A guide to (re)learning cyclical living through your menstrual cycle

A guide to cyclical living through menstrual cycle awareness
www.instagram.com/kamala_creations

Through patriarchal shaming of women, a drive for results and productivity we have forgotten how to listen to our bodies. We have lost our cyclical nature as menstruating people. This guide will provoke a new type of living in line with your fluctuating energy throughout your menstrual cycle.

A woman’s body is an intricate system of shifting of moods and energy. We are cyclical beings and have the potential to grow life within us. It’s pretty incredible when you think about it. 

There is a space within us which plants seeds, holds and births life and is also our forgotten super power. A power center with the ability to release and transform so much in our lives.

But we have forgotten about this space as women. Thanks to the tyranny of patriarchal religion, which demonized all things woman and painted us as the original sinners. This has been used as a way to shame us and as a tool of control. For generations periods have been considered sinful, unclean and something to hide. 

A lack of education

Most of us are incredibly disconnected from our wombs. We haven’t been taught about them and the transformational power that is at the tips of our fingers. Many women I have spoken to share the same story of not really being taught about it at school. Heck, in my school our teacher didn’t teach us about putting a condom on because he was too embarrassed.

Relearning about our cyclical nature

There is a huge shift that happens when we learn to listen to our innate cycles. When we connect to our body and listen to the subtle messages that she gives us. It’s like an aha moment when everything clicks into place. We come back into a deep inner knowing within ourselves. (I totally had to throw a Deep Inner Knowing reference in there. This was the space where I started my journey into women’s work understanding of our menstrual cycles.)

When we heal our relationship with our cycles we are creating space to learn about our own inner guidance system. Understanding our intuition and fluctuating energy throughout the month gives us a view point of life from a different lens. Healing your relationship with your cycle allows this knowledge to be passed on to our future daughters and sons of what it means to be a woman with a menstrual cycle. 

Stop the stigma around same and start the conversation

Now I know to alot of people this can be quite a daunting and taboo subject. Many of us have been taught that our menstrual cycle and bleeding is a dirty, shameful thing. 

I can only imagine what it must be like to have your cycle cause you so much pain every month.

I invite you to do your own research into the power of the menstrual cycle with an open heart. There may be elements that could help you reframe how you think of your own cycle. Check the bottom of the post for some resources. You may find your own nuggets of gold within them. 

Menstrual cycles, the moon and magic

Have you ever heard of your menstrual cycle being referred to as the moon cycle? Well there’s a good reason for this. Just as the moon’s light changes in the sky, she sends messages to our hypothalamus and pituitary glands within the brain. This triggers hormonal release within the body and encourages our bodies to move through the cycle of menstruation. 

The moon has a cycle, the earth has her seasonal cycles and we too as women have our own cycle too.

The moon is the original time keeper and when we remember our connection to her and the earth we remember our connection to our own inner ecosystem. 

We are one and the same. 

The sacred retreat 

It is important to remember that in ancient times women would often separate themselves during their moon time. Red Tents would be set up for women who were bleeding to be able to come together. (In my ebook ‘A woman’s guide to cyclical livingyou can read more about romanticizing of red tents and both the bad history of them and the repatterning of them into an empowering space for women)

Let go of the unpredictability and regain control

It can feel like you’re being thrashed around by an unpredictable storm. With waves of emotions and energy ebbing and flowing as a woman. 

When you understand the different phases of your cycle, you will have a deeper understanding for your shifts in moods. This is due to an awareness of your fluctuating energies throughout the month. You will learn to recognise your cyclical changes depending on what phase of the cycle you’re in. You will understand your trigger points, what best serves your fluctuating energy and feel more in control of your life. 

It won’t feel like an unpredictable storm. It will be a (semi) predictable cycle where you get to learn about yourself and how you move through life. 

This knowledge is wisdom. 

Tracking your cycle paired with menstrual journaling allows you to look back on previous cycles. This helps you to identify recurring themes, emotional reactions and trigger points. We’re certain things, experiences or situations that put you into a state of overwhelm? Where did you have the most energy for being sociable? When did you need some downtime?

Doing this will increase your level of emotional literacy which is pivotal to nurturing your wellbeing. Not only that but it allows you to put boundaries in place for things that aren’t working well for you. You can thank your pre menstrual, autumnal phase for this.

