Ep #97: (Part 2) Pulling Back the Veil on The Art School

“Magic brought me here. An interest in my wholeness. The compelling way you talk about wholeness and magic, it seems to seamlessly weave together things that I didn’t know I was craving until I heard you speak of them.”

These are just a few examples of the answer to the question I posed last week; what brought you to the Art School? I posed that question for my current Art School students and also to you, my dear podcast listeners. And I was struck, and I guess I shouldn’t be. But it made me pause and think about how I want to be so much more intentional about addressing what we all are craving.

Because in a world where we do need the analytical to thrive, what I’m sensing is that we are also craving this psyche work, this diving into these deeper and mysterious aspects of ourselves to reclaim our full creative power, that so many of you are brilliant, brilliant creatives and high-achievers, and something also in your soul may be feeling like it’s running a little dry. And you’ve been able to create immense, amazing things, but you’re yearning for the spark and the magic and the light.

So, join me today for the second part of a two-part series. This was the first class in the Art School for the fall 2020 that I’m sharing with you, so you get a taste of the magic, the holistic approach that I take to the Art School, which I happen to think is very down to earth and pragmatic.

You are listening to The Art School Podcast; a show for artists and creatives who want to become the next greatest version of themselves. Learn how to cultivate an extraordinary way of being and take the mystery out of making money, and the struggle out of making art. Here is your host, Master Certified Life Coach, artist, and former lawyer, Leah Badertscher.

Hello and welcome back, everyone, to another episode of The Art School Podcast. I’m so grateful you are joining me this week. It’s been an amazing week. It’s been a very full week. Someone just sent a kind message over social media with some wonderful words about my last podcast and some free content I’ve been offering. And she also said, “And you also seem very peaceful all the time,” which I can assure you is not the case.

I do think I have an aspect of centeredness and roundedness. But let me assure you, I for sure feel the full range of the human experience. And also, weeks like this week, my goodness, my heart goes out to everyone that is dealing with the disaster of the fires, you know the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, racist challenges, and just across the world.

So, I was thinking a lot this last week about how, for me, coaching is really the modern equivalent of what ancient philosophy was meant to be, to answer the question, not only of how does one live a good life, but particularly in the face of adversity, how is one to live? And that, to me is what is so profound about the potential for coaching. And I’m grateful for all of you that are seeking answers to questions like this and I’m really grateful that you take your precious resource of time and attention and turn some of that and turn an ear towards this podcast.

So, as I mentioned in the intro, I am sensing an increasing need to address what people are hungering for. And it’s something that I myself have hungered for. And that is, I just feel nourished by exploring the mystery of the psyche.

I, for sure, can hold my own when it comes to the analytical side of things, making a business run, running a household, all of those day to day things in the world. And also, I can start to feel if I’ve spent too much time there and not balanced enough by this side in intuition and creativity and in the unknown.

And so, this last week, I had the amazing opportunity to just me, myself, be on the receiving end of some of that kind of soul work and brilliant magic. And it was one of our Art School alum and aces, Betsy Pearson, who is a master coach and brilliant, beautiful, creative soul who offered a masterclass in dream analysis. And it was everything I hoped it would be and more. And it was also really fun to sit back and see other people, like over the Zoom, see their wonder and delight to be on the receiving end of this work.

And in fact, it so struck something that I needed and I could see other people were just revivified by this experience. And I thought, I want to pour some of that in The Art School and pour it through this community. More of that, yes please.

I love diving into that own work. It’s what I lean heavily into with my own art work, creative work, with my own creative writing. And I want to lean more heavily into that and make that an option for my creative clients as well. Because I am very confident in my skills as a mindset coach and yes, have gone to great lengths to refine those skills as well.

And I also know I occupy this other corner of the universe too where I have very creative spirits and visionaries and seekers and these wide-open minds and hearts who are hungry for this kind of exploration into psyche and soul-building work as well as building creative careers. And they go together. Let me tell you, this goes absolutely together.

