A couple of friends of mine started this idea and are opening the invitation to all who want to do it, too. Here it is:

Hello and  Happy New Year!!
The two of us will be having fun over the next 13 weeks, which will bring us through to the end of March. Every Sunday starting Jan. 1st we will be adding a new habit and removing a habit with the focus on our health. We decide for ourselves what habits they will be. We made a graph for our wall with four columns and the heading of “I AM” at each column.

January 1st: My husband’s habit that he wants to remove is slouching. So under one of his columns he wrote, “I AM sitting up straight” (we state it as a positive affirmation). I wrote that “I AM Gluten Free” for my habit of giving up eating wheat. He and I both have added “taking daily vitamins” for our column of adding a habit. We will keep these ‘habits’ for the next 13 weeks and since it only takes the body/mind 3 weeks to form a habit, we will have created new healthy habits by the beginning of April.

January 8th: We will again individually decide a habit to remove and one to create. All the while keeping the habits already in play.

We wanted to know if you would like to join us? We can keep our habits to ourselves or share them with each other, it’s all about having fun and thinking about bringing in a Healthy Focus of Energy to our daily walks.

Much Love and A Happy Healthy New Year!!

How could I resist?!  I’m in. The first habit I want to remove is the habit of piling things on my dining room table. How can I really eat healthily if there is stuff on the table?! I created a New Habits Chart to post on my fridge, and wrote “I am putting things away.” I added “I am smiling each day” as my new habit.

If you believe that “old habits die hard,” then what do new habits do?

I  believe that old habits fall away with ease when we turn our focus of energy on what we are creating instead. Creativity loves the fun of choosing something new.

We’ll see what I choose next Sunday. Maybe it will be the habit of sitting at the table to enjoy my meals!

Have fun with it, and share your new habit “I AM” statements here if you like.

There is much talk of fear these days, and most of us have personally experienced getting caught up in the vibrations of anxiety that stories in the news seem to perpetuate. At the very least, we can sense the uncertainty in uneasiness in the air.

So, what is the antidote? There are shelves of books offering answers and sure-fire solutions. Bumper stickers and clever quotes passed around on social media offer seeds of insights that seem to flicker on and off like fireflies on a dark night. The truth for me, however, is that it is a practice of awareness, inquiry and creative discovery of deepening our experience of inner peace.

This poem I wrote 10 years ago today offered some wisdom good for today.

Ribbons of hope woven on faith
Stronger both ways, most fear held at bay
Though doubt seeps its way, finding cracks between
Fabric holds fast, stranding life come what may.

To see more of the 365 Doll Poetry Collection that is being posted daily, check out http://spiritout.com/365blog

Color inside the lines. That’s what I advocate. That may sound counter to what other say to encourage creativity, expansion and out-of-the-box thinking, but the place to bring our real creativity is in drawing the lines in the first place.

If we choose the rebellious path to set our default setting to “outside the box,” we are still being held captive to the box by allowing it to dictate where we color. Why not be more discerning? Maybe “the box” or lines we are given do actually work in some way. The question is to be choosey and to dive into the quest for our own lines.

Sometimes when I paint, I put the color on first and then the lines appear in my mind’s eye so I draw them in. With colored pencils, allowing the point to draw its lines on the page makes for fun spaces to color in.

So, let’s hear it for coloring inside our own best lines!

I love that we have a holiday dedicated to gratitude. A good reminder helps lift the vibration of my perspective on life and reset the default settings on my attitude to thankfulness. I’m appreciative of this beautiful polish to my path, like a natural red carpet lining each step with gratefulness.

I’m not from the desert. But, in April of this year I spent some good solo time on a spot of land in the Mojave Desert that welcomed me like home.  How fortunate am I?  Those hot sunny days and cold moonlit night changed me into more of me,  in the springtime among the blooming cactus plants, and this fall I got to return.

Not sure if I could find the same spot out there in the wide terrain where each of my fellow vision questers and I first sought out to find a solitary place to do our inner vision work.  Releasing residue of unfinished business, opening to new insights and possibilities for moving forward with more clarity, we each came back transformed for the better because of our desert experience.

In ways seen and unseen, deep positives shifts occurred and the earth, the critters, plants and rocks like these welcomed, witnessed and mysteriously played with us.  I felt that this spot of land would remember me. Would I recognize it? A few weeks ago I set out to find it again and I let my feet lead.  My mind said, “Isn’t it over there more?” pointing to the east. My feet kept walking to the west. “Maybe we’re already there,” said my heart that can remember the visceral experience in memory without need to return but longed to anyway. My feet kept walking. Soon I knew I was close, but which ridge was it?  All the trees seemed so similar.  How would I recognize the exact plants?  My feet stopped.  I asked aloud, “Where is my spot?” My body turned slowly and I saw a rockscape to the north.  Oh, yeah!  There were rocks to the east of my spot. One ridge over and I was there. Home. Jubilant and grateful for the return visit.

