A Journey Into Joy
Step 4 — Week 3: The Guide
Step 4 encourages us to find a guide/mentor or something (externally or internally) to help us overcome/heal/process the root cause(s) of our refusal (step 3) so that we can turn towards the call (step 2) rather than continue to turn away from it.
With this step, it’s time to seek guidance and/or take a deeper look within to help clear the fears, disbeliefs, apparent inadequacies, or plain ole unwillingness to make the sacrifices so that we can answer the call…as it relates to the areas of our life that are calling us to action (work, health, relationships, personal, leisure, play, and so on).
For me I plan to continue with the areas covered in the weeks of Step 1 (health, home, The Mandala Lady, and my purpose).
To join in on the journey, visit the MandalaoftheMonth.com to download the mandala to color and learn more about this step.
Here’s my journal entry for step 4–week 3: The Mandala Lady
Just a little backstory before I get into this week’s journal entry. Earlier this year I got the idea to start posting live videos of me doing oracle card pulls from my Mandala Oracle decks. I procrastinated on this idea for a while. If I had to pinpoint the resistance it would have to be that I was afraid of looking foolish, that I didn’t know what I was doing, and that it would look clumsy and awkward.
As if to appease me, my Team of Guides & Angels (TOGAs) suggested to start by just posting images of the card pulls/spreads. So on April 10, on IG, I posted my first public oracle card spread. Since then I’ve more of them and now I’m doing them daily.
I say all this because on Sunday, April 17, I posted a 1-card pull with a message for the week. The card, “Every Picture Tells as Story”, gave us the message to start noticing the stories we tell ourselves and others.
Then yesterday, I did my “Wednesday Well of Wisdom” (WWoW) card spread (as taught by Rebecca Campbell) with the intention of receiving more insight about our card of the week: what stories are we telling ourselves. You can read more about the WWoW on The Mandala Lady Arts Center blog site. Out of that spread came the insight that the idea of (or lack of) enough-ness is holding us back. I know this is a big issue for me. It’s difficult to keep from judging myself about it…shouldn’t I be over this by now? Intellectually, yes. Emotionally, apparently not.
So that’s my focus at this stage of my “Journey Into Joy”: to heal my lack of enough-ness. As for a mentor or guide to help me with this, I asked the Google “how to get over feeling like you’re not good enough”. Of the handful of sites I glanced through, the one piece of advice I saw that rang true for me was using the Sedona Method. As luck(?) would have it, I happen to have that book checked out from the library…but have yet to read it fully. Now I have the motivation to do so.
btw…the main message from that Well of Wisdom reading is this:
Essentially, we are encouraged to change our story…that we _are_ good enough, we _are_ ready enough, and that we are all-ready whole and complete just as we are.
That’s it for now.
Maureen
The Mandala Lady
inspiring and encouraging creativity, curiosity, and play through the art of mandalas
ABOUT “A JOURNEY INTO JOY”
With all the anxiety and stress in the world right now, focusing on joy may seem a bit counterintuitive. Mais contraire mes amis. We actually need more joy in our lives…now more than ever. And it starts within each of us. It’s been my experience that when in that higher vibrational state of joy, it helps raise the vibration of those around us as well.
Brené Brown defines joy as “an intense feeling of deep spiritual connection, pleasure, and appreciation”. Of late, I mostly experience only moments of happiness and on a rare occasion, joy…thus my desire to journey into joy.
My quest throughout this year is to explore, experience, and express this state in a variety of ways, including following a variation of the hero’s journey, as professed by Jospeh Campbell.
Care to join me? Here’s how…
MandalaoftheMonth.com: On the first of the month, I’ll create and post a mandala for coloring. Each month we’ll take another step along the “journey into joy” by following a modified version Joseph Campbell’s a hero’s journey. Included in each step will be a description of the step and prompts for coloring and/or journaling for the month. You’re welcome to color them as well…they’re free to download.
MandalaoftheWeek.com: Each Monday I’ll be posting my coloring of that month’s Mandala of the Month, which will produce 4-5 colorings of that design. With each one, I intend to dig deeper into the message of that month’s mandala. You’re welcome to color along as well.
Mandala of the Week 