Manifesting a dream come true

Good morning friends! Today is a big day for me, it’s the launch of Manifesting in High Heels, an anthology about manifesting your goals that I co-authored. Being a published author is a big deal for me and something that I’ve always dreamed of. Hopefully this will be the first step to even bigger things!

In my chapter “The Direction of My Dreams: Faith, Optimism, and Intention” I detail the path I took which led me to be both a stay-at-home-mom and a business owner. Since writing that chapter, I’ve begun a new practice, which I think is very valuable for manifesting my goals with intention.

I’ve tried several times to go through the practices in The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I keep getting sidetracked, but when I recently re-started, I’ve been very intentional in doing what she calls “morning pages” each day. The basics of morning pages is to write, non-stop for three pages. Absolutely whatever flows out of your brain goes through your hand and onto the page. I was actually first introduced to the idea of free writing like this in high school, and I’ve practiced it since then, but never on a consistent, daily basis. It provides such a brain cleanse that if I go too long without writing, I feel stuck and bogged down. Getting into the flow of writing like this has been compared to a form of mediation. I’ve been able to use the morning pages to sort through issues I didn’t even know were issues. But by pouring them onto the page, I’m able to remove them from my head.

After now after reading Manifesting in High Heels, I’ve found some other very valuable tools that I plan to implement in my life.

1. In her chapter “The One Essential Secret to Sacred Business Success,” Lisa Fitzpatrick recommends spending time being still. She likens negative thought to a pack of wolves and says:

So many times, I witness women trying to out-run the wolves rather than to simply sit with them, allowing them to be seen for what they are. They are merely thoughts. In the face of supreme stillness, where the loving presence of the divine can be heard and felt, they have absolutely no power—except the power that we give them.

I must admit, Lisa’s is one of my favorite chapters in the entire book. She has such a beautiful way with words. Some of the lines that are my favorite don’t necessarily have some deep meaning, but I think they are just beautiful:

There’s a myriad of ways to master the art of drowning out the crowded marketplace of the mind.

2. In “How to Create the Space around You for Manifesting,” Lisa Nesser provides steps for creating a space around you which feeds into your creative energy. Lisa says:

I decided to treat my entire home as an entity, a pulsing energy that was affecting me physically and mentally. I began to prepare my space every day as a positive environment to heal and nurture my body and mind.

I love this and it makes me even more excited to claim our new house as our own.

3. Angella Johnson provides so much insight in her chapter “Dress for Success: Yoga Pants and a T-shirt (Without a Bra).” But I think my favorite advice of hers is when she says:

You have every right to want what you want and be in the environment that supports your desires. Accept anything less than that, and you deny your divinity.

4. In “Manifest to Be Your Best,” Polly Hadfield recommends creating a vision board with photos and sayings of things making you happy and representing your dreams. She also recommends living a proactive instead of reactive life:

Having a plan for each day of your life helps you to be PROACTIVE instead of REACTIVE. You aren’t just reacting to the demands of others, but you’re consciously designing and creating your day while moving in the direction towards your goals and dreams.

5. My final mention for this post is co-author Michelle Barr. When I first read the title of her chapter “From living by default to living by design” I instantly connected with it. If you’ve read the “About” page of my blog, you can see that one of my goals with this is to “live the life I want, not the one I fell into.” Michelle says,

It wasn’t until I committed myself to learning how to consciously create life on my terms that I transformed my life for the better—with lasting results.

 

These strategies are just the tip of the iceberg. I highly encourage you to check out our website and to buy the book!

Nursing a (Book) Hangover

I’m not one to draw out a reading experience. My sister-in-law says she’ll only read a couple of chapters at a time before walking away so she can experience a good book longer. Not me. I devour books that I enjoy. I can’t get through them fast enough. I miss the book after I’m done, but I know there are so many books out there that I want to read, that I don’t feel one bit guilty for not taking more time. Plus, I’m also a fan of rereading books, so I know I can always go back to visit my favorite characters again.

