Here’s to a New Year of creating even more beauty in the world. I look forward to continuing this journey with you as Reclaiming Beauty expands and unfolds in 2013.
My theme song for this upcoming year: Sweet Ride by Tanya Donelly. I recorded this song in 1999 with my band, Maya Rides Away. This song is my dream, my intention, my prayer for 2013. I’m gonna make this Reclaiming Beauty journey a sweet ride. The image in the video was a meaningful Solstice present to me from my two sisters about how our love for one another keeps us found.
In the comments below, please share your Reclaiming Beauty theme song for 2013. Please include a video link if you are able.
Since hearing the tragic news of the shootings in Connecticut, I have been looking within myself to see what I am doing that either contributes to or can help prevent such horrible, violent events. I believe in the power of one to make a difference. One person can make a difference by assessing their most primary relationship – their relationship to them self. Ask yourself – is this relationship violent or loving? Cultivating a non-violent, loving and compassionate relationship with ourselves ripples out to create non-violent, loving and compassionate relationships with family, friends, community members, neighbors, people everywhere, animals, the whole earth, and all beings…
I pledge to take action every day to create a more loving, compassionate and non-violent relationship with myself and therefore create more loving, compassionate and non-violent relationships with the world.
I offer three little songs for helping shift your relationship with yourself. The first two songs were shared with me by two Reclaiming Beauty Queens, Marybeth and Stacie, who found them helpful on their journey towards self-compassion. The last song offers some comic relief and is especially for any one in a similar place in their reclaiming beauty journey as myself.
Make a healing offering to the world in the face of this most recent tragedy, an offering of non-violence in all of your relationships.
Love you all,
Heidi
Phillip Phillips: Home
I like to think the home he sings about as myself… being at home and safe with myself. ~Marybeth
Glen Hansard: You Will Become
A song of hope, and someone offering belief in you. Today I must believe in myself to truly grow.
Your beauty is nothing compared to what you will become.
Garfunkel & Oates: Self-Esteem
And this song is for me, and all other women grappling with the modern day dating scene…
My self-esteem’s not low enough to date you. It’s close, but not quite there.
I freaking love this picture from a Blue Ridge Rollergirls roller derby bout this summer. The facial expressions on the fans perfectly capture what it feels like when you take a life wipeout in the public eye. At times during this Death/Rebirth year, I have experienced similar expressions on the people in my life. Sure, this year has been rough, but as it is winding down I am starting to realize – it’s the end of the world as I know it, and I feel fine.
Feeling overwhelmed by all the loss in 2012 has recently transformed into gratitude for the opportunity to let go and release. I make it my intention every moment to let go and release all of the stories I have made up in my head about why I am unloveable. These stories rob me of my power and become obstacles to doing the work I want to do in the world. This reclaiming beauty process involves tremendous inner vigilance to let go of that which no longer serves us.
I practice awareness of Death/Rebirth in my yoga class; every Savasana, Sanskrit word for corpse pose, an opportunity to let go – every breath an opportunity to let go through the exhale, than welcome rebirth through the inhale.
I am ready for the Rebirth part of this Death/Rebirth year… and what a perfect time to set that intention as the feared end of days: December 21, 2012… Of course this “end of days” refers to a shift in consciousness – and as for me I say, “Bring it on!” Get me out of my old consciousness – it is making me insane.
In the space before the Rebirth, preparing for my personal shift in consciousness, it is my intention to practice trusting the process of life. I made a request to friends for resources to help with this practice. I am sharing them with you here in casetrusting the process of life is also part of the shift in consciousness you are seeking. (Trusting the process of life book club, anyone?)
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Expecting Adam: a True Story of Birth, Rebirth and Everyday Magic by Martha Beck
Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to Finally, Really Grow Up by James Hollis
Matthew 6: 25-34
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
The Dark Side of the Light Chasers by Debbie Ford
The Gospel according to Matthew
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
The Tao of Inner Peace by Diane Dreher
The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu
This Is Not the Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness by Laura Munson
Until Today by Iyanla Vanzant
When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron
Now it’s your turn. In the comments below, please share:
+ One belief you are ready to sacrifice to the end of days and
+ One resource that helps you trust the process of life
I will benefit greatly from your comments on this one. It is so helpful to not feel alone in the breaking down.
Love you all,
~Heidi
Click here for some fun information on the End of the World, 12-21-12, from Build Altars.
It’s the 4th of July and you know what that means… time to celebrate FREEDOM. Freedom is key in the reclaiming beauty process because it is your reward when you overcome obstacles to embracing your unique beauty. From there, you can ‘Ignite your light and let it shine, you own the night like the fourth of July.’ You sing it, Katy Perry!
