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Bring it all together via a strategy or system

July 2, 2018

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.

Peter Drucker

A Quiet Writing deep-dive Tarot Narrative each Monday to share intuitive guidance, wisdom and insights from aligned books – for the week and anytime…

This week: bring it all together via a strategy or system

Theme for the week beginning 2 July

The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards deck – #7 Bring it all together.

After last week’s message of clearing the way by finding your practical truth, we move into a time to look at the whole of what we are doing. We are encouraged to bring it all together in some way. How can we see things from a higher perspective? What’s the order, strategy or integrating principle of our work? And what systems are we using to keep track or plan our business, creativity or content?

These are all questions to ponder in this week as we look at how to bring it all together. I love in this image that there is bountiful harvest there to coalesce and nourish us. But it seems we need to stop and gather ourselves to work out how to bring it all together in the best way. What is in and what is out? Which way is best?

Advice from the Life Design Cards Guidebook for #7 is:

Gather all the information you have right now. Look at systems that could be put in place to meet your needs.

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 2 July

Tarot Narrative:

Bring it all together and in order via a strategy or system. Some kind of organisation or boundary setting will help provide inner strength and calm to manage fear and risk. That way you can plan to move ahead with integrity and emotional courage now.

Cards: The Emperor and Strength from The Textured Tarot and #36 Come to the Edge from Wisdom of the Oracle.

Bring it all together via a strategy or system

Last week we had the King and Queen of Coins emphasising practicality and resources and how we use them. This week continues this theme but lifts it to encourage us to have a look at our whole overall strategy. How are we working to bring it all together, whatever we are doing?

As an INTJ personality type, I am a big fan of structure, logic, order, plans and knowing where I am going. These areas are highlighted this week. It’s also looking at the ecosystem of what we are doing, how things connect, the touchpoints. How does one part of our work or life related to another?

It was very exciting to see The Emperor arrive for my first engagement with Lisa McLoughlin’s beautiful deck, The Textured Tarot. This card embodies getting in order in some way. Having a vision, a strategy, working with integrity at a high level. It’s also about boundaries and scope – knowing what is in and what is out.

As Peter Drucker’s fabulous quote reminds us, we can waste a lot of time being efficient if what we are doing doesn’t even need to be done. This is the power of stepping back to look at the connecting principles and the overarching plan and strategy. We can beaver away with so much, but is it important or essential? How can we bring a little rational spirit and coherency to our work? What we choose to do is important here but how do we know which is the right thing? How do we know which colours to focus on? A strategy or system can help this choice and direction.

Bring it all together with quiet strength

The Strength card also backs in The Emperor. What a mighty pairing this is! It suggests that working with structure and order will bring a quiet strength and calm to our work. If we look at where the sources of our confusion and uncertainty come from, it’s often from having too much choice. We don’t know what to do first or which is the important thing.

If we have an overall plan, this can help us to be organised but also self-compassionate and gentle. Within these boundaries we can explore and develop inner strength. We are not so filled with self-doubt as we know our overall path.

The Come to the Edge card from Wisdom of the Oracle encourages us to take some risks and all our courage to lead us. But if we make a clear container to take risks and experiment, we are more likely to feel less fear as we step forward. This card featured two weeks ago also around time to check in to the calling of you heart. So in your plan, make space for leaps of faith and listening to your heart.

Strategy, order and planning does not have to be dry and lacking in colour or life. It can be a collage, a vision board, a journey about colour itself. There are many ways to being it all together and find the connecting principles.

How can you bring it all together?

So how can you bring it all together via a strategy of system?

We are half way through the year now so it’s a great time to take a step back and look at your overall strategy for your work, creativity or business.

I enjoyed this podcast earlier this week on The Creative Penn which focuses on exactly these aspects of creativity. It’s about ‘Strategy and Business Plans for Authors’ but the suggestions are applicable to any kind of creative endeavour. I found it very thought-provoking and inspiring.

Strategy And Business Plans For Authors With Johanna Rothman

I’ve also started working on the consistency of my Instagram and social media work via Sara Tasker’s The Instaretreat. This is all about integrating voice and style in our Instagram and social media work and I look forward to learning more about the threads that tie my work together.

Tips for bringing it all together

Here are some tips for bringing it all together this week. Take time to reflect and journal on any that catch your attention:

look at your colour palette: What’s the overall colour in your social media or website? What’s the colour palette and is it what you want? What’s the organising principle?
get some advice from experts: It might help to seek advice on your brand essence, your integrating principles. Sometimes we are so close we can’t see it or articulate it and help can make all the difference.
look at your mission: As Johanna Rothman talks about in the podcast chat, knowing you mission and overall aim helps to know what to do and what not to do.
choose integrity: A key connecting theme in these cards is also integrity. How does integrity connect your work?
look at what’s out of control: Where are you a little out of control, Seven of Cups? Where are you doing too much that is not connecting? How can you cut back? What can help you choose what to do wisely?
strategise for the next 6 months: It’s a good time to go back to your plan for the year and readjust it. What were you hoping to achieve? What’s the strategy for the next six months?
quiet strength: Where can you put your energies for quiet strength? What will make the difference to your progress in an underpinning way?

Thoughts for this week

Bring it all together with structure, order, strategy and overall plans this week. Take some time to breathe, check in on what you’ve harvested so far and where to go next. Invest your energy in this for traction in moving ahead for the next six months.

Here’s to a week of reviewing and getting our organising principles sorted.

Love to hear your thoughts!

What are you doing to put some strategy, structure and order in place? I’d love to hear! All best wishes for a week of getting clear on how your vision manifests in the world. And to sharing ideas and practices so we can all avoid time-wasting and inefficiency and get out work done.

