Self Care

Dear friends,

I was talking with a friend in crisis this weekend and the topic of Radical Self Care came up.


According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Definition of SELF-CARE

:  care for oneself :  self-treatment 

 

According to

Psychology Dictionary: What is SELF-CARE? definition of SELF-CARE (Psychology Dictionary)

What is SELF-CARE?

These are our daily activities in looking after ourselves. The process of looking after one's self. Avoiding all threats and issues that may make a person face irritable and uncomfortable circumstances.

What does radical self-care mean to you?

To me it's about:
  

• Sleep - getting my 7 1/2 to 8 hours starting at 10pm
• Waking before the sunrises to say my prayers & have me time

• Yoga
• Meditation
• Morning pages/blogging
• Clean Eating (for me AIP works great)
• FlyLady routines
• Tea breaks 
• Hot baths  with Epsom salts and lavender oil
• Daily exercise
• A great support system 
• InterPlay

 Here's a great way to map it out:
 

A great tool from Social Work Tech

 What's your favorite Self-care tool?  I'd love to know!

Wrapping you around with infinite love and care,

Christine

P.S. Lot's of messages coming in about self-care...found this on one of my favorite Facebook  groups (Inner Allies) this morning:

 

Laughter and religion

“What is this precious love and laughter budding in our hearts?” says the Sufi poet Hafiz. “Listen … it is the glorious sound of a soul waking up!”


 Dear friends,

It's been a beautiful weekend her in Atlanta, GA.  Sunshine and Spring like temperatures.

 I'm been at about half speed/energy due to being sick all week.  Glad to say I feel like I'm on the way to Healthy and Well!  

Friday night I stayed in (missed a great b-day party for a friend :( ) so I could rest and recover.

Saturday we popped into a birthday party for a 6 year old friend of ours before heading out to a World Religion Day Celebration.  

 

The SoulPrint Players were invited to participate with our dear friend, Audrey Galex, and back up her story with a Gesture Choir.  

It was fun and educational and both Joe and I performed.   I continue to be amazed at the places that InterPlay takes me.

 We listened to some great music from members of the Bahai faith and a Muslim Sheik.  We saw a beautiful power point from a professor from Emory that was representing the Hinduism (I told him my Shiva Lingam story). 

A picture of the performers - the InterPlayers trying to get everyone to be goofy

We laughed and listened and had a great time learning about different religions and identifying the connections and themes that run through them.  It was delightful.

Afterwards it was back home to rest and recover.

Today I went over and smudged a friend's home in the Native American tradition.  More laughs and love.  

I also read a great blog entry this morning from Anthony Makar  minister of the UUCA -  Sacred laughter of the sufis.

I'm still thinking about my trip to prison on Friday and the amazing performances and music I heard there.

What have you been up to this weekend?

Wrapping you around with infinite love and laughter,

Christine

Going to Prison

Sunrise on the way to Lee Arrendale Prison

Dear friends,

Have you ever been 
to prison?  I have.

Today as I was  driving home from a terrific performance I was thinking about how to articulate the experience.


It all started over 10 years ago when Sheila Collins, a mentor and friend,  started working with prisoners in TX using InterPlay.  She invited me to participate and I definitely felt the call.  Unfortunately due to scheduling, young kids and the 180 mile drive I was unable to participate at that time. 

One of my teachers said to me recently, "When you're on this path....  

 
Fast forward to June 23rd (the day after my 44th bday) - This was the day I went to training at Lee Arrendale State Prison for volunteers.

 
Then in August my colleague  Jennifer Denning and I  started a 12 week series of weekly Friday InterPlay.  It ended up being 16 weeks of  InterPlay  - yahooo!!!

 The first day I was nervous.  I didn't know what to expect.    Pulling up to the parking lot you see the 5 rows of barbed razor wire lining the fence that surrounds the prison.  You walk into the front door and go through the metal detector.  No cell phones allowed.  ID required.  You turn in your keys and id and sign in.  From there you go out one door through  4 more locked  (very distinctive clunks) and officer controlled doors, a long walk and two more padlocked gates to make it to one of the locked education buildings.  Two more locked gates and a locked classroom and we were good to go for two hours.  


We were allowed to enter 
through the Reforming Arts Program.
 
Throughout the sixteen weeks we heard stories, used our voices to create songs and moved individually and in groups.  We were building towards a performance.

Interplay has always been Grace Making for me.  We shared that concept with the ladies.  We laughed, sometimes teared up and we danced. 

Jennifer my co-leader wrote a great blog about our experience: A Glimpse into InterPlay at Lee Arrendale State Prison.

The ladies gave an amazing improv InterPlay performance last week our program was finished for the semester.

So why did I go back today?

I was invited.  I had made connections with these women and felt called to show up for them.  Four of the ladies from our group were part of another performance group called the Showstoppers and today they presented:  Love, Peace & Forgiveness - This is Not Our  Final Destination.  They were performing for the women in diagnostics - these are the women new to the prison system.  One of the women who invited me told me she participated to help lift the women's spirits.

 

One of the women from our InterPlay group started  with an inspirational speech that was phenomenal.

Several women sang gospel songs that I had not heard before and they were very well received.

 

The ladies danced, did several spoken word poems and produced an amazing event.  It was uplifting, inspirational and expansive.

That pretty much sums up my experience with this important work.  I could tell you about the lack of self-defense laws in GA and what an impact it makes on women.  I could tell you about stories of abuse that led to bad choices.  I know most of the women I met are not innocent.  I also know they are human beings and deserve to be treated as such.  I could talk about reform.  I think John Oliver does a good job about talking about some of the problems in the system so if you have a few minutes it's worth the view:

 

 Wrapping you around with infinite love and peace,

Christine

Enchanter's Echo

Dear Friends,

Feeling better today and and was able to get out and about a little.

