Monthly Archives: July 2018

Wabi-Sabi + a sneak peek into joy-seeking class. It starts today!

July 29, 2018 – 5:24 pm

Day #3:
Wabi-Sabi

The imperfect bowl. The chipped blue nail polish on her fingers. The withering zinnias making a perfect dusty rose. Have you noticed that things that are imperfect are so much more interesting?

I love the following definition found on Japanology:

Wabi-sabi might be the Buddhist view of the facts of existence: Both life and art are beautiful not because they are perfect and eternal, but because they are imperfect and fleeting.

Whereas classical Western aesthetic ideals were of beauty and perfection, of symmetry and a fine finish, wabi-sabi is hard-nosed and realistic: Nothing lasts, nothing is perfect. Accepting these hard facts opens the door to the realistic appreciation of a deeper beauty.

I try to remember this when I am humbled by my own imperfections. When I am caught in the storm of my own inner critics telling me that I’m flawed, not good enough.

Seeing the beauty in the imperfect is a great practice. One that helps me bring more compassion to my fragile ego and tender heart.

 

Above is a sneak peek into the Joy-Seeker’s Treasure Hunt course! 30 Days of creative photo prompts to fill your inbox with inspiration, photo tips and bursts of joy. Just $49.

Class begins today!

P.S. If you are already registered, look out for your invitation arriving this afternoon! If you don’t receive it by tonight, hit reply and message me!

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Courses, Good things, Inspiration | Comments (0)

Tooting our own horn + the concept of mudita*

July 26, 2018 – 10:05 pm

One of my favorite words in the world is mudita… It is a Sanskrit word that means sympathetic joy or vicarious joy.

It’s the genuine pleasure we get from celebrating others.
It’s the deep joy we experience when someone we love is happy.
It’s the vicarious joy that arises when someone shares about something great in their life.

As an example, imagine a big fluffy dog that just arrives at the beach. Can you imagine the glee with which they run toward the water and all over the sand? Did the mere thought just bring a smile to your face? This is mudita. Isn’t it wonderful?

Recently, a friend prefaced her share with, “Not to toot my own horn but…” and then went on to talk about something totally wonderful that happened to her! We have grown up thinking that it’s impolite to share about our successes and victories. Women especially. We feel that we need to dim down, not get too big for our britches, not brag... or people won’t like us.

This might keep us safe, but it also keeps us small.

This is one of my biggest core wounds. You know how it goes. My two best friends turning against me in grade school very suddenly in a one-day-you’re-in-the-next-day-you’re-out kind of abruptness. Without any explanation, I was left to come up with my own – Don’t shine too bright or people will hate you. They will turn against you. Stay small.

Ugh. It’s hard to write these words. My inner critic is having a field day – Are we not over this yet???!! That happened in the 5th grade! Are we still talking about this??

Apparently we are. Ha!

But back to mudita. Cultivating mudita is a buddhist practice… it grows our compassion, it opens our hearts, it leads to wisdom.

I actually love it when people toot their own horn. They/you should do it more often. I want everyone to toot away! I want you to toot right now. Let’s create a culture of mudita where we delight in each other’s happiness. Where we celebrate each other’s success. Where your joy is my joy and your success is mine too. Let’s inspire each other + lift each other up, shall we?

Tell me, what small or large thing are you celebrating right now? What are you proud of?

I’ll start. One of my photographs was in a fancy pants magazine this month!! Lapham’s Quarterly!

I’m also very proud of my most recent work in black + white. I’ve been breaking some new ground with my portrait sessions and feeling excited and inspired! Toot! ?

What are you proud of friends? Could be anything – personal or professional. It all counts.

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Courage, Good things, Inspiration | Comments (4)

Creative practices save me.

July 25, 2018 – 1:18 am

We have a choice (moment to moment) about where we put our attention.

This doesn’t mean that we deny the pain + suffering that’s happening in the world (or in ourselves). These things are very real. This isn’t about pushing away what we don’t want to see, but about making conscious choices about where we put our attention – do we tend our fears or grow our joy?

When you’re a sensitive creature (like me + probably you too?) you can get really swallowed up. Just going to the news + social media sites each morning, I can feel myself armoring up for the assault on my system. What’s happened today? What new tragedy, betrayal, political firestorm… I try to let in what I can let in + be in action where I can be in action… but holy smokes. It’s a lot.

What I know (as someone who ebbs and flows with depression and anxiety) is that creative practices save me.

They save me by reminding me of my own light.
They remind me of the beauty in the world.
They keep me calibrated. Buoyant. They keep me connected to my truth.
They help me turn my attention toward the goodness.

