Welcome

Grab a cup of tea or coffee (oh what the heck, get a danish too!) and sit a spell. You might want to grab your notebook and pen because you never know when you will be inspired to write down a quote, or jot down a poem of your own. Words are like that, they take you on a journey and the next thing you know you are breathing life into your own magical world of words.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Self Sabotage and Stress - Thought Provoking Thursday

I don't know if it is stress or if this has just been a difficult month for me.  It’s interesting how self-sabotage can sneak in and bite you from behind when you think everything is going well. I am sure you can relate. Everything seems fine then all of a sudden you aren’t returning phone calls promptly or emails.  You tell yourself you will get to it later but when later comes you completely forget. 

I have to remember to actively work with the Shadow Timings myself or I can quickly lose my center, which throws everything off balance leading to mishaps in my business and relationships. 

I reminded myself that getting back to basics can be very important during times of stress. 

If you find this is a stressful time and have been sabotaging your success, remember what the basics are for you; what steps you took in the beginning that you have put aside thinking you don’t need to do them anymore. 

Sometimes it is the simplest things that can help us get back on track.

Your turn - What are the basics for you?  What helps you get back on track?

Much love,
Morgan Dragonwillow

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Summer Solstice and Gratitude

This is a wonderful day to think about the seeds (physically, emotionally, spiritually) you have planted in the spring, sending them energy for growth and prosperity, and visualizing a bountiful harvest.

Gratitude is something I missed in creating the art for this post. How often do we forget gratitude in our daily lives?  Gratitude wasn't the original direction for this post but it seems most appropriate.

It is in the gratitude that we feel and express that allows for what we have planted to grow strong and healthy. What is funny is that yesterday I was thinking I needed to create another gratitude list because I was feeling moopy yesterday (a combination between mopy and moody). I asked myself in the moment what I was needing to help me out of it and Gratitude is what popped up for me.

Here is what I am grateful for today and not necessarily in that order:
  1. My family
  2. My flute
  3. Friends
  4. My muse
  5. Circle sisters
  6. My car
  7. My daughter and granddaughter living with me
  8. My creative abilities
  9. My ability to see patterns
  10. Soaking in the bathtub
  11. My creative cooking abilities
  12. Soft fabrics
  13. Fluffy pillows
  14. My tarot and oracle cards
  15. My animal family
  16. Having a blog :D
  17. My health
  18. My Hair
  19. My books
  20. Love
  21. Passion
  22. Strength
  23. My clothes, in particular, my dresses and skirts
  24. Thrift/Second hand stores because you can find the best stuff there sometimes
I am sure there is a lot more that I am grateful for but I am running out of time.  My challenge for you is to find all that you are grateful for and to make your list at least as long as mine if not longer.

Happy Summer Solstice!

Morgan Dragonwillow

Monday, June 20, 2011

Your Sacred Body

I realized yesterday that I am not being kind to my body.  It isn't that I just discovered that but yesterday I said to myself, if you aren't honoring your body as the sacred vessel that it is then you are sabotaging the most important tool that you have.

Wow... my body is sacred and I am treating it like crap.  I haven't been eating well and I haven't been moving it as it was meant to move.  I have actually gained about 20 pounds over the last six months.  It isn't about wanting to be on a diet or a special exercise regimine just treating it as the sacred body that it is. 

Our bodies are not something that most of us were brought up as thinking it was something sacred.  I was brought up as a baptist and pretty much everything to do with the body was a sin.  I have been reading The Body Sacred by Dianne Sylvan that has me thinking about all of this. 

Dianne Sylvan says, "I call for women to stand up and reaffirm their Goddess-given beauty no matter how short, fat, old, or imperfect we think we are. Each of us is touched and blessed by the Divine, no matter what we look like. Our task is to remember this and to live it.  For most of us, it is the hardest and most rewarding magic we will ever do."

I understand what she is saying and I am really enjoying her book.  What I am talking about is how I am emotionally sabotaging my body because I am uncomfortable with the energies that are happening right now.  I choose to look at that and see my body as she says but while I am doing that actually treating it like the Goddess that resides within me.

I am thinking that if I do that I will naturally become healthier.  Everything that I put on it or in it I am going to ask myself, is this good for my sacred body?  Is this something that is going to nourish my sacred body?  Is this something that will enhance my sacred body? Is this something that my sacred body deserves?

If you start looking at your body as the sacred vessel that it is, what glowing, healthy changes might happen for you?

