Pretty Pink Cranberry Oatmeal

I posted about this delicious breakfast I made for myself on Facebook but I wanted to share the recipe because it has become one of my favorites. I don't always eat oatmeal for breakfast. Usually I have something a little more substantial like eggs with veggies but the day I came up with this I was out of eggs and super hungry so I hit the pantry and found some oatmeal.

I have done a lot of experimenting over the years to find out what foods work for me and what foods don't. I have found breakfast makes a huge impact on my day. I need a heavy dose of protein and fat to keep my blood sugar stable so I add nuts and a little butter to my oatmeal. Cinnamon is good for stabilizing blood sugar as well so I add it. It tastes great too.

It's the perfect time of year for this warm, satisfying bowl of breakfast love. I hope you enjoy it!

Pretty Pink Cranberry Oatmeal

1/2 cup regular oats
2/3 cup water
2/3 cup milk* (I use milk substitute)
1/2 cup fresh cranberries
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
pat of butter
chopped almonds (or nut of your choice)
brown sugar or stevia to sweeten

Put the oats, water, milk, and cranberries into a pot over med-high heat. Heat to boiling and turn down the heat to medium. Stir constantly to whip the oatmeal and break up the cranberries until the desired consistency is reached, about 5 minutes. You will see the cranberries begin to burst and then turn the oatmeal pink.

Turn off the heat and stir in the vanilla, cinnamon, salt, and butter. If you are using stevia, add it now.

Pour into the bowl and top with chopped nuts and a sprinkle of brown sugar if not using stevia.

*This may seem like a lot of liquid but I have found the cranberries thicken the oatmeal substantially.

Word of the Year

I am really excited to share this with you! My friend Carrie Saba of CarrieSaba.com is offering a free gift for all of you. You may remember that last year instead of choosing New Years resolutions, I choose a word of the Year. Carrie and I actually did it together and we have found it to be a game changer.

Carrie has decided that she wants to share this with everyone so she is offering a free tele-class to guide you to finding your word for 2012. I have nothing but wonderful things to say about her. She is an amazing and intuitive Health Coach so I know this call is going to be fantastic!

You can read more about the call and register here.

Trusting

Being on my spirit-cation has been amazing! It has really shifted my thoughts, my actions, my intentions, and my future. I've learned so much about myself over the last couple of months.

The greatest part about my latest round of healing has been my ability to bring my husband into my spiritual and creative life. You see, my husband is more of a jock kind of guy. He loves to play sports, watch sports, and take part in every known fantasy sport league. He is not at all into art, creativity, or spirituality.

Even though he isn't into it or doesn't really "get it" he is always supportive of me in whatever I want to do. He supports my art, my travels, my healing...he supports it all.

The thing is, I've found it very difficult to feel like I'm living this separate life from the person I love. How can I share my entire life and the depths of who I am with him if he doesn't know all the parts of me?

I've actually struggled with this for years. I've always been afraid to push him too hard and annoy him or to share too much "woo woo" stuff and have him think I've gone off my rocker. I worried that he wouldn't understand.

Of course part of me wanted to make it his fault. He isn't open. He isn't spiritual. He doesn't want this, he doesn't want that. I made the decisions for him in my mind. I never really gave him the chance to decide.

One day in the midst of all this healing I've been doing I broke down into tears and just shared it all. I told him my fears and I explained how much I wanted him in all the parts of my life. Of course he was a bit shocked...where was all this coming from? But the important thing is that he listened. He listened and he was there for me.

What I learned was that I wasn't trusting him to be there for me. I was shutting myself down out of fear and making it about him when it was really about me. Isn't it crazy how we do these things?

He's still the same sports jock who loves what he loves but he is now also open to learning about what I'm interested in, watching an occasional episode of Oprah's Lifeclass or some documentary on spirituality. He's not sure he's all in but he is willing to learn and to experience all of it with me and I can't ask for more.

