"Where Dreams May Go"

Collage by Lani, Inspiration from Misty Mawn's Open Studio

Within your heart keep one still, secret spot where dreams may go, and sheltered so, may thrive and grow - where doubt and fear are not.  Oh, keep a place within your heart, for little dreams to grow
-Louise Driscoll

Thank you, Misty!

Stress Busting

Collage by Lani, texture from FlyPaper Textures.

One of my favorite exchanges over at 14 Secrets was a delightful Angelic exchange.  Participants listed what areas they would like angelic energy type assistance with and their partner sent them as much positive angelic energy, art, and ideas as possible.  My partner wished for assistance with stress at work and at school.  Well now the interesting thing here is the more I look for ideas and create little art pieces for her, the happier I got and the less stress I felt.  Very awesome experience.  You can read about my favorite stress busting ideas on the other blog, AND I found a couple of new ones to share!

The first one is pretty cool, and simple.  It's the research of Stephen W. Porges on the vagus nerve.  Really awesome material available out there in the virtual world.  Here's one little article to whet your apatite:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200706/mind-your-body-higher-road-relaxation

Another source of stress busting material is the research of Shawn Achor and here's a fun, informative, entertaining, stress busting Ted Talk for you.


Have fun and may your stress be busted!

Susan Tuttle's give-away.

Collage by Lani with help from Photoshop of course.

There's a wonderful give away on Susan Tuttle's website.  She's got a new eWorkshop coming up and it's well worth the look.  Spread the news and you might win a spot in her course!

Small, delicate, beautiful things...

Collage & drawing by Lani

Lee Chung-Ryoul, the director of "Old Partner" said, "I want to focus on small, delicate stories.  There's a beauty in things that aren't necessarily glamorous.  …I want to film something you can feel, not necessarily see."

I like that.  Small, delicate, beautiful things.  Everyday things that you might miss if you aren't careful.

So here's a brief list of small, delicate, beautiful things:
1. The Korean movie "Old Partner"
2. An amazingly beautiful writing App, Ommwriter
3. A lovely morning walk with "the boys"

Edward walking the dogs in a park in Halifax.

What are the color of your dreams?

Collage by Lani, texture from FlyPaper Textures.

What are the color of your dreams?  Playing with space, light, and color here on the Lani Puppetmaker Blog Spot.

Collage by Lani

 Here's to creating space for the unexpected!

A Complaint-Free Corner

Amusing "Complaint Free" collage by Lani, texture by Kim Kassen.

 I was watching a video from Mona Grayson on Goddess Leoni's World's Biggest Summit.  She's got this purple wrist band and she is doing the "complaint free world" challenge.  Well, I got intrigued.  The whole idea is so simple.  You get this wrist band, you resolve to live complaint free for 21 days (that's how long it takes to create a new way of being in the world) and if you slip, no, when you slip you switch the wrist band to the other wrist.  So according to Will Bowen who wrote the book, this practice stage where you are catching yourself complaining and then stopping and switching your wristband may go on for quite a few months, but really practice is practice and there's nothing wrong with it.  Also you get to be shocked by how much complaining goes on around us and inside us all day long.  So I'm psyched to create a complaint free corner of the world, I've ordered my wrist band but I will employ a rubber band until the real one arrives.

Here are a few great reasons to try this complaint-free corner of the world, right now!

1 – When you’re complaint-free, there is a subtle shift towards possibilities and solutions and away from the constant focus on "The Problem."
When you remove the option of complaining, you can start to see solutions.
2 – When you live complaint-free, there's way less annoying "it's all about me" activity (lol).
Complaining makes someone or something wrong "out there" all the time and it makes "me" right all the time. Right, but the victim of all that's wrong in the world.  Very annoying.  (Oops, am I complaining?)
3 – When you live complaint-free, you find new interesting things to think about.  If you take away what normally takes up 85% of what we talk about, you suddenly have so much freedom and time to find other more interesting things to examine and talk about.  It will change how you look at the world.
4 – When you live complaint-free, you will find you are a happier person.

Want to try?  Click here for Will Bowen's website and get your purple wrist band today.

Some blue for Erika.

Morning pages, fiddled in Photoshop by Lani

Some blue for Erika (see previous post comment) and an idea about combining new and old journal pages.  The art is from this morning and here's a quote from a while back:

"...a single act of giving has a value beyond what we can imagine.  So much ... is expressed and realized in giving: love, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity..."  - Sharon Saltzberg

We just don't know where an act of generosity will go.   Maybe some kind of generosity round robin would be the thing, create a gift and pass it on and document it.  Hmmm.  Stay tuned!