Keep your eyes peeled for the next blog which is all about:

THE DIFFERENT SEASONS OF OUR CYCLES.

Make sure to share this blog with your friends, sisters and mothers. 

Resources

**Please note Affilliate Links are used within this blog. I only recommend products I use personally. No Spam here!

The Secret To Reconnecting To Your Cycle

Cyclical living for women, menstrual cycle awareness

Did you know its possible to live in sync with your cycle and utilise it as a navigational guide through your menstruating years?

We have been taught that the menstrual cycle puts you in a state of deficit where it will cause you problems, its dirty and its something to be hidden. There is a HUGE taboo and stigma around menstruation that dates back literally hundreds of years. A stigma that can still be felt today in so many cultures. There is a cultural narrative which distracts women from connecting to your physiology and biochemical nature.

We have been taught to look after our bodies in a constant manner. To exercise at the same level throughout the month, to eat the same things through out the month and that our energy will be at the same level throughout the month. Diets are heavily studied on men and marketed to women which don’t take into account your bodies cyclical process.

The thing is as women we don’t work in a 24 hour cycle which men do.

We work on a 28-30 (Approximately) cycle.

We are cyclical beings with four distinct phases of your cycle which energy levels go through a distinct cyclical current. Each phase of your cycle has different qualities, strengths and weaknesses as well as a different impact on your mental, spiritual, emotional, physical health.

By working with your cyclical nature and tweaking the the foods you eat, the way you move your body, when you socialise, when you rest, the way you show up in relationships and even the way you run your business you can start to work WITH your cyclical nature, rather than it happening TO you. You start to work with your nature and optimise your energy throughout the month so its balanced rather than hitting burnt out and overwhelm on a regular basis.

In the video below I share a simple and effective teaching on reframing your cycle. If you would like to know more go check out the The Embodied Cycles Collection that is now live in the shop. A Woman’s Guide To Cyclical Living eBook and Integration Journal is a powerful resource and starting point for women to learn about your cycle. You will learn the basics on your fluctuating hormones, energy levels throughout the month with whole heap of self care and wellness practices and prompts in the Integration Journal so that you can implement what you learn and dive in straight away.


THE EMBODIED CYCLES COLLECTION: A journey to coming back home

Art Vlog: A Day In The Life

Artist Vlog: A day in the life

Hey Lovelies,

Today I am super excited to share with you a snippet into my world as an artist, illustrator and mother running a small creative business.
I don’t know about you but I absolutely LOVE hearing peoples stories and journeys. When I was at university travelling & working at festivals I met so many people and was fascinated about their creativity, what they did, what they made and all that jazz. I loved getting to know them better, it was inspiring and I met people with such a diverse range of skills, interests and dreams for life. So I would like to share with you a bit of my journey of starting my business so that you can get to know me too!

University & Documenting my journey through J.EM.M.
Kamala Creations was actually started whilst I was in university under the guise of J.E.M.M (Jules’ Emporium of Magical Makings). It was a way to document all the many arts and crafts, projects and DIY’s I did at university, events and festivals (I was studying creative arts and events management at the time).
After moving back up to Yorkshire and changing universities I met my gorgeous man and when I had graduated I moved up to Northumberland with him. I took some time to decompress after my partying and mad lifestyle as a student to really ground, find my roots and figure out what I wanted to do next.

As I was journeying this self discovery phase I decided to rename J.E.M.M. to a name that felt more aligned with my vision and values for my creative business. Kamala means lotus flower in sanscrit and lotuses bloom from muddy waters to become beautiful flowers. I believe this is representative of the journey we go through as humans into the wasteland of shadow work, limiting beliefs and past experiences. When we do the work be it self help, courses, training or therapy of whatever kind, we are able to move through the wasteland into a more lighter space to be able to live life to its fullest. I believe we have a responsibility to work on ourselves when the time is right for us so that we can get the most out of life. I say this because my sister was taken from us at the age of 13 and the impact of that on my family has made me strive to make the most of life.

Anyhow, because I was in a space of exploring what spirituality meant to me as well as working on personal development, I found that it fused into my creative process. I found a form of creative expression that fused with my journey to get to know myself. Mandala’s & Zentangle Art became my meditative art practice that grounded me, that soothed my soul.