And so, what I decided, I reached out and asked Betsy if she would be willing to offer a masterclass in dream analysis through The Art School. So, what I’m going to do as a surprise bonus feature for the current Art School students is they will all have access to this masterclass that will be facilitated by Betsy. And it’s very much a workshop. So, you get to dive into this own exploration of your own psyche, vis-à-vis your dreams.

And she takes something that could be hard to touch and makes it so accessible and also so mind-blowing. It’s pretty astonishing. So, what I thought would also be fun is I am offering this included to my current Art School students as a part of their program. And I am also going to open up enrollment for an ala carte option. So, if you are a listener, if you have been a client of mine in the past, have been in The Art School before, this is something you don’t want to miss.

If you’re drawn to my work, if anything I’ve shared about Betsy’s dream class so far has resonated with you and something in you is saying yes, I can tell you, you will get into that class and you will know exactly why you needed to be there. Let me just read to you a couple of the lines that she sent out in this beautiful introductory email.

So, she wrote, “You’re in for an adventure, exploring these lyrical messages sent to one part of you from another part of you for the benefit of all of you.” That certainly was my experience, having done just two dream analysis after her classes. And later she writes, “The best and true news is that all of your dreams are to benefit you. Simply experiencing that firsthand is so reassuring. On top of that, it’s always surprising to see how creative your true self gets in its communications. That’s the fun part.”

And it was absolutely so fun. Also, what I was not expecting but what I did receive was when I did my analysis, I had two breakthroughs for creative projects that I’m working on that I could not think my way out of these boxes the other way I was approaching it, and then through these dreams, these insights, I was like, there’s the richness. There’s the potent golden thread that I want to follow, that really makes these works interesting and exciting and makes them come alive.

So, it’s a great tool, not only for self-development, but also as a way of delving into that part of you that does not need to think in straight lines or in the box. It hands you some really wild but brilliant potential for your creative work.

Betsy also shared this quote from Carl Jung, among others. On of her many gifts, backgrounds, is she’s a scientist. And so, I love her mixture of that scientific analytical mind with also this mystical, spiritual, creative, abstract side and she really is one of these people to me that seems both very of the earth and other worldly.

So, she is a gem to experience. And she introduces you to gems like this Jung quote which was perfect for this class, “The dream is specifically the utterance of the unconscious. Just as the psyche has a diurnal side which we call consciousness, so also it has a nocturnal side. The unconscious psychic activity which we apprehend as dream-like fantasy.”

I can’t overstate how stunning this exploration into the dream analysis is. So, if you would like to join in for this, you’ll want to be on my newsletter. I’ll announce it through there. I’ll announce it through my Instagram account. But the best place to make sure you don’t miss it is to make sure you’re signed up for my newsletter. And you can do that by going to www.leahcb.com. That will be forthcoming in the next few weeks and so, stay tuned. It is going to be pretty awesome.

And in the meantime, please listen in and join in on the second part of the first introductory class for The Art School this fall 2020. Enjoy.

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Welcome back. And definitely, if you want to return to this, I would encourage you to do that. One of my favorite creative practices too is I would write first and then I’ll take something for a walk and just kind of let my gaze and my mind go to that middle distance, middle space, and see what comes up later as a result of that.

And that’s just, for whatever you’re doing, you might have something like this in your creative toolkit. But I find, when I am too much in problem-solving space myself, too much in the analytical space, then I love dropping a question into my psyche and then going about my life, going about my day and trusting that I always get an answer.

Sometimes, it comes through my own mind, my imagination. Sometimes, it will be like a stranger, the person handing me my Starbucks puts in an extra – with their, “Here’s your coffee,” they put in an extra line and it’s like, whoa, I wasn’t expecting the oracle to be the barista today. But don’t question where it comes. Just know that it will come.

So, that brings me to – this is kind of housekeeping but also fun. A couple of practices that – you might have practices like this and I for sure, whatever’s working for you, keep it working. And also, give these a try, especially if you don’t have a practice like this. Adopt this and adapt it to make it your own through the course of these 12 weeks.

But an exercise where you check in with, again, your holistic self. I recently taught this in a mastermind. I think it was on the podcast that came out last week. So, if you want a refresher – and I can also answer more questions about this later if it’s not clear. But it’s called PIES. And then I add a W on the end for wildcard.

