Another Direction...

Oh my goodness... thank you, thank you, EVERYONE who shared thoughts, feelings and encouragement on my previous post.  Cheri was right, I should have shared earlier... and I am so glad I decided to share now.  I will certainly be coming back to post updates and really hope you will continue to cheer me on.  Everyone needs their own cheerleading team.

Because of all of this support, I wanted to share with you another aspect of my journey.  Anyone who has followed my blog for long knows I'm a loyal member, participant and cheerleader for Scrapbooking from the Inside Out. 

I love, love, love the concept of this group.  Scrapbooking shouldn't just be telling the stories of the people you love in your life, or the places you go, but you should also be able to tell the story of YOU.  I believe, too, that scrapbooks shouldn't just document the world through rose colored glasses.  Real life is what a scrapbook should portray.  Real life  includes the downs as well as the ups.  And that's where SFTIO comes in... they pick an emotion/concept each month and then explore it.  This month's emotion, actually, is vulnerability.  And man, oh man, did I feel vulnerable in posting yesterday's post.  Again, thank you all for your caring thoughts.  I appreciate your gentleness (is that a word?) as well as your support.

In addition to SFTIO, I follow the happenings on The Brave Girls Club to the extent that I receive their "daily truths".

Not every daily truth applies to me, and to be honest, because they come daily, there are many that even go unopened.  But I am amazed at how many that I do open are so very applicable to me in that moment.  It's a little freaky... but also very timely when they are applicable.

I am also fascinated by their Brave Girl Camps and how life-changing they seem to be for the women who attend.  I will never be able to afford a Brave Girl Camp so I was even more intrigued when I started to see advertisements for "Soul Restoration", a six-week online course for women seeking to find and be the "real you".  Well, we all know I've been on that journey for some time.  So I pondered, and thought and saved.  Around the time registration occurred, my husband got sick, and I was really worried about money.  I held off for a while but in a "low" moment when I was feeling particularly selfish, I registered and paid in full.  The class began in January, and we are currently on week five of the six week course.

It was here where I found the "Will I Be Pretty" video below, and the forums are just filled with all kinds of interesting sharing.  While I'm not yet comfortable with sharing any specific details or art from this journey, I will say it has been enlightening, and yes, somewhat life changing.  It certainly  has changed some of my "insides"... my mind, the way I think and feel about certain things and it has changed the way I approach scrapbooking and "creativity" in general.  And it has taken time and energy, so that is my excuse reason for not being around as often.  Forgive?

I will share some more, I promise, but for now, I just wanted to share that while I'm on this journey to make my "outsides" healthy, I'm also really working at making my "insides" healthy too. 

Yay 2011!