Something I was seeing pop up online was all these people travelling the world whilst running businesses. Giving them freedom and flexibility to live life on their own terms and giving them the opportunity to explore. I wanted a bit of that and so I made the decision to learn all that I could so that I could one day work from home running my own business to allow me to live life on my own terms too.

Using my skills as a Virtual Assistant

In 2018, after experiencing some incredibly intense panic attacks I decided to start a cleaning business whilst I built up my Virtual Assistant services. I had studied events management at university and had been learning about web design on WordPress, Social Media Management & Strategy and blogging I started offering my services as a VA supporting online businesses online with the behind the scenes admin that keeps businesses ticking over.

Now three years later I work as a Virtual Assistant supporting women running online businesses with course creation, social media management, website and blog maintenance. This is the bread and butter of my business and allows me to take the pressure off needing my art to create an income. I get the best of both worlds where I get to support businesses and geek out on strategy, planning and admin whilst also learning the skills to develop the products side of my business. Wahooo!

Running a business & Motherhood
My business has allowed me to work from home, flexibly around being a mother to an energetic little toddler, Jasper. He keeps me on my toes that’s for sure. Now I work 2 days a week whilst he is at the childminders and I spread my working days between client work and building the creative side of my business. I do my business research/learning as well as client work in an evening if I have deadlines and try not to work weekends but if you’re a mum you’ll know that you have to take time when you can if your running a business. Sometimes I need to work on a weekend to catch up on work, it also gives my man and son some good father/son time too.

In the vlog I share with you a sneaky peak into my working day. I have shared with you a few of the planners I used to manage my client work and tasks and how I start my day to ensure that I make the most of it. If your keen on photography or are a business yourself I have shared my flatlay photography process with a cool background hack I recently learned. I use this style of photography for any traditionally created art I make in my art journals, hand drawn mandalas and abstract work. For those who are looking into digital illustration I share with you the tablets I use, I found an INCREDIBLE app that is not appreciated by the world enough. Its a great (and affordable) alternative to procreate on the iPad.

If your looking for some tips to help you get into the creative zone check out the blog I wrote HERE

Photography Hacks, Digital Illustration tablets & Planners for business owners

If you have got this far, have read the whole blog AND the vlog you’re amazing and I really appreciate that you have taken time to view the content I create for you lovely lot. I create it all with the intention to inspire others to create a life that’s nourishing and to connect with that playful child within and make some messy artwork!
If you would like to support my work further you can like/share/comment and subscribe to my YouTube Channel! Its a great FREE way to support my lil biz!

Feel free to pop me a message if you have any questions or would like to know more about anything I have spoken about in the vlog!

Big love,

Tools for combatting Imposter Syndrome, Comparison-itis

Hey lovely ones,
I hope your all doing well.

I recently came across a post in an Indie Biz Community group I am part of. It was from a woman who was feeling called to really step into being an illustrator. The thing that was wobbling her was this notion of being self taught illustrator/creative somehow meant that she wasn’t a “real” illustrator. 

The community is incredible and everyone rallied round with beautiful comments of support. Many of us are self taught creatives and shared our journey of learning how to own the titles we give ourselves within our businesses.

It inspired me to share a bit about my journey and reflections on imposter syndrome and comparison-itis, which lets face it we have all experienced at some point. 

When you start a business and as your side hustle grows you will probably find that you will start showing your little business in the sphere of social media. Social media is an incredible tool for sharing your work and Social Media Marketing is a huge part of many small business owner’s marketing strategies (check me out with my fancy terminology don’t I sound all professional! haha). It takes a lot of work alongside the pieces you create to create content for the many different channels you can promote your work through. 

When I started my adventure into self discovery I remember shedding layers and finding the courage to step outside of my comfort zone and share my work. It can be an incredibly vulnerable thing to share your work with the world as a creative. You often put your heart and soul into your creations and the process can be quite personal, so putting it out there for all to see can make you feel quite in the spotlight. 

When you start your different social media channels you are stating yourself as an artist or illustrator or whatever it is that you do.  Giving ourselves these titles can be quite a huge step. 

