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Articles from Jennifer Louden | Selfgrowth.com
- The Holidays Are Coming: Do You Know Where Your Soul Is? - by Submitted on Oct 09, 2006 from Jennifer Louden"Loving earth, work, one another, psyche - all these require unhurried time. Frenzied questing after the icons of modern life (speed, power, instant, more, bigger, unboundedness) devours time and injures the capacity to love. The shy soul is driven inevitably into hiding where she yearns for a ...
Views: 1041 - The Power of Story in the Face of Mortality - by Submitted on Sep 26, 2006 from Jennifer LoudenI. There is a story my father has told my entire life. It is 1964. I am two and he is forty-three. We live on Park Lane in Bloomington, Indiana and every morning when my mother releases me from my crib, I bump down the stairs in my night diaper and I crawl across the kitchen tile and down two ...
Views: 1140 - Being A Change Agent: An Inner Approach with Outer Impact - by Submitted on Sep 04, 2006 from Jennifer LoudenChange agents. We see them everywhere: they’re the ones heading the annual food drive; lobbying the school board to get soda machines out of the lunch room; hosting family reunions; making the holiday office party more fun; and actually attending city council meetings. They identify ...
Views: 4358 - Accept, Serve, & Flow - by Submitted on Aug 25, 2006 from Jennifer LoudenI sat down to write about the self-nurturing essential of receiving -- love, energy, compliments, ideas, gifts, the Divine – and I didn't want to write. I kept putting it off, doing anything but writing... and then it hit me when I was out walking... I haven't been receiving so how I can I ...
Views: 917 - Habit Experiments - by Submitted on Aug 18, 2006 from Jennifer LoudenA few years ago I spent 8 days just off Vancouver Island, British Columbia with my family; paddling kayaks, watching orcas, seeing bear eat crab, and sniffing drifting wood smoke. My sister and brother-in-law came along on our adventure and they both said, at different times, "We would never ...
Views: 1127 - Self-Kindness, Truth, and Writing - by Submitted on Aug 13, 2006 from Jennifer LoudenOnce when I went to a new (to me) yoga class I had a teacher say, "When we go into a pose, we can listen to our ego, which says, 'Push, push, go lower, go deeper,' or we can practice non-violence (in Sanskrit ahimsa) and truth (sattva)." Non-violence toward ourselves = self-kindness. I won't ...
Views: 1782 - Befriending Your Creativity - by Submitted on Jul 20, 2006 from Jennifer LoudenDo you secretly hold an “ascetic self-flagellant, it-must-be-hard-to-be-good, that’s for other people” attitude about your creativity? (Don't waste your time telling me you aren't creative--life is the ultimate creative act and you are alive, or else you wouldn't be reading this). Self-care ...
Views: 1066 - Ordinary is the New Extraordinary - by Submitted on Jul 14, 2006 from Jennifer LoudenPart 1 "We have become burdened with the idea that everything must be special, or exceptional, or the very best for our children...Indeed, we do our children a disservice by trying to make life extraordinary instead of ordinary. 'Inherited potential will be realized when the environmental ...
Views: 1100 - The Veiled Gift of Envy - by Submitted on Jun 23, 2006 from Jennifer LoudenI once spent a year obsessed with another writer's success. Envy whispered in my ear, "You should have what she has and right now." I was aghast at my obsession, especially given that I didn't particularly like her book, and yet envy wouldn't go away. It was (almost) comical how each time a ...
Views: 1007 - Worry Now, Cry Later - by Submitted on Jun 16, 2006 from Jennifer LoudenI remember when my daughter finished 3rd grade a few years ago. I cried. A couple days later, she pulled out two boxes of old photos, searching for ones she could paste in her journal. I came home from yoga and stood in the kitchen, eating a rice cake with almond butter, looking at photos with ...
Views: 1070 - "I'll Show You!" And Other Limiting Motivations - by Submitted on Jun 02, 2006 from Jennifer LoudenI discovered that the fuel for many of my accomplishments in my life was "I'll show you." As a child, somewhere around 6th grade, I assessed that I wasn't smart enough to accomplish what I wanted in my life so I began to rely on sheer will to get things done. All I needed was one person to ...