Friday, June 17, 2011

The In Between

Many find themselves in a state of limbo or in an in between place during this time of changing energies. This can feel like a numbness to being really uncomfortable.


Being in the in between is an opportunity for transition from feeling unworthy to living a successful life doing what you love. Working with it instead of against it can allow for positive transformation.



A few of the reasons for being in the in between:


1. It is necessary for you to look at your life and see what needs to shift, moving you from fear to love.


2. If you aren't living your authentic life in the present, the energies grow increasingly uncomfortable to force change.


3. The shadow planets have moved into position to remind you what needs attention.


All of this is an opportunity for you to grow and learn how to live life filled with passion and joy, authentically living your life purpose. 

What in your life keeps knocking on the door that you keep ignoring?


Currently in Retrograde:


Pluto Apr. 9th – Sept. 16th 

Pluto is all about the underworld and facing your fears. It can feel like you are in the birth canal wondering what you need to do to get out, meanwhile all of your fears keep popping up left and right.
Neptune June 3rd until Nov. 9th  

Neptune is the Identity Project which can feel like an identity crisis, leaving you thinking who the heck am I and what am I doing here.
Uranus June 10th until Dec 10th 

Uranus is all about being stuck and how to get unstuck. This of course can have you in your bed wondering what the point is anyway.
Just because these planets are in retrograde doesn't mean that everyone is going to feel this way.  It just means that if your life isn't on track, when these planets go into retrograde or are squared to your chart, then it is going to gently or not so gently push you to clear past situations that are keeping you from moving forward and being in the present.
We are naturally in an in between time due to changing of vibrations that are happening on this planet that can make it quite uncomfortable. If you have issues popping up, old relationships coming back to haunt you, obsessive thoughts that just won't leave you alone, then it is past time to clear them and gain peace of mind.
Surround yourself with love and light, be gentle to yourself on your journey, forgive yourself and others, and do whatever is necessary to lighten your load that will lead to a passionately joyful and authentic life doing what you love and making a living doing it.

Blessings,

Morgan Dragonwillow 

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Spring Fun

Christie and Morgan at the Beach

Loving the sand!

Shadow and light.

Lots of Jelly fish today.

Beautiful stretch of beach where our friends had their wedding ceremony.

Love the way the water shaped the sand.

The one with the red umbrella is ours.

Thought Provoking Thursday-The Inner Divine-Feminine and Masculine Combined

Today I would like to discuss the masculine and feminine that resides in each of us. It is a curious thing to think of that we each have an inner masculine and an inner feminine. 

Who are they and how do we interact with them? How did it come to be that we have them within in. Is it/are they Divine?  

A couple of weeks ago I began reading a book, Dance of the Selves, Uniting the Male and Female Within by Loretta Ferrier, Ph.D. with Monica Dructor Briese. 

I have worked on and with my masculine and feminine for years but somehow this book had escaped my attention until now. I immediately resonated with it. 

Two things hit me at once; how she talks about the feminine leading with vision and insight while the masculine follows the feminine's vision with the action necessary for manifestation. (she states that it isn't meant as a model of behavior for actual men and women) The other was a thought that I had when I was speaking to a friend about the book; Inner Divine - the feminine and masculine combined.  As soon as the words came out of my mouth I thought wait a minute.

What if the masculine and feminine within us were actually the Divine that is within us?

My thought about the Divine is that we are actually each a piece of the Divine living a human experience.  When we transition our essence floats back to be absorbed by the Divine so that He/She can feel the experiences that we had in that life. He/She is both so then there is both within us and it is a direct line to Him/Her. What if having a clear communication with the masculine and feminine within is actually a clear communication with the Divine?

Some of this I have thought of before but this brought it all together for me. 

Now it is your turn.  What do you think about the masculine and feminine within you being a piece of the Divine? 

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Eclipse 2 - Sabotage, Endings and Closure

This week the second of three eclipses arrives and we have had many reminders of where we need to create closure and allow endings. This week brings a total lunar eclipse, which always involves emotions, the mother and feminine energies, and issues around power and relationships. The moon being 'eclipsed' or blocked out by the sun, is a metaphor that reminds us of where we give our power away and how we limit ourselves by fear, including self sabotage and the role that our emotions play in how we create our life.

The word 'sabotage' comes from the French word for wooden shoes that workers used to wear, 'sabots'. And when they wanted to protest working conditions they would throw their old shoes in the machinery, breaking it. They won the battle but lost the war-no machinery meant no work or money. This week's eclipse asks us where we sabotage our life, use our power to limit ourselves and stop our life's machinery in protest, forgetting that we are in control, in charge of the process and there are easier, less dramatic and drastic ways of changing our life path.