Finding Stillness by Jules @Kamala_Creations

As someone who is completely self taught in illustrating, graphic design (bar some experience from high school) it felt like I couldn’t really call myself these things as I wasn’t formally trained. To be honest I don’t believe that you need a degree to give ourselves these titles. I know many people who have spent years committed to their practice and because of that they are incredible artists. Studying these subjects is an extremely helpful process and we will be taught techniques and be able to explore different styles but really it comes down to practice. With the internet at our fingertips we can literally find anything we want to learn on places like YouTube or through artists who are offering online classes and courses.  

The thing is it’s not always an easy ride. Putting ourselves out there on the internet and showing our faces can be quite a process. Self doubt can kick in and we can start feeling like a bit of an imposter against all the other people we see with their slick ass branding and on point content. The thing is even the best art techniques and training won’t help you outrun confidence issues. It’s a struggle that many creatives will come up against. Your confidence issues can cause you to question yourself even more if you see likes and follows on social media pages as a validation point for how worthy and good we feel about your work. And trust me I have been there too. 

The thing is imposter syndrome isn’t based on reality. It’s based on a perception we have and our mental mind chatter. It’s your mind running with fear and going wild of negative thoughts and self doubt. 

As creatives (and humans in general) looking after our mental and emotional wellbeing should be a top priority. I am a big believer in living life to its fullest and equipping our emotional wellbeing toolkit with practices to help us move through emotions rather than holding onto them.

Before I go into some tools you can use to help move through imposter syndrome I need to address the issue of comparisonitis. Something that you will most likely be feeling alongside imposter syndrome. 

There’s no way that being on social media as a small business owner or creative hasn’t made you compare yourself to other people who look like they’re doing “better” than you. People who maybe have more followers or likes and comments than you. Or maybe you think your work is rubbish in comparison to theirs. 

So what can you do to shift imposter syndrome and comparisonitis?

The first thing I will say about comparisonitis is stop judging your level of experience against another person’s level. You have no idea what background or journey that person has been on and it’s more than likely that they compare themselves against other people too! 

Be inspired by other artists. Something I have learnt with comparisonitis is that as soon as you notice your mood drop, a negative thought or a judgement come into your head then you need to stop scrolling on social media. When you look at peoples work look at it for inspiration not as a judgement piece to drag yourself down. What can you learn from that person’s work, are there elements that you would like to incorporate into your own work?

Here are 3 ways you can shift imposter syndrome:

Change your space.Step away from your work, take a break and do something different. Go for a walk, put your favourite music on and dance. Shifting your space is incredibly important when we go into a negative emotional state. Our energy gets stagnant and we end up in this loop of self doubt and dullness. Anytime I feel in a funk and hear the inner critic enter my mind I stop. 

Use Emotional Clearing. This is an incredible tool I use regularly for shifting emotions. Emotional Clearing is a method of using kinesiology and muscle testing to clear emotions from our body. Dane Thomas is the creator of this incredible modality and has trained hundreds of people to become Spiral Practitioners who use this method of emotional clearing. He has created a free video series explaining how to use emotional clearing and has also written a book on it called Clear Your Shit which goes into all the different clears you can do. I highly recommend getting on the videos and reading the book as it is an incredibly powerful tool. 


You can do emotional clearing on a variety of things from statement clears like “I’m Okay with feeling like an imposter in my work” and “I’m not okay with feeling like an imposter in my work”. It’s important when you do a statement clear you clear both sides, being okay and not being okay. 

Become a risk taker. Fear is a natural human instinct it tells you to stand back from the cliffe edge or run from danger. It is trying to keep you safe. We have to really work on ourselves in our fear state to be able to shift it. 

The thing is fear can propel us into incredible opportunities. The problem is when it keep you from doing the things you really want to do. You know, those things that would make your art and business level up. 

Being safe isn’t always the best place to be. The fear that we have when imposter syndrome kicks in is not fear for our safety it’s actually a fear of failure. We don’t want to leave our little bubble of comfort and be seen failing in front of others. 

To get past fear we have to become more acquainted with the idea that failure isn’t the end of the world. 

So take those risks and put your work out there. Not for anyone else but yourself. Use putting it out there as a way to document it for yourself. 

Create a celebrations box for yourself. As artists and entrepreneurs you have a responsibility to acknowledge and celebrate your own successes. 

Next time you create a piece of work that you’re proud of or you sell a piece of your work write down the accomplishment and how it made you feel. Keep it in a little box so that you can pick yourself back up when you need it. 

