Healing

A few years ago I began to AWAKEN to concept that it is a healing journey we are all on. A remembering and embracing of WHOLENESS of self.

I believe that this healing directs us to our higher purpose + if we choose we will begin to remember (open to infinite memory) to access our unique roadmap...

Although I sometimes take the scenic loop road before I get back on the path, all is as it should be, because the map evolves...

The healing map I hold has been leading me to share the transformation that occurs when we CREATE SPACE INTENTIONALLY.

The Lenses I use on this journey are INTERIORS, IMAGINATION + INSPIRATION: from decluttering to decor, from being a listening ear to carving out time for art, from sharing to receiving on so many levels.

Healing is always a personal journey and it envolves all of us; the mind, the body, and the spirit.

Healing Involves:

• Regeneration - recovering faith in self.

• accepting ourselves as enough.

• healing wounds + forgiving self

• 3 Stages: Transmutation, transformation, and transfiguration

• A path the happiness+ Wellbeing

Mantra: I heal myself + others through Creativity

BE WONDERFUL

♡

LaToya

Resources :

The main theme here is being involved in your own healing; in taking responsibility for your own health and well-being. We all know that a HEALTHY lifestyle will give us the best possible chance of a healthy body,  but most of us are very good at ignoring this fact.

- Penelope Quest, the basics of reiki: a step by step guide to Healing with Reiki

Do it All Again

1// SOME THINGS (take time)

musings on kindly guiding yourself back to your vision:

I took this pic almost 3 years ago. It's a blurry pic, but here's the story.... We were in Tasmania as part of a 6 month road trip - J was touring his music, similar to what we are doing now.

While traveling my idea machine goes into full drive... IMAGINATION is one of my favourite dwelling places + this pic was me putting one of the ideas into action. This was was my desk for the day - a bench at a campsite that was being warmed by the sun on a chilly morning in Tasmania.

i decided i would create a series of little collages to illustrate a song J + I sing for Z, it is based on our early days as a family of 3 (but it all still applies).

I made these collages mostly in the front seat of the troop carrier with piles of scraps at my feet. (some things don't change, haha)

the collages are glued to used cereal + granola bar boxes that i ripped down to size.

It was meant to be a quick easy project...

2// This is a picture of one of the final drafts of collage with text/ lyrics in place.

After some back + forth, making a simple concept more complicated... I shelved this project. But it was always on my to do list to complete it.

Life happened... new ideas + new projects.

I continued to gently guide myself back...

3// walk with me to the ocean shore

put on the shoes we left at the door

salt in the air + sand at our feet

stop + chat with the people that we meet.

DO IT ALL AGAIN (a family tale)

now available in a square format

avaiable for purchase here.

Be Wonderful

♡

LaToya

p.s. keep pursuing your dreams

Living in the NOW (embrace the moment)

Below are a few tips on living in the NOW gleaned from a book  I picked up several years ago, when back in San Francisco.  I visited a friend and she had this little gem on her table, “1,001 ways to live in the Moment” by Barabara Ann Kipfer. 

I was really drawn to the book, so I purchased it and at some point actually read every single suggestion while riding the bus to and from work.  It came to me at a time when I really needed it. It is one of the books I still carry with me as I have moved to another country and into a home on the road.

Here are 5 reminders from the book (as I have interpreted it) that I carry with me in my heart on this journey of Inspired Living + creating Sacred Space:

1. Accept yourself as you are! And keep moving forward.  Appreciate the precious moments and move on without regret. Embrace the process of your life. This is the foundation of self-love, and I am a believer that everything else will thrive on this.

2. “Say yes to the good life” and know when to say “no”. You choose. To make a change you have to change your awareness.  What point of view are you living from? Do you allow yourself to enjoy life and live fully on your own terms? Are you supporting your self by cultivating an environment that supports you? Say yes to living your INSPIRED LIFE.

3. Focus on one task rather than multitasking. Deepen your attention. Embrace small goals and baby steps in the process. I am still working on this one everyday, it is very tempting to try to do many things at once. Although I have a million things running at once, I know that focus brings presence.