The other subject for the eclipse is endings and closure. We all want nice, tidy endings with closure that acknowledges us, our contributions and sacrifice. Sometimes we get that but other times we don't. All closures follow endings but endings do not always come with closure - we sometimes have to give ourselves permission to be complete and finished with someone or something because it is not going to come from them. Our need for closure reflects our need for validation and recognition for our efforts. Has someone been too quick to let us go? Did something end before we were ready for it to leave? Were we acknowledged and appreciated for what we did?

If we have been undecided about a situation or person, an eclipse will bless us with a quick ending that leaves no room for doubt that this is over. But if we want closure with the ending, we have to decide what it involves, what it means to us, how we want to remember the situation or person, what we learned and how that helps us move on to the next phase of our life. And then we give ourselves the gift of closure, close the door and move on. And if we have been sabotaging our life by making powerless choices, giving our power away, staying in a situation longer than necessary or not serving our needs, we will come face to face with it at this time. Whatever is ending, finished or has run out of road for you at this time, let it go, give yourself the closure you want and need and turn towards a more powerful, self-fulfilling future.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Healthy, Wealthy & Wise Gifts Giveaway Offers 675+ FREE Health and Wellness Related Products, Services & Memberships

I wanted to let you know today about a Health and Wellness site that will allow you to download 100’s of self help gifts. And the best part is that it is absolutely free.

If you’ve had enough of plodding along year after year and you want to improve yourself and your health to make this your BEST ever year, then you will want to see what is available that can help you do just that.

Healthy, Wealthy & Wise Gifts will be open only for a VERY LIMITED TIME from June 9th to June 30th, 2011. When you go there you’ll find a multitude of products – all free – provided by Health, Fitness, Wellness and Marketing experts from all over the world. Here is just a small sample of what you will find:

* Mind Alchemy: Unlocking The POWER of Your Mind - Steven Aitchison
* Getting Started With Clarifying Values - Karen Cappello
* The Stressful Lives Guide to Aromatherapy - Jill Rheaume
* Chakra Balancing Meditation MP3 - Becca Chopra
* 63 Success Strategies - Zoe Routh
* Supercharge Your Weight Loss - Hollie Hawley
* Mindsetology Package ($97 value) - Jeremy Gislason
* Secrets On Attracting Clients & Removing Your Money Blocks - Heather Picken
* The Free Inner Bonding Home Study Course - Margaret Paul
* Blooming At Midlife - Tomar Levine
* Love Your Body 30 Day Transformation Program - Kerri Kannan
* And TONS (OVER 300+) MORE!

Get all of these and 100’s more here: http://healthywealthywisegifts.com/go/466

The organizers of the event are Stephanie Mulac, Carolyn Hansen and Dr. Joe Rubino.
Stephanie started this style of event in 2006. It’s in the form of a “Giveaway” which is sort of like a giant electronic trade fair where 100’s of experts offer their products free to the public.

Because it has become so popular, this year Stephanie has enlisted the services of Carolyn Hansen, renowned fitness professional, and Self Exteem Expert, Dr. Joe Rubino.

You only have to walk into any book store in any country to see how popular the subjects of health, fitness and wellness are. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry churning out hundreds of new books, audios, CD’s and other paraphernalia every year.

These can be very expensive but at Healthy Wealthy and Wise Giveaway Event you can pick this information up completely FREE.

With the year almost half over, what better time is there than right NOW to set yourself and your business up for future success? This event is a life-changing experience for those who take it.

Come and join Stephanie, Carolyn, Joe and me and see for yourself.

If you want to grab the largest collection of health, wellness and internet marketing products you’ll find ANYWHERE – all FREE – then go to http://healthywealthywisegifts.com/go/466 NOW and claim your bounty!

Friday, June 10, 2011

Working with Shadow One Step at a Time

The purpose of working with your shadow is to discover what you have buried in your life that is preventing you from being your most authentic and creative self living your soul's purpose. Empower your waking life and find the gold within the shadow that leads to integration and transformation with these simple steps. Living without excavating your shadow is the equivalent of sleep walking through your life.



The shadow qualities peeking out can be:

Dissatisfaction; always feeling like something is missing
Unfulfilled dreams
Depression
Negative self talk
Envy/jealousy
Anxiety
Perfectionism
Obsessive behaviors


If any of the above resonates with you the following steps can help you on your discovery journey to finding the gold within your shadow.

