What the Heck is Artful Alchemy?

ALCHEMY [al-kuh-mee] (noun) the miraculous power of transmuting something common into something precious (e.g. turning lead into gold)

ARTFUL [ahrt-fuhl] (adjective) done with or characterized by art or skill

Artful Alchemy is about transforming a common life into your golden life through skillfully facilitated art practices.

Why art?

Art is a jumpstart into a new way of thinking, a new way of feeling, a new way of being. The shift can be explained with just a little left-brain/right-brain theory.

The Western World values the left-brain and downplays the value of the right-brain. Most of the time most of us are operating from our left-brain because that's what we've been taught to do. That’s all well and good. The qualities of the left-brain are very helpful and necessary if we’re to get anything done.

However, the predominant voices in the left-brain are the Ego and the Critic. The Ego’s like the map-keeper; it holds the map to things-as-they-are and has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, because then it always knows where we are and what’s going on. So, the Ego, while a useful character for holding us together, takes its job so seriously that it really doesn’t allow us to make significant transformations. The Ego’s sidekick is the Inner Critic. The Inner Critic is the one who says, “You’re not smart enough, rich enough, good enough, deserving enough.” So the Ego says, “Let’s not change a thing,” and the Critic says, “And even if you wanted to, you’d never succeed.” Not a very conducive dialogue for life transformation.

That’s where the power of the right-brain comes in, with a whole different set of qualities and voices. If you want to know what your heart truly wants, the answer can only come through the right brain. If you want to connect to your higher wisdom, to spiritual guidance or to the pure spark of the inner child, then tune into your right-brain. This is where the truly life-transforming ideas will be found. If you want to break out of a dull, common, status-quo way of being and create your golden life, your right-brain is key.

But how to tune out or bypass the dominant, left-brain voices of the Ego and the Critic? Stop speaking their language. Their language is verbal; it’s words. Have you ever noticed how you tend to go ‘round and ‘round about a problem, with the same words replaying over and over again in your head? Break the cycle by breaking out of verbal mode.

What is the language of the right-brain? It’s non-verbal; it’s visual; it’s art.

Try it sometime. If you have been stuck in some way, or if you are facing a challenge that you can’t quite figure out how to tackle, stop thinking about it in words. Draw a picture instead. Draw a picture of how things are, then draw another of how you want things to be. I guarantee you’ll get a whole new perspective on the matter.

Meet Scarlett

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about our “Shadows,” especially since the recent release of The Shadow Effect from co-authors Deepak Chopra, Debbie Ford and Marianne Williamson.

Briefly stated, Shadows are those unsavory aspects of our personalities that we’ve repressed, but which continue to subconsciously wreak havoc in our individual and collective lives. If, however, we can bring those aspects of ourselves back into our conscious awareness, we can discover and harness their gifts. This is what’s known as “embracing the Shadow.”

Does that mean that if I have a rage-aholic Shadow, I should embrace that rage and go around consciously hurting people? No, of course not. It means that if I look consciously at the source of all that rage I might be able to take the energy of anger to make positive changes in the world, to right some wrongs. Or maybe I can take the physicality of that energy and channel it into marathon running. Once the rage has a safe and productive outlet, it doesn’t have to sneak up on me (or those around me) anymore.

This past Saturday, I led a group of women in an exploration of a Shadow Self through mask-making and journaling. My own mask, and the work I did with it, was quite revealing and healing.

For the past several months, I have been working to develop the structure and direction of my Artful Alchemist practice with my wonderful coach and EFT master, Rev. Anne Presuel. During the course of our work together it has become apparent that I have HUGE resistance to all things marketing.

In a recent session together, Anne helped me to tap into a key image for what I’ve been resisting. The visual that represents my distaste about sales and marketing is that of a prostitute standing on the street corner hiking her skirt. I don’t want to prostitute myself, I don’t want to sell my soul, I don’t want to be all flash (and flesh!), I’m not interested in offering a quick trick or a fast fix, I don’t want my work to be all about the money, yada, yada, yada. Wow! Juicy Shadow stuff!

So, guess what shadow I chose to explore with my mask-making?

Meet Scarlett, my Shadow Prostitute:

She's actually a rather lovely painted lady and I'm growing quite fond of her. Here are a few excerpts from what she had to say to me through journaling dialogue:

“I am Scarlett, but NOT Scarlett the Harlot as you’ve been thinking of me. Think more along the lines of Scarlett O’Hara. I am strong and resourceful, but not afraid to use my own beauty.”

