CONNECTION + COMMUNICATION Page 18 of 21

Britt Berg shares her story

Posted on 2012-02-27 at 12:34 pm.

Today’s shared story comes from Britt Berg.

Every day I pinch myself, wondering: How did I get so lucky? Have I really been able to find a career that I am passionate about? I am so thankful that every day I get to do what I love.

What am I doing – what is this thing that I love so very much? Every day, I get paid to write about pregnancy, fertility, and women’s health. And I get to do it from home. I write health articles and blog posts about reproduction, babies, and birthing. I love this!

Before I begin, I must confess that becoming a writer was never my lifelong dream. I always liked writing, but I wasn’t the girl in high school and college who was constantly dreaming of becoming a writer. So how in the world did I get here?

I guess you could say that I let my interests, not money or other people’s expectations, or any other conventions, guide my career. In college I threw practicality and convention to the wind. I studied what I loved, what fascinated me: issues of race, class, and gender, radical feminist theory, breastfeeding trends around the world, natural childbirth, meditation, and more. I took yoga and dance classes. I did what I loved. This combination of interests led me to go on to complete a Master’s degree in counseling psychology, with a focus on yoga and dance therapy as healing methods. Yoga therapy. Yup. Sigh.

And then it was time to get a real job.

Yoga therapy was awesome, but I wasn’t sure that I could really make a living as a yoga therapist. So I took my psychology expertise and started working at Emory University on psychological research studies. I worked with great people and started climbing the ladder into upper level research management positions. But I never felt fulfilled. I always wanted more. I wanted to love my job. I wanted to make more money with the time I had. I wanted to feel passionate about what I was doing. And I wanted to feel more connected to my home and family.

There was just one problem. My husband and I had two children, and he was in over his head in graduate school working on his PhD. I was supposed to carry this family of four financially until he was finished with school – several long years later.

Patience, however, was not my strong point. I was determined and I decided to go for it. In October 2008, at the beginning of his third year of graduate school, we sat down with spreadsheets and talked extensively, planning out how we could make my dream job a reality. We crunched numbers, drew up a very austere monthly budget and saved everything we could. Three months later, I cut my research job down to part-time and I tried to get as many freelance writing jobs as I could. I attended writing workshops, met other writers for coffee, and brainstormed ways to make this work. I networked and was very fortunate to have some very big “ins” into the world of health writing (you know who you are!)

I worked part-time for a year, slowly building my writing portfolio, writing for major online health websites. That year, I co-authored my first book – the second edition of Making a Baby – a book about pregnancy and infertility. Then, right after Christmas 2009, I was offered a two-month contract writing about pregnancy and infertility that paid really well. The money would allow me to save up enough money to leave my day job. I took the leap and quit my day job. I was a writer!

During those first few months, I became pregnant with our third child. So here we were: a graduate student, a brand new freelance writer, and three small children. Not exactly the most secure existence imaginable.

Thankfully, my career was blossoming. I was busy. I was full. As 2010 continued, I was making a surprisingly good hourly rate. I had to turn down multiple writing jobs because I was so busy. Recruiters would call and I couldn’t even consider those offers. Two years after taking this wonderful leap, I am still full – beyond full. I am making a very satisfying income doing what I love.

Doing what I love isn’t just about the writing or the women’s health focus, though, although I truly love my job and have a passion for these things. Doing what I love also means that I have a better work-life balance than I was able to have when I worked outside the home. As a mother of three, this is beyond valuable. While I miss the social contact of working outside of the home at times, I am so blessed and thankful that I can make a living working here at home.

World community, I believe that it is possible for you to go out and achieve your dream job. I am living proof that you CAN do it. Yes, you will have to make sacrifices. Yes, you may have to give up many things that you enjoy to make it happen. Yes, you will have to work your arse off. But as I continue on this path doing what I love, I am meeting more and more people that are finding creative and fulfilling ways to make a living doing what they love. Through telling my story here, I hope you will understand and believe that your dreams are within your reach.

Every day I pinch myself: Is this really true? Am I really so fortunate to be living my dream? Do I really get to wake up every day and do this job that I love? Thankfully, gratefully, miraculously, yes! YES! It is real, and it is so wonderful.

So think about what it is that you love, what it is that moves you, what it is that drives you…

…And do it.

[All images by John Berg.]

Find out more about Britt here and get your copy of Making a Baby here.

Finding beauty in the broken places: Wendy Brightbill shares her story

Posted on 2012-02-06 at 8:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Today’s shared story comes from Wendy Brightbill.

To me, doing what I love means doing something that I am so passionate about that I just can’t help doing it. It’s what I would do every single day of my life even if I didn’t get paid a single dime. I feel so fortunate and grateful to have found what I really love doing, creating art and inspiring women to find beauty in the broken places.