Our relationship seems to have blossomed. It feels even more like a partnership than ever before and I know our love has deepened. The surprising thing for me is that out of this experience I have gained this sense of wholeness. I didn't realize just how much this shut down was affecting me. I can't explain how much this even seemed to bring the two warring parts of me together into one cohesive person. I feel less split now that I've exposed all of who I am with the love of my life. It's awesome!

AND, I would like to welcome my husband here to The Creative Healing Studio because for the first time he has signed up to read my blog! It's so exciting!!! Thank you honey for being here for me for all of these 5,627 days of marital bliss!!! I love you so much and I'm beyond grateful for having you in my life!

On a Spirit-cation!

We all love to take our vacations. Heading off to new locations, sightseeing, relaxing and rejuvenating refuel our body, mind, and spirit. Lately there has been an increase in the stay-cation. People are taking their vacations locally. Perhaps they take a day trip or plan some fun activities around the house. Done right a stay-cation can be equally rejuvenating.

I have been introduced to another type of vacation. I call it the spirit-cation. It's the opposite of planning, doing, and going. Instead it involves, listening, connecting, and honoring. I'm not going anywhere or doing anything that I don't really want to do.

I haven't felt like working, creating, reading, learning, so I choose not to do them. Instead I've spent much of my time meditating, journaling, reflecting, and just plain old relaxing. If I feel like watching a movie, I do it. If the couch is calling my name I listen to the call. I've even taken a couple of naps in the last couple of weeks...it's been ages since I've done that.

I am only doing the things I feel like doing. Strangely enough I've had the urge to clean my house, cook freezer dinners and bake cookies. So guess what? I do them.

At first I was overwhelmed with guilt. Why was I so lethargic? Why didn't I want to write my blog posts or work on my projects? Why didn't I even feel like talking on the phone? It was all a bit overwhelming.

Then I remembered the messages I've been getting lately...trust. So I did. I trusted that this is what I need to heal myself. I trusted that by honoring my moods I was honoring my spirit and the Universe and that if I just let go and trusted, everything would be OK.

I didn't plan this inner trip, it just sort of happened but I can see clearly that this spirit-cation is powerful and creating space for this on a regular basis will go a long way in supporting my life journey. The options are endless. This spirit-cation has been about 2 weeks long (so far ;o). I imagine a week would be amazing to uplift and rejuvenate the spirit and I can also see spending a day or as little as an hour in a spirit-cation being powerful enough to create some clarity and honor your spirit.

What do you think? How does the idea of a spirit-cation strike you?

Recognizing Fear

Fear is a funny thing. It's not real... it's not concrete. You can't look at it and say, "Yea, that's some gnarly fear there."

Instead it lurks around, shows up with some funny feelings in your body, and oftentimes gets your mind racing. Once that mind is let loose, you can go round and round until you don't know which way is up.

Now I'm not talking about intuitive fear that lets you know when something is wrong or the fear that keeps you from doing something that could put you in jeopardy. I'm talking about the fear that holds you back and keeps you small. I'm talking about the fear that is so sneaky you're not even sure it's fear.

If you don't take the time to stop and think about it, it can seem like some pretty good reasons for not doing something. The mind is pretty sneaky that way. It knows just what to say to keep you in your little box. You know it really just wants to keep you safe. Unfortunately safe can mean stagnant.

I've dealt with a lot of fear in my life. As a kid I can remember being home alone and scared out of my mind. I can remember the sound of my dad's car pulling up in the driveway and the jolts of fear that ran through my body wondering what kind of mood he was in. I have a childhood of memories that revolve around fear.

In my family being strong was the holy grail. Fear was a weakness and I was taught early on to toughen up and be brave. I guess a part of me felt that being afraid meant I was weak and I wasn't about to be weak so I learned to ignore it.

The thing is, years of ignoring something makes you pretty numb to it. It makes it difficult to recognize it and if you can't recognize it you can't deal with. So what's a girl to do?