"What are you afraid of, darlin'? Little Ole Me? Why, I don't bite Baby Girl, unless of course that's what you want."

“I am the one who knows she’s got it. I ain’t afraid to shine, to sparkle, to PUT IT OUT THERE.”

“I am the one who knows my worth and demands it. AND GETS IT!”

“I am the one who entices with flash, but delivers substance.”

"I can help you be a better business woman. Believe me, you get pretty money-savvy turning tricks. You don't get taken advantage of for long. Not when you decide to run your own show, anyway."

Oh, my dear Scarlett! Let me embrace all of that!

Is Emotional Pain Necessary?

Remembering Cameron by ArtfulAlchemist on Polyvore.com

Is Emotional Pain Necessary?

This is the question posed by today’s NPR piece, which talks about a recent change in the American Psychiatric Association’s new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM. The proposal is to remove the “bereavement exclusion” from the guidelines for diagnosing major depression. In other words, if one’s grief is severe and lasts too long, it should be treated like depression. How long is too long? In the words of the article:

“ . . . if symptoms like these [acute upset, loss of sleep, appetite, energy and concentration] persist for more than two weeks, the bereaved person will be considered to have a mental disorder: major depression. And treatment, either therapy or medication, is recommended.”

TWO WEEKS?!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!!

Are we, as a culture, so afraid of feeling the depths of our emotion that we would choose to medicate the pain of grief as soon as two weeks out from a major loss? It seems ludicrous to me.

After losing my son six years ago, my journey of grief (which I chronicle in my award-winning book The Deep Water Leaf Society) took at least TWO YEARS and in many ways continues even today. Were there days that I would have liked to take a pill and make the pain stop? Yes. And if I had, would I have learned and experienced all that I did and healed so completely? I think not. For me expressive arts, journaling and dreamwork allowed me to honor my pain, learn from it and heal by moving headlong into my pain, not running away from it.

It is the conscious journey through our grief that creates healing. In my opinion, if you stuff it down, ignore it, drown it in alcohol or happy it up with Prozac you will miss the meaning, the lessons, the growth that come from being real about how it feels. I learned more about myself and let go of more useless baggage during those two years of healing than I had in my entire life up to that point. I am a better person because of my loss and because of the very real pain it caused. Had I numbed the pain with Prozac, I know my loss would not have created the same level of positive personal transformation.

I am reminded of Kirk in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. When the mysterious mystic Syvok wants to take away everyone's pain, Kirk is the only hold-out while everyone else is all silly with nirvanic joy. "Damn it, Bones,” says Kirk, “you're a doctor. You know that pain and guilt can't be taken away with a wave of a magic wand. They're the things we carry with us, the things that make us who we are. If we lose them, we lose ourselves. I don't want my pain taken away! I need my pain!"

I’m with Kirk on this one.

It’s not that we should choose to live in the depths of that pain permanently. And certainly if someone becomes suicidal or is completely unable to function for long periods of time there may be some call for intervention. But to put an arbitrary timeframe on how long it should take to process the pain of grief is ridiculous.

TWO WEEKS?!!! I don’t think it’s we grievers who have a mental disorder. I think the authors of the DSM should have their own heads examined!

Are You a Money Magnet?

Are you a money magnet? Does money flow into your life easily, effortlessly and consistently? Or, does it seem like the polarity might be reversed on your money magnet so that it’s actually pushing money away?

Here’s an interesting visual exercise from my Art of Abundance workshop that can help you to check the polarity of your own money magnet. Take a look at the following images, and for each one fill in the blanks of the following sentence:

This image makes me think of __________________ and it makes me feel __________________.

 

Don’t over-think your answers, and answer honestly. Just go with your gut response to each image.

Now, look over your answers and see whether your emotional responses were primarily positive, primarily negative or about even. Which image feels most like your current relationship with money? Was your emotional response to that image positive or negative?

If most of your emotional responses are negative (lack, limits, constriction, fear, worry, anxiety, anger, hopelessness, sadness) then your money magnet may be repelling rather than attracting money into your life. If most of your emotional responses were positive (optimism, expansiveness, hope, happiness, love, humor, joy) then your money magnet is set to draw money into your life.

Why would that be true? Because you are seeing these images through your own money perception filter. The images themselves are neutral – it’s your own perception that makes them positive or negative. And the Law of Attraction tells us that our emotional state is the biggest attraction factor: positive emotions attract more positive results, negative emotions attract more negative results.

