Monthly Archives: December 2013

Manifesting some New Year Magic: A workshop!

December 29, 2013 – 10:14 pm

Join me for some manifesting in the New Year!

We will be completing our 2013 by celebrating all that we created, all the ways that we were brave, all the places we grew… and then letting it all go. Phew!

Then we will dive into consciously creating our 2014. We will be:

  • Creating Mondo Beyondo lists for 2014
  • Getting clear on our theme/intentions for the year
  • Doing creative manifesting exercises + rituals that will gather support from your wisest self, the circle of kindred spirits at the workshop, and the Universe. Power manifesting people!

You will come away clear + energized and ready for the magic to flow this year.
(Plus! You will meet nine lovely humans who can support you in 2014 + hold your vision with you.)

Register here: $100 per person/lunch is included!

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Details:

When: Sunday, January 12th, 2014 (This DATE SOLD OUT)
NEW DATE: Sunday, January 19th 10am – 3pm
Where: Private home on the Berkeley/Oakland border
What: A day of connecting + manifesting
Bring: An open heart + a journal

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

The dinner nanny + other Mondo Beyondo dreams you might have thought were impossible.

December 19, 2013 – 7:01 pm

Ben’s happy toast.

Sometimes you hear a story that you will never forget. It rearranges you and changes how you think forever.

During the Opening the Creative Channel retreat in October, we played a round of Storybowl. As we passed the bowl around, everyone got a prompt to tell a spontaneous true story from their life. Nicole’s prompt was this: A wish that came true.

She thought for a moment. And then told us the most awesome story.

First, I should mention that Nicole is the mother of two small kids. She also has a big time corporate job where she works long hours and is in charge of a lot of people. At the time when this story unfolded, she was so exhausted at the end of each day she could barely move past 8pm. Some nights she would sleep on the couch downstairs so she wouldn’t have to make the trek all the way to bed. It was so extreme that she and her husband started to wonder if their was something medically wrong with her. But after rounds of tests the doctor simply said, “You have a demanding job and two small kids.” Ah yes, that.

And then she had an idea. She wrote a Mondo Beyondo list and created a new dream called “Dinner Nanny.” In Nicole’s words below:

I am a dreamer. I love to dream about my ideal life and then make that happen. All of the wonderful things in my life started as detailed dreams. Andrea and Jen’s Mondo Beyondo class made my dreaming even stronger. And it was after taking Mondo Beyondo that I created a new dream that I called “dinner nanny.” Because the #1 thing in my life that I liked to do the least was making dinner during the week. Not just making dinner but shopping for and thinking about dinner. Especially thinking about dinner.

I thought, what if I hire a culinary student to plan and shop and make our dinners during the week? But then I pushed the dream further. What if I hired someone to take care of dinner and the laundry? What if I hired someone to take care of dinner, the laundry and tidying the kids’ rooms after school? Who could pick up the kids from school when I’m traveling for work and give my husband a break? Who could allow us to go on a date night once a month? Who could dogsit when we’re out of town? Who could drop off the library books and dry cleaning? Who could get the oil changed on the car every 3 months? Who can water the plants so they don’t die in the summer? Who could ask me if I ate lunch that day or exercised?

I made a list. I showed it to my husband. He said “There’s no way you can ask someone to do all of this.” I said, “Let’s see what happens.” I posted my job description on a site called Barefoot Student, which is like Craigslist, but for college students.

I hired the first person I interviewed. Her name was Deirdre and she had worked in a restaurant. Deirdre knew her way around the kitchen. Deirdre made delicious food. Deirdre was really great with my kids. Deirdre instantly made life better. Our friends said, “You look different.” My husband explained, “It’s the dinner nanny.”  

The dinner nanny transformed Nicole’s life! It freed her up to play with her kids when she got home. It gave her more energy and vitality. It allowed her to be more present for the parts of her life that mattered most.

The dinner nanny has become a symbol of ease for me.

Of asking for help and actually receiving it. Of allowing ourselves to imagine what we might need, articulating it, and possibly even getting it. But you know what? Letting ourselves want what we want is its own muscle. Can we allow ourselves the full breadth of our desire?

Getting it or not is an entirely different matter.

Can we allow ourselves to want what we want, whether we get it or not? This is a big edge for me. And probably why this story inspires me so much.

Maybe having a dinner nanny for you is someone who comes in to cook dinner twice a week. Maybe it’s deciding to have pizza delivered every Tuesday night so you can play with your kids. Maybe it’s just having company more often so that the evenings are more fun…

Dinner nanny has simply become shorthand for, how can I bring more ease + joy into my life?

Kids or not, where would you like to invite more ease + joy into your life? What would your version of the dinner nanny look like?

 

P.S. The next session of Mondo Beyondo starts January 6th! Join us.

 

 

 

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Courage, Courses, Good things, Inspiration | Comments (8)

On my nightstand.

December 14, 2013 – 9:27 pm

Everything Is Connected: Reimagining the World One Postcard at a Time by Keri Smith

I love everything that Keri Smith does! and Ben and I have been having a blast with her new postcard book. Each card gives you instructions that engage not only the sender but also the receiver. I’m in love. They are SUCH a cool gift!

