And the Winner is...

I'm delighted to announce the winner of the set of four "SoulSpeak" greeting cards in my blog giveaway for the One World One Heart 2011 is:

LORRI

CONGRATULATIONS!

Thank you everyone who participated ~ it was a thoroughly lovely time all round.

One World One Heart 2011

How lovely of you to drop by for a visit! I am delighted to participate for the first time in One World One Heart - what an inspiration to all of us to share more of ourselves with each other. Many thanks to the organiser of this wonderful concept and for all her very hard work!

My name is Shena Meadowcroft and I am an Intuitive, Writer, Artist and Teacher. I live on the wonderful island of Gabriola, off Vancouver Island, on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada.

My days are spent counseling, consulting or creating; either through my writing or my art, which takes on many forms as the ideas unfold. That’s when I’m not meandering along the shore line or in the forest where I find my inspiration and restore my soul ~

My whole focus is to work with people to provide them with a safe place to remember and discover more of who they are. So much of that can be done through journaling, writing, art and sharing our own truth. I love what I do and feel truly blessed to be able to inspire others to do the same.

My prize for the giveaway is your choice:


1)   Either a 1/2 hour intuitive session by phone or by email (for more details please look to descriptions of how I work on the righthand side of the blog under the headings "Intuitive Insights" and "So what is an Intuitive anyway?"

2)   or a print of my "Leaving it all Behind" photocollage, a piece which was commissioned for the millenium issue of Synchronicity magazine.

3)   or a set of four “Soulspeak” greeting cards - for a more detailed description please visit: http://shenameadowcroft.blogspot.com/2009/11/soulspeak-cards.html

The winning name will be drawn on February 17th. Please leave a comment if you would like to be entered into the draw, indicating which of the three gifts you would like to win, and your email address so I can contact you should you win.

GOOD LUCK!

Thank you so much for spending some time with me in my world ~

May you have a beautiful day ~

Find your own Way

One of the most reassuring quotes I have ever encountered are from the immortal words of Tolkein: “Not all who wander are lost…” and tonight, one of the last songs in a fairly innocuous little movie that sparked off a whole other way of thinking for me (which I’ve written about on my Life… Writing… Art blog http://byshena.blogspot.com/2011/01/sowing-seeds-for-new-year.html) was a song by James Morrison called “Undiscovered.” I confess that I did not actually listen to all the words of the song, but one line stayed with me, and that is “I’m not lost, I’m just trying to discover…”

We are sometimes so harsh on ourselves, expecting far too much, to always know where we are going, what we are doing, and why we are doing it. I had decided a few days ago that my main resolution for the upcoming year was to have an adventure each day. It didn’t have to be a big one, it could be a teeny, tiny one. I didn’t have to physically travel, it could be a little foray into a book, exploring an art form or even meandering through a thought. But I would venture forth each day, somewhere…

Joseph Campbell wrote: “If there was already a path it would have to someone else’s; the whole point is to find your own way.”

My wish to you this coming year is exactly that: WANDER ~ DISCOVER ~ AND FIND YOUR OWN WAY!

Happy New Year – and have fun getting lost!

So what is an Intuitive anyway? Talk

The first of my talks "So what is an Intuitive anyway?" held this last Tuesday here on Gabriola was well attended. Several people signed up for the workshop to be held next Tuesday November 23rd which has filled up fast and I now have another five people on a waiting list for one in early December. Date to be announced! Far more importantly that evening, a safe space was provided for others to share their own intuitive experiences and questions. I am so grateful to be able to do the work that I do.

Talk and Workshop

"So what is an Intuitive anyway?"

You are invited to an evening

with

Shena Meadowcroft

Tuesday November 16, 2010

7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Women's Institute

South Road, Gabriola

Cost:  None

Explore one woman's personal journey as an Intuitive,

share your own experiences, and

ask questions about your intuition.

From denial to discovery, to acceptance and implicit trust,

Shena Meadowcroft shares some of the more unusual stories

that have accompanied her throughout this journey:

~ teaching Intuitive Art

~ doing blind-test readings

~ her affinity with animals

~ feedback on 15 years of readings

Take an intimate and honest down-to-earth look into
the life of an Intuitive: challenges, sorrow, wonder, hilarity, pleasure

and the sheer joy of doing what you know in your heart to be true.

Trusting your own Intuition

Workshop

with

Shena Meadowcroft

Tuesday November 23, 2010

7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Women's Institute

South Road, Gabriola

Cost:  $ 35:00

How many times have we done something,

knowing that it didn't "feel" right ~

if only we'd listened to ourselves…

Whether you call it gut feeling, sixth sense, instinct,

common sense or intuition,

it's time to start paying attention to one of

the greatest gifts we were all given at birth.