So, what can you do if your money magnet is set to repel? You can work at reframing your response to each image, especially to the one that feels most like your current money situation. Is it possible to see the image in another way? In a more positive light?

Here are a few reframes that came from my Art of Abundance students recently:

The money with the belt around it reminded one woman about her enormous student loan debt and about feeling very determined to pay it all off, tightening the money belt as much as necessary to do so. It made her feel determined, but also tense. When I asked her if she could see the image in a different, more positive light, she said the image was actually “kind of sexy” – that belt gave the dollars a real hour-glass shape. I suggested that she approach her bill paying and financial decision-making by thinking about how sexy it was to be in control of her money and how cutting back here and there financially was a bit like dieting to create a healthy, sexy  financial body.

For another woman, the man and woman tugging on the dollar sign reminded her of stronger, more powerful people taking money away from the more needy and deserving. It made her feel frustrated in her charity fund-raising work. I suggested that the man and woman could be seen as dancing with money or laughing over money rather than fighting over it. If she brought the idea of dancing and laughing into her fund-raising efforts, maybe it would stop feeling like such a struggle.

Granted, if your habitual money responses are primarily negative, shifting your money magnet into attraction mode may not happen over night. But by consciously working at reframing negative responses to money, you can turn the tide and learn to become a powerful money magnet.

Shared Dreaming with the Departed

Dreaming of Dad by ArtfulAlchemist on Polyvore.com

I recently had the most amazing SHARED dream experience! I dreamed of my deceased father and a few days later discovered that my husband (who rarely remembers his dreams) had also dreamed of my dad and his own parents (who are also deceased) the very same night. The details of his dream and mine were so connected that I am convinced we were all sharing a very real experience.

My dream:

Phone Call from Dad
I pick up the phone to make a call, but there is no dial tone. I hang it up and try again and get a different kind of sound than the normal dial tone, then silence. I try a few more times, getting just a bit of a dial tone which quickly goes silent. On my next try, a recorded voice speaking in French says something about the phone not being equipped for French signals. I say, “English, not French! What’s wrong with this thing?” Suddenly my Dad is on the line, speaking in a raspy, Sling Blade kind of voice, but still recognizable as my Dad. It’s like he’s using a voice he hasn’t used for a long time. “Dad? Is that you, Dad?” We have a sweet conversation, although it seems difficult for him to use words. I ask him what he’s been doing and he says, “Well, I caught me a fish.” He sounds kind of delighted and so am I. I say, “You went fishing, Dad? Was it really beautiful where you fished?” He says, “Well, it was nothing like Tahiti.” Then he tells me I am beautiful and he loves me. His words seem to carry layers and layers of additional meaning. I feel totally loved and supported. I tell him I love him, and then he’s gone.
~~

I was so moved by this, and it was so real. I awoke just saying thank you and I love you over and over again. My Dad is French-Canadian, so French is his first language. It would not be surprising for him to try to communicate in French as the phone call initially began. He loved fishing and his passion was sailing. He and my Mom went to Tahiti for one of their anniversaries and he took hundreds of gorgeous photographs. It was the most memorable trip in his life. The very last conversation I had with him, as he was slowly dying of Alzheimer’s and lay sleeping and unresponsive in his bed, was about Tahiti. I put on one of his Tahitian CDs and told him to imagine the aqua blue seas of Tahiti. I told him he could let go and just sail away. He died early the next morning.

A few days after my dream, something on the TV reminded me of my Dad and I said to my husband, “Oh, I dreamed of my Dad the other night.” He said, with surprise, “I dreamed about your Dad the other night, too. And my Mom and Dad, too.” We quickly determined that our dreams had been on the same night.

My husband’s dream:

Pulling the Boat out of the Lake with a Backhoe
My husband’s Mom is griping that his Dad went to pull the boat out of the lake with the backhoe. He goes to see what his Dad is up to. His Dad says, “I had to pull some old geezer in a sailboat out of the lake.” My husband is surprised to see that the “old geezer” in question is MY Dad!
~~

My husband’s Dad drove a backhoe for a living, grading county roads. The “old geezer” was in a sailboat – my Dad’s boat of choice. My husband’s parents have been gone longer than my Dad. I got the feeling that maybe Dad is just coming into full consciousness of his new surroundings (he’s been gone about a year and a half). He found a lake to sail away on, all right,  but it's nothing like Tahiti. He maybe got himself into a bit of trouble out there on that new lake, and my husband’s folks are there, helping him out.

The whole experience is just so validating to me that life continues on the “other side.” And that we can communicate with our loved ones who are over there through dreams.

