Category Archives: Toolkit

NEW! Online Master Class: Metta Meditation

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Do you ever feel isolated — like you’re living, working and creating inside a vacuum?
Do you get frustrated, angry, anxious, or disappointed with others or with yourself?
Have you tried meditation and just can’t get your mind to be quiet?

I know how it feels. I’ve been meditating since the late 90’s and teaching for over 10 years and my mind still runs away with me at times.

And yet…

Metta is a simple meditation technique that can be practiced anytime, anywhere to free you from these feelings of disconnection and decrease your stress levels by expanding your awareness of kindness and compassion in every day interactions.

It helps you fine tune your deep listening and perception skills so you can connect better with the people in your life and nurture a sense of community in your world.

It gives your busy mind ONE point of focus toward which you can direct your attention, rather than trying to “clear” your mind or simply stop thinking (which we know doesn’t really work anyway!)

And I have made it EASY for you to learn what to do, why it works, when it’s most effective and HOW on earth to integrate it into your full life schedule so you can drop in, get connected and be clear in any situation.

Monday, September 26th @ 8:00pm CST

Get the details & reserve your spot right here!

MASTER CLASS

Not convinced? Check out Episode 019 of the podcast to get the back story on Self-Compassion and the power of Metta.

 

019: Toolkit: Self-Compassion

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“When we get stuck in ego, achievements and accomplishments — stuck in self-doubt — stuck in ‘not enough’ syndrome, we need only to remember who we really are… and let go of these attachments” ~Andrea

Did you hear the story of how the Buddha became the Buddha?

Well, before he was a Buddha, he was a Prince named Siddartha Guatama. Prince Siddartha grew up sheltered and protected within the walls of the palace because his father didn’t want him to know the pain of suffering and death. But one day as a young man, the prince ventured out into the world, curious to learn what existed beyond the palace walls. He found pain, suffering and death and so he vowed to discover a way to put an end to all this suffering and so began a long arduous quest for enlightenment.

He tried EVERYTHING and nothing worked.

One day, he chose a bodhi tree and declared that he would sit beneath this tree until he found the way.

As you can imagine, the God of the Underworld, Mara, didn’t really want an end to his reign so he devised a plan to seduce the Prince Siddartha out from under that tree. Mara sent his 3 most beautiful daughters (Lust, Fulfillment, and Regret) to appeal to the young prince’s desires.

It didn’t work. Prince Siddartha had already let go of attachment.

So then Mara decided to scare the prince out from under the tree. He sent a legion of monstrous demons

The spears and arrows fell to the ground and turned to lotus flower blossoms at his feet. Prince Siddartha had already let go of fear.

And then Mara got crafty. He went to the prince himself and whispered in his ear, “You’re supposed to be a prince and one day, a king. How could you abandon your duty to your people and be so self-centered? Pursuing this thing called “enlightenment” — how selfish! Who do you think you are anyway?”

And Prince Siddartha felt the pangs of self-doubt — the most difficult challenge of all!

He knew he couldn’t face it alone, so he reach out his hand and touched the earth beneath him. He called out to the Earth Goddess and asked her to bear witness to his right to be here.

In that moment, the Earth rose to affirm his presence, Mara bowed in defeat, and Siddartha received the gift of enlightenment. He became the Buddha.

So maybe you didn’t know this story about the Buddha, but maybe you’ve heard of Brene Brown, author of Daring Greatly and most recently, Rising Strong.

Brene is best known for her two TED Talks on shame and vulnerability.

Okay… so what the heck to the Buddha and Brene Brown have in common?

Get episode 19 on iTunes to get the scoop!

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“‘The only unique contribution we will make in this world will be born out of creativity.” ~Brene Brown

The problem is that, according to Brene’s research, 85% of people are carrying shame around them and 50% of those people have shame wounds specifically around creativity.

The problem is that shame leads to self-doubt and when we are mired in self-doubt, it’s pretty hard to boldly share our true selves or make our creative work. So then what contribution can we possibly make?

Lucky for me, I am a very creative person. I’ve created blogs, businesses, meetup groups, nonprofit organizations, plays, films, stories, poetry (mostly bad), and THIS podcast!

In fact, I’m so good at creating, right now I’m creating an audio course on creating called How to Start (anything)!

So clearly, I don’t have to worry about self-doubt! Or do I…?

Links Galore


A creative impostor challenge for you!