Soul Art® of course ;o)

The above piece was created with my favorite travel watercolor set some black markers. If you look closely you can see some symbols that are placed right on top of the flowing colors. Those symbols represented my mind and my fears. They were the one thing I didn't like about the piece.

It became very clear to me that what's underneath those symbols of over thinking and fear is the perfection of the Universe, the flowing state of trust in what is happening for the betterment of my soul. Those symbols were the distraction that were keeping me from being in the flow and blocking the perfection of the Universe.

I always say that recognizing our behavior is the first step to changing and I absolutely believe that. You can't change something you don't even recognize. I have to say that by regularly doing Soul Art® around issues in my life I am speeding up the process of healing. It's so awesome!

Soul Art® Rocks!

I had a really great Soul Art® session last week and I wanted to share her response with you!

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This was my first Soul Art experience with Michelle. After choosing all the images and text from magazines, Michelle threw me a curve ball. It wasn't at all what I expected. "Are you kidding?" I said.
She replied with a simple word..."Trust," she said.

After assembling my art I noticed the text was telling me things that I had put on the back burner, things that had been simmering so long that the pot was about to go dry. The text along with the pictures conveyed the same messages, or reinforced the messages. My Soul Art told me I am ready to make a change, go for it, step it up. It told me to venture out more, find inspiration, and don't let the mundane day-to-day living get in my way. Make each day count. . . really count, it said. It wanted me to be aware of all the magic in the universe, the poetry, the beauty, the love and the possibilities. It wanted me to believe in myself and trust.

Wow!. It was pretty amazing. I went from feeling unmotivated and uncertain to "Wow, I can do this!"

How could a simple, fun exercise actually change your way of thinking about something that had you baffled for so long? Could it have changed my brain waves somehow? Strange, but true.

I felt a new sense of empowerment, and bought myself a royal blue evening dress (to go with my red hair) and silver sandals for my upcoming trip to DC. I decided that I'm worth it! I feel different, and I can't wait to see what's down this road. Thanks, Michelle. Soul Art rocks!

Pam Pulice

Reel Stories Productions

www.reelstories.tv

Rebirth

Over the years since I began my healing journey I have noticed that healing isn't constant. It ebbs and flows. I like to think of it like riding a roller coaster of healing. There are ups and downs, spins and turns and you don't always know what is up ahead. There are times that make you feel sick, others that are exhilarating.

It seems like I am heading up a big steep hill of my healing roller coaster right now, slowly edging forward, about to take yet another dive. I have several big healing events coming up in the next couple of months that I am really excited about. I just know big things are coming.

Apparently I know this at my soul's level too because last night while working with someone to complete their soul art, I also worked on my own and the message that came up for me reinforced that idea.

You can see there is this strange face in the lower left that looks heavy and lifeless, almost as if it is a mask. Out of her lips comes this light, bubbly and positive energy. What a contrast.

As I was reflecting on the piece and getting my insight I got this flash that the woman was dead. She was lying there with her eyes closed and letting out her last breath. At first it freaked me out a little. Why the heck am I creating images of dying women? I decided to let my mind rest and just go with it.

As I continued to ask and answer questions about the piece it became quite clear that this image represented a death and a rebirth. It was the death of my old limitations. RIP to the old Michelle. Embracing the new excitement, joy, life, beauty, creativity, and bubbly energy that is awaiting me.

In asking what I need to do I got this response:

"You don't have to do a thing except be open, ready, and willing to trust. The wheels are in motion and your dreams are being manifested. Stay connected, open, and trusting that it is all going according to plan. Be excited. Feel the energy. TRUST, TRUST, TRUST!"

Um, OK, I can do that! ;o)

As a way to keep myself in the spirit of trust and to remind myself where I want to be with it I decided to add a statement of trust to the end of the gratitude list I write every morning. So easy! I love it. I feel great about it and excited to see what the next couple of months bring.