Views: 1007 - Living in Transition - by Submitted on May 30, 2006 from Jennifer LoudenDo any of these thoughts sound familiar? "I don't know what I want (in my career / creative passion / relationships/ all of the above)." "I know what I want to create next but I AM scared and I don't know how to do it so maybe this means I shouldn't do it." "I sense rumbling change brewing ...
Views: 1051 - Do What You Love and Continue to Grow Every Day - by Submitted on May 19, 2006 from Jennifer LoudenCan I tell you, frankly, how sick I am of the story that because we do what we love, we should always be jubilant, light hearted, blissed out, can't-wait-to-get-out-of-bed every-bloody-morning happy and content? Have you ever fell into this belief? What a disservice this myth does to women like ...
Views: 1246 - Being With What Is - by Submitted on May 12, 2006 from Jennifer LoudenI've been observing the tremendous power our interpretations of events have to influence our bodies, our moods, and our ability to be present and notice what is. An example: My knee started hurting a few years ago. Having had my share of knee injuries and two surgeries, I quickly assumed (or ...
Views: 1164 - Creativity Vacation - by Submitted on May 05, 2006 from Jennifer LoudenI was reflecting on how I spend a week each year in Taos, New Mexico at the Mable Dodge Luhan House co-leading a retreat with author and performer Suzanne Falter-Barns (www.howmuchjoy.com). Another Taos Writer’s Spa is coming up at the end of July this summer. We create a circle for women where ...
Views: 1124 - For Freelancing to Equal Freedom, Choices are Required - by Submitted on Apr 21, 2006 from Jennifer LoudenThe U.S. Department of Labor estimates that 8.5 million people identify themselves as consultants or freelance workers -- and other sources have that number as high as 30 million, and growing. One aspect of freelance work that many people underestimate is the amazing number of things that can ...
Views: 1012 - A Twist on Goal Setting: Bare Minimums - by Submitted on Apr 17, 2006 from Jennifer LoudenRecently I asked my Self-Care e-newsletter readers to share what helps them "turn toward their truth." I've also called this 'minimum self-care requirements' in other issues. As a result, this is what I wrote today to be included in my upcoming book: Between survival and a fully humming ...
Views: 972 - Life: Lessons Ad Infinitum - by Submitted on Apr 07, 2006 from Jennifer LoudenI spent last week making art in two different workshops. It was a very humbling week. I encountered that first hard bump of learning something new, that first jolt of, "Oh no, I can't do what I want to do, I can't make what I see in my head or feel in my heart." When I learn something new, I ...
Views: 1035 - Creative, Connected Self Care - by Submitted on Mar 29, 2006 from Jennifer LoudenMost self care materials are related to how you manage your own needs when taking care of others, especially when other people are ill or incapacitated. Since there are so many resources out there already related to that angle, this article fleshes out the idea of self care in a couple of ...
Views: 897 - The Self-Care Minder on Transitions - by Submitted on Jul 08, 2004 from Jennifer Louden"I don't know what I want (in my career / creative passion / relationships/ all of the above)." "I know what I want to create next but I AM scared and I don't know how to do it so maybe this means I shouldn't do it." "I sense rumbling change brewing but I don't know what to do with this ...
Views: 1248 - Doing What You Love? - by Submitted on Jul 08, 2004 from Jennifer LoudenCan I tell you, frankly, how sick I am of the story that because we do what we love, we should always be jubilant, light hearted, blissed out, can't-wait-to-get-out-of-bed every-bloody-morning happy and content? Have you ever fell into this belief?What a disservice this myth does to women like ...
Views: 1194(1 vote) - How to Remember - by Submitted on Nov 21, 2003 from Jennifer LoudenYou already know everything you need to know to be the person you want to be in the world. Really. I believe that about you. I believe that about me, too. I also believe we keep forgetting to what we know, keep forgetting live from our deepest values, and that we all need help ...
Views: 1145(2 votes) - Creativity - by Submitted on Feb 04, 2011 from Jennifer LoudenDid you know the critical part of your self is never going away? In fact, to want to kill the critic off is just playing into the Critic's game because it is wanting to kill off a part of yourself. It reinforces the idea that something is wrong with you that needs to be fixed-- "Once I get this ...
Views: 1672