Allie Armitage
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Musings & Questions
from my 
Self Discovery Journey

The Questions I'm Sitting With Now

4/17/2018

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how can i give to the world in a way that I love, in a way that lights me up, that makes full, well use of who I naturally am to support others?

how can i do this while building a life where I am able to feel whole, well, nourished, loved, alive, able to grow and learn, explore and experience life, become more of myself?

i don’t know the answer to this yet, but i know these are questions i’m willing to live into .. to explore, to unearth, to unpack, to learn about myself and life while i go

i also know from my own life that asking questions are how i explore new ways and possibilities

that is one thing i’ve learned over the course of my budding-ish career … opening up the question for myself is one of the most essential and powerful ways for beginning to explore the answer

and that’s what i’m going to do … i will live into this answer

and i’m going to share how i’m going through that process, offering tools and insights, resources that work for me 

because that’s one thing i am discovering, i love to offer this to others. i love sharing what helps me, what tools i’m working with, i love teaching, i love being inside that space of inner discovery and exploration and i absolutely love supporting others in that process for themselves 

that’s what i know … i can offer from my experience, from my own journey, what has felt true to me 

it won’t work for everyone

i believe everyone has an intuitive knowing for them 

and if it can help you make more sense of who you are, and how you can navigate differently through the world, i truly, deeply hope it does 

:)
​
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Feeling Rich & Broke

1/25/2018

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Today I feel both broke, and, rich all at once.

I feel broke because by society’s standards I am. For once I have decided to put my own self care as a priority, and that means I am slowing down to practice a mindful approach to launching a new set of offerings in my work — a deeper and more aligned layer to my approach as a coach, a healer, an experience designer — and I am building creations that feel the most authentic and true to me as I can be. Ironically I have felt that in order to work this way, I have to take a hit on all the other fronts that one could use to measure themselves as “successful” (income, # of clients, # of anything’s). I don’t got ’em right now, and I am honestly figuring out how to ‘make it’ each day as I go.

This feels hard to swallow as a typical type A overachiever … perhaps I “shouldn’t be” in the place I am right now. But I am. And, I am making this choice consciously in order to have the space I need to work deeply, creatively, mindfully, in alignment with my values. It is wild to me that in order to work this way, I feel like I have to make the choice to take a hit on all the other fronts (*this is a huge and important topic that needs to be discussed on its own). I know it is a deep privilege and freedom to make this choice in the first place. All of this makes me even more determined to offer something magical, valuable, and authentic as my contribution to the world.

What I am finding as I learn how to let go of feeling “successful” on traditional terms is that there is a another lens of success that I could use for myself — a lens of honesty, alignment, life experience, human connection — and from this perspective, I feel insanely rich.

I have had the amazing fortune to travel the world, experience other cultures and soak in the beauty of this world. I have the blessing of beautiful, supportive friendships, amazing, loving family, generous mentors and community, all of whom encourage me. I have genuine faith in myself to create something meaningful for others out of this life experience that I hold. I can make the space for myself to embrace my creative flow, and work in alignment with my values in the world. I feel connected to myself and in integrity with who I am right now, and that feels like one of the most priceless measurements of all.

These are incredibly empowering and privileged things to feel and ‘have’ in my non-bank account. I really want to count this as success.

In my realization, I also want to offer to out anyone else who feels ‘broke’ or unsuccessful by traditional standards, please give yourself the freedom to look at your life from another lens — one that feels aligned to you. Give yourself the permission to feel rich in other ways. And I mean really, truly give yourself validation and celebration for these things … your life experience, your friendships, your connections, your conversations with a neighbor, your hopes and visions for the world. They matter, and you matter for embodying them. It is radical to consider success in these ways, and I can only imagine how transformed would our world be if we allowed this to be what we uphold and celebrate as true.
​
I can acknowledge how odd the sensation of being both broke and rich at the same time is, yet I have to say it feels wildly freeing too.
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*This was originally
 posted to my Medium account - feel free to follow me there if you are so inclined. 
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2018 beginnings

1/14/2018

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Coming Home to the Moment

8/31/2017

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Lately I keep coming back to the realization of how much the present moment matters. It really does.

