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Posts tagged ‘Julia Cameron’

Relationships and Money

I have never done this before, but because I feel it is vitally important that women are empowered in all aspects of their being I am posting here on WildlyFreeWoman the same blog post that I just published on Natural Wealth Journal.

It is women in partnership with conscious men that are at the heart of the evolutionary global shift we are currently in the midst of.  Let’s clear the way for our clarity of purpose and whole hearted expression to shine forth!

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two-hearts-of-money2Nogie King in The Currency of Connection states beautifully:

“I believe that we sit at the edge of an evolutionary impulse that can move human kind into a radical and collective realignment with wholeness, purpose and grace.  Life has always been an extraordinary  process for creative potential.  What is different now is our growing ability to perceive and then actualize engagement that is our natural birthright.”

With curiosity I invite you to enter the world of money as a vibrant, loving relationship just waiting to connect us to not only our own potential, but also to the creative genius of just about everything on this planet of ours.  If you are like me, you most probably have had, or are still having, a rocky relationship with money. Not your idea of the ideal loving, respectful, and trusting relationship that we all yearn for I bet!

What has helped me tremendously over the past few weeks after quitting a job that I allowed to rob me of creative juice and flow, is to remember that money in and of itself first came into being with the purpose of fostering and celebrating human relationships.  It has now become something else for many people – something that adds stress  to daily life – perhaps unnecessary stress at that.

Looking at money through the lens of relationship can be a fascinating journey and can provide insights that just may surprise you!  Relationship with yourself, with others, with our planet, and with money itself most probably deeply embedded in scarcity and lack in some form or another.

I am reminded of the days growing up that we used to play Monopoly.  Loved handling all that play money and buying the primemonopoly-money properties while hoping that one of the other players would land on my high density housing prime space and have to hand over more money for rent!

We needed to be in relationship in that game.  Face to face, throwing the dice to see what would happen next in our relationship with each other and our money.  Out of necessity it would often go on for hours as money  changed hands back and forth.

Life lessons were tucked in there as well like landing in jail and hoping for a “Get Out of Jail Free” card to release you back into the game and back into relationship with the other players.

Well have you ever thought that we put ourselves in jail and restrict the easy flow of money and vibrant alive relationship in our lives because of deeply engrained patterns that were put down early in our tender lives for what we thought was survival?

Here is a part of my story to make this more personal and to highlight the fact that how we use money is an opportunity for our own spiritual awakening and an expression of our fundamental interconnectedness.

counterfeit-money-funnyI was either in a state of worry and fear around where the next dollar was coming from, or when I did man-chasing-money2have money it rather slipped away from me. I was always trying to find ways to get more back into my bank account.  This went on for many years even through times when I had plenty of money to support myself and my growing children.

At the same time I was creating relationships with men in much the same way.  Two marriages, another long term partner, and quite a number of other relationships later I finally found myself taking a look at both my relationship with money and with men.  Bet you won’t be surprised that there were some underlying beliefs that were interwoven in both relationships.

When my mother died suddenly at the early age of 39 when I was only 14 years old I of course felt abandoned by someone that I really needed at that time in my life.  The connection had been broken and I took it on as something that I must have done.  My underlying belief at this time was that I must not be worthy which was unconsciously supported by my father who went into a deep depression leaving me to take on the responsibility of my younger brother and the household.  In a way he had abandoned me by not honoring that I had needs too.

What did I do?  I created a belief system and pattern that lasted until just recently.  Work hard (read struggle here) to take care of others to make certain you are appreciated and loved, i.e worthy; push down your own needs, desires and passion (stay hidden); create relationships with people and money where “rescue” is needed (so that I could prove I was loved); and not only attract unavailable men, but leave relationships first before they can leave you.

Can you draw a parallel between these patterns and my relationship with money?  Essentially not feeling worthy in my own essential self (money slipping through my hands and creating “rescue” scenarios), taking on others desires and passions as my own (struggling to bring money in through others businesses/visions that were not in alignment with my whole hearted creative expression ), and setting up the abandonment before I can be abandoned (I am not worthy).

I think you get the picture here.  We are in a very powerful time on our planet right now where each one of us has the opportunity to repattern into “wholeness, purpose and grace” in a way that honors our own highest potential as well as that of every other life form on this planet.  If we don’t do this our species has the potential to disappear!

connection20This time is about creatively connecting and collaborating within the deep interconnection that sustains all of us – every single life form on this planet.  It is called Unity – the yoga of life.  In order to open to this way of being each one of us must take the inner journey of clearing anything in the way of truly being ourselves in the world.

Since money is a large part of our life, and always will be present in some way, why not create a trusting, flowing, sufficient, honest and loving relationship with it.  It really does want to love you back and is the currency of connection!!