Yoda Pumpkin

 

Ready to train yourself to be kinder to YOU?

May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I be safe.
May I have ease.

Say these 4 phrases to yourself, out loud at first and then silently, as many times as you can whenever you can!

NOLA Jazz

NOLA Jazz!

 

Our first Creative Space Travel Retreat to New Orleans is in the works! Get the inside scoop…

 

Are you feeling overwhelmed? Don’t know where to begin?

My How to Start e-course is designed to help you take those first few bold steps on your creative path no matter what! Truly, I’ve taken all the wisdom from my podcast guests, past teachers and a whole lot of experience with failure AND success. Coming soon — drop your email here for an invitation to join our next round!

This episode was mixed by Edwin R. Ruiz of Mondo Machine.
The Creative Impostor theme music was created by JoVia Armstrong.

I want to hear from you. If you’re listening in iTunes, PLEASE leave a review. It’s how iTunes decides which shows people find when they are searching for specific topics like this one.

Also send me a message! What do you think so far? What’s your greatest impostor moment? Email your written comments or leave a voicemail using SpeakPipe — and when you do, I just may read the message or play your voice on a future episode.

 

 

013: Toolkit: Yoga Nidra (Relaaaaax…)

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“I didn’t know or understand what was happening or why — I was just doing downward dog and shoulder stand and feeling… better.” ~Andrea, on yoga practice

What if you had a direct line to uncovering your life’s purpose?

One of my favorite things to do in my life and work is to take potentially weird, esoteric or “out there” concepts and ideas, explore and test them with what I like to call “open minded skepticism” and then translate and share them with people who might not otherwise seek them out, but can REALLY make use of them.

So, let me give this one a try!

Whereas the Paper Planner I featured in the previous episode is about as down-to-earth practical as one can get, today’s tool, a technique called Yoga Nidra, is about as far on the other end of the spectrum as possible.

And while it may sound a little woo-woo to some, I’m going to strongly encourage you to keep an open mind and maybe even try it out for yourself as it can be an incredibly useful and in some ways easy method to gain direct access to your own inner well of deep creativity, and at the very least, an excellent way to truly relax and let go of stress… who couldn’t use some of that?

Get episode 13 on iTunes to get the scoop!

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“‘Creativity is directly proportionate to the ability to produce imagery in great abundance in the brain. This resource of imagery allows us to access the deeper layers of the mind which often contain solutions to problems we think we have to look outward to find.” ~Andrea Klunder

How to get some Yoga nidra in your life

  1. February – April 2016 – Come take my class in Chicago! Saturdays at 5pm, Moksha Yoga, West Bucktown
  2. Follow me on Periscope! I’ll be sharing some yoga nidra practices on live streaming video this winter/spring.
  3. Download the original yoga nidra visualization I fell in love with for FREE, right now!

Links Galore

A creative impostor challenge for you!

Yoda PumpkinReady to experiment with tapping into your own deepest creative resource?

I’d love to hear from YOU!

Download & listen to a yoga nidra practice — once or many times, mine or someone else’s and let me know what you observe.

Send me a voicemail and tell me what your experience was like during the practice, immediately after or in the week following. 

Just click the tab on the right of the screen. A little window will pop up and once you hit record, you can leave me a 90 second message that I can include on a future episode of the creative impostor. Include your name, business and website if you have one or you can just say you’d like it to be an anonymous story.

And if voicemail isn’t really your thing, you can also email me by clicking the contact page.

NOLA Jazz

NOLA Jazz!]

 

Our first Creative Space Travel Retreat to New Orleans is in the works! Get the inside scoop…

 

Are you feeling overwhelmed? Don’t know where to begin?

My How to Start e-course is designed to help you take those first few bold steps on your creative path no matter what! Truly, I’ve taken all the wisdom from my podcast guests, past teachers and a whole lot of experience with failure AND success. Coming soon…

This episode was mixed by Edwin R. Ruiz of Mondo Machine.
The Creative Impostor theme music was created by JoVia Armstrong.

I want to hear from you. If you’re listening in iTunes, PLEASE leave a review. It’s how iTunes decides which shows people find when they are searching for specific topics like this one.

Also send me a message! What do you think so far? What’s your greatest impostor moment? Email your written comments or leave a voicemail using SpeakPipe — and when you do, I just may read the message or play your voice on a future episode.