I practice these things in my micro-world so that I can show up and be a certain kind of person in the macro. My intention is to be a bright light in my community and be a force of healing and good. It does not do anyone any good for me to get swallowed up by the news and crawl into bed feeling helpless. Or collapse into a what’s-the-point-it’s-all-going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket... which I definitely feel sometimes.

And so I practice. I practice strengthening my joy muscles.

The practice really started with me carrying my camera every day + and getting more present – What’s interesting about this moment? What’s beautiful? What’s the light doing? What are the juxtapositions of color that I can see right now? Ooooooohhh…. look at those lemons against that blue sky. Click. Click. That’s so beautiful… and my energy would slowly shift.

These little photo safaris became like medicine for me.

And we always offer the medicine that we most need. 

And so… I offer the medicine of these creative practices + waking up to beauty because that’s what feeds me and nourishes me and I want to share it. That’s why I’m here and why I do this work.

I focus on photo classes because they are so accessible and easy! We all have our little phones with us and can take 10 minutes each day to remember that there is another reality that lives in real time alongside our default one.

The camera becomes this wonderful little tool for our joy + well-being. Let’s amplify our joy together.

$49 Class begins this Monday, July 30th, 2018

Hit reply if you have any questions! It would be great to have you.

 

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Courage, Courses, Inspiration | Comments (0)

[Video] What is it to be a joy-seeker?

July 24, 2018 – 10:32 pm

Hey friends!

I just recorded a welcome video for my upcoming course – The Joy-Seeker’s Treasure Hunt – and thought it was a great way to introduce you to the class itself. If you are thinking about joining in, this will give you a sense of where I’m coming from!

I hope to have you! The class begins this Monday, July 30th, 2018.

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Courses, Good things | Comments (0)

The Joy-Seeker’s Treasure Hunt!

July 20, 2018 – 6:28 pm

Art has always been my native tongue. It helps me elevate my sense of wonder, attune my eyes for delight and connect with my heart. It is also the surest way for me to buoy myself and get out of whatever funk, despair or loss of perspective I might have. Walking with my camera has always been my medicine. Maybe it works wonders for you too?

After watching that Ted Talk about joy I mentioned in my last post (Where Joy Hides and How to Find it) I had a light bulb moment – this is what I do! I am a joy-seeker. I find little sparks of delight and joy through my camera! And this is what I always hope to bring to you as well – an accessible way to pivot toward joy, to put our attention on beauty and color and things that remind of the goodness in the world.

What I want is to open up. I want to know what’s inside me. I want everybody to open up. I’m like an imbecile with a can-opener in his hand, wondering where to begin – to open up the earth. I know that underneath the mess everything is marvelous. I’m sure of it.

I know it because I feel so marvelous myself most of the time. And when I feel that way everybody seems marvelous… everybody and everything… even pebbles and pieces of cardboard… a match stick lying in the gutter… anything… a goat’s beard, if you like. That’s what I want to write about… and then we’re all going to see clearly, see what a staggering, wonderful, beautiful world it is.” -Henry Miller

If it feels like this is good medicine for you too, let’s do the Joy-Seeker’s Treasure Hunt together! 30 days of photo prompts that will train our eyes toward what’s good in the world.

The fun begins Monday, July 30th. Just $49 to get your joy on!

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Courses, Good things | Comments (0)

What does it cost us when we hide?

July 18, 2018 – 10:33 pm

I got quiet over the last several years. Separation, divorce, dating… suddenly my stories were not just my own but intertwined with others in very real ways. I wasn’t sure what I could share anymore. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. Everything felt too private + I was afraid of being judged. Aside from my weekly writing group, I stopped writing entirely.

This has been a huge loss to my spirit.

There’s a price we pay when we hide, when we cut off our voices, when we stop sharing our truth (even to ourselves). My joy has suffered for it.

I did this most of my life. Kept my opinions to myself, only said what I thought others wanted to hear, was polite and didn’t make waves. It’s a good survival strategy – one that can keep you safe. And for a long time, that’s all I really wanted.

It was through art that I finally found my voice again. I painted and made jewelry and took photographs and it was joyous to find this other language for my heart to speak. With visual art, no one could tell me I was wrong or silence me… it was just my expression. A language all my own.

Writing has been a different edge. It takes much bigger courage for me to share this way, especially when I am out of practice. But I am coming out of hiding! Peeking my head out of the covers because I know my spirit is hungry for it. Starved for it in fact.

What does it cost us when we trade our truth/our voice/our creative expression for safety?

Aliveness, connection, joy.

For me, it also means feeling alone in the world. Not lonely exactly, but alone in my experiences. All those years of sharing so openly with my community here reminded me that we are all suffering in similar ways. We all hunger for the same things. We all want to feel seen. We all want to feel connected to each other.