So remember that you are worthy, your work is good enough and the great thing is that there is alway’s new things to learn. 

When you find yourself spiraling into self doubt, judgement and comparisonitis, step away. 

Celebrate all the little wins, all the pieces you create, all the sales you make and complements you get about your work. Celebrate it all!

I hope that something through what I have shared with you has landed. 

Wishing you a beautiful day.

All my love,

Jules

Finding Balance

Finding balance in motherhood

With everything that’s going on in the world It seemed best to take a slow and gentle approach to the start of 2021.

Here in the UK it’s still going to be a while till we find a new normal and so I decided to take my time and continue the retreat through January.

Working with the seasons like this is a great way to bring more flow into your life. Winter = Retreat time!

One of the biggest lessons I had last year was trying to do too much.
It was my first year being a mum back at work again and running a business as well as trying to keep on top of everything else.
Often I found myself taking on everything which created more tension and frustration within me. Really what I should have been doing is asking for help.

Because that’s the thing right, as mums we find ourselves pulled in so many directions that often it can feel easier to try and do it all ourselves. When really this is a recipe for disaster. We can’t work from a burnt out space. It just won’t work. We need elements of release factored into our time so that we can unwind and re-energise ourselves.

I know for me that because I didn’t factor in these times as much as I should have been doing that I became a ticking time bomb ready to explode. 

Thankfully I have a great partner that more often than not knows me better than I do myself. He regularly called me out and put his foot down that I NEEDED to take some time out.

So this year I have decided to optimise my time, make self care practices my priority and to ask for help when I need it.

Finding balance in Motherhood and the hats we wear takes daily tinkering.
Some days move with ease, some can be a challenge. Children bring an element of chaos to life, especially when they’re little. This means that if we have big goals set for our day and they’re going through something like a growth spurt, an illness or maybe teething can throw a spanner in the works. The amount we could do one day suddenly goes to pot and requires us to drop our expectations, some days that may look like dropping everything so that we can solely focus on our children when they need us.

One thing I have found is that when things just aren’t working and our children are wanting our attention it is best to stop trying to force something that isn’t going to work. If we push we will find ourselves in a space of tension and forcefully trying to do something. When we push we come up against more resistance. When we let go you will probably find that you have a really beautiful experience of focused attention solely on your little one/s. And well, that will do wonders for the both of you.

So what are on my list of priorities when it comes to self care and things that nourish me?

Firstly it’s art. Art brings me into a space of flow and that feeling of flow allows the prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain that rationalising things, making decision processing information) to go dark. This means the mind is then free to act in new ways, reach new conclusions and function beyond the disparaging voice of our inner critic. As a result, the mind adopts a novel, childlike perspective which produces associations and conclusions that are daring, innovative and courageous. Basically it allows your mind to quieten and allow time to slip away and get really present in the moment.

Second is Journaling. Journaling allows me to express the messiness of my monkey mind. I find that my mind is so active that sometimes I need to be able to brain dump it somewhere. This helps me to get it out and let it go. I also use an art journal where I use papers and other bits from around my house to make messy journal spreads which I cover with whatever musings are coming to me at the time. I find it really therapeutic.

Third is Meditation. Meditation is another practice that allows me to step out of my monkey mind and learn to find quiet within. I say practice because it is a daily practice and something that I am forever learning to improve. I do really love the guided meditations that take you on a journey through visualisations. They’re like travelling within my mind!

A few others include having bubble baths, reading and getting out in nature is a big one for me, although I haven’t been getting out as much as I should/would like to be doing.

So yeah, this is my musings on finding balance in motherhood and creating self care practices that nurture me and nourish me as a woman and mother.

I’d love to hear what your making a priority this year?

Big love, 

Jules xo

A permission piece: Owning my Witchywoo

Claim all layers of yourself

Last year I had a couple of really juicy conversations with dear friends of mine and each sparked something in me. One sister I spoke to mentioned her visioning experiences and learnings that she feels are along her lifepath. With another sister  I had expressed a feeling of uncertainty and direction in where I wanted to go with my offerings. I expressed that I find that I’m a dabbler in many things and because of this there seems to be no clear niche. She posed to me a couple of questions.  

Where do all the things I do meet? 

And

Who do I want to be?

