It is important to note that ‘insight’ is not an auditory experience, nor is it linguistic or verbal by nature. Insight is visual. Herein lies the benefit of utilizing the process of simply drawing what we are feeling in order to gain insight into what we may not be able to access through talking. These two processes tend to use different hemispheres of our brains. 

The left side of the brain is primarily intellectual and is highly developed for problem solving and complex analysis. It is also where our language ability initiates from and although it is the primary way we communicate ideas, it has also been heavily conditioned by the beliefs and expectations of our family and culture. Therefore, it is prone to censoring beliefs, ideas and impulses that conflict with our acquired sense of what is right an wrong.

The right side of the brain, which controls the left side of the body, is much more intuitive and visually oriented. For many of us western humans, it is also often much more under used. Yet most of us began communicating our feelings and ideas early in life by drawing rather than writing. In fact, the use of simple shapes, lines, colors and textures has an amazing ability to communicate complex emotions very quickly and easily, thus the familiar quote that a picture paints a thousand words.

In modern western cultures, and many other parts of the world as well, the intuitive and visual faculties of our brain have been relegated to a few supposedly ‘gifted’ people who are adept at rendering their ideas in images. Yet this remains a powerful and untapped resource of inner guidance and inspiration for all of us, if we so choose. And when a person is working on early life experiences and traumas, often they simply do not have the words to express what they are feeling for the experience was pre-verbal. So working with images allows them to get below the analytical mind, so to say, in order to access the memories and beliefs that can be the key to liberating many chronic mental and physical issues.

A wonderful resource to help you try out this process is shared on my website at http://www.blueearthawakening.com/visual-journaling-process.html. The process evolved out of my work with a wonderful book called Visual Journaling: Going Deeper than Words by Barbara Ganim & Susan Fox. This simple process allows nearly anyone to utilize shape, color and texture to explore the deeper reaches of their unconscious mind and emotions. So I encourage you to give it a try and see what you discover. It may surprise you how insightful your little scribbles and doodles can be!

If you would like assistance or support using creative expression to access old tension and trauma please contact me for more information about Creative Awakening Sessions at /creative-awakening.html.


Blessings on your journey of Self Discovery ♡ Jeanette

Spring is here!!! If you're at all like me the inner juices are starting to rise and begin the movement of energy out into the world again. Winter has been a time for tending the inner flame and allowing the process of divine alchemy to realign us for the creative expressions of our Souls. Spring calls us forth now into the world to express our heart's yearnings with as much authenticity and vibrancy as the crocuses and daffodils that push their green shoots up toward the warmth and light of the Sun. What is stirring within you that is ready to share with the world? My own creative expressions are reflecting this new growth in my newest painting "Waking Heart", which is available for purchase in fine art prints and canvases. Click on the image to be taken to their website

New Offerings at Blue Earth Awakening
So Spirit has been inspiring me to allow my Path to shift and alter course a bit. It is also time for my artistic/creative path to join with my healing/therapeutic path in a way that reflects a more complete expression of my true nature. And so I am introducing this new process called "Creative Awakening Sessions". This work utilizes drawing, dialogue, spiritual inquiry and body-based trauma processing techniques to discover and awaken your divine creative gifts. I invite you to join me in watering that creative garden of dormant seeds you have had buried within you that are just waiting to see the Light of day! I look forward to sharing this joyful exploration with you.

I have been an artist in many forms for the last 4 decades. Yet it took me many years to discover how much I had been taught to repress my creative urges when I was very young and therefore to divert my path from this Calling many times and in many ways. For the last decade I have allowed this creative Divine impulse to open within me and to share it with the world from an entirely new level. And I have discovered that every time I allow myself to explore a deeper layer of this inner creativity, it teaches me more and more about who I AM and how my life longs to express itself in the world.