It’s where my life takes place, it is the source of how it unfolds. It’s where I make the choices that determine the direction of my life, where I meet others, where I can truly hear myself, and where I get my ideas.

And yet how much time do I spend in my day, swirling around in my head either in the past or the future or… missing the reality of what is in front of me?

All. The. Time.

Particularly as a sensitive empath, who picks up on all kinds of energy, and stimuli around me, I find it is so simple to be pulled off my own path and into the urgency of the world, the path of others, a set of realities that are not mine.

Coming back ‘home’ to me is a real practice … particularly because I want to both live in the world and be a human.

As I’m diving back into my creative flow, I am reconnecting with this deep truth that the moment is where all of my creativity unfolds; it’s where the insights spark, where the magic happens, where love takes place.

You know that feeling where time slows down and you are just following the flow of one unfolding experience to the next, watching it take place in front of you? Chasing an idea … a deeply creative conversation … an unfolding vision … a beautiful expression of love.

I love and truly desire more of those in my life. So I’m asking myself to work on slowing down, dropping the never-ending addiction of the mind that wants to fast forward to the future, or remain in the past … which is really hard btw … and refining my practice of honoring the moments in front of me.

As I do this I am also holding the practical truth that moments matter a lot — *and* — they are infinite.

There are more coming my way, so I can have another chance to slow down and live in them.

I will undoubtedly make a mistake (… like, later today) and I will miss the moment. Because I am human. And I am going to F** up.

And in those moments, I can give myself grace and forgiveness so that the next time, I want to come back and experience the moment again.

Here’s to honoring yourself and your moments today.
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How to Find Out What Your Soul Has to Say

4/7/2017

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A newsletter by Mind Into Matter
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Hello wonderful,

How are you?

I hope there is some juicy spring energy blossoming in your life. Tis the season for us to be planting fresh seeds and preparing the ground that we want the rest of our year to be growing from. 

Soak it up :)

Over the past few months, I've been focusing on nourishing the seeds of my relationship with writing. I have been blown away by my ability to shift this from one of force to one of grace and flow. It's a much more feminine approach. And as an outcome, I've been able to tap into the transformational power of the page as a window into my soul, my inner truth, and a sense of peace ... which is damn hard to find right now. Today I want to offer you some of the insights and resources I've gleaned in this process.

I hope it might invite you into magic of knowing that you have a home within yourself as well :)

I will start by sharing that my heart and soul have yearned to write this year. They've been overwhelmed by the world in the ways that I'm sure your own heart and soul have been as well. They have been desperate for an outlet, yearning to be heard, and crying for a way to know it will all be alright.

Our world is on the road to greater complexity, intensity, emotionality and certainly more chaos.  It's no longer making logical or rational sense in the ways we've been planning for it to, and that can throw us into a frenetic tail spin. We don't know who to believe, or who to listen to, or where to find a sense of 'ground.' 

This crazy-making environment has had the effect of throwing off the foundations we thought were so solid underneath our feet, revealing that what we may have thought were real and true were in fact only one version of reality, and there are more.

I was hit by this bus of groundless-ness at the new year, I found myself completely unable to envision the year ahead. My shock was followed by a deep anxiety over the uncertainty in my life, and of stepping into the blank unknown ahead of me. As a self-employed person this is always a reality, yet there are moments when the lack of certainty is a stronger source of crazy than others. This year, my mind's sheer will could not trump the cries from inside of me to pay attention to the fact that someone in there was not happy. Moody teenager style. 

This is when I stumbled across "Writing Down Your Soul" by Janet Conner.