 These are pretty profound questions and moved me into a space of reflection.

My trusty tool to explore these questions was my journal.  I love a blank page in my journal to be able to move through my inner landscape and open up space for the new. 

I found myself going round and around, answering the question of who do I want to be over and over again. It brought me to a place of having some quite profound realisations.  

I realised that there’s a side of myself needs more space to be expressed, to be heard and to be seen.  She’s the part of myself that is philosophical and loved to explore the metaphysical by going beneath the surface to explore the inner workings of herself.  She loves to explore emotions, beliefs, behaviours and her triggers.  She likes breaking them down, getting to the root of them and clearing them so that she can be a more fully expanded version of herself. She strives to bring more magic into her life.  Creating ritual and sacred space to go within. 

This layer of myself is who I call my witchy woo. 

I am giving her space to express and to be seen.

We all need a bit more magic, creativity and healing in our lives and my witchy woo woo is all for that!

Art Journaling process around claiming my Witchywoo @kamala_creations

My witchy woo has taken me on a profound journey over the last 5 years. She followed her curiosity and joined women in circles for deep processes working with the moon and menstrual cycles. She took me on a healing journey through The Spiral and Pelvic Bowl Activations with Deep Inner Knowing & Vela Souls. She even got qualified as a Reiki Master (though she has never really shared this). Over the past five years this journey of expansion and evolution that I have been on thanks to my witchy woo  has allowed me to create a toolkit of wellness and healing practices that nourish me to my core. This tool kit brings me back into alignment and grounds me so that I can fully express myself. Where I can dip into different modalities of emotional clearing, embodiment and shadow work to traverse the mucky stuff that inevitably comes up in life.

The thing is, I often find myself dimming down my interests in metaphysical and spiritual practices even if some are now more common like meditation, yoga and tarot. There has still been a sort of embarrassment of being judged for being a bit wacky. What I have come to see is  that when I dim this down in my posts and blogs that actually I am dimming down a part of my personality. I am dimming down myself,  which is not okay. 

So here I am claiming my witchy woo. She makes me feel unbelievably connected and gives me full permission to listen to my inner guidance system. When I listen to her I have the most fulfilling nourishing experiences that really refuel me. My witchywoo brings me into the most authentic version of myself over and over again and for that I am thankful. Because of my Witchywoo I have the most incredible relationships with people in my life and feel really connected to the fact that I feel I am living my life to its fullest.

So here is your permission piece. If there was one message I would like to get across to you through sharing what I have learned from my witchywoo is don’t play down a part of yourself, OWN IT. It might be one of your strongest and most incredible elements that make up you. 

Here is a couple of journal prompts to get you going:

Is there something that you do that makes you feel so good but you hide it from others?

What is it? How does it make you feel?

Why do you think you may hide it from the others? 

If you were to own that part of yourself with no judgement how would it make you feel?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. 

Big love,

Jules xo

Inner Union by Jyoti Imix Ryder

Inner Union, masculine and feminine

This is a transmission shared by my beautiful friend and sister Jyoti. Here she writes beautifully about the inner union of the masculine and feminine energies which we each hold within us.

(Jyoti and I have formed a beautiful friendship over the years. We both expanded out at similar times and our paths started crossing more and more. I have so much love for this woman and each time we see each other again its like nothing has ever changed. Its one of those friendships (the best kind). More information on what Jyoti does and her current offerings are at the bottom of the blog.)

INNER UNION

Its time for us to unite
Our inner energies
To access Christ consciousness
The activation of the masculine and feminine qualities & energies within us
The embodiment of the teachings of Jesus and Mary Magdalene
The Awakened Human Heart
There is a King and Queen inside of us
An inner man
And an inner woman
That combined create a sovereign self
We can be all that we dream of
To ourselves
And for ourselves
I would argue that ONLY THEN
Can we possibly truly ‘meet’ another on the external
And be of service to one another without agenda
We were taught
That men are this way
And women are that
Men have these qualities
And women have those
Which taught us to deny half of our selves
Or feel utterly lost in the human experience
Missing out on the stoking of certain qualities
And causing us to search for them outside of ourselves

For instance yesterday
My dear sis and I
Celebrated ourselves CONSTANTLY
As we followed a magical map
Across the moors in Ilkley
On our own
Without signs or marked paths
We’d both been taught
That a man was bestowed with the qualities needed to navigate