Has anything like this ever happened to you?

I would love to hear your own ideas about and experiences of shared dreaming and dreaming with the departed.

Wanna Get Lucky?

Wanna Get Lucky? by ArtfulAlchemist on Polyvore.com

Tonight I hosted my monthly Wonderful Wednesday group and the theme for the night was Luck. Everybody got to do a collage but me :-( so I decided to do a quick one here!

The left-brain material for the workshop came from a book called The Luck Factor by Dr. Richard Wiseman (miramax books, 2003). He did some research on what makes the difference between being "lucky" and "unlucky" and he came up with 4 main principles: maximizing chance opportunities (or Networking, as I've called it here), listening to your lucky hunches (Intuition), expecting good fortune (Optimism), and turning bad luck into good (Alchemy).

So after all the left brain information, I had to get everybody into right brain mode with an art activity. We created 4 leaf clover collages with images to represent each of the 4 luck principles. It was awesome to see everyone in the group pick such different kinds of images. Each person's 4 leaf clover became a powerful message to them about how to create more luck in their lives.

How can you use these 4 principles to create luck?

Networking: The more people you meet and the more open you are to new information, the more likely you are to catch a lucky break. If you meet 20 new people a week, at least one of them is bound to be able to do something positive for you. So get out and mingle! Talk to strangers in waiting rooms, go to parties, attend networking events. And be open to the connections that come your way.

Intuition: Your intuition often knows more than the "facts of the matter" show. Don't ignore the rational evidence, but give it a boost by tuning into your gut. You can increase your intuitive abilities by practicing meditation or other activities that quiet the mind.

Optimism: When you expect good things to happen, they do! If you are a student of the Law of Attraction, you already know this. Focusing on the future with positive expectations draws positive results to you. It also makes your "now" happier when you can replace fear and worry with positive, happy thoughts.

Alchemy: When something unfortunate does happen, you'll feel a lot luckier if you look for the bright side of the situation. No matter what has happened, it probably could have been worse. Think of the impact of the unfortunate event in the bigger scheme of things. Will it matter as much 1 year from now? 5 years from now? At the very least, you can learn from what happened. Turning the lead into gold as often as possible will ensure fewer misfortunes and increased good luck.

I highly recommend Dr. Wiseman's book, The Luck Factor. It's a fascinating read full of great advice for anyone looking to get lucky. Master these 4 skills and your luck is bound to improve!

My inner castle holds . . .

My inner castle holds . . . by ArtfulAlchemist on Polyvore.com

My inner castle holds
ancient wounds
and ancient histories
mysteries
older than the sands of time

I came here with my work boots on
to dig down through
the timeworn layers
of the pyramid self
back down to the bones
the ancient circle of standing stones
my origins
my Truth

Most masks have fallen away
yet still today
secrets lie
behind fortressed gates
waiting for me
to turn the key
and set the child
completely free

My Wild Things,
benevolently and loosely ruled,
have found a place
to safely roam
their color and form
dancing through unlined pages
filling book after book
with my own
Sacred Story

Now
for every fallen or broken heart
I find a dozen more in the sand
and the one that beats
in my chest is bound
and balanced
dancing between
the falling apart
and the coming together
destruction and creation
and all of it Love

In the end
which is the beginning
what remains is the sea
and the ever blooming tree
that is Life

~Claire, the Artful Alchemist

to dance with the wind . . .

to dance with the wind by ArtfulAlchemist on Polyvore.com

I've always had an affinity for trees. They seem so wise and magical. They are rooted in the earth while reaching into the sky, the perfect blend of physical and spiritual. They embody what I long for in my life. I wrote some time ago (full post here) of a summer thunderstorm and how the trees gyrate in ecstasy with the winds, reveling in the chaos even though it may be their demise.

There's a wildness in me that longs to dance with the wind the way the trees do. That longing is what I tried to capture in the image. Oh, the freedom of that! To simply sway and bend - perhaps even be lifted up into flight. To be in the dance instead of on the sidelines trying to choreograph. To just BE. To dance with the wind . . .

Peace Pie Mandala

Last night's Wonderful Wednesday event was a prayer of peace expressed through meditative art. Six lovely women joined me for a Peace Pie Mandala workshop. In this method, developed by Jennifer Star (www.peacemandala.com), a group comes together to individually and collaboratively create a mandala-shaped collage expressing a vision for peace.

