Ep #160: Ease-y Magic

I have two words for you as we head into the holiday season this 2021 and look forward to the coming new year of 2022. Those two words are, “Slacker magic.” Now, I wish I had coined the phrase, “Slacker magic,” but darn it, I did not. I actually heard it from a woman who is a coach named Abigail Steidley, and you can check out her website. We’ll have the link in the show notes.

I have never met her, but ever since I heard this phrase on a webinar that she offered a few years ago, it resonated with me. And I knew it would find its way, one day, into this podcast. And now is the time because, again, as we head into this holiday season and the coming new year, we’re thinking about a way of being that makes our extraordinary results inevitable.

And too often, when people hear me say that phrase, they gear up and think they’re going to have to put on all kinds of armor, they’re going to have to armor up, put their badass on, and basically gearing up to exhaust themselves and be productivity machines.

And I am all for a hard work ethic and doing that when it’s necessary, rolling up your sleeves, spiritual and physical elbow grease. And there is also a place for this receptive flow of creativity. So, today we’re going to talk about slacker magic and how that can revolutionize not only your holiday season, but the year ahead, and your ability to create anything you want – and here’s the real revolution – from a radically relaxed state. I hope you enjoy this episode.

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, everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Art School Podcast. I am so glad you are joining me. And if you are coming off Thanksgiving or heading into the holiday season, wherever you find yourself around the world, I hope it’s a very good one. And I hope today’s episode helps.

There can be so much pressure on making this a magical, special time of the year, what with the holidays and the coming year, that it can end up feeling anything but magical. It can end up feeling actually very anxiety-ridden or there’s so much pressure and stress.

And so, I have been thinking about ways I can craft these next few episodes within this season to really offer you another alternative, a capital-C Creative alternative, so that in this area of your life, as well as every other area of your life, from your work, to your finances, to creating that dream creative goal and career, that you are actually doing it from a place that feels good to you, like what feels good, what feels right, versus the appearance of having everything together but feeling like it’s such a fragile success, like you’re empty and hollow, and if you could only get there, then you will relax and then you will be at home in the universe, at home in your own life.

So, again, I hope this episode and the coming episodes help you facilitate that shift that we’re always talking about from survival, fight or flight, into a deeply innately capital-C Creative mode where you relax into your innate power, and from that place, you’re able to flow what’s yours to flow.

And from that place too, yes, we can grow and improve our craft and grow our businesses and raise our families and contribute to our communities, but from a calm place where we are actually peaceful, because we are actually at peace with who we are, knowing that that is all we ever need in any moment.

And from that place in our central nervous system, this calm, we can be present then to focus on the task of – let’s say we’re writing. So, writing revisions. Let’s say we are sending out more offers. We are building our business so that we can continue to run the iterations and do all of the things, move through the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur, of being a creative, of being a human in the world these days.

We’re going to be doing that anyway, as I have said on recent previous episodes. So, why not consider all of the ways where we can do it from a deeply relaxed peaceful state?

So, as I mentioned in the intro, a few years ago, I was watching a webinar given by a woman named Abigail Steidley, who is a coach. And she was using the term – she created the term Slacker Magic. And she was talking about how slacker has often a very negative connotation.

But in the way she was using it, she was talking about the definition of slack being literally to take the pressure off and that there is magic that can happen when we take the pressure off, we create room for something else to flow in. And if you follow my work, you know why I was instantly in love with this phrase and with this approach, Slacker Magic.

I have not had the opportunity to meet her personally, but maybe one day, maybe even here on the podcast. But I do know, by the way, that she has a seven-day mini course on Seven Days of Slacker Magic, so you might be interested in checking that out.

But why I wanted to present it now, and for this audience, it fits in, dovetails nicely with everything we’ve been talking about around upper limits and quantum creativity, quantum leaps, and taking your next big leap. And I wanted to weave in this concept.

Because while I am all for consistent and steady and slow action and doing that, and I am all for working, a harder work ethic, when that’s required, I also do not believe in this eternal summer concept that we always have to be productive and we have to push, push, push.

I want to facilitate moving people into finding their own innate genius. And part of that is connecting mind, body, and spirit with your own innate creative rhythm. And I think particularly, this time of year, there can be so much pressure to push things into overdrive.

