This turning towards what you deeply love saves you ~ Rumi
I couldn’t sleep last night. I felt jumpy. Every sound stirred me. I was surprised because I rested almost all day yesterday, but wow was it hot in California (103). As I lay there I remembered, that even though I am home now, we may need to leave again – there is a wild heatwave, and the electricity is scheduled to go off for about two days. Today it is going to be 107 in some places in Napa County.
So I was thinking about things like the food from the Farmer’s market spoiling for a second time, and about drinking water, about temperature for the gardens, about not being able to flush the toilet, and if I should stay in this heat, and if the kitties are going to be okay if we leave. And then the reality that I am leading a very important 6-month course starting this week, my heart raced. And. How after 17 years of teaching I need to pivot to be sure all of my students can practice Intentional Creativity online – starting with Motherboard. The thought of how to prepare our students to navigate teaching our work all online sent me into a tailspin. What now? About not being able to have gatherings in our school and museum for a whole year?
I got up and went to the couch (I never do that) and sat with kitties and just tried to EFT myself to sleep. Then I thought to check in with the world. What was I feeling? What was happening out there? Now I do keep up on world events, but usually through a chosen framework – women and art and the United Nations – and news channels that are woman and art-related, yes even about politics, because the perspective isn’t this party or that, but humans with stories.
Red Flag warnings everywhere. I felt like I was looking at something from another time and place. The nation I live in felt almost unrecognizable and the images, storylines and angles – all designed to elicit a specific response….for just this time and place I allowed myself to see what others at large might be seeing, to feel what others might be feeling…and tune into how I could help. I remain astonished at what is happening in the United States, no matter which way I look at it. It feels like we are in some kind of spell. And I am a spell breaker. How do I help others break the spell or exit that place that makes them feel panic?
I prayed, and let the panic subside in me as I sent love out to all beings. As we prepare for potentially leaving today I am sitting with how I can help, more. And how I am already helping. In the past how I have gotten myself through tough times is to become obsessive about a project – art related of course – something bigger than me, something I can throw myself into. Where I can turn towards something I deeply love.
Well, I deeply love art, teaching and my students. So my focus for the rest of 2020 is going to pretty much be right here in our programs. While I may not be able to impact as many people, I can impact women who impact others. And it is enough! (in addition to voting and supporting free speech) This has to be good enough for now. We just started the museum, and our coaching program is unlike any other in the world, and this weekend I got to paint with close to 120 women in Soul Bird. There is so much goodness here but it also feels, hard, and sad too. So many are going through so much. So so much.
Wherever you live and whatever you believe I hope you vote with your wisdom and your heart. I hope you take time to love up those who are spending time with you through really listening to them. I hope you have art projects on your drawing board. And if you are looking for something to really focus on in the next 6 months, join me for Motherboard – ideal for any and all helping healing professionals.
I did a lot of thinking this weekend about how I feel. And if I am realllllly honest with you in my soul I feel free…..truly free…and that feels good. It wasn’t always that way. I feel that way because I occupy my whole self, I live in my body and I am as conscious as my identity will allow me to be. And in my body…I feel restless…on the go…jumpy. Yet, when I make art or spend time with my love Jonathan, that all goes away. Gosh am I ever grateful for him in my life (tears) – we truly talk and truly listen and truly play. For hours yesterday, we just hung out, with no agenda, laying around in the heat, swimming, talking, eating, reading, being. And it was good. I am turning towards what I deeply love one minute at a time.
Will you turn towards what you truly and deeply love today? What does that look like?
with love,
Shiloh Sophia
p.s. In Intentional Creativity when we paint, we also write as inspired by the painting. So my Soul Bird painting and writing are below.
Upcoming Events with MUSEA Curator, Shiloh Sophia
Red Thread Letter #820
Awakening Through Art
Awakening with Art
Intentional Creativity invites access to your creative life force. When you make with embodied love and mindfulness your self-expression becomes a sacred act. When you create, you are collaborating with your consciousness and inhabiting your body and often this feels incredible!
