Hey homegirls!

So often when I talk to private coaching clients, they are suffering from BOT: Burnt-out, Overwhelmed + Tired.

They feel like they are on an endless hamster wheel of constantly trying to make it happen, keep money coming in, remembering all the endless things to do, and then doing them.

As entrepreneurs, we can become 24/7 entrepreneurial think machines:

Even when we are with our families, we are thinking of new product ideas. When we are supposed to be relaxing, our brain churns over marketing. When we wake up, the first thing we reach for is the iPhone to check the latest customer service hiccup (or if there isn’t one, to be on guard for one!)

We can give up on our hobbies, stop doing the things we adore and feel guilty when we ever take time out just to be gentle and kind to ourselves.

Can I tell you a secret?

It doesn’t have to be that way.

So much of the work I am doing, along with the women I work with, is changing the old ways of business and money.

It’s no longer old-boy’s-club suit-and-tie. It’s not about having a career OR time with your family.

It’s not about taking energy from your life or your health to power your ambitions.

It’s not about money being dirty, greedy or awful.

We’re birthing a new world.

A world where women and men are conscious creators of their dream businesses.

Of doing powerful work that goes on to help the thousands of souls that they were born to help.

Of using compound energy to help more people with less effort.

Of having a life outside of business. One that is full and beautiful and soaked in all the things that light you up.

Of money being a profound experience of abundance and nourishment.

Of us becoming incredible custodians of money who live our values and change the world through philanthropy.

Of actually taking holidays (gasp!) and weekends off (woo!) and having sacred balance.

Of having some goddamn hobbies and interests outside of your business. Ones that fuel your spirit and fill your well and make you even better in business.

You Need A Full, Balanced, Beautiful Life In Order To Be Exceptional In Business

True shit, mate.

When you bring to your fullness to your work, your blog posts, your clients… the impact is felt.

I can feel the difference when you’re creating from a place of worn-out, freaked-out, should-ifying.

I can feel the difference when you’re creating from a place of juiced-up, jazzed-up, vibing with spirit, having a glorious time.

And you can feel the difference too.

It’s a damn good, glorious thing to be creating from a full well.

It’s magnetic and attractive and delicious.

It’ll draw people to you. It’s inspiring!

For Gawd’s Sake, Get A Life!

Your incredible life is here to be lived along with your incredible business.

Get a hobby. Do the things that inspire you.

Set crazy wild dreams. Make them happen.

Take up new creative hobbies. Go on mini adventures.

Take the weekend off. Read trashy romance novels (step awaaaay from the self help + business section, laydee!)

Here’s What The Leonie Has Been Up To

I do like to speak of myself in third person.

Anyhews, after running two sold out retreats in two weeks, mama needed some supreme well-filling.

The retreats were ridunkulously fun + powerful:

But still.

Well-refilling was in order.

So I did.

I took two weeks off.

I got massages and healings.

I cleaned the house. I do so adore making this house of ours a home.

I’ve started trying out new creative skillllz (totes Napoleon Dynamite-like) thanks to the girls at Naturally Gifted who have introduced me to the wonders of felt toy sewing and needle felting and wet felting.

Mama & Baby Dugong were my first toys… and they are sitting on a wet felted playmat.

Bolstered by my new found sewing skills, I made one of Ostara’s dolls a pillow and blanket.

Then a felt manta ray joined the dugongs.

And I finally got to doing something that was on my 2012 Things To Do list: make a wall hanging for Ostara’s room with sweet little pockets to put her dolls in.

Went on mini road trips into the bush with the fam to hunt for termite mounds.

Finished a rainbow felt crown while waiting outside the doctor’s.

Squee! Made some rainbow blossom fairies – mama & baba!

Another thing on my 2012 Things To Do list – go horse riding again.

I had a vision that I’d go into the rainforest on an Appaloosa – a kind of horse I’d always wanted to ride as a kid but never got the chance.

And so one Saturday afternoon, I went. And of course, I got given the only Appaloosa they had. And we rode through the rainforest. Just me, my giddily happy inner child, my Appaloosa and the other riders.

A dream come true.

When you refill the well, all your inner light returns to you.

Dreams and visions and ideas come easier. They come with certainty.

Made a magical mobile for Ostara – something I’ve been wanting to do since I was pregnant with her. And now it was the right place and right time. It’s made with fallen branches from around our wee lil farm here, and felt scraps.

Oh this one.

We’ve been hunting out beautiful little rivers to go hang out with together.

This river was enchanting.

So was the little river nymph.

She is an amazing soul, this one. I am so proud to be her mama.

I painted these four seasons children for her.

(I didn’t woodwork them into shape – don’t have the equipment for that just yet!)

And a whole other post needs to be written soon about some beautiful shifts and changes that have been happening in our wee family. Two months ago it became time to wean from breastfeeding. It was something I was afraid of for many reasons, but when the time came, it ended up being one of the most profound spiritual experiences I’ve undertaken.

It was time for a lot of reasons – I knew that the next evolution of our relationship was waiting for us, and that my body needed to rebuild itself. And it was compounded because I have hypermobility (which pretty much means I’m hyperflexible + have looser tendons than most). Hypermobile mamas tend to have problems during pregnancy + breastfeeding with joints going out of place because of increased hormones. I had it fairly easy – I had a couple of weeks in pregnancy where my hips went out of place and when I breastfed, the only area that affected was my jaw. So I had a sore, clicking jaw which I could deal with until it started escalating into dislocating my jaw when I yawned and wouldn’t pop back into place for 24 hours. When that started happening more than once a week, I knew my body really, really needed to have some stability back in its tendons.