 

Full: How one woman found yoga, eased her inner hunger, and started loving herself by Kimber Simpkins

This gorgeous memoir is written by my yoga teacher + friend Kimber Simpkins. One of the reasons I love going to her yoga class (and have for many years) is her ability to communicate so wisdom and love (body love, self-love) into her classes. This book is poignant and funny and deeply wise.

 

 

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed

My friend Jill Salahub sent me this book and warned me not to read it on public transportation. She was so right! It will crush you + move you + blow your mind with its kindness and wisdom.

 

 

 

 

Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton

You’ve probably seen this book, right? SO good.

 

 

 

 

The Pocket Scavenger by Keri Smith

Another awesome book by Keri Smith. Ben has been stealing my copy and filling it out on the bus with his friends. He’s a natural scavenger!

 

 

 

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Good things | Comments (1)

Super Sponsor Spotlight

December 14, 2013 – 12:01 am

Superhero Journal sponsors are, well, super! So take a minute to check out all of the awesomeness they are offering up in December. If you’d like to see your e-Course, Etsy shop, blog or business on the sidebar or in an upcoming Super Sponsor Spotlight, we’d love to have you. Just send a quick email to Amber at: [email protected] to get all the details.

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Creating Your Handmade Life — Anna Hewitt

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When we make things by hand we gain new ways of seeing. We interact and connect with the world in a more meaningful and authentic way. Using your hands to create will enrich and empower your life.

Creating Your Handmade Life is a six week e-course for anyone who wants to engage in a regular handmade practice and explore the way making things reconnects us with our senses and the world around us. Whether you draw, paint, bake, write, knit, sew, take photographs, or believe you are not creative, I will lead you through ideas, assignments and inspiration that will make creating an important part of your every day.

This class is a chance to:
Let go of your fears and stop worrying about perfection
Explore your creative skills and desires
Make time and space for your creative practice

Awaken your senses and reconnect with yourself

Slow down and use your hands

If you want to create more and use your hands every day, I hope you’ll join me. The next session starts January 13. To sign up or get more information visit www.seedlingdesign.net/class.

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Creating Your Amazing Year — Leonie Dawson

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The uber popular 2014 Create Your Amazing Year Workbook, Planner & Calendar is back for the fifth year, readily anticipated by the 26,000+ women who use it each year to create their own amazing lives and businesses with HUGE results.

When you stand at the end of 2014, how do you want to look back on the year that was? Was it a year when your dreams and goals came true? Or will it be a year that is the same as the rest?

The 2014 workbooks can help you make it a year that counts. One that’s happier, more prosperous, productive and joyful.

It uses simple yet powerful techniques to help you not only dream your biggest dream and set your goals, but to actually MAKE THEM HAPPEN too.

SO many miracles have been made from using this workbook. Make sure you check out www.amazingworkbook.com and read the words of women who’ve been using it every single year + swear by it for making their year their very best ever in life or biz (or both!).

Click here to get your own spare-change priced workbook!

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Hello Soul, Hello Mixed Media Mantras — Kelly Rae Roberts

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Nearly all of my paintings include an uplifting word or phrase — sometimes called a “mantra.” People often ask me how I “come up” with all those mantras. And honestly? They’re usually just words that my heart needs to hear, in that moment.

So, I come up with them … by tuning into my heart. And now, it’s your turn.

With Hello Soul, Hello Mixed Media Mantras, I’ll help you create a mantra (or two, or three, or four) that speaks to your soul — and then we’re going to paint it into life using all of my beloved and easy mixed media techniques. Hello paint, paper, ink, and getting beautifully messy with our hands.

Whether you’re new to the world of mixed-media painting or have been at it for years, this e-course will inspire you to create meaningful, richly layered paintings that speak directly to your heart. I will walk you through every step, side by side.

It’s important for me to say that this will not be just another project-based e-course about creating a painting. It will be much deeper and more soulful. I’ll not only share my techniques with you, but also soul-stirring stories about what I’ve learned these last few years as I’ve stepped into the creative life. There’s a lot of beautiful metaphors and life lessons that emerge when you face a blank canvas and work with it until the finished beauty emerges. We’ll be exploring all of those life-teaching morsels as well. Heart + soul + techniques. That’s how I roll. And I’d love for you to roll with me.

Click here for all the details!

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

All feelings are mutual

December 10, 2013 – 8:46 pm
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Been finding seaglass in my pocket

For the last several weeks, I have been plagued with a question.

The following refrain has been playing over and over in my head. All feelings are mutual. All feelings are mutual. All feelings are mutual.

I can feel the truth of it in my bones.

And yet, I can’t figure out what it means. Why is this message is coming to me now? Why does it feel so important to wrap my head around it?

And so I did something really smart -I reached out to one of the wise teachers in my world and asked. What the heck does “all feelings are mutual” mean? Turns out she was exactly the right person to ask.

