Hello Everyone! Below is the guest post I wrote for Hali Karla's blog. Hali is the founder, creator, and director of Spectrum, an online holistic art journaling workshop series, featuring various teachers from around the world. I am proud to be a guest teacher in Spectrum 2016, which comes out on May 2.
What I have written below comes from my heart. I am sharing some of my life journey and my experiences thus far. It feels scary to share openly. I am a private person; an introvert. However, it has meant a great deal to me when others have been brave enough to share their stories, their truths, lessons learned, etc. If you wish to leave a comment below, I'd love that. Please be sure your comment is coming from a place of love, so we may all feel a sense of warmth and safety.
Thank you in advance for reading my guest post!
Holistic Creative Guest Post with Briana Goetzen::
Dear You
Dear You,
It has taken me over ten years to put the pieces of my dream together. Or maybe it’s taken twenty. My point is, although I am a sensitive soul who listens to my intuition most of the time, my life’s journey has taken many twists and turns. Because guess what? I can’t control life. The one constant in life is change. Oh, did it take many, many years for me to figure that one out. This long road has given me many experiences and lessons that have put me in the right place for doing what I love today. This makes me grateful for the journey.
Who am I today?
I am an expressive arts coach, a mixed media artist, a writer, a photographer, and a teacher. I am a mother, wife, sister, and friend. I am the daughter of a talented artist who is blocked by her physical and emotional pain. I am the daughter of a broken man, whom I’ve had to forgive.
Creative expression is what gets me through. I write, a lot. I keep several journals and have tried various writing techniques over the years. I also want to add that I do not write consistently. I write when I feel moved to write, or when I am so stuck, I do not know what else to do with myself. I believe writing to be one of the most powerful activities for releasing the junk in our minds, so that we can get to the deeper truths of our hearts. “Follow your heart,” they say. What does that really mean? How can you follow your heart when you’ve got bills piling up, and you don’t know how you’re going to feed your family? Through writing, healing begins. Through writing, wisdom appears. Through writing, you can deal with the present by following the guidance you hear coming in from another realm. Maybe it’s your subconscious, or maybe it’s the spirit world, or maybe it’s your soul talking to you, or . . . (name it as you wish).
Of course writing is not the only way to tap into this inner wisdom. There’s also meditation, creative movement, walking, spontaneous painting, collage, drumming, etc. My passion is this cross section between creativity and spirituality. I love trying them all on, to see what works for me. What works for you may ebb and flow. Keep exploring avenues of creative expression and healing modalities. Something will light you up, and you’ll feel it when it happens.
By keeping my truths (of who I am and what I wish for) in clear form, be it physically written, collaged, mentally visualized, and held in my heart, the universe starts to work its magic. My job is to begin taking tiny action steps toward the life I want to be living. I am not alone. We are not alone. You are not alone.
You, too, can take tiny action steps toward the life you want to be living. Start with where you are. Close your eyes and imagine your happy place. What do you see? How do you feel? Where in your body do you feel the good energy? What do your surroundings look like? What are you doing? Who are you with?
Begin to believe that what you want is possible.
After years of “unexplained infertility”, I chose to believe that I would be a mother. I started taking steps toward that dream. I asked for help and support. I did not know how it would happen. Once I healed my heart of emotional pain and began to believe, feel, envision, take action, and ask for support, the momentum was unstoppable. I became a mother in the fall of 2012.
We are all on a journey. Your journey is unique to you. Life’s lessons may appear multiple times, but they only make sense when we are ready to receive them. It’s okay not to be ready. In fact the first thing I mention in my workshop on forgiveness for Spectrum 2016, is that you don’t have to be ready to forgive someone else who has caused you pain. You can start by forgiving yourself for not being ready. It’s all a process, a healing journey, taking us deeper and deeper to knowing our true light-filled, love-filled selves. It’s all about the love.
You are glowing with radiant light. You are loved, even when you find it hard to love yourself.
I’d like to close with a LovingKindess prayer for you:
May you be safe.
May you be free from inner and outer harm.
May you be well in mind and body.
May you be peaceful and happy.
Blessings to you,
Briana
For art ideas and inspiration, visit my blog at OrangeSpiralArts.com (On the right-hand sidebar, you can sign up to receive blog posts to your inbox-"Art Inspiration in Your Inbox". I blog about 3 x per week, which means about 3 emails per week. The other option is to sign up for the monthly Orange Spiral Arts newsletter, again on the right-hand sidebar, under the words, "Subscribe to Our Mailing List".)
If you’d like to dive into writing and painting as a way to nurture your soul, I invite you to join the online Beautiful BEing Program.
And if you are reading this before Monday, April 25, 2016 you can enter to win a free spot for Spectrum 2016 through the giveaway post here. Please comment on the linked post to be eligible for the giveaway. Thank you and good luck!