I am not a stranger to that pressure. And so, I’m really benefiting myself from revisiting this concept right now, and also even with this particular episode, going to keep it short and sweet. Because here, it is the night before Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Eve, and I have some relaxing myself that I want to settle into.

And as I think about also just settling into a more deeply relaxed, creative place going forward not only for the rest of this year and the new year, but really downshifting and finding a new gear for me that is even more relaxed and at home for myself than ever and watching the fear that comes up.

So, what I’m sharing with you is not only what I would share with my clients, but it’s my own process for intentionally, consciously creating and living my life. Because I am interested, yes, in fulfilling all of those big dreams, but from a truly fulfilled place, from an inside-out place.

And as I’ve shared in recent weeks, I shared the story about the bird that continually kept flying into the window, and it needed to settle. It needed to settle and reconnect with its own inner wisdom and sense the benevolence in the room that was holding the door open for it, which in that case was me, so that it could find its way to the freedom that it could see, it could find its way out the open door and not continuing to fly into the window.

So, this episode is another angle on the same concept about you finding your way home into this deeply peaceful, calm, creative center. And then, from there, sensing your next move, feeling for what doors are open, what wants to help you, what pathways are next.

And so, I also want this to be a message of deep reassurance. And so, I’ll start there because I have three different concepts, items that I wanted to share with you within this overarching concept of Slacker Magic, about taking the pressure off to allow space for life to find you, for your dreams to find you and flow through you.

And the first, again, that I want to offer is that the simple mantra, “It’s all going to be alright. It’s all going to be alright.” If you’ve ever listened to people who have accomplished much in their life being asked, like, what advice they would give to their younger selves, isn’t it almost always, far and away, some variation of that, telling themselves, “Relax, enjoy your life. It’s all going to be alright.”

And it’s interesting because that is a core theme of mystics, spiritual leaders, sages throughout time, “It’s all going to be alright.” And so, the second thing that I wanted to offer, you likely have done values exercises and you know your priorities, or you’ve done, again, countless exercises about your priorities. And you’ve heard me talk on this podcast too about the root of the word priority, the Latin root, a priori actually means one priority, that it wasn’t until the industrial revolution that we multiplied priority, that we made it plural, made that concept, that imaginal concept that you could have multiple priorities, that it could be plural, that we brought that into our collective consciousness.

And I’ve talked on previous episodes and it’s something we cover a lot in the Art School. I use the two words together, the phrase, you know, “What is sacred and essential?”

And so, I want to offer that to you, again, this season, either this holiday season or approaching the new year, or this season in your life when you’re hearing this. If you are somebody who is like, “I know my priorities and I’m still overwhelmed and I still feel like I’m giving the most to what matters the least,” then perhaps try dropping any priority exercises and ask yourself, what is sacred to you? What is essential? What is sacred and essential? And just rest with those questions. Rest with those words.

So, as we go on here, I’m just going to weave in, this is the coach with me. All through this episode, I want you to lean in and really work with me, coach with me. And if you were working with me as your coach and I offered you those two prompts, I don’t want you to just think about it.

I want you to drop them into your being and let them move to the outer reaches of your consciousness, let them move around your body and your mind and see if you can feel a resonance with that question, “What is sacred? What is essential?” Still yourself in mind, body, and spirit and drop those words into your psyche, into your soul, and consider them.

We all have so many priorities, it’s hard to take that word back now that it’s a multiple. So, instead, drop that for a while and try this on; what is sacred? What is essential?

And then third, after you’ve given that some time and you’ve felt around for it, don’t leave it there. ask yourself, now, how can you think and act in accordance, honoring what is sacred and essential? If you were to live your life giving the most to what matters the most, that which is sacred and essential, what would you no longer be doing? What would you be doing that you aren’t currently doing? Or what would you do more of?

So, these questions are the kind of questions that I always tell my clients, these are like rubber-meets-the-road questions. These are questions that invite you to change and shift things, maybe to say a sacred no to some things and a full resounding yes to others. And we can feel so much pressure. We can feel so much pressure around continuing to say yes to things that are truly a no for us. Or we can feel so much pressure when we want to say yes to certain things but it means, again, giving more energy or attention to those things and pulling it away from others.

