Tag — Soulcare
A Free Gift from Kindly Souls
I am having a small-but-obvious love affair! Amanda Oaks and Jenn Gibson have captured my heart. These lovely ladies run Kind Over Matter, a beautiful and touching blog dedicated to scattering love offerings around the world.
This week the free downloadable gift from Kind Over Matter is a collection of affirmations from women I adore. Brandi over at Joy Rebel is joining the fun, along with my virtual soulsister Jamie Ridler. Amanda and Jenn are adding their wisdom, of course. And I get to play too!
Head over to Kind Over Matter after 9am EST Friday to download your free Printable Affirmation Gift Set. Each contributors affirmations are available as seperate download. Get mine here and find the rest here. So pop some cardstock in your color printer, and in a few minutes you’ll be cutting out presents for your soul — and for the dear souls around you!
… Oh, and don’t forget to blow Amanda and Jenn a kiss for me! MWAH!
*8Things To Love About Your Tribe
What is *8Things? Click here.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my tribe — both my family of birth, and my family of choice, the later of which is scattered over a virtual and real landscape. My heart swells with gratitude at the truly amazing souls who have floated, flitted, barged, and stumbled into my life. I truly would not be the person I am today without them. (And I like the person I am today. I really do!) So in honored of kindred spirits and kind souls, here are *8Things To Love About my Tribe:
1. They move between Weeds and Kierkegaard with equal aplomb.
2. They know good food and believe cocktails are important.
3. “Dangerously Compassionate” seems to be the tribe motto.
4. They don’t just tolerate my kids, they adore them.
5. They allow me to change, grow, morph and alter…
6. …and yet they remember all our old stories.
7. They get it that there really is a THERE there in cyberspace. (Hurrah for virtual community!)
8. Being with them is like a blood infusion crossed with an energy drink chaser.
What are your *8 Things to Love About Your Tribe? Grab a button and play along. I can’t get Mr Linky to work this week, so put your permalink in the list below so we can link along and fall in love.
And a special SHOUT OUT to *8Things player Jenn from Freelance, Unconventional Nun who rang up my groceries at the food co-op last week, looked at me sideways and said, “Are you Magpie Girl?” Um? Make. My. Day.
Soultribes: How to Build a Dreamboard Circle
The tea lights ring the room and ambient trip-hop spills from the speakers. There are seven of us around the table ranging in age from fifty to five. We’ve chatted a bit and filled our mugs. Now it’s time for cardstock and magazines, glues sticks and scissors. It’s the Full Moon. It’s time to Dreamboard.
A Dreamboard circle is one of the simplest Soultribes to form. It doesn’t require complicated leadership, and the supplies and techniques are very basic. You can form one easily with these simple steps…
Soultribe Practitioners Interview: Kelly Bean and Third Saturdays
“I think my most important job is to make space for people to be who they are and tell their own stories…My role is to cultivate relationship, cultivate curiosity, [and] create a sense of sacred space.” -Kelly Bean, Soultribe Cultivator
How do I love Kelly Bean? Let me count the ways! First, she’s a redhead (big points.) Second he has the totally adorable name. (more brownie points.) But most importantly, Kelly Bean is as gentle as she is wise, with more patience than anyone I know, and has a habit of waiting and listening until the solution arrives. (Unlike some redheads we know. Hi. Me.)
There’s nothing like learning from a pro, and at 20-plus years of nurturing the same Soultribe (it’s a record!) Kelly can really give us insight into how to keep something going through the ups, downs and seasons of life.
This is a long, but excellent interview and features a unique shared-leadership model called Leadership by Triad which I’ve never heard of anyone else using. Plus there’s loads of stuff in here for those of you who are in the process of a church break-up, or who are Leaving Church. And don’t miss the bit where she lays out some of the common pitfalls Soultribes trip into, and how to avoid them. I recommend you print this out and pop it in your bag. You’ll want to underline and highlight this winsome goodness, I promise.
Kelly generously gave us her time to write up this interview, so she could encourage and guide you. In the spirit of our on-going Sacred Commerce experiment, please let me know if you’d like to send Kelly a thank-you gift from your Etsy or other shop. (My email is moi at magpie-girl dot com.)
