Developing an Artist’s Life with Lynn Hanford-Day

December 28, 2021

Welcome to Episode 7 of the Create Your Story Podcast on Developing an Artist’s Life.

In this episode, I’m joined by Lynn Hanford-Day of Sacred Intuitive Art – a visual artist working with sacred geometry, mandalas and Islamic patterns and a coach and psychotherapist.

You can listen above or via your favourite podcast app. And/or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below.

Show Notes

In this episode, we chat about:

Challenging transitions
Moving on from difficult times
Developing an artist’s life
Lynn’s art business & practice, Sacred Intuitive Art
Balancing corporate and creative living
Patterns and spirals in art and life
Manifesting & discipline
Living wholeheartedly & in the moment
And so much more!

Transcript of podcast

Introduction

Welcome to Episode 7 of the Create Your Story Podcast and it’s the 28^th of December as I record this and we’re in that lovely liminal time between Christmas and New Year with an opportunity to reflect on what the past year has taught us and the chance to plan and set some intention for 2022. I’ll certainly be making some time for past year reflections. My word of 2021 is Author so it’s been wonderful to step into that space and publish my Wholehearted books. And I’m crafting up new year intentions around my 2022 word of the year which I will reveal soon. Stay tuned!

I’m thrilled to have my friend Lynn Hanford-Day join us for the podcast today.

Lynn is a visual artist working with sacred geometry, mandalas and Islamic pattern. Lynn is also dual qualified as a coach/psychotherapist and works with women in transition who are seeking meaning, purpose and wellbeing. Lynn is especially interested in creativity and intuition, positive psychology and strengths, helping people to access and express their inner wisdom. Lynn helps women discover clarity and confidence, path and purpose.

Lynn and I met via our mutual interest in creativity. You might remember Lynn from Episode 3 and the Wholehearted Virtual Book Launch. Lynn has also written a Wholehearted Story for the Quiet Writing blog called Breakdown to Breakthrough which I also draw on in my book Wholehearted as Lynn’s story resonated with mine in so many ways. Lynn’s wholehearted story tells of how she moved from burnout and a corporate HR career to working with sacred geometry and crafting a multi-faceted career as artist, coach and facilitator working with women in transition and organisations going through change.

And that’s what we chat about in today’s episode: that transition, Lynn’s creative journey to developing an artist’s life alongside her corporate career, art and creativity as a source of healing and growth and intuitive ways of living, working and creating.

A reminder before we head into the podcast about the two programs I’m offering to kick off 2022.

If you’re looking for community, support and accountability for living a more wholehearted life, join me and a fabulous group of women gathering for the Wholehearted Self-leadership Book Club to read and work through Wholehearted together through-out 2022. Part book club, part group coaching, it’s a gentle and focused way to keep wholehearted living front of mind and make progress to the transitions and transformations you desire in the coming year.
If you’re looking for community, support and accountability to get writing done in 2022, join me and Beth Cregan for a Writing Road Trip. We begin with a free challenge in late January on your writing identity and then shift into a 6 week course looking at your writing road map and then come together for a 6 month community writing program where the writing gets done in earnest together and with support.

So now let’s head into the interview with the lovely and inspiring Lynn Hanford-Day!

Transcript of interview with Lynn Hanford-Day

Terri Connellan: Lynn, welcome to the Create Your Story podcast and thank you for your connection and your support of Wholehearted and Quiet Writing.

Lynn Hanford-Day: Hi Terri. It’s really good to be here. I’m feeling a bit nervous, also excited. So I really appreciate the offer and the invitation to take part.

Terri Connellan: It’s a great pleasure to talk with you today and to explore more about you and more about your work in the world to share with others. So we’ve connected in many ways around creativity, wholehearted living, art and writing and so much more on our journey together. So it’s great today to be able to share some of those conversations that we’ve had more publicly and with others. So can you provide an overview about your background, about how you got to be where you are now and the work that you do?

Lynn Hanford-Day: Yeah. I’ve got a corporate background. I’ve spent some over 30 years working in human resources and 25 of those years at director level. And I’ve been in work for 40 years cause I’m 61 now to my horror. But art came into my life in 2014. So in parallel with becoming self-employed, I’ve also developed a life around being an artist. And that’s obviously what we’re going to talk about more as we go through the conversation today, but I’ve got this mix of corporate work and non corporate work.

Terri Connellan: Yeah. So very much like me, you’ve had that shift in midlife from one life that was going down one path and another life, but both of us heading towards more creative living. So we’ve both shared that major transition from long-term career, yours, as you said, in the case of corporate HR to that more creatively focused life. So can you describe what that transition has been like for you? How long it took and what the main turning points were for you.

Lynn Hanford-Day: I covered some of this on the guests blog post I wrote didn’t I, which is, I think about three years ago now, Breakdown to Breakthrough. So in 2013, I had a breakdown. I didn’t work for a year and a half. Some of the impacts of that time were quite catastrophic because I did lose my job. There was no way I could continue working beyond the kind of paid period of sick leave. So we agreed that I would leave and then I run out of money.

So I sold my house in order to get hold of some of the equity that was left in that, which wasn’t huge. And as I came through the other side of that, I became self-employed because I knew I needed to change the way I lived. I recognized that I was my job and how unhealthy that can be.But it was also the . Way in which I could earn a living. So I turned to consultancy and executive coaching and interim management, which is a kind of form of being an agency temp. So I did that, but what had entered my life while I was unwell which was kind of unexpected, but it was also the path forward. It was part of the breakthrough story, this unexpected arrival of creativity in my life.

I started playing around with various courses. It actually began with coloring books. And I got into some online art courses and I was always fascinated by mandalas and patterns. So I tried to find a class and I couldn’t. So I bought a book from Amazon and a pair of compasses and started playing. And it was in 2014 through some serendipitous events that I then found a school in London called the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts which actually teaches a master’s program based on geometry that people can work with a huge range of medium. So it could be stained glass or it could be painting, or it could besculpting, or marquetry all kinds of things and they run public courses and that’s where I began to immerse myself in this practice.

So I’ve had a thread alongside my ongoing corporate work that’s been developing my creative process and becoming an artist which surprises me even now that I would ever describe myself in that way. I hadn’t touched paint since I left school, so, you know, over 30 years ago. And it keeps me sane. It’s really important to me now.

Terri Connellan: That’s just such an amazing story. And I know you’ve moved to the seaside and are working as an artist in a more full-time capacity?

Lynn Hanford-Day: It’s not full time. My work kind of flexes. It’s feast or famine as most people would say when they become self-employed. So it is something that I tend to do on a weekend or some in the evening if I’m doing some full-time work in an organization, but more recently I completed a contract at the end of March and over the last six months, I’ve given myself quite a lot of time and space to what I call faff. So I’m earning my degree in faffing and spending a lot of time walking by the sea and making the most of this lovely place that I moved to two years ago.

And I also thought, oh, I’m going to paint every day, which I haven’t, because it’s been summer time here so I wanted to get out of the house with the ending of lockdown and just experience nature and some fresh air. So the arts kind of comes and goes, but in the last couple of months in particular, it seems to really taken on a life of its own again.

So I was super excited a couple of weeks ago to become part of a new gallery that’s opened in the town here in Eastbourne. They had an open evening last week where it was for all the artists being represented. I met a heap of other lovely people. So I’m really excited about seeing my work properly hanging on a dedicated wall space.

So that’s really good. And the Instagram followers that I’ve got just keeps on growing. And that’s gone a bit wild in the last two or three weeks as well. Where a particular new piece that I’ve been posting seems to have attracted a lot of interest and gained about 200 followers in three weeks. Where’s this all coming from?

Terri Connellan: That’s fantastic. And it’s been wonderful. We’ve been connected for quite some time now watching your journey over that time and how you’re managing to shift into what you love to do. And as you say, flexing, as we all have to do with income and balancing creative living with resources and with freedom, creative freedom as well. So that’s wonderful.

So you mentioned your Wholehearted Story on Quiet Writing, which you shared about your journey from breakdown to breakthrough. So what did you learn from moving through and on from such difficult times?

