Powerful Beginnings

Good morning Dazzling Divas,

 

I recently started a meetup group called Free the Diva: rediscover passion, fun and joy. The first two meetings of Free the Dazzling Divas will be focused on our intentions for 2012. Many of you may be ready to put 2011 behind you. Before you do, it is important to "remember and complete 2011". This is my Diva Dozen questions which I have used for the last few years. I hope you find them helpful.

1.     What was your biggest joy or success?

2.     What was your biggest joy or success?

3.     What one word best sums up and describes 2011?

4.     What was the most loving service you performed?

5.     What is the number one piece of unfinished business in 2011?

6.     What are you most happy about?

7.     Who were the 2 people that had the biggest impact on your life?

8.     What was the biggest surprise?

9.     What was the greatest risk you took?

10.  What was the most fun thing you did? 

11.  What was your grandest adventure? 

12.  What do you need to do to be complete with 2011? 

Diva Rae is a teacher, artist, activist and the Author of Art From My Heart, a self discovery workbook.To find out all about her Star Power

Don’t Let the Grinch Steal your Holidays

The holiday season is fast approaching. What do you expect…doom and gloom or exuberant merrymaking? If you experience stress, let down or depression during the holidays; you are not alone. Family relationships can cause a lot of tension especially with relatives staying with you. Your kids may be going to their spouses family or your ex husbands house, and you might be alone for the holidays. Your budget may be strapped this year and you can’t seem to come up with the right gifts. With a little creative planning starting now, you can have a great holiday this year.

First, make a list of all the things that bring you joy: your family, friends, foods that nurture you, pets, things that make you feel special. Find something every day that makes you smile, and write it down. It could be the way leaves crunch under your feet, the smell of hot chocolate or the holiday window decorations. Gather photographs that you have taken, or find photos in magazines or old cards that make you feel warm and loving inside. Put them together in an envelope or fill an old shoe box. When you find them bulging get a piece of cardboard and make a collage. Put up your happy collage and take a photo of it. Carry it in your wallet or put it in your car. Then when something is getting you down, you have a visual reminder of what makes you feel good.

Consider making a special present for your family or friends; a book of gratitude. For the next several weeks, write down everything you like about the people in your life, what they have done for you or others. For example: “I like the way you are kind to my mother and send her pictures of the baby all the time. I appreciate how you volunteer time to be a scout leader. I am grateful that you listen to me. I am grateful for your companionship and the gentle way you hold my hand when I am sad.” Make a beautiful book for the family or the individual. This gift & art from the heart will make you feel wonderful as well as the people in your life.

Finally, in this great time of upheaval and worry we need to consider being of service to those less fortunate. If you have young children let them be part of the decision making who you serve and what you do. Make a list. Feed the homeless, bake cookies for friends, and write a letter to serviceman. Have the kid’s help you pick out toys, books and art supplies and make baskets to give to the local shelter. It might be as simple as making a giant card and delivering a bouquet of flowers or balloons to decorate the nurses’ station at a local hospital. Consider each week doing one random act of kindness.

When I got divorced and spent my first holiday alone it was devastating. It was so lonely. So I made sure to host a girls Thanksgiving the week before the holiday. I made plans then to volunteer time during the holidays. It changed everything. Marcel Proust said, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” This holiday season you have an opportunity to have “new eyes” and create new family traditions that celebrate joy, gratitude and service. Happy Holidays.

Rae Luskin is an artist, author, teacher and community activist. She is a leader is using creative expression to foster self –esteem, resilience, healing and social change. To find out more go to www.raeluskin.net

The Secret Life of Diva Rae

I was attending a retreat several months ago and I decided to play hooky. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon and I just could not sit inside one more minute. I roamed around the pool area and found two more compatriots. They were talking about creating a fun bio, based on one they had seen about Suzie Orman, the financial guru, in Readers Digest.

As part of our yearlong Sassy mentorship program we had written our biographies. We had spent months coming up with the right, “juicy” words that described who we were and what we did. But it was only one part of us. It seemed too serious. We started asking each other a series of questions: If you were a Superhero what powers would you have? What is your favorite dessert, movie or book? If you could do anything beside what you are doing, what would it be? Who would you like to have a conversation with living or dead? If you could be an instrument what would you be and why? What kind of animal would you be?

