It’s the simple things, really – like being able to hang laundry on the line. Sunshine warming bones. A soundtrack of birds. Especially in the morning time when no one else is around.

I kinda want to hang laundry all day.

In this moment, I’m looking out at it, hands tapping on keys, singing along to Pink Floyd. There’s work to produce, yes there is. It’s four o’clock in the afternoon and the clouds are creeping in.

More #foundinspirations over at Creative Dream Journals today : How to flirt with your creative lover

–ooOOOoo—

Have you downloaded your free guide to creating your own Found Inspirations practice? It’s so quick and easy, anyone can do it anywhere. But it’s powerful, too – and an ideal way to begin art journaling and get those creative juices flowing!

@juliegibbons Your technique definitely resonates with me. It came right at a time when I was searching for a daily practice, too. Thanks!

— kimswitzer (@kimswitzer) April 1, 2013

Would you like to share your journal word collages? Join us in the Found Inspirations Friday Flickr Group!

Don’t forget to use the hastags #foundinspirations and/or #foundinspirationsfriday if you’re sharing elsewhere.

About the image

You can download the image for non-commercial use, please remember to attribute it to Julie Gibbons.

Mandalas come in many guises. Their energies are wide and varied. Contents can be anything from the realms of our imaginations. But one thing I’m finding common to all of the mandalas I create is that they are indeed magical!

You might not be able to identify the circular shape of the mandala in the above picture, but I promise it is there! What you can see here is a collage response to some inner child healing work I was doing as part of a bonus lesson for the Great Round of Mandala.

Although I had recently begun to work with some inner child healing, it wasn’t an area I felt particularly drawn to at this time. However, it seemed appropriate to work with this theme as the good mother archetype can be seen very strongly during stage four of the Great Round, which we’ve been working with. What better time than to extend to your inner child some good parenting?

The power held within this mandala is actually very strong for me.

Personal archetypes and mandalas

Mandalas are an excellent mode of expression when working with archetypal stories because these stories most often express themselves via symbols and metaphors.

This makes them hard to get to grips with on a logical level, but if we can engage our intuition – our soul wisdom – then we can find greater understanding. I use mandalas to bypass my logic and get straight to my intuition.

And so I begin to reveal more of my own personal archetypes – it’s a fascinating, and powerful process.

Multi-level insights

Did you toggle the sound on to hear my dodgy singing? That was immediately after completing my inner child mandala. I was compelled to listen to Joni Mitchell’s Circle Game.

You see, I find that what happens during this mandala making is insight on a number of levels. Of course there’s the prep work we do beforehand, to which the mandala is most often a response. Next up, there’s the actual process of creating the mandala – so many insights come during the making of them! There’s our immediate response afterwards and I usually let myself feel into each of these stages before I spend some time ‘in conversation’ with the mandala.

The magic doesn’t stop there – it continues to provide insights long afterwards… I’m still recognising stuff from the first mandala I created for the Great Round back in January – like my burning fire within … I’ll leave you to imagine more about that one

My inner child grows into a Bond Girl

This particular mandala offered me much information which I’m still processing (I only created it a few days ago.) Some of that information seems obvious to me on reflection and other parts were actually very surprising.

Even although this was an exercise that I wasn’t bursting at the seams to create, its power is still very strong for me – the mandala magic strikes again!

It has helped me fit even more comfortably into my own skin. I equate this growing into myself like I imagine trying on a particularly well tailored evening gown (think Bond girl stylee.) In this dress, I stand much staller and I feel entirely comfortable in my own skin. Wearing it feels sexy and alluring – there’s an archetypal story in its own right!

I bet you’re as surprised as me that some mandala-making might see you emerge as a Bond Girl. I’m finding it all very appealing, hahaa!

What it boils down to is an increased self-esteem. This allows me to become the best self I can be and helps me to fulfill my life’s purpose – doesn’t that sound attractive (sexy, even?)

Great Round of Mandala : Season One (stages 1-4, inc bonus inner child healing)

If you’re intrigued about the process of making mandalas and their potential to reveal your personal symbolism and archetypes, then please join us in the Great Round. I’ve released the first four stages, including the inner child healing bonus leasson, as a complete pack, with limited availability. Sign up here.

Just received the first season of @juliegibbons Great Round of Mandala course and I am in LOVE.

— Kat McNally (@_kat_mcnally_) May 11, 2013

Oh my gosh. The last ten photos I posted on Flickr were self portraits! What does it mean?

I’m laughing as I write this. Self-portraits – self-absorbed – self-obsessed … Little old me, whose work is all about self — highest self, true self, whole self, authentic self, best self, shadow self – all kindsa self!