And had snoozed at the wheel following the narrative
But ALAS dear family
We are being asked
Pushed
Dragged
Gloriously forced
To rise into our wholeness
To know ourselves
Hold ourselves in our storms
Comfort ourselves in our heaviness
Celebrate ourselves in our glory
Forgive ourselves in our shadow dances
Pleasure ourselves in our sexuality
Steady ourselves in our uncertainty
Motivate ourselves to strive and claim
Call bullshit on ourselves when we’re being daft
And shower ourselves in the love we so deserve
When we can embody what we seek externally in another
We come home
We access our power
We find the Glory of God within
We clear the distortions
And can step into our fullness
This time on the planet
Is really revealing to us where we abandon our power

Where we abandon ourselves
The way that we project our authority outward
And seemingly always have done
Victims of this and that and the other

NA MATE
WE ARE THE CREATORS

But only we can claim our power
Nobody is gonna give it to us
The whole human process is about us feeling worthy and powerful enough
To let our booty and being rest in the creative throne
Of the Kingdom of our Life
The King and Queen embody all the other archetypes
We’ve been taught again and again that we are pawns
But the reality is that in this chess game
We are every single piece
And both players
The claiming of our inner sovereignty
And activating the powerful archetypes within
Is our doorway
To the claiming of our throne
Each one of us on our own throne
(BU BYE HIERARCHY)
Is the potential of this Earth Humanity dance
And where all the crazy shit in our individual lives and our collective reality
Is attempting to guide us to
We are creating it all
And when we truly step out of victim consciousness
By claiming our whole selves
We get to steer the ship of reality
A couple of days ago
I experienced a blissful inner union marriage ritual
My inner woman and man
Committed to one another
Through vows, song and ceremony
And it was beyond all I could possibly have imagined before
Immediately the distortions I’ve held
Around men and masculinity
Came bubbling upppp
My feminine wobbled like FUCK
But I called to my inner man
And of course, he answered immediately
I was steadied from within
It was beyond profound
And a truly magical experience
If you want to start to develop your inner relationship
Just set the intention
And follow your intuition
Play with it
Take yourself on the date that you’d love to go on
Feel into what you’d like to give and to receive
Be all the things you’ve dreamed ‘they’ would be
And watch yourself come to life

An interesting thing to explore is the location of Mars and Venus in your birth chart
This gives a flavour of the two aspects of your being…
It’s all within us
All we have to do is claim it
And know that we are deserving to do so.
Written by Jyoti Imix Ryder

Jyoti is skilled mystical coach and teacher. She supports individuals to rise into wholeness with her gentle, powerful and unconditionally loving presence. Working with her spirit team as a multi-dimensional channel, her superpowers are around activation and harmonisation.
Practicing Reiki for over a decade, and teaching it for over 4 years, she is an experienced and embodied guide. Receiving initiations in Bali, India, Australia, the America’s and the UK, the flavour of her space holding has been inspired by teachers across the world and throughout the dimensions. piercing through space/time and all aspects of the human experience.
Her human life has been filled with life/death/rebirth cycles and the transformation of trauma has brought her abilities into fruition. She lives the Human Experience fully and has shed the shame cape that kept her ancestors lights dimmed.

CELEBRATING A SISTER
This woman is MAGIC! Honestly I cannot sing louder about the potent healing, space holding and friendship I have experienced with Jyoti. We moved through similar circles in our student years and then as we both dived inwards we started showing up in each others circles again, this time in a deeply healing and connected way. I remember at the beginning of my inner expansion as I was journeying an online women’s circle that I was craving in person women’s circles. And so it was, Jyoti invited me to her womb circle and it was just the medicine I was yurning for. Fused with ritual, intention, safe space holding, connection, and inner journeying working with Jyoti developed working on deep work together with her as the facilitator. This nurtured our friendships into one where you don’t see each other for a while but when you do OHHHHH how the room lights up with deep connections and listening to each others recent experiences.

Jyoti is currently promoting her Seven Heavens Ecstatic Dance Session which runs from the 1st-7th January 8-10pm.
Jyoti is a trained 5 Elements Dance Practitioner and has an incredible collection of music to assist you in your ecstatic dance journey.