The path that led me to becoming an artist is a tad bit unconventional and involved my life unraveling at the seams before I could piece them back together. But the devastation I experienced and the trials I endured allowed me to discover my true passion and made me who I am today, an artist.

Growing up, I was always consumed with creating. My sister and I would spend hours colouring and drawing and gluing and taping. I took a few art classes in high school and learned to draw. I was even pretty good at it. But I never saw myself as an artist, just that I was good at art. There is a difference.

I went on to teach Kindergarten, what I always thought I was meant to do. And there were aspects of teaching that I absolutely loved. I loved being creative and coming up with new curriculum. I loved the actual teaching and the fulfillment of watching my students learn. But there were so many parts of teaching that were very difficult, and just not me. I soon became weighed down by the amount of expectations placed on me. I grew very disillusioned with being a teacher and made a decision to quit in search of finding what I was really passionate about. I thought that meant going into business for myself but I really had no idea what was right around the corner.

The summer after I quit teaching, my life took a complete detour. A heart breaking, life-falling-apart detour. I was rear-ended in a car accident. The unraveling began with chronic pain and a brain injury. And slowly I watched as everything in my life came apart. We lost our home and experienced financial ruin. I was depressed and paralyzed by fear. My personality changed. I went from operating primarily from my left brain to being forced to use my right brain more. It has taken me years to fully recover and heal from this tragedy and I am still on this path of healing.

Art became a huge part of my healing process. At my lowest point, my mother gave me a copy of Kelly Rae Roberts book Taking Flight. My heart came alive as I was able to express my heart and my journey in ways that I never even thought possible. The messy free flowing nature of mixed media art truly spoke to my broken brain. I started making new connections in my brain and found that I could actually be more creative than I had ever been. What used to be difficult to my left brained self, flowed out of my paintbrush with ease and heart. I found the me who had always been there but could not come out until my brain injury. And I found a deep and lastly purpose in what I was doing.

I started my business A Girl and Her Brush where I create and sell art, blog, teach local art classes, teach an online class, write articles for national magazines and share my story with women all over the world. Last year I was published in four different Stampington magazines. And I started teaching again. I love that all the aspects I enjoyed about teaching I now get to do all the time without the parts that felt yucky.

I have big dreams for the future. I want to become licensed as an artist. I would love to write a book about my story. And one day I would love to open a studio where I would have big artists come from all over the world to teach classes and inspire women.

Looking back, I never expected that my brain injury would launch me into a life of doing what I love. I am so grateful that I was open to finding my passions and didn’t miss this creative calling.

[All images courtesy of Wendy Brightbill.]

Find out more about Wendy on her blog or Etsy shop.

Doing what you love begins with consciousness: Nicola Taylor shares her story

Posted on 2012-01-30 at 2:00 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

Today’s shared story comes from talented photographer Nicola Taylor.

For me, doing what you love begins with consciousness. What do I mean by that? I mean that sometimes we just have so many options available to us that it’s hard to know what we’d love to do. We don’t know which is the right thing for us and we expect that, when we find it, we’ll hear angels singing the Hallelujah chorus and a beam of light will shine down from the heavens, illuminating that one thing that will make it all complete. I don’t know about you, but that hasn’t been my experience. I spent a long time doing something that wasn’t what I loved and it took me a good couple of years of hard work just to clear the decks and figure out what to do next.

To take you back to the beginning of my story, two years ago I was working as a stockbroker in the City of London. I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing and, to be honest, I had no idea how I had got there. I think I had just stopped looking at the big picture and started focusing only on the choices in front of me. I did that job for seven years and I think I was happy for two of them. The rest were just wasted in stress and worry and fear that I couldn’t actually do anything else.

I think we all want the transitions to be smooth and easy but the truth is I couldn’t have known at that point that I wanted to be a photographer. I couldn’t see it from there. It’s kind of like being in a valley. You need to get to a higher vantage point in order to be able to see further afield. Sometimes, when all you can see are the mountains in your way, the first step is just trying to get to higher ground.

The moment of truth came for me on a January morning when I was meeting with my boss to allocate the many stressful and lonely business trips we had to take throughout the year. I remarked on how busy we were going to be and he turned to me and said “It’ll be November before you know it.” NOVEMBER. Almost 52 weeks gone… just like that. And the implications of that comment hit me between the eyes like a sledgehammer. As long as I was in that environment where a year went by in a blink of an eye, I would never have the space or the perspective to decide what I wanted to do next. I would never get a smooth transition. There was nothing else to be done. I would have to leave and face the discomfort.

I gave my notice a month later with no idea what I was going to do. I was fortunate in that my career had been very well paid and my unconscious had been protecting me by forcing me to be frugal for the past few years, so I had some savings and I decided to take a year off, a kind of sabbatical. I’m not the kind of person who can just wander aimlessly so I set myself things to do throughout the year, things that would keep me on track. A yoga teacher training in Bali, a writing retreat in the Scottish Highlands, an art retreat in New Hampshire and a nine month photography course at the London College of Communication.