As you express, you are changed by the experience, and what you are making becomes amplified by your intentional energy. What you ‘make’ is the artifact of your experience, and has crossed the veil of form, from energy into observable matter. The science of creativity affirms our practice by showing us how our entire human system responds to the flow, creating increased coherency.
Our brain, genes, cells, field and entire being become engaged and turned on when we invite all of our selves into embodied making. What we make may become a teacher for us, and through observing our art, we may learn facets of the mystery that were hidden before. In many cases, we can bring the sound wisdom and wild wisdom that is revealed to us into our day to day lives and relationships. Vitality, presence, playfulness, intuition and hope arise as we awaken to ourselves and gives us the courage to continue to become more present. From here, we can impact what we care about in the world.
While Intentional Creativity does explore some facets of quantum mysticism, it is mostly rooted in choosing the practice of making, being in inquiry and observing what happens. Healing naturally arises when we are engaged in states made possible through self-expression. Creating in this way reduces stress, increases energy, awakens awareness and a capacity to navigate our human experience. The wellness benefits are exponential, and in many cases occur for us as every day miraculous – in that we can’t believe how easy it is to heal things that were hard before. While it may not cure all of what ails us, if it can cure our approach to our wellness, then we have a capacity to interact with ‘what is’ in a new way. As well as be informed by having access to our innate intelligence – we become the storyteller!
In many cases, we stop lying to ourselves and listening to voices of harm, both within and without. Our experience is that with practice the wisdom of the body and the voice of the soul begins to reveal more clearly. As well, old patterns and trauma begin to release spontaneously. When we feel healed enough, many of us choose to serve others in this community and in our lives. False frameworks fall way, and something much more real begins to emerge in our lives. If we are a body within a soul, let’s explore who we are!
Creating opens the door to what the soul wishes to reveal to us, yet many have been seeking a ‘medium’ in matter to bring the messages through. Creating brings heightened sensations on all levels, and is pleasurable, as well as intellectual. For many of us who practice, being a creative means we approach life as ritual, bringing blessings into as many areas of our life as possible. Making food, making a garden, making love all become integral to our approach to living. Intentional Creativity is an ancient approach to making that was a natural and normal part of our ancestor experience in every continent, as art shows us clearly. With industrialization, mass production, and the extraction of the earth’s resources for profit, our ‘intention’ was no longer a central theme of our creations as a species. Losing the thread of intention, in the story of evolution has a devastating impact. So finding the thread of intention again for each soul, is in essence a call to sanity. Where we care about what we take, break and make, where respect is essential. While many of us create in our individual studios, quantum connection is a central theme for us and has been for over twenty years.
As a community, we believe the shared experience of creating together opens us to greater potential for change, and a feeling of belonging. If we belong to each other and one another, how different will our lives and relationships be? Totally, different. Together, we are weaving a culture of consciousness and connectivity. In many instances, our community rises in compassion and sends love to all beings as part of our creative process. Anyone can practice this approach to making. All mediums work.
This is a system-less system because there is no need to adopt someone else’s idea of who you are. There are no gurus, no energetic patterns or codes to download and adhere to, and no dogma to follow. And no rules, other than what works for you and your boundaries. There are no levels or hierarchies. There are no external guides from other dimensions to wonder about, other than those you work with, but none is required. You are the guide, your own shaman and the one who has the information for you.
Yet you can use this with any facet of your spiritual path because there is no conflict. This is an approach to making that invites us to be co-creators. There are teachings yet there is no one teacher, there are many of us Muses sharing the bounty. Hence, Musea, many muses, many hands, many lands. Wherever Intentional Creativity is practiced, a Musea is. We see our sparks of light illuminating the world with increased awareness and love.
Intentional Creativity is not a style of art, but it may very well be a lifestyle! No talent required, just begin again to make what your heart calls to you. Each of us is called! Personally, I prefer my field and body free of systems, patterns and beliefs created by others. Preferring my own soul to occupy my field entirely and in this way, fly free. My relationship with Creator is central to my practice, making art is my devotional path.
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