4. Be fully engaged in the process...Deepen your awareness. Take what may have become a routine for you, i.e. making the bed, and really be fully engaged in the process.  Consciously smooth out the sheets in a particular direction, notice how it feels, be aware. This is a way to practice mindfulness. How can this be applied to other areas of life?

5. Embrace Self-Care. Give yourself a pat on the back. Enumerate your succeses and do good deeds for yourself. Self care is checking in with yourself and responding to what you hear.

Be Wonderful

♡

LaToya

p.s. i've had this list written up for a while now, and after listening to the meditation below I was inspired to finally post and add the meditation as a resource. As I find other resources I will continue to update this post.

Resources:

Awareness Meditation

on surrender (feeling + letting go of attachment)

NATURAL + TEXTURAL : really feeling the things that mean a lot to me + letting go

Dear Surrendering Self,

I find you in those moments when the next step doesn't matter because there is no seperation between me and the moment.

We have had to let go many times, but surrender is an even deeper cleanse and release.

I know I was introduced to you during childbirth. That was something that had to be given up to another level.

Surrendering self you believe in divine timing. You are so good at FLOW, you don't push or pull, you listen to the subtle guidance and TRUST.

Surrendering Self, you know we do not have to worry. You know we gonna be alright. You glide.

You are the road to true freedom. You are not easy to come by especially when faced with years of conditioning to keep it all under control, especially when things appear to be falling apart. Surrendering self you are brave you are strength. You don't care what others may say. You prepare us for what we don't even realise is possible.

Thank you surrendering self for letting go of the limits, the blocks. Thank you for carrying me through emotions to the otherside even when I want to rush ahead. Hurdling all the hard emotions. Surrender you say forget about pulling it together... let's break open and find new space to light up.

Surrendering self lets creativity do its thang. You are so true to the heart of things. A good reminder you are that we don't have to do this all alone.

We just read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (as recommended by Dad) and surrendering self you picked up on this :

 It is about the miracle cancer cells of Henrietta that have lived on long after her soul transitioned. There are questions about medical ethics, how the medical/science field has treated african american patients.  It is about family and completing stories. it is about healing emotional wounds. But these are the pages that spoke to me the most.

Immortality: soul cleansing

'Do something to relax yourself... 'I can't help it... I worry all the time.'...'sometimes we care about stuff too much. We worry when there's nothing to worry about'... 'and we bring our own body down by doing it.'

Thank lord....but please HELP ME, because I know I can't handle this burden myself...Lord, take that BURDEN... I can't carry it no more, Lord. You wanted me to give it to you and I just didn't want to, but you can have it now Lord. You can HAVE IT! Hallelujah, amen"

'Somethings you got to release' ... 'Bible says He can carry all that burden'

I'll leave it there for now

Much Love + be wonderful

LaToya

CURRENTLY READING (long song + belonging)

CURRENTLY READING is a series of posts I will be writing about books I read. They are like creative book reviews. I will leave journal prompts at the end based on questions the books made me muse on. 

A Long Song + The Art Of Belonging.

Traveling in the bus means that some nights we stay in caravan parks with free book swaps + i pick up random books i would not normally read or come across.

Somehow the books I pick up tend to have a connection to one another even if they seem to be talking about completely different things

The common thread here is using research of factual events to tell fictional stories that allow unheard stories to be told.

The long song brings a voice to jamacian ancestors who were enslaved that have had their point of view cut out of history.

(writing as resistance)

Andrea Levy says : "But what I wanted to explore isn't in our history books. I wanted to put back in the voices of everyday life for black Jamaicans that are so silent in the record...I was trying to breathe back the life of ordinary peopleinto the skeleton of recorded events. And that requires imagination as well as research."

I am still reading the art of belonging, but a few standout quotes so far:

"We're tribal. We're social. We're communal. We need to BELONG."

"It's not only children: it takes a village to keep an adult sane and sensible, too"

"The way we respond to people who are UNLIKE us is the best test of our moral integrity."

Journal Prompt: How does my imagination change the story of my day, my life, my history? is my point of view basically run by my IMAGINATION?

be wonderful

♡

LaToya