Inside the pages of this gorgeous book, I saw an invitation to truly listen to myself. To hear what all that chaos and anxiety inside of me had to share. I used the book's invitation as a commitment to get started writing each day until I could find my way home to my soul. To my relief, the solace of welcoming blank pages took me there each day, without fail, if I wrote long enough.

What I found fascinating about this process is that to get to my soul's knowing, I had to make space to listen to my ego first. It was the one screaming so loud inside of me, and I could no longer ignore it. I needed to let it rattle off it's complaints and it's harsh criticism, it's frustration about me being my creative, non-traditional, intuitive self that causes me to walk into such uncertainty in life. Those sentiments had to to be heard, seen and healed. 

In the past I have tried to try to intellectualize my ego away (don't think those thoughts! that's not what you want to believe!... pretend that doesn't exist!) and yet what I have realized with time is that this tactic only works for so long ... because the ego does exist. There is no denying this fact; and if I don't give it space to be seen, my ego will run the show sub-consciously through my thought patterns and behaviors without my realizing it.

The mind blowing thing I have been learning about writing from a 'soul' level is that it can allow for a re-wiring of the brain and offer a platform to truly transform yourself. The essential goal of this process is to bring yourself into a deep 'theta' brain wave level during your writing ... a meditative-like state. To get there, I have found this means that I must focus on writing from the heart, expressing anything that comes up for me, rather than trying to craft perfectly thoughtful and correct statements. I've also found I get there at times when I write faster than I can think. 

As you get yourself into a meditative state in your writing, you are able to access a sub-conscious level of thought, belief, synthesis. This is where it gets real, because here that you can heal and re-wire thought patterns that are below the surface of your consciousness. You may be put ideas or thoughts together that you haven't been able to before, you can ask yourself questions and feel the answers forming from your intuition to spill out onto the page. The book goes into further detail and the neuroscience behind this experience, so I highly recommend checking it out.

I have been blown away by the clarity and knowing I found after asking genuine questions in my writing at this level. Not to mention a deep sense of peace and connectedness to myself as an outcome. What I have found is that soul writing is a ritual that not only feels good, it enables a deep and meaningful growth process to take place inside of my mind at the same time.

One fascinating realization I came to in all of this is that once I make space for my ego to say it's feelings, and feel heard, it will always give way to the wisdom of my soul. I can count on that. Now, I have to write daily until I can feel my ego relax and let my heart and my soul take the steering wheel. Until I can feel that peace takeover inside of me, I know I have to keep going. Once I get there, I know I'm ready to rock and roll. 

Writing in this particular way has become like breathing and drinking water - I have to do it to stay alive. The most beautiful thing is that because I so desperately need it, I desire to make time for it in my day. I know I will feel more attuned to myself, my day will flow with greater ease, I will have a greater sense of knowing. My writing ritual gives me true support in those moments I am searching. That’s how I know it’s a practice that is meant for me. 

I have worked relentlessly over my life to try to find the 'optimal' routine, to practice what all the experts preach about starting your day out 'right.' Usually that involved some kind of daily journaling practice I felt I should do, but to my great frustration, never stuck well on me. I would always try to say the right thing, or get to some profound insight and it felt forced. I'd then give it up a few days or weeks later because it didn't nourish me, and then I'd judge myself harshly for not being able to keep it going.

Now, out of a place of true need and desire, a deep yearning to express what my heart has to say ... whether it is smart-sounding or not ... I have been able to create both a vibrant, rich relationship with writing and a regular ritual around it. I still don't do it at exactly the same time every day (because I am a pisces and I like to flow away from rigid routine :) Yet I have realized that because I truly need it, I will make time for my writing each day when I'm ready for it. 

In this process, I came to see that the rituals that bring us to life are the ones that are meant for us. And if they are life-giving for us, then they are healing for the world too. That is what we need more than anything to stay sane right now.

Given my recent explorations, I'd like to offer you two crystallized thoughts:

1) We must find a way to hear ourselves inside of this mad world. There is simply too much chaos, overwhelm, over-stimulation, and dramatization to be healthy for a human soul. The only way find to feel the ground is to find it within ourselves. The only answers that will stick for us are those that are generated from our own wisdom. 

