Color Your Life: Daily Meditations for the Creative Soul

I’m pleased to announce the release of Color Your Life: Daily Meditations for the Creative Soul. You may notice a different name on the cover. I, Amandah Tayler Blackwell, am using the pen name of Celeste Teylar. The “Daily Meditations” series is being published by Thom Byxbe (Chief Creative Officer/Editorial Director and Author of “Color Your Life”), Nascent Digital Press, A Service of Nascent Publishing, LLC.

CLICK HERE TO RECEIVE THE FIRST THREE CHAPTERS OF “COLOR YOUR LIFE”

The purpose of Color Your Life: Daily Meditations for the Creative Soul is to help you shift your life through the use of color and creativity. As you may or may not know, “color therapy, which is used by alternative and holistic practitioners as a way to help their clients heal from their childhoods, divorces, job losses, sicknesses, stresses, etc. It’s a high vibrational technique that requires a therapist to tune into their creativity and apply color to their clients through the use of visualization, verbal suggestion, and other tools. In fact, the primary colors in the rainbow carry unique healing properties. It’s one of the reasons why people often feel better after they’ve spent time in the sun. On the flip side, some people suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD), also known as the winter blues, winter depression, or seasonal depression. By using color, you can balance your energies and bring vibrancy to areas that may lack emotional, physical, or spiritual stability. You can literally heal yourself with color. But, you’ll have to tap into your creativity to do so” (Excerpted from “Color Your Life: Daily Meditations for the Creative Soul”).

Chapter One

“Creativity takes courage.” Henri Matisse

Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse was a French artist who’s mostly recognized for his paintings; his work spanned a half-century. In addition to being a painter, Matisse was also a draughtsman (skilled at drawing), printmaker, and sculptor. He expressed himself through the language of color and is hugely recognized as a leading and prominent figure in modern art. Like Matisse, you can express your day through the language of color.

Einstein once said, “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” Add creativity to this and you’ll have a recipe for success. Whatever you want to accomplish in life takes creativity and courage. It doesn’t matter if you want to go back to school, start your own business, find your soul mate, move to a new city, leave a relationship, change careers, travel around the world, etc., you must take some form of action to get started. This is where color and creativity can help you.

Tap into your imagination and get creative, form a picture in your mind. Or, if you lean more towards “feeling” vs. visualizing, feel your dreams. What colors do you see? Where are you? How do you feel? What are you wearing? What are you doing? Who’s with you? See and feel everything as if it’s your reality right now. Use your creativity to picture and feel yourself accomplishing a goal.

You may not know how you’ll accomplish your dreams and may even be tempted to panic and worry about them. Please don’t. All you’ll do is attract situations and people to you who’ll give you things to panic and worry about on a daily basis. Remember, you don’t have to know every little detail. Leave the details up to the universe. It knows the best way to bring your dreams to fruition. Your job is to daydream and immerse yourself in color.

Paint Your Day with Creativity Color: Red

Exercise:

Before you get out of bed, visualize your day as Red. Allow the color to wash over and surround you. Feel the warmth, strength, and courage properties of the color. Breathe it in and pull it into your root chakra, your first chakra. Really feel the color energize you. Now visualize a situation. Let’s use work. For example, if you’ve been afraid to speak up at meetings, visualize yourself speaking clearly and confidently and sharing your creative ideas with everyone. Visualize your manager and co-workers with big smiles on their faces because you just solved a major problem, creatively.

Affirmation:

I breathe in creativity color Red and feel energized and courageous. I can do anything!

 

 

 

 

 

What I Learned from Reading Peace from Broken Pieces: How to Get Through What You’re Going Through

I recently finished reading Peace from Broken Pieces: How to Get Through What You’re Going Through by Best-Selling author Iyanla Vanzant. I saw Ms. Vanzant on Oprah‘s farewell season — it was a good show! I didn’t run out and get the book, but months later I ordered it from the library. I admit I started doing this as a way to ‘try a book before I buy it.’ I decided I want to add this book to my library.

I found the book to be very moving, especially when Iyanla spoke about her daughter, Gemmia. I recognized myself in Gemmia; I also recognized my mother to a certain extent in Iyanla. I also recognized my father in Gemmia’s father, even though my father didn’t leave; he was an abusive alcoholic and in a sense, checked out of my life.

Like Gemmia, I threw myself into school and got good grades and was responsible. I was looking for validation from my father that I really didn’t get. He tried to tell me how proud he was when I earned my B.S., Accounting degree; however, I always felt that a part of him was jealous that I did earn a college degree. He wanted a degree and attended college here and there, but never earned a degree.

I also learned that it would be in my best interest to let go of the anger towards myself. I forgave my mom and dad; I realized they parented me based on they were parented. They didn’t know better which is why they didn’t do better. However, I still haven’t forgiven myself for the decisions I’ve made along the way such as pursuing an accounting degree, when I wanted a marketing degree. I also wanted to pursue art and writing. I pursued an accounting degree to please my father. There’s another lesson — people pleasing seems to run rampant in my family.