As part of my personal healing from childhood trauma and abuse, (and we all have something that has caused us pain or worry,) I often wrote little vignettes or stories about the Lady in Red. Recently, I wrote a fairy tale called the Adventures of Diva Rae. Unfortunately, diva has gotten a bad reputation. She is often described as a spoiled brat or prima donna rather than the outstanding, stupendous and exceptional talent that I know we all are. I wondered how she would describe herself, her life experiences, her wishes and dreams.  Here is the answer.

The Secret Life of Diva Rae: twelve dreams that make me get out of bed every single day.

1.   Being creative: from the time I was six and I had Miss Rae’s Art School; to learning to read tarot cards and tea leaves; or taking candid photographs of laundry around the world; to writing Art From My Heart a creative workbook for families.

2.   Loving in a big way: being involved with family and friends in nurturing, compassionate and deep heartfelt ways. Having agreed to disagree conversations with my adult children and getting to be GRANDMA (Raspberry kisses, make believe and magic).

3.   Helping others: from the time I was a little girl and I saw Shirley Temple in the movie Heidi, I knew that I had to help the Clara’s of the world; people who had grown comfortable in their pain and circumstances, frightened to reach out toward healing, wholeness and joy.

4.   Engaging in guilty pleasures: watching General Hospital, So You Think You can Dance and Castle. Some days you just have to be a coach potato.

5.  Exploring: visiting new and exciting places while experiencing new cultures and hearing people’s stories:  riding a camel across the desert in Israel; eating fish and chips in front of the television with the owner of my New Zealand B and B; or belly dancing in a local restaurant in Morocco.

 6.   Finding the fun in life: being able to laugh at myself and the things I have tried all in the name of losing weight or healing: shake rattle and roll machines; all the chocolate cream filled donuts you can eat while walking on the treadmill; sitting in the car at midnight, waiting for the train to go by while I screamed at the top of my lungs.

7.   Standing in my power: or Diva Rae singing in public, draped across the piano in a purple sequined gown, a sultry version of the itsy bitsy spider in all of her sensual splendor. (LOL)

8.   Breaking the rules or redefining them:  having dessert for breakfast (crème Brule and coffee ice cream with gold brick topping and marshmallow fluff); saying NO to friends and families unreasonable and sometimes reasonable requests; and starting a new business at age 59.

9.   Wearing glitz and glitter: dressing to please the Diva in me with exquisite, vibrant colored clothes, beaded shawls, and bold, big pieces of jewelry.

10.  Being deeply grateful and in a state of grace: as a spiritual eclectic, studying eastern and western religions; attending different services around the world; taking what I want and leaving the rest.

11.   Escaping to serenity: take delicious bubble baths with candles and scented oils; walks along the beach with the sun gently caressing my cheek, the gulls flying overhead and the water lapping at my feet; or dancing under the stars with the love of my life.

12.  Living life in Technicolor: enjoying an out of the box, bodacious and succulent life based on my own unique self expression, unlimited possibilities and coloring outside the lines.

No matter what your past, you can choose to live creatively, passionately and joyfully at every moment. You can live HAPPILY EVER AFTER. Find the DIVA in you.

Rae Luskin, a Chicago artist, teacher, activist and the author of ART FROM MY HEART, is a leader in using creative expression to foster self-worth, resilience, healing and social change. If you want to find my traditional biography go to the about me page at www.raeluskin.net You can reach me at rae@raeluskin.net

Calm, Coloring and Mandalas

Mandala, or sacred circles in Sanskrit, represents wholeness, and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself. The circle can be found in nature: the sun, moon, rings on a tree, the lotus blossom. It is found in the iris of the eye and every cell of the body.

In Eastern religious practices worldwide, mandalas have been used as meditative tools. They are used as part of healing and transformative art in Native American sand painting, Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist rituals. They became part of modern psychotherapy when, Carl Jung used them with himself and his patients, who would use them to record dreams and work through their issues. Many psychologists, therapists, and cancer centers today, use mandalas with patients as a healing modality.          

      

Coloring mandalas is a fun way to relax, take a break and get us out of the inner dialogue that we carry on. Research has shown that we have approximately, 60,000 thoughts a day and 75% of them are negative. To do your own test, set the timer for 10 minutes and just write whatever thoughts comes into your head. How much was negative?

Mandala coloring is very simple and straight forward. It has been documented that when you engage in right brain activities like coloring or painting, blood pressure drops and endorphins are released. Through this “no thought” process you can suspend inner dialogue and be in the stillness. This place of stillness allows you to recharge your batteries, to connect with your intuition, to learn about yourself and what you want.