It takes courage to lay the words down, to share our art, to push publish. Our ego will try to shut it down – This is crap. What can you possibly say that hasn’t been said? No one’s going to read it anyway.

And yet. The impulse is still there. The hunger to connect, to share what’s in our hearts, to be of service in some small way. The hope that if one person is touched, it will be worth it.

So here I am, sharing the tiniest window into my heart. Baby steps. Inviting you to stick with me for a while and create this gorgeous little community anew.

And because I always like to offer a question back to you: Can you think of a time when you were hiding? What happened? What did it cost you?

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Courage, Inspiration | Comments (27)

My natural deodorant odyssey!

July 17, 2018 – 4:52 pm

I’ve been trying to get off of crappy aluminum deodorant for years + I have finally succeeded! So thrilled that there are so many delicious options now that actually work.

My favorites:

Schmidt’s has the most incredible flavors. The bergamot + lime ended up being my favorite. My only issues with this brand is that with the pot of deodorant it was cumbersome to apply (I think they have discontinued the pot in favor of the stick. Yay!) but the sticks are problematic as well. The rose had a sort of a sandpapery feel to it and the bergamot lime could only really be successfully applied when my armpits were moist and warm from the shower. If you’re cool with that, this one smells delish and works really well! (It’s also possible they have reformulated to solve this issue)

My other favorite is American Provenance! The names of the flavors got me initially – Pinups + Paramours, Firepits + Flannels, Daggers + Diamonds… and the scents are incredible combinations of essential oils. Things like wintergreen, fir + cedar or rose, bergamot and jasmine… yum, right?

This deodorant instantly solved my problem of the stick feeling too hard on my skin. These go on easy… in fact, they are so soft I have to be careful not to put the stick up too high! (I accidentally squished the deodorant by putting on the cap too abruptly)

I thought I would prefer the combo deodorants (haven’t tried all of em) but the Lavender won my heart in the end. It smells like the actual lavender plant. Incredible. The real deal. (Not like a yucky fake lavender candle)

So there you have it! Excited to try more flavors + to finally be off of toxic deodorant.

What have you tried? Anything you love?

 

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Good things | Comments (3)

What I’ve been reading.

July 11, 2018 – 7:05 pm

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture compiled by Roxane Gay.

Intense. Beautiful writing. Revelatory. Brutal. It helped me understand my own experiences as a woman in this culture. I saw myself in so many of the stories – the way we blame ourselves, the way we tell ourselves it wasn’t that bad, the way we minimize our experiences and take on other people’s shame.

If you’re a woman, my guess is that you have a story like this too.

I have many. Starting very young. (Like five years old young) And I marvel at how that little person kept it all secret, thought there was something wrong with her, thought that she was broken and dirty and wrong. There is still some part of me (embedded deep inside) that still believes that, even though I know (rationally) it’s not true.

This book is tough to read/listen to but I found it revelatory. And like I said, helped me understand my own range of experiences. It might be medicine for you too.

You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson

I love this book. And I adore Phoebe Robinson. She is hilarious + offers so much wisdom and insight about race, feminism and popular culture. Amazing collection of essays!

How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan

Still getting through this one, but it’s pretty fascinating. Certainly an interesting read for anyone curious about this topic. Wishing it was more personal and less journalistic, but maybe the more personal pieces will come later!

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams

Hands down, one of the best books I have ever read. (I read it every few years or so) It’s a simple and beautiful guide to living well, to manifesting success + joy, while experiencing ease and flow and connection. It’s an oldie but such a goodie.

 

 

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Good things | Comments (0)

Where joy hides + how to find it.

July 11, 2018 – 4:55 pm

This Ted Talk made me want to shout YES! to my little screen. Ingrid Fetell Lee deconstructs joy and helps us understand what the elements are + how we can create more of it. Mostly, she confirmed what I already know intuitively – that color and wonder and beauty can amplify and grow these experiences. Don’t miss this one.

And if you want to instantly up your joy meter this summer, take the Collecting Color course! (instant access, self-guided) $49

More details here. 

Or Capture Life, my iphone class will get you inspired + taking amazing photos this summer as well. $49

Mostly, I just want you to get out there + find the beauty that’s hiding in your world. Life can be overwhelming, social media can throw you into fits of despair.

Grab your camera. Take a walk outside. All with the intention of training your eyes toward what’s interesting and beautiful. The way the lemons juxtapose against the blue of the sky. The tiny dandelion seeds floating by. The way you feel so small in that grove of redwoods.

Wishing you beauty + color-collecting joy… amplified by sharing it.
Andrea

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Good things | Comments (5)