And PIES stands for – it’s an acronym. It stands for physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and I add in a W for wildcard. So, again, I won’t spend too much time explaining it here today because I think I did talk about it on last week’s podcast. But it is a way for connecting with your, you know, opening your channel and connecting, moving from problem-solving mode and into a way of being where you can more easily connect with your intuition and be a vessel for creativity. And oftentimes, creativity greater than yourself.

And so, you do this little check in, you can do this every day in your mind. And it’s also helpful if you take just a few minutes to jot down a weather report of the answers you had. But it would be to check in with yourself and say, physical, how am I feeling physically today? Am I tired? And just close your eyes and do a body scan. Is there somewhere in my body where there’s tension? Is there a lot of energy activity? Is there a pain?

It’s just a check in. Just a quick check in and observation and noting, how’s my breathing? Have I not taken a deep breath in a while? Do I need to take a deep breath? And then, as you do this P part, you can ask your body, like, is there something you need? When I just did it right there with all of you, mine was like, “Take a breath. You need to take a breath.”

So, you can check in. And that pulls you back down. If you’ve been in your head, it pulls you back down into your body, into that place where you can find out of problem mode, into sacred solid ground mode. And then intellectual, you know, asking your mind, noticing your mind, where’s it going today? What’s it thinking about?

And I’m always amazed, like, our minds love to have something to do. And so, sometimes, if I find I’ve been in problem mode, analytical, try too hard, forcing things mode, my brain is bored. It’s bored. And then asking my, like, what do you need? Rather than snacking on this Cheeto land of problems in the world, what do you crave? What would be nourishing for you, stimulating, and in a positive way?

And it then gives me an answer of, how about a higher level of thought? How about you give us something more interesting to think about? How about you point us in the direction of something that we enjoy thinking about and that we like to create?

And I’ve just found it – it’s always a reminder to me of times then when I would get to go to a poetry workshop with – you’ve maybe heard me talk about my poetry mentor Fran before. I just love him. I love the whole weekend. I love the whole experience. I walk away from those weekends being like, “That was like a year, two semester’s worth of college and poetry lit, spirituality, mysticism in a weekend.”

Not only does it feel like a holistically nourishing experience, but my brain is so happy that we talked about cool shit all weekend and I realized, because my brain was being fed a diet of some of the greatest poets and minds and thinking about them and what these other bright minds in the room, how little room there was left for worrying about the small stuff and problem-solving.

So, check in with your brain, asking like, what’s going on with you? How are you doing? What can I do for you? And then emotional. Where am I? How am I feeling? What’s the predominant emotion today? And then notice, isn’t that interesting? I did it this morning and I’m like, “I’m nervous. First class. Why do I still get nervous? I’ve done this a number of times. I love all these people. I love the work. Why do I get nervous?”

And then I was like, so into the emotion, like, “Oh nervous is also energy, is also potential, potent.” There is potent energy there which I know I really handy to have when you want to create something. So, is it nervousness? Maybe a little bit. But is it also, if I drop the word nervousness and just drop into the pure experience of emotion, what it feels like.

I was like, it feels very big. I am feeling a lot of big energy here. And when I did this PIES exercise, I was like, “If I can just settle into myself, I can take that big energy, which is currently dominating my brain, that wants to problem-solve, and I can just drop it into a place where I feel open-hearted. I feel like my vulnerability is on the line, even though you all seem like very nice people and ready to go.”

So, again, using this as a way to tap into and be more a master of without dominating, more of an awake and fun dance partner for the energy and the creativity that wants to happen, rather than feeling like, “Am I dreading this?” That would be weird. So, doing that emotional check in just helped me with that this morning.

And then S, spiritually, how have I been? How do I feel spiritually? Is there something I’m needing? Have I had enough – whether it’s time in nature, whether you are someone whop prays or meditates or journals or if spirituality to you means connecting to your deepest self or to a higher power, or deeply and authentically with other human beings or animals. Whatever nourishes your spirit, check in and ask your spirit, how are you? What do you need?