So now I am discovering that by combining the rich and beneficial processes I have learned through Somatic and Trauma Therapy practices, with the simple yet profound process of writing and drawing from the Soul, we begin to uncover the inherent creativity in each of us. This is not about being an artist. This is about realizing that we all have natural areas of interest, joy and ability that we came into this life with. Often times we have been highly influenced by family, culture, religion and other forms of external authority to believe that we need to follow a particular path in order to be successful or loved in life. Too often this prescribed path is not really what our heart and soul would have chosen.

I have discovered that we store many of the experiences of our lives, both what we would label positive and negative in our bodies. By learning to listen deeply to our felt sense and to allow us to draw and write what we see and hear in an uncensored way, we begin to remember just what it is that really makes us tick. Drawing allows us to get underneath the analytical mind and access preverbal experience and intuitive insights that words may not access. Then by allowing the image to speak through us we gain greater understanding into the inner guidance that has been here all along.

So I invite you to join me in this profound and inspiring way of exploring your Soul's terrain. You don't have to be an artist to use color, shape, texture and words to explore who you really are. You only need to have an open mind, a willing heart and a curious interest in discovering the Calling of your Soul.

What will you receive from your Creative Awakening Session?

1. You will learn to use the power of drawing simple images that access the inner unconscious material that is the source of your wounding and dialogue with it to discover hidden beliefs about yourself that talking often cannot reach.
2. You will learn to utilize the body and your somatic awareness as a resource for tracking and resolving old limiting patterns. Cutting edge trauma resolution therapies rely on this process for releasing and healing many forms of trauma and repressive conditioning and you will discover the innate intelligence of your inner body awareness and learn to understand its messages.
3. Using these combined tools and processes, you will begin to access your own inner guidance and discover the unique and creative purpose of your Soul. This insight will begin to guide your life and you will discover the joy and fulfillment that your Soul has been Calling you into all along.

Creative Awakening Sessions are best done in a series of sessions to allow the unfolding of your inner story to be revealed, but single sessions are welcome as a way to dip your toe into the water. Using simple materials like an inexpensive journal or pad and crayons or pastels you can begin to utilize this process to explore the uncharted areas of your body, mind and Soul. I look forward to joining you on this path of exploration.

To schedule a session please contact me at Contact Jeanette

As I sat in meditation my body suddenly jolted as if struck by lightening as this image came into my mind. I knew its name was Night Messenger and that it was a gift of inner guidance for me. It felt as if it was sent to me from out of nowhere, but I immediately recognized the importance of it. So I set about sketching it out for future painting, but could not sleep until I actually began the canvas. It has taken me over a month to not only complete the final oil painting, but to also sit with it to hear the message it carries.

When it finally spoke to me it said....
"I come as messenger of the night bringing memory of the Light to your dormant Mind. What do you know of the Creation of the Universe but everything? See this symbol I carry? Watch it swinging gently in the light of the waxing moon. Does this stir your memory? Does this strike at the chord within you to awaken the dormant senses of Spirit? They are not the senses of the flesh that you are so very fixated on. They are the senses of the Divine Mind which knows all through the energetic vibration that all things emit." There is still more coming through from this Divine Messenger, but without doubt it is first and foremost calling all of us to remember our ancient wisdom that is and has always been carried by our own Souls. As we take the time to listen more deeply we will discover that each of us has an inner yearning to share our lives in creative ways that may not have been supported when we were young, but that is knocking on our inner door and asking to be seen and heard once again.

Since this time there has been much inner shifting in my life that is slowly trickling into the outer world. The first is the creation of an online print-on-demand website at Imagekind, where these images are now available in fine art reproductions for under $20 for prints and under $100 for stretched canvases. This is very exciting for me because it will allow me to focus more of my time on the creative expression of my Soul's True Calling.

I feel like I have waited half a decade to begin to bear my offspring. Now, at 52 years old, the seeds of my children that I have withheld within me for so long, are finally being allowed to come into this world. They are the gift of creation that have sprung from the Creator and are born through me. They call to all Souls who are seeking to Awaken to their true identity - as divine expressions of an infinite and benevolent Universe.