SOME SUGGESTED BOOKS:

The Currency of Connection: How to Create An Exquisitely Kick Ass Relationship With Money by Nogie King

soul-of-money-paperbackThe Trance of Scarcity: Hey! Stop Holding Your Breath and Start Living Your Life! by Victoria Castle

The Soul of Money: Reclaiming The Wealth of Our Inner Resources by Lynn Twist

The Prosperous Heart, by Julia Cameron

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OTHER BLOGS BY GAYE ABBOTT:

www.BreathingSpaces.net
www.WildlyFreewoman.com

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http://resonancewithlife.com/daily-breath-book/

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Authenticity, Empowerment, Self Love

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Becoming The Art

Martha Graham

When we are in the midst of making something,
in the actual creative act,
we know we are who and what we are

because we forget our public reception for a minute.

We become the art itself instead of
the artist who makes it.

-Julia Cameron

This past week I took 3 days of being “unplugged” to work on a draft of a book that I had set aside for almost a year.  There was a relief in not connecting to internet, making or receiving phone calls, or in my case blogging or doing social networking.  There was no need to unplug from T.V. as I haven’t watched or owned  one for over 15 years.

While I was in this time period the phrase kept coming up – do you really want to spend precious life moments living virtually?  Instead how about dropping down into the spaciousness of creating from a place that cannot be found on the internet, but inside of a moment to moment sense oriented life experience.

Now mind you, there is an amazingly powerful use for the internet and other electronic media.  However the creative muse would not have been so spontaneously present I suspect if I would have been hooked in to anything other than allowing the writing to come through me, taking breaks out in nature, and making certain that I was nourished by healthy food and movement/exercise breaks.

This sustained and planned creative process is new to me.  I am used to hit and run creative ideas coming in during unsuspecting moments driving me to run for a pad of paper, or the back of a grocery store receipt, to write it down.  Invariably it is as I am driving that something blazes into my consciousness, and then just try to scribble something down while watching that light about to change….and even more trying to decipher what you wrote or sketched for that latest painting idea later on. Hand held recorders are looking better and better these days!

I suspect that room for spontaneous creativity is always there for each and every one of us, but often it is buried amongst what seems like millions of bits of stimulus input that hit us everyday.  As Julia Cameron says in the quote that was given at the beginning of this post, we become the art itself as we immerse ourselves in the creative process and await direction.  Sometimes it is immediate and at other times we are asked to take a break and change our surroundings – which then will inspire us of course to capture the next creative spark.

12,000 words later in the 3 days I set aside I am now happy to say that I have reintroduced myself to the creative muse that has so wanted to come out and play with the me that feels incredibly alive when she is in the act of creation!  We are having a great time together, and yes this book is well on its’ way to birthing itself.

It is no accident that I came across the perfect video to share with you this week.  This couple who have been married for 62 years are a beautiful example of becoming the art spontaneously.   Enjoy and take into consideration what Katharine Hepburn once said,  “I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun”!!

OTHER BLOGS BY GAYE ABBOTT:

www.BreathingSpaces.net
www.NaturalWealthJournal.com

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Authenticity, Creative Expression

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Come As You Are – An Invitation to the “Artist” In Each of Us

AWAKENING by Fran Bouwman (Please watch her video at www.franbouwman.com)

All right – I just arrived home from sharing breakfast with an amazingly creative, beautiful, naturally funny, and wise woman of 68 years.   Threw on my long gauzy skirt and a deep red silky camisole – my writing clothes for the day I have decided – and plunked a piece of rich dark chocolate in my mouth.  What could be better!

I am dedicating this post to you Sue, for you have inspired me to make an offer to my 50+ age women readers out there (or under if you find your way to this blog site!).   I dare you (and you first Sue!) to take me up on this!  Listening to Julia Cameron’s Walking in This World, the Practical Art of Creativity, read by a most wonderful reader, on my way home in the car…and reflecting on the conversations that Sue and I had this morning, I realized that WildlyFreeWoman has always been about supporting, encouraging, guiding, and at times giving a gentle kick in the butt, to women to bring their creative wild soul out into the physical world – NOW!  

It is not always clear how a woman can do that with all of the other pulls on her time and attention – but from 50 on we have a new perspective, tons of life experience, more “our time” than we have ever had, and the opportunity to say YES! to our unique and individual expression – whatever that is.  For me right in this moment it is sitting down at my Mac computer, or putting my favorite fountain pen in my hand, and waiting for the creator’s juice to move through me into my hands and on this page.

As Sue wove her story at the breakfast table of her recent visit to the Trappist monastery, I had very upturned mouth and tears of laughter rolling down my face.  I was able to see and feel her sitting there in the chapel attempting to connect with “the Divine” as an ancient monk shuffled his way (she knew which one it was by his walk) down the aisle and sat near to her, stamping his walking stick and making snuffling noises as he moved his dentures around in his mouth.  What a disturbance she thought to herself…and on the story goes to reveal some wise and profound observations – and great humor directed at our humanness.

