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| A few photo's from my Big Picture Class - Picture Fall with Tracey Clark |
How to Be Dangerous by Jen Lemen
2. Let your body lead the way. Most of us lead from our heads. When you go from your gut you get a totally different course of action and direction.
3. Act boldly, with feeling. Don’t intellectualize or theorize on your next move. Tune into your gut and go. You can’t know what’s going to happen and it never turns out how you think it will, so you really have nothing to lose. Your body has a wisdom all its own.
4. Allow yourself ridiculous joy. Don’t hold back from where your heart is leaning. Put all your energy into the place where you are being drawn. Take your joy more seriously than your suffering. No one does this and if you do, breakthroughs are fast and furious.
5. Make friends with fear. Fear is part of the deal. Get used to it. Only dead people are not afraid and we all know how much we’re all looking forward to being dead. Fear can be a sign that you are getting very close to the truth and the truth absolutely will set you free. Free is fantastic, don’t kid yourself. You want it & it will bring a much needed relief to the people around you.
6. Follow your instincts. Obey your intuition. We are taught early on to disregard our intuition because it cannot be verified in a way that squares with other kinds of knowledge. But lose access to this more intrinsic, animal part of you and lose your ability to find your way in all those instances that you really need to rely on your deepest truth–in the dark, in danger, in love, in finding the way back home.
7. Listen to the oldest parts of you. The child in you, the adolescent…the parts of you that never got to be safe, that never got to have the comfort or opportunity or kindness that they so desperately needed. Promise the oldest pieces of you that it’s not too late, that you won’t ignore them now. Then take what they ask seriously.
8. Pursue your healing with abandon. Your psyche will be relentless in orchestrating the exact circumstances, people and places you need to put your soul in order. When you consciously choose to yield to this process, you will scare the shit out of everyone around you because from the outside it will look you’re losing your mind. You’re not. You will find the wholeness you seek.
9. Reveal what is hidden. Hide what is obvious. When you turn things on their side, speak to the deepest realities, while skirting over the superficial surface of things, you enter a new world. This is rare and risky behavior. Employ with extreme caution.
10. Love with your whole heart. Starting with yourself. Hold nothing back. Because in the end, no one will love you more than you love yourself. Because in the end, you’ll be so disappointed that you didn’t let yourself love and be loved more. Love this way because the people around you need it more than you can fathom.
11. Ask for what you want. Say what you need. This is one of the most dangerous things you can ever do, but you’ll find out really quickly where you are and who you are dealing with. Hard knowledge, but often necessary. Go ahead, push the edge.
I’m still in my little cave over here, drilling down for the essence of things. It’s not really that much fun, but your notes, songs and kind words have been so good. Thank you for that… I’d much rather be drinking whiskey, shooting the shit and twirling my hair, but for the moment the Universe has this cowgirl in a headlock til she wakes up and smells the coffee. Don’t you hate that?
Hope all’s well in your part of the world…that you can feel exactly when it’s time to be dangerous and when the best thing you can do is be safe. Blessings… -- Jen Lemen "How to be Dangerous"
