Check out the new skill added: Make Beauty Not War
Make Beauty, Not War is a Reclaiming Beauty call to make peace with yourself in order to gain access to your unique gifts, talents and passions to make a positive impact in the world.
I need a graphic designer to help me make this slogan into a t-shirt. Anyone out there feel inspired to help me with this?
Image: Documents & Designs
Amy Steinberg: Reclaiming Beauty Queen
I would never be the same after the first time I saw Amy Steinberg perform at the Grey Eagle in 2008. I loved her music and lyrics and presence and her unapologetic authenticity as she shared her beauty with us. I felt comforted to hear my own spirituality put into words. I smiled with the knowing of being in the presence of a Reclaiming Beauty Queen. This description from her biography captures the experience brilliantly:
Amy Steinberg is a song-slinging, mood-shifting, wild-woman with the power to lift you up and soothe your spirit. Listening to a Steinberg cd or going to a live show is like popping a potent happy pill, or like experiencing a two-week long soul-healing retreat, or like pure, divine, transformational magic. However you are feeling before you press play or walk in, you are bound to feel even better after experiencing Amy’s presence and listening to her words of whimsy and wisdom.
Check out this song, Beautiful in Me, which could be a Reclaiming Beauty theme song. She says, “This song is about falling in love with yourself and then saying ‘No!’ to those voices that tell you that you’re less than a magical, perfect, miracle that you are.”
I’m a Queen. I’m a Goddess. I’m a Genius. I’m a Love Light in this world.
Her song ‘Exactly’ became an unofficial theme song at Tapestry for a while, encouraging connection to true Self and belief in making meaning out of your journey – no matter where it is taking you.
i am exactly where i need to be – i need to be exactly where I am – i am divinely timed and shining brightly – yes i believe there is a purpose just for me – yes I believe that we are light – and we shine infinitely
She will be performing in Asheville this Friday, December 16th – 8pm at the Firestorm Cafe. Hope to see some of you Beauties out at the show! If you’re not local, check out her website for more music and Reclaiming Beauty inspiration.
Peace, Love, Free,
~ Heidi
Skills: Self-Compassion
Check out the article that inspired me to add Self-Compassion as a Reclaiming Beauty skill:
The Law of Attraction and Beauty: Excerpt from The Power by Rhonda Byrne
“As love grows in you, your beauty grows too. For love is the beauty of the soul.”
~ Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Theologian and Bishop
All beauty comes from the force of love. Unlimited beauty is available to you from love, but the problem is that most people find fault and criticize their body more than they appreciate it. Looking at your faults and being unhappy about anything about your body does not bring beauty to you! All it brings is more faults and more unhappiness.
The beauty business is enormous, yet unlimited beauty is being poured down to you in every second. But you have to give love to receive it! The happier you are, the more beautiful you will be. Lines will fade, skin will tighten and begin to glow, hair will become thicker and stronger, eyes will begin to sparkle, and their color will intensify. And more than anything else you will see the proof that all beauty comes from love when people are drawn to you wherever you go.
Image: Katie Daisy
Skills: Gratitude
Check out this link for an insightful article on gratitude from Asheville Anusara-Inspired yoga teacher, Mado Hesselink:
Attitude of Gratitude: the why and how of positive thinking | True Self Yoga.
Hot Tip Tuesday: Thanksgiving Edition!
I am madly in love with this website, I am thankful: Change your life with an Attitude of Gratitude, created by Asheville artist Damaris Pierce. Hot Tip for today: Spend some time on this website. Make a Thanksgiving commitment to yourself to try out a Gratitude Journal. Try it for a week. Try it for a month. Shifting attention to what is working versus what is not working on your Reclaiming Beauty journey can change everything.
In my family, we say our thankfuls together every night. My 2 year old knows the routine; after we read Where the Wild Things Are and before we turn the lights off to go to sleep he will spontaneously say to my husband and me: “Wha’chur thankful for?”
So from Joey to me to you,
“Wha’chur thankful for?”
Image: Artist Meg Winnecour
Check out the new Skill added: Emancipate Yourself
Tell me the story of your beauty redemption.
Bob Marley’s Redemption Song, the ultimate inspiration.
Skills: Be A Goddess
Check out this link for an excellent article on exploring the Goddess:
Hot Tip for today: Pay Attention to the Signs
Whatever it is you are currently working with on your Reclaiming Beauty journey, pay attention to the signs and guidance provided to you by Spirit, the Divine, the Universe. Seemingly random coincidences may have deeper meaning pointing you in the direction of your next steps.
This Hot Tip comes straight from my own current experience since transitioning into a Hanged Man year. I have been receiving lots of nudges from the Universe about how to break and release stuck patterns in order to claim my Power and I am so glad I am PAYING ATTENTION.