Coloring mandalas is affordable and portable. I suggest that you get a box of crayons or colored pencils and bring your mandala coloring book wherever you go, especially places that you consider stressful:  waiting at the doctor’s office, traveling or at work. It will give you peace of mind, help you see things more clearly and enhance your overall wellness.

Rae Luskin is an artist, teacher and community activist and the author of Art From My Heart, a self discovery journal. A leader in nurturing self –worth, resilience, healing and social change through creative expression, she is known as the “Healed Heart Expert.” To find more go to www.raeluskin.net.

Today and Everyday is Valentines’ Day

Mother Teresa said that “Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless.” Make sure you tell the people that matter most to you how you really feel about them. Don’t wait for Valentines’ Day.

Take a piece of paper and fold it in half or take one of the many cards you received from charities in the mail.  Decorate it with stickers, glue, fabric, glitter, markers or whatever you can find. On the inside of the card write at least three things that you are proud of or that make you special.  Then make one for your spouse, children, co-worker or someone else that you care about and tell them why you think they are special. If you need a little a little help here is a partial list of I am/ you are special, wonderful and unique because….

I find ways to express myself creatively	you care about the environment
I am honest	you are patient
I am sensitive to others feelings	you are a visionary
I admit when I am wrong	you work really hard
I am a good listener	you take care of your parents
I am open to new ideas	you help around the house
I am true to myself	you always see the good in everyone

Please share three things that make you special and unique.

The Truth of the Matter

My friend Lisa Rosenthal began the Vet Art Project. The Vet Art Project provides opportunities for veterans and their families to work in collaboration with artists to create art about war and service, and to foster discussion about how war and service affect us all.

They are currently offering a workshop on storytelling based on the work of author Tim O’Brien, a Viet Nam Veteran. He writes on his experiences of war and how it impacts servicemen. In the chapter "How to Tell a True War Story" in The Things They Carried, O'Brien suggests there are two ways to tell a story, "story-truth" (the truth of fiction) and "happening-truth" (the truth of fact or occurrence), writing that "story-truth is sometimes truer than happening-truth." In other words, there is an emotional truth that comes from our personal experiences and can feel “truer” than the factual details.

 How do we tell someone the unthinkable? How do we describe what we have no words for? I believe we all have to find a way to share our wounded stories and stand in our power if we want to heal our past. Personally, I have written fairy tales and created a video.

Please share with me how you have told your story? How did sharing your truth change you and the people around you?

Three Letter Word that can Change your Life

After 12 years of talk therapy I felt like I hit a wall. I was stuck. I kept replaying the same story over and over in my head and my life. No matter how I was surviving that was all I was doing. I kept thinking there had to be more. I wanted joy, happiness and not just for a moment every six months.

So I began a 25 year journey of healing. I engaged in energy work, anger work, 12 step work, body work. I traveled the world looking for healers and shamans. I was a work shop junkie. Over the years I have read a 1000 self help books, and for most of them, I answered the questions at the end of each chapter. I had journals everywhere. It helped tremendously to write, but my biggest transformation came from ART.

I finally found a way to ACCESS the pain I felt and had no words for. I could RELEASE the negative voices of shame and guilt I carried in my head and heart. Ultimately I could TRANSFORM the wounds of the past into the gifts of today.

Probably about now you are saying I am not creative. I can’t draw. If you can hold a crayon then you can do ART. It is really simple. Remember when you just spent time coloring in a coloring book, made mud pies or did doodles on the sidewalk with chalk. Allow yourself to remember the sense of play and wonder you once had.

 Put on your favorite music. Tape a piece of paper down on the table. Then pick out two crayons. Put one in your non-dominant hand, close your eyes and begin to scribble. Remember you can’t do this wrong. After a couple minutes put down the one color and do it again with the second color. After another minute pick up one crayon in each hand and scribble. Don’t peak!  When you are ready, open your eyes and color with any crayon that pleases you. Do this for at least ten minutes and you will notice you are breathing deeper. Your blood pressure will come down and you will feel more relaxed and at peace.

As I said before ART can change your life, maybe even save it.

Rae Luskin is an author, artist, teacher and activist. Known as the “Healed Heart” expert, she nurtures self-worth, resilience, healing and social change through creative expression. She is available for workshops, keynotes, and mentoring. To find out more go to www.raeluskin.net. If you are interested in working with Rae, apply now for a free discovery session under the gifts tab or write me at rae@raeluskin.net