1. Keep a notebook with you at all times and write down any negative thoughts, and the situations that they are based around, for a week. At the end of the week take a look at any patterns that you can see. Are you putting yourself down every time you even think of doing something new or different? Are there things you are talking yourself out of doing?

2. Who does it sound like from your past? Someone, maybe many, from your past has told you (and usually with the best of intentions) the words that you have taken on as your truth or belief. Take each person that comes up and say out loud with empowering conviction, "That is not my truth or belief. I forgive you for (insert their truth or belief here), I forgive myself for believing that was my truth and/or belief and I let go of it now. My truth is I am (create a positive statement for your truth and/or belief to replace it)."

3. Choose a few of your favorite music pieces, dance and move out of your body the old truth and beliefs. Then dance in your new truth and belief. Writing in your journal after you dance can help you discover further insights.

4. Now take a look at the situations that the original negative thoughts were around. Such as wanting to do something creative, or a different career choice, or wanting to live somewhere else. Pick one and journal a day in the life as though you were doing it now. Then choose another and write a day in the life. Do at least three of them. As you are writing, do you find yourself feeling excited or passionate about what your day would look like?

5. Choose the one that excites you the most and make a list of steps, from small to large, that you can take to move in the direction of your new choices.

6. The final step is gratitude. It is important that you feel gratitude for all the blessings in your life. Even if it is hard to see them at the moment there is always something to be grateful for. Thank your higher power/divine spirit/god/goddess for all that you have.

You can do these steps any time you feel the shadow qualities returning. There may be occasions that you can skip a step or two and go right to what you really need in the moment. Only you know what is best for you. If you don't know then it is time to find out.


As seen in my original article Excavating Your Shadow One Step at a Time - Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6084558

Working With Shadow

Many people hear the term Shadow and either don't understand or think it is something negative that they just don't want to deal with.

Yes there are things hidden within the Shadow that can be scary, but... and this is a really big but, how scary is your life right now because you don't want to face what is in the Shadow? How often do you feel derailed because something that you have stuffed inside of you has pushed you off center? What in your life would you love to be doing but you keep allowing your inner shadow to keep you from doing it?

Alright, let's take some of the scary out of it.  Sit down and make a list of anything and everything you are avoiding in your life whether you think it is good or bad. Don't worry no one is going to see this list.

Now were you really honest?  Get really honest with yourself and write it all down.

Take a look at the list and allow yourself a few long deep breaths. On a different piece of paper make a list of what you are willing to work on in the near future.

Remember to keep breathing. We tend to hold our breath when we are stressed.

Pick one item on the list that you are willing to look at deeply, and write everything down that you feel about it. I can hear you groaning now. Yes how you feel about it.

Pick a piece of music that embodies that feeling. Choose a piece of music that is a little up beat and the last one should be a lot of fun. 

If possible put all the music on so that it will play one right after another but if you have to physically change it, it is alright.

Put the feeling music on first and allow yourself to move and feel to the music.  Make sure you have tissue near by in case you need it.  When you are finished immediately begin moving to the next song, allowing the feelings to slowly melt away. With the last song, really let loose and allow yourself to rejoice in yourself, in your day, in your life.

Take the first and last piece of paper and burn it safely. The second paper keep for yourself and choose one new item a day or a week and go through the steps above from writing everything about it and then dancing it out.  Yes I know this isn't going to change everything but it will help you shift the energy of it to allow you to do what is needed to clear it from your life.

What do you think of using this simple tool to help you work with shadow?  I would love to hear about your experience, either as a comment below or send me an email.

Blessings,

Morgan Dragonwillow

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

My Creative Journey

 
As a young child of about eight years old I told my father I wanted to write a book.  He told me, “Well that takes a really long time.”  In a voice that sounded like he didn’t believe I had what it took to do something that would take a long time. It became a common theme in my life.  Something that I would hear time and again to the point that if something didn’t have immediate results I didn’t even try.
I thought I wasn’t creative.  I loved art and reading but didn’t think I had what it took to be an artist or writer. How I yearned to be both.  I thought about writing all the time but every time I sat in front of the white page I would hear those old familiar voices telling me “I wasn’t good enough,”  “Who did I think I was,” and “Don’t you get bigger than your britches.”
I saw color everywhere I looked and thought about how it would look in a painting or photograph.  My heart ached at the thought that I wasn’t creative and wouldn’t be able to express the colors in a painting or picture.
My inner critic would ridicule my efforts, any time I sat down to write or draw, telling me that it was horrible writing or drawing, that I might as well give up since I was never going to be good enough.