FREEDOM = Self-Love and Body Love
Today I declare independence from the approval of others to embrace my beauty. I choose the freedom to seek my own approval.
Take your first step towards FREEDOM. In the comments below, please share what obstacle to self-love and body love you declare independence from today!
My husband and I were under the weather this past week, so we choose to lay low this New Year’s weekend -just the medicine I needed. We enjoyed playing around the house and hiking on the Mountains-to-Sea trail behind our home with our 2 yr old, Joey. I made homemade chicken soup, played my guitar and took 2 yoga classes, including Mado’s class at the Asheville Yoga Center’s breathtaking new location. Joey fell asleep early on New Year’s Eve and Kelly and I logged some couch time watching Midnight in Paris – a magical movie I highly recommend for fellow romantics aiming to feel satisfied in the present moment. Joey woke up right after we watched the Times Square ball drop, and we had a family of three snuggle in those first moments of 2012.
Reading fellow bloggers on their New Year’s rituals, I am inspired to set an intention for the year. However, I am feeling a little foggy about mine at the moment. I am recognizing I need some dreaming time to imagine my vision and hopes for 2012, both personally and for Reclaiming Beauty. As I allowed myself to daydream this weekend, my mind kept coming back to one of my all-time favorite Rumi poems:
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
This poem truly resonates with my heart strings. I delved into much of the beauty I love this weekend - playing with Joey, music, nature, yoga, cooking, couch time with Kelly- and I feel deeply filled and at peace. As I am envisioning my 2012, I want to be in the beauty I love… not the beauty I loved or the beauty I foresee loving, but the beauty I love in the present moment. I will allow myself to explore what this beauty is NOW. I will challenge the internal obstacles that get in the way of being fully in the beauty I love. I will be in the beauty I love as I continue to move through my Hanged Man year, breaking stuck patterns with self-compassion and harnessing my power. I will be in the beauty I love with how Reclaiming Beauty evolves. I will step into the beauty I love over and over again.
From here I will spend some time this month getting more specific, I am a Virgo after all. Two processes that inspire me:
Heather Bleasdell of Build Altars recommends a two-fold vision board process that I have followed the past couple of years. Another Reclaiming Beauty Queen I have started following, Rosie Molinary, author of Beautiful You: A Daily Guide to Radical Self-Acceptance, recommends intentionality through choosing a word for the year. I feel excited letting their be some unknown and mystery around my intention to let the beauty I love be what I do.
What is the beauty you love? How will you bring that beauty into your vision for this New Year?
I want to take a moment to thank those of you who joined me this past year as I launched Reclaiming Beauty into the world with this website and the Playshops. I wish everyone a 2012 filled with the beauty you love. Follow your heart and you won’t get lost.
Wednesday, December 21st is Winter Solstice – the longest night of the year and a time to celebrate the rebirth of the Sun. In this time of darkness, let’s celebrate the rebirth of our inner beauty light!
In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.~ Albert Schweitzer
On New Year’s Eve of the millennium, I sat locked out of my parent’s house in Ft. Collins, CO and reflected on the beauty of the people in my life at that time. I had an experience that year where I saw the blazing inner beauty light of some of the women around me as filtered by the night sky, and imagined ripping away the sky to expose their brilliance. I felt inspired to let my inner beauty light shine as brilliantly. I wrote this song, You Are Like the Stars, in my parent’s driveway, looking up at the starry New Year’s Eve sky that night.
Share this post with anyone you want to remind of their inner beauty light or thank for rekindling yours.
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.
Searching
Searching for the right life,
I thought this was what my pathway showed,
The reflection was so clear,
Who is this?
Surely not me.
Bracing myself for the adventure,
Full of melodies and blank walls,
Counting the numbers in my head,
It would all add up in the end.
The darkness is closing in,
Where do I begin?
Starting with the voice inside my head,
Hopelessness settles in,
Lord, help me realize who I am,
Losing sight of the dream,
Feeling lost like a confused lamb,
Help me realize who I am.
Discovering,
Discovering the secret,
The secret that’s been hidden,
Behind the contagious label,
One day it will make sense in my head.
The darkness is closing in,
Where do I begin?
Starting with the voice inside my head,
Hopelessness settles in,
Lord, help me realize who I am,
Losing sight of the dream,
Feeling lost like a confused lamb,
Help me realize who I am
For so long this life was a lie,
Years quickly passing by
The darkness is closing in,
Where do I begin?
Starting with the voice inside my head,
Hopelessness settles in,
Will I discover who I am?
Search again for the dream,
Today is the day to destroy the dam,
Help me realize who I am.