Lynn Hanford-Day: it was such a pivotal. It wasn’t a moment. It was a protracted period of time. And what, what happened for me is during 2012, I had begun to feel very, very tired. And I can remember at Christmas time, a meeting of the leadership team at work and saying, I feel like I’ve run into a brick wall and I’m really looking forward to… I was going to take the full Christmas through to new year break. And I returned to work something like the 6th or 7th of January. So I did a day back at work and the following morning I couldn’t move. So my body decided for me and so it was a really serious message of like, you have got to stop so physically I was stopped. I saw my GP. I worked with a counselor. I was on antidepressants and my counselor was also a mindfulness teacher. So I got obsessed with the notion that meditation is good for you. But she was a very wise woman who said, what you need to do is learn to relax. You’re actually not capable of meditating right now. She kind of did demonstrate that to me. She gave me a CD, which I just found impossible to listen to. So that got put to one side.

I was in denial for probably three months probably through to Easter time that I was actually ill. I kept telling myself I’ll be back at work. I’ve got the budget to do. I never did go back to work ever. So during that time it was almost a gift and I was very aware of kind of going very, very deep within. Once I was able to concentrate a bit better, I did start to return to some books about Jung. This is one of our other connections, around Jung and types and archetypes.

And so there’s an expression from Carl Jung about having an unlived life. And I got a real sense that that’s where I was at, that I had become my job. I was very overly identified with it and that there was an opportunity here to explore who I was in the world, beyond my job. As I started to recover, to have the energy, to think about what do I want to do in the future.

And part of that was also the time spent painting and playing, giving myself a lot of time to play and also visiting Ireland. A dear friend of mine had moved to Ireland in the middle of 2012 to retire there with her husband she’s on the west coast, on the Dingle peninsula, right at the end of the peninsula.

And I stayed with her many, many times. And that space was also very important space because of the nothingness of it. And it was just a very magnificent seascape and very barren land, which was also incredibly beautiful, but I loved being able to just sit in my car to protect myself from the incredible winds that they get. It really blows a gale. But I loved the sense of the wind and being sat in the car and just staring off into space. And I think that was important time as well. So that transition was, I think, made up of many threads with an inner journey, support from medical professionals and medical help, support of friends, time in Ireland and this kind of emergence of creativity and the willingness to encounter my own intuition and what my heart was saying. So it was a soul journey. And I think there are many wise people who do describe breakdowns or severe episodes of depression as the heart seeking to speak. And I love the expression about being depressed to be rewritten as the two words, deep rest. Hmm. And that’s what I needed was deep rest. Cause I had incredible burnout and the feeling of just turning to ash. So little left in terms of energy.

Terri Connellan: You describe that beautifully, that challenging situation in that image of turning to ash, which really resonated with me too. Just what I’m hearing you say, what I’ve experienced also through my own experiences, which are not the same, but have some similar hallmarks and milestones is that loss of identity or that having to reshape identity. Because I think too, particularly when we’re invested in one path or in work, our identity gets very stitched into that. And then when we need to recalibrate it or something happens and we’re unable to continue down that path, I think that emptiness you describe and that space is often what we need to work with to regather ourselves and collect ourselves and redefine ourselves.

Lynn Hanford-Day: Completely. I met with a friend yesterday and we got into a conversation about unraveling and I know you and I think connected through Susannah Conway. One of her online courses is about unraveling the heart. And it’s a wonderful word. And talking with my friend and also other people through working as a coach, I think there are so many people, before COVID and particularly in a post pandemic world, who’ve got that sense of unraveling.

And once you’ve identified various threads, the opportunity to reintegrate: what do we want to now make of ourselves and this moment going forward? Yeah, unraveling transition. There’s a lot of it about. Isn’t it? The whole world planet is unraveling.

Terri Connellan: Absolutely. Yes. When you think about transition, the way I’ve been thinking about it, just in the context of my book Wholehearted, it is the individual journeys, but also now we’re in the context of a global transition as well. So it’s multilayered.

Lynn Hanford-Day: Totally. Yeah.

And I love that word, wholehearted. I know when I first got to know you and got your newsletters and you’d created the wholehearted blog. There was something about that word that really spoke to me. So hence participating as a guest blog writer cause I really wanted to spend time asking myself what a wholehearted life looked like as I came out of this kind of space of falling apart, unraveling. I think it’s more than a word. And to really inquire into: what does it mean to be wholehearted? And what does a wholehearted life look like now?

Terri Connellan: Your contribution and the contributions of others to that blog series has been so powerful because every woman has bought their own story and has also found in the writing of that story and the thinking about that story, what it means for them. So I’ve been really grateful for that for opening up my own insights. Each story seems to open up the opportunity for other women to think about it differently too.

Lynn Hanford-Day: It does.

Terri Connellan: So tell us more about sacred, intuitive art and what you focus on in your artwork.

Lynn Hanford-Day: I kind of fell into a niche without realizing it. So as a child, I loved Spirograph and making spirals and flowery patterns. And I loved kaleidoscopes, labyrinthes, mazes, that kind of stuff. But as I went through my childhood and adolescence, I would love coloring and messing about with paints but I never embraced it as a potential way forward as a career.

I wanted to be a doctor or a teacher, so art didn’t really feature, but I have always loved mandalas and particularly Tibetan Buddhist mandalas. And I guess I’ve always been fascinated by pattern. So right through to my thirties, I was a knitter. So I was more into textiles. And so I would make Aran patterns, Fair Isle patterns, lacy jumpers made of mohair.

So it was still, always about the pattern. So I think that’s something that’s within me. And in the corporate world, in terms of organizational change and organizational systems and group dynamics, a lot of that’s about patterns of behavior. And I trained as a psychotherapist along the way like you do. So I qualified in 2008 with a lot of that was about the repeated patterns of our own behavior, where they may originate from whether they’re helpful or hindrances. There’s always been something about patterns. And, so when I really fell into art, well, I think it came and claimed me, what I was really finding myself doing was drawing circles. And one of the teachers I was with asked me why I kept drawing circles.

I said, I’ve no idea. I like circles. So I thought maybe I’m just going round in circles. Maybe it was some kind of metaphor for where I was in my life and she just said, it’s a really ancient symbol. So perhaps it’s worth exploring. I do prefer circles to squares. We all have our preferences. So as I discovered the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts and started doing some classes with them, it just spoke to me so much and the underlying symbol and meaning of circles, triangles, squares, curves, or straight lines and so on. I never thought I’d be talking about geometry, but I don’t really do it for the math. I do it for the underlying meaning. And it’s possible to look at any pattern and say, that’s a lovely pattern. I like it. Or I don’t like it. But what really stirs my heart is the origin of pattern and where it’s come from and the meaning of square and circle is consistent across all traditions, whether it’s Islamic or Buddhist or Celtic or north American.

So the circle represents heaven and the square represents the earth and they are brought together to bring heaven on earth. And then there’s many, many other layers of meaning depending on the pattern. That excites me so much. I created Sacred Intuitive Art as a means of sharing my work. I started to put my work on Instagram because I wanted to have a kind of digital gallery that I could see the progression of my work. I wasn’t on it to deliberately sell my work. It wasn’t the conscious reason.

But that’s what grew, and the name, I mean, how do we invent names? It was sacred from sacred geometry and intuitive arts, because the other thing I got into quite early on was intuitive and expressive arts, which I discovered was an actual ‘thing’ for people who aren’t artists and it’s actually quite abstract work. And I was kind of doing both. And as I built up my own geometry practice, I wanted to combine them. There’s a big theme for me in life about integration. So what I tend to do is use layers of color in the background and then place a geometric pattern on top of it. And that’s how I’m playing with color and shape and form.

And my Instagram account, I was heading towards 1700 followers now, and I’m like, gosh, and I sell most of my work through Instagram. I had a website built in about 2016 and then I didn’t pay much attention to it in the last two or three years because my mom died and then my dad died and I got preoccupied with other personal matters.

So I came back to it this year and had it rebuilt. So that went live in August.

So it’s the new website, which I’m really thrilled with because was just like, gosh, it’s all my work. I know you write about having a body of work. So doing the website was really revealing as to just how much I’ve done. Not all my work is on that website but it was a moment to reflect and take stock and to see that transition from my early work to what I produce now.