Acceptable Creativity
My mother taught me to crochet when I was about ten years old.  This seemed to be an acceptable creative outlet as long as I didn’t try to do any really big projects.  I also cooked my first meal at that age. It was a measure of worth in my family to be a woman that has good cooking skills. Another acceptable creative outlet though I didn’t realize until I was much older that it was creative. 

Somehow I got it into my mind that cooking and crocheting weren’t hard so I could do them.  It wasn’t risky. It wasn’t a challenge.  By the time I was in my late twenties I was crocheting blankets for everyone I knew.  I had discovered how to crochet with a large hook that made it faster to create them.   I stuck with traditional colors and cheap yarns. Nothing fancy, nothing daring.

Writing Exploration
I began writing in a journal in my late teens, mostly writing poetry that I told myself wasn’t very good.  For years you can look through my journals and see my dreams of someday writing, of fussing at myself for not being strong enough to write.

In my early thirties I began writing seriously.  I was writing around eight to ten pages a day.  I had finally learned how to type and the words were flowing out of me.  I thought to myself that I would finish this book in no time if I kept this up. 

Many life changes happened shortly after that.  I came out to myself and to my family.  I became like a teenager all over again.  I didn’t know the rules of dating.  I explored for about a year until getting into a serious long term relationship.

I couldn’t find the flow of my writing again.  It was probably because I was no longer sure of who I was or what I wanted with life.  More lamenting in my journals about not writing, wishing I could write, why am I not writing and going long periods of not writing in my journal.

Every time I would get serious about writing again it would sound preachy or I would get in the flow for about one hundred pages then I would let something get in the way. 


Becoming More Courageous

Around forty-three years old things began to slowly change.  I began journaling in a more healing way. I began doodling in my journal as well as writing.  I was writing and drawing for me and I liked it. I was enjoying it for myself. It didn’t matter if other people liked it; it was for me and my healing.

My Shadow

I am now almost forty-seven and at the beginning of this year many things came together for me and shifted for the better.

I had been working with my shadow for a couple of years but I discovered within my Shamanic Astrology chart that my life really was all about shadow.  Much of me had been shoved inside for me to take out, rediscover, clear, and integrate at later times.  I discovered that it was necessary for me to walk with shadow on a daily basis for me to have a true understanding of shadow and how to help others with it. 

When I really understood that, my creativity jumped through the roof; I literally had the doors blown off the hinges to my creativity and I was creating all the time.  So much was coming through me that I would lay in bed feeling like I was vibrating, unable to sleep until I would just get up and continue creating.  I had found my purpose.  I found what was necessary for my creativity.  I found myself and my direct connection to the Divine and my Muse.

This is why I am here. This is why it took me so long to find my way.  I had to really understand what it meant to walk with shadow and feel what it was like to be stuck in the underworld before my path became clear.

I enjoy my days and nights of creating.  I did have to finally ask my guides to give me a little break because I wasn’t sleeping much and I could feel my body breaking down.  I told them if they wanted me to be able to write and create all that they wanted me to write and create then I needed to be able to have a good night’s sleep.

Now I am on a steadier stream of creativity that I can shut off when I need to. This doesn’t mean that everything in my life is suddenly glorious.  It just means that I feel differently now.  As long as I remember to connect in, create what wants to come through, then it doesn’t matter as much what is going on around me.  I am living my purpose and it feels wonderful.

I am now living courageously bold and juicy. I love to help others do the same.

Now it is your turn. What is your creative story?  What have you always wanted to create but stopped yourself from creating? If you are creative how did you find a way around your creative blocks to create what you felt compelled to create?

Blessings on Your Creative Journey,

Morgan Dragonwillow

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Transforming Your Life With Creativity

The surprising benefit to being creative is how meditative it can be.  You might think you can't meditate but if you are able to get out of your own way while being creative you will notice your breathing deepens, your pulse slows down, and your whole body relaxes. 

Using creativity as a meditative practice on a daily basis can transform your life.

Creativity Ideas that are particularly relaxing
  • Beading
  • Crocheting
  • Drawing
  • Painting
Remember the key is to get out of your own way while you are creating and not worrying about it being perfect.  It is meant to be fun and enjoyable.  As long as you enjoy what you are creating it can be a transformational process. 

The more you use this creativity as a means to relax the more you will notice your anxiety becoming less and less when you are doing other activities. The easier you will find it is to take risks that are necessary to reach your goals.

Create for you and discover the dance of life more fun!

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