And then listen. And then the other important part is, like, follow through. So, then I learned this exercise from my dear friend and a mentor, colleague, Molly Marti, Dr. Molly Marti, who founded what is now the International Resilience Institute.

So, this is, like, PIES comes from resilience work and she’s a psychologist and a researcher in the area of resilience. So, this is a tool that they use in those lines of work, including in places where you work in trauma-informed care. And we also would do this at our board meetings when I worked there as a creative director.

And so, then I added, after doing this, this connects me. I feel so much more myself, less everything else, so much more clear. I feel more better-situated to be creative and tap into my intuition and to be in integrity with myself and to listen.

So, then, I was like, I’m connected. I’m dialed in. Why don’t I add something fun, like the W, like the wildcard? And so, I call it the wildcard because it’s like then asking yourself, your imagination, your intuition, someone else’s imagination, intuition, like, is there something else I should know right now? Is there something that has been wanting my attention and trying to be like, on the door of your consciousness or psyche but before you were too consumed with the day and reality to listen to that little whisper or not?

And so, while you’re already open, like, what’s there that wants to be known? Is there anything there that wants to be known to me? And just writing down whatever you get could be nothing. A lot of times, it will be something that seems ridiculous, makes no sense until later that day or later that week. You’re like, “Whoa, that was weird. That was weird that I got that one word or one image and now look what’s coming.” And then that becomes kind of a fun game too and a good reason, naturally reinforcing reason to do this.

So, developing this, it is an awareness-raising tool, and again, it’s one more way where we will approach empowering you to be the creative powerhouse that you are through this aspect of there’s these inroads that you don’t – you don’t fix yourself and get here. This is like raising your awareness and its transformation through the process and things change, things shift because your consciousness shifts. And so, having a simple journal practice around this.

The other one I wanted to share – well, I will save that one. We’ve got time for that. So, a couple of other housekeeping things. These Tuesdays will ordinarily be coaching days. And I will, along the way – and I have some premade and then based on my read of this group and what I think people need, what I learn from you about what your goals and dreams and particular challenges are, I will make a video library as we go of resources.

But what I don’t want to do is overwhelm you with content to learn so that you shift into passive learner mode. You’re like, “I have to learn the content before I get back to work on my dream here.” So, the content is going to be there to support you and it’s going to be custom tailored to you. And on Tuesdays, we’re going to open this up and really do some amazing coaching work.

Thursdays are magic. Thursdays are our virtual artist dates. So, I am doing the mastermind and this Art School differently based on what I have learned from all the prior rounds. Because what I learned was people, it’s really too easy to switch back and toggle back and out of creative mode and into good student mode. And I want to push you to the edge and have this be a training for creative powerhouses and not valedictorians.

So, I know you all are smart and overachieving and can do that. I want you to really experience what it is for you to be creative and to create those results. And then we’ll group back together. We’ll do the coaching. We’ll assess. I’ll give you information that seems highly relevant to you. But it won’t be busy work.

So, Thursdays, virtual artist date is a place that I realized people then had the best intentions together in coaching or group to implement what we’d learned. But then they went back to the rest of their life and it was really hard to shift it yet.

So, Thursdays, this is a sacred 90 minutes. It’s carved out every week. Imagine if up to this point, if all of your life you had at least 90 minutes a week to devote to your dream. 90 minutes a week every week that you’d been building brick by brick your dream.

So, it seems simple, but it really is a profound exercise. Because what I have found with pretty much every single client, including myself, along the way is that one of the first hardest shifts to make is just the damn pedestrian calendar, putting your dream on the calendar and actually spending time with it.

Because again, this whole process is about developing a relationship with your true self and your dreams that becomes as real to you as the furniture in the room, the table that your computer sits upon. And you cannot build that kind of relationship if you do not give that relationship and that dream, that true self prime real estate in your life.

You show up for it. It’s your date. Every week, you get to know it. You go through the awkward phase. You go through the phase of, like, “I don’t know if I like you after all. You’re a lot of work. I’m really disappointed in you right now. You’ve caused me a lot of heartbreak.” But you committed This is why commitment is important.