Had tea with my friend, Denise, at our new local coffee shop, Espresso Theory.

Denise writes under the pen name, Anise Rae.

Her second book Enchanter's Echo of the Mayflower Mages series will be released February 17th. 
 
She writes terrific paranormal romance.  

I loved her first book - Syphon's Song.  It was fun, engaging and a great read.  I loved the characters and the world Anise built.  I love the magic that flows through her books and I highly recommend them.

Today we planned a book release and signing party.  She will be signing books and meeting fans in two weeks.  If you're local I hope you will join us to celebrate her amazing achievements.  

Wrapping you around with infinite love & creative achievement,

Christine

 

Wordle Play

Dear friends,

Still battling a cold so played with Wordle tonight as my blog entry....

InterPlay Wordle

Grateful

Dear friends,

 I'm participating in a February Blogging challenge for inspired blogging.  Today's prompt was gratitude.  Ya'll know I'm a huge gratitude fan and have a practice of giving gratitudes on a daily basis.

I have to confess today I'm struggling a little.  Yesterday I woke up with a nasty cold.  I'm so rarely sick that I was taken off guard and surprised.  So first off I'm very grateful for my regular health (that I sometimes take for granted).
 

I am grateful that I had the energy to drive into Decatur today for my friend +Ruth Schowalter's first class in the series InterPlay Alchemy.
As always InterPlay uplifts me and helps me find grace.

I'm thankful for the beautiful sunshine today and my old dog, Merlin napping and snoring on the hearth as I write this.

I'm also grateful for art and it's presence in my life (and my family's life) as a tool, a gift and a medium for communication.

I included this sun piece I did a while back for the Daily Creative Practice  it reminds me of all the amazing things in my life I am grateful for when my head's too stuffy to think.

What are you grateful for today?

Wrapping you around with infinite love, health and gratitude,

Christine

 

One Billon Rising

Dear friends,

I have somehow found myself as part of a revolution.  When I think revolution I think protesting in the streets and violence yet the movement I'm a part of uses art and love.

 As I reflect on it I realize it started around 10 years ago when I attended a play the Vagina Monologues in Fort Worth, TX to support four of my friends from Earthsprings who were performing.  The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play written by Eve Ensler.  It is a powerful play and I highly recommend it!  Usually it is being performed in the month of February and supporting local women's shelters.  Using Theater and performance art to raise consciousness for change.

This weekend I participated in a Peace Post making workshop hosted by Atlanta's One Billion Rising.

One Billion Rising is the biggest mass action to end violence against women in human history.  The campaign, launched on Valentine’s Day 2012, began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS.

The frog Joe and I created together :)

The workshop this weekend was a creative way to use art to bring awareness to numerous causes.  There were post made for Education, Immigration, One Billion Rising, The environment and more.  We had a great time meeting new people, talking about peace and creating beautiful art together.




Here is a quick video from the creator of the project, Kira Corser:

Saturday our team planned and then painted for over four hours.
Joe joined me on Sunday and we had a blast creating together on the environmental post.

Our environmental post team!

We dashed off after painting for 3-4 hours to make it to a SoulPrint Players rehearsal.  Soul Print Players are the InterPlay performing arts troupe that we belong to and our company will be performing as a part of a benefit on Feb. 14th to support the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence.  We'd love for you to join us to see an incredible show and support this amazing organization.

 

"What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make" -Jane Goodall 

 Wrapping you around with infinite love and peace,

Christine

Saying goodbye to January and welcome Febuary

Dear friends,

Welcome to February!  Not completely sure how January went by so fast but whew what a whirlwind.  It's been a month of expansion (as I dive into 2015) and some contraction (as I let go of 2014). 

2015 necklaces Snake/spiral energy for me.

The spiral and Hamsa symbol are part of the InterPlay logo and they have been showing up for me in other ways too.  When I found this clay pendant by a fabulous Native artist through her Etsy shop  Secret Canyon I knew it was my 2015 necklace.  

 

Jennifer and I in the wind outside of Lee Arrendale

Friday I wrapped up a sixteen week InterPlay series with Jennifer Denning, Director of Atlanta InterPlay at Lee Arrendale State Prison.  It was an amazing experience working with the women once a week and bringing play, connection and performance into this environment.  Jennifer wrote a great blog about it.

I'm wrapping up my InterPlay Leadership training and all the requirements to become certified and preparing to share InterPlay with my part of the world.

Atlanta Botanical  Garden - photo by Ruth Showalter

I will begin facilitating a monthly playgroup in Norcross the 3rd Sunday of the month starting Feb. 15th!  If your local I'd love for you to join me.  In April I will begin offering 4 different classes through the Duluth Parks and Recreation Dept. and my classes will be listed in the Spring Newsletter 
for residents to check out!  Yahooo - I'm so excited!

Yesterday I had an amazing opportunity to participate in 
making a Peace Post for Peace and Justice through One Billion Rising.  It was a collaborative
art experience that I felt really privileged (and brave) to be a part of since I sometimes struggle to identify myself as an artist.

My friend +Hallelujah Truth  and I

 It's time to head back out for another day of painting, collaboration and peace.  I'll post more on the process soon and hopefully pics of our finished pole.

I'm tired yet full of life today since last night Joe and I went out and celebrated a friend's birthday by singing Karaoke till Midnight.   

One of our family words for 2015 is community and I am so grateful to be a part of many communities online and in person that bring such joy and purpose to my life.  
 


Wrapping you around with infinite love and play,

Christine