Getting back to forgiving myself … I need to let go of the anger I have towards myself because my life hasn’t worked out as I thought or planned it to. For example, I moved to Arizona in 2007, and three years later I was living back home with my mom in my home state. I kept beating myself because I know I’m responsible and it should have worked out because I planned everything out. I also allowed certain people to ‘guilt’ me into thinking I made a mistake by moving to Arizona; I left my mom and sister. I now realize I can’t help it if certain family members are scared to take a risk such as moving out of state. I now know — it’s none of my business. I also realized that sometimes family members won’t have your back. It is what it is. I’m now determined to ‘create’ my own family, a family of loving and supportive people.

BTW: I released my hold on Arizona when I read Iyanla’s words about hearing her daughter say, “Let go of the physical.” I re-read those words over and over until it sank into my brain.

I realize that I need to acknowledge my disappointment about my move to Arizona and other things that have occurred in my life — there are too many to list here. It’s not easy for me to wade into disappointment; I’m a fun loving Leo (horoscope sign). I know if I want to continue to heal, it would behoove me to feel the pain and work through it. If I don’t, I could repeat the self-sabotaging pattern. I’d rather work through it.

I also realized that Gen X and Gen Y could benefit from life coaching from their peers. No offense — but most life coaches seem to be old enough to be my mom or dad. I’m not saying I can’t learn from these people, obviously I learned from Ms. Vanzant, but it’s nice to hear from my peers and how they released and forgave their past, parents, spouses, them, etc. It makes think, “Gee, I’m not alone.” This is why I’m glad Iyanla wrote about her daughter, Gemmia, and her life experience.

I would recommend reading Peace from Broken Pieces: How to Get Through What You’re Going Through. If you’re ready to really get to the ‘heart’ of your family’s pathology and recognize the patterns, this book is for you. If not, that’s alright. Perhaps, one day you’ll be ready.

Best,
Amandah

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What’s the Point of Life?

A very ‘short anecdote’ based on the 10 random words from Writing Prompts – Creative Copy Challenge #194. Posted: 17 Nov 2011 08:02 AM PST

Put
Point
Bizarre
Weave
Spiral
Weird
Goofy
Pop
Cult
Fan

“Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!”
~ Sir Walter Scott

Melanny pondered Sir Walter Scott’s words as she gazed at the ocean from the deck of her Malibu home. She’s been contemplating life since her childhood best friend Karrey overdosed a few weeks ago. Melanny tried to help her, but she couldn’t. No one could. Life really is a spiral. We think we move backward, when in fact, we continue to move forward. How bizarre is that? What is the point of life? She continued to stare at the ocean.

Karrey had a goofy, weird sense of humor – some people thought she was over the top. She loved The Cult and was a huge fan of music from the 1990s. Karrey loved alternative music but would listen to Pop music now and again. She was a free spirit through and through. Why did she have to put those damn drugs into her body? Melanny was searching for answers that may never be answered.

Amandah T. Blackwell

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The Clearing

A short story based on Writing Prompts – Creative Copy Challenge #182
Posted: 06 Oct 2011 04:18 AM PDT

  1. Exacting – Making severe demands; rigorous: an exacting instructor; Requiring great care, effort, or attention: an exacting task
  2. Libation – The pouring of a liquid offering as a religious ritual; The liquid so poured. ; Informal. A beverage, especially an intoxicating beverage
  3. Masturbatory – If I need to explain this…
  4. Lozenge
  5. Gargle
  6. Sumptuous – Of a size or splendor suggesting great expense; lavish
  7. Degraded
  8. Cardamom – A rhizomatous Indian herb (Elettaria cardamomum) having capsular fruits with aromatic seeds used as a spice or condiment.
  9. Nefarious – Infamous by way of being extremely wicked.
  10. Syncopated – stressing a normally weak beat

The libation flowed over her body and cleansed her of the slimy energy she picked up throughout the day. She even created her own gargle and lozenge to clean her mouth of any nefarious words she spoke; they usually weren’t hers.

She made a sumptuous vegetarian meal seasoned with cardamom; she liked to eat as cleanly as possible. Eating degraded meats was out of the question for her. But no one in her family understood this. The way they eat meat seemed like a masturbatory experience. To each their own.

She didn’t make exacting demands over the people the around her. What gave them the right to do that to her? She gave them the right by not setting strong boundaries. Her syncopated life needed resuscitating. Otherwise, it would be over. And it would be too late for her to live the life she was meant to live.

Amandah T. Blackwell

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Clearing Out the Albatrosses of Your Life

Short story based on Writing Prompts – Creative Copy Challenge #185
Posted: 17 Oct 2011 06:07 AM PDT

  • Loquacious – talking or tending to talk much or freely; talkative; chattering; babbling; garrulous
  • Sedentary
  • Artistic
  • Voracious
  • Fluorescent
  • Rad
  • Delicious
  • Rotund – round in shape; rounded: ripe, rotund fruit
  • Decapitate
  • Slimy

The loquacious people in her life are sedentary when it comes to cleaning up and taking responsibility for their lives. She, on the other hand, is artistic and rad.

Their slimy energy engulfs her; it’s like they have a voracious appetite for destroying her spirit. They’d like to decapitate her because they can’t stand how delicious her life is.

Their rotund faces are nothing more than masks hiding their anger, frustration and pain. Their happiness is artificial like fluorescent lights. Luckily, she knows how to clean her energy. She won’t be sucked into their drama.

Amandah T. Blackwell

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