This month’s featured art is a genuine, contemporary Runestone – one that my husband and I created together for a dear friend and collector, Karen C. It tells the story of her “journey” in ancient Runic text: from the beginning of her 39-year marriage to its intensely challenging end, focusing on the amazing and continual new beginnings she deeply experiences as the most difficult chapter retreats farther and farther into her past.
All endings are metaphorical deaths, offering distinct opportunities for growth – especially when we embrace the “power of the pause,” and reflect on experience down to the deepest levels.
I have never been more convinced about the benefits of pausing than I am right now: I call it, “pause and effect.”
Every situation, every conversation and every moment can benefit by a pause. The more we pause, the greater and more positive “effect” it has on our lives. Pausing and mindfulness are completely intertwined – their very definition gives rise to our being more present in each moment, offering infinite opportunities for better communication, deeper experience, less stress, more love, greater appreciation…in other words, living life more fully.
Begin right now: close your eyes, reflect on your past, and consider the different outcomes that may have occurred had you taken a breath before responding. Smile inside, inhale deeply and let it go – you’ve just embraced pausing as a practice.
Blessings,
Elizabeth Bryan-Jacobs is a nationally known artist, creativity facilitator and bestselling author, currently pursuing a master’s degree in art therapy. Through her own recipe of art-making, mindfulness and nature, she supports individuals in awakening their inborn creativity. Her combination of practices opens a path inward to inner wisdom and insight that helps transform challenge to change. The result is a greater sense of presence, connection and empowerment, as well as the abiding joy that is the core of the creative process.
Elizabeth is also the author of bestselling Chicken Soup for the Soul: Count Your Blessings and Soul Models: Transformative Stories of Courage and Compassion.
Elizabeth’s passion to share the benefits of creativity, mindfulness and nature inspired her to pioneer Creative Awakenings: Where Spirit Meets Science, a series of innovative, transformational seminars. She has shared Creative Awakenings for nearly two decades, privately and at exclusive venues like Canyon Ranch in Lenox, MA, The Golden Door Spa in San Marcos, CA, the Ojai Valley Spa and Resort as well as with numerous corporations.
To support wellness during challenging times, Elizabeth now offers Awakenings Circles. These online, mindfulness-based creativity programs and practices help guests dig deeply on their journey in connecting with what matters most.
Elizabeth is a renowned sculptor and artist with works in numerous private and corporate collections, including Dell Children’s Hospital and Healthline Media.
Along with her husband, artist Bobby Jacobs, she is also the co-founder of The Spread Your Wings Project, a non-profit devoted to sharing the benefits of community art-making in response to the challenges faced by our nation today. The couple builds massive pairs of angel wings in community with vulnerable populations for fundraising purposes. For more information, visit TheSpreadYourWingsProject.org.
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