10 simple tricks to help you believe in yourself

Well, as you know I wrote that book, The Little Spark–30 Ways to Ignite Your Creativity, and it is coming out in October (!). In my book I offer 30 “Sparks” to help you on your path to living a more creative, passionate life. One chapter addresses the self-doubts and fears we all have as we tackle a new craft, hobby or passion. People often ask me how I deal with self-doubt and so here is a little list to inspire you to kick your doubts and fears in the butt and start believing in YOU so you can follow your bliss: =&0=& Because guess what? No one really is. Except maybe the lucky few who know you well and who you allow in. If you live your life as if you are invisible, then you are free to behave however you want because you are under the (false) notion that no one cares. But people care. And they are curious. We are social creatures and so we are all constantly craning our necks to see each other. But just for a day or an hour here and there, liberate yourself from the perceived gaze so that you can just be you. Just be you in your state of false invisibility. The more you practice, the more you will realize that you have become very good at being you–no matter who is looking–then you can do it more often. When Allen Ginsburg set out to write his epic poem, Howl, he wrote it knowing that he would never show it to anyone. Look what happened. Acting as if no one is watching liberates the ego and allows us more freedom. =&1=&

The real truth. Not photoshopped.

I know that people don’t read long blog posts but there is something on my mind.

So, there is a lot of exciting stuff going on–with my fabric and new patterns and upcoming photo shoot and a really nice interview over on the Windham blog about my inspirations here. Yes. And as a business owner and my own little ringmaster of marketing, social media, and all things buzz, it is my job to tell you all about it. read more

little post-it notes for the soul

Just watched shame researcher, Brené Brown, PhD, speaking at the Omega Institute in New York via live feed. Pretty cool. She spoke about similar things from her TED talk here. In today’s talk she shared some thoughts on our culture of “scarcity”, in which we wake up saying, “we didn’t get enough sleep,” and we go to bed saying “we didn’t get enough done.” Basically, telling ourselves that we aren’t enough all day long. She also spoke about letting go of exhaustion as a status symbol. I find her genuineness and warmth to be rather comforting and her research on vulnerability to be uber-inspiring. read more

Brené Brown, PhD

Photo credit: tracyclark.com/blog

I remember years ago in my therapist’s office when my therapist mentioned shame to me. I looked at her completely blankly—my eyes glazed over. Of course I had heard that word many times, but didn’t really understand it. I had no idea what shame was but I knew good and well that it wasn’t my issue. (Ha!) How could it be when I had so many other issues to work on!?! Even after years of work, I still didn’t get it. But life eventually intervened and I finally got to explore my shame, thankfully. read more

Owie Cat

When my little ladybird told me she fell down at school today and hurt her knee, I told her we’d go home and put ice-rice on it. To my great alarm and surprise, I realized that we didn’t actually have any ice-rice in our freezer (just frozen peas). Ice-rice is the normal stuff of preschool: cold rice in a little ziploc baggie used to soothe booboos. It does wonders for owies of all sorts. read more