Explore ways to become more aware

of our intuitive feelings, develop how to listen to them,

and distinguish them from fear.

Ultimately, by honoring our intuition,

we learn to begin trusting it, and ourselves.

For more information please call

(250) 247-9354
shenam@shaw.ca
http://www.shenameadowcroft.blogspot.com/

Shena Meadowcroft

Intuitive ~ Teacher ~ Artist ~ Writer

Shena has over 15 years experience intuitively counseling and consulting individuals, businesses and organizations throughout Europe, the United States and Canada, including Gabriola Island. She has taught workshops through various boards of education and colleges in Alberta and BC, including Malaspina and North Island Colleges. One of her highlights was giving a lecture to 2nd year Psychiatry students at the School of Medicine, University of Calgary on developing their intuition. Her talks and workshops are fun,

entertaining, educational and above all, inspiring.

Shena lives and works out of "SoulSpeak" Studio on Gabriola Island, BC.

The Dance of Life

When I was five, my Grandpa fell ill. I remember being dressed up in my ballet clothes and told to dance for him, so it would make him better. He died not long afterwards. I went on to train professionally as a Ballet dancer, there was nothing else in the world I could conceive of doing. I worked insanely for a couple of years, was accepted into the London College of Dance and Drama, but had to give it all up when I contracted an extreme case of Mononucleosis. In my mid-forties I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia, which studies now show can stem from unresolved Mono.

Seeking refuge for my health, I moved to Gabriola Island in the fall of 2004. In the quiet of winter I finally heard what my body had been desperately trying to tell me for a very long while ~
to take care of myself and to allow myself to heal. I knew inherently that would happen through creativity. Too tired to write, or paint, and not well enough at that time to work as an Intuitive, I returned to my one constant throughout the years…fabric art.

I began to make a figure from an old top made from stretch velour, and stuffing it with the contents of a plush toy. I started to embroider on the figure, no clear design in mind, simply following the needle. I added beads in the same way, improvising as I went along, letting images unfold. A joyous figure emerged. She remains today, still unfinished, much like her maker.

Different shapes came to me. I would barely complete one before another would ask to be born, As the figures began to emerge, each and every one of them was dancing…

My landlady dropped by one day and raved over the figures, ordering two immediately: "You should put these in Artworks for sale!" I hugely resisted. Hadn't I given enough of myself? This was for me, for my own healing. I needed to take care of myself now. Yet I kept making these dancing figures. I'd sit up in bed or on the sofa and meditatively keep on stitching… Soon there were over forty of them in various stages of being.

One evening I was talking to a wise and dear friend back in Calgary, who is also an incredible Intuitive. This is what she said: "Every stitch that you make in these figures will help you to heal, and each and every one of these figures that go out to others will carry healing for them. You don't have to do anything. Just keep taking care of yourself. The rest will be taken care of." I had been devastated that I was not able to do my intuitive work for the time being, and yet, somehow, the work was still being done through me.

Caught up in this dance was the spirit of friends and strangers alike ~ clothing was kept aside at our local recycling store, friends from near and far sent packages of threads, beads, charms, and yarn scraps, neighbours unearthed old earrings, my mother sent broken jewellery pieces collected from her charity shop in Ireland, people at get-togethers raided their closets, and a wonderful graphic artist friend designed my labels.

Everything I used was either recycled or donated…

For over three years I made these figures. At first they were soft and gentle, and occasionally a message would come to me as I stitched them. "Heart wide open, she danced into another day" was one.

Dancing in the waves, she knew the tide had turned" another. These messages were pertinent to the design that was emerging on the figure, but not so much as to the person who finally bought the doll.

It has been a few years now since I made the last dancing spirit. I still have some in various stages of incompletion. I don't know if I will make them again. What I do know is that they helped me heal in countless ways. And I know they took with them something I may not ever be able to explain or understand, but was honoured and cherished by those who received them.

Inside each and every one of us

there is a

Wild Spirit...Dancing

Workshops

I have recently added a section on the right hand side of the blog (scroll down until you reach WORKSHOPS) with outlines of all the workshops that I offer.INTUITION & SELF-DISCOVERY
"Knowing" the Tarot - learning about ourselves though storytelling
"Knowing" the Self - honouring and trusting our intuition
Creating Women - honouring ourselves through creativity
Road Map to your Dreams - visioning the life we want
Living in Balance - bringing balance back into our lives

JOURNALLING
Journalling to my Self - exploring ourselves through journalling
Journal to the Spirit - exploring our sacredness
WRITING
Writers Write - getting you... and keeping you... writing
Poems from my Heart - listening to the words from our heart and soul
Crafting the Story - storytelling through the archetypes

ART
Art Journals - visually recording the days of our lives
Intuitive Art - abandoning pre-conceived ideas and letting the art come through you
Check out the description in more details and let me know if you would like to organize a workshop in your area.