Terri Connellan: That’s been the most incredible journey and, two things. I love that thread of that love of patterns through all different aspects of your life and your artwork, and also your personality, through your workplace and the sort of modalities that you’ve focused on and the tools that you’ve used.

And then, secondly, just how wonderful it’s been watching you share your artwork and also your process. I think that’s probably one of the things I know I love and people love on Instagram and through websites is seeing the artistic or the writing process, going through it and being able to almost participate in that process as well as seeing the beautiful art created. And your new website is just stunning, so congratulations.

Lynn Hanford-Day: Thank you. Yeah. I love listening to other artists describe their process and seeing the work in progress photos and I actually began selling my work through mind, body, spirit shows. So I would have a stool and display my work. And that was such good fun. And what I learned is people are really interested in who you are as an artist. How did you get to do this? And also people are really interested in the story of a picture. Because for many people, this creative process is alien. We lose it, usually through school. I think schools have got a lot to answer for, in how we take creativity out of childhood. It’s such a shame.

And then as adults, we become fascinated with people who have this creative intention as part of their life. So I just got to the stage of thinking, well, I love watching other people paint. Isn’t that weird, but I love watching paint dry from all the people and seeing howthey go about it. Why not do that myself and just talk about what I’m actually creating.

I end up having some lovely online chats through Instagram, with people who are curious and want to ask a question or give some kind of reflection on the work. That’s so enjoyable.

Terri Connellan: Yeah. And I think Instagram is such a great medium for that too. Isn’t it? It’s the instant side of it and the fact that it’s visual as well as the ability to have conversations. It’s fantastic. So we both love spirals, the spiral imagery and the mandalas you feature in your work. And they also feature in my Quiet Writing logo, which has the nautilus with the Fibonacci sequence and the cover of my book Wholehearted features that. So just thought it might be nice for us to just have a chat about spirals. What is it that about spirals that attracts you or attracts us generally to them do you think?

Lynn Hanford-Day: I’m not sure, Terri. I know I’ve always loved them and there’s something about the movement towards the centre. And there’s also something about the movement that’s contained within a spiral as well, so there’s a kind of energy and the vibration in a spiral that attracts me. And then you also get enormous metaphors around how we spiral through life. So it gets a kind of cerebral level. I find that fascinating and also very true, but spirals they’re so easy to draw. You can sit doodling spirals, which I frequently do and then we get people on the beach here where we have a lot of pebbles and people go and use the pebbles and make spiral patterns out on the beach or build a labyrinth from them. And so I think there’s something really deep rooted in the psyche over millennium about a spiral. So what calls you? Cause I love the Fibonacci sequence as well and the whole kind of Ammonite shell and the Nautilus.

Terri Connellan: Yeah, I definitely feel drawn to them. And for me, for my business, for Quiet Writing and for the book, it’s that idea of repeating lessons, like going over the same ground. And I’m drawing a spiral with my hand as I’m talking, which doesn’t really work on the audio waves, but, that idea of spiraling, but often it’s as we’re learning and going through life, we’re repeating lessons and often because of how we’re wired or how we brought up, it’s often similar lessons, but we’re often repeating them but learning at a higher level. So that idea of Wholehearted and the work that I do is about that idea of creating our story and building our wisdom through all the things that we go through, but learning and going deeper. But it’s also like going higher and often we’ll find that there’s that repetition of patterns or of learning and behavior or the same thing cropping up and you think, well, there’s that thing again? You know? Yes. How, how have I dealt with that, but what resources do I have? How can I do this better? So I think to me, it’s a very integrating , you mentioned integration before, so that idea of how we seek to be whole, I think that’s what it’s about.

Lynn Hanford-Day: Yeah. Yeah. And just listening to you describe that, I’ve got the image of the spiral staircase. So you can have a spiral as kind of flat on a piece of paper or make one in the garden, out of shells or something.

But if we turn it into that kind of 3D representation of how we spiral through life we can move up another level and another level and still see what was beneath. And see the repetition or the similarity, and then look up as to do I need to build on this repetition in order to move wherever we’re seeking to develop in our self leadership or other aspects of our life.

Terri Connellan: I love that. And I love spiral staircases too. So for people at the beginning of such a journey or feeling of being a bit stuck or lost or going through major turning points but wanting more creativity or a different life, what advice would you offer from your experiences about that really tough time going through that big transition?

Lynn Hanford-Day: I would say, be willing to sit with the discomfort. Whether or not, it’s a breakdown or some kind of severe illness or some other aspect of crisis that happens to, I think most of us at some points in our lives, they are deeply distressing, uncomfortable periods of time, and in a world of busy-ness and doing, then to sit in opposition, to busy-ness and doing, and the impulse to find the solution. I certainly felt that, you know, and I felt that I’ve got to get back to work and obviously money is a feature of that. But what I’ve learned since then, and over the years since is, there is a message in the discomfort.

And if we don’t slow down, then we don’t always get that message. Hence the repeating patterns. Cause it comes back to bite us on the bum in some way. Yeah, I think that’s how I would sum it up and use help if necessary to kind of stay in that space. So whether it’s through a therapist, trusted friend, a coach, I know you do coaching too. And I do as well. There are people and spaces and places available to give yourself that time. And even if it is only an hour a week with a therapist or a couple of hours with a coach, it can be so valuable just to allow something to emerge.

Because I’ve found that the heart will often speak in a whisper and we need quietness to really connect with that. Some people managed to do that through meditating. I do it through painting. I suspect yours is through writing, but to find something that allows us to connect inwards and listen to that voice inside, no matter the discomfort that’s going on around.

Terri Connellan: No, that’s very wise and hard won insights. So, yeah. Thank you for that. And when we had the virtual launch and we had a chat about a similar theme, we talked about living with uncertainty too, which I guess is part of that discomfort. I talk in my book about the William Bridges change management model, which I know you’d know from your HR work as well, but that idea of that messy difficult middle, which feels so uncomfortable and uncertain, but it’s also where the great potential is too.

Lynn Hanford-Day: Yeah, completely. That word transition, we use it for giving birth, don’t we? So we know that transition’s painful. But we have to go through it.

Terri Connellan: And I think your point about support too, is absolutely critical because that’s the other thing I’ve found and I know you’ve found going, one, they’re difficult, incredibly difficult journeys. And it’s about identity, as we said earlier, which can be quite unsettling and then it also can feel quite lonely. Cause it feels like now no one else has been through this type of thing. But when, as we’re talking now, often you find people one step ahead or have been through or have the strategies for dealing with people who have been in such moments of difficulty in crisis, and it’s important to reach out. So that’s a great reminder.

So, a question that I’m asking each person who comes on the podcast is how have you created your story over your life time?

Lynn Hanford-Day: How have I created my story? Haphazardly, organically. I’ve kind of gone through life in a fairly opportunistic way. I’ve not consciously set out to have this or be that or live somewhere. I know some people do. So I guess what I’m saying, I’m not particularly goal-focused. Maybe I should be, I don’t know. So I’ve created my story, particularly in the last 10 years or so often by looking back to notice the threads and the patterns, particularly in approaching my fifties and then approaching 60, which horrified me. How the hell did I get here and why am I still asking the question, what do I want to be when I grow up? it doesn’t ever seem to go away. So I guess I’ve created my story backwards. Which is curious, actually, in talking now with you about this. There’s a lot of people would say look forwards and coaching is very much about forward focus and forward momentum.

And I suppose it’s in the last three or four years, since my mum died and then my father died and then moving to Eastbourne which was two years ago. That was actually much more deliberate and much more focused around intention. And after my mum died, it was also a year in which three friends died of cancer. And I think that death does put us in contact with life and often leads us to reflect on, oh, well it could all be over tomorrow because actually, yes, it could be. None of us know. And as I’ve become older and got bigger and bigger numbers for my age, the realization that time is passing. So how do I want to live my life? And what does a wholehearted life look like for me at this moment in time? And what do I imagine myself doing when I’m 65 or 70? If I’m given that time, what do I want it to look like? So I’ve become much more conscious. And one of those desires was to have an art studio by the sea. So I’ve managed to move to the seaside two years ago and I still do my arts from home. Finding an art studio has proved to be quite elusive, but I’m lucky that the work I produce can be done from a table in the kitchen, which is what I do.