May you find that taking a few moments to clear the way brings hope and focus. And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

You can work with me to help develop strategy and order in your creative life and work. Free 30-45 minute coaching consults chats are available so please get in touch at terri@quietwriting.com to talk further. I’d love to be a guide alongside to help you conduct creativity and magic with spirit and heart in your own unique way. I’m taking a short break in July but consults are being booked now for August and an August/September coaching start!

You can download my free 94-page ebook on the 36 Books that Shaped my Story – just sign up with your email address in the box to the right or below. You will also receive updates from Quiet Writing and its passions. This includes personality type, coaching, creativity, writing, tarot and other connections to help express your unique voice in the world.

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

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Taking a leap of faith with structure + the gift of surprise

June 4, 2018

We can’t learn to see if we can’t keep our eyes open. In just this way, staying open to the unexpected expands the openness of our heart.

Mark Nepo, The Exquisite Risk

A Quiet Writing deep-dive Tarot Narrative each Monday to share intuitive guidance, wisdom and insights from aligned books – for the week and anytime…

This week: taking a leap of faith with structure + the gift of surprise

Theme for the week beginning 4 June

The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards deck – #45 Take a leap of faith with your ideals

After last week’s message – choosing the best thoughts to make a lighter way – this week is all about taking risks and a leap of faith. We’ve had a time of Introverted Intuiting and working on our work in the world in a more visionary introverted kind of way. Now it’s time to do something with all those thoughts and maybe all that behind the scenes work. It’s time for taking a leap of faith in many different ways and also seeing what can support and inspire us.

This message of taking a leap of faith has come to me twice in 24 hours: via the Life Design cards deck and also the Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards. So I pass this message on to you here. Aine, the Celtic goddess and fairy queen, says: “Take a risk, and put your heart’s true desire into action!”

Advice from the Life Design Cards Guidebook for #45 is:

Expand your awareness through the gathering of unfamiliar experiences.

Today’s narrative, led by the synchronicity of these theme cards, encourages us to take a leap of faith. Elements of structure and surprise are in there as we navigate the unfamiliar with some safe supports.

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 4 June

Tarot Narrative:

It’s time to take some risks especially on work you’ve been imagining and planning for a while. Put in some structure, order and plans to help control your fear and manage any risks. Also to achieve progress over time, step by step. This will build confidence and help fight any inner or outer challenges. Work out what’s important to you as a source of strength and guidance. And take a leap of faith now for surprise learning and inputs!

Cards: The Emperor and Seven of Rods (Wands) from the Morgan Greer Tarot and #45 Time to Go in protection (reversed) position from Wisdom of the Oracle.

Taking a leap of faith with support

Last week we had the Nine of Swords and Judgment and it was all about watching our inner thoughts and trying to lighten them. This week we head into taking our creative thoughts and projects out in to the world in some way. Having potentially worked on our self-talk and self-love in a big way this past week and moved on and through, it’s time to take some risks and a leap of faith in our creative projects. This week begins with a yin energy focus as we intention comes in to being more. Taking risks to get our work out in the world is highlighted this week.

The tarot cards drawn along with the focus on a leap of faith provide guidance as to what will help us make that leap positively.

Firstly, the Emperor encourages us to work with structure and an overall plan. In Jung/Myers-Briggs terms, some Extraverted Thinking – some frameworks, logic and order will help us make a leap of faith with support.

In The Creative Tarot, for The Emperor, Jessa Crispin talks about C.S. Lewis and his approach to writing the Chronicles of Narnia series. Lewis plotted out the whole series in advance which led to increased consistency of his work. An INTJ personality type, he was weaving together his Introverted Intuiting with his Extraverted Thinking.

If you are planning a leap of faith in getting your creative work out in the world, use structure and a plan to help you. This was you will know where you are going in some senses so that leap of faith in writing or creating something new and innovative is supported.

This image via pexels.com

A leap of faith and self-belief

Another key support in the process of taking a leap of faith is self-belief. As the Seven of Wands reminds, sometimes we need to fight for what we believe in. This might be fighting for time, space and attention to get our work done. It might be working through issues that arise or countering naysayers. Perhaps it is shoring up our sense of belief that our work is needed in the world. Sometimes “you have to fight yourself down too” as Jessa Crispin reminds us for this card in The Creative Tarot.

As you craft your creative projects and take a leap of faith, see how you can strengthen self-belief as a key ingredient. Like putting in some order and structure, strengthening our self-belief is another valuable support as take risks and leap into the unknown.

This image via pexels.com

Book notes: A leap of faith and the gift of surprise

Our capacity for surprise is often an unused blessing.

Mark Nepo, The Exquisite Risk

A leap of faith can also bring with it surprises. Staying open to the unexpected means we can make the most of any leaps of faith and their gifts. But we need to keep our eyes open and we need to keep our heart open as we move.

Mark Nepo highlights ‘The Gift of Surprise’ in his book ‘The Exquisite Risk’. Taking a leap of faith also implies we are letting go a little to see what comes. Whilst we might put some structure around our leaping, like a safety net, still we can move from the known to the unknown.

It might be putting down the first words of that novel that has been in your heart for years once you finally create a tentative outline. This structure helps you have the self-belief to be able to get those first words down, knowing they will go somewhere. And in that, the surprise of what appears can arrive. The seeds of ideas have the chance to grow.

How can you leap ahead with structure and surprise?

So how can you actively leap ahead, honouring both structure and surprise?