As I now am offered the opportunity to send them out into the world to be “adopted” by loving parents my heart is torn apart. I have had them with me for such a short time! It is as if I am only to be the birth mother and others will live and grow with them. The unfulfilled mother in me wants to surround myself with them and bask in their love as a surrogate for the Divine Love that my heart truly seeks.

So I slowly relinquish the illusion of my hold on them and realize that I truly am simply the vessel that they were meant to flow through as an entrance into a world filled with suffering. For their Divine Purpose is to attend to the sick and ailing Souls of this world and offer what healing and redemptions they can. 

Oh what a fast and challenging birth we have had together….these triplets of transformation. A labor of Love indeed, filled with fear as well as the Quickening that comes with Divine Transmission. I didn’t even know if it was be possible when I began to answer this inner imperative. But I knew I had no choice if I wanted to Live…..rather than just survive. 

When I first began using paints to express these visions my hands moved as if they had done this for lifetimes! Where was this Gift coming from without years of training and technical mastery? When I was spent and the painting was finished for the day I would sit back and look at it in awe, for I truly didn’t know where it had come from. The were born the way a mother brings a child into the world and looks upon it with wonder and awe at the power of the Universe. This may sound a bit sacreligous to actual mothers of children, but this is all I know of the blessing they have been privileged to bear.

And so I present my triplets to you now……meet Regeneration, the first and oldest of them; Waking Heart, the middle child; and Night Messenger, the wise one who is last but not least among them. They are to serve you and your Awakening. Please treat them with the honor they deserve as messengers of the Divine Creator bearing Gifts for us All!

With Deep Love and Gratitude ♡ Lynn Jeanette Amlie (LJA)

Welcome to a New Year. After the busyness of the holidays perhaps you, as I, have felt the calling to descend into a deep inner womb where your inner juices can be replenished once again. For me, this is the deeper calling of this sacred season of darkness, to venture into the creative inner world and see what is beaconing to my heart.

As I have given myself permission to answer this call, despite the pressures from outside to stay productive, I have felt a deep longing within me that has been untended for far too long. This longing is the profound realization that GodDess/Source has appointed me to be an artist for the Soul. Somehow I have always known this, but never found a way to honor the deep impulse to create solely as a messenger for the Divine. The many times I have attempted to answer this call it has gotten twisted and distorted and derailed by parents, schools and commerce and mostly, myself.

When I allow these regenerative energies to fill my weary mind and body I discover that I can no longer ignore the creative impulse to resurrect a medium that I left long ago…..painting. And I am slowly allowing myself to delve into this rich and murky terrain of listening to my Soul’s messages and translating them into color and shape that hopefully conveys the intensity of emotion that they hold. 

For years I have allowed myself to make drawings on black paper that are snapshots of what I carry inside me. For those of you who are interested, I share this process in http://www.blueearthawakening.com/visual-journaling-process.html. But painting was the medium I loved growing up, which I abandoned in art school when I was admonished for my attempts to render what I was feeling inside. My fledgling attempts to paint my inner world did not prescribe to the modern, abstract ideals of the time. So I found refuge in 3D ceramic sculptures that reduced my messages to abstract symbols of colorful ruffles breaking out of white spheres. Not until decades later did I finally see what my wounded heart was trying to express through these abbreviated yet beautiful forms. My Soul wanted to fly without regard for the conventions of the time. 

So now is the time to let these energies percolate and amplify within me in order to give new life to the expression of my Soul. This will be reflected in Blue Earth Awakening as well, for it is a vehicle for Source to flow through me into the world. And the first unveiling of this new phase of my life is shared in this post. My newest painting, Regeneration, is my offering to all who, like me, welcome this time of inner nourishment. She is a reminder to me that regardless of what the world chooses to do, during the deep, dark, winter months….I choose to nurture the creative fires that smolder within me. Nature will tell me when it is time to emerge from my hibernating cocoon. And when I do I shall be regenerated and able to offer a freer Self into the world.

