This one is for my small business owners and those selling their wares.

As a business owner, I pride myself on my customer service, if I screw up, I apologize and do whatever I can do to make it right. But, sometimes I think companies get a little to big for their britches (yes, I know I am showing my age with that comment). 

Tonight I had the pleasure (being facetious here) of dealing with not one, but two courier companies. 

The first, who shall not be named (but may have the initials FE) left me a final delivery notice after a first attempt and then they take it to a depot literally 45 min drive from me. We share one car as we live downtown so it would be the weekend before I could go there to pick it up. So I call, I am told too bad, you have to go there. This was after 30 min on hold and every answer I gave had to be repeated 2 or 3 times (and I made sure to talk as slowly as possible because I know how difficult it can be in a call centre), after all this time, I lose...

This week it is Thanksgiving here in Canada.
It is also my partner’s birthday weekend.

What does Thanksgiving mean to you? What are your rituals and traditions?

Growing up Thanksgiving was the holiday with an eclectic mixture of people at our table. We didn’t really have much for family so my mother would often invite people home for dinner. People she worked with or friends. When I think of a Thanksgiving tradition that is what I think of.

But when I look at my Thanksgivings when I was raising my children yes it was having friends around the table but we also had specific things that needed to be on the table. Thanksgiving was turkey, mashed potatoes, broccoli rice casserole, and marshmallow salad (ambrosia). We added other things, but these items were always there.

But, I don’t remember having specific traditions around giving thanks to things we did that day. Those things would change each year, we usually spent the day cooking and visiting but we always gave thanks...

This week I get to spend time with Julia Cameron, the Author of The Artist’s Way. I am so excited that she is coming here to Edmonton on October 5th, to a sold out event. Luckily I bought my ticket back in March.  

I have facilitated her program on more than one occasion over the years and have another one starting in January. The Artist’s Way monthly meeting.

According to this New York Times article, Julia Cameron invented the way people renovate the creative soul, and I think I agree. Have you ever worked through The Artist’s Way spiritual Journey. Most of us have heard of morning pages or artist’s dates but don’t really know much about the whole journey.

The Artist’s way is 12 weeks (or modules) of self care, creativity and stepping out of your comfort zone. I have facilitated this program over the 12 weeks, but in January we will be starting a 12 month facilitated program. As I have found in our very busy...

It’s an exciting time of year to get your sketch on. This is an exciting annual challenge and a great one to get you back to, or starting your sketchbook. 

Don’t worry about how good you are, practice is what you need. Don’t judge yourself against others, only against where you were the day before or the drawing before. Like everything sketching take practice.

Take 5-10 min out of your day to sketch each day in October, you’ll be grateful you did. I would love it if you would share your sketches on our Facebook page Creative U, but if that scares you then share how it felt to do it, or what your process was, how you interpreted the prompt.

Have an Amazingly Creative Day,
Larissa 

Affirmations are statements that we tell ourselves in order to spark self-change. They are designed to alter our beliefs about ourselves such that they are more positive.

“It’s not what you say out of your mouth that determines your life, it’s what you whisper to yourself that has the most power.”   – Robert Kiyosaki

Affirmations are more than just a self-help statements to make ourselves feel better. They can have a significant impact on our overall quality of life. Regular affirmations allow us to become more in tune with our thoughts and the way we think about our self in general.

When we are conscious of our attitudes towards the self, we can make an effort to eliminate negative thoughts. When we become more aware of ourselves, we are able to be mindful of surrounding ourselves with positive things.

The more you practice the more you notice what aspects of your life are most important to you as well as things that may be hindering your happiness.

...

What is Gratitude?
World Leading scientific expert on gratitude, Robert Emmons, states that gratitude has two key components.

First,  “it’s an affirmation of goodness. We affirm that there are good things in the world, gifts and benefits we’ve received.

The second part of gratitude, he explains, “we recognize that the sources of this goodness are outside of ourselves” … We acknowledge that other people, or even higher powers if you’re of a spiritual mindset, gave us many gifts, big and small, to help us achieve the goodness in our lives.

Grat·i·tude
noun

1. the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.
   "she expressed her gratitude to the committee for their support"

So, why do we need it?
The Greater Good Science Center outlined several benefits of gratitude in a paper titled, “The Science of Gratitude” (2018).

• Increased happiness and positive mood
• More satisfaction with...

Three weeks ago we started with our ‘You can Heal your Life’ checklist and finding 3-5 key themes that are prevalent in our lives, basically what our issues or blocks are.  Two weeks ago we looked at Fear, Anger, & Possessiveness, and last week we looked at Resentment, Lack of Love, and Rejection/Abandonment.

Don’t forget to share how your journaling and reading are going. Have you read any great books lately? 

As a quick recap for those who are just joining us, if you go back to Aug 13, 2019 (3 weeks ago) we did a list of symptoms and where we hold our blocks in our body. And over the last couple of weeks we have been discussing some of those themes.

This week we will look at Controlling/Lack of Control, Frustration, & Anxiety and how we can work through those blocks in our life. This week we add Binaural Beats to help us heal.

See last week (Aug 27, 2019) for more information on Tapping. Two weeks ago (Aug 20, 2019) for more information on...

Two weeks ago we started with our ‘You can Heal your Life’ checklist and finding 3-5 key themes that are prevalent in our lives, basically what our issues or blocks are.  Last week we looked at Fear, Anger, & Possessiveness.

Let me know how your journaling and reading are going. Have you read any great books lately?

As a quick recap for those who are just joining us, if you go back to Aug 13, 2019 (2 weeks ago) we did a list of symptoms and where we hold our blocks in our body. Last week we started looking at some of those key themes, and we are continuing this week and into next week with more themes.

This week we will look at Resentment, Lack of Love, & Rejection/Abandonment and how we can work through those blocks in our life. Adding Tapping to our repertoire of healing techniques.

Tapping
Tapping, also known as EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), is a powerful holistic healing technique that has been proven to effectively resolve a range of issues, including...

Last week we started with our ‘You can Heal your Life’ checklist and finding 3-5 key themes that are prevalent in our lives, basically what our issues or blocks are.  So now, what do we do about them?

We have to actually look at them. So the first step in healing is being aware, but after awareness comes the work. Last week I mentioned starting with journaling. How many of you did this journaling work? 

“I highly suggest Journaling as the next step in your healing journey. Ask yourself how this makes you feel, really sit with it and write at least 3 pages  (or 10 min) on how you feel about each underlying theme that has come up in your list. Maybe it’s ‘fear’, write ‘Fear’ at the top of the page and fill three pages (or spend 10 min) with your thoughts on Fear in general, and also in yourself. Just free flow thought. “

I also recommended reading books on those specific topics of the themes that came up...

Louise Hay was a bestselling author and the founder of Hay House publishing. She wrote a book called ‘You can Heal your Life’. I often used used her book to work on specific issues I was having in my life. I would have a sore lower back and I would look in her book to see that equates to Fear of money or lack of financial support. And then I would work on that one issue journaling and meditating on it and doing my affirmations and it might go for a bit but it would pop back up or something else would take its place with a similar underlying blockage or story.

More recently I started to do this check in with myself and my students. Checking in to see where you are at and what you need to work on. This is more of a big picture as opposed to getting stuck in individual issues we may have.

Using Louise Hay’s “You Can Heal Your Life” we will determine 3-5 key themes in your health and what those symptoms are trying to tell you.

First step: Go through the...