Women Who Run (& Paint) with the Wolves

You know those books that have been on your shelf for years when, one day, something shifts, and you suddenly rediscover a treasure trove of wisdom–inspiration that had been lying in wait for the perfect moment?

This is how my copy of Women Who Run With the Wolves, by Clara Pinkola Estes made its way back into my consciousness this past year.

There is an overarching theme of BALANCE right now. The pendulum has finished swinging way off to one side and is now confidently and deliberately making its way back to the center. What was lost as the pendulum spent its last epoch far to the side? Clara Pinkola Estes says,

Over time, we have seen the feminine instinctive nature looted, driven back, and overbuild. For long periods it has been mismanaged like the wildlife and the wildlands….The spiritual lands of the Wild Woman have, throughout history, been plundered or burnt, dens bulldozed, and natural cycles forced into unnatural rhythms to please others.

In my own life, this book has waited patiently for me to catch up to its wisdom. It was first gifted to me in 1996 when I opened The Creative Fitness Center and embarked on my creative, and, unknowingly, spiritual journey. But it wasn’t until the Fall of 2013 that this book reasserted itself and invited me to fall in love with both its wisdom and myself again, to honor my wildness, make no apologies, and move forward, leader of my own pack, with new energy and magic.

Clara Pinkola Estes is a voice of this new balance, a muse that calls to us all to remember who, at our core, we truly are. We have all suffered as a result of the suppression of the wild woman and the dominant, logical mind (our own included) that scoffed at the “feminine instinctive nature.” We have missed out creating and living a life that nurtured both progress and sustenance, learning and knowing, doing and being, the physical and the spiritual, work and play, isolation and community,  solemness and joy.

How did this energy manifest in your life? I know that I muted  and withheld my truth, the thoughts that were sure to cause conflict. My wisdom was not heeded in favor of productivity. I tried to play by their rules, instead of honoring my own. I suppressed my nature because it would cause others discomfort or, at least, furrowed brows. I strove to achieve, to receive the approval and the recognition and never even learned what it meant or how to access my own reservoir of love and compassion. Anything too fun or too silly must not be responsible, so I devalued those opportunities and experiences and took steps towards more practical ways and means. It was subtle. On the outside I would appear to be happy and self-realized–opening art centers and wine bars, raising happy, smiling children, and making it to regular yoga classes. But it was subtle. It was a deep suppression, without any awareness of the action, of what made ME my most wonderful ME. I didn’t even know that ME because I had bought in to paradigm, completely and unknowingly. I didn’t even know I had a divine feminine or a Wild Woman archetype. Did you?

Now is our opportunity to both take it back, and share it holistically, amongst both men and women, to create a more compassionate, sustainable, joyful, alive and holistic world.

Some of you…

…are anticipating shifting from the (corporate) career you have inhabited for decades, unsure of what that, or you, will look like outside of that paradigm.

…are new mothers, looking ahead to the children you get to raise and influence, more conscious now of the beliefs you have held for so long and the ones you want to nurture in the precious souls you have been given.

…are entrepreneurs, burning with a knowing that you have something unique and powerful to offer to the world.

To all of you, I invite you within, into the waters of your Wild Woman, so that you can CREATE the life YOU, yes you, were meant to live! 

Comment below if you would like to learn more about our “Creative Wolf Pack” OR how I could personally coach you through these 9 steps to “Taking Back the River.”

My mission, since 1996, whether I was tuned into it or not, has been to help to awaken the Wild Woman within, to unblock the “Rio Abajo” and rejuvenate the creative river that lies within each of us. It is there, within you, whether you are aware of it or not…

…we can never “lose” our creativity. It is always there, filling us or else colliding with whatever obstacles are placed in its path. If it finds no inlet to us, it backs up, gathers energy, and rams forward again till it breaks through.

Have you felt this energy? Do you sense, that somewhere deep within, is a part of your “vital energy” that yearns to flow, to move, to express itself? Without even concerning yourself with how exactly it will manifest, you can begin to tend to this river, removing the blocks, cleaning the polluted waters, and honoring its currents and path.

The creative force flows over the terrain of our psyches looking for the natural hollows, the arroyos, the channels that exist in us. We become its tributaries, its basins; we are its pools, ponds, streams, and sanctuaries. The wild creative force flows into whatever beds we have for it, those we are born with as well as those we dig with our own hands. We don’t have to fill them, we only have to build them….there is the idea that if one prepares a special psychic place, then the being, the creative force, the soul source, will hear of it, sense its way to it, and inhabit that place.

Is your creative river polluted?

  • from within, with excuses, limiting beliefs, fears or old “stories?”
  • from without, influenced by relationships that do not value, or that disrespect, your creativity, environments that stagnate and suppress your creativity, or dominant logical minds that assure you that your crazy ideas are doomed to failure?

Is your creative river blocked or dammed?

  • from your daily routine or patterns?
  • from a lack of initiative or introversion?
  • from negative self-talk, an over-active inner-critic?
  • from limitations of time and/or space?
  • from dominating commitments or careers?

Are you ready to experience FLOW??? As a Creatively Fit Coach, myself, and my family of Certified Creatively Fit Coaches, are here to help clean up, unblock, and restore your own Rio Abajo, your creative river, your VITAL ENERGIES.

YOU, all of you, is vital right now. It is vital that we each honor and expand that which brings us joy, lights us up, and inspires greater love and personal expression. Within the creative process, the journey we share with you as Creatively Fit Coaches, is the opportunity to identify whatever is blocking or polluting your flow and take action, in the direction you DESIRE, to release the power and energy of your own Wild Woman.

If you sense that this is also your passion, you may want to explore our next Creatively Fit Coaching Certification starting soon.

Please join us in our community, where you can access free programs to restore your vital energies, like the 21 Day Painting Meditation Challenge, and reach out to me and other Creatively Fit Coaches, for support and inspiration!

Thank you for honoring YOU, your divine, wild, full-color woman! Let’s restore the raging river inside of you and tap into your vital energies, shall we?

Thank you for spending this time with me and for watching the video. It is my complete and utter joy to share this wisdom with you!

Artfully,

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