What landscape calls to you?  Where do you feel most at home?  Perhaps it is not where you are from, but instead is a part of this beautiful planet that seems unfamiliar until you listen and welcome its wisdom.

When it comes to finding a way to find the sun, there is no better teacher than the sunflower.  This one, a cast-away from a bustling bird feeder, made its way to a bit of fertile ground, put down roots and spontaneously grew tall and opened with this stellar pattern of more seeds.  From one brave, tenacious and miraculous seed, many more birds will have a treat and beauty is expanded in the world.

How can this lone sunflower give us hope and remind us to look toward the source of light on our path of creativity and growth?  What does it remind you of?

The opportunity to drive across the plains is a treat. It may sound strange, but getting on the highway an experiencing the vast open field and sky of our heartland helps bring clarity to mind and heart. Something about the high speed is a part of that, too. Out of the city and on clear open road brings a tremendous sense of freedom. Whew! It’s as though the sweep of the land clears my soul.

Each of us has a landscape to our soul. I think it is more than one, and the prairie is one of mine.  What’s one of yours? When we can go to these places, allow ourselves to connect once again to the unique beauty terrain, our soul is renewed, refreshed and reflected back to us.

Paradoxically, the traveling fast this way has me slow down. On the way home from my holiday visit with friends in Iowa City, I let myself pull over and enjoy the countryside a little closer up.  The beauty, stillness and vivid life even in a small patch of roadside prairie does my heart good. Where in nature does your heart good?

Genuine self-care has a positive ripple effect.  So what does genuine really mean? There can be a fine line and a huge difference between the energy of self-indulgence that is numbing or escapist and the energy of self-nourishment that is revitalizing and grounding. Funny thing is, it can be the exact same activity, the distinction being the authenticity of the intention behind it.

On a recent artist’s date (a segment of time devoted to feeding the creative spirit), I went to the rose garden. The ripples in the fountain pool where a troupe of brass turtles spout water streams are beautiful, fleeting and forthcoming. I loved that outing to the peace and beauty of the park.  If I were to go today, however, when self-care really means taking care of my at-home projects, it would be an escape trick. Procrastination is a tricky bugger. It really takes some brutal honestly to measure where the motivation stems from.  Is it truly self-care? We can only answer that question for ourselves.  So, let’s keep asking till we get to “yes”!

The other day I got a flat tire. Fortunately, I was only three blocks from home. Unfortunately, I had to reschedule with my client. Fortunately, it was a quiet street on a dry day and my neighbor generously offered to give me a hand. Unfortunately, the spare needed air, too, so it took longer than we thought. Fortunately, I got to the service station just fine. Unfortunately, there was a series of mistakes made at the garage and it took several hours. Fortunately,  I got back on the road in time for later appointments and all is well.

How can we practice remembering that all is well, even through the “unfortunately’s” of living this human life? I notice my own tendency to worry about life’s future misfortunes that are not happening. How often have I worried about getting a flat tire? Despite having changed flats, gotten help and found a way to pay for new tires successfully in the past, the inner saboteur tells me scary tales of woe and danger. The saboteur, trying to keep me safe somehow, uses dire straits scenarios to use up my energy worrying about worse cases instead of allowing that energy free for creative endeavors. There’s no use arguing with those sabotaging thoughts; that robs me of creative power and joy, too.

Fortunately, evidence has it once again that creativity, resources and help are available to me during an “unfortunately” like a flat. And for that I can be grateful to be reminded to stop worrying.

For years making collages has given me direction.  Like a compass cradled in my hand, it points me forward in the direction of what I truly care about and where my soul is longing to grow, know and experience purpose and meaning.  They are like good friends to me.

I look back at this one, for example, and see my desires and values reflected in the images.  The refreshment of a cool fountain, the community of a flock of birds among the berries, and the staircases inviting transcendence all point me forward. I also love the mystery of what shows up. Now I notice lots of berries here, and round seeds and fruit, lush and fresh.  The animals serve as wisdom guides.  Fox, owl, peacock and hummingbird whisper guidance to me if I am quiet and listen.

These collages provide a field for synchronicity to play.  I made this collage more than a year before I knew I’d be going on a vision quest retreat in the Mojave desert where hummingbirds visited me and gave me good advice. And the circle of friend around a fire has happened, too. Looking at the images in this moment, I’m reminded to keep my focus on painting, to lift up praises, and tend to the sweet little inner me who is all bundled up from the cold.

I love this process. Different than a vision board or wish list, I have developed this practice to activate my creativity and support my journey in mysteriously beautiful ways.  I’ve shared it with my clients, too, over the years and now I’m happy to share it with more who would like a visual way navigate their own spiritual path.  Join me for an afternoon of Compass Collage making and orienteering for your own soul’s journey.