Terri Connellan: Wonderful. Your story makes me think of, in the writing circles, some people outline, plan ahead and are fairly goal focused and there’s others who… they talk about plotters and panters and the pantsers fly by the seat of their pants and are more organic,

But there’s often a point in a draft of a book where they’ll do a reverse outline and the people who have that tendency and stop and then go back and make sense of what’s happened to then work out where to go next. So it sounds very much like your story has been created that sort of way, which is wonderful.

Lynn Hanford-Day: Yeah, I guess I am a kind of here and now person. I’m opportunistic. The other thing I’ve learned particularly in the last six months is I am quite good at manifesting. So I need to be careful about these thoughts. It says, wouldn’t it be good if because literally it arrives the next day. I was like, oh my God, no, not yet. Not now. I’m not ready.

Terri Connellan: That’s wonderful.

Lynn Hanford-Day: That tells me there’s something about alignment and noticing opportunities and so on. So yeah. Be careful what you wish for. But watching you go through the process of writing your book, which, I remember you starting that a few years ago.

There are some things we need to work at and have a discipline around to manifest, the creation of a book or the creation of a painting, whatever it might be, find our dream home. We need to stick at. Sometimes it’s not always going to come immediately.

Terri Connellan: Absolutely. Often, and it’s a nice mix between the two when it works well, as we’re manifesting, we’re setting the intentions, but we’re also putting the work in, getting the skills, which is obviously part of your artistic journey, and my own writing one and putting in that hard inner work too. That’s the other thing in your story and mine is that it’s the showing up to the page and the showing up to life is also because of doing that hard inner work over time and going on retreat, learning new skills and moving through that discomfort as you talked about earlier.

Lynn Hanford-Day: Yeah. Completely.

Terri Connellan: So you’ve read my book, I know, you kindly me some wonderful advance praise which is much appreciated. So you know about the wholehearted self-leadership tips there. So what are your top wholehearted self-leadership tips and practices for women based on your experience to add to my body of work?

Lynn Hanford-Day: I come back to that, building on what I said about sitting with the discomfort, that there is, I think something here about the importance of paying attention to your inner weather. And noticing what brings joy as well as what brings discomfort. We’re kind of wired for negativity as a species because it’s there to protect us and to serve us. Yet, for myself, again, it’s only in recent years that I’ve really paid attention to what brings me joy and pleasure, playfulness, contentment satisfaction and so on. And some of that is through the world of work. That as a workaholic in recovery that it’s been about paying attention to: where does joy come from beyond the workplace? Cause you know, I’m not going to be prancing around as an HR director for the rest of my life. I don’t want to. So where does it come from? And then to give yourself the time to do it, if it’s a thing that you do, or if your joy comes from sitting, staring at the sea for an hour, which is what I do. Then I allow myself to do it. So there’s something about the allowing as well.

Terri Connellan: Hmm. That’s beautiful. Thank you. And as you were saying that beautiful list of words, of, joy and fulfillment and that beautiful list that you shared with us, I was feeling all warm inside that just tapping into the more positive aspects of life. I think it’s so true. And often they’re very simple. Like it’s just that a cup of tea in the sunshine and for me swimming is a big source of source of joy. And a lot of that is about just being in the moment.

Lynn Hanford-Day: Yes, it is. And this is where mindfulness practitioners are constantly encouraging us to be is in the here and now and in the moments. And I’ve learned the truth of that. It’s really powerful. And to just step outside, literally to go into nature or to step outside the busy-ness of the day and it doesn’t need to take up huge amounts of time either. We often say we can’t do that. Haven’t got time. I have given myself the discipline of doing it. And some of that happened in the first lockdown because I do live literally across the road from the sea. And it came from a suggestion from a friend because I post lots of pictures of the sea on my Facebook page with friends. And she said, why don’t you turn it into a potential installation piece, which I haven’t done, but I then took a video of the sea every day for three months.

And I was working during lockdown. I was working from home doing my HR-y stuff, but having that commitment to literally go outside no matter what the weather was. Cause it began in March so we get quite a lot of storms. It was to just stand there and take a 30 second video. And that turned into, go for a walk, go sit by the sea, go meditate by the sea.

Terri Connellan: Powerful practices and easy habits to get out of and easy habits to get into too. So that’s a great reminder to everyone listening. Well, thank you so much for your time today, it’s been such a beautiful conversation and so many layers and great things to draw on from ourconversation today. So thank you for sharing so much of yourself and your beautiful work. So if you can let people know where people can find more about you and your art and work online.

Lynn Hanford-Day: Thanks, Terri. Thank you so much. It’s been a lovely conversation. Yeah, people can find me on my website, which is SacredIntuitiveArt.com and also on Instagram. And my Instagram handle is the same name. So it’s @ sacredintuitiveart

Terri Connellan: Thank you so much. It’s been a great joy speaking today.

Lynn Hanford-Day: Yeah. Thank you, Terri. Go well.

About Lynn Hanford-Day

Lynn Hanford-Day is a visual artist working with sacred geometry, mandalas and Islamic pattern. Lynn is also dual qualified as a coach/psychotherapist and works with women in transition who are seeking meaning, purpose and wellbeing. Lynn is especially interested in creativity and intuition, positive psychology and strengths, helping people to access and express their inner wisdom. Lynn helps women discover clarity and confidence, path and purpose.

Lynn’s art can be seen on her website at www.sacredintuitiveart.com.

You can also connect with Lynn via Instagram and email lynn.hanford-day@sophrentos.com

Links to explore:

My books:

Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition

Wholehearted Companion Workbook

Free resources:

Chapter 1 of Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition

https://www.quietwriting.net/wholehearted-chapter-1

Other free resources: https://www.quietwriting.com/free-resources/

My coaching:

Work with me

Personality Stories Coaching

The Writing Road Trip – a community program with Beth Cregan – kicking off Jan 2022

Wholehearted Self-leadership Book Club – open for enrolment now – join us for 2022.

Connect on social media

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/writingquietly/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/writingquietly

Twitter: https://twitter.com/writingquietly

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terri-connellan/

love, loss & longing wholehearted stories

The Silent Whispers of my Mind – Journeying from fragmented to wholehearted

September 16, 2021

This guest post from Valerie Lewis shows how learning to listen to the silent whispers of our mind can help us shift from feeling fragmented to more wholehearted living.

This is the 23rd guest post in our Wholehearted Stories series on Quiet Writing! I invited readers to consider submitting a guest post on their wholehearted story. You can read more here–the invitation is open.

Quiet Writing celebrates self-leadership in wholehearted living and writing, career and creativity. This community of voices, each of us telling our own story of what wholehearted living means, is a valuable and central part of this space. In this way, we can all feel connected on our various journeys and not feel so alone. Whilst there will always be unique differences, there are commonalities that we can all learn from and share to support each other.

I’m honoured to have Valerie Lewis as a ‘Wholehearted Stories’ contributor. Valerie and I met when she joined me as a coaching client in the Sacred Creative Collective. In this story, Valerie shares how tragic life circumstances affected her so deeply. And how she moved through grief and feeling fragmented to connecting the pieces of herself through listening within. Thank you for sharing your story, Valerie.

The Silent Whispers of my Mind – Journeying from fragmented to wholehearted

My only child was killed at the age of seven. Amongst the shock and disbelief of what had happened and feeling as if I had been thrust into some horrific, unimaginable nightmare, as the days and months passed by, my mind felt so jumbled and filled with chatter. One minute my mind would tell me I couldn’t cope or I didn’t know how to think or couldn’t think straight. Sometimes at night when all was silent around me, my mind would tell me it was all a very bad dream and tomorrow I would wake up and my life would be as it was before and back to normal.

There was one time, though, when a voice, which seemed different and to come from a deeper place within my head and upper body emitting a warmth and calmness which I temporarily felt (as it spoke), assured me I would get through this. Afterwards, I was to wonder if I had actually had this thought or not because I couldn’t determine whether the voice that had spoken was in my head or outside of it.

