Life has it’s ups and downs, which I have always seen as a spiral pathway (not that I always remember what I know when I’m on the the downside/valley areas of that path!).  I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately.  Mostly because when I’m in the valleys and brooding about “stuff” there’s a part of me that knows this will pass.  The part of me that is brooding doesn’t want to hear any of that and much prefers pouting.  Which is fine.  For 15 minutes.  When that part of me takes control that starts stretching into weeks, I know it’s time to Re-vise my thought process.  Always easier said than done!

It’s important to have some tools, or at least know your aren’t alone along that particularly gloomy path.  So, now that I’m out of the vast forest dripping with spanish moss and spangled with wolf spider webs, I’m going to share with you some of the ways I’ve found to light the path.

1. Find company.  I don’t know about you, but when I’m in the deep darks I do not want to hear chirpy affirmations from myself or anyone else.  I especially don’t want to listen to some internet guru telling me that I am creating all of this by my thoughts.  My thoughts are what they are – I will allow myself some compassion here, and understand that hormones, the full moon, or 5 frogs instead of 6 at the pond’s edge, not to mention a side of the bed can set me off for no logical reason.  We are beyond logic here and logic is not the answer.

So here are two great bogs to read, by real people, who, like you and me, are staying in the real now and trying to figure this all out – taking you right along with them.  That’s called “company”:

SacredCircleCreativeLife is good all the way around – but here’s a particularly pertinent post: Giving a Voice to How I Feel… Lisa Rough,  the author of this site and I met at a guru’s gathering several years back.  We recently connected and shared what we learned about how not to listen to gurus and pay more attention to our own innate sense of what’s best for us.

Goddess in the Groove.  Heiki who writes this blog and has a website for her art at GoddessintheGroove.com, is an internet friend I’ve never met face to face.  But I own some of her kitchen witches and love her blog’s sense of “real.”  This recent post also struck home for me: An Abrupt Kink in the Path.

Both of these women are on the path of figuring out how to make life work for them.  Like me they have ups and downs.  They also blog about those ups and downs and thus become great companions for me when they’re up and I’m down (because I trust what they are saying as true) as well as when I’m up (because we celebrate together or they help me remember it’s all a big cycle – not to take it personally when the next downhill slide begins).

2.  Find a Guru.  Yes, I know what I said about “guru”s up in #1.  Pay attention to what they are saying.  If they are saying:  “I have all the answers and can give them to you in 10 (25, 5, 32 – you get the idea) easy steps and you too will soon have a multiple 7 figure income just like me…..RUN.  If they are saying: ” I’m trying to figure this out.  I don’t have all the answers but I have some experience here – let’s see what we can work out together.  I’ll walk at your side” (NOT “I will lead you”) – then give them a chance.  Do not take out a loan, a credit card debt or a 2nd mortgage to pay them.  Whatever it is they are offering, it isn’t worth that.  If you have some discretionary “class” money around and it covers the cost, go for it.

So after careful consideration, I recently signed onto Leonie Dawson’s Goddess Circlefor a $99 year long taste of what she has to offer.  Just in time, it appears, because she’s getting ready to double her prices!  I like her current down-to-earth offerings and will get to see this year if she hangs on to that style or transforms into just another guru (I’m starting to hear a bit of “multiple 7 figure” language which creeps me out).  Meanwhile,  she currently offers some great videos

and wonderful goodies (multiple ebook formats on health/ motherhood/business/space clearing/etc – you get it all) with forums where you can share your journey or not.  Those who sign up under the current price get to keep it when renewing forever.   If you’re interested, you have until July 3 if you want to get in on the really reasonable current price.

I will say that I greatly enjoy her materials but wish she were around more in person (although I guess you could say the zillions of videos are her in person!).  I ran into Heike (above) there, too – and several other women I know from being on the web, so Leonie definitely attracts the spirits I like to hang out with, which leads to my adding more to my “company”!

3.  If you can’t find what you’re looking for, make it yourself.  Others are looking for it too.  Which is to say I signed up for Leonie’s Goddess Circle in the first place  to help me focus my thoughts about how to create it myself.  Just that little commitment was enough to open the creative flood gates and remind me that I already have a lot of tools that I’ve gleaned from reading books, great conversations and just hanging out on blogs (i.e., Vision Boards, Vision Journals and Vision Mandalas – that would be from Lisa, who calls them DreamWheels), as well as coming up with a few on my own: Vision Goddess wall sculptures, Vision Masks and Vision Cards (borrowing from and way simplifying one of the many ideas offered in Soul Collage by Seena Frost).

So I am in the process of getting that organized, starting with opening an Etsy shop where I can sell the how-to books from those ideas for very reasonable prices.  (You can see my current offering on how to make Forever Flowers for your garden here.).  And I have an e-newsletter in the works.

Finally, I’ve switched Wylde Women’s Wisdom over to a FaceBook page, and am learning some basic intricacies of Adobe Photoshop so that I can create Photo quotes with my own art and quotes from my own works (which is what is being posted over there – go see!)

Nothing like projects to bring me out of a funk!  I’ve found the light at the end of the tunnel is always the glow from “what’s next”!

I would love to hear how you deal with the “deep darks” and any particular blogs that help you through, so share!