We began with a guided meditation which helped us each to tap into the heart and feel our way into our individual perceptions of peace. We then each individually collaged a wedge-shaped piece of paper, selecting images and words from magazines that spoke to us of peace. After some quiet reflection and journaling with our individual expressions, we assembled all the wedges into the mandala.

(click the image to see a larger version)

Seeing all the individual visions come together into a whole is an amazing process. It mirrors the way we create peace in the world: first, within ourselves, then in making our own unique contribution to the whole and, finally, by coming together in groups and communities to do the work of peace. Finding common themes and threads of color running through the whole helps us to see how connected we are. Recognizing unique themes in our own piece of the peace pie helps us to see how important our individual perceptions of and contributions to peace are.

Some of the powerful messages that came through included:

• staying playful and joyful in the process
• finding our inner peace first
• connecting with and creating nature
• seeing children and animals as teachers showing us the way
• honoring diverse traditions
• finding peace in the midst of chaos

We ended by disassembling the mandala so we could each take our piece of the peace pie home with us, knowing that the collective vision is not shattered by doing so. We then made a circle by holding hands and sang the Peace Song: Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.

May you be at peace and create peace in your community and in the world this New Year!

May Your Blessings Blossom!

Happy Thanksgiving! This is the time of year when we shift our focus to all we are grateful for in our lives. It's actually something we would benefit from practicing every day as whatever we praise in our lives will increase.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, here is a fun and simple expressive arts practice you might like to try.

Blessings Blossom


Allow about 60 to 90 minutes for this activity

Materials:
4 or more sheets of colored paper
magazines
scissors
glue
other embellishments (optional)

1. Cut a circle shape from one colored paper
2. Cut 8 petals from different colored papers
3. Assemble a flower by gluing the petals to the back of the circle
4. Close your eyes and think of all the people and things you are grateful for
5. Go through the magazines and select images and phrases to represent the things you are grateful for
6. Arrange and glue your magazine clippings on the flower petals
7. Embellish with stickers, glitter, rhinestones, pipe cleaners, or anything else you wish to use
8. Hang your "Blessings Blossom" where you can look at it daily and fill yourself with gratitude for all the blessings your life holds

May your blessings continue to blossom!

ART PEACE SUSTAINABILITY

Can art therapy be done online with digital images? I say, "You bet!"

After reading this article on the ART PEACE SUSTAINABILITY global digital art (therapy) event, I took the challenge, set up my Polyvore account, and created this entry for the project, entitled "This is what you shall do":

This is what you shall do by ArtfulAlchemist on Polyvore.com

It was an amazingly therapeutic exercise for me, stretching me into a new kind of media I'd never explored before. I found it a bit confusing at the outset, as Polyvore is primarily a fashionista kind of site, but once I figured out where to import some backgrounds and other kinds of images, it came together pretty easily.

Why don't you try your hand at it? I'd love to see the results!

The Art of Attraction

Art can provide a powerful and visceral experience of the dynamics at play in the Law of Attraction. Last week, in my Law of Attraction Study Group, we explored how our focus shifts what we attract. The Law of Attraction is always at work – a quick look at our thoughts can show us what we’re really attracting.

I had the group do a quick vision board collage of just a few things they’d like more of in their lives. Here is what mine looks like:



Now, if I’m truly focusing my INTEREST, ATTENTION and EXPECTATION on those desires for easy, smart money, chill-out weekends, travel and a buff “very real power” body, then why have they not manifested for me up until now?

Taking just one of my desires as an example: If I am honest with myself, it is probably because I’m a lot more INTERESTED in paying ATTENTION to the chocolate cake on the counter than to running several miles a day. And my EXPECTATION is that losing weight and getting in shape will be difficult, time-consuming and boring.

The main thing that gets in the way of manifesting whatever we desire is our habit of tacking “buts” onto the end of every wish. I’d love to have easy, smart money BUT making money is hard. I desire relaxing weekends BUT if I want money, I’ll have to trade all my free time for it. I would love to travel more BUT in this economy, there’s just no way I can swing it. I’d love to run and bike more BUT I just don’t have time for exercise. I’d love to have a powerful lean body BUT I don’t believe my body could ever look like that.

Guess what we’re doing with all those “buts?”



When you look at it graphically, it’s easy to see that we are putting up bars and building a prison between ourselves and our desires.