And, although I didn’t know it at the time, everything was unfolding in just the right sequence. The yoga training was like a reset button for my life and gave me back my connection to my gut instinct. The writing retreat allowed me time for reflection on my life and the things I wanted. The art retreat gave me a tremendous sense of community and the bravery to try something with no idea whether I‘d be any good at it or not. And then, when it came to the photography course, I was ready. Everything that was inside of me was primed and ready to be expressed. And it was a little like the Hallelujah Chorus. But the angels could never have found me sitting on my butt in that cubicle. I had to take the first steps myself.

My big dream now is to continue exploring my own newly discovered creativity and, in time, to help others find theirs. I had written myself off as not being a creative person and that couldn’t have been further from the truth. In reality, I was paralysed by my own expectations of what an artist is and the judgments of my school art teachers. Not that they were wrong (I could show you a clay sculpture of a seal I made that would make you pee your pants laughing) but what they forgot is that creativity is so much more than technical artistic ability. We are all innately creative and we all have access to a medium that works for us, a medium that allows us to express ourselves with joy. I’m making it my mission in life is to convince people of the first and to help them find the second.

[All images courtesy of Nicola Taylor.]

Find more of her gorgeous photography here or connect on Facebook or Twitter.

Turning challenges into opportunities: Arina Isaacson and Kimberly Riggins share their stories

Posted on 2011-12-26 at 8:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Today’s fascinating shared stories come from former clown and master storyteller Arina Isaacson and body image expert Kimberly Riggins.

Arina Isaacson

I am 10 years old. I am sitting in the beautiful old opera house in the classic western mountain mining town of Central City Colorado watching my, first ever, live theatre production. The Miracle Worker with Patty Duke and Ann Bancroft is the inspiring story of Helen Keller, born deaf and blind and how she first learned to express herself through non-verbal communication. My child heart is beating wildly and the hairs on my arm are standing in thunderous applause. Little did I know that the magic of this moment would define my life’s work, insisting that I follow my heart and do what I love.

Mimi-the-Clown

ACT I

In 1970 I received my Master’s degree in Communication and became a teacher of deaf children. At this time my best friend suggested that I take a mime class to enhance my teaching and my love of gestural language. I called my mother and I said, “Guess what? I’m going to become a clown.” There was dead silence on the other end of the phone. “You’re going to become a what? A clown? You just got a Master’s degree –Wherever did you get that idea?”

All I can tell you is that something very strong grabbed hold of my heart when I started doing mime, clown and improvisation work. I came alive and had to follow this tug wherever it was going to take me.

Buba-the-Magician

ACT II

I quit my job, sold all my belongings, packed my Chevy and moved to San Francisco to follow my heart’s calling and pursue creativity. For the next 20 years I immersed myself in theatrical clown work, sacred puppetry and visual art. I found ways to combine my creative work with my love of teaching and began to experience the power of visualizing my dreams and healing my deepest wounds. The sacred art pieces that I created held the energy of my dreams. My inner landscape helped form sacred artifacts—mythic performing dolls; fetishes, charms, amulets, and shadow boxes. Each piece represented a different intention or prayer.

The Devouring Tree Mother

You see, by the time I turned 35 years old, I had lost my parents and grandparents to cancer; endured a hysterectomy, dashing my hopes of ever becoming pregnant and, survived a brutal rape by a stranger breaking into my home. Early on, I realized that I could view these challenging moments as opportunities to become empowered rather than victimized. And so, adversity has been one of my greatest teachers. It has provided me with the chance to get to know myself. The constant theme in my life has been the path of the artist. By consciously experiencing, working with, and expressing my inner and outer obstacles, I have been able to find my authentic voice, to unleash my passion and use it to cultivate wholeness and creativity. Adversity has been my inspiration for following my heart and doing what I most love to do. My commitment to pursue the creative path guided me toward building confidence and authenticity.

I used my own suffering to heal and make other people laugh at the same time. This unique approach to creating personal clown characters enabled me to explore the place of vulnerability where the funniest and most touching clown persona reside. I developed a process of creating clown characters based on externalizing my inner world. Clowning gave me ways to express hopes, fears, heal my grief and hidden craziness by forming a clown character.

I created five characters over a period of 20 years, based on my natural inclinations of movement, voice, gestured habits, inner feelings, and stories. Each season of my life, a new character would emerge.

Baby Fatty

Boo-lu was my first character. She was a feisty single mother who traveled with five white baby dolls with red noses, all named Baby Kaka. Each vignette told a story about the love/hate relationship between the mother and her babies. Then came Mimi the Clown. Me! Me! She was based on my tendency to be a narcissist. Mimi made a lot of mistakes as a way to deal with my perfectionism. She would say, “Oh, you’re right, you’re right,” you’re right”, you’re right!” “How do you know? How do you know” How do you know?” Baby Fatty helped me come to terms with my body image and food issues.