Oh, it makes me laugh, so. Sometimes it makes me cry, like when I read this entry in The Faeries Oracle about The Green Woman (the card I pulled this morning);

“The Green Woman dances naked in the moonlight – and in the sunlight and the shadows as well. She doesn’t care what you think of her, she knows her own worth from her experience of life. She is the feminine vital vegetative force that enables a root to crack stone, the reed to bend in the wind, and the oak to stand against the storm.”

I’ve been playing with selfies all week, inspired by conversations with Amy Palko, whose selfie work is growing and brewing.

There’s so much to say. And yet, now is not the time. In this moment, I’m saying hello to me, perfectly naked – and feeling strong.

How are you greeting yourself today?

–ooOOOoo—

Have you downloaded your free guide to creating your own Found Inspirations practice? It’s so quick and easy, anyone can do it anywhere. But it’s powerful, too – and an ideal way to begin art journaling and get those creative juices flowing!

@juliegibbons Your technique definitely resonates with me. It came right at a time when I was searching for a daily practice, too. Thanks!

— kimswitzer (@kimswitzer) April 1, 2013

Would you like to share your journal word collages? Join us in the Found Inspirations Friday Flickr Group!

Don’t forget to use the hastags #foundinspirations and/or #foundinspirationsfriday if you’re sharing elsewhere.

About the image

You can download the image for non-commercial use, please remember to attribute it to Julie Gibbons.

Five months in to my Great Round of Mandala journey and I’m astonished at what a powerful process this is for me. I knew I was strongly drawn to this archetype but honestly, before I began to lead a group of amazing women on this journey, I didn’t understand that I was about to unleash some true magic into being.

Just to be clear, I don’t use the word ‘magic’ lightly.

My life and work is transforming so deeply through each Mandala I make – it’s difficult to try and sum it up in a blog post. Everything I begin to write seems so glib.

The mandalas have even begun to ask to be created! I know, you’re thinking I’ve gone a wee bit too woo woo on you, but bear with me – for it’s all a true story.

I often have ideas for mandalas – images and symbols regularly come to mind in addition to ideas for therapeutic style exercises and I’m pretty good at keeping these stored for when I’m ready to take action.

This week, though, I had to delay my planned schedule as there was a mandala which insisted on being brought to life. I really had no choice – everything else was pushed out of my mind.

One thing I’ve learned during the past three years of full-time self discovery work is to pay attention when these events take place. The next step is to decide if I actually need to take action and then to figure out when.

I’ve just spent a gentle yet powerful weekend with the shining beauty of two soul sisters. It was the alchemy of our combined energies which resonated from the call of this mandala. So I listened, I took immediate action and this happened. I had the video equipment already set up to record the creation of a bonus lesson for The Great Round of Mandala, so I used it to record this instead.

Mandala making has become an integral part of my integration of self. Where I might struggle to get to the bottom of things with my written journaling practice, the process of making art in this way – images only for myself – comes easily and with great meaning. With each magic circle, I experience great personal growth and understanding comes to me from a deeper, more powerful source.

I’m gaining more confidence each month – personally and in my business. I’m way less concerned with what my image looks like and massively more invested in the process and the messages it contains.  Not only has my art journaling process evolved and improved, I’ve been using it to help creatively plan my business!

Unleash your own magic!

The wonderful news is, I’m not alone. Feedback from the Great Round of Mandala students backs up my experience. It’s been so good that even although I closed subscriptions for the course back in February, I’ve decided to offer Stages One – Four of the Great Round as a pack (Season One) for a limited time period.

If you’re interested, visit The Great Round of Mandala web page for full details, including more feedback like this;

I think people should know how much time, energy, investigation, openness and sharing you put into each lesson, not just the material but the preparation you do before hand. ~ Nicola

Quote the special offer code (you can find it on the Mandala page, next to the Buy Now link) and I’ll send you a full colour limited edition print of my Cosmic Mandala* while stocks last!

* I’ve only made seventy-five prints of these available and will be adding them to my Etsy shop next week – don’t miss out

Life can be tough …

Perhaps our beautiful, heartfelt project is taking way too long to release to the world or an illness is grinding us  down. We might be experience sadness through our own loss or pain, or maybe we’re feeling the weight of someone else’s misfortune.

Feeling into any or all of these experiences means we’re practicing mindful awareness. It helps us identify and tackle any underlying issues.

But we can often get stuck somewhere in the tough places, where we keep probing as with our tongues on a mouth ulcer, exacerbating our wounds and inflating our  troubles.

Sometimes there is simply the matter of the fact of the situation and there’s nothing else to be done than to practice acceptance and ‘keep going.’

In that place of acceptance we might still find ourselves acting out our previous behaviours. We might be so used to not smiling or laughing that we forget to begin again.

The reality is that even though we might feel in the middle of a long slog, we can change how we feel about it in an instant. It is within our power. If we can think it, we can do it. It is our choice.

