Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Time for a rebirth










Spring is coming. You can feel it in the air. You can hear it in the way the birds are singing and starting to mate. The spring bulbs are starting to burst forth and blossom is now on the trees.

I don't know about you but I'm also starting to feel restless. I have been going through a rebranding process for my business and it has made me step back and evaluate all aspects of my life as well as my business.

I have rebranded myself several times during my life. The first was at 15 when I decided that my birth name just didn't suit me so I switched to just my initials which at that stage were KC. This slowly morphed into a one word name Casey ( I believe I set the trend for all the Casey's and Cassie's that soon followed LOL) . I married and had kids and then subsequently separated at 27 and divorced at 29. Again my name no longer fit with my image of myslef and I sure as hell wasn't going back to that old me so it was time for yet another transformation and I became Cailtin, which is the Irish version of my birth name. Finally it felt right.


After a couple of years of being Caitlin I finally gave myslef a middle name of Grace and so Caitlin Grace was born. Occaisionally someone comes along who remembers me by my old name but it literally feels like they are talking about someone else as those names no longer have any relevance to who I am now.

It amazes me when I tell people about changing my name, how many of them still don't like their name but have never thought of changing it. I always felt if it was good enough for Madonna then it was good enough for me!
It all comes back to vibration and energy. My old names didn't have the right vibration for the person that I was becoming and so energetically I had to release them and become more of who I am.

Which brings me to the power of words. I am currently realigning myself with my ideal body shape. I refuse to call it losing weight or dieting. Why? Well if you lose something what do you generally do? You look for it until you find it. So I am not losing weight because I choose not to find it again. I am aligning myself with my ideal body image - doesn't that sound more positive and energetically something you would want to do? Dieting to me sounds like deprivation and I saw my mother go through to much of that t please my father rather than from any real desire on her part . So again I am choosing to change the way I am approaching food. I am making healthier food choices while still allowing myself to indulge if I choose to.


Think about the word choices that you are making daily and see if by changing the way you frame your words you can change the way you view your life.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Creativity and Clutter

I am a slob. I hate to admit it but I am. I am not filthy by any stretch of the imagination but I tend to accumulate clutter and stuff wherever I go. there is always a mtehod to my madness and I can ( generally!) find what I am looking for. Toady I read Denise Duffield-Thomas ( aka Lucky Bitch) blog "Can clearing clutter really change your life?"   read more here and it got me thinking. I totally agree with what she is saying about not having too much clutter around you and I know the value of having empty space in order for new there to be room for the new to come in.
 I also know that as a creative person a certain amount of chaos is part and parcel of the way that I work. I have piles of books that I am referring to while I work, other projects that I am working on, empty or half empty cups on my desk, moisturiser so that should I get that tight feeling on my skin or look down and see my hands are scarily dry I can slap some on, small piles of bling that I have taken off while I am working, toothpicks, receipts and a bubble blower for when life gets too serious!

One thing that I have been ( trying!!!) to implement is a variety of folders to contain some of the info for upcoming projects, so that paper does not entirely take over my life.

How my desk looks as I am writing this.
What does hold back my creative process is not so much the junk on my desk but mess in the rest of my house. We built this house 6 years ago and it was a big deal for me to be living in a brand new house. We also bought every thing new to go in the house and for awhile I felt like it wasn't really MINE. Part of that was that I cleaned everything all the time and anyone that knows me knows that I am not a domestic goddess AT ALL! That gene skipped me by a country mile, or else my oldest sister Trish gobbled up all of the gene that was up for offer. But because the house was brand spanking new and looked like something out of one of those House and Garden magazines I thought I had better keep it looking that way. Only that isn't me. and it isn't my husband either. We are a bit more laid back and casual and lets face it, downright slobs. Now the place feels like home. the dining room table is generally covered in whatever books we are reading , sometimes three or four, glasses ( hubby's) a fruit bowl, laundry that is waiting to be folded ( and it can wait a looooong time!), cell phone chargers and random mail that we haven't dealt with. There is always a clothes airer by the woodstove ( its winter and its been very wet!) a wood box that hubby throws any paper rubbish into ( been trying to break him of the habit but it ain't working so far.) and random flotsam. My kitchen bench always has a containeer full of food scraps waiting for the compost and jars of things fermenting ( intentionally!) . I do love my dishwasher and treat it as a storage space so that I don't have to look at dirty dishes. It is not the tidiest house but it is homely and THAT is what gets my creative juices flowing. I am comfortable and can relax and get down to the job at hand. Do I rush around doing a clean up if guests are coming over? Absolutely! but I also know that the true friends are coming to see me and not do a house inspection. My dream is to become succesful enough so that I can pay someone to clean my house because I am NEVER going to be a domestic goddess.