I am also announcing my new online gallery at ImageKind.com/JeanetteAmlie, where some of the images that illustrate my articles on the website will be available to purchase. In addition, there will be new paintings, like this one, that speak of transformation and rebirth. And the SomaPsycheSoul services I offer in support of those who are in the midst of transformation will focus on exploring the creative spark that lies within us all. For it is only by reigniting this inner fire that we can truly heal. All of the wonderful tools and process I have learned along the way through art therapy, counseling, trauma resolution and spiritual awakening will all be utilized to tend this divine goal. And we shall awaken this Calling together so that our divine purpose remains dormant no longer.

Thank you for joining me on Blue Earth Awakening. May we all realize our true potential together!

Love,
Jeanette

Is there really anything we have ever wanted other than to truly trust that all is well? Have we ever really wanted more than to simply know that we are cared for right now and that we do not need to fret over the past nor worry about the future? 

This is what is filling me now in the wake of a recent physical & emotional inner storm. I learned many years ago to take heed when a virus brings a fever along with it. I have learned that it is always an opportunity to allow an inner conflict to burn itself out in the heat of this physical, mental & emotional fire. And that is indeed the gift I have received once again.

I have written before about my early life conditioning that taught me to believe that it is irresponsible to live in the present moment, for then we are not planning for the future in a way that will ensure we never become a burden on anyone else. And after years of sparring with this belief in the boxing ring of my own created conflicts, I am once again being given the eyes to see how untrue this really is. 

I know I was a precocious and willful child at times. I was stubborn and determined to get my way when I was very young. And although much of that changed during the decades of my internment in public school, I still need radical measures, from time to time, to break free of this personal desire to control my life and my future. And an illness that keeps me bedridden is often just the cure that I need when my mind has become sick with self-striving. 

My mind is always skeptical of any teaching that says that I can turn over the command of this ship to anything or anyone but ME. However, in the wake of this blessed inner storm I am weary and realize that turning over command to the Divine Source that is not separate from me is all I truly desire in the world. For to relinquish the inner fight is what my Soul has been calling me to all along. 

So now I sink down deeply into the sacred darkness of this time of year, allowing all the busy people to pass me by. For my merriment comes from deep within me rather than the lights and frenzy of one more commercial christmas. In this deep and sacred stillness the voice of Christ permeates my weary mind and body and reminds me of what I have known all along……more than anything else, I seek the solace of knowing that all of my little plans are insignificant in the face of this Divine Calling. And as I let myself be cleansed of my worldly striving, I know that this sacred time is a passage into the realm of awareness where we see that we have indeed been held by Grace all along.

So I send you blessings and peace during this sacred season and pray that you too are able to feel the deeper calling that arises within you…..the calling to trust that home is right here…and it has been here all along. 


♡ Jeanette

As the last of the autumn leaves have fallen to the ground and the first snows of winter begin to fall, I feel the ancient inner pull toward hibernation. It is the call of my Soul acting through aeons of instincts directing many beings to retract from the outer world and allow our energies to rest and rejuvenate. The harvest is completed for now, whether it be food or the fruits of our ambitions. Nature reminds us that our bodies are mortal and are not designed to be in constant pursuit of external goals without respite.

So I honor the energy of the Great Bear, which comes from my maternal lineage. The strong and powerful Bear knows when it is time to retreat into her den, into the womb of the Mother Earth to be renewed and reborn. It is a time to honor stillness and the coming darkness before the winter solstice. This is the time that the Divine Universe seeks to reconnect with our conscious minds by allowing them to drop out of busy activities and into meditation, contemplation and inner creativity. It is a time to allow the gestation of the Divine plan within us so that when spring calls us forth, we act on God's Will rather than our own agenda. 

So I choose to begin to drop my commitments to the outer world. As the western world gears up for the hype of one more commercial christmas, I begin to withdraw into the inner stillness that prepares me for the Great Winter Solstice. For this is what my ancient bones remember the most. Standing in sacred circles and looking to the heavens for the signs of alignment and order that extend far beyond our human constructed world. And I feel the deep slumbering energies of the great beasts who have retreated into the earth. Their heartbeat creates the symbiotic rhythm that my heart longs to follow.

