it hard to get to that one thing that is so important? The one that expresses your unique passions exactly? I know I have. It’s not been without good reason and there have been other competing priorities. But sometimes you just need to “seize the moment”, sit at the desk or go to the cafe and start work.

The King of Wands is all about the mastery of our passions and creativity, bringing together our take on our influences. As the Spolia Tarot Guidebook tells us for this King:

He is in command of his passions, but he is not at the mercy of them. He can always step back and determine what might be needed.

This spirit of moving ahead knowing you can make changes later is powerful. It helps us counteract the fear to even start work on what we treasure and value. Sometimes it can seem so precious or special, we never start. We are reminded this week that the ability to start work has a power and strength all of its own.

Seeds of action and first days

The Ace of Coins highlights the power of starting. The Spolia Tarot Guidebook says for this card:

The Ace of Coins is a seed. It is the first day of work on a project.

So this energy is all about seeds and planting energy into what we may have started thinking about a long time ago. Both the Ace and Between Worlds from the Wisdom of the Oracle emphasise that we may not know what the seed is or what it will grow into. It might even be different from what we anticipate. There’s an invitation to be curious and see what comes forth.

Last week we were encouraged to “gather our thoughts, make lists, mind-map, distil, make a plan, unravel, walk or free write can all be valuable ways to use this time of retreat.” I did a lot of that last week. It was very valuable and I learnt two things:

that I can’t do all that I want to do right away, and
which one is the most important now.

So I have begun to start work on what is the beginning of an exciting new offering. I made videos, I’ve been creating content and I know where I want to go with it. It’s all about personality so I love the synchronicity of the words from the Life Design Card:

Express your personality and create outward symbols of your inner state.

We are reminded we need to tend the seeds and work of our unique personality. Investing the care and energy, seizing the moment will yield power and strength we can learn from as we go.

This image via pexels.com

Book notes:

The King of Wands examines everything that sets him aflame and will find its psychological source. This understanding makes his passion sustainable, keeping him from burning out.

Jessa Crispin, The Creative Tarot

Today’s theme is all about how to fearlessly start work but it’s also about sustainable mastery of our passions. We can make many starts, but how do we combine our unique passions into something for the creative long-haul. I am grateful to everything that sets me alight and I love the link with psychological sources that The Creative Tarot mentions for the King of Wands.

The work that I made a big start in today is all about personality and psychological sources. It’s all about our cognitive preferences and what makes some things more natural than others. One of the major learnings for me over time has been about my personality and what makes it tick and honouring that. Valuing my intuition and my work with tarot and oracle cards as tools to tap into my intuition has been a huge part of that. I look forward to sharing my unique passions in these areas with the world.

So today I celebrate Jessa Crispin’s The Creative Tarot which has been something of a companion guide on this journey. I love that my first draw from Jessa’s gorgeous Spolia Tarot deck featured the King of Wands and the Ace of Coins. And reminded me again of the power to start work on our unique passions.

Start work on your unique passions

So where can you start work on your unique passions? Journal or reflect on these questions to ignite the flame of your creativity. Reflect on the Spolia King of Wands image as you do – look at that flame!

What seeds can you plant now, even if you do not know what they will grow into?
If you did retreat a little, hermit style, last week, what did you learn from that?
How do your unique passions come together?
What is their psychological source or link?
What is the thread that weaves through your passions?
How can you start now and how can this passion be sustainable over time?
How can you move wisely, step by step, not rushing to do all the things at once?
What might anchor you as you start?
How can you avoid burning out as you ignite and combine your various passions?

The Between Worlds card suggests “It’s a good time to bet on your skills and talents in new and different arenas.” What might these be?

If we don’t start work, we will never know.