Choosing to reinstate our smile, to engage our laughter muscles and to get happy – even if just for an instant – will help see us move forward and it will help us heal. It’s our body’s internal pharmacy at play. It’s science and magic all in one.

Don’t just take my word for it;

Laughter is the best medicine

Study reveals laughter really is the best medicine

Laughter is good medicine for reducing stress, enhancing brain chemistry

If you need some help to get started, there is always You Tube and the laughing baby videos!

–ooOOOoo—

Have you downloaded your free guide to creating your own Found Inspirations practice? It’s so quick and easy, anyone can do it anywhere. But it’s powerful, too – and an ideal way to begin art journaling and get those creative juices flowing!

@juliegibbons Your technique definitely resonates with me. It came right at a time when I was searching for a daily practice, too. Thanks!

— kimswitzer (@kimswitzer) April 1, 2013

Would you like to share your journal word collages? Join us in the Found Inspirations Friday Flickr Group!

Don’t forget to use the hastags #foundinspirations and/or #foundinspirationsfriday if you’re sharing elsewhere.

About the image

You can download the image for non-commercial use, please remember to attribute it to Julie Gibbons.

You know sometimes you need to take a break from being social? You become almost entirely inward looking and it’s a real effort to pull out of your zone and engage with other folk. Eating and bathing may become somewhat of a chore – it isn’t that you stop doing them, it’s just they become entirely functional activities rather than pleasurable ones.

Your gaze very rarely strays past the place of soft focus you reach in waking meditation and when other people (including your nearest and dearest) approach you to engage in perfectly reasonably dialogue, you grow irritated and don’t behave as well as you might.

It’s usually only when I’m about to emerge from this stage that I notice I’m in it. That’s when I make the announcement to everyone, “I’m in hiding, processing stuff. Be back soon!” And that’s precisely the same moment that I am ready to come out of hiding and then I feel a bit of an eejit about announcing my hibernation at the same time as re-engaging!

A creative gestation

The really interesting bit is what follows the hibernation. I find it always involves something pretty major, birthed after what has turned out to be a surprising creative pregnancy. And yes, this happened to me this week and this morning, my ‘new baby’ dropped with aplomb into my lap, right in the middle of an entirely unrelated conversation.

A natural flow and ebb of creativity, I revel in it. Although it always amazes me – the whole process, how I find I only notice I’m in hibernation when I’m ready to emerge from it and what is birthed as a result.

Going public

When I commented amount this yesterday on the Julie Gibbons Creative Facebook page, I asked who else might experience the same. I was primarily interested in the pattern of it and whether the end result was a subtle change, or more obvious one.

It turns out that it can be both, although when the change feels incredibly humongous on the inside, it can often appear that very little has changed on the outside.

I have so many wonderful supporters there that I also received a great deal of love and support for my time in hibernation. I’m truly grateful for it – I think so many of us realise what an important experience it is – and that when we can, we should surrender to it.

But I hope to reassure everyone that all is well. I’m at peace with this process. To be honest, it excites me more each time I go through it. I love you for sending hugs, though. I truly value this community of spiritual, loving, creative souls to which I belong.

Journal prompts

• What does your creative ebb and flow manifest as?
• Can you learn to anticipate it better?
• What support do you need to give yourself to allow you to lean into it even more?

–ooOOOoo—

Have you downloaded your free guide to creating your own Found Inspirations practice? It’s so quick and easy, anyone can do it anywhere. But it’s powerful, too – and an ideal way to begin art journaling and get those creative juices flowing!

@juliegibbons Your technique definitely resonates with me. It came right at a time when I was searching for a daily practice, too. Thanks!

— kimswitzer (@kimswitzer) April 1, 2013

Would you like to share your journal word collages? Join us in the Found Inspirations Friday Flickr Group!

Don’t forget to use the hastags #foundinspirations and/or #foundinspirationsfriday if you’re sharing elsewhere.

About the image

You can download the image for non-commercial use, please remember to attribute it to Julie Gibbons.

Taking time out, somewhere different from our everyday – this is something I love to do and never seem to get enough of. Time out is so precious, it can be full of nothing and still full of treasure, don’t you find?

I took a week out with my family this spring. A different experience for each of us, I found great relief in being away from the laptop and (most of the time) my iPhone. Isn’t it so that a break from technology does us all good? (although you might have better luck convincing our teenager than we did!)

For me this trip was mostly about taking rest. Doing little. Just being. And by doing so, I found enough space – space to heal and for new ideas to venture into the gap, too.