For example, when I was unable to complete training for a 1/2 marathon this Fall, I noticed I was feeling drawn back out into the world to practice yoga in community. However, to my great surprise, my body was longing for the hot torture chamber of Bikram Yoga rather than returning to my familiar styles of Anusara and Flow. Within a week I had a massage with a woman who loves to spread the good news of her Bikram yoga practice, then ran into a friend at the Oakley gas station who was headed over to the Bikram studio. I took these as divine messages, stepped back into the Hot Room and have been so glad I did. The Bikram style of yoga is complementary to the current work of my Reclaiming Beauty journey. Doing the practice in a room heated to 105 degrees has been great for detoxing physically, mentally and emotionally as well as helping me to cultivate greater discipline, power and determination.
The Universe has been providing continued nudges on exploring Power as well. For example, a fellow mama recommended a great parenting book, Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline: The 7 Basic Skills for Turning Conflict Into Cooperation by Becky A. Bailey. The main point of this book is that as parents we must learn to discipline ourselves before we can discipline our children. The author suggests Seven Powers for Self-Control. Her ideas about the connection between discipline and power are really speaking to me and I am sure I will be blogging more about them in the future. Also, when sharing some of my current challenges with my dear friend and tarot mentor, Amy McKissick Reamy, she recommended a book, The Power, by Rhonda Byrne. I accepted the nudge, bought the audiobook, and have begun to listen with open ears.
And then yesterday on my Google Reader came this post about this very same subject, Divine Synchronicity, from Gabrielle Bernstein, author of the book Spirit Junkie: A Radical Road to Self-Love and Miracles. (I haven’t read this book, but I like the title! Anyone out there read it or recommend it?)
I’m paying attention to the signs.
For further reading on this subject, I recommend Mary Swanson’s post Grace Under Pressure: Reading the Signs from my favorite blog, Build Altars. And if you want more, I also recommend the first book I ever read that introduced me to this juicy subject, The Celestine Prophecy, by James Redfield. (I can still picture myself devouring this book on a plane from Colorado to North Carolina the first time I read it in 1995.)
What kind of signs is the Universe currently offering you on your Reclaiming Beauty journey?
Please comment, I would love to hear your stories.
Image: Design Crush
Beauty Found Collage Card (2011)
Last week we finished up the Fall 2011 Reclaiming Beauty Playshop with a ritual designed to share our Beauty Found stories and commit to self-compassion (being our own Inner Mother). It felt good to come around full circle from our explorations of Original Beauty and Beauty Lost. In honor of Kore’s (and our own) transformation to Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, we ate pomegranate seeds and celebrated the gifts of the Underworld.
I loved engaging in the process with this group. My Beauty Found card incorporated an image of the Queen of Wands from the Thoth Tarot deck. The Queen of Wands represents mastery of Self-Knowledge. Here is what Angeles Arrien says about this symbol in The Tarot Handbook:
The Queen of Wands is the knower of the Self. This symbol represents self-mastery and the process of self-reclamation. Her process of transformation and self-actualization can best be described by the story she represents of a woman who, before she knew who she was, had black hair and walked with a panther by her side. As she began to discover more of who she was, her hair turned brown and the panther changed to a leopard. When she fully realized who she was and began to manifest who she was in the world with her pine cone wand, her hair turned fiery red. At this stage of self-knowledge, she pinched the growth marks of the leopard to prevent it from transforming into a beautiful lion that would have matched her self-knowledge because she wanted a reminder of the dark places from whence she had come (the spots of the leopard). This myth represents the process of self-discovery and the splendor of awakening to the deepest essence of who we are (the radiant crown).
I firmly believe that my time in the Underworld led me to the person I am today. I love how this card honors the dark places we have been in our lives as the fuel for awakening to our essence – a process that for me represents reclaiming connection with our beauty. Included in my image are the words “beautiful strength” to represent the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual strength that is a part of my beauty. I also included a reminder to “be satisfied.” From my study of the Enneagram and learning about my Enneatype, Type 4, the Individualist, I have been able to cultivate mindfulness of the habit of my mind of looking for what is missing. This focus of attention ultimately leads me to dissatisfaction and depression. Through a practice of shifting the focus to the blessings of what is in front of me everyday (without abandoning skills in getting my needs met), I have been able to challenge the perceived emptiness of dissatisfaction. Yay! for self-knowledge to help emancipate (myself) from mental slavery and celebrate the beauty surrounding me in my life.
I also included the Om symbol to represent the role of my yoga practice in my healing journey.
A shout out to other factors that continue to lead me to Beauty Found:
my husband, son, sisters, parents, friends who mirror my true Self qualities back to me every day ~ making meaning out of my struggles by being a light for others ~ forgiveness of myself and others ~ music ~ the beauty of nature ~ creativity ~ moving towards better health everyday ~ love
What are the “spots of the leopard” in your life that have led you to deeper Self-Knowledge? What/who do you want to honor that has helped lead you on a journey of reclaiming a sense of your own beauty? Create your own Beauty Found collage card and share it with us!
I hope that you will consider joining a Reclaiming Beauty Playshop in the future. The next one will most likely start in February 2012. Stay connected through this blog, on facebook, or through subscribing to the newsletter to keep updated of the latest offerings.
I honor the beauty in you from the beauty in me,
~ Heidi
