How I'm Ploughing On With My Wisdom Cards. Having a Melt Down And Moving Into My New Studio Space

It has been an Internet free zone round our place during August as our router faded out.  At first I was fine about it and welcomed the change, then ... it just got too much.  

I haven't blogged and felt very disconnected from webland.  It has been mighty strange.  

I started to look at things very differently.  I began to step back into my own inner self.  I began to read things I had written and looked at everything around me with a fresh pair of eyes.  

I began to start writing my Healing eBook; which will be available for download by the End of September (did you read that Jules? You just put that goal right out there and now you have to follow it through!)

I had a melt down about not having children and it has opened up the floodgates.  I'll share this with you soon.

Everything came back on 10 days ago and since then I have moved into my little studio space.  I spent some time in there today and it was so incredibly peaceful, even with the humming of the extractor fan from the Turkish restaurant next door.  

I felt serene and calm as I created and wrote.  

It feels like I am entering a new focused phase.  

I have a wonderful new BIG commission which is making me look at different ways of creating.  I'll reveal more of this too.

All is good.  All is well. 

With that in mind, here's my latest write up of my Wisdom Card.  

Please enjoy, sending much love to you 

All is Well 

Release the Negativity. Explore any resistance and relax in the knowledge that you are able to heal.   You have the power.  You can change the way you approach the situation you face.

Background to the card:

This card was inspired by Louise Hay, Author, Metaphysical Teacher and founder of Hay House.  I was first introduced to her book You Can Heal Your Life almost 24 years ago when I was ill with M.E/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome).  It was passed to me when I was in the depths of ill health. I was just embarking on my ‘back to health plan’, using a variety of complementary approaches and healing methods and when I read this book I realised immediately that it was going to accompany me to find my own way back.  I was transported into a metaphysical word that showed me I had the power.  I wasn’t waiting for one solution.  I was going to find many and use them all.   I devoured the book and used Louise’s morning and evening meditations – they helped me to learn to meditate and create a practice, it gave me extra courage to heal myself. 

The meaning behind the card:

If you picked this card today it is a reminder for you also that you can heal yourself.  Whatever is going on, perhaps a persistent long-term health problem, you can become your own investigator and learn some simple healing ways.  One of the lessons I learnt all those years ago was to tune out from negativity that is streamed from television, radio and even people in our lives. The first to go was late night news and radio.  I realised I didn’t want to tap into this negative drip-feed.  The world is not defined by bad news.  My world had to be optimistic and encouraging.  I had to see a way through this ill-health.  I wasn’t opting out, I was becoming more focused and directed about healing myself.  I tried everything you can name and settled on the therapies and practices that complemented my healing programme.

 

This card asks you to switch off from the negativity of your life.  Let it go.

Don’t tap into the drip feed of negativity.

The symbolism and colour of this card is very important.  The colour surrounding this beautiful woman is turquoise, once again representing the throat chakra and our communication centre, with the dragonfly placed here it signifies ‘Illusion’.  According to Sams and Carson, ‘the veil of negativity that we accept as our reality, is in fact, incorrect.  It may be time for you to break down the illusion you have held that restricts your actions or ideas.  Dragon fly asks you to seek out parts of you that need to change.” 

How to use this card:

This card asks of you to explore your resistance and relax in the knowledge that you are able to heal.   You have the power.  You can change the way you approach the situation you face.  Follow the image and place one hand over your naval area and one hand over your heart. Close your eyes and breathe through you nose for 7 seconds, then hold this breath for 7.  Exhale for a count of 7 through your mouth.  Really let go.  Then hold for another count of 7 and breathe in once again, counting 7 through the tips of your fingers.

Sit quietly, breathing in this way, for a round of 7.  Feel the gentle white speckles of white sunshine trickling over you, like a gentle shower of light bubbles.  Healing light bubbles, clearing negativity away from your body.   Know that you can do this at any time during you day.  Again and Again. 

This card is a reminder to do just that.