Don't ever be afraid to begin again.

Me? I love new beginnings! Maybe not all of them but a New Year, a new book to read, a new journal to write in, a new day timer or calendar. It speaks of second chances, new opportunities, untold possibilities…
So how come we sometimes also get that uncomfortable feeling that to begin all over again is slightly tainted with failure, especially when it involves relationships, friendships or other major changes in our lifestyles or career choices? Is it because society still expects us to make a choice in the major areas of our lives, somehow miraculously staying on course for the remainder? All very well and good, but apparently a lot of times life hadn't read the same rule book, and change we must.

As last year slowly wound down, I found myself re-reading a gem of a book entitled "Morning, Noon and Night" by Judy Collins. As is often the case, I gained further wisdom and insight from this talented and thoroughly authentic lady, a second time around. This particular passage truly struck gold for me:

"Starting again can give you a new focus and a new purpose. Beginning again is usually the next right thing, the next step in your journey, with a new view and the new excitement and new challenges. You will be up to it. You only need to start."

Doing good... just because

I'm not that big on karma when it pertains to doing something good so you'll get something good back. It's a little too close for my liking to the concept of being good just so that you get to go to heaven. It's often said: "what goes around, comes around" and "what you give out, you give back."

I have to add an addendum to that: ONLY IF YOU DON'T DO SOMETHING WITH THAT SPECIFICALLY IN MIND! In my experience it is the things that we do from our own truth of who we are, and from our own hearts, with absolutely no intent of anything other than doing something good because it is … quite simply… a good thing to do.

Many years ago in one of my lifetimes in this lifetime, I taught basketry in Calgary, Alberta. Let me tell you, at that time if you could made a success as a basketry business there, you could make it anywhere doing almost anything! To what do I owe that success? I can attribute the better part of 85% of my business to one small thing I did the very first weekend I demonstrated basket weaving.
I had been allocated a young girl for the weekend as my helper. On the last evening we caught the tram together down to the parking lot where she was going to wait for her mother. It was cold and dark, and starting to snow. I offered to let her sit in my car, but, being well trained, she politely refused. So instead, even though I knew it was safe there, and I was longing to get home, I stayed and kept her company until her mother arrived, who was naturally very grateful.

What I had no way of knowing, was that her mother was the organizer of the whole weekend. Not only that, she was the commissioner for girl guides for the entire Calgary region. I lost count of the basketry badge workshops that I did for brownie, girl guide and older girl troupes, guide leader workshops, quilting groups, events this person recommended me for… the list is endless. No amount of marketing I have ever done for anything brought me as much business as this one lady. Just because it wasn't in me to leave a little girl alone in a dark, cold parking lot for fifteen minutes.
Recently something happened to remind me of this again. If you are interested in the whole story go to http://www.youcanbethedifference.blogspot.com/ March 1, 2010 entry –once again I acted spontaneously from the core of who I am, writing quite an emotional thank-you letter in response to something I felt strongly about. And through no planning or scheming on my behalf, the story of my letter has gone across Canada, and even further afield. I have no way of knowing how where this is going to lead, but as an Intuitive, once I saw how things were evolving, I know that good will come from this. Will it be for me? Who knows? And anyway, does that really matter?
What matters is the good. My gift is the wonderful reminder that if I always stay true to myself in every situation, and speak my truth from my heart, good things simply happen.

Taking a different look at Self-Esteem

I came across a phrase in an email recently that I thought deserved a closer look.

"Usually we have low self-esteem when we believe we should be different from who we truly are. So we feel "wrong."

The topic of self-esteem has been extensively explored in books, workshops, and therapy. The definition of self-esteem is: "a good opinion of one's own character and abilities." And yet unless an adjective like "excellent" is attached in front of the word "self-esteem" it always seems to come through as a negative trait. Often the word is used in an accusatory fashion. "You need to work on your self-esteem" or "you obviously have an issue with self-esteem" we're told.

So what if instead we looked at the whole issue of self-esteem in a completely different light? What if we were willing to approach our self-esteem in a far gentler, kinder way? What if when we are labeled with self-esteem issues it is simply a matter that we have temporarily lost sight of our true self. And, in the eyes of others, and ourselves, we appear less.
And that all we really need to do is acknowledge this momentary lapse, quietly take a moment to take a deep breath, and reconnect with who we truly are.