In my early 50’s, Ms. Lotta Bucks appeared to help me face my fears of growing older. She was an expert in cultivating “inner beauty” and counseled women about retirement. She taught them how to invest their “socks in the sock market and wash them grow!” And, finally, out popped Mrs. Milton, whose favorite advice is, “Just remember, dearie, it only matters what other people think!”

The treasured Clown School of San Francisco, which I founded, became home to people from all walks of life who wanted to explore and tell their unique life stories by creating personal clown characters. Computer programmers from Silicon Valley, priests and nuns from the theological seminaries, CEOs, business professionals, emergency room doctors, and criminal lawyers all converged at the Clown School to tell their stories, find their voice and experience their joie de vivre.

Moona-the-Wise-Owl-Woman

ACT III

Next, I came to understand that self-awareness and telling one’s compelling life stories, are the key to becoming an authentic and powerful person. I wanted to take the essence of the clown – the aliveness, the vitality of that unique voice further out into the marketplace. Joining with colleagues, in a theater-based communication training called ‘Active Communicating’ (www.corporatescenes.com) we focused on finding and expressing one’s authentic presence, voice and compelling leadership journey stories. For the past 20 years I have been traveling the world helping leaders learn the skill set to inspire, motivate, influence and connect with any audience.

The River of life

ACT IV

Over time I came to painting, spirit journals, and vision storyboards. The River of Life has become a central exercise in my story-telling curriculum. By creating a River of Life, one is able to clearly track the richness of his/her life experience and draw from those experiences to tell stories of courage, triumph, risk, struggle, values, adventure, mistakes made and lessons learned. My life stories provide the context for my experiences and through them, I am able to find the inspiration to make an impact on the world.

The ability to create and tell certain kinds of stories is not only a useful tool, but an essential prerequisite to finding my original voice. These stories have provided visual maps and images for conveying who I am, the authentic moments of where I came from and who has mentored and inspired me along the way.

My 40-year creative journey has been about the healing aspects of art, ritual and theater. The thread that has traveled through each act is creativity and communication. It is and has been my greatest joy to first find my authentic voice and then to inspire others to open to their full self expression. This process has helped wake me up to life! My art work is the deepest manifestation of my gratitude for the gift of living a meaningful life and doing what I love every step of the way. Thank you for allowing me to share my journey with you.

The Beloved

To find out more about Arina visit her website or her art site.

Kimberly Riggins

I truly believe we all have a choice how we show up in the world. How we wake up in the morning, how we go about our day, who we interact with, how we handle our emotions and where we put our energy. Regardless of our circumstances, we all have the ability to choose.

Doing what you love is also a choice. A conscious choice to do something that brings you joy, inspiration and fulfilment, regardless of what other people may think.

I most certainly do what I love.

But it wasn’t always that way. I used to think I needed to conform to societal standards of what is proper, how to speak, how to look, what to do with my life.

Standing at a crossroads in my own life, staring down the path of least resistance or the path of an unknown adventure, I chose the latter.

I must say, choosing adventure which includes being authentically myself has been the best decision I have ever made.

Today, I get to empower and inspire other women to stop conforming. To stand up for themselves. To live an authentic, beautiful, passionate life. I show them how they can fall head over heels in love with their own bodies, regardless of its shape or size. I teach them how to wrangle their negative thoughts that are just keeping them stuck and most importantly, I unveil a world that includes pleasure and lots of it!

I couldn’t ask for a better way to spend my time.

Believe me, my journey to get to this place was a bumpy one. I had to endure a lot of pain to get myself to this place. A rape, an eating disorder, depression, a crumbling relationship and a financial failure… all situations and circumstances that have the potential to break a person.

Rather than play the victim and let these issues consume me, I tried to find the lesson I was supposed to learn with each event. It wasn’t easy. There were a number of times I wanted to throw in the towel. Just give up!

But something deep inside me kept me going. It took years for me to realize that it was my innate strength that kept me afloat. That strength lives in all of us. Sometimes, it helps to have someone else help us pull it out.

Moving forward, my life is full of exciting things. My first book, “Love Your Naked Ass” will soon be published, I have an amazing new program coming out, I am rebuilding my relationship, and I am creating a new financial plan.

Looking back, if I had to do everything all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. Because I love who I am today and without those life experiences, I wouldn’t be me!

[Images courtesy of Kimberly Riggins.]

Kimberly is Founder and Creator of The Art of Eating Chocolate Naked is a Body Image Expert, Self-Talk Warrior and Transformational Catalyst who inspires and empowers women to love and accept themselves just as they are. Find out more about her on her website.

Featured in Somerset Life!