And so, this here again, is where I want to weave in and offer you a coach with me around how can Slacker Magic work for you in this instance. How can you take the pressure off of yourself to allow more magic to flow back into your life?

Thank you for listening to another episode of The Art School Podcast. Thank you also for all of your efforts in helping me to reach my million downloads goal. And I would love to do that from as deeply of a relaxed state as possible.

So, I’m going to trust that the benevolent forces in the universe, which include all of you – so thank you for subscribing, thank you for sharing, and sharing, and sharing. And thank you so much for leaving a review.

And if you want to take this work deeper, if you want to find out more about working with me, you can visit my website, www.leahcb.com. You can also email us, support@leahcb.com.

It is late November 2021 as I record this and we are currently accepting applications for the Art School Mastermind, spring 2022. So, this kicks off officially in January, although I am offering two bonus calls, two group bonus calls as well as a bonus one on one session with me for early bird enrollees.

And the deadline to submit your application to be considered for the early bird is December 14^th. This next round of the mastermind will be six months long, beginning the week of January 18^th, and continuing through the week of January 19^th.

Full details are available at my website. But in short, this is me as your coach for a solid, glorious, epic six months. And you will also have the benefit of being surrounded by an extraordinary community, so creative, so big-hearted, so high-energy with everyone having the capacity to dream big and encouraging others to go for it. And then also the capacity to really do what’s necessary, sometimes leaning into the Slacker Magic, sometimes, at other times, leaning into the elbow grease, but everybody settling deep back within themselves to do their greatest work ever and have the most fun ever while doing it.

Here is how I have been describing this upcoming mastermind, the Art School Mastermind 2022. Whatever you’re thinking of doing in here, in the mastermind, it’s going to happen. That’s how high the energy, that’s how powerful the coaching, that’s how next-level the community. This will be, pure and simple, you doing your best work ever, feeling your best ever, and being more fulfilled, happier, healthier, and wealthier in the process.

So, again, if this is speaking to you, I would encourage you to fill out an application. You are not committed to anything by filling out the application. And I have had several people tell me that just doing that, going through that process was very helpful for them, and even transformative, shifting the way that they were thinking about themselves and how they are approaching their work in their life.

So, to close, I have one more nuance on the coach with me to offer you. And I’ve spoken of this before, but it fits in nicely with this episode. I’ve actually also included it in my book, Wild Blue Yonder. It’s part of the creative meditations, the creative invitations that are in the back of that book.

And so, when you are considering, you know, what is sacred and essential to you, when you are seeking peace within your mind first and then in the world, it can be so helpful to consider to ask yourself, in any given situation, “What is mine here? And what is not mine?”

So much of the pressure that we put on ourselves unnecessarily is when we are trying to take responsibility for what is not ours. So, very much like the serenity prayer. So, the way I like to do this, if I can feel that I’m in this place where I am putting a lot of pressure on myself, I’m putting a lot of pressure on myself to control outcomes or create outcomes or results that involve other people or things that are outside of my control and I can feel that, if I want to get back to a place of deep peace, which is actually the seat of our greatest power, then I put my hand on my heart and I close my eyes and I ask myself, “What is mine here? What is not mine?”

And I feel around for the places where I am trying to grasp or manipulate or control what is not mine, and then I just breathe and release it, envision myself releasing it, feel the places where there is tension, let that go, that tension is just me trying to hold onto what’s not mine.

Another phrase that I have used with myself and with clients that has worked well is letting the chips fall where they may. What is mine and what is sacred and essential to me? What is mine here?

And so, as artists, as creatives, a lot of times, it’s our work. It’s our rest. It’s our play. It’s our ability to do meditations like this and find our way home again. And then, everything else, let those chips fall where they may and sink down deeply into that seat of your great, creative, relaxed power.

Have a beautiful week, a very relaxed week, and I hope this episode has inspired some of you to consider how you might try out some version of your own Slacker Magic. Maybe we’ll find some slacker wizards out amongst this audience.

I am heading off to relax now myself and I look forward to talking with you all next time.