Stoneleigh Abbey is certainly the most wonderful venue  to find some space (toggle on/off the sound on each of these videos separately):

And not just the outside space. Although I mainly rested, I did the teensiest wee bit of study:

The sun made an appearance for a few days, and He beat down some warm rays on my very special, sacred spot. I imagine this grove entirely populated by the Faerie when I’m not there:

When the teenager wasn’t gallivanting around London or staying with his friend locally, we managed some family fun. This ancient oak tree has intrigued us for many years so we decided to measure its girth – almost ten metres!:

We took the obligatory trip to Stratford upon Avon and crossed the river on the alleged last remaining chain ferry in the UK:

Don’t tell the boys, but I mostly enjoyed solitary meditations – either down on the river in the gazebo, or walking around the splendid gardens:

Back home and I’m already looking forward to my next planned getaways. What about you?

Making art is a magic conduit to your personal truth. It’s a mysterious process that us humans have yet to figure out, but we already know that it works.

The ancients knew it. It’s alchemical.

I’m not sure when we started to believe that art was valuable only when created by certain people – perhaps when we began to assign value on the product rather than the process.

The process of art making (art therapy) carries great value for everyone. In it lies the potential for new understanding and great healing. Sure, we can analyse the images afterwards (and therein lies some fantastic alchemy) but strip it right down into a present moment experience and we see we are actually experiencing magic.

Some of us meditate or pray. Some of us exercise. Others dance. There are those of us who play. Singers and sculptors, painters and poets – we are all opening up a gateway to a magic realm. It’s transformative – and it’s so fucking important that we do it.

That comes from somewhere deep down, not the logical part of me, but the visceral, wild and demanding shaman. The untamed sorceress who chooses circle, fire, dance and takes the mud from beneath her and smears it on her forehead.

Art boosts energetic mysteries. Everyone can do it. Drawing from within is entirely different from what they taught us in school. This is not about drawing what we see, it is about drawing who we are. It is organic, it is alive, there can be no right or wrong.

Do you wish to get closer to your whole self? Can you make art today?

Is there a Crayola laying about somewhere in your house? Take it and scribble out who you are today. Start with drawing circles, like you once did when you were but a babe. Follow your intuition. Lay aside judgement of the product. Feel into the experience. How does it make you feel? What thoughts are you thinking? Whose voice is in your head? How is your energy, now?

Still afraid to make art? Unconvinced about magic? Tell me why. Share your objection here. I want to understand.

–ooOOOoo—

Have you downloaded your free guide to creating your own Found Inspirations practice? It’s so quick and easy, anyone can do it anywhere. But it’s powerful, too – and an ideal way to begin art journaling and get those creative juices flowing!

@juliegibbons Your technique definitely resonates with me. It came right at a time when I was searching for a daily practice, too. Thanks!

— kimswitzer (@kimswitzer) April 1, 2013

Would you like to share your journal word collages? Join us in the Found Inspirations Friday Flickr Group!

Don’t forget to use the hastags #foundinspirations and/or #foundinspirationsfriday if you’re sharing elsewhere.

About the image

You can download the image for non-commercial use, please remember to attribute it to Julie Gibbons.

No art video this week – I’m on spring break – yay!

Here instead is something from the archives, that explains a wee bit of why the project came into existence:

The goddess that calls to me is in everyone – and everywhere. I see her when I look in the mirror. I see her lying all sparkly-like on a hospital bed. I see her when I check my Instagram feed, my Facebook profile, my email account. I see her in the post office, in the forest, in the night sky, at the cinema …

I don’t always call her a goddess. She certainly doesn’t go by just one name. I’m quite a practical gal – always have been. My beliefs are complex and myriad : the hubster calls me an initiate of the church of the cosmic uncertainty (totally made up church, a figment of his imagination).  I’d have trouble explaining to a skeptic what I really mean. Today, writing out my gratitude letter, I discovered this truth. And I just know it. From the very depths of my heart.

I believe in the divine and I see it every day. I see it in you. Right now.

Remember, you manifest the jewel in your existence with every breath, with every day you are alive. You are the lover, the process of loving and the beloved. ~ Deepak Chopra

I don’t believe tough love works.

I do believe love can sometimes be tough.

Two different things.

–ooOOOoo—

Have you downloaded your free guide to creating your own Found Inspirations practice? It’s so quick and easy, anyone can do it anywhere. But it’s powerful, too – and an ideal way to begin art journaling and get those creative juices flowing!

@juliegibbons Your technique definitely resonates with me. It came right at a time when I was searching for a daily practice, too. Thanks!

— kimswitzer (@kimswitzer) April 1, 2013

Would you like to share your journal word collages? Join us in the Found Inspirations Friday Flickr Group!

Don’t forget to use the hastags #foundinspirations and/or #foundinspirationsfriday if you’re sharing elsewhere.

About the image

You can download the image for non-commercial use, please remember to attribute it to Julie Gibbons.