Posted on 2011-11-09 at 9:30 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

(Image via Gypsy Girls’ Guide)

Earlier this year I said that one of my goals was to get featured in one of Stampington‘s beautiful magazines, and now that has happened twice in two months – first with new title Mingle and now with the ever gorgeous Somerset Life – thank you world (and Christen Olivarez)!

(Image via Gypsy Girls’ Guide)

It is such a privilege to be featured in this fab article by photographer Alessandra Cave, mentioned as one of her global tribe of wandering contributors to her lovely blog Gypsy Girls’ Guide. It is such a fascinating eclectic group of women and I have to pinch myself that my name is there among them. You can see more about the article on Gypsy Girls’ Guide here.

Thank you Stampington! Thank you Alessandra!

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Countdown to the start of The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design featuring Rachael Taylor… only five days to go! If you haven’t yet signed up you can still register here!

Do what you love and make money: Denise Duffield-Thomas shares her story

Posted on 2011-10-31 at 8:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Today’s shared story comes from money mindset mentor Denise Duffield-Thomas.

I was a born entrepreneur but it doesn’t mean I was naturally good at it.

When I was 9, I had a fluoro bracelet business. The trouble was that I sold them for the same price as the cost of my materials which meant a zero profit. When my school teacher pointed that out, I felt ashamed, whereas before I was just thrilled by the pure joy of selling and making my own money.

That year my mum gave me an electric typewriter for Christmas and it was the best present ever! After dabbling with writing newsletters and short-stories, I went into the forgery business, selling ‘personally signed’ letters from Kylie Minogue for $5 a piece by claiming she was my cousin.

Aged twelve, I organised a club for my friends, inspired by the Baby Sitters Club, but we called it ‘The Cool Kids Club’ (we even had a song!). We worked on a random variety of projects that we never got around to finishing, like selling horse manure and organising garage sales. I’m great at the ideas, less on the follow up and eventually my mum made us throw out everything we had accumulated. Manure included.

In my teens, I came up with this concept of ‘being brave’ with my close girlfriends. We encouraged each other to get involved in ‘scary’ school projects like the debate team or running for school council. We watched Oprah together and talked about our dreams. It was my first ‘mastermind’ experience.

Undoubtedly from a young age I exhibited clear signs of being a creative entrepreneur, a dynamic life coach (although I didn’t know that was even a job) and an enthusiastic (though occasionally unethical) writer and communicator.

These are all the things I do professionally now, but why on earth did I spend my twenties denying my natural talents and doing everything from waitressing to event management – a total of over 50 random and often very unfulfilling jobs?

Why does anyone waste time living small just to pay the bills?

Don’t tell me you don’t know what you’re ‘meant to be’. I’ll bet there were just as clear signs in your childhood as there were in mine.

When I left my small town to go to University, suddenly I was in a much scarier pond, very far removed from growing up with a struggling single mum in a low-income area. I didn’t realise that people would look down on me, because most of my friends back-home had the same.

I allowed myself to feel ‘less than’ everyone else. In consequence, I failed most of my degree and often felt depressed and frustrated.

So, rather than being the vibrant kid who had zero doubt of her capabilities, I drifted from job to job, trying to find the ‘thing’ when it was completely obvious. I allowed self-worth issues to block that which would have fulfilled me. I sabotaged easy success.

Recently I went back to my old high school and spoke to 25 of the school’s most promising students. Like me, some of them came from struggling backgrounds and had limited imagination to what was possible out of our town.

Here’s what I told them:

Work with your natural strengths

Life is so much better when you give yourself permission to live in your brilliance. Don’t feel guilty because it’s easy and feels good. Better yet if you can find the sweet spot between your natural strengths and your passions. Every combination you can think of is possible.

Believe you’re good enough

I didn’t get this until my late twenties and then some of my natural enthusiasm and creativity came back with a vengeance. Nobody else was holding me back except for me. Give that gift to yourself and be in your own corner.

Continue to set big goals for your life

I’ve seen that any crazy dream is possible, but nobody is going to track you down and say ‘YOU – you must share your talents with the world!’ You have to be clear on what you want.

I wish I could go back in time to meet the little hustling entrepreneur I was at 9 and say ‘keep going – you’ll get there’. But it was my journey and I can honestly say that finally, I’m in a place where I can say – I LOVE what I do.

[Images courtesy of Denise Duffield Thomas.]

Denise is the money mindset mentor for the new wave of online female entrepreneurs. Her best-selling books “Lucky Bitch” and “Get Rich, Lucky Bitch” give a fresh and funny road-map to create an outrageously successful life and business. Denise helps women release their fear of money, set premium prices for their services and take back control over their finances. Denise is an award winning speaker, author and entrepreneur who helps women transform their Economy-Class money mindset into a First-Class life. Find her at www.LuckyBitch.com

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Only two weeks to go until The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design featuring Rachael Taylor begins!

Have you secured your place yet? Register here.

Meet mind-body-soul seeker Karin McDermott

Posted on 2011-10-17 at 8:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Today’s shared story comes from movement coach Karin McDermott.