I invite Sue to finish this story and have me put it here on the blog.  The worst that could happen is that no one will read it …the best that can happen is that no one will read it – but Sue would have put something out there for public viewing and said YES to her creative expression.  You can’t lose Sue!

That goes for everyone else out there that is sitting on a creative expression – or is just tentatively beginning to get nearer to “putting it out there”.  Allow this to be the sacred container which births IT and YOU out into the world.  Julia Cameron says, “Doubt is a signal of the creative process.  It is a signal that you are doing something right…. Creativity is a spiritual issue.  Although we seldom look at this squarely the creative life features the same spiritual obstacles as any other spiritual path.” Doubt can then lead to the courage to go ahead and put it out there anyway,  no matter what…and yes it is a leap…and yes it is way worth it.  (Besides I have the power to monitor any comments that are made public on this blog….so again, you can’t lose…)

There are women (and men!) out there that need our stories, our art, our creative expression and example to take them one more step further along in their inside journey to letting loose and breaking free of the restrictions that may keep us bound up like a tightly closed bud that is doomed never to flower, or open at all.  The way I see it WE need US to do it!

So…here is the deal!  Write to me about your art, creative activity, or projects; give me a website;  or send me some samples if that is appropriate.   Allow WildlyFreeWoman to be your creative muse and the readers of this blog to be your adoring supporters.  We each have a unique expression to bring…and we each are a incredibly important part of the whole web of creative interconnection globally.  The creation is not complete without our unique and individual expression.

As Marilyn Patterson in South Africa wrote to me when sending her brand new book, “Wrapped in Sunrise”  in the mail – let yourself be “the kind of person that inspires others towards a greater more heart felt life expression”.  Bring it on and let’s play!

Gaye Abbott
A WildlyFreeWoman

SUE RESPONDS WITHIN HOURS!! Here is her courageous launching and she promises me that a picture will be forth coming.  WFW will be sending an official “Courageously Creative” certificate to each woman that brings her expression to this blog site!
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To a Very Special Wildly Free Woman and Dear Friend,

I feel as if I am being Published..me head is swelling.   Several times, I have had the exquisite experience of spending even a small amount of time observing these men in robes, who we define as Monks. Are they freaks of nature, recluse on the run from life, or do they actually contribute to the world in which we live?  The answer for me is a resounding, Yes they do, in ways we will never know.  I learned this from My Very Dearest Friend, Thomas Merton, Trappist Monk, who left this unruly world, far too young. So now, I have told you the name of My Mentor.  Now you must know my Funny Personality, so to speak, is derived from an Irish Family Background and as far back as I can remember the Exquisite need to laugh and give laughter to others.

Going to the Monastery/Abby is a place where you will actually see smiles on peoples faces.  Silence evokes quiet thought, which in turn, gives us all periods of thought you had forgotten and which later appear very funny, when measured against the Seriousness of Life.

A few weeks ago, I had again decided to drive up to Lafayette, just a little north of McMinnville, Oregon for a quiet time in their garden and some meditation regarding making a decision on a special matter. While there, I left the chapel and proceeded outside to the gardens and passed the private graveyard in their enclose.  Mother of God I thought, imagine sleeping next to all those dead people. Anyway, a quiet little monk came up next to me and asked, “would you like to share lunch with the brothers? “  I of course said yes.  Good chance some of them would be cute..know what I mean.  Anyway, we proceeded to the QUIET hall where they were all seated in SILENCE. I proceeded to go over to the table and serve myself, then proceeded to sit down and eat. I kept looking out over the tops of my glasses to see, as a lay person, what they looked like and were all about. After about 35 minutes I stood up and proceeded to leave, but not without saying,
” Thank you for the delicious lunch”.  With that one of them turned to me with his finger over his lips as if to say, faux pas..then out of the corner of my eye, I observed a little old monk quietly giggling at the end of the table. Sue I said…Sweet Victory!!!!!!!!

Hopefully, as he lay on his straw mattress that night, he had wonderful dreams.  Sue you Devil.

I have many such stories to give forth to those who would find them enjoyable as well as funny. At the time they happened in my life, they did not really have that much significance. In my looking back now, they were really funny and I will from time to time give forth some of these wonderful times of my life.  However, as I proceeded to say to my friend Gaye,  ” I cannot imagine anyone finding my stories and the Paths my life has taken as interesting.  The Glory of having Intelligent/Passionate about life friends, is how they are able to observe qualities you never saw in yourself, and they, if they are true friends, are quick to remind you, ” your talents MUST be shared by the many, in hopes they too can rise above it all.

Sue O’

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Creative Expression

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