It was easy – so much easier than I ever expected it would be. It wasn’t child led weaning, it was a team effort. I explained to Ostara that I couldn’t breastfeed any more. She understood and cried once that evening in her daddy’s arms before falling peacefully asleep. It actually felt like a very beautiful bonding time for all of us as a family. I don’t even know how to explain it, just that it was.

And she promptly began sleeping through the night for the first time EVER. EVER EVER EVER.

I feel like it was all just at the right time, right place. We are so settled here in our new home. I did an intensive session of intuitive healing about Ostara with Hiro. We were all ready for the next stage in our lives, together.

It was good. So very very good.

And with the weaning and sleeping through the night, my intuition knew it was time for Ostara to have her own sleeping space and for me and my love to reclaim our sleeping space. We set up the room next to ours and I’ve been having such a fun time making it exquisite and gorgeous for her. She’s been so happy to be in there – I lay down next to her and we read and she falls asleep without a peep and sleeps through until morning. And I’ve been starfishing in our bed like mad, rolling around as loudly as I can to embrace the fact I no longer have to worry about waking my light-sleeping baby. And have been laying in bed reading until all hours of the night. It feels like a new lease on life!

About once a week she wakes up during the week and calls out “Mama!” and I stumble through the door, pick her up and carry her back to bed with me. And every morning, she pads softly into our room as soon as she wakes up for lounging around in bed cuddles and laughing at the puppies for an hour.

It’s funny. Two months on since this change and I can’t imagine being any other way – it all feels wonderful and right.

So that’s the update. Guess it doesn’t need a blog post of its own! Yippee!

On with the show!

We had a huge branch fall off in our backyard… perfect for me to make natural building blocks out of.

I cut them up with a jigsaw, and sanded them with Ostara and then we covered them with beeswax and lavender oil. They smell good enough to eat.

I also made some tree statues to use in play scenes. I got the inspiration for these from Ostara’s Steiner/Waldorf school that we go to playgroup at. They have such beautiful natural toys and since including them in Ostara’s life I see how much longer she plays independently (SQUEE!!!!) with so much imagination (SQUEEEx2!)

Man, this is the longest blog post ever. Cool with you? It’s cool with me! Let’s continue!

This week I’ve been back “at work” (ha! if you can call playing with your soul’s passion being “at work!”)

I finished the 2013 edition of the Creating your Incredible Year workbook, planner and calendar…

and drum roll please! With all this excess energy, I’m finally pulling off the thing that’s been long asked for!

This year there will be the usual Life Edition AND a Business edition too!

Perfect for planning your year for growing your business.

I’m SO excited to be doing it & it’s making all my cells light up!

Me & Ostara also made little art books and we’ve been doing Art Every Day Month together.

Ridunkulous new flowered bloomers make me happy.

Another creation… a scissors sleeve.

I feel so gosh darn HOMELY in the most awesome of ways.

Another riverbed we hung out at together… my love, my daughter and me.

Thanking our lucky stars that we landed here.

My latest new craft! Felt fairy making! Squeeee diddle de dumptious. I do adore this one so very much.

And Ostara’s play table. Nearly everything here was handmade by me in the last couple of months. I feel immensely proud of this achievement!

And just for something COMPLETELY different, I went to a visionary art workshop with international teachers Amanda Sage and Adam Scott Miller! Met cool peeps, learned cool things… it did good things to my brain.

Adam said something which I firmly believe in:

Every time I learn a new skill, whether it’s video editing or permaculture, it changes the way I think, it makes me see in a different way, and when I go back to painting I take it with me, I am changed and my art is improved from it.

That’s what this whole post is about really, but I’m just taking a really long time to illustrate it. Ha!

More river banking it. This time with gluten free damper buns drizzled in blackstrap molasses. I MADE THESE. AT SUNRISE. Before we left. SERIOUSLY. WHO AM I.

A hen! With needle felted eggs! SQUEE! I MADE IT!

And the star of this posts title… a rainbow bunny!

I swear to goshness, it is a good, beautiful thing to try out new crafts.

It makes your heart sing and your brain expand and you to feel zenner than a monk’s butt.

True story.

But Doesn’t All This Creating Take Away From Your Business?

Peeps are always asking me how it is I manage to create all this AND create a booming, blooming business with creations all of its own at the same time.

As if one takes away from the other.

It’s just not true.

Creative momentum creates more creative momentum.

One creative medium might give you more energy (as that fun side hobby) while your creative business medium might expend your energy.

The more you create and let yourself feel good and proud about creations, the better you get at being prolific.

You don’t have to beat up about your work. That’s not your job.

Your job is to do the thing that you’ve been given the inspiration to do. Do the thing that’s calling you. And send it out into the world.

Creating can be powerful, joyful, abundant and easy as soon as you give up the job of Critic.

Be a Self-Creator not a Self-Critiquer.

It’s why I’m pressing Publish on this post. It’s a rambler. It’s not perfect. But it sure is a damn load better than not pressing Publish at all. Can you imagine if this post didn’t exist?

And for goodness’ sake, go live the shit out of that beautiful life of yours.

all my love,