SOS. 

I went off the grid and did my first short solo journeys deep in nature last Friday and Saturday in NorCal (I’m getting on a plane right now after completing another half day today).

And, after more training, I’ll learn how to enjoy and survive on my own in the wilderness for three nights and four days, with only an emotional type of food.

There are many reasons why I decided to take on this latest chosen (exciting as hell) adventure, challenge and quest and official training (I’m anxious to take women on similar journeys), but the most important part coming to light is remembering that if we are not able to truly journey solo in all the ways that are possible (and more comfortably so), we won’t be as able to sit, really sit (and more still) and commune or truly be present with or for others.

For those of us in lines of work that focus on helping others transform what they wish was different in their lives, creatively, in a relationship, professionally or beyond, this is paramount (as is creating uniquely meaningful experiences for that very transformation to happen).

When I created the Creative Heroine Experience a year ago, it was all about highlighting the woman who moves from problem to solution to express to the world who she really is (when we look at branding and identity work from this place, it becomes way more interesting, moving and engaging because you, yourself, are more interested, moved and engaged with ~> your own story).

As of late and as my emotional/spiritual bodies and body of work evolve, I’m continuing to challenge myself, as well as the women I work with to choose physical and emotional “problems” they’d like to work with, so they don’t suffer at the hands of those that come unplanned so much (the whole ‘pain is human, suffering is optional’ bit).  

In part, I answer the “…but how does this help a businesswoman or woman who wants to be of deeper support to the world or express herself unabashedly?” question with another one ~ “how can it not?”

All business women need training that is NOT traditional training (this is akin to the concerted effort we make to learn from distinct industries) — because life isn’t traditional, it’s always changing…progressing…and we need lots of different input. 

As business owners, creators and devotees to social change, there will always be moments that challenge us. So —  creating a challenge for ourselves is potent and useful.

In a way, it’s a request for energetic balance and for taking responsibility for our life so it feels like that ~ OURS.

The impact we have on the world through our family, community or through our work (which pay us in physical or emotional currency), is directly related to the impact we have made on ourselves by getting to know that self through the stuff we actively *choose* to do that is NOT comfortable. 

We can get all the business training we feel we need, listen to all the podcasts, take all the notes, read or listen to all the books or supposed gurus we want, but if we haven’t exercised or sweat a bit (or a lot) in devotion to an inner understanding or resilience, we don’t gain as much of the muscle we need to lift others as we climb.

It’s the person who comes out of the tougher experiences/ adventures/challenges that they, themselves, create or say yes to who is finally able to make sense of what has eluded her. (Once you’ve chosen to do something challenging, the stuff you’ve wanted to do inside regular life then feels easy, like the guidebook, map and confidence now magically lives inside the palm of your hand). 

It’s AMAZING to be committing in a new way to taking creator women who often feel restless between adventures through the stages of a rite of passage and to help them understand their core wound and, therefore, their core gift or higher calling and do it all under the umbrella of expression which I’ve been working with as a specialty for 18 years.

The SOS many of us are sending out these days speaks to more ~> to a desire for deep(er) fulfillment and to bringing and expressing ALL of ourselves in our chosen work.

To do that, we need to be more full and filled with understanding of the self you won’t run from.

In other words, it happens more easily, even playfully, when we find out 
who 
the 
heck 
that 
self 
truly 
is.

My retreat creation and planning is in the works!