Eileen Forrestal - Shine Your Light

What would you do if you believed you could?

Is this a better graphic ?
Does it communicate?

My first Masterclass ...

A scary prospect ... but I have to start somewhere.
(BTW the registration link is live!)

Are you ready to rock the cradle or rock the stage? The result can be the same ... you get an opportunity to rock the world!
Rise and Shine.
It's Time.

Yea!!!
An army of furious younger men have gotten us into a shedload of fights ...
What could an army of fabulous fun loving women achieve?

One Day…
an army of furious older women will take over the world.
And I want to be there at the front.

Because one day, every woman wakes up and realises, that quite frankly, they put themselves through too much.
Trying to fit in, trying to be enough, to be attractive, to be acceptable, to be responsible, to be reliable, to be a mother, to be a wife, to be a friend, to be a carer, to hold a career, to keep it all spinning effortlessly….

And in a flash, years and years of back-breaking conformity, whizzes before your eyes and you have a lightbulb moment…
It was never going to happen.
We could never have done it all.

For it is not possible.
No man could do it either. Not a chance.
Women of this world, beautiful, wonderful women – let that lightbulb go on sooner rather than later because when it does, you will be free.
Free to live.
Free to mess up.
Free to take breaks and make mistakes.
Free to pass over on the list of things you ‘should’ be doing.
And you will understand that whatever you did today, it was enough.
You are enough.

One day, an army of furious older women will take over the world and I want to be there, right at the front.

Donna Ashworth

Pre-order my new book here: https://amzn.eu/d/eDGFsCs (UK only other countries coming very soon)

You're braver than you think.
If you don't think so ...
Think again!

In the words of Picasso ...
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once they grow up"

Practice, practice, practice ......

Go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something. ~Kurt Vonnegut

(Book: A Man Without a Country https://amzn.to/44hWCoK)

Are you fed up being scared, hiding in the shadows?
Wouldn't you rather come out to play?

Join me in this Courage To Shine Workshop where we explore some of the 'fears' that could be keeping you small.

Where might courage make difference for you?

July 11th
19.30-21.00(GMT)
Register here.

https://lu.ma/cyde4sa0

We are each a work in progress continuously unfolding into new versions of ourselves. Keep going, keep growing, keep glowing. Your light need never dim while the spirit of life lives within you.

To love someone long-term is to attend a thousand funerals of the people they used to be. The people they're too exhausted to be any longer. The people they grew out of, the people they never ended up growing into. We so badly want the people we love to get their spark back when it burns out, to become speedily found when they are lost.
But it is not our job to hold anyone accountable to the people they used to be. It is our job to travel with them between each version and to honor what emerges along the way. Sometimes it will be an even more luminescent flame. Sometimes it will be a flicker that temporarily floods the room with a perfect and necessary darkness. ~Heidi Priebe

(Book: This Is Me Letting You Go https://amzn.to/3CHVYoS)

(Art: Painting by Anne Magill)

Go lightly ... let go what is weighing you down.

It’s dark because you are trying too hard.
Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly.
Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply.
Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.

I was so preposterously serious in those days, such a humorless little p**g.
Lightly, lightly – it’s the best advice ever given me.
When it comes to dying even. Nothing ponderous, or portentous, or emphatic.
No rhetoric, no tremolos,
no self conscious persona putting on its celebrated imitation of Christ or Little Nell.
And of course, no theology, no metaphysics.
Just the fact of dying and the fact of the clear light.

So throw away your baggage and go forward.
There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet,
trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair.
That’s why you must walk so lightly.
Lightly my darling,
on tiptoes and no luggage,
not even a sponge bag,
completely unencumbered. ~Aldous Huxley

(Book: Island https://amzn.to/3NgZ87E)

Forgiveness is the key to freedom.
If Edith Egar and Nelson Mandela can forgive such major 'wrongdoings' who are we to hold a grudge?
What happened happened.
If we are here to 'tell the tale', surely that's something to be grateful for.
There may also be a tale to tell about the difference forgiveness made ...
Author a new chapter in the story of your life.
There will always be someone or something to forgive.

Discover JOY in your life!

Aspire to wholeness, acceptance and peace of mind - and notice how happiness is not far away.