WHAT YOU WILL RECEIVE:
7x Online Ecstatic Dance Ceremonies Recorded and emailed for those unable to attend live
Over 10 hours of Music On Playlists you can access FOREVER
A Ceremonial Container
Supporting you to RISE
Tribal Sharing with Soul Family
Channelling from Sirius
Astrological Insights
And powerful guidance supporting you to TRULY embody 
As we cross the bridge together into 2021
ACTIVATED AND ALIVE
WWW.JYOTIOFFERINGS.COM/SEVENHEAVENS

Art Process: Mixed Media Whimsical Portraits

One of the types of art I have always loved is mixed media and portraits. But honestly, I have avoided portraits for a very long time due to fear of not being good enough. Well when I found Tamara Laporte I enrolled on her free art class that you can find on her website. Which taught you how to paint portraits of these whimsical characters!! They’re colourful, bold, floaty, dreamy with big eyes and cute little details.

Continue reading

How to get into a creative space

A beautiful way to start your art

Sometimes it can be really difficult to get into the swing of making the piece of art that you’ve wanted to create for a while.

There you are in front of your canvas/paper/computer ready to start and you just go blank. All the day’s thoughts over take the creative process, you start thinking about what other things you need to do. Then the inner critic arrives feeding you negative thoughts trying to distract you from making the thing.

Overall it becomes a really bloody stressful and frustrating experience, then of course you can’t be bothered to create your art, because you’re not in the right frame of mind to create it.

I have done this a million times. Or alternatively I think of all the other things I could be doing except creating that piece I’ve been planning on for god knows how long.

Yes it’s true, creativity isn’t something that is there all the time, and you have to nurture it.

You have to be gentle with it, be kind to it, ease it out and create space for it that it will thrive in.

I recently was listening to a book called Keys to the kingdom by Alison Armstrong: Celebrating men, satisfying women. If you haven’t read it, I totally recommend it. It’s about how to create beautiful loving PARTNERSHIPS with men. In it Alison describes a transition period that men go through when they change from one environment to another. This could be a man coming home from work. She describes the transition period where a man needs 30 minutes or so to let go of being in work mode to being at home mode. In this period he goes inside himself, he is usually quiet, he might spend 20 minutes reading a paper and getting changed then suddenly he is in a space where he wants to connect and chat.

This got me thinking, it’s the same with creativity. We can’t just stride into the art room and suddenly be able to create.

We have to set the scene.

We have to get in the head space.

This is where I have developed a beautiful, yet simple practice to help me get into the creative spirit before putting pen to paper, brush to canvas.

I love scent and so often use sage to smudge (basically waft sage smoke around) the space I am creating in whilst setting intentions out loud. This may be a little woo woo for some people and that’s cool if it’s not down your street. There is lots of ways you can make a practice for creating your art space.

My main practice is through visualisation and having an inner dialogue with myself. 

My practice

  • Light any incense or diffuse/burn any essential oils that make you feel good (obviously safety is key people!)
  • Sit in front of your canvas paper and close your eyes
  • Bring your attention to your breath, deepen each breath so that it sinks deeper into your belly. Belly breathing is the best and is a great way to get out of your head and into your body.
  • Once you have settled into your belly breathing start set an intention for the creative journey you about to embark on and the piece you are about to create.
    • Examples of Intentions could be:
      • I open this space to allow my creativity to flow
      • During this hour of creating I will be focused and not allow my mind to wander
      • I set this space to enjoy the creative process
      • In this time I will make a good start on this creative piece
      • I am grateful for the ability to make art
      • I will have fun making this piece of art
  • Now see if you can visualise the piece you are going to create, imagine yourself feeling really happy with the end result, letting go of your inner critic.
  • Take a few more deep belly breaths
  • Slowly open your eyes and adjust back into the space
  • Start your piece of art feeling happy and in the zone.

I have found that taking this time to set intentions and come back into my body through breathing really helps me get focused and end up being really productive.

A good idea is to set a certain amount of time aside for creating, when it’s up take a break. Step away from your piece and do something else. Then come back to it. I know for me that if I work for too long on the same piece I can end up feeling foggy in the head and then it just ends up really frustrating to create.

I hope this helps and inspires you.

I’m really interested in hearing other people’s creative practices to help them get in the zone of making their art..!!

With Love,