Mary Manin Morrissey tells a wonderful story about Nelson Mandela that illustrates how we can shift our perspective about all those “buts.” She says that when Mandela was first arrested he despaired. He thought, “My dream of the end of apartheid can never happen now.” That thought played over and over in his head. “It’ll never happen now. It’ll never happen now.” One day, a new thought came into his mind: “Maybe it could still happen.” It was just a glimmer, not at all a certainty. Yet he grabbed on to that thought like a drowning man grabs a life preserver. “Maybe it could still happen.” He trained his mind to focus on that thought and after a little more time he thought with wonder, “Maybe this is what it looks like while it’s happening!” From that moment on, he had a new zest for doing whatever he could, even though he was still imprisoned. He began a letter writing campaign and soon gained the attention and support of the U.S. Eventually, he did realize his dream. So, no bars are too strong if the mind is stronger!

If you have built a prison of “buts” around your dreams and desires, I challenge you to shift your perspective. How might it be that “this is what it looks like while it’s happening?” Does it seem like a sluggish economy is stopping you from being successful? Maybe a sluggish economy is exactly what your road to success looks like. How can you turn it to your advantage? Do you want to travel but feel like there’s no money or time for it? Maybe that longing for travel is exactly what could bring you more money and time through a travel-related career.

Take all those buts and turn them around. Turn them into assets rather than liabilities. Look at them from a different perspective. Or tear them down and get rid of them.

We ended our program last week by removing those bars from our vision boards and burning them. Whatever it takes.

The 5 Rhythms of Creation

Last week’s Wonderful Wednesday event was terrific! I had a fabulous and diverse group of creative individuals in attendance. We experienced Gabrielle Roth’s 5 Rhythms (using music from her Initiation album) through dancing on paper, journaling and collage.

Essentially, the 5 Rhythms musically mirror the rhythmic cycle of creation.

In the FLOWING rhythm, you are receptive, ideas are bubbling up, you are feeling an urge for change and new creation, you are drawing new experiences and manifestations into your life.

In the STACCATO rhythm, it is time to begin to pick and choose between all the possibilities, to focus, to mentally map out the creative path you choose to follow.

In the CHAOS rhythm, the old forms are falling away but the new forms are not yet here, there is a feeling of being lost in mystery, overwhelmed, as though there is no solid ground on which to stand. You may feel that everything is falling apart and wonder how anything will ever come together again.

In the LYRICAL rhythm, the death of the old has passed and the birth of the new has arrived. Everything comes together and there is a joyful flow.

In the STILLNESS rhythm, there is time to rest and reflect, time to go inward and connect to the whole, time to be at peace.

We see this cycle repeat endlessly in our own lives and in the world around us. When we can become aware of the rhythms, embody them, recognize what each of them feels like within us we are less likely to be overwhelmed by any of them. When we learn that none of the rhythms are good or bad, that none is better or more desirable than the others, we can find comfort and peace wherever we may be in our own cycle of creative evolution.

It’s always interesting to see the difference in color, shape and structure in the drawings that emerge from the 5 Rhythms. I’d like to share my own recent drawings and a powerful insight that came to me as I experienced these rhythms once again for myself.

FLOWING

STACCATO

CHAOS

LYRICAL

STILLNESS

I chose to explore the STILLNESS drawing more deeply. The squiggly green and purple lines radiating out from the core into the stars of the heavens seemed to me to represent my own vibrations emanating from my heart and soul and traveling out into the Universe. As I looked at the drawing, though, I was puzzled about the horizontal blue lines that seemed to intersect with the lines of vibration. Through a process of two-handed journaling, I dialogued with the drawing to find out more about that. In the dialogue process, my dominant hand (DH) speaks for me, and I allow my non-dominant hand (NDH) to speak for the image. Here is a transcript of that brief but revealing conversation:

DH: Blue lines, who are you?

NDH: I’m what you keep throwing out after you make a wish. You say, “This! Yes, please, I want this!” And then you throw up this net to try to pull it back in.

DH: Hmm. I recognize that I do that. Yet it looks like the purple and green lines just go right through the net anyway.

NDH: They have lost their creative power, though. Once they’ve passed thru my knotted trap, they become just noise.

DH: Wow. Thank you for showing me that. How can I stop doing that?

NDH: Reel me back in. Fold me up and put me away.

DH: Yes, but how do I do that? I mean, that’s a very nice metaphor and all, but what does it amount to in actual practice?

NDH: You must catch yourself.

DH: Anything else?

NDH: Keep dreaming and you will succeed.

DH: Thank you. Thank you very much. I think I needed to see all of this today.

How many time have you made a wish, stated an intention, repeated an affirmation and then blocked it from manifesting by giving more attention to your fear, doubt and confusion. Don't toss that net out and catch your dreams before they have a chance to live and breathe.