A Journey Into Joy
Step 7 — Week 3: The Approach
Step 7 The Approach Time to approach a “dangerous” place. In an adventure movie this is usually an impending big battle. For me/us, it’s more like a mental barrier. In essence, the approach is marked by a setback of some kind. It becomes a lesson in persistence, where we must cope with failure, change our mindset, and/or try new ideas.
This step is about the approach itself, where we must navigate to get closer to our ultimate goal. The stakes are rising, and failure is no longer an option. Well…that’s a bit over the top…but you get the picture.
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 7–week 3: The Mandala Lady
Quite honestly, I don’t feel like I’m making any progress. Yes, I faithfully do the mandalas of the day, the daily mandala oracle card pulls, and I’m back in the saddle so-to-speak with the Archangel 3 Mandala Painting. So yes, some progress is happening there. Overall though, I feel like I’ve stalled out with broadening my audience and business.
The July 7 Spa Day was cancelled due to the impending heatwave forecasted for that weekend (it actually lasted for another four days afterwards). In a way I’m glad it was cancelled…I felt uncertainty about how the day was going to go. It could be a control issue on my part…I didn’t have a say in its planning or organization. I feel like the Universe was telling us to go back to the drawing board.
I had one breakthrough with Dr. Ben since the previous step. Along with helping me with my body’s health, he also helps with my emotional/psychological help through a process called NET. When I met with him a few weeks back, we dug deep into an issue that I can’t even remember what it was about (and it doesn’t matter…I usually don’t remember our sessions afterwards…I think it’s because we’ve “been there, done that”, it doesn’t need to be brought up again.)
ANYWAY…at one point he blurted out “you bring sanity to an insane world with your art”. It stopped me in my tracks. I had him repeat it and then I said “That’s it! That’s what I do!” For years I’ve been struggling with how to “elevator speech” what I do and most of what I have come up with was either too woo-woo (if there is such a thing) or too vague or too “formula” or it lacked sincerity. He said it will be interesting to see if you see any changes in what you do with this new insight.
While that declaration of bringing sanity to an insane world seemed outrageous, it actually made total sense to me. I’ve now updated all my websites (I think) with my new tagline:
Bringing sanity to an insane world through the art of mandalas.
I also added it to my readings’ sign for the Southtown Market. I did two readings the week after seeing Dr. Ben, which up until then I hadn’t done any since starting the Tuesday markets. The next week was cancelled due to excessive heat. And then this week I did another reading. So already I’m in the black financially with doing the market. Yeah!
One other thing that’s helping me shift my perspective is based on a video post I saw by Reese Witherspoon who referenced a video post by Steve Guttenberg. I watched both. In essence it’s swapping out “have to” with “get to”. For instance, “I have to do the laundry” becomes “I get to do the laundry”. “I have to write this blog post” becomes “I get to write this blog post”. Making this change, puts me (us) in gratitude mode rather than victim mode. It’s helping me to doing tasks that I “get to do” around my home.
Where it’s also helping is with my art and readings. Adopting affirmations such “I get to give people readings”, “I get to help people with my readings”, “I get to help people with my mandala art” are helping me to see what I do from a perspective of gratitude rather than from a place of inadequacy or uncertainty. Essentially, it is altering “my approach”.
That’s it for now.
Maureen
The Mandala Lady
bringing sanity to an insane world 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 