It’s not just taking your emotional temperature and being like, “I like you today. Tomorrow, I might not.” You are married to this thing. So, Thursdays are for that. And then trusting your intuition on those Thursdays to do what you most need. And the PIES can check in with this.

Do you need to stare off into middle space for 90 minutes and drop that seed in and give yourself 90 minutes to be like, “What is the next plot lie? What character?” And go into that daydreaming but something’s happening space. Or do you need 90 minutes to be like, “I must finish this chapter today. I must send out these emails with this offer today. I need to work on my website. I need 90 minutes to paint, to finish a commission,” or I need 90 minutes to go back to the inspirational space where I’m dreaming up my new body of work. I need these 90 minutes to workshop with myself, what I was coached on, on Tuesday about how am I actually going to implement this in my life?

That edge for you will look different on every day. Some days, it will look like you need to take a lot of action. Some days, it will look like your well is really dried up and you need to sit with your muse and listen for your muse for a while. Some days, it will look like playing, which is awesome. But it’s 90 minutes every week where you are staking your claim in the universe and showing up as your future self. You’re not showing up as the wannabe. You are showing up as her.

So, it’s also going to be – we’ll frame it this way too. You’re not trying to close a gap. You’re not trying to fix anything. You’re showing up creating. This is another magical element that I’ll introduce more on Thursday. You’re showing up creating, rehearsing, mentally rehearsing, emotionally, spiritually the embodiment of that way of being, that future self. And from there, doing whatever you’re going to do for 90 minutes. It has a focus that’s aligned with your creative dream.

I made a workbook for you all, based on a workbook I’ve been making for myself. And I tried to keep it as simple as possible because that’s the idea of it. It’s called the simple plan. Because I know this process of, like, creating your dream can start to get very complicated and your mind will absolutely kick up a lot of confusion and overwhelm and as much dust as it can.

And I’m not saying that this is an easy process. But what I have found to be essential is to have a simple, clear plan to come back to so that when you are in the messy middle, lost in the forest trying to find your way on that hero’s journey, you come back to the sacred simple plan. You come back to that golden thread that ties you to your dream and so, for today, I’m not going to go into too much detail about this simple plan.

What I want you to do first is, when you get on, peruse it. Just peruse it. There is nothing that you need to do with it yet other than spitball with yourself what you think some of your answers to the questions posed there in this workbook might be, the three essential. You’ll see, this is a simple plan for creating your dream.

So, just start to spitball because I know too, some of you have very clear ideas with what you want to do with this 12 weeks and beyond. And some of you are like, “I’m in the discerning phase.” And some of you might have a really clear idea and now, after today or the first coupe of weeks, you’re like, “Wait, I think I’m here for a different reason.”

So, I want to give you space for that. I want to give you space for something bigger too to come through and give its input and energy. And then on Thursday, before we dive into working together, since many of you may not have discerned exactly what you would be using Thursdays for, and this is our first week, I will use more time than usual on Thursday to explain, introduce the simple plan workbook and why I made it and how and why it can support you through these 12 weeks, and answer any questions you might have about it.

So, that’s why it would be really useful if you looked through it, listened to me talk on Thursday, and then, like, she still hasn’t answered my question, and then ask me a question. So, yeah, I’m so excited for Thursday – I think the magic of Thursdays, the energy of Thursdays, virtual artist dates, we did it this summer and in the one-month immersion. And amazing.

It’s amazing what people – in the immersion, people were like, “Whoa, I’m blown away at what I did in a month with just 90 minutes a week.” Especially when you’ve been in this clean, powerful space and then you carry that into your work on Thursday, no joke. And beyond excited doesn’t begin to do it for these next 12 weeks.

It’s such an honor to be here with you all. And a wonderful part of this is I know there are extraordinary things in store. And then I also know there are extraordinary things in store that even I don’t know yet. Because that’s the energy that you all bring and so this is a part where I really, like, I walk my talk here where it is way scary to be the founder and the teacher and the coach and the CEO of an experience and then also be like, “And I know my part and I also know when to surrender.”