And now without further ado my Soulsister, Kelly Bean, and the Soultribe at Third Saturdays.
Background: Could you tell us what kind of Soultribe you belong to: What do you call it? How often do you meet? How long have you been together as a group?
My soultribe is called Third Saturday.We are a community of people following in the way of Jesus. Our gatherings vary in size from 15-30 -which includes 6 kids ranging in ages 1 to 13. We meet twice a month for sure and sometimes more frequently.
I began to host this group over 22 years ago. I remember my daughter (who is now 23 years old) was just beginning to crawl when we first started. I can still see her playing in the center of the circle of friends, although now she is a mother herself. Over time I have become the ‘official’ cultivator of this community (thanks Rachelle for the great title, “cultivator.”) I’d venture to say that most of the current participants have been attending for seven to ten years.
Group Content: What does your typical evening together look like? [Read more →]
DO LESS Revo Bonus Post: Clear your Clutter!
There are things you want to be doing with your life. There are adventures to be had, projects you’d love to dive into, and people you want to have time for. You want room to breathe, to think, to play.
Yet, there it is. The stuff in your home, the paper piles in your home office, and the 101 things on your to-do list, all clamoring for your time and attention.”
–Lisa Baldwin, Clutter Coach and Professional Simplifier
In the gap between the day we signed our mortgage and the day we could move into our 1920’s craftsman, I would sit on the back porch with my soulful housemate Sharon, and wait for the day we could call The Densmore House home. “It’s good here, Rachelle.” she’d say “Someone has been prayerful in this space.”
Where we live has a feel, an energy…a zeitgeist. We long to live in peaceful, beautiful spaces. But often we find ourselves living in clutter, mess and mayhem. There’s the physical clutter—the mail, and the socks, and the stacks of paper. (How does all that paper procreate anyway?!) Physical clutter stops us in our tracks. It keeps us from starting creative projects—because who wants to work at that messy table? It keeps us from finishing tasks because we can’t find what we started on. It drains us of our inspiration, and tires us out with menial tasks.
Then there is the energetic clutter—the anxiety, the regret, and that mysterious slimy residue that hangs around when something particularly sad or nasty has gone down. Energetic clutter is more subtle than the physical kind. It resides on the edge of our awareness like something you can only see out of the corner of your eye. Yet energetic clutter can be just as distracting and draining as the stack of mail on your countertop.
Thankfully I have two stellar practitioners who can help you remove BOTH kinds of clutter from your life – and they are teaming up to offer an e-course! (Oh you are so lucky!) [Read more →]
The DO LESS Revolution: Uncovering Your Guiding Values
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Hello Revolutionaries!
This week we are going to uncover our Guiding Values so next week we can apply them to choosing our Essential Tasks. This will free us to be concentrated powerhouses who DO LESS and LIVE MORE! But before we do, let’s do a brief check-in so you can feel great about how far you’ve already come.
Last week our theme was Setting Limits. We took our Monster To-Do list down a notch by eliminating things that were haunting us, but not serving us. Now pretty please answer some or all of these questions in the comments. Or, if you blog answer them in a post and add the unique URL to our Mr. Linky. (I know. “Mr. Linky.” That sounds naughty doesn’t it? Tee Hee.) Feeling shy? Like pen-and-paper? That’s fine. Just scribble it on the back of that receipt there on your desk. That would work too. (Remember, Fast and Dirty is the way to get it done.) Ready? Here we go!
- Name one thing you crossed off your Monster To-Do list because it wasn’t important to you any longer.
- How many things did you have on your Monster To-Do list that actually didn’t need to be done in the next 30-60 days?
- When your Gremlins started to nag you about “not getting anything done,” which of your one-hour-or-less tasks did you complete?
Which of your Most Important Task (M.I.Ts) got done last week? How’d that feel? - Which M.I.T.s are still hanging out? Do they still get the special M.I.T. rank, or can you demote them?
- Name any Ah-Ha Moments you’ve had so far in the process.
There. Don’t you feel better? I knew you would. Onward!