Experiencing life from the soul’s point of view is what drives and sustains me. I’ve made it my mission to revere soul through the enormous gift of the senses. They offer nourishment and sanctuary to my body, yet also deliver the bewilderment needed to continually be enchanted by life. My own journey taught me that enlightenment is not a destination – it’s a philosophy of living. It means cultivating a fully considered and continually evolving life, accepting challenges with grace, and then luxuriating in the everyday resolution…with passion.

Honoring the wisdom of my senses took an unwavering faith in their ability to orchestrate my decisions. It had become vividly clear that my soul was yearning to be seduced by an honest connection to the Divine. For me, that put meaning into meaningful. I call that grace. Grace saturated my life when I surrendered to being impassioned and replete with soul. I strive to live there…every day.

We’re collectively joined by a craving for beauty, serenity and meaning. The senses are my refuge into those cravings; they’re a tangible connection to a union with my self, my family and my surroundings. I’ve always been a mind-body-soul seeker, but my refuge wasn’t always assured. My early twenties found me continually entrenched in a stack of self-help books that either explained how to chase my toddlers while still smiling, or how to lock the door so a bath would magically engender the promise of balance. Great ideas for living in the moment, but they left me continually searching outside of myself for the big-picture answers. I was an overwhelmed, over-exhausted single mother so deeply absorbed in caring for others that I forgot to nourish the innately essential me. I had insidiously fallen away from the wisdom of my senses, and yearned desperately to be enlivened again. So I began to revisit my physical self, first and foremost through my love of movement. I realized it was the one thing I instinctively trusted for the safe exploration of my soul. My senses were awakened there. What I discovered in the process was the deeply galvanizing truth that the human body demands refuge within itself for authentic exploration. Physical connection to the outside world is the resplendent expression of the soul’s yearning to re-engage the senses. This became the driving force behind the sojourn back to me, and the revelation that changed the direction of my life forever. I pledged faith in the wisdom of my senses to unearth my passionate human soul. And I never looked back.

Of course, some of life’s journeys come the very hard way and force us in yet another direction, but it’s how we take the next step that defines us. In my case it also forced me to take a penetrating look at how my time would be spent and how going forward it needed to be only ‘doing what I love.’ Yes, I had been an overwhelmed, over-exhausted single mother for whom physical depletion sadly became my normal way of life. And yes, I found a method to reinvigorate that life through my senses. But in the meantime, I was given the diagnosis that Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Lupus) had already found it’s way into my body, and on that day I knew my life would again change direction. A drastic shift in lifestyle was immediate and compulsory. A good team of doctors, an overdue divorce, less stress, more sleep, new daily affirmations and my Soultree™ movement practice became the collective kick-start to my journey of cultivating a life ‘Doing What I Love’. Next came infusing the senses into every area of my life with the fierce devotion of a righteous warrior, and I prevailed. I realized the re-engagement of my sensual life was also the missing piece of my wellness puzzle, and it was that discovery that reinforced the direction of my calling. I have been abSOULutely compelled to share my methods with others ever since. It’s my quest, and I respect it deeply. Since 2000, I’ve been teaching movement as a method for unearthing the passionate human soul to clients in the U.S., Europe and Australia.

In 2004, I founded Soultree Motion, Inc., a movement and lifestyle company based in Manhattan Beach, California. I’ve been fortunate and blessed to share my philosophy with features on Oprah, Discovery Channel, 48-Hours, HGTV, Univision, SoCal’s Best & Celebrity Overhaul. The opening of my proprietary Soultree™ studios on both U.S. coasts gave sacred space its aesthetic due as a vital mechanism for cultivating a soul-directed life, as well as providing women the evocative serenity they craved. My teaching methods continue to garner enthusiastic accolades due to my SOULutions proffered with humor, grace and my uniquely familiar and forthcoming book title…abSOULutely! I do what I love daily, I luxuriate in the sensuality of every moment, and through my own phenomenally blessed journey, I discovered I had a knack for sharing how. That makes me smile. I live passionately every day…from my soul. Join me.

Doing What I Love… is cultivating a deeply authentic and passionately inspired life of sensual harmony.

[All images courtesy of Karin McDermott.]

To find out more about Karin visit her website or connect on Twitter @Karin_McDermott.

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Have you heard about my collaboration with surface pattern designer Rachael Taylor?

The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design is open for registration now! Find out more here.

Happiness is doing what you love and sharing that with others: Suki Taylor, Stormy Sweitzer & Bari Linden Tessler share their stories

Posted on 2011-10-10 at 8:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Today’s shared stories come from interior designer Sukanya (Suki) Taylor, business start-up coach Stormy Sweitzer and financial coach Bari Linden Tessler.