How might you start work? You will know your own ways to do this but here are a few ideas:

step out of your comfort zone and do the thing that you have been putting off or that scares you
write the outline of the book, blog post or course you want to offer to the world
begin the first draft
get out the paints or pencils and see what emerges
reach out and make connections where you see some synergy
make time in your schedule this week for your number one priority
set a goal to start work and achieve a critical milestone this week
align action better with your priorities

Thoughts for this week

Making the start work in various ways is highlighted this week. It’s time to plant the seed, seize the day, make hay, write words, bring your passions into being in the world as only you can. The sooner you start work and plant the seed, the sooner those strong roots can grow.

These words are a great accompaniment for the energies of this week:

What you can do, or dream you can, begin it,
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated, —
Begin it, and the work will be completed!”

John Anster, 1835, inspired by a passage in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s “Faust”.

Love to hear your thoughts!

I’d love to how this message of being in action and finding a way to start work on the union of your unique passions resonates with you this week.

All best wishes for a week of igniting magic and connecting the sources of your work.

May you find joy in finding new ways for your talents and passions to connect and find a voice. And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

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Retreat within to find approval with yourself as the best guide

May 14, 2018

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.

Marcus Aurelius via The Art of Life Tarot – The Hermit

A Quiet Writing deep-dive Tarot Narrative each Monday to share intuitive guidance, wisdom and insights from aligned books – for the week and anytime…

This week: retreat within to find approval with yourself as the best guide for creativity + life

Theme for the week beginning 14 May

The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards deck – #46 Find approval with yourself before turning your eyes to the world.

This week we are reminded to retreat within and look inside to find approval. We can so often measure ourselves against arbitrary external measures. It might be someone else’s website, career, latest offering, lifestyle, Instagram feed, family, friends, writing – anything really! There are limitless ways we can measure ourselves against the metric of another’s life. This week, it time to halt that and go within for approval and wisdom. A little personal retreat is a wise way to proceed with this week’s energies.

Advice from the Life Design Cards Guidebook is:

Don’t get hooked upon social approval. Let integrity and personal essence guide your way. Get to know who you really are by spending time alone.

Today’s narrative, led by this theme card, encourages us to retreat to channel our creative and personal energy wisely. Listening to our inner wisdom is only possible when we quiet the external noise. Then we can hear the small still voice of our intuition in a much clearer way.

This is what Quiet Writing is all about! Self-leadership through listening to yourself and letting your wisdom guide you. Prepare to retreat this week – a little or a lot – to access that inner wisdom to guide you on a clearer path.

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 14 May

Tarot Narrative:

Are you feeling scattered because of unfinished business and all that you want to achieve? You might be feeling restless as you strive to do all the things. Taking some time to retreat within for clarity is advisable now. Setting your own pace, knowing your own best priorities, discerning procrastination from the need to gather yourself, can all be sourced from listening within. Moving ahead is just a matter of pausing to listen to ourselves and our own wisdom sometimes.

Cards: Knight of Rods (Wands) and The Hermit from the Morgan-Greer Tarot and #10 Unfinished Symphony in protection (reversed) position from Wisdom of the Oracle.

Book notes:

To engage in disciplined action first requires disciplined thought, and disciplined thought requires people who have the discipline to create quiet time for reflection.

Raymond M.Kethledge & Michael S.Erwin, Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude (p. xiv). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Today’s theme is all about taking time to retreat for solitude and reflection. Through this, we can create disciplined thought. We might go about this in creative ways, opening up our options first to distil them down. But it’s all about pausing and taking a kind of personal retreat to review and be still so we can hear our inner guides.

This fabulous book, Lead Yourself First, is all about how self-leadership through solitude and retreat can be a source of wisdom and insight. The book has numerous case-studies of how leaders have used this form of retreat to guide wise and disciplined action.

Wholehearted self-leadership

I have written extensively about the book in a guest post for Worksearch: How to become the heart of successful leadership: this is what you need to know so you can read more there. Also in this post on Quiet Writing. Here are a few thoughts from the latter explaining how wholehearted self-leadership is key to Quiet Writing:

Two key threads underlie Quiet Writing: one is being wholehearted and how we create our stories; the other is self-leadership and how we work towards being wholehearted through taking personal action. The key to taking action and knowing which actions to take are:

knowing ourselves and what we value and desire

learning to listen to our inner knowing

understanding our innate personality, including its strengths and what is challenging for us

seeking out, incorporating and acting on influence and inspiration from others.