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I'm creating a set of 44 Wisdom Cards and Book -  each card will be inspired by someone who has meant something to me, someone who has inspired me or taught me something.  They could be people I know, or people I don't know, living or passed over. They may be people I have seen from afar.  They may also be animals and elements from the planet around me.  They may also be from dreamtime and with symbolism that I can’t recognise.  What I know for sure is, it will all unfold.  If you'd like to read more about this project, click here

Much Love

Jules xxx

PS Text may change in final copy.

All photographs and text copyright of Julia Dolowicz 2012

Still No Internet, here's my next Wisdom Card-Maintain the Balance

In this next card, I reveal the inspiration behind Maintain The Balance.  I hope you find something that resonates with you.  Much love, Jules xxx

Maintain The Balance:

  

Maintain the balance in your current situation. Incorporate healing practices into your life that help you come back to centre.

Background to the card:

Inspired by my Australian friend Gaille, with very strong and ancient Scottish roots she was propelled forward to leave her native Australia and begin her life in Scotland. It didn’t happen swiftly, there was great change and upheaval, but her soul yearned for her Scottish Land and soon enough, she found her self immersed in the heart of North East Scotland, in the grounds of an old Castle.  Gaille’s profession as a forensic anthropologist sees her traveling all over the world to scenes of devastation.  In such an emotionally draining job, she maintains a calm and centred presence.  One minute she’s in the midst of carnage, the next she’ll be still in meditation.  It isn’t an easy practice for her to manage, but it is a necessity. 

The meaning behind the card:

If this card has fallen into your card reading, it is asking you to maintain the balance in your current situation.  The message that you hear may be different every time this card appears.  At times, it may nudge you to incorporate balancing practices in your life.  If your job is hectic and fraught, how can you balance this with something that brings you back to centre?  Maybe, Meditation, Music, Dance, Performance, Art, DIY, Sport?

The importance is for you is to maintain a balance and become realigned.  Perhaps you’re feeling a pull to a different way of life, the wisdom behind the card prompts you to explore the options and find small ways to move closer.  This is not about jumping and leaping, it’s relating to equilibrium and integrating a practice that allows you to re-calibrate. 

How to use this card:

Use this powerful image in quiet meditation or some solitary time will be very balancing for you.  Her eyes hold your gaze and by looking in them you can begin to feel a sense of balance.  It is almost like gazing at a mirror where she invites you to quieten your mind, breathing consciously and notice what you find in the image.  There is nothing to distract you except her beckoning, balancing eyes. 

Note down how you’re feeling in reading this wisdom.  Do you feel a pull to trace your past, or explore an ancient family town, city or area?  Do you feel a tug to incorporate or learn meditation? What is calling you?  How will you respond to this call?

Look into the eyes of this Celtic Goddess and feel your body respond.  There are swirls of energy underneath the canvas, whirls of movement, yet they’re balanced and symmetrical.  The metallic blue of the background is the blue that responds to your throat chakra, the centre of communication.  Remain centred and balanced, express your thoughts to yourself in your writing.  

* * * * *

I'm creating a set of 44 Wisdom Cards and Book -  each card will be inspired by someone who has meant something to me, someone who has inspired me or taught me something.  They could be people I know, or people I don't know, living or passed over. They may be people I have seen from afar.  They may also be animals and elements from the planet around me.  They may also be from dreamtime and with symbolism that I can’t recognise.  What I know for sure is, it will all unfold.  If you'd like to read more about this project, click here

Jules xxx

PS Text may change in final copy.

All photographs and text copyright of Jules Dolly/Julia Dolowicz 2012

Present but Absent

I have been quite absent from blog land - it is not that I don't have anything to write about (since when do I not have anything to write about).  I have just felt introverted, reflective and quiet.

You know that feeling, don't you?

When you just want to shut out the noise.  The technology, the interruptions and Be Still.

To listen to the tiny whispers inside.

This is what I have been doing.

Whilst in these moments of stillness, I have been lovingly creating my Wisdom Oracle Card Canvases.  I have now completed 4 and have a new set of 4 on the go.

The words are flowing from me as I'm painting, I stop, I write the messages and the wisdom.

It's a really healing process.

Remembering the relationships, the people, the memories, the connections.