Here is Karen Maezen Miller’s beautiful response below:

Dear Andrea:
How nice to hear from you. You approach me with gratitude for my words, and I respond to you with equal gratitude. That’s what it means. We all know what this means by our own experience:

If I am cranky, the world reflects my crankiness.
If I am angry, the world returns my anger.
If I am critical, the world returns my small-mindedness.
If I am non-judgmental, the world accepts me.
If I smile, someone smiles back.

And so on.

We see and receive whatever we project.

And just so we don’t feel as if we are carrying the blame for all the negativity, just observe and respect that everyone is suffering. That’s what we share most of all!

This is not a philosophy. It really works like this.

But we have to see it for ourselves and take responsibility for ourselves. If we are the least bit aware, we will be careful with what we give to the world. It will always return to us, because of the physical reality of the universe. Although it looks like we are separate, we are not. We share everything; we are like waves in an ocean. If an ocean is poisoned, every wave carries the poison, no?

I have read her message over and over to myself. I have read it out loud to a friend and to nobody in particular. And I’m just now beginning to understand it in a deep way. It feels as if spirit has been smiling down on me, whispering in my ear, and then leading me to the perfect interpreter.

With her permission, I wanted to share it with you. Does it resonate for you as well?

Thank you Karen for your generosity + wisdom. A thousand times thank you…

 

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Good things, Inspiration | Comments (24)

Family photo shoot by Blue Lily

December 9, 2013 – 3:58 pm

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Thrilled with how the photos turned out from our Blue Lily photoshoot! Wendy + Tyler are a photographer duo who travel the world (while road-schooling their kids) taking photos. So inspired by their story + their talent! Thank you Wendy…

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Good things, Photography | Comments (7)

Unexpected kindness. And why Nico is banned from Monterey Market.

December 6, 2013 – 6:06 pm

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Nico is hereby banned from our local produce store.

You know the kind. That grocery store with the small aisles and even smaller carts. The carts you can’t strap your child into because they have somehow, at only 3, gotten too big to wedge their legs into. The kind of grocery store that is always bustling with shoppers and if you are prone to anxiety, you might have to avoid altogether.

The first thing Nico does when we enter the store is sprint for the bin food. He has identified which bins hold the jelly beans and gummies and he frantically grabs as many as he possibly can before the inevitable mama shutdown happens – me, furrowed brow, scolding him and picking him up. Since the bins are only a few feet from the cashiers, I feel like I have to exaggerate my disapproval, say it loud enough so they hear it and then look at them apologetically.

As we wind our way through the store, he reaches out and nabs grapes, pears, raspberries, whatever he can get his little chubby hands on. By the end of the trip, I am left with a cart full of half-eaten fruit – a small price to pay really for keeping him walking next to me.

But the last time we went, I let him sprint off to another aisle while I paid. As I swiped my card, I nervously looked around but trusted that I would find him once I got my bags. I told myself to breathe and kept my eye in the direction of the shampoo aisle where he had darted. When I found him, he was standing with a grandmotherly type who was giving me the stink eye. “You really should watch him more closely,” she scolded. I looked down and saw that Nico had been pulling the caps off of every lip balm he could get his hands on and rubbing them all over his face.

His cheeks were glossy and moist.

I relayed this story to a friend the other day and we laughed… and I wonder why these stories can feel so painful in the moment. The shaming look in that woman’s eyes, the you-are-a-terrible-mother glare that makes you want to cry and hide and ban your child forever from going shopping with you. The kind that makes you grab your baby a bit too roughly and usher him out with a firm “NO!”

It reminds me of a story Brene Brown told about a woman whose card was declined at the gas station and when her 2 year old started crying in the carseat, she lost it and screamed at him. Ugh. We have all been there. The shame that leads to unskilled behavior…

Nico had a meltdown when we got to the sidewalk outside the market. “NO! I DON’T WANT TO WALK!” he shouted and plopped his tush down on the sidewalk. Please come Nico. I can’t carry you with all these bags…

It was getting dark.

“Do you guys need a ride?” A kind voice emerged from the car idling next to us. “I heard you talking. I’m happy to take you. But I don’t have a car seat.”

I surveyed the situation. Steep hill in front of us and a sweet older woman next to us.
Unexpected kindness.
We got in and she drove us up and over the hill. Nico was thrilled to be strapped in a simple seatbelt next to me and he beamed.

Unexpected kindness is some of the best possible medicine. And when it shows up, it’s good to say yes.

Her gesture was simple. The ride was all of 90 seconds. But it meant everything to us. Those 90 seconds of kindness were just the balm we needed.

Do you have a story of unexpected kindness? What happened?

 

 

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Good things, Inspiration, Parenting | Comments (16)

Cyber Monday Super Sale! $49 for any class!

December 1, 2013 – 8:29 pm

Take your pick! Just enter the coupon code INSPIRE49

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Enter the coupon code “INSPIRE49”

Gift Certificates

Gift certificates are also available at the 49 dollar price; this way they can take their pick!

Offer is only good until tomorrow night at midnight PST.

By Andrea Scher | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (2)