For me, these Tarot Narrative readings are a way of doing that each week. I have the basic structure of a tarot reading, a blog post, the tarot narrative work I have developed over time. But I never know what the message is or what I will write about until I do the intuitive work.

I’m working on my Jung/Myers-Briggs Personality Stories personality assessment and learning. I’ve had this plan in my head for over 18 months now. It’s new territory in many ways including for me as a new way of working. Recently, I’ve put my head down and created the container and structure. I’ve done the work and am now testing it with fellow creatives, coaches and Jung/Myers-Briggs professionals. The somewhat scary leap of faith in putting this work out into the world is next but the structure has helped me make that leap. Beginning to talk about it has brought some surprising linkages I hadn’t thought of and offers of help.

Tips for leaping ahead with structure and surprise

Some tips for leaping ahead with structure + surprise:

make a transition plan for where you want to be; that guide and safety net will help you move
create a plan for your creative project so you can make a start eg an outline, a timeline, a visual map
work with Instagram challenges that provide some structure but also some freedom. I am going to join in with Quiet Writing Wholehearted story author, Shalagh Hogan for her monthlong Creativity Challenge #OurCreativeJune this month. But any time on OG there are great challenges that provide structure while you provide the surprises!
go to an event you are interested in that breaks new ground for you – an Instameet, a conference – or message more directly an online creative whose work you feel a connection with.
go outside your comfort zone and natural preferences – if you usually do your social media lives outside, go inside and vice versa. See what arises for you! Go to an event if you are introvert. Stay inside and explore your creative thoughts more if you tend to want to go out a lot.

Thoughts for this week

Leaps of faith don’t have to be entirely without support. Use structure and order to help you. Shore up your self-belief so you feel strong inside and can counter any challenges. Value the element of surprise and new learning that comes from stepping outside your comfort zone.

Love to hear your thoughts!

I’d love to how this message of taking a leap of faith with support and surprise resonates with you this week.

All best wishes for a week of going outside your comfort zones and stretching your creative projects and business. In the end, that’s the value fo being creative – enjoying the process and seeing what comes up for you – and for others.

May you find that a leap of faith can be an exciting way to progress your creativity and life passions. It also can be an important way to help others in their work through our example and what we create.

As Steve Pressfield reminds us on what of my favourite quotes of all time from ‘ The War of Art’:

Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.

And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

You can work with me to help tap into that inner wisdom and magic guidance. Free 30-45 minute coaching consults chats are available so please get in touch at terri@quietwriting.com to talk further. I’d love to be a guide alongside to help you conduct creativity and magic with spirit and heart in your own unique way. And to help you ignite the psychological links in your passions!

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

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Choosing the best thoughts to make a lighter way

May 28, 2018

Through meditation, observe your mind observing the world.

Lisa McLoughlin, Life Design Cards, #48 Stay bewitched by your own consciousness

A Quiet Writing deep-dive Tarot Narrative each Monday to share intuitive guidance, wisdom and insights from aligned books – for the week and anytime…

This week: choosing the best thoughts to make a lighter way

Theme for the week beginning 28 May

The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards deck – #48 Stay bewitched by your own consciousness

After last week’s message to start work and ignite magic from your unique passions, it’s a time of going within again. We have had this card a couple of times before so it seems to be a favourite for Quiet Writing! No surprises really, given it’s all about meditating, going quietly within and playing creatively with our mind. It seems a very Introverted Intuiting kind of card to me. And that type of cognitive processing is about withdrawing from the world to find an insight or higher perspective, according to Dario Nardi in ‘Jung on Yoga’ (more on this below!)

Advice from the Life Design Cards Guidebook is:

Through meditation, observe your mind observing the world. Play out creative inspirations with art, pure fantasy and dreams.

Today’s narrative, led by this theme card, encourages us to withdraw a little and choose best thoughts to make a lighter way.

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 28 May

Tarot Narrative:

It’s a time of change or perhaps you are just coming out of a tough time where much shifted. As you work through this time, be aware of your own consciousness and whether you are filling it with flowers and growth, or swords that might damage you. Wield what will help you to shed skins and move into a lighter time.

Cards: Nine of Swords and Judgement from the Spolia Tarot and #12 A Change in the Wind from Wisdom of the Oracle. Loving the Spolia Tarot!

Watch the thoughts you are choosing

Last week we had the King of Wands and Ace of Coins and it was all about moving ahead on our creative projects. It was a very yang energy week and I achieved an enormous amount of things I have been trying to get to for ages. How did you go? Did you have that same experience of lots of forward action?

I noticed too though that the fear and doubt started to creep in. As we put ourselves out there with our creative projects, all kinds of thoughts can step in. This week we are encouraged to ground ourselves by choosing the best thoughts to make a lighter way.

It’s amazing when we are reaching new goals and putting our ideas into action how the negative thoughts can come. The Spolia Nine of Swords captures this perfectly symbolising all those daggers of thought that can stop us from moving and fill us with fear. As Jessa Crispin reminds us for this card:

This is the card of waking up at 4am with your head spinning, letting you know all the ways you are letting yourself down….We can spin demons out of thin air.

Choosing the best thoughts and clearing your mind

So this time calls for a strategy of going within and choosing our best thoughts – flowers instead of swords – and clearing the mind. Whatever works for you to clear your mind – yoga, walking, swimming, running, knitting, colouring, drawing – will help to clear the air. That way you can begin to choose the best thoughts – the more creative ones – rather than the dark ones that make you doubt yourself.

The challenges of current or recent times are potential sources of growth. They can feel very tough but as the Judgement card suggests with its imagery of a snake shedding its skin, it’s all about transformation. And part of the transformation is choosing the best thoughts to take us forward instead of dwelling on any mistakes or shortcomings. It’s a whole lot lighter that way.