How will you create space to put away the outside noise and truly hear yourself?

Where will you create safe space to feel what you're feeling, and let yourself find your own answers?

It may not be writing, maybe it's gathering with close, wholehearted friends ... or it's through meditation, running, playing music. Whatever it is, make sure it gives you the space to feel a deeper truth within you. That's how you'll know it's right for you. 


2) Routines are powerful when they are life-giving, not rigidly demanding. I have struggled for so long under the weight of doing the right things at the right time (aka. recovering perfectionist). To my happy surprise, I now realize that when I get out of my own way and let my soul bring me to the practices I need the most, I can continually return to them.

What activities or rituals bring you alive, into greater truth with yourself?

If you let your heart and soul guide, where would they lead you? What would your curiosity and desire take you towards?

I will leave you with this - I sense that what we need most now is to listen to the wisdom that our own life has to tell us.

What will truly support us in our lives?

What truths do we feel inside of us?

If we unearth those things, through trial and error, practice and reflection, experimentation and observation, then we can begin to piece together the practices that ground us, and offer a platform to evolve our world from the wisdom of our soul.
 

With deep love and deep belief in your soul's knowing,

I am exploring an idea for creating "DIY Coaching Kits" ... something to make the growth processes I take myself through available for others. In its current state, the concept feels like a combination of the book I've been reading, guided resources to support the practices, and beautiful objects to help you make it a ritual.

I am in the prototyping stage with it now, so if you are interested in one, holler.
If you have ideas for me of what you'd want to have in Coaching Kit, let me know. 

I'm looking for a way to make the work of self evolution more concrete, tangible, and accessible - please help me figure that out :)
With love for your wonderful soul ...
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Using my own Design tools to create 'what's next'

10/11/2016

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Question for Self: How Can I Own It?

6/24/2016

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Happy May!

It's been a while since my last Question for Self post. We're in a new year, and a new quarter already.  Wow, that whole 'time flies' thing... :)

I hope your 2016 has been off to a wonderful start; and speaking of this year, let's talk about it. How are those New Year's intentions working out for you?

From my own experience, many of the goals I set felt like they lost focus in the past months as life kicked up speed. That is the ultimate challenge with New Year's Resolutions: the reality of life creates a formidable opponent in the path to following through on them.

Yet the goals we set at the start of the year do hold the kernel of vision and clarity around for we want for our lives. In the last few weeks, I have had a helpful moment to notice that my most essential intentions goals are resurfacing to say, "hey, remember me?!" So I've decided it's time to bring those goals back into focus and take greater ownership for making them happen.

In helping with this commitment, I've brought a tool that I adapted from the unbelievable trainers at Possibilities Consulting, who run transformational Emotional Intelligence seminars (that I could not possibly recommend more if you're interested).  
The Ownership Cycle, below, gives us insight on the gap between what we say we want, and the results we are (or are not) getting. Have a listen to the podcast underneath for insight into how to apply this to your own life - and a guided meditation to start generating action steps that will create momentum for you.
Apply this to your own life and goals by listening to the podcast I recorded below ...  
and bonus, there's a meditation inside :)
Feel free to share comments or insights that come up in the process, I would love to hear from you. 

Happy owning it!

Love and gratitude,
 

Ps. If you are ever interested in exploring one-on-one coaching around these concepts or your own self discovery in general, I would love to chat with you.
Just reach out to me.
A bathtub of spring, from a recent New Orleans adventure.

 
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    Empowering people to connect with meaning and vibrancy in life. 

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  • Home
  • About Allie
    • Plugged In Philosophy
    • Press
  • Work Together
    • Custom Meditations
    • Coaching >
      • Track Your Energy
    • Facilitation & Design >
      • Personal Compass
    • Past Events
  • Blog
    • Question for Self Extras
  • Contact