Are you an Adventurer? Engage in the small ways and build to bigger ways you can nurture yourself. You’ll be amazed what you discover.

Let Freedom Ring

July is all about freedom. From the obvious celebrating our country’s independence with 4^th of July festivities to the obscure Social Wellness observance and including the borderline ridiculous National Drive-Thru Day. It’s all about recognizing the beauty of our glorious options and opportunities to change. The freedom to stop and stick our toes in a stream, river, ocean, or under a sprinkler attached to the garden hose. The freedom to smile at our reflection in the mirror (which is all about Social Wellness) and to know we have the gumption to follow our dreams. The freedom to choose our Authentic Selves.

July comes smack dab in the middle of everything. The middle of the year and the middle of the summer. We’re at a tipping point for all sorts of options. Is it time to re-evaluate or goals? On the other hand, is it time to celebrate being alive and seize the opportunity to play when it presents itself.  

When the calendar page turns to July for children, if they bother to notice the calendar at all, it may mean summer camp, trips to the beach/lake/mountains, or days filled with sweet unstructured hours. As adults, July may mean mid-year reviews/quarterly reports to be completed before a long anticipated family vacation. The freedom to be a family united in their quest to navigate a new hiking trail and tell the best ghost story around the campfire.

Our family vacations were more like Sunday afternoon outings because farmers with animals always have morning and evening chores. We were fortunate enough to have a boat and live in the Midwest where there is lots of water for the boat. My childhood summer memories are full of fried chicken picnics, feeling the mud squishing between my toes, splashing in the shallow water, fighting with my brothers about whose turn it was with the inner tube, feeling the wind in my hair when Daddy “opened her up” and drove the boat fast when we went around the lake. I also remember the smell of Noxzema and suffering with red arms, backs, and legs after many of those outings.

If your July plans keep you close to home, there’s still plenty of creative ways you can claim the freedom to choose to be your Authentic Self. Take a tall glass of your favorite ice-cold summer drink and a blanket out to the back yard. Lie down and do some serious cloud watching. Your whole body is allowed the freedom to down shift and relax as you observe the white wisps consolidate into dogs, bunnies, flowers, faces, even dinosaurs. Now that you’re in the back yard, are you thinking about the garden you meant to plant? You can still go to the garden center and pick up all the elements necessary to plant a beautiful flowerpot in no time at all! Want to get away from it all for an afternoon? Escape into a movie with lavish landscapes and gorgeous costumes, or visit an exotic art exhibit. Try your hand at pottery painting at a do-it-yourself pottery shop. Discover the soaring experience of flying with an introductory flying lesson. Take a bike ride and feel like you are 10 years old again. Watch the sun go down and wait for the fireflies to come out. Pick up a brand new notebook, some magic markers, or colored pencils, find a shady spot and write about your favorite summer vacation. It doesn’t matter if it’s a vacation you’ve already experienced, or one you plan to someday. Write about it right now. Relive the experience, or anticipate the adventure. Let freedom ring…

Rebuild your life? June is Rebuild Your Life Month. Depending on your point of view, that could be a very odd phrase, or an exciting challenge. In some ways, we rebuild our life getting out of bed every morning. Each small decision builds upon the next, until you’ve chosen what to wear, what to eat, where to live, which career to pursue and who you want to spend time with. Sometimes those decisions are the direct result of random events in your lives.

After my first breast cancer experience, I bounced back into my old routine so fast I think I left tire marks in the hospital parking lot. Well, no. But, while my physical self regained normalcy, emotionally I was in a state of shock. Pretending it had never happened made it quite easy to get on with my life. My family was also anxious that I return to “normalcy” as soon as possible too. That way they could feel nothing had really changed in their world. After all, I looked the same, so it was a couple of days of bed rest and back to the usual routine. Putting the whole diagnosis, out-patient surgery and recovery into the recesses of my memory seemed to work quite well – for a time. It worked until I was diagnosed with D.C.I.S. again in the same breast 3½ years later.

This time, rebuilding my life meant taking part in my healing process and choosing to not jump back into old habits as if programmed, or just because it was expected. Instead, I followed my own path to exploring creativity and all the benefits of hands-on activities. I wrote in my journal about everything I was thinking and feeling. I gave myself time and space to explore what my body, mind and spirit needed. I’d always been drawn to many forms of crafts such as sewing, beading, collage, decoupage, and stamping. But never thought of myself as an artist. Artists had paintings and sculptures in museums; I liked to make distinctive beaded jewelry. I made dance and ice skating costumes, slipcovers and window treatments, and embellished journals with whimsical collages.

In the process of rebuilding my life, I have reinvented myself. I now claim the mantle of Artist of the Everyday because my works-of-art are to be used and enjoyed in day-to-day life. As a self-proclaimed Creativity Mentor, I encourage everyone I meet to claim your creativity to rebuild your life in whatever method, means or sector beckons you.

Many of us grew up with the annual ritual of scrubbing down walls, opening windows to air out the house after a long winter of closed up rooms, and removing winter’s remnants to make way for a fresh start. It wasn’t uncommon for us to leave for school in the morning with the boring tan front hall walls being “prepped” for painting and come home to a brand entryway of sunny yellow. Wallpaper was very big then and my mother asked a team of local ladies to help her with updating our living room. I was amazed at their agility climbing up and down the short ladders, it was almost like a dance the way one woman would lavish paste on the subdued floral panels and pass it to her co-worker perched on the ladder. Finally, another member of the team would smooth out the air bubbles with a dry brush. A few rolls of wallpaper and a couple of coats of paint made the whole house feel brand new.

In observance of May as Women’s Health Care Month, I’d like to talk about how we could approach this season as a time of renewal for ourselves. We’re at the mid-point of 2010. How are you doing on your goals for this year? I know I’ve been pretty good about working on my business, and not so good about overcoming habits in the “personal growth” area. There was a time when I was really established with an exercise routine, however, I have not been in that groove for some time. I had a Yoga teacher I loved and very proud of the fact I could keep up with the step class choreography. Life intervened…my 80-year-old Yoga teacher moved away to live closer to her daughter, and the step class was cancelled. Although I felt terrific when I was exercising on a regular basis, I haven’t gotten back into that routine again. Does this story sound familiar? Whether you made January resolutions or not, let’s start right now with a clean slate. Take inventory of where you’d like to air out old ideas, rearrange sluggish attitudes, reclaim enthusiasm for a prior activity, or adjust a timeline to allow for a more flexible learning curve. Want to start a journal? Establish a yoga practice? Learn to meditate? Become a brilliant cook? Progress from a gentle jog to running a marathon? Speak French? Sail? Fly Fish? Or, just spend 15 minutes watching the tide?

Taking care of ourselves in body-mind-and-spirit by tapping into our creativity gives us a whole new perspective on being in the present moment. Each season has unique gifts to offer us. I can’t wait to see what this season brings.