Suki Taylor

As a passionate artist, crafter and blogger, I find inspiration everywhere; and as an interior designer, I try to channel that inspiration into my designs. I like to take risks, to discover and explore the new. For me, life is a journey, an adventure, endlessly interesting and rich with possibilities. Needless to say, I’m absolutely passionate about what I do.

My first memory of art was when I was in primary school. I was given a homework assignment to draw a picture entitled “My Home”. When I showed my picture to the teacher, she didn’t believe that I had drawn it. This made me very upset and I started drawing like mad at every opportunity … that was the beginning of my designer journey.

My schooldays came and went, culminating in a degree in interior design. Soon after, I landed my dream job: working as an interior designer and teaching drawing on the weekends. Needless to say, this kept me pretty busy but I was finally getting paid for doing what I love.

Five years on and I decided to broaden my horizons in the UK, a country just brimming over with great art and design, so I signed up for a marketing course at the University of the Arts London – a fantastic experience that really challenged me.

Right now, I’m living in Australia and running a little design studio from home. It was really tough in the beginning. The biggest obstacle was not having a regular income. There were times I found myself thinking ‘what if?’, but I tried to keep sight of my current dreams as well as the ones I plan to chase.

In the beginning, I had to do retail work part time to support myself while I was building up a regular clientele. But I never gave up and nowadays I’m as busy as a bee. It’s meant lots of late nights and gallons of coffee but it’s been a labour of love and when the jobs are done, the smile on my clients’ faces always makes my heart beat a little faster.

The best part of working from home is that I get to do my research on a comfy daybed with a little daydreaming thrown in and any time is Me Time.

Sometimes, I put up twinkle lights and let myself drift away into a designer fantasy where my dreams are magically transformed into reality and creativity sparkles like fairy dust…

…and then the phone rings.

“Studio Suki; Suki speaking.”

[All images courtesy of Suki Taylor.]

Find out more on her website or connect on Facebook.

Stormy Sweitzer

Have you ever had an experience, a moment, or an encounter that struck you upside the head and soul so clearly that you couldn’t shake it? Maybe it lingered, lifted, created curiosity, found its way into your thoughts and actions whether you recognized it or not at the time.

For me, this moment occurred when I was 8 years old – almost 30 years ago. I was at a slumber party. As an early-riser, I was the first to wake up. And with nothing to do, I turned on the TV. On Sunday mornings in the early 80s, it was common to see infomercials from relief organizations that did work in the developing world. The program that was on that morning was about leprosy in Africa and how it affected so many people there. It affected me, too – though in a very different way, and was a sign of how I would engage with the world as I grew older.

When my school-teacher grandmother took me to Eastern Europe (before the Berlin Wall fell) one summer, it cemented my feelings that the world was a curious place, full of wonder as well as woe.

From that point forward, I spent a great deal of time doing three things:

Travelling abroad (living in 4 and traveling through 25 other countries by the time I was 22);
Studying languages (Spanish, Russian, Romanian, and a smattering of French) and subjects that might allow me to make an impact (Economics, Public Health); and
Doing volunteer and social impact work.

My first job earned me a poverty-level wage, but I was helping raise awareness about hunger and build emergency food stores for people around our state. Months after starting the job, I set my sights on joining the Peace Corps. I had heard that the application process took a very long time, so I was shocked when just four months after my initial enquiry, I was invited to be a Non-governmental Organization (NGO) Development Consultant in the former Soviet Republic of Moldova.

I’d never even heard of Moldova, but soon, I was helping people start not-for-profit entities and learn how to write grant proposals. This, I believe, was the start of my love for creating new organizations, for building systems, and for teaching about the start-up process.

These skills came in handy for me over the next 10 years in the various jobs I held, where I often took on the role of start-up go-to-person, and as an on-and-off-again consultant. And then one day, the dam broke and I quit my job. I wanted to use these skills to make my own ideas happen and to find a way to combine my interests in environmental, health, and social justice issues with my start-up tendencies.

My first business was a green one – selling fair trade and eco-friendly baby gifts and clothing. The next was a technology business that was inspired by the frustrations I encountered with children’s clothing. Both ultimately closed, but in the process of running them, I learned that I loved to solve problems, make a difference, be involved in the excitement of starting something new, and use business – something I had previously wanted nothing to do with – as a tool for doing it.

Today, I have my fingers in many pies as a food-loving, world-travelling, do-gooder with a love of start-up activity and making lemonade. I have returned to my social impact roots, helping nonprofit organizations/NGOs and social entrepreneurs that want to change the world create revenue-generating enterprises that allow them to do just that. There’s no better thing for me than being able to work with organizations and causes I support, while using my skills and interests to help them create sustainable impact.

In addition to my social impact coaching and consulting, I blog about food and help others transition to a healthy, gluten-free and dairy-free diet through classes and group support. And, I’ve come full circle with the Africa experience, helping my husband, a South African, market tours to his home country.

