Two Years Later: The Blog Challenge ….. Continues

two yearsTonight I’m going to take a moment to celebrate achieving a daily blog for two years. It’s a challenge I set myself that I wasn’t even sure I would complete. But I have.

Two years of a blog a day! Sitting down mostly last thing at night to decide what to write. Wondering if anyone was reading them. Imagining I might run out of things to say. Staring at a blank screen as the clock crept round to midnight. Wishing I hadn’t challenged myself. Yet determined to fulfil my promise to myself. I know I needed something big to break me out of a massive writers block. Because I also knew for a long time that I had at least one book in my head that needed to be written. Well it has been. And I’m now onto book two. All from asking myself to push a little bit further.

I’ve stopped worrying about whether my blog gets read or not. Because I’ve started to enjoy the words for their own sake. After one or two false starts I’ve realised that there is so much joy in expressing myself this way. My writing has become a wonderful thing to do to lift my mood. It keeps me clear of low vibrational energy. I can be me. The real me. And I know I am generally an optimistic, hopeful person. I’m so glad to have discovered that me again. In a way I think it’s sad that writing is taught in such a rigid way. Unless, like I did, you have a good teacher or two. Or even three or four. Now I encourage other people as much as I can.

Out of the same challenge four of us have written a book each. Maybe there will be more who find the power of words in the future. Of course, my challenge isn’t over yet. I set myself the total of one thousand and one blogs. Or maybe I could up it to one thousand and two. Who knows? All I know is that my writing challenge continues.

Day 730 of my blogging challenge

Another Inspired Challenge

Another day, another adventure. When I set off with the Inspired 2 Write 28 day challenge I decided that I should also write in the group every day.

As well as encouraging every one to write something I wanted to challenge myself. It would be like writing another blog really. Then I also decided that I knew quite a bit about blogging (I’ve been doing it for more than a year, lol) so perhaps I could share some hints and tips. That would mean three lots of writing every day for twenty eight days. Interesting. I know I want to write more. I’very found I love writing. So stepping up the challenge this way would test how much I really do want to spend my time writing.

That was the other issue. Another one or two pieces, no matter how short, would stretch the amount of ideas and words I needed to deliver. More thought, more typing, more editing equalling much more time. Where would I fit things in. After all I’ve started back at work and my diary is looking very busy up ahead. Yet the challenge to write more is an opportunity for me. As usual, I decided to step off the cliff. Jump right in. Give it a go. I told myself that I could always restrict the hints and tips posts. Or not do them at all. But I felt it was right to share the demand of a piece of writing every day. That way I would be treading the same path as everyone else in the group.

Another thing also emerged for me. If this challenge worked for some of the participants perhaps there would need to be a way to carry it on.

A sort of Insipred 2 Write Version 2. Another opportunity for new writers and those involved in the first challenge to get or keep the momentum going. That’s what I’ve found I needed. Enough blog posts so that the pattern of writing has become firmly fixed for me. I’m not sure I could stop now even if I tried. Because what I’m seeing people write about is fascinating. I love reading their work. We have different backgrounds, experiences and voices. It’s another chance to connect with people who are expressing themselves from the heart. I find it energising.

Perhaps that’s something I hadn’t expected from my writing. I hadn’t planned to be leading a challenge. Or even encouraging others to write in the first place. It sort of happened. When I thought about that I realised that I fell into writing in the same way I seem to have fallen into lots of things in my life. Love, depression, corporate life, counselling, mediumship, motherhood. Usually just as I thought my life was finally getting somewhere. Each bolt of lightening threw me in another direction. Not necessarily one I expected to go in. But I’ve learned to keep myself on my toes ready for the next big shake up.

My experiences keep taking me on unexpected journeys. Off to another point that I couldn’t see when I set off.

I am proud of my flexibility with all the change that comes along. Now I want to brush up on my decisiveness. I pendulum from jumping in where angels fear to tread to agonising over every insignificant detail. To some people that definitely makes me Marmite. You either love me or hate me, often at the same time. I believe in shaking the tree. Because I believe we all have the potential to be so much more than we believe we are. I also feel that we have been encouraged to fear far too much.

When I write I am doing it for me. It’s a way of listening to myself. Of pushing myself to strive to be better. Not perfect. I don’t feel that perfect exists. I feel we have to be good enough for the moment we are in. Hindsight is wonderful. But it’s always an exercise in looking back and seeing what we can do differently going forward. I wish people wouldn’t use it as a way of blaming themselves. Or others. I do what I do in any moment. There is no other way to live and take action in the world.

Of course I hope that the things I do are helpful, kind and loving to myself and others. Yet I can’t know for sure the full consequences of my actions.