Life can be scary

We all get scared and want to turn away, but it isn’t always strength that makes you stay. Strength is also making the decision to change your destiny.
~ Zoraida Córdova

During this painfully surreal time, I had a lot of decisions to make, some minor and many major, and there were practical tasks to be attended to. Some of my biggest decisions revolved around the fact that I was no longer who I used to be. Indeed, who was I now? I can look back and realise that the voice within my head, you know, the one I said felt as if it came from a deeper place within me, the whispering voice that was calm, matter-of-factly and assuring, really came to the fore (not sure why—maybe I was just more sensitive and receptive), and guided me in some of my decision-making (such as the decision to file for divorce and also officially change back to my maiden surname).

Of course, sometimes it was a battle, as the internal monologue was overwhelming. It was as if diverse thoughts vied for attention. Thoughts of the past, thoughts about the present, thoughts about the future that could have, should have been and thoughts about a future that I couldn’t really define, visualise or even fantasise about. Fear and an overwhelming sadness were predominant emotions during that time. But there was also a strong will to make it through that existed within me as I embarked on my journey to discover who I now was and the eventual decision to move away and create a new life for myself in another city. I was not to know then that my ‘journey’ was a journey of self-leadership and would involve so much discovering and learning.

A fragmented life

There were times when I felt too scared to look ahead to the future. The future I had envisaged and had been working towards was now a shattered dream. Many of the tangibles in my life were no longer there in the form I had previously known them – my husband (was committed to a secure hospital for the manslaughter under diminished responsibility of our daughter, and diagnosed as schizophrenic), my daughter, our home, our car, even our cat Smokey – our relationship was now different as he was ‘adopted’ by an aunt and uncle and was no longer ‘my cat’ as such. Even the non-tangibles – routine and familiarity were now changed.

I no longer felt whole. I and my life were fragmented, with many of the pieces, like a jigsaw, now no longer there. Would I ever wake up one day and my heart not hurt so much? And would I someday feel happy again, and how was it even possible for a human being to shed so many tears? Would I ever become a whole person again and when would it happen – next month, next year, in five, ten years or never? How would I know, how would I feel then?

Feeling my feelings

When I said I didn’t know how to move forward, not necessarily in a practical sense, but in the way I felt and dealt with my feelings, someone suggested to just take each day as it came. It made sense to me. Instinct told me that to survive, I had to go through what I had to go through. I had to feel the feelings I felt. There was no other way if I wanted to remain sane. I would get through this. The calm, matter-of-factly voice had whispered that one time to me. No matter what the other voices said, I needed to hold on to these particular words and the lesson I was learning, that it is best to not ignore feelings (emotional states).

Somehow, we have to find ways to go through them. Sure, we can try to circumvent them, but feelings are pretty tenacious and can be quite slippery. They can sneak back into our minds and bodies and cause us to remain stuck with hurt and grief or to become ill.

One book, gifted to me by a dear friend in 1988, ‘Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway’, by the now deceased Susan Jeffers was perhaps the first ‘self-help’ book I devoured as I sought guidance on how to deal with my inner fears and confront and cope with life’s challenges.

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them—that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
~ Lao Tzu

The silent whispers of my mind—my inner wise Sage

It was some years later that I really grasped and understood that my silent whisperer, the one that stood out (and still does) as differing from the other whisperers, was my intuition. This developed during the late ’90’s and early noughties. I became familiar with energy healing (namely Reiki); explored astrology, colour therapy, crystals, tarot and oracle cards; embraced creativity and journaling; and read many more self-help/personal development books. I also gained a better understanding of my personality as an introvert and thus my natural inclination to go within to seek answers and understand the world and my existence within it. Personal development classes with someone I now look back on as a mentor type figure, and also some spiritual development classes also helped to integrate this realisation.

My calm, silent whisperer does not repeat their initial message – they say it once. Sometimes they don’t even speak. I just have a deep sense of ‘knowing’, or some might say, ‘a calling’, a feeling which seems to fill my upper body. This is unlike the everyday mind chatter or internal monologue that goes on in our head. That calm whispered message or deep sense of ‘knowing’ can occur ages before I’m in a position to act on it. This is to the point that as time goes by, I start to question if it really happened because the other voices have started to interfere and jostle to make their point of view known and dissuade me, or life gets in the way.

Trusting the silent whisperer

I trusted the silent whisperer’s message without question a couple of years or so after when I met the person who is my partner now and moved in with him, after being hesitant about sharing a home with someone. Another example is from 2014, when I felt called to track down and contact the woman whose personal development classes I’d attended over 10 years previously. I was pleased that although now retired and not actively marketing her services, she was happy to work on a one-to-one basis with me providing directional support and using guided meditation to reconnect with my inner self.

Follow the tugs that come from the heart. I think that everyone gets these gentle urges and should listen to them. Even if they sound totally insane, they may be worth going with.
~ Victoria Moran

I’ve trusted the messages of the silent whisperer when it has seemed to make sense, but sometimes the scenario that plays out makes little sense. Life has presented me with more challenges and no clear route on that path. I’ve had to learn (AND am still learning) to trust that in time (maybe even many years later), the road would become clear, things fall into place and the initial messages would make sense.

Who am I?

I can’t remember why or how I came to purchase my first deck (Rider Waite). Or the book that I also purchased the year before my 40th birthday and spent many hours studying (Principles of Tarot by Evelyne and Terry Donaldson) still on my quest to discover more about myself and journey towards becoming whole and less fragmented. Evelyne and Terry say that “it is not so much what is ‘in the cards’, as what we ourselves are able to see in them”. Also that ‘the Tarot is really a set of windows through which we can look at life from a different perspective.’ Two of my favourite cards are the High Priestess and Empress – archetypes which I feel represent my inner and outer self.

High Priestess
The High Priestess is the Goddess within. She is the feminine principle, the Yin, the receptive side. She represents the intuition. She shows us the path to realisation is reached by overcoming our own self-doubts, and by listening more trustingly to our own feelings and intuitions.
Empress
The Empress teaches us how to love. It is love that makes our lives unfold and grow. As opposed to the High Priestess, the Empress represents the physical (tangible) world. The Empress is there to show us how we can learn about emotions and feelings through self-expression.
Extracted from the ‘Principles of Tarot’ book

Self-expression and intuition

I feel more whole but keep on growing and becoming even more whole. For a good while, intuitive abstract painting has intrigued me and, a couple of years ago I decided to give it a go. The painting above ‘Floating’ reflects the words of the below quote and combines, for me, the two tarot archetypes:

In this life, your so called ordinary life, you must be rooted; and in your inner space, in the spiritual life, you must be weightless and flying, flowing and floating.
~ Rajneesh

Below is ‘Pink Haze’. She serves as a reminder that our life issues are rarely a monochrome black or white. What is in between those two colours, especially in times of transition, if we learn to listen to our intuition, can inspire and guide us onto a path that is true to who we are being/becoming and to living a life that is wholehearted and authentic.

My experience has shown me it is not always a straightforward path. There may be a circling back, dips, curves, stumbling blocks and so forth as we journey along this path we call life. The truth is, we are all born with intuitive abilities. We use intuition (hear those silent whispers or feel it within our bodies) every day of our lives, some more than others, but often we might be unaware of having done so.

Through perhaps fear, listening to the many voices (inner critic or ego), we ‘rationalise’ or dismiss what we have intuited. It often becomes easier to turn to others for help and guidance. But ultimately—the answers we seek are within us—and we already know what we need to do (even if we think we don’t)—to live life with a mind and soul more wholehearted and less fragmented.

Key book companions along the way

Just a few of the many books that have made an impact on me and my journey:

Feel the Fear (And Do It Anyway)—Susan Jeffers (1987)

The Successful Self (Freeing Our Hidden Inner Strengths)—Dorothy Rowe (1988)

Principles of Tarot—Evelyne and Terry Donaldson (1996)

The Magic Path of Intuition—Florence Scovel Shinn (2013)

The Artists Way—Julia Cameron (1992)

Tune In (Let Your Intuition Guide You to Fulfilment And Flow)—Sonia Choquette (2013) extract free with Spirit and Destiny Magazine

Healing Grief (Reclaiming Life After Any Loss)—James Van Praagh (2000)

Love is in The Earth (A Kaleidoscope of Crystals)—Melody (1995)

I am Diva (Every Woman’s Guide to Outrageous Living)—Elena Bates, Maureen O’Crean, Molly Thompson, Carilyn Vaile (1999)

Inspiration Sandwich (Stories to Inspire our Creative Freedom)—Sark (1992)

About Valerie Lewis

Valerie Lewis is a multipassionate 60plus pro ager. Through grief coaching and personal growth facilitation, she supports and empowers those who are lost and confused with the direction they want to take following a significant life event that has impacted them and their sense of self. Her interests include being an intuitive reader, Reiki and crystals practitioner and avid creative dabbler.