It’s been a challenging and, at times, frustrating and time-consuming journey, but to be able to spend my time creating my own way, helping others create theirs, and making a difference in the process is a fabulous thing. And, I wouldn’t have it any other way. It is this drive to do what I love that keeps me going and helps me stay focused on the things that allow me to do it – like making sales calls and sending out proposals, like filtering out distractions and saying no to opportunities that really aren’t, and like staying within a budget when I have to.

I hope that, if you are reading this, you understand that the effort is worthwhile and that the journey is not impossible if you are willing to work towards it. Do what you love, by starting every day with the conviction that you will and by taking one small step forward. The momentum builds from there.

[All images courtesy of Stormy Sweitzer.]

To find out more, visit her website here.

Bari Linden Tessler

My desire to be a therapist, business woman and/or dancer had been circling around me since I was a kid. At 23, I realized I wanted to be a Dance-Movement Therapist. Dance + Movement has always helped me get in touch with my feelings and articulate my vast inner world.

In my mid 20s I earned a master’s degree in Somatic Psychology from Naropa University. The program was fabulous. It helped me mature and develop in many ways. But there was a significant missing piece in my education that became apparent when my school loan came due. This was a scary event at the time, but it served as the catalyst for my Money Initiation. It shined a light on my complete lack of financial education. And it sent me down the path that led to my larger work in the world.

I then learned everything I could about bookkeeping and money management from the ground on up. After long hikes in the woods, I had the vision to blend my body–centered psychotherapy background with all of the practical tools and systems that I was learning. In 2001 I conceived the Conscious Bookkeeping Method, which integrates Financial Therapy, Values Based Bookkeeping, and Life Vision Planning. It’s a powerful blend of practical tools, deep therapeutic experiences, and expansive inspiration.

I have been offering my private Financial Therapy and the Conscious Bookkeeping Method course work for over a decade now for individuals and couples. I deeply love my work. This works includes lots of body check-ins and chocolate!

At age 38, I suddenly had the vision of having a child. I had been with my husband for seven years, and it was a surprise for him. We’d agreed that we were not going to have kids. But hey, a girl can change her mind, right?! So, my husband and I found a great therapist, and over the course of six weeks we were able to get on the same page again — this time as parents! We actually conceived Noah a few hours before our final therapy session.

Some people are long-term planners but I’m not one of them! I tend to plan a few months, to one year, at a time. My style is to keep listening and opening up to what is present and then take one step at a time as it makes sense to me. So, my current reality has happened one small step at a time.

To me doing what I love means that my family life and my work life are full of passion, fun, choice, creativity, depth, and growth. It means that at times I take control and make things happen and, at other times, I let go and allow life to just happen, trusting in its shifting cycles and phases.

It means that I get to find the best rhythm for my work time and my mommy time and that I get to enjoy each of these roles to their fullest expression. It means that I get to teach, mentor and lovingly guide people through a money initiation and into a place of maturity, consciousness and hope.

It means that I get to help people build bridges between money, body, mind, and spirit… while eating chocolate along the way! Doing what I love means that I get to work from home, hike the mountains just outside my front door, have tons of time with my 3 year old, walk a mere 100 ft. to visit my husband in his office, and get to be creative on a daily basis. Happiness is working your tushy off to do work you love, and sharing it with those who need it.

[All images courstesy of Bari Tessler Linden]

Bari is a Financial Therapist, Mamapreneur, and Founder of The Art of Money. You can find out more about Bari on her website and find out more about her latest programs here.

Making memories

Posted on 2011-10-06 at 11:05 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

While we are on the subject of the Do What You Love retreat (with the film launched on Tuesday and the Mingle article yesterday!) I wanted to share the gorgeous hand-bound book made by the very talented Rachel Hazell, using individual pages crafted by retreat participants. I will treasure this as a wonderful memory of the first Do What You Love retreat – thank you all!

3D page above by mixed media artist Priscilla Jones. NB Other pages have not been credited due to the personal nature of some sentiments shared on the pages!

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If you have ever dreamt of seeing your designs on stationery, fabric, homewares or other products, sharing your art through pattern, and monetising your designs this groundbreaking course is for you! ‘The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design featuring Rachael Taylor’ is the definitive guide to becoming a surface pattern designer. Find out more here.

13 page spread in ‘Mingle’ (new magazine from Stampington!)

Posted on 2011-10-05 at 10:04 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw the preview copy of Mingle, the gorgeous new magazine from Stampington which is all about ‘creative ideas for unique gatherings’.

The Do What You Love retreat is brought to life in 13 beautiful pages, featuring a few words from me and a host of photographs from the very talented Christine Boyd and Xander Neal of NavyBlur. Editor-in-Chief Christen Olivarez has done an incredible job.

This is a sneak peek of some of those pages… you can get your own copy from bookshops across the US or by mail order direct from Stampington.

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By the way, if you missed it the Do What You Love retreat film premiere is now showing here!