Because it’s real easy to want to control everything. But I know that would make the experience too small. It would make it too small for all of you, for your experience cannot be contained and controlled. That which wants to happen through us, creativity, does not want to be contained and controlled. So, I’m showing up ready to play, ready to dance. And I am so grateful that you all are joining me in this.

So, if anyone has any questions for today, I’ll stay on the line. If not, I will see you on the forum and I will see you too on Thursday on the virtual artist date. But I’ll be here too if you have questions.

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Speaker: I have a question, that I have the answer to because you’re just fabulous and I just want to say that you’re fabulous, number one. Number two, the question I had was do you mind saying just a little bit more about the – like just a few minutes – of the difference between answering a question from the space of a thought versus the space of an observer? I think that’s so powerful and it’s easy to get there and I would love just to hear two minutes of that.

Leah: Yeah, I think, the first thing that comes to mind is that the observer is never in a rush to give an answer. The observer is more, like, “There that is.” And sits with it. And I think too, another hallmark of information that comes from the observer is that it’s simple, which is again why I wanted to begin this session, this series, this 12 weeks with the simple plan. Because I think we all have that seed within us that is so clear, it’s not confused, it knows exactly who it is, why it’s here, what it’s about. And then our work in becoming that is all of the dust that it kicks up, the mental and emotional drama.

So, I think that which comes from your observer just is clear and it is simple. It’s not in a rush. It feels expansive, even if it’s bad news sometimes, there’s more of a subtle piece to it. I think if anyone has ever experienced a major life event that is like one of those life events that’s like, that’s scary because it pulls the veil up and it’s like, “Yeah, I’m a mortal.”

Also, if you’ve been in that space, really been there, even if it’s death you’re looking at, it’s also very – there’s a, “Huh, so this is what that’s been about. This is what everybody’s so scared of. This is what I’ve been so scared of.” So, I think that is another hallmark of thoughts or ideas that come from the observer and awareness. It’s not, “I don’t care.” It’s just clear, often very simple.

Speaker: Like that sacred ground kind of that you were saying?

Leah: Yeah, that feeling of deep down on a sacred, sacred ground. And that’s why those of you who have been with me before know I will often prescribe, if you are unable to access the observer in a certain moment because the emotions are strong or the thoughts are strong, to lie down on the floor and just that reminder that the floor, until we die and then we descend back into the earth, it holds us up and supports us at every square inch.

And that visceral reminder of laying down on the floor, when you think your world is crumbling for whatever reason and you actually feel the floor rising up to hold you, support you at every square inch. And it has never failed to do that. That can help you shift too and it intersects that place where, “Can I find the observer through the physical today? Or do I need to find the observer through the mental? But knowing that all of those avenues are available to you. Does that answer your question?

Speaker: Love it.

Leah: Good question. I love the background today too there, Anna. Anyone else? Housekeeping question, any other questions? Alright, I’m going to end. As you probably already know about me, so hard for me to multi-talk and read the chat. But it is important to me what you say here, so I go back through afterwards and make sure, if I didn’t catch it on the call, I will read it afterwards. Yes, okay, alright everyone. Thank you. Thank you for today, Have a beautiful rest of your day. I’ll see you in the forum and on Thursday.

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So, this brings me to the part of the podcast where I want you to do more than just listen. I want you to lean in and really work with me, coach with me.

So, after having listened to these last two episodes, which are from the first class from this Art School fall 2020, you’ve heard me talk about the Art Schools virtual artist date. And now, the artist date is something I learned from the famed godmother of so many creative spirits in their journey, Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.

So, what we offer through the Art School is a way to do this in community, where you’re also enough alone in your own space and with your own work that you can really dive in. What I think has made this so powerful, both the private artist dates I have done on my own – much easier to do pre-COVID, but this virtual space has also been astonishing. What I have found through the power of all of these variation of the artist date is that if I can get three elements in place, a lot of magic unfolds.

So, I would invite you this week, as your assignment, your challenge, to go on your own artist date and think about – which is not so new. You might have tried that before. But think about having these three elements in place. First, you have an intention. It’s maybe the answer to your question I posed last week, what brought you to this podcast? What brought you to the Art School?