How Your Guiding Values Help You Choose the Essential
The next stage of the DO LESS Revolution is identifying your Guiding Values and using them to determine what’s essential. This sounds kind of onerous, and I can’t think of a way to make it sound cheeky, but really it isn’t bad at all. Maybe it will help to know that I turned mine into a multi-colored mobile. How tough can it be if it looks like something out of Dr. Seuss?
It’s relaxing to note that choosing the essential isn’t like trying to find a needle in a haystack. You don’t have to determine at random what is most important amongst all your tasks. Once you peek inside and see what values you already carry, you can use them to ferret out the imposter-tasks hiding out among the essentials. It’s like a decoder ring! Doesn’t that seem like fun? You get to be Dick Tracy! [Read more →]
*8 Things: Guiding Values
In our on-going mission to DO LESS, we will be taking a look at our values, and using that list to make decisions about which and tasks and projects we take on. Even if you aren’t a DO LESS revolutionary, it can still be enlightening and guide-like to check in with your values pyramid every now and again.
If you need some help making your list, my life coach Jena Strong, is offering us a kindly deal on Values Assessment Sessions. Magpie Girl readers will receive a reduce price of $75 for an hour-long session* — a super rate for some valuable soulguidance. Jena helped me find the right words to describe what I hold most dear. Those words, in turn, helped me stand in my own power and make choices for myself, knowing they were being birthed out of solid, meaningful values. In short, Jena taught me how to value my values! (Oh those professionals, they are ever-so-helpful.) Here are *8 Values that Guide My Life:
1. Whimsy
2. Generosity
3. Attentiveness
4. Creativity
5. Truth
6. Beauty
7. Freedom, and above all things
8. Love
What are the values that guide your life? Grab a button and play along or put your *8Things in the comments below. Don’t know? Call Jena and drop my name! Thanks for being here!
*The Strong Coaching reduced rate offer good thru July 31, 2009.
The Spiritual Benefits of Being Pissy
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Right around Easter I wrote a post that was a little bit pissy. I did this intentionally because I was feeling pissy—and I was pretty sure other people were as well. (And indeed, they were.) But I got a little bit of push-back for being “too negative.” So let me say this about that, there are spiritual benefits to being pissy. [Read more →]
The DO LESS Revolution: Setting Limits
Listen to the podcast here: Subscribe to Magpie Girl podcasts on Zune, or on iTunes, or via RSS.
Why Less is Powerful
Six years ago I was diagnosed with an untreatable condition, status migrainosus (chronic daily migraine). Suddenly, most of my time was spent either managing my health, or being in pain. This left little space for anything else. As I listened to the waiting room conversations at the pain clinic, I knew I was in danger of allowing this disease to take over my world. I became determined to not be defined by my pain. But as I watched my ability to write, volunteer, and counsel disappear, I began to despair. For months I struggled to come to terms with a life that felt increasingly limited.
The reality is we are all limited. There are a finite number of hours in the day, and while most of us can ignore that, eventually it catches up to us. We overbook, over commit, and try to ‘do it all.’ Then we crash with exhaustion, ulcers, and little ease or enjoyment in our life.
This limited time thing? It’s not going to change. So I started to ask myself, “What would it look like to turn this “limited time” thing into a Superpower?” [Read more →]
The Soultribe Practitioner Interviews: Christine Valters Paintner & Deep Support
Some people love theory and some people love praxis. I’ve always been a big fan of praxis myself, which is why I’m delighted to continue our series of interviews with Soultribe Practitioners. Theoreticians can tell you why things work. Practitioners tell you how things work.
Christine Valters Painter is one of the rare few who can do both. 
In this interview Christine talks about several types of Soultribes and how their natural life cycle progressed. Last month’s Soultribe Practitioner, Melissa Lindgrenof the Knitta’s talked about a more light-hearted group designed to share-a-skill and tell a story. This month Christine will give us insight in to forming a more intensive group with deep soul sharing with a different standard of expectation for commitment, attendance and involvement. Both types of group are great – which kind you form just has to do with what scratches where it itches.
And now, without further ado, Ms. Christine Valters Paintner: Spiritual Director, Benedictine Oblate, Photographer, Author, Teacher, Dog Lover, Zine Maker, World Traveler and PhD (among other marvelous things) [Read more →]