I actually attack the concept of happiness. The idea that—I don’t mind people being happy—but the idea that everything we do is part of the pursuit of happiness seems to me a really dangerous idea and has led to a contemporary disease in Western society, which is fear of sadness. It’s a really odd thing that we’re now seeing people saying “write down three things that made you happy today before you go to sleep” and “cheer up” and “happiness is our birthright” and so on. We’re kind of teaching our kids that happiness is the default position. It’s rubbish. Wholeness is what we ought to be striving for and part of that is sadness, disappointment, frustration, failure; all of those things which make us who we are. Happiness and victory and fulfillment are nice little things that also happen to us, but they don’t teach us much. Everyone says we grow through pain and then as soon as they experience pain they say, “Quick! Move on! Cheer up!” I’d like just for a year to have a moratorium on the word “happiness” and to replace it with the word “wholeness.” Ask yourself, “Is this contributing to my wholeness?” and if you’re having a bad day, it is. ~Hugh Mackay

(Book: The Good Life https://amzn.to/3qSjCvZ)

(Art: Photograph by Rebecca Weaver)

Yes!

Don’t wreck yourself with 'purpose'…

The world simply is, so just be in it - however, if you are not satisfied with that – change.
We are the creators and the thinkers, and no one else can do it for us.
But this deep-seeded agitation we feel is self-induced by believing we have to make a big production out of our “purpose” – but we don’t.
And we certainly don’t need to justify anything to anyone.

“You are allowed to just live” - Ry chambers

Most of us have a small circle we are dedicated to by doing and being our best for them (and ourselves). That is enough. It is.
Accept this happily.

Don’t let anyone tell you, you are wasting your life.
Do the things that make you happy.
That’s it, the end.
Remember, our purpose changes as we do, but constant kindness (a smile, a nod, an extended hand ) leads to beautiful and often unseen effects... and that my friends, is a good thing – a purpose to live by.
-debbie lynn

Art – Elisabeth Ladwig

💓

This is lovely.
Mind what you pay attention to.

“The years have shown me that hardship is only one part of life, and not remotely the largest part. Hardship always lives side by side with happiness. Pain always finds its fullest partner in joy. Love takes many forms, some of them surprising, and people are almost always kinder than we expect. The world is beautiful. And most people are good.

“When you’re in a waiting room and an angry commentator on the corner television is telling you that the world is full of awful people who are trying to hurt you or take away what’s rightfully yours, think about all the good people you know. Remember how very many good people you know and how many times a perfect stranger has been good to you in tiny ways — offering to push your cart back to the store, waving you ahead in traffic, sharing an eye-roll at the gate when yet another flight delay is announced.

“When you find yourself deeply doubting the goodness of the human race, ask yourself these questions: Who is profiting from your sadness and your anger? Who is getting rich by making you afraid? Someone is.

“Not counting uncooperative politicians and partisan media figures, most people are sincerely trying their best to get along. If you talk to them, they will listen. If you listen, they will talk to you. Most people are good. Remind yourself that most people are good.

“And merely by falling in love with the world, you will begin to make it better. Human beings will work to their dying breath to save something they love. Fall in love with the wild world, and you are taking the first step toward saving it.

The world is beautiful. People are good.”—Margaret Renkl

Adapted from a baccalaureate address delivered at the University of the South on May 13. Full text at
renkl

It's easy to shout.
It's not so easy to be heard.
It's the small voice that's trying to communicate.
Try again tomorrow.

You are a worthwhile and valuable human being.
Value yourself so others know your worth.

You are never doing nothing.
You are always doing something .. breathing, speaking, listening, thinking, remembering, dreaming, observing ....
Take time to reflect on what matters.

Make this a daily morning routine ... and watch your life brighten up.

The power of choice.

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory. ~Howard Zinn

(Book: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train https://amzn.to/3MlS9tJ)

(Art: Photograph by Gordon Parks)

Trust yourself.
Your personal power is for you to empower.
Empower yourself.
Use it to empower others if you wish; don't just give it away as if it had no value!

Action is the great restorer and builder of confidence.
Be brave. Act now. See the result.

Everyone is afraid of something.
Accept the fear .. and don't let it stop you from taking the action.
There's always something great on the other side of acting in the face of fear.