As I was swimming this morning, I was reflecting on how the act of swimming is a kind of yoga for me as I breathe in and out very deeply for about half an hour. In that process, as I float and move, I feel much lighter. And much like yoga, the thoughts come and go as I come back to focusing on my breath and movement. The practice of my body moving through salt water.

In this process, I go within and access my own consciousness and inspiration often comes intuitively. It’s easy in this way to choose the best thoughts rather than the “waking at 4am” style of thinking, full of fear and doubt.

This image via pexels.com

Book notes:

Withdraw from the world and focus your mind to receive an insight or realization. Check if synergy results. Try a realization to transform yourself and how you think.

Dario Nardi, Jung on Yoga – for Keen Foreseeing (Ni Introverted Intuiting)

Today’s theme is all about going within and finding ways of choosing the best thoughts. And this is a kind of Introverted Intuiting or keen forseeing. There are eight cognitive processes including four extraverted and four introverted in Jungian psychology. Introverted Intuiting is one of these processes. It’s highlighted this week for going within and finding those bewitching thoughts in our own consciousness.

Dario Nardi describes this Introverted Intuiting as ‘Transform with a Higher Perspective.’ This energy and cognitive process is valuable for us as we seek to change and shed old ways that are no longer helpful. Moving past the dark Nine of Swords thinking and into lighter ways of working, we can engage with our creativity.

‘Jung on Yoga’ is a fabulous resource on finding psychological balance through yoga and the chakras as well as through working with your cognitive processes and psychological type. It is particularly valuable on the Transcendent function and provides a contemporary perspective on conflict as a source of growth and how to work with this. As Dario Nardi states:

The tension of opposites is your fuel for growth.

Tips for choosing the best thoughts

So how can you actively work on choosing the best thoughts? For me, it’s finding the self-leadership strategies that help me settle and work with my personality type. It might be different strategies for different times too. As Dario Nardi’s work on neuroscience, cognitive processes and self-leadership reminds us, it might be about stretching our cognitive options to suit the environment and demands up on us.

You might like to read up too on self-leadership and being the Captain of your Own Life via this great free ebook. My piece on ‘Anchors of self-leadership in seas of change‘ is there along with fellow Quiet Writing contributors Elizabeth Milligan and Lynn Hanford-Day. Just click on the image to read – it’s free! It’s all about finding ways of choosing the best thoughts and quieting the darker ones.

A huge thanks to all fellow contributors and heartfelt gratitude to Angelique Desiree who conceived the idea, pulled us all together and created this beautiful ebook every step of the way. Enjoy some fantastic reading on wholehearted self-leadership and being captain of your own life as this week invites us to do.

Thoughts for this week

Going within and choosing the best thoughts to help us chart our course is highlighted this week. Judging what is best can be relative, but certainly finding the self-leadership strategies that you know will settle you will help you move with grace and calm.

Love to hear your thoughts!

I’d love to how this message of staying with your own consciousness and its more introverted and intuitive practices resonates with you this week.

All best wishes for a week of going within to settle into choosing your best thoughts in creativity and life focus.

May you find that shedding the skin of darker thoughts is easier and that your path is lighter. And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

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Retreat within to find approval with yourself as the best guide

May 14, 2018

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.

Marcus Aurelius via The Art of Life Tarot – The Hermit

A Quiet Writing deep-dive Tarot Narrative each Monday to share intuitive guidance, wisdom and insights from aligned books – for the week and anytime…

This week: retreat within to find approval with yourself as the best guide for creativity + life

Theme for the week beginning 14 May

The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards deck – #46 Find approval with yourself before turning your eyes to the world.

This week we are reminded to retreat within and look inside to find approval. We can so often measure ourselves against arbitrary external measures. It might be someone else’s website, career, latest offering, lifestyle, Instagram feed, family, friends, writing – anything really! There are limitless ways we can measure ourselves against the metric of another’s life. This week, it time to halt that and go within for approval and wisdom. A little personal retreat is a wise way to proceed with this week’s energies.

Advice from the Life Design Cards Guidebook is:

Don’t get hooked upon social approval. Let integrity and personal essence guide your way. Get to know who you really are by spending time alone.

Today’s narrative, led by this theme card, encourages us to retreat to channel our creative and personal energy wisely. Listening to our inner wisdom is only possible when we quiet the external noise. Then we can hear the small still voice of our intuition in a much clearer way.

This is what Quiet Writing is all about! Self-leadership through listening to yourself and letting your wisdom guide you. Prepare to retreat this week – a little or a lot – to access that inner wisdom to guide you on a clearer path.

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 14 May

Tarot Narrative:

Are you feeling scattered because of unfinished business and all that you want to achieve? You might be feeling restless as you strive to do all the things. Taking some time to retreat within for clarity is advisable now. Setting your own pace, knowing your own best priorities, discerning procrastination from the need to gather yourself, can all be sourced from listening within. Moving ahead is just a matter of pausing to listen to ourselves and our own wisdom sometimes.

Cards: Knight of Rods (Wands) and The Hermit from the Morgan-Greer Tarot and #10 Unfinished Symphony in protection (reversed) position from Wisdom of the Oracle.

Book notes:

To engage in disciplined action first requires disciplined thought, and disciplined thought requires people who have the discipline to create quiet time for reflection.

Raymond M.Kethledge & Michael S.Erwin, Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude (p. xiv). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Today’s theme is all about taking time to retreat for solitude and reflection. Through this, we can create disciplined thought. We might go about this in creative ways, opening up our options first to distil them down. But it’s all about pausing and taking a kind of personal retreat to review and be still so we can hear our inner guides.

This fabulous book, Lead Yourself First, is all about how self-leadership through solitude and retreat can be a source of wisdom and insight. The book has numerous case-studies of how leaders have used this form of retreat to guide wise and disciplined action.

Wholehearted self-leadership

I have written extensively about the book in a guest post for Worksearch: How to become the heart of successful leadership: this is what you need to know so you can read more there. Also in this post on Quiet Writing. Here are a few thoughts from the latter explaining how wholehearted self-leadership is key to Quiet Writing:

Two key threads underlie Quiet Writing: one is being wholehearted and how we create our stories; the other is self-leadership and how we work towards being wholehearted through taking personal action. The key to taking action and knowing which actions to take are:

knowing ourselves and what we value and desire

learning to listen to our inner knowing

understanding our innate personality, including its strengths and what is challenging for us

seeking out, incorporating and acting on influence and inspiration from others.

Pursuing passion and creativity

The Knight of Rods (Wands) focuses our attention on pursuing our passions and creative projects. But the energy of the Knight of Rods can be a bit restless and impulsive. On the positive side, this type of energy can help us break through barriers and be more creative. On the flipside, we can also be trying to do all the things and all at once. It’s a great energy to work with though if we can harness it. The Robin Wood Tarot describes it as “practical action in spite of distractions.” The trick is to find a way to channel that energy in a sustainable and disciplined way. And to find a way to negotiate the insistence of multiple of ideas and the noise of numerous distractions.

Retreat and going within to find clarity

The Hermit comes along to beautifully remind us of the value of retreat to find approval with ourselves. This card symbolises that it’s time to value the need to retreat for clarity and inner listening. As The Fountain Tarot guidebook reminds us for The Hermit, “Silence leading to clarity” is key here.

Quiet Writing is all about this process of retreat to find wisdom and self-discipline. We can get so caught up in comparisonitis, measuring ourselves against others. Or it might be some pace or goal we have set ourselves which has no real rationale. With the energy of the Knight of Rods being ignited, we might be trying to achieve too many things at once.

We are encouraged to go within, to retreat into our own inner knowing so we can access the discipline of thought and intuition to proceed. It can all get so complex and multifaceted, especially as creatives, as we have one idea and then another. Stopping to gather our thoughts, make lists, mind-map, distil, make a plan, unravel, walk or free write can all be valuable ways to use this time of retreat.

Sometimes we might just need to nap or rest altogether, freeing our mind of all the thoughts running. A few days of mental rest however that manifests can mean we can see afresh and listen anew to ourselves. In ‘Lead Yourself First’, we can see a variety of ways leaders access solitude for self-knowledge including running, walking, flying, laying bricks and writing. Leaders intentionally and systematically “build pockets of solitude” into their lives. An example is Bill Gates who:

during the rise of Microsoft, set aside entire weeks to just go away and read and reflect, what he called “think week.”

Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude (p. xv).

Through this process we can work out what matters, however we might choose to do this individually.

Unfinished business

The Wisdom of the Oracle card Unfinished Symphony steps in with wisdom around working out what is procrastination and what is real work. Our unfinished business can be a key to where we might be operating out of fear or putting things off. Being clearer about this can come through retreat and stepping back to listen within.

But we are encouraged not to stall:

Don’t overthink things or let yourself get distracted – just tie up any loose ends and deliver the results. (p39)

I am in a Coffeeshop Writers’ Group coaching program with Caroline Donahue to support reaching my writing goals. In a group call, I shared my thoughts about feeling stuck with so many projects not going anywhere or as fast as I want them to. It’s very Knight of Rods with so many projects on this ‘To Do List’ next to me. Taking some time out this week for clarity along with a little mental rest will help me reorient. It’s ironic that sometimes we need to stop to move forward more productively.

Part of us wants to run on and get out there with all of the ideas racing through our minds. Another part of us realises the wisdom of retreat to reorder and assess our ways of working. Stopping to listen within to work out priorities and in that, addressing any unfinished business, is valuable work now.

Honouring the need for retreat

How good does that image of a comfy bed, blanket and a book look to you right now?

It looks perfectly dreamy to me and I can hear my soul saying, “Well do that then if that is what you need.” With an eye to working out what is procrastination versus a real need to rest, retreat and rejuvenate, it’s time to seek a little quiet now. It’s time to listen to our soul and our creative longings and how they want to be expressed.

How might you do this? You will know your own ways to do this but here are a few ideas:

work with tarot and oracle for intuitive guidance and free write about what comes up
walk along the beach or in the city or on a quiet country road and see what surfaces
make a list of unfinished business that is troubling you so you can reprioritise
rest in bed with a good comfort read and empty your mind a little
make a visual collage to see what messages emerge
journal about what’s important to see what comes through
go on a self-guided writing retreat
practice yoga, meditate, swim or do whatever works to clear your head
declare a few days of retreat to concentrate on planning the next six months ahead
take a few days to clear your head with good food, yoga and walking to reset a new way of living
think about all the reasons to go on a writer’s retreat and then plan one!
sign up for a retreat like this one later this year in Vietnam, led by my friend Kerstin Pilz, to carve out times of retreat in your life more generally
identify the self-leadership practices in your creative tool-kit

Honouring the place of retreat in our lives is key to moving ahead productively. Take some time to journal to quell the noise and listen to your quiet inner voice this week.

Love to hear your thoughts!

I’d love to how this message of retreat to listen, check in and find approval with yourself resonates with you this week.

All best wishes for a week of untroubled retreat, embracing your hermit and connecting with your soul’s voice.

May you find inspiration in listening to your inner wisdom and knowing what matters. And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

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Shining a quiet light – working the gifts of introversion

Finishing on a high note – closure, letting go and moving on

How to make the best of introverted strengths in an extraverted world

Being a vessel – or working with Introverted Intuition

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Weathering seasons of life with skill and balance

April 30, 2018

Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.

Oscar Wilde via The Art of Life Tarot – Four of Pentacles

A Quiet Writing deep-dive Tarot Narrative each Monday to share intuitive guidance, wisdom and insights from aligned books – for the week and anytime…

This week: weathering the seasons of life with skill and balance

Theme for the week beginning 30 April

The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards deck – #49 Connect with Nature whatever the weather.

Again we seem to be building on the recent weeks’ themes of the essential matters of life and the value of simple pleasures. This week we are reminded of the value of weathering seasons and connecting with nature to help us.

Advice from the Life Design Cards Guidebook is:

Connect with Nature no matter what your internal or external season is.

I drew this card immediately after writing in my morning pages:

Monday morning, wet, windy, rainy, but off for a swim soon because I like to keep moving and I love it. I love all the conditions and changing circumstances. Reflects my life really, moving through different weather and changing circumstances.

This week’s guidance is about weathering seasons of life and how we choose to move through them. Even the conditions that are out of our control.

It’s about connecting with nature and other practices that keep us grounded in changing times. Remembering that different weather, seasons and change are all a natural part of life helps us to flow with it all rather than fight it. Another aspect of wholehearted living, we can choose to live in the moment of whatever season we are experiencing. We can also make choices to help us navigate challenging times more consciously and with skill and balance.

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 30 April

Tarot Narrative:

It’s time to remember the value of weathering the seasons and circumstances with skill and balance. All you have been through, the changing times are full of lessons and learning. Focus on the broader canvas of shifting from one season to another. Remember the larger scale, the deeper riches, and the cycle of the month, the year – how life moves through highs and lows, successes and challenges. Weather it all with skill and grace and work on yourself, your projects, as an anchor through changing times.

Cards: Three of Pentacles and Four of Pentacles from The Art of Life Tarot and #38 To Be Fair from Wisdom of the Oracle.

Book notes:

But it is in the present–not in the past, and most certainly not in the future–that we are able to see the landscape, to feel the range of our humanity, to travel every uncomfortable mile.

Dani Shapiro, Still Writing

Seasons can be actual, physical times of the year or they can be seasons of creativity and life. Whatever season we are moving through, a key element of the art of wholehearted living is to be present. As Dani Shapiro reminds us, it is about being present to our experience that helps us weather circumstances.

We often can’t control what happens to us. All we can control is our response and attitude to it. And a great way to manage that is to be present and mindful. Connecting with nature helps us do that. Practices like swimming, walking, yoga, writing, running – all help us do that. Working out what can support you to be in the moment is an important part of weathering seasons of life and creativity.

Weathering seasons of life and creativity

The Three of Pentacles is a favourite card here at Quiet Writing. I referenced it when I launched Quiet Writing Coaching where I talked about coaching as co-creation. Today it pops up again to remind us of the work we are doing over time. As Ralph Waldo Emerson says on The Art of Life Tarot Three of Pentacles card:

The reward of a thing well done is to have it done.

The Three of Pentacles focuses on mastery, craft, long-haul creativity, teamwork and weathering circumstances to get our larger work done in the world. I think of it as the “building a cathedral” card as Jessa Crispin suggests in The Creative Tarot. Many versions of the card show a major building undertaking, taking measurements, working out the architecture and structure, bringing the pieces together.

It makes me think of weathering seasons in larger creative projects or life practices. Examples that came to mind are:

Completing NaNoWriMo and writing 50,000 words in a month
Swimming and learning to swim in different weather and circumstances
Tarot work and learning this skill over time, sharpening my intuition

Any aspects of life really where we are digging deep to weather seasons and circumstances, get projects done or deal with major life issues like grief and illness.

Jen Carrington is also a proponent of wholehearted living and talks about living and working in seasons of hustle, struggle and rest. I love Jen’s thoughts on this and how we can make choices and modulate our way through, whatever season we are in.

Connecting to what matters

The Four of Pentacles card reminds us to connect with what matters, echoing last week’s message. Just as the quote on The Art of Life Tarot card reminds us (from Oscar Wilde above), the real riches are more than the material things of life. We are reminded to loosen up, let go, not get so focused on the material. We can worry so much about these things and lose joy in the process.

The Wisdom of the Oracle card To Be Fair also reinforces the message of the changing circumstances of life:

Life is a pendulum swinging between all of these states…remember all experiences have their place.

As Jen Carrington reminds us, there are times of hustle (eg working on big projects, moving forward), struggle (eg facing challenges, overwhelm) and rest (eg slowing down, pausing projects). We can be mindful of these seasons and we can mix them up a little. And we can find practices to help us navigate these seasons more successfully, whether they are of our choosing or not.

Weathering or living by seasons

The big learning for me has been to honour nature as a great leveller and teacher at times of challenge.

I know I mention swimming a lot, but that’s because it has been such a mainstay at a time of challenge. It helps me notice the seasons, the weather and reflect on moving through, being present. I meditate as I swim, noticing the fish and sand, letting all the jumbled thoughts settle as I breathe and move.

Likewise walking on the beach or in the bush enables us to interact with the weather but also reflect and be present. Being present to how we are living and choosing to live helps us to weather seasons of life and creativity in a calmer way.

And I’ve learnt that the tougher the going gets, the more I need to swim, walk, read and write, the anchors of wholehearted self-leadership in my life. It’s so easy to give them up when times get hard. But that is exactly what we need to be doing as a form of self-care. Your particular loves and skills will be different but whatever they are, honour them to keep present, fair and balanced in your life.

It’s a great week for reflecting on weathering seasons in our life and creative projects.

How are we moving through, how are we nourishing ourselves, how are we staying present in the midst of challenge?

Building the big works of our lives takes all seasons and learning to manage them. Take some time to journal on your weathering of seasons and creativity and see where you can strengthen your response to changing times.

Love to hear your thoughts!

I’d love to how you are weathering seasons in your life and creativity.

How are you taking the longer and larger scale view and building a cathedral?
What practices make a difference in weathering seasons of different types in your life?
How are you staying present to enjoy life’s riches even if there are tough times around you?

All best wishes for this week of weathering seasons by focusing on navigating change and conscious choices in how we respond.

May you find joy in the richer dimensions of life that may take more time to build and withstand. And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

You might also enjoy:

Coaching goals and the value of being a healthy creative

Your body of work – the greatest gift for transition to a bright new life

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Seeking wisdom in water and elsewhere

Umbrella image via pexels.com

personality and story planning & productivity

Clear the way by finding your practical truth as a touchstone

June 25, 2018

Wholeness is not achieved by cutting off a portion of one’s being, but by integration of the contraries.

Carl Jung

A Quiet Writing deep-dive Tarot Narrative each Monday to share intuitive guidance, wisdom and insights from aligned books – for the week and anytime…

This week: clear the way by finding your practical truth as a touchstone

Theme for the week beginning 25 June

The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards deck – #43 Tolerate the paradox and make a decision.

After last week’s message of taking time to align ourselves with the calling of our heart, this week continues this with a focus on finding clarity and truth in practical ways. This week it’s all about working through and integrating polarities, light and dark, and being practical and grounded in this.

Making decisions, getting clear, embodying paradox, integrating, and in all of this being practical about what works and what doesn’t is highlighted. Clear the way through working with light and dark and other polarities.

Advice from the Life Design Cards Guidebook for #43 is to tolerate and work with any paradox or polarities:

All wholes are composed of complementary halves (eg light and dark). Find your truth, despite the paradox and commit to a decision.

Being able to find clarity and clear the way ahead through working with paradox to find your truth is highlighted this week.

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 25 June

Tarot Narrative:

You’ve been through a lot, light and shade. From this you may find your truth has become muddied, unclear. Work with the paradox now to clear the water of your vision and find its truth. Re-envision it in an embodied, practical and grounded way, a touchstone for the next phase.

Cards: King of Coins and Queen of Coins from the Spolia Tarot and #20 Imagine in protection (reversed) position from Wisdom of the Oracle.

Clear the way by being practical

Last week we had the Queen of Cups and Three of Coins combining to suggest it’s time to check back in to the calling of your heart. This week we have the mighty King of Coins and Queen of Coins coming together to encourage us to focus on being practical. The suit of coins or pentacles is all about practicality, abundance, resources, money and skills. How we use them, grow them, master them.

The King of Coins is the final card in the sequence of the suit and is all about the mastery of practicality. He has an air of being removed from the action which is what we might need to do to get clarity. Can we delegate, prioritise or blend? What works and what doesn’t? Are we really investing our time wisely? These are all questions to check in with when the King of Coins arrives.

The Queen of Coins is more about what we love and so this card, via the Spolia Tarot focus is about the love of our work. It’s about how we embody practicality and abundance. She comes to remind us to be grounded as we work looking after our physical needs. This is about trusting your abilities and being practical as you apply your thoughts and dreams.

Remember the Three of Coins and the cathedral building from last week? Often the work we are engaged in as creatives, writers and entrepreneurs is big work. We’re building a business around our passions or we are writing the book of our heart. These are no light weight endeavours. As we build, it’s important to stop and clear the waters occasionally and check in on our progress and vision.

Clear the way by working with opposites

The theme of polarities and opposites comes up strongly in this reading too especially as a way of seeing the truth. Light and dark is the obvious one and as Carl Jung reminds us through his work, our life is all about learning to work with and understand our shadow side.

This might be understanding our personality type and knowing our personality strengths and weaknesses. We naturally have gifts and preferred ways of working and we need to understand and strengthen these. Likewise knowing the ways of working we will run a mile from is valuable to help integrate our way of being. Because those traits and preferences are still there playing out.

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

Carl Jung

All kinds of polarities are helpful in getting to our truth. It might be the unconscious or shadow side and the more conscious ways we work. It might be movement and stillness and how we balance being quiet with moving in the world. Perhaps we have diverse passions and loves that seem opposite and we feel we need to decide between them. It could be the integration of these in some way that leads to our truth or unique path.

Dealing with a sense of lack

The Imagine card from Wisdom of the Oracle reminds us that a sense of lack might have entered our lives. It’s as if we are living through a filter of what we don’t have rather than what we do have. Circumstances might have encouraged this as tough times do. But we are encouraged to clear the way. Things might not be exactly as planned. But what do you have now? What have you achieved? Clear the way by stopping to smell the roses, seeing the positives, putting things into a grounded perspective.

For example, I would like to have done more than I have at this stage in my transition journey. I can measure myself against the high arbitrary benchmarks I’ve set. There have been a lot of challenges along the way and this can make it feel like a tough road. Looking through this lens, I can feel heavy, behind, wanting. And in this, less likely to feel motivated! If I shift into a more open and self-compassionate mindset of tolerating paradox and seeing how all of these experiences help me to be wise on this journey, I can be more grounded. Focusing on what I have achieved rather than what I haven’t is a big factor in being able to clear the way. Seeing how my personality, various skills and passions come together to help and support me is a source of strength..