Pursuing passion and creativity

The Knight of Rods (Wands) focuses our attention on pursuing our passions and creative projects. But the energy of the Knight of Rods can be a bit restless and impulsive. On the positive side, this type of energy can help us break through barriers and be more creative. On the flipside, we can also be trying to do all the things and all at once. It’s a great energy to work with though if we can harness it. The Robin Wood Tarot describes it as “practical action in spite of distractions.” The trick is to find a way to channel that energy in a sustainable and disciplined way. And to find a way to negotiate the insistence of multiple of ideas and the noise of numerous distractions.

Retreat and going within to find clarity

The Hermit comes along to beautifully remind us of the value of retreat to find approval with ourselves. This card symbolises that it’s time to value the need to retreat for clarity and inner listening. As The Fountain Tarot guidebook reminds us for The Hermit, “Silence leading to clarity” is key here.

Quiet Writing is all about this process of retreat to find wisdom and self-discipline. We can get so caught up in comparisonitis, measuring ourselves against others. Or it might be some pace or goal we have set ourselves which has no real rationale. With the energy of the Knight of Rods being ignited, we might be trying to achieve too many things at once.

We are encouraged to go within, to retreat into our own inner knowing so we can access the discipline of thought and intuition to proceed. It can all get so complex and multifaceted, especially as creatives, as we have one idea and then another. Stopping to gather our thoughts, make lists, mind-map, distil, make a plan, unravel, walk or free write can all be valuable ways to use this time of retreat.

Sometimes we might just need to nap or rest altogether, freeing our mind of all the thoughts running. A few days of mental rest however that manifests can mean we can see afresh and listen anew to ourselves. In ‘Lead Yourself First’, we can see a variety of ways leaders access solitude for self-knowledge including running, walking, flying, laying bricks and writing. Leaders intentionally and systematically “build pockets of solitude” into their lives. An example is Bill Gates who:

during the rise of Microsoft, set aside entire weeks to just go away and read and reflect, what he called “think week.”

Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude (p. xv).

Through this process we can work out what matters, however we might choose to do this individually.

Unfinished business

The Wisdom of the Oracle card Unfinished Symphony steps in with wisdom around working out what is procrastination and what is real work. Our unfinished business can be a key to where we might be operating out of fear or putting things off. Being clearer about this can come through retreat and stepping back to listen within.

But we are encouraged not to stall:

Don’t overthink things or let yourself get distracted – just tie up any loose ends and deliver the results. (p39)

I am in a Coffeeshop Writers’ Group coaching program with Caroline Donahue to support reaching my writing goals. In a group call, I shared my thoughts about feeling stuck with so many projects not going anywhere or as fast as I want them to. It’s very Knight of Rods with so many projects on this ‘To Do List’ next to me. Taking some time out this week for clarity along with a little mental rest will help me reorient. It’s ironic that sometimes we need to stop to move forward more productively.

Part of us wants to run on and get out there with all of the ideas racing through our minds. Another part of us realises the wisdom of retreat to reorder and assess our ways of working. Stopping to listen within to work out priorities and in that, addressing any unfinished business, is valuable work now.

Honouring the need for retreat

How good does that image of a comfy bed, blanket and a book look to you right now?

It looks perfectly dreamy to me and I can hear my soul saying, “Well do that then if that is what you need.” With an eye to working out what is procrastination versus a real need to rest, retreat and rejuvenate, it’s time to seek a little quiet now. It’s time to listen to our soul and our creative longings and how they want to be expressed.

