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Stop stopping yourself...

a creative prompt & coaching tool
from Kara L.C. Jones

We're close to the time of our You Have Permission workshop getting started. And as I'm developing materials and posting things online for participants, I'm getting more and more excited about sharing this session with you.

One of the first steps we can all take toward living a more consciously designed life is to start becoming aware of where we stop ourselves.

I'm not talking about those things where you look over a literal cliff and stop yourself from jump because it would be detrimental to your motal being. But rather, I'm talking about those moments where you stop yourself from risking to love, risking to engage, facing the feelings you feel, dreaming the dreams that still beat in the far corners of your heart.

If we aren't even conscious of where we stop ourselves, then how can we ever hope to stop stopping ourselves and begin living with different choices? How can we begin to grant ourselves permission if we don't even realize that we are denying ourselves permission?!

As you start to take this idea into your being, just consider how and where you stop yourself:

• Do you have a dream of writing a book or developing a line of art products, but think the dream is too big?
  
  
• Do you want more intimacy but stop yourself from asking for what you need?
  
  
• Have you come up with some really, incredibly fun idea, but stopped yourself because you think it's too childish?
  
  
• Do you dream of making your living in some more meaningful way, but think that's not possible?
  
  
• Do you feel grief, but put on a mask to stop yourself from sharing what is real for you just now?
  
  
• Do you want to learn a new skill like speaking a new language or learning to paint, but stop yourself because you think you are "too old" or "there isn't enough time" or some other reason?
  
  
• Do you want to learn how to live in more healthy ways for your body and being, but feel overwhelmed at the mere idea?
  
  
• Have you experienced a great loss in your life but feel pressured to get over it or stop talking about it or grieve in a particular way?

Whatever your situation is, just start noticing your life and decisions this coming week. Try to release any impulse to judge or self blame when you notice. This is not about adding guilt and shame to the stopping. It's just about getting and staying conscious.

To support your noticing process, consider jotting down all the places you stop yourself. Keeping a written journal or listing of these noticings will help you see them more clearly. In fact, we're excited to offer you a free goodie to make noticing even more creative:

Click here to get your free PDF copy of our STOP Stopping Yourself worksheet!

Feel free to print out and share forward the STOP Stopping Yourself worksheet, too. Maybe use this tool in partnership with a friend, so you can encourage each other.

After you've tracked the ways you stop yourself for a few days, take some private time to look over your notes. If you are doing this experiment with a friend and feel safe, take time together to share your noticings.

If you want to take the experiment to an even more creative level, look over your lists and consider making art from what comes up for you. Either collage or draw or paint, whatever your medium. Make art in reaction to the noticings. Or make art that is an anti-dote to stoping yourself. Or make art that is a pink slip telling all the stoppings they are fired!

You can try imagining each of the stopping moments as characters. Give the stopping moments a voice and a face and body. Hold a court call in your kingdom and banish the stopping beings!! Or host a royal tea and invite the stopping beings to tea where you can tell them you don't need their help anymore. Instead, you have a very important job for them to do -- and then send them away on long term assignment to a far, far away land and close the book on them!!

You get the idea. We are approaching very real, emotional stuff here, but it need not be heavy and depressing and judgmental. Have fun. Experiment. Allow yourself to just begin seeing where you stop yourself. And trust that once you see these things, you can then begin to STOP stopping yourself!!

And don't forget to click here to get your free PDF copy of our STOP Stopping Yourself worksheet!

Just try it out this week. Just see what happens. Feel free to share your experiments over on the MotherHenna.blogspot.com or Kotapress.blogspot.com or over at the MISS Creation Station forum!

_____________________________

Blessing to Each of You!

Reiki to you:
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN

_____________________________

Want to share this eZine?

To share the KOTA: Knowing Ourselves Thru Art eZine with others,
click here...

Take a Home Workshop

The chaos of grief can be disorienting. Even when others try to be helpful, we may feel implicitly or explicitly pressured to grieve in a certain way. But these experiences are unique to each of us. In our "Finding Our Way" home workshop, you'll discover lots of creative tools for experimenting as you learn to live again in the face of loss. For full information, click here...

Treat Yourself *AND* a friend to a Reading - Today ONLY - get yourself a 5 card reading today 3/10/10 by 11:59PM (Pacific) and your friend gets 5 card reading free!!

Only offered through our Mother Henna Etsy shop! Madame Zelda does card readings using the 1,000 Faces of Mother Henna deck of cards created by heARTist Kara LC Jones. Madame does a Reiki meditation as she considers your questions or issues. Then she picks cards from the deck and reads them for you. You get a PDF file with scanned images of your cards plus the write up of Madame's reading.

To schedule your reading today, click here...

You Have Permission
Early Bird Registration open only till 11:59pm (Pacific), March 10, 2010!!!!

*This Creative Coaching Group has been totally reformatted!!* Please click over and read about new format, lower registration fee per participant, and new, additional goodies you get when you attend!

Spots are still open for the You Have Permission session. We'll be working small group, meeting on the phone, so you can join from anywhere. We'll also host a private blog available 24/7, and all participants will have access to download all session materials to use locally any time. Join as we practice the art of Permission! Click here for full information...

Woodmont Ave

A new poetry collection from Kara L.C. Jones is now available via Lulu. The Woodmont Ave book is a collection of short, visually oriented poetry, musing on life at Woodmont Ave in the 1920s, 1940s, and 1980s. Click here for full information...

PLUS 10% off your purchase of the book Woodmont Ave!

Thru March 31st, Lulu is offering my readers 10% off your purchase of the title Woodmont Ave! Use the code IDES when you check out, and you'll get 10% off your purchase. Click here for full information about the Woodmont Ave book...

And if by chance we happen to sell more copies of Woodmont Ave in the month of March than any other author sells of their book on Lulu, we win the Lulu prize for big exposure on the book! So many thanks to each of you now for your March purchase of the Woodmont Ave book!!

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