Have you too been trying to force yourself to remain busy despite this deeper calling within you? If so I invite you to join me in dropping into this deeper, silent, sacred time of year. I invite you to hear the ancient beat of the universal heart that has slowed into a soothing pulse that restores your weary body and mind. Do not believe that this is wasted time, for it is the opportunity that God has waited for to penetrate the land of concepts and ideas and offer a deeper insight. For this is when true vision is received.

I have always had an inexplicable & burning desire to discover for myself what is really true. So for the last ten years I have used my life as a way to actively "test reality". I decided that instead of simply believing a chosen teaching, I would put it to the test…..actually I put many teachings to the test. Many of them vacillating between the extremes of grand manifestation, radical awakening, stripped down Zen "no mind", and humble pleading to any god that would hear me. 

So the final stage of my searching, spiritual or otherwise, is to finally surrender any sense of predetermined expectations about what I want & to see what is here. It is time to once again go inward for my guidance, on a deeper & calmer level than I have managed before. Now teachings that simply encourage me to listen to this inner voice & trust it are what interest me the most. And I remember too the power of the drawings that have come through me when I have let go of my need for making "good art". 

I realize that this invitation has come to me at two other notable times in my life & each time, including this one, this organism has responded with incredible resistance. One time was soon after the untimely death of my mother and the other after I was prematurely retired from the papermaking career I loved & thought I would do forever. Only now can I see that the common denominator in each instance was the willingness to step out on this ledge of surrender to NOT KNOWING what my life is about or for. Each time the seismic eruptions from my unconsciously repressed fears & beliefs have been formidable.

So I am once again spending copious amounts of time in nature simply & quietly turning inward…..listening to the stillness within. The elements of nature speak to my senses and bring forth the deeper guidance that my Soul longs for. And I find there is peace here, inexplicable peace. And a certain readiness for I know not what. There is a greater willingness to re-engage with people & society again, but from a new perspective. Not a higher & loftier spiritual perspective as before, but a simple awareness that what I have held to be true has been yet another layer of conditioning that has presented itself for dissolution. 

And all of these experiences shape how this website evolves. The beauty of this digital medium is its plasticity. Nothing is set in stone & so the story is free to re-write itself, or un-write itself as the case may be……..

Since my return to this sacred San Luis Valley, I have been called to go out into the 'Elephant Rocks' to hear the whispering of my Soul once again. After 8 months immersed in the mainstream world it was hard to keep from numbing out in the hustle & bustle of the civilized world. But now I am home in the wild open spaces once again.

As I sat beneath this growing thunderhead I was told once again to remember the ancient, spiritual call of my soul. Too many times have I tried to sanitize what my heart calls me to do in order to make it more palatable for mainstream culture. Too many times have I whitewashed the spiritual potency of the creative expression of my Soul for fear that it would otherwise be rejected by those whose approval I sought. But today I was told in no uncertain terms that this would no longer be effective (not that is has in the past!?). 

And so it is time to acknowledge that it is by Spirit and Spirit alone that any form of healing, growth or awakening is possible....in myself or anyone else. It is time to pay homage to the Spirit of Earth and the elements for their steadfast role in supporting my process of transformation when all else seemed to fail me. It is time to sing the praises of the multitude of divine synchronicities that continue to guide my path, whether I am aware of them or not. For despite all of the brilliant therapeutic methods and modalities, it is still a divine mystery that facilitates our healing when two or more people come together with the sincere intention to find out the deeper truth of our lives. 

And it is with this humble awareness that a new day dawns in my conscious participation in the awakening of our species and our world. And with gratitude I offer this life and these abilities to be used as my Soul originally intended.....without censure or diversion....for the highest benefit of All Beings. 

Amen - Mitakuye Oyasin - Namasté - Gassho

Jeanette