I have also been delving into my writing too and am beginning the research around my Healing ME book.

I want to share my Canvases because, hey that's just what I do.  I took them outside to let them absorb some beautiful sunlight and took some snaps in the garden.  Isn't that giant Poppy GREAT?!

It is still early days and I am letting this unfold.

But I'm really delighted at how they're turning out.

All is Well

By Your Side, Always

Ground Yourself

Love Always

If you want to read a little more about my 44 Wisdom Card Project, then click here.  Each of these canvases are inspired by people and their meanings/messages very healing and poignant.

So onward with the next four.  I doubt I'll get all 44 finished by my 44th birthday in July but I hope to have them all done in my 44th year.

Much Love
Jules xxx

Mum's the Word

Another installment in 'M'e Journey'.... this time it's about my mum.... I'm getting somewhere in the format of how this book is going to be developed - thinking about it a great deal, away from the mac, I find for me, this is just as important a time.  

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I could write an entire book about my mum with regards to her role in my ill health, she was always there for me; a rock, a support and a barrier to the outside world.  Let me clear a few things up at the outset

1. Mum did not want me to stay at home with her (as people often thought)

2. She was not mollycoddling me (that word really began to annoy me)

3. This was not a hypochondriac's outburst that she was protecting. (Don't get me started on that one).

So if we start from this point you will begin to build a picture of her. 

In the very early stages we were finding out things together.  It was always me and her; a kind of extended couple to the existing household of mum, dad and I, and of course, Benjie the dog.  Mum knew from the word go that something was seriously wrong, this was not ‘just flu’ and she had to fight quite hard to be heard within the family because all the above three statements were beginning to fly around.

“She’ll be fine when she gets back to work”

“Have you thought about taking her to see a psychiatrist”

“Don’t do so much for her, let her do it herself”

Mum always accompanied me, as I couldn’t drive.  (Of course I could drive, passed my test when I was 17 but just couldn’t drive at this time.)  Dad was working, so it did end up that we two would be experiencing all the treatments and therapies, the tablets and the discussions together.  I’d need her there to help me to reflect the words back to me, because I would often be so wasted by the end of a consultation that my brain would switch off and she was able to feed things back to the me and family.  Quite a responsibility, I think.

She was a sponge, just like me, soaking up all the information we could find.  People would often contact us and tell us about their sister/brother, wife/father/husband who were ill with ME/CFS and we would always be on the end of the phone, sharing information and passing on leads to ‘help crack the case’.

She wasn’t that particularly well herself, with high blood pressure and just recovering from a hysterectomy and having to wear a calliper - she really was stoical and got me through day by day with her sense of humour, sense of fun and sense of ridiculousness.  She’d always phone me when she was out shopping, asking if I could think of anything else that we may need.  It was only years later, many, in fact, that she told me she phoned whilst she was out to check if I was ok, to hear my voice and to reassure herself that I wasn’t in a coma.  Now this was way before mobile phones so the good old phone in the supermarket, that has now been reserved for taxis, really did have a purpose.

The devotion from this woman was second to none; she was a true lioness when it came to protection.  No one could say a bad word or anything negative about me.  I see now how this may have impacted on the extended family.  My sister was newly married and had her first baby just at this early stage, so mum would often leave plates of food ready in the freezer for dad and me to defrost and heat while she went to London to help with my sister, probably a good opportunity for her to get some ‘time out’.  I only hope that this didn’t take away the joy of being a grandparent but from the look on her face now, twenty years on, the bond she has with her three granddaughters is a bond that no one cold break.

Mum is interwoven into the fabric of this healing journey because she accompanied me pretty much everywhere, especially in the very early years.

Relationships are paramount when you’re coping with ill health, I know this is taken as ‘yes, of course’ but whomever the main person is in your life, it’s soooooo important for the support to help you overcome what is thrown at you.  Through companionship, humour, determination, I realise that mum played a huge role in believing that I could heal my body, mind and spirit which was pretty new territory then.  But she supported me totally so that I could rediscover myself and become 100% healthy.  Ok, it took about 7 years in total, but she was there every step of the way.  Respect to my Mum and all mums out there.