How might you do this? You will know your own ways to do this but here are a few ideas:

work with tarot and oracle for intuitive guidance and free write about what comes up
walk along the beach or in the city or on a quiet country road and see what surfaces
make a list of unfinished business that is troubling you so you can reprioritise
rest in bed with a good comfort read and empty your mind a little
make a visual collage to see what messages emerge
journal about what’s important to see what comes through
go on a self-guided writing retreat
practice yoga, meditate, swim or do whatever works to clear your head
declare a few days of retreat to concentrate on planning the next six months ahead
take a few days to clear your head with good food, yoga and walking to reset a new way of living
think about all the reasons to go on a writer’s retreat and then plan one!
sign up for a retreat like this one later this year in Vietnam, led by my friend Kerstin Pilz, to carve out times of retreat in your life more generally
identify the self-leadership practices in your creative tool-kit

Honouring the place of retreat in our lives is key to moving ahead productively. Take some time to journal to quell the noise and listen to your quiet inner voice this week.

Love to hear your thoughts!

I’d love to how this message of retreat to listen, check in and find approval with yourself resonates with you this week.

All best wishes for a week of untroubled retreat, embracing your hermit and connecting with your soul’s voice.

May you find inspiration in listening to your inner wisdom and knowing what matters. And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

You might also enjoy:

Shining a quiet light – working the gifts of introversion

Finishing on a high note – closure, letting go and moving on

How to make the best of introverted strengths in an extraverted world

Being a vessel – or working with Introverted Intuition

Older

Newer

creativity

You become mature when you become the authority in your own life.

Joseph Campbell, Reflections on the Art of Living

Theme for the week beginning 18 June

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 18 June

Check in to the calling of your heart

How will you check back in with the calling of your heart?

Book notes: Reflections on the art of living

You become mature when you become the authority in your own life.

Joseph Campbell, Reflections on the Art of Living

How can you listen to the calling of your heart?

Tips for tuning into the heart of your calling

Thoughts for this week

Love to hear your thoughts!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Share this:

Like this:

We are more than the sum of our wounds.

Sharon Blackie, If Women Rose Rooted

Theme for the week beginning 11 June

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 11 June

Moving on and into new life ways

Where will you go with your new set of wings?

Book notes: New life and moving on from pain

It is true that we have to do a good deal of inner work before we have anything meaningful to offer the world; it is true too that we must recognise our wounds and incorporate them into the ground of our becoming. But we need also to stop licking them. We are more than the sum of our wounds.

How can you move into new life in a new way?

Tips for moving ahead with new life opportunities

Thoughts for this week

Love to hear your thoughts!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Share this:

Like this:

We can’t learn to see if we can’t keep our eyes open. In just this way, staying open to the unexpected expands the openness of our heart.

Mark Nepo, The Exquisite Risk

Theme for the week beginning 4 June

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 4 June

Taking a leap of faith with support

A leap of faith and self-belief

Book notes: A leap of faith and the gift of surprise

Our capacity for surprise is often an unused blessing.

How can you leap ahead with structure and surprise?

Tips for leaping ahead with structure and surprise

Thoughts for this week

Love to hear your thoughts!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Share this:

Like this:

Through meditation, observe your mind observing the world.

Lisa McLoughlin, Life Design Cards, #48 Stay bewitched by your own consciousness

Theme for the week beginning 28 May

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 28 May

Watch the thoughts you are choosing

Choosing the best thoughts and clearing your mind

Book notes:

Withdraw from the world and focus your mind to receive an insight or realization. Check if synergy results. Try a realization to transform yourself and how you think.

Tips for choosing the best thoughts

Thoughts for this week

Love to hear your thoughts!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Share this:

Like this:

If you’re waiting for divine inspiration, you might be waiting forever. Start the work and see what happens.

Jessa Crispin, The Creative Tarot for the Ace of Coins

Theme for the week beginning 21 May

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 21 May

Start now to master passion and creativity

Seeds of action and first days

Book notes:

The King of Wands examines everything that sets him aflame and will find its psychological source. This understanding makes his passion sustainable, keeping him from burning out.

Start work on your unique passions

Thoughts for this week

Love to hear your thoughts!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Share this:

Like this:

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.

Marcus Aurelius via The Art of Life Tarot – The Hermit

Theme for the week beginning 14 May

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 14 May

Book notes: