cynthia morris

A New Creative Project Just for fun

Posted by Barbara Techel
A New Creative Project Just for Fun
Be sure to watch my mom’s “Joyful Pause” videos!

I was recently so inspired by two of my mentors, Dan Blank who helps creative professionals, and also Cynthia Morris who is an amazing illustrator, plus many other talents, that I wanted in too.

They have each begun doing more videos – Dan helping encourage creatives in various ways – and Cynthia doing videos on what she has dubbed “creative quickies.”

Of course, being a creative myself, I thought, hmmmmm, how can I be of inspiration and encouragement to others?

And so I began experimenting with what I call Joyful Pause moments via video. I did begin by calling them Meditative Moments, but then thought, dah, I should really call them Joyful Pause moments instead…it’s more in align with what I’m all about here!

Like I said…these are experiments, so “mistakes” will be made.

But it’s all about weaving more creativity into our lives and fits right in with learning to pause more often and insert moments of joy into our daily, busy lives–and as you know, much of that I’ve learned from the PAWS in my life with my dogs.

I hope you will enjoy the first three videos I’ve done. I will be updating the sideline of my website each time I post a new video for you to enjoy or you can also follow along on my YouTube channel if you wish, too.

Here’s to more Joyful Pause moments!

Meeting One of My Inspirations– A Memory I’ll Forever Treasure

Posted by Barbara Techel

cynthia and barb

 Meeting an inspiration of mine, writing coach and author Cynthia Morris

This morning I sit at my desk feeling so emotional.  Last night I met writing coach and author, Cynthia Morris. She is promoting her debut novel, Chasing Sylvia Beach and made an appearance in Milwaukee, WI at the Lyndon Sculpture Gardens.

It was in 2005 that I was introduced to Cynthia’s work. I was coaching with life coach, Diane Krause-Stetson at the time. I was 41 years old and trying to figure out what it was I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to do something more meaningful. I wanted to live with more joy. I wanted to find my authentic self and not be afraid to be that person.

Coaching was not easy. But it was worth every minute of the deep dive into my soul’s stirring. Trying to narrow down and focus on something that would bring me what I was seeking was challenging. I think as women, at least among my circle of friends, we tend to like to do so many things!  But as I went through the coaching process, dogs and animals kept surfacing, and my deep love for them. Then writing surfaced for many different reasons.

It was then, with the help and encouragement from my coach that I decided to pursue writing and write about what I love most– animals, with an emphasis on dogs. It was then that Diane loaned me a book from her extensive and beautiful library called, Create Your Writer’s Life by Cynthia Morris. I’ve followed Cynthia’s work enthusiastically since that day. I’ve read all her e-books, taken some of her on line classes, been a part of her Creative Book Salon, and also participated in the Creative Leap Club she offers– which by the way I credit as a part of my process in helping me leap forward in finishing my new book.

Her tenacity for living her dreams and following her heart speaks to me. So to finally meet her in person last night was an absolute joy. It’s why I sit at my computer this morning feeling so emotional. I feel filled with so much inspiration to continue on my own path– to keep following my heart.  And the other way I can describe it is when you decide to pursue what makes your heart sing, by default, you attract into your life those much like you. Being around someone like Cynthia and her amazing energy of choosing to live life as she chooses is something that once you taste and experience it, you never want to go back to anything else.

Bliss. How Do We Get It and Keep It?

Posted by Barbara Techel

Photo courtesy of Flickr 

My yogi tea bag saying this morning says:  “Bliss is a constant state of mind, undisturbed by gain or loss.”   I love the sayings I find on my tea bag each morning.  They always make me think.

Bliss, like choices, yes, I do believe are a state of mind. We have a choice to live in bliss, no matter what may be going on in our lives. But how challenging that is at times, right?  I know for me, someone who for the past five years has really talked the talk of being positive with my wheelie side kick, Frankie, this is something I’ve tried hard to to not only talk, but also walk.

I’ll admit this summer was a bit of a challenge for me with being positive despite losing Frankie. I found myself swallowing the grief many times, continuing to put on my happy, blissful, positive face, even when I wanted to just lay down and cry. I didn’t want to be happy. I wanted to wallow in the depths of losing Frankie- the little being who filled my everyday with such amazing love and joy. I didn’t want to be in bliss.  I wanted to feel sorry for myself and crawl into a hole and never come out again. I wanted to feel sorry for what ended and not have hope for what might be. All I wanted was to have Frankie back again. Then my life would be complete once again.

But I knew I couldn’t stay there- and many days, even though I had days of wanting to just live in the pain and let it take me away, I also wanted to find my way back to my bliss.  I read a book a few weeks ago that talks about grief in one of the most honest ways I’ve ever read. The book is called, “This I know- notes on unraveling the heart”  by Susannah Conway. It is the book chosen for the Creative Book Salon I am in which writing coach, Cynthia Morris leads each month.  Susannah says in her book, “You don’t get over grief- you move through it as you learn to live with the loss. You have to learn to swim with it.”

So that is what I did this summer, I learned to move through it, to accept that yes, my life is now changed because Frankie is gone. I learned to swim.

Another thing she said which I found so profound was this, “Each person experiences grief in their own individual way. And though I have often thought that to lose a child would be the most devastating loss of all, there is no hierarchy to grief—only we can know the pain we feel and what we have lost.”  I can’t even begin to express what this meant to me to read this. Even though I know losing an animal is just as hard as losing a human for many, sometimes harder, I still can find myself not expressing my loss around those who may not understand for fear of judgement.  But I appreciated how Susannah seems to give permission to dealing with any type of loss and doing it in our own way.

This brings me full circle back to bliss- a state of mind.  Susannah lost the love of her life and she spiraled down to the deepest depths of her soul– only to come out finding a new bliss, trusting that it was there all along—that she would find her way back to it.  Bliss, always there, no matter what gain or loss we have– we just have to make the conscious choice to choose it.  And when our mind can’t even begin to grasp it during dark days–  we can trust that we can have bliss back in the simple act of choosing our thought to be just that.