You can connect with Valerie at her website Visualise and Bloom or via Instagram @visualiseandbloom You can also read an interview with Valerie on her transition journey.

Photographs by Valerie Lewis, used with permission and thanks.

Keep in touch

Quiet Writing is on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter so keep in touch and interact with like-minded and kindred souls in the Quiet Writing community. Look forward to connecting with you and inspiring your wholehearted story!

introversion intuition personality and story

Introverted Intuition: Learning from its Mystery

June 30, 2021

Introverted Intuition is my dominant function as an INTJ personality type. I’ve been learning more about it through my personal journey and as a practitioner in psychological type. I share my insights to guide your own journey, whatever your personality preferences.

Introverted Intuition and your type

If you identify as an INTJ or INFJ personality type, Introverted Intuition is typically your dominant function; if you identify as an ENTJ or ENFJ, it’s your auxiliary function; for ISFP and ISTP types, it’s the tertiary function and for ESFP and ESTP types, it’s the inferior function. And it plays out in some way for all types. If you don’t know your type, it’s not a huge issue; if the words ‘Introverted Intuition’ speak to you, chances are they are natural preferences for you or areas on your radar for development.

Introversion and Intuition

Focus on introversion and working its strengths has surfaced in recent times especially as a result of Susan Cain’s book, Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking. This has been powerful, helping introverts feel more understood and aware of their gifts; however, understanding how introversion and intuition play out together has had less attention. True to type, much of my learning about Introverted Intuition is from my intuitive, personal experiences. I’ve also found valuable insights through reading and research on the function to help make sense of how its mystery works.

What Carl Jung says

Firstly, though, I went back to Dr. Carl Jung for insights as the source, given he conceptualized the eight functions based on his work with patients. Jung’s wise thoughts have helped me to understand my experience of Introverted Intuition.

In a video interview, Jung describes the life of the Introverted Intuitive (Ni) type as ‘a very difficult life…although one of the most interesting.’ This is strangely comforting. He says the key challenge is that there is ‘something funny’ about intuition as we don’t normally consciously know how it works.

In this same interview, Jung defines Introverted Intuition as ‘a perception by ways or means of the unconscious.’ Being linked with introversion and the inner world, these perceptions are unique to the individual and not common to all. This makes it hard to explain these insights in a comprehensible way and creates a sense of mystery. He explains that Introverted Intuitive types tend to keep their insights to themselves because no one would understand.

So what is Introverted Intuition?

So how does this play out in a practical sense? Introverted Intuition works primarily via symbols and images. It involves being aware of abstract ideas and tuning into the language of dreams and the unconscious. It functions especially through an ability to see connections and associations. Through the filter of your inner world, you attach your own meaning to these symbols or images. You can’t always see how you got from A to B; you only know the result of the sequence.

Dario Nardi has applied neuroscience to see how the neocortex of the brain works for different personality type preferences. In his book, Neuroscience of Personality, he describes how people with Introverted Intuition as a dominant function enter a whole brain, zen-like state when asked to envision the future and when focusing on a single question without distraction. The Introverted Intuitive particularly accesses this state when working on a new problem.

The Introverted Intuitive function has been described as ‘Visionary Insight’, by Mary McGuiness in her book You’ve Got Personality and as ‘The Seer’, in Gary Hartzler and Margaret Hartzler’s book, Functions of Type: Activities to develop the eight Jungian functions.

Ways Introverted Intuition manifests – my learnings

Here are some of my practical learnings about Introverted Intuition and how it can manifest:

Poetry and other intuitive writing

As an INTJ, Introverted Intuition appeared early in my life via poetry. This is the perfect vehicle for Introverted Intuition to play out its magic, given it is based on symbol and imagery created in quiet space and time. Any stream-of-consciousness writing is a valuable way of tapping into what’s going on at a deep level and to resolve contrasting positions. You can work with poetry and other creative writing to perform magic not possible in real life – like bringing people back into your life, if for a moment, or resolving hurt or disappointment. And this can help move you through hard times and into a new stage of life.

Envisioning in the workplace

Working on the big picture and creating the long-term vision of what might be is something I enjoy. My auxiliary function, Extraverted Thinking, ably supports me in this. Day to day in my work role, I read the strategic landscape pretty well to know what might come up as an issue. I don’t always know why, but I often intuitively know the next thing to concentrate on as an action or project. It helps me bring together the larger vision process with identifying the next steps. It’s valuable to find the quiet time to coalesce these aspects and I’ve learned to rely on this and listen to it as a leader.

Tarot and oracle practice

Working with tarot and oracle cards has become a deep personal practice. The framework of tarot and oracle symbolism is a way of working with the unconscious in a practical and structured way. Engaging with tarot and oracle cards regularly helps to tune into intuitive guidance as a form of ongoing narrative. Finding a symbolic language that works for you can help to enter the core strength of introverted intuition that offers such deep wisdom and insight.

The challenges and balancing of Introverted Intuition

There are challenges in being introverted and intuitive. You can get drawn into your own world too much. You keep things to yourself. The ideas you come up with are often hard to communicate to others.

To balance the extremes, it’s useful to bring in some of its opposite functions, especially Extraverted Sensing (Se) and Extraverted Intuition (Ne), including:

accepting that some things just are what they appear to be;
spending time outside in nature to ground all that inner work in reality;
focusing on timeframes and what is practical; and
shaping visionary thoughts into a structure or framework

Ways to work with Introverted Intuition

Whatever your type and dominant function, you can learn to integrate introverted intuitive approaches into your life to help with creativity, visionary insight, connecting associations and seeing the whole.

Here are some practices for developing and applying Introverted Intuition in your life based on my own experiences fleshed out with concepts from the book, Functions of Type: Activities to develop the eight Jungian functions by Gary Hartzler and Margaret Hartzler. This book has excellent practical examples of activities to develop all the eight Jungian functions.

Ideas for developing Introverted Intuition include:

Work with symbols and the connection between ideas:

Notice the symbols that recur for you and work through their connections and meaning.
Write about the connections, tapping into stream of consciousness writing as a way of accessing the unconscious meanings for you.
Work with tools and media that have symbolism and imagery as their focus e.g. tarot, oracle, poetry, art, mandalas.

Envision how things could be:

Journal to envision how things you desire could be – your dreams, your plan, your work life.
Flesh the vision out in your imagination so you can see what it looks and feels like.
In business contexts, step out of the every day for a higher level view of the future.
Let images of how it all could look like in 1 year, 2 years, 10 years come to you.

Work on viewing things from a range of perspectives:

In a meeting or online group or in your family, see things from the perspectives of others and hold those perspectives simultaneously to see a more holistic view.
See how these multiple versions or viewpoints can come together into something new.
See how you can bring together diverse products and services into something unique.

Look behind the obvious to the more hidden meaning:

In a coaching or mentoring situation, listen to see the hidden meaning behind words and behaviours.
Reflect back what you are seeing sensitively as a platform for further insight.
Practise identifying what is not being said in situations such as television interviews and meetings.
Try to get a more holistic perspective and practice your skills of reading the unspoken.

Introversion and intuition working together can result in vision, positive solutions, and innovative insights. It’s valuable to learn how to work with its mysteries whether it is a strong preference or a less natural one. I hope these insights are valuable for flexing your introverted intuitive muscle for more holistic perspective and inspired creativity.

You can learn about Extraverted Intuition here: Extraverted Intuition – Imagining the Possibilities

Introverted and extraverted intuition – how to make intuition a strong practice

Shining a quiet light – working the gifts of introversion

Intuition, writing and work: eight ways intuition can guide your creativity

Read Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition

Want to learn more about personality, creativity and self-leadership for positive transition to the life you desire?

Head over to read about my book Wholehearted and the accompanying Companion Workbook now.

Available in paperback and ebook from retailers listed here:

Wholehearted

Companion Workbook

inspiration & influence wholehearted stories

Cora Pacheco – Sacred Creative Stories of Transition

August 18, 2020

Having left her paralegal role and with some newly freed up time, a woman seeks to engage more deeply with her personality, creativity and intuitive skills and self as a guide for the future.

Cora Pacheco joined the Sacred Creative Collective for community and support in going deeper on her intuitive practices. She was seeking clarity on where these important skills could take her in a new phase of life. Building on personality insights, Cora traversed realms of archetypes and shadow work to deepen her intuitive knowledge for herself and for others.

I asked alumni from the Sacred Creative Collective to share their experiences and how group coaching contributed to self-understanding and future directions. Cora took the time to reflect on her journey in life and the Sacred Creative Collective via these interview questions. I am grateful to Cora for sharing her wisdom and learning. Cora’s journey shows how working with a coach and a group can help us embrace the creative and intuitive sides of our personality in a deeper way and without fear.

Enjoy and may Cora’s story inspire your own intuitive search for wisdom!

Can you please tell us a little about yourself and your transition journey? What led you to want to make a deeper, more creative shift in your life?

Five years ago when I was 50, I left my profession as a paralegal prosecutor to stay at home as a full-time caregiver to my children, one of whom has a developmental disability. I was burned out and needed to focus on priorities. Then, two years ago, in a serendipitous development, my daughter moved in with her much-loved and fun support worker. Suddenly, my life changed again, and I had time to rest, re-group and decide what was next. I had delved into abstract painting already but I wanted to set some goals and have some accountability, as I find it difficult to keep myself motivated and moving forward with projects. Sacred Creative Coaching came at just the right time for me to explore some goals and how to move forward.

What are some of the challenges you have faced when it comes to living in alignment with your creative desires and aims?

As an INFJ, (which I discovered whilst delving into Personality Stories with Terri), I need quiet time alone to recharge and a personally attuned process which helps “set me up” for creative work. It seems that I need a lot of free, open time (during which I can read inspirational material, pull some tarot cards or delve into my personal astrology, for example) in order to inspire my creative juices. For me, it’s easy to let my responsibilities take over and just not find the time to be creative or, as is often the case, I remain in research and learning mode without much output. I have come to realize that self-expression and creativity are important components in my life, but I do seem to need help with keeping myself on track and focused.

Can you please describe your focus now and how you are working more in line with what is sacred and creative for you?

I have developed my morning routine which includes coffee time, reading, journaling, sometimes including dreamwork, and sometimes pulling tarot cards for myself. I’ve noticed that I need to be inspired and then I feel I can create something or share something; for example, a tarot reading for the collective, on my Instagram page. I also aim to get out for a walk every day, sometimes in nature. After completing the Sacred Creative Collective program, I started a business as a tarot reader, as I was enjoying delving into the card meanings and using my intuitive abilities to deepen my spiritual practice. This was a big step for me, fully “stepping out of the spiritual closet”, and letting myself be seen. I created a website for the business, known as Eagle and Star Tarot and spend time writing occasional blogposts and Instagram posts for the business.

What helped you to develop your skills and new/renewed focus?

Over the last few years, I’ve taken several courses, including obtaining a certificate as a Positive Psychology Coach from the Wholebeing Institute, and courses in tarot. I also did the Personality Stories with Terri, as already mentioned. During the Sacred Collective Coaching program, one of my goals was to deepen my knowledge of tarot. One of the things I realized as I went through the collective coaching process and working with Terri, as funny as it may sound, is that it’s ok to like what you like, even though others may find it weird or unappealing. It also helped me to explore some of my limiting beliefs and shadow tendencies, like people pleasing, which keep me from moving forward and stepping fully into my personal power.

What does creative transition look like in your life now and what are you proud of?

My creative transition has been about recognizing that I actually am a creative being (we all are!), and that being creative in some form, whether it’s doing abstract painting or writing a blog or Instagram post, is good for and necessary for me. I’m proud of myself for being someone who is curious and a lifetime learner and for taking the time to work on my personal development through the courses and coaching that I’ve taken.

What are your next steps?

My next steps are to continue working on building my community on Instagram at Eagle and Star Tarot, sharing insights and readings, as well as growing my business as a reader. I also want to continue doing things that I enjoy such as walking in the woods, day-tripping and hopefully more travel.

Thank you for sharing your sacred creative story with us, Cora!

And for the images curated from your intuitive journey, story and business.

If you would like to shape your sacred creative life with the help of a coach and the camaraderie of a community, I would love to support you. You can find out more about the Sacred Creative Collective here.

The Sacred Creative Collective is current open for enrolments with an early bird opportunity until midnight Saturday 20 February 2021 AEDT.

Find out more + enrol in the Collective

If now doesn’t feel like the right time, get on the waitlist to hear about the next round of the Collective. We’d love you to join us! Places are limited. Get on the Waitlist to be the first to know. You also get Exclusive Early Bird access and save!

Join the Waitlist for the Collective!

You can connect with Cora on Instagram and via her website: Eagle and Star Tarot.

intuition personality and story reading notes

Intuition: how to understand and master it – a review of ‘The Inner Tree’ by Maura McCarley Torkildson

January 10, 2019

Want to understand and enhance your intuition? The book ‘The Inner Tree’ will help you with the science, experience and practice of intuition. Read on!

Einstein wrote, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind its faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

from The Inner Tree by Maura McCarley Torkildson, Foreword by Randy Fauver PhD

As a personality type practitioner with INTJ preferences and Introverted Intuition as my lead cognitive process, intuition is an area I have explored personally and professionally. But intuition always retains its mystical qualities even though I use it all the time. Learning to trust and understand intuition and how it works remains a challenge. Carl Jung said of the Introverted Intuitive:

So the introverted intuitive has in a way a very difficult life, although one of the most interesting lives, but it is often difficult to get into their confidence.

C.G. Jung Speaking: Interviews and Encounters p311

I can vouch for that. Anyone who is very intuitive – introverted or extraverted in orientation – will know that intuition continues to feel mysterious and hard to pin down. And for those who are not naturally intuitive, I am sure working with intuition can feel even more mysterious.

So I was very grateful to receive Maura McCarley Torkildson’s excellent new book ‘The Inner Tree: Discovering the Roots of Your Intuition and Overcoming Barriers to Mastering It‘. It is a fascinating read, shedding light on intuition from a range of perspectives including evidence-based ones. Here are some thoughts on the book’s key focus and value for those interested in exploring intuition further.

The evidence about intuition

The book commences with a foreword by Randy Fauver, PhD, Professor and Researcher in Consciousness Studies and Integrative Medicine. This insightful piece both stands alone and sets the context for Maura’s book beautifully. It highlights that intuition is about mastering and developing intuitive abilities but also about understanding the science and contexts for its practice.

Randy Fauver explains lessons around inner life, signals and synchronicity and provides stories of intuition in practice. But it was the evidence and research-based information about intuition that I found so fascinating. Linking in with ‘The Inner Tree‘, the central image of intuition in the book, Fauver explores scientific support for nature, shamanic healing and unifying states of consciousness.

The most exciting part of his foreword is about the science of non-ordinary ways of receiving intuitive information. He explains three key ways we might receive intuitive information: the pineal gland in the brain, the heart and the gut.

Reading through, it all made sense. For example, we talk about “gut reaction”, “having a gut feeling”, and “not being able to stomach something”. The scientific reasons why this might be so are explained with supporting research. There are more receptors for emotions in the gut than anywhere else. No wonder we perceive things in this way so directly. However, as Fauver explains, we often doubt our reactions because they don’t align with cultural concepts of perceiving, especially Western ones.

The mystery and science of intuition

The most mindblowing part of the foreword is a discussion about memory at a cellular level. Fauver cites “numerous accounts of organ transplant recipients experiencing changes in their personality that coincide with the characteristics of the organ donor.” (Fauver, 2018: xxxi, in Torkildson, 2018). As an example, an eight-year-old receiving a heart from a ten-year-old girl who was murdered is able to assist police to identify the male attacker of the girl who died. The evidence she provides aligns with the murderer’s confession.

These insights helped me get a better handle on intuition at its most mysterious from both a scientific and practical perspective. Knowing that intuition involves these three key receptors: brain, heart and gut was so enlightening. I also gained a stronger understanding of the challenges of working with intuition because of the cultural overlays we operate in. As Fauver says in closing:

All science can do is to strengthen your belief in the existence of intuition; Maura’s book can lead you to directly experience the incredible power of intuition.

With many references sprinkled throughout this outstanding book, I look forward to reading more of the scientific studies cited.

The practice of intuition

With the scene set, we launch further into Maura’s gift of a book on the practice of intuition. Her focus is on the lived experience of developing intuition. She also provides insights into the barriers we can face in developing intuition and how to overcome them. The cultural bias to not trust our intuition, especially in western society, looms large as a background issue. It explains why we can find experiencing and talking about intuition so challenging. As Maura says in her preface:

Nowhere in my life was I ever urged to look inside myself for truth. (p.xxxvii)

My life transition has encouraged me to embrace my intuition via tarot and oracle work as a practice of wholeness. This started because of feeling half-hearted in areas of my life especially the more corporate ones. Maura has also found that feeling empty led her to look inward. Creativity, coaching and listening to signs as guides emerge as key aspects opening her up more to intuition.

Understanding intuition and tools to work with it

Maura discusses the Tree of Life and symbolism of The Inner Tree to explain this need to go inward. She explores this from the perspective of experience, myth and meditation. There are meditation practices and activities to help apply the learning. She outlines the steps of embracing intuition:

With intuition, the secret is to notice it; second, is to trust it is real; and third, is to take the risk of acting on it (which deepens your trust). (p9)

Maura discusses many practical issues: grounding, presence awareness, patience, flow and joy. These are emotions and processes I have also experienced on my intuitive journey. Having a framework, language and practice for making meaning from them is so powerful.

‘The Clairs’ are discussed: clairsentience, clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairgustance, claircognizance and claircreative. All different psychic abilities, they are examples of how information can present itself in our experience of intuition. It is valuable to reflect on how we might be receiving information as a way of understanding and honouring intuition.

Barriers to the development of our inner tree of intuition are explored including the emotional body, grief and shame, working with shadows and managing fear and ego. Practising working with our emotions in various ways is shown as central to opening ourselves up to intuition. Practical tools for working through this are generously provided including Presence Awareness Meditations (with audio links), Body Awareness Practices and Body Maps.

Maura shares her “unconventional” experience of a fairy ally appearing in a matter of fact and accepting way, saying this is how it is. (This story is included in Mystical Interludes II – review coming soon.) She also provides tools for working with the shadow side of life such as jealousy, fear and the ego emphasising their role in intuition and wholeness.

Building our intuitive muscle

The final section of the book bringing all of this together into holistic practices. The mystery of intuition sits side by side with the scientific evidence presented:

The universe works in mysterious ways and we don’t usually have the whole picture. (p149)

Developing trust in our intuition emerges as a key practice as does trusting the ways we choose to connect with it. Tools and practices such as curiosity, journaling, working with others, connecting with the gifts of nature, synchronicity and oracles are all ways to build intuitive muscle. The process is described as one of relationship and connection as well as strengthening the practice.

‘The Inner Tree‘ helped me make sense of my evolving intuitive practice. Even as a personality strength, it’s something I have struggled to understand and own. My experience is of developing intuition day in and day out, sharing it with others and sifting through my feelings about it all. The strangeness in thinking I can provide intuitive insights for myself and others via sharing Tarot and Oracle work has been a key barrier to work through. Not to mention, pushing through thoughts of what others might think about it!

I have learnt to trust that my work makes sense on another level beyond me. And I have learnt to trust that not having the whole picture is perfectly fine. On a day to day level, it makes sense and helps me make meaning of my life and creative practice as it evolves. And if my work can help others on their journey, then why not share what I learn?

The Inner Tree – support for intuitive practice

So I am very grateful for ‘The Inner Tree’ and the rich wisdom within it. It’s the first time I have read a detailed account of the science and practice of intuition. Maura sensitively articulates the mysteries she has experienced into a soulful framework we can work with. This is such valuable support for developing intuition.

With its combination of science and practice, ‘The Inner Tree‘ is a resource for understanding intuition as a skill and way of absorbing information. It provides the language, structure and reference points for its practice. In this way, it helps us make sense of experience and build knowledge of how to grow intuitive skills.

‘The Inner Tree’ is a gentle handbook and companion for entering these mysteries with its mix of science and experience. It’s helpful for those who find intuition is not a natural preference. It is insightful too for people who prefer intuition but appreciate support to make sense of how it works. Some people might find the science a bit much; others might find the spiritual dimensions a bit much. But it is the strength of the two taken together as a thread throughout this book that is its key value. Hopefully, everyone can shift a little from where they are in reading it.

Wherever you are on the journey of working with intuition, ‘The Inner Tree‘ offers insight and wisdom for further navigating this journey. There are scientific papers to discover and chase up. You will read about intuitive sources of information you might be excited to recognise and explore. There are numerous practices you can embed further into your life to bring your intuition alive. This book is a welcome addition to the literature on intuition and personality and to the practical genre of self-discovery and self-leadership writing.

Thought pieces + footnotes

Maura McCarley Torkildson, M.A. is an author, speaker, artist, intuitive and Soul Creativity Support Mentor at MauraTorkildsonCoaching.com

The book is available at: ‘The Inner Tree: Discovering the Roots of Your Intuition and Overcoming Barriers to Mastering It‘.

Maura Torkildson has shared her Wholehearted Story on Tackling Trauma with Empathy and Vision on Quiet Writing. Hop over to read!

The Inner Tree was provided as a review copy by the author in return for a fair review and sharing of it. I am grateful to Maura McCarley Torkildson and Citrine Publishing for sharing this book with me.

My thanks too to Peter Geyer for assistance with the wording and reference for the Carl Jung quote.

Via Amazon.com.au:
The Inner Tree: Discovering the Roots of Your Intuition and Overcoming Barriers to Mastering It

Via Amazon.com:

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Via Amazon.co.uk:

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You might also enjoy:

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intuitive practice

Show Notes

Transcript of podcast

Introduction

Transcript of interview with Lynn Hanford-Day

There are some things we need to work at and have a discipline around to manifest, the creation of a book or the creation of a painting, whatever it might be, find our dream home. We need to stick at. Sometimes it’s not always going to come immediately.

About Lynn Hanford-Day

Links to explore:

My books:

Free resources:

My coaching:

Connect on social media

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The Silent Whispers of my Mind – Journeying from fragmented to wholehearted

Life can be scary

A fragmented life

Feeling my feelings

The silent whispers of my mind—my inner wise Sage

Trusting the silent whisperer

Who am I?

Self-expression and intuition

Key book companions along the way

About Valerie Lewis

Read more Wholehearted Stories

Keep in touch

Share this:

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Introverted Intuition and your type

Introversion and Intuition

What Carl Jung says

So what is Introverted Intuition?

Ways Introverted Intuition manifests – my learnings

Poetry and other intuitive writing

Envisioning in the workplace

Tarot and oracle practice

The challenges and balancing of Introverted Intuition

Ways to work with Introverted Intuition

Ideas for developing Introverted Intuition include:

Work with symbols and the connection between ideas:

Envision how things could be:

Work on viewing things from a range of perspectives:

Look behind the obvious to the more hidden meaning:

Read more:

Read Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition

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Can you please tell us a little about yourself and your transition journey? What led you to want to make a deeper, more creative shift in your life?

What are some of the challenges you have faced when it comes to living in alignment with your creative desires and aims?

Can you please describe your focus now and how you are working more in line with what is sacred and creative for you?

What helped you to develop your skills and new/renewed focus?

What does creative transition look like in your life now and what are you proud of?

What are your next steps?

Thank you for sharing your sacred creative story with us, Cora!

Share this:

Like this:

Einstein wrote, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind its faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

The evidence about intuition

The mystery and science of intuition

The practice of intuition

Understanding intuition and tools to work with it

Building our intuitive muscle

The Inner Tree – support for intuitive practice

Thought pieces + footnotes

You might also enjoy:

Keep in touch

Share this:

Like this:

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