I can’t stop being active in the world for fear of doing something that will upset me or others. Life is here to be lived in the best way I can do it. I would like to think that my optimism comes through in my writing. And my honesty. I’m willing to look at myself and try to be the best me I can be. Sometimes that will work. Sometimes it won’t. Life is about the interesting interplay of light and shadow. I contain both of these within me. I wish to shine much more of my light rather than be in the shadows. However, I’m human so skip past my writing on the days where the shadows are around. Unless you too are evolving through the shadows. In that case read on and maybe we can evolve alongside of one another.

Day 419 of my blogging challenge.

Peacefully Painting Angels

img_4874Although I had some readings to do today I also managed to spend a little bit of time peacefully painting. Like my writing, painting is a way for me to find another voice.

In a busy world it’s all too easy to get swamped by responsibilities. Carrying out the things I feel I should, must or ought to do. Of course if I find any of those things are not really what I want to do I may be too polite to say no. Of even feel the pressure of guilt getting me to say yes. It’s almost as if being able to peacefully go about doing the things I get most pleasure from is wrong. When I began writing every day it took me a while to shake the feeling that I ought to be spending the time doing something else for my business. If I could find an hour to write surely it should be about the accounts. Or looking at bills. Perhaps doing next year’s business plan. You see, the writing gave me pleasure. I enjoyed it – mostly. It’s strange really. Why do we think work has to be hard?

That’s an interesting question. When I was growing up the pressure was on getting a job. Any job. It was good if it was a job I could enjoy. But really my enjoyment or otherwise didn’t matter. A job would mean I could ‘pay my way’. That was the underlying assumption. I would become a contributing member of society. How long that attitude has stuck with me! As if my writing voice can’t add any value at all. So how much bigger the resistance to painting. Paintings only have value if you are a famous artist. Yet paintings can move people emotionally whether they are considered good or bad. The artist uses the paint as a different kind of voice.

Of course I no longer believe that paintings only have value when you are well known. I have learned that beauty is in the eye of the beholder even if I am the only one to see my paintings.

At my art table today I continued a painting I started last week. Peacefully dotting the paint here and there, getting my fingers involved, I had time to relax. Whatever is emerging on the canvas will be interesting to me. When I paint I am always open to the connection with the Energy Beings around me. I let them guide my hands. Although I may have an idea of what is being painted it often turns out my idea was only a little bit right. There is an energy building on top of the background. It is represented by the colours I have picked up and the way they are blended. I enjoy the feel of the paint on my fingers. I try not to influence the way I move my hands. The picture is birthing it’s own ‘voice’.

Today was about reminding me that work can be enjoyable. In fact I feel that I want to only work at what I enjoy. There are business tasks that are necessary but that’s not my work. That’s me with my admin hat on. When I am working I am writing, painting, connecting with Energy Beings and supporting others. Siting peacefully in Heber Street Spiritualist church this afternoon, with a little bit of paint still under my fingernails, I knew I was working in the best of all ways. The way that I enjoy. Each day I get to do things that I love. Who can ask for more than that? Don’t let your work become the way you pay your bills. Find what you enjoy and trust yourself enough to know that you can do that. If you do the Universe is there to send you enough abundance to pay all of your bills!

Day 369 of my blogging challenge. 

Betty Shine – Never Ending Inspiration

imageAfter all of the clearing yesterday today has been a day of rest and healing. I love the fact that we can all self-heal. We just have to ask for it and it will flow in. Though sometimes we have to be inspired to ask.

Over the past couple of days I’ve been reading a book by a wonderful healer and medium, Betty Shine. It’s called My Life as a Medium and it was clear when I first started to read it how much she wanted to help and heal people. I also appreciate the journey she describes from healer to reluctant medium and channel. Betty Shine worked her own path through the connections with the Spirit World. I find that really encouraging as I have found my Guides tend to prefer me to figure things out for myself. So reading about another medium who did much the same is an inspiration.

That is the special legacy that other mediums have left. There are many biographies to help me consider anything that I am experiencing.  Understanding all the different ways that communication can happen makes me feel much more secure. I know from experience it is hard to work out what is my thought and what might be a thought from an Energy Being. So being able to read about how other mediums have worked through the doubt is really good. I also take a lot of encouragement from the fact that they are many ways to develop my abilities. That it’s ok to do it my way.

I’ve reached the part of the story where Betty Shine starts to write her first book. She wants to encourage people to seek the help and healing they need. She also wants to encourage an understanding of the Afterlife so people find hope.

I’ve taken a lot of support from this today. My book is well under way but it does take discipline to stick at it. And a desire to put into words some of the wonder that life becomes when you open up to the possibility that life continues after the body is gone. It is possible to heal my life if I wish. I can hope for better things in my future if I embrace my life full on. If you have never had a chance to read Betty Shine’s books why not try one now. Or let yourself be drawn to some of the other writers who are busy sharing their experiences of Spirit connections. No one person has the definitive voice. That’s why I find that inspiration is never ending. There is so much to listen to and learn.

Day 309 of my blogging challenge.