Comfort Secrets for Busy Women doc

comfort secrets busy Women So HoW do you Live A Life of fuLLy expressed cr eAtivity in tHe midst of incessAnt everydAy demAnds? Turn the stress and overwhelm into the impetus you’ve been waiting for— to create a life that truly supports and nourishes you. Imagine your muse, your “Comfort Queen,” visiting you with a series of thought-provoking and spirit-awakening questions: What one thing do you need today? What one thing can you take on or give up to make your life more peaceful? How can you cherish and enchant your sweet self? In conversations with women who are seeking or have found their own answers to their own questions, and in vividly imagined visitations from her Comfort Queen, bestselling author Jennifer Louden shows you the importance of simply listening to that quiet inner voice, where all the answers to your own individual path lie waiting for you to discover them. EAN UPC Self-Help $16.95 U.S. $25.95 CAN Jennifer Louden is a bestselling writer, creativity mentor and creator of learning events and retreats. She has appeared on numerous TV and radio programs, including Oprah. She’s spoken to thousands of women in settings as diverse as the Canadian wilderness and a German bank. She mentors creative people all over the world. She lives on an island in Puget Sound with her husband, Chris, and their daughter, Lillian. Learn more about her at http://www.comfortqueen.com. for Louden [...]... then let the whole shebang sit for a few days, a week, or however long you want Or read the whole book and go back to the question pages You will probably find it helpful to… 11 12 Comfort Secrets for Busy Women Establish a regular listening habit You could contemplate the questions: • Early in the morning before work or before your family wakes up • In the car while waiting for kids or your car pool •... millions of other women are having is in some ways very simple Don’t think I’m politically naive I’m a card-carrying member of NOW I’m not denying that the system in place doesn’t work for women or, for that matter, for anyone with a conscience and a care for the earth But at our annual Comfort Queen convention, where all women s inner muses gather to compare notes, we realized you gals keep forgetting that... things You definitely forget you have the power to change your attitude Too often you’re cramped in a narrow cage of your own making You’re trying to get free, but because you keep forgetting you are a pipeline for the creative juju of the Divine, you stay stuck You and everyone else have the ability to make new out of old, a silk purse from a sow’s ear, 18 Comfort Secrets for Busy Women stone soup You... after day, I watch the 3 4 Comfort Secrets for Busy Women cool promise of the morning disappear into rushing, worrying, or doing inconsequential things It occurs to me that even trying to accept it is too much action, too much doing I try to stop that too Finally, discouraged, I stop For one breath, I am inside the question, “What one thing do I need most in the days ahead?” For one breath, it doesn’t... I have been shut up in for months suddenly flies off I stand up and look around Oh, yes, I can take a few days for myself and concentrate on what I want to write, what I want to do with my life That is possible Of course, my critic begins to yammer away at me almost at once “You have no money Where are you going to go on such short notice? Why don’t 6 Comfort Secrets for Busy Women you wait and go later?”... yourself? Who taught you not to love yourself? It doesn’t matter anymore Because I’m here to teach you the Golden Rule of the Comfort Queen, the sutra of your muse You teach everybody else Who teaches the teacher? Every woman is a teacher, every woman needs 7 8 Comfort Secrets for Busy Women to be taught, to be held The first thing you’ve got to do is stop being so mental.” She cackles at her own silly joke... to all the mysterious guidance available, we can sense, just there on the periphery, what our life story is about and what our next step must be 10 Comfort Secrets for Busy Women Because another fact has become abundantly clear to me and to the many women I interviewed: we can plan our lives, we can set goals, and that’s useful and lovely, but we rarely end up where we think we will—and that’s even... belly, mumbling to herself That’s just the shanachie, getting her tale straight.” 2 Comfort Secrets for Busy Women I wonder what the workshop participants would think if I lie down at the front of the room and put the slide projector on my chest (not having a convenient rock) and start trying to get my tale straight Women rattle their journals as they finish the writing exercise I gave them a few moments... Endora was very good at taking care of herself 19 20 Comfort Secrets for Busy Women Living the Questions What are my most common obstacles to relaxation and self-nurturing right now? Not enough time Not enough money Children Work Confusion Guilt Feels selfish Don’t know where to start Feels too needy Name a few details about what blocks rest and renewal for you Don’t fill up a thousand pages, just list... into my own distinct curves In 1926, in A Life of One’s 24 Comfort Secrets for Busy Women Own, Marion Milner wrote about her attempts to discern what made her happy: “I had been continually exhorted to define my purpose in life, but I was now beginning to doubt whether life might not be too complex a thing to be kept within the bounds of a single formulated purpose, whether it would not burst its way out . 961-2168 www.sourcebooks.com First published in hardcover as The Comfort Queen’s Guide to Life Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Louden, Jennifer. Comfort secrets for busy women / by Jennifer Louden. p. cm. ISBN. bustling New England college town, watching the students arriving for the fall semester, buying posters for their 2 Comfort Secrets for Busy Women rooms, greeting each other over lattes, hanging out. I stop. For one breath, I am inside the question, “What one thing do I need most in the days ahead?” For one breath, it doesn’t matter that I don’t have a clue. 4 Comfort Secrets for Busy Women After