So, maybe your intention is to develop a real and intimate relationship with this dream of yours. And in order to do that, that leads me to number two. You need to have space in your life, prime real estate. That means on your calendar, nonnegotiable.

Anything else in your life, if you think about it, that’s a priority is nonnegotiable. It’s on the calendar. To move it would require inconveniencing a lot of people, letting a lot of people down. You need to have that same boundary with these virtual artist dates, or your real life artist dates.

And the third thing is learning to walk this line between knowing that something powerful and amazing and magical is unfolding. And then also releasing any expectation that it must. So, it’s having positive expectation and then also not being desperate for it to happen, but knowing that by setting the intention and continuing to show up, it’s something I talked about in Art School today, that there is so much magic in consistency. But everyone overlooks consistency because it seems so boring and mundane and pedestrian that it’s just like the dirt and the dust beneath our feet.

But consistency is like the magic dust. Doing that. Not overlooking that. Showing up again and again, creating space, knowing what your intention is, honoring whatever it is that brought you here. Think about that, noticing what brought you here and how would your life change if 100% you knew that to be valid and a real call?

Those books you want to write, that desire you’ve always had to pick up a paint brush, or maybe you are at the pinnacle of your career in terms of what other people think, but you see something beyond, you see something more for yourself, you see that there is still a star out ahead of you and no one else might see it, but you do.

So, honoring that as real – last week we talked about delusion and the beauty of a delusion, like Lady Gaga said she was delusional until she evolved and grew into it. So, honoring those things as valid and real and, if you did that, if they were 100% real to you, wouldn’t it make so much sense that you could spend at least 90 minutes a week building a relationship, exploring, cultivating, developing?

And if you find that you come up against a brick wall or to a dead end, I have something extra special for you at the end of the podcast today, so be sure to listen in for that.

Thank you for listening to another episode of The Art School Podcast. If you’ve enjoyed these episodes, if this podcast has been useful to you, meaningful to you, I am so grateful. And if you would like to pay it forward, the best thing you can do is subscribe, share, and go to iTunes and leave a review.

That helps me so much. I, first of all, read them all, appreciate these messages and letters from you deeply. And it also helps me reach more people. So, thank you for listening in. Thank you if, today, you can take a few minutes to leave a review or to send an episode that makes you think of a friend or an ally or a colleague. I truly appreciate you being a part of this community and I truly appreciate your support.

So, to close today, before I go – I was going to say before I go pack for my mastermind retreat. But I don’t have to pack because it’s a virtual retreat. I do need to do some things to prepare though. So, this weekend, we are holding one of the virtual retreats for the Art School Mastermind. I’ve got some amazing things in store for them. And while I would much prefer to be with them in person, I’m super-stoked about this additional time together this weekend.

So, I was thinking about what I’m preparing for them and was thinking about what I wanted to share with you in today’s episode. And coming to that place again that I know, sometimes, if you follow through with my coach with me assignment and do the artist date, I know sometimes that can bring you to a place where you felt the call, you know what brought you to this podcast, you know what will bring you to the artist date. You have answered the call of that dream, of that goal, of that true self. And then sometimes it can feel like then the call, like, trails off or dries up and you’re given no further information.

So, I once shared with someone, who is very intuitive and wise, a very stunning experience I had where I received some powerful creative insight and information. And she said she had a very simple response, which was also so profound. And she said, “Well you could say that was amazing, I loved that, please show me more.”

And I loved that because it, to me, it sounds like this simple prayer of both gratitude and then also stating a willingness, to be shown more. And then also, what’s embedded in that is a stance of understanding the benevolence of that which is calling us, that if we say, “Thank you, that was amazing, please show me more, please tell me more, please guide me more,” and from the stance of entirely not needing the next bit of information, and then also it’s like this peaceful expectancy, like you were talking to someone that’s a friend and cares about you or loves you and, of course, they want to show you more. They were just waiting for you to ask.

So, show up for your dreams on these artist dates, my friends. And then maybe someday soon or in the future, we will meet up on a virtual artist date or even better, in person. I would love that. Have a beautiful week, everyone and I will talk with you next time.