This image via pexels.com

Book notes: Mysterium Coniunctionis

In itself the unconscious is neutral, and its normal function is to compensate the conscious position. In it the opposites slumber side by side; they are wrenched apart only by the activity of the conscious mind, and the more one-sided and cramped the conscious standpoint is, the more painful or dangerous will be the unconscious reaction.

Carl Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis

Being one-sided is a risk and challenges our balance, as this quote from Carl Jung’s Mysterium Coniunctionis, Volume 14 of his Collected Works reminds us. Examples might be over-thinking, second-guessing ourselves, working from our dominant personality preferences more exclusively, working from our head more than our heart or vice versa. We could be too yin or too yang in our approaches to the world. Working from the synthesis of opposites is a source of growth as this week’s energies encourage us to do. Polarities within and without offer opportunities to make connections and provide new vision and above all balance. We can make it way more complicated than it needs to be.

How can you clear the way in practical terms?

So how can you clear the way in practical terms working with opposites rather then against them?

This week’s cards suggest that clarity is all about being practical, grounded and embodied. It’s about challenging one-sidedness and embracing opposites more as a source of strength and wisdom.

Here are some tips for clearing the way and embracing wholeness this week. Take time to reflect and journal on any that catch your attention:

notice any one-sidedness in your life: Notice where your heart or head is leading and where the other might help. See where you are spending too much time alone or too much time with others and see where balance can assist.
working from a sense of lack: Have you been working for a sense of lack as a lens for your life? List the positives, reset the vision based on where you are now.
embody your truth: How can you embody your truth more? How can you live it, speak it, visualise it, be more visible with it?
be practical: Take time to reflect on where you could be more practical to achieve what you want. What do your to-do lists look like – are they realistic or a source of feeling defeated each day? How are you using your time in line with your goals?
keep moving: How are you moving your body as well as thinking, writing and reading?
be still: Conversely, how are you weaving stillness into your days? Where are you quiet and reflective, making sense of what is happening or just stopping to breathe?
step back: be like the King of Coins and be a bit removed. See where you can ask for help, get a virtual assistant, delegate, prioritise, leave things till later. He’s a calm wise King because he a little away from the action so see how you can do this to be more practical.

Thoughts for this week

Find your own truth this week. Work with polarities and clear the way as only you can working with your personal wisdom and passions. Check in to clear the way by being in touch with your personal vision, bringing opposites together and embracing wholeness.

Here’s to a week of working out how to clear the way in your own unique way.

Love to hear your thoughts!

I’d love to hear about what working to clear the way looks like for you! All best wishes for a week of resetting vision and priorities to be clearer and more positive in how we work, channelling that King and Queen of Coins into abundance.

May you find that taking a few moments to clear the way brings hope and focus. And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

You might also enjoy:

Choosing the best thoughts to make a lighter way

Weathering seasons of life with skills and balance

Healing with words of gold

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tarot

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.

Peter Drucker

Theme for the week beginning 2 July

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 2 July

Bring it all together via a strategy or system

Bring it all together with quiet strength

How can you bring it all together?

Tips for bringing it all together

Thoughts for this week

Love to hear your thoughts!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Share this:

Like this:

We can’t learn to see if we can’t keep our eyes open. In just this way, staying open to the unexpected expands the openness of our heart.

Mark Nepo, The Exquisite Risk

Theme for the week beginning 4 June

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 4 June

Taking a leap of faith with support

A leap of faith and self-belief

Book notes: A leap of faith and the gift of surprise

Our capacity for surprise is often an unused blessing.

How can you leap ahead with structure and surprise?

Tips for leaping ahead with structure and surprise

Thoughts for this week

Love to hear your thoughts!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Share this:

Like this:

Through meditation, observe your mind observing the world.

Lisa McLoughlin, Life Design Cards, #48 Stay bewitched by your own consciousness

Theme for the week beginning 28 May

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 28 May

Watch the thoughts you are choosing

Choosing the best thoughts and clearing your mind

Book notes:

Withdraw from the world and focus your mind to receive an insight or realization. Check if synergy results. Try a realization to transform yourself and how you think.

Tips for choosing the best thoughts

Thoughts for this week

Love to hear your thoughts!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Share this:

Like this:

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.

Marcus Aurelius via The Art of Life Tarot – The Hermit

Theme for the week beginning 14 May

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 14 May

Book notes:

To engage in disciplined action first requires disciplined thought, and disciplined thought requires people who have the discipline to create quiet time for reflection.

Wholehearted self-leadership

Pursuing passion and creativity

Retreat and going within to find clarity

Unfinished business

Honouring the need for retreat

Love to hear your thoughts!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Share this:

Like this:

Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.

Oscar Wilde via The Art of Life Tarot – Four of Pentacles

Theme for the week beginning 30 April

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 30 April

Book notes:

But it is in the present–not in the past, and most certainly not in the future–that we are able to see the landscape, to feel the range of our humanity, to travel every uncomfortable mile.

Dani Shapiro, Still Writing

Weathering seasons of life and creativity

Connecting to what matters

Weathering or living by seasons

Love to hear your thoughts!

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

Share this:

Like this:

Wholeness is not achieved by cutting off a portion of one’s being, but by integration of the contraries.

Carl Jung

Theme for the week beginning 25 June

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 25 June

Clear the way by being practical

Clear the way by working with opposites

Dealing with a sense of lack

Book notes: Mysterium Coniunctionis