Last night I stayed up until after midnight finishing Longbourn by Jo Baker. I woke up this morning still not able to get the characters out of my head. I spent the morning feeling an emptiness in my chest and just wandering around a little dazed. This is truly the sign of an excellent book.

So, I started working through ways to get past my hangover.

1. Reread my favorite sections of the book.

When I first started to re-read, I knew of two passages I wanted to go back to. After those two, I thought of two more. And then another…this could certainly go on for some time!

I love reliving the highlights. Characters meeting for the first time, first kisses, a particularly moving monologue…

2. Read articles, inviews, etc.

In my search, I found Jo Baker’s website and a couple interviews here and here.

This is actually something I do frequently with movies as well, especially if I was not particularly fulfilled with some aspects of the movie. I’m one of those that will sit and watch all of the bonus material a DVD has to offer. I usually feel much better about the way a movie or book ends once I read/watch more about it. And speaking of movies….

3. Watch the movie.

Oh how I wish there was a movie for Longbourn. I’ve googled it to see if a movie is actually in the making and can’t find a definitive answer. Keeping my fingers crossed!

4. Read something else by the same author.

I’ve already ordered The Undertow also by Jo Baker (and a few other books…hey, I have to make the $30 mark for free shipping from Barnes and Noble, no wasting my gift cards on shipping fees!)

The most consoling is when you’re reading a series and all of the other books are already out. I try not to get into a series until I can read them all. The best is when you finish book one, slip right in to book two and know you still get another book after that. Granted, the hangover from a series can be particularly hard to come down from. My solution after flying through the entire Divergent series, was to follow it up by re-reading the Hunger Games series, leading my next point…

5. Be excited about your next book.

If you can’t or don’t want to read a book by the same author, it helps if you have another book on your bookshelf that you are excited to read. I go through spurts where sometimes I’m super excited about my next read, and sometimes I’m staring at my bookshelves wondering what to tackle next.

Right now I’m pretty excited to read Call Me Zelda by Erika Robuck as my next book. I’ve read Hemingway’s Girl and really enjoyed it, so I know I like Erika’s work and I’ve been anxious to read a novel about Zelda Fitzgerald.

6. Talk about it with friends.

This one I haven’t been able to do yet. I don’t know of any of my friends who have read this book…have you?! Let’s talk!

It’s after a really good book like this that I always think about trying to start a book club. I’ve tried before but didn’t have much success. Any tips on starting a (successful) book club? Please share!

7. Write something of your own.

When I read something really good, I get inspired to create my own stories. And reading interviews with the author sparks it even more. Today, I was really inspired to write this, but I’m usually inspired to write my own fiction. This doesn’t happen with every book I read, but it does seem to happen with the ones that give me book hangovers.

What about you, have you read anything that gave you a book hangover recently? How do you cope?

Creating flawed characters

I just finished reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. Around the same time, I was looking for quotes for a chapter I was writing for the new book I’m coauthoring and I came across this one in Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: “a person’s faults are largely what make him or her likable.” And I would add, interesting.

The plethora of characters is what I found most intriguing about this book. At the center of the plot the book becomes a true-crime novel, but that is not what kept me coming back to its pages. It was the characters. The Lady Chablis, the preoperative transsexual, who captivates both the narrator and the reader. She’s a drag queen and you are never sure what she will do next. Several who try to give the impression of perfection, but it doesn’t take much digging beneath the surface to see their real flaws, limitations, and motivations. Joe Odom, the lawyer and con-man, who moves from house to house with his entire entourage, having a knack for finding a place where he easily take advantage of a situation. And Savannah itself feels like a character. I found the following review by the New York Times Book Review particularly true: “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil might be the first true crime book that makes the reader want to call a travel agent and book a bed and breakfast for an extended weekend at the scene of the crime.”

This book is a perfect example on how to construct characters for any story, both fiction and nonfiction. People want to relate to characters and since none of us are perfect, why should the people we read about be? Anne Lamott goes on to say “I like for narrators to be like the people I choose for friends, which is to say that they have a lot of the same flaws as I.”

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