Month: March 2015

Courage is creativity

| Jo Lippold
Photo Credit: https://www.facebook.com/FightForEquality?fref=photo
Photo Credit: https://www.facebook.com/FightForEquality?fref=photo

I quote this from a dear friend of mine who said this. It’s a tool to use when the gremlins of self-doubt and fear pipe up, to which you simply respond ‘I call bullshit.’.

Short, to the point and just the tonic to silence those pesky voices of negativity.

I also love it because it really rings true. This very week in fact I had a wobble…one that was about the usual wobbly things…you know, money (lack of), direction (lack of), feeling like a failure/ imposter (in abundance). Because what would I have to offer anyone? Little old me. And then this little sentence popped up…’I CALL BULLSHIT’.

Effective no?

The truth is no matter how shit we think we are, or how small we feel like playing it, there is something so much bigger than our fear out there; our courage.

Courage is not being showy or false, it is not putting on a mask and ignoring intuition. Courage is knowing that we are imperfect beings with huge limitations BUT also infinite possibility. It’s about calling bullshit on those gremlins and going out there and beaming your light for all to see as brightly as you can.

Sometimes we nail it, other times we don’t, the courage comes from trying, playing around, mixing it up and experimenting some more and then trying again.

Beyond where we thought we could go and where we actually can is where the good stuff lies.

Courage is creativity.

Creativity is our own unique expression of how we see the world. And that only comes around once. Make it count.

Want know more about how I can help you to tell your Gremlins to do one? Or how we can dig deep and find some creative tinder…and maybe even some courage? Comment “BALLS PLEASE” below…

Shine on.

TAKE CARE. TAKE COURAGE.

x

A love letter

| Jo Lippold
Credit SheKnows.com
Credit SheKnows.com

Amma quote

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear yoga,

It’s been two years since we properly met. Sure I’d seen you around before and we even had a brief dalliance in my late teens, but nothing has been as long lasting as this.

Two years ago I walked into that studio, a million miles from the woman that I am today. A tenser, scared, hurting version, who had yet to un-peel the many layers that had been ever so carefully placed over the years.

I have never felt the way I do when I am with you. You who has given me so much and shown me the world.

How to be strong and yet surrender. How to embrace the uniqueness of every single moment, at any given time, in any given way and see it is just so. How to slow down, but also how to amp it up and meet my boundary and see how far the edge actually is. To ALWAYS COME BACK TO THE BREATH. How to have patience and evolve without losing a sense of play and giving it a go. How to work opposing forces and feel that perfect suspension. How to sweat and work for it. But most importantly, for me, how to truly love the only home I will have forever.

From a girl who had never felt comfortable in my own body, you gave me somewhere to feel expanded and at ease. The dedication and determination to keep digging deeper, to keep going and growing and flowing. To feel it all, and be totally OK with it.

After about my fourth time, I remember barely being able to keep tears back, such was the release, the movement of something I had been holding onto for years, for my entire life so far. And I knew that even without knowing, I had found IT.

You gave me my life and for that I am more thankful and grateful than I think even I will comprehend.

You have taught me the importance of occupying my own space, of not finding anything in the past that couldn’t be all consumingly loved in the present and bear witness to that transformation.

To not worry about what may be, but to meet each moment with fresh curiosity because it will be the only version of that moment I will ever have. Indeed it is all we ever have.

From the bottom of my heart, I love you.

Thank you for bringing me back to life.

NAMASTE

Credit yogayo.ga
Credit yogayo.ga

Get some Headspace

| Jo Lippold

Headspace

Short fuses and impatience has been common place in my life for…well…ever really.

About ten years ago, it came to pass that what was an initial impatience became a quite serious jump into all out frustration and yes I hate to say it but total irrational losing it like a crazy lady.

This, coupled with developing crippling anxiety and stress at the ripe old age of twenty six, all came to a bit of a climax during, what is kindly referred to by myself and my fella as ‘Black February’.

Seriously as fun as it sounds (Bruce Willis would have headlined should it have been a film).

In short I’d lost my shit and was in serious trouble.

So imagine my little ‘I’m-actually-in-the-right-place-at-the-right-time-maybe-I-should-listen’ radar went off when I found out that Andy Puddicombe – founder of Headspace would be a speaker at a festival I was going to (the Do Lectures)

I’d heard of Headspace before and had even downloaded the app (that obviously means I should get the benefits by iPhone osmosis no?) However never actually had found those 10 minutes to stop, until about two years ago.

When, and get this….it was when I recommended to a friend that she should try it because she felt like she was losing her shit on a regular basis and couldn’t calm down. Ah…I can certainly dish out the good advice…

So, time to put the mind where the mouth was and Take 10 for 10 days.

It was the best spent 10 minutes. EVER.

There was a definite ‘No shit Sherlock’ moment when I realised that BECAUSE I was short tempered, irrational, anxious occasionally, and had a fish-like memory,  that meditation was EXACTLY what I needed.

Now I will admit that I am partial to a bit of incense every now and then and don’t have an issue with chanting or getting in touch with my chakra’s however I know plenty of people who do and this is what makes Headspace so truly magic.

There are no bells or chanting, you don’t have to be able to sit in a lotus position, hell you don’t even have to sit on the floor. It’s simply Mr Puddicombe talking you through what to focus on; your breath – something we ALL HAVE TO DO all the time anyway to stay alive.

Brill.

I am proud to say that I have taken 10, I have taken 15, hell I’ve even taken 20 and am now further into the plethora of series on offer,  and it has sincerely changed my life.

Sure I still get annoyed, however I know now that it will pass, that it’s just a thought or a feeling, that everyone has them and that’s OK and to simply LET IT GO.

So if you have a spare two minutes – download the app and give it a go. Isn’t it time you got some head space?

Have you ever tried meditation? What do you think?

TCTC,

Jo x