I know that things are pretty unsettling at the moment. One great thing about the tools of cage busting is that they were designed for facing uncertainty and change – be the kind you take upon yourself as you bust out of your cage or the kind thrust upon you by transitions you did (or did not) decide for yourself.

One thing that this has brought home to me is to be grateful for all things I took for granted, like going out to eat my favorite food or knowing my extended family and friends were just a couple of clicks to book a plane ticket away.

I am using this time to slow down, reflect and remember what I want to stay the same and what I want to change when things go back to normal.

All of this will be a memory one day, But first, we need to go through some rough times to get there. Transitions are never comfortable. I hope the book recommendations in the kit give you guidance in this time of uncertainty, the journal prompts help you tear down to rebuild and the affirmations help you ground in your Yoga practice.

So much love and hugs to you all! (even if they are of the virtual kind!)

Facing Fears in Times of change

You can get your copy right here, my gift to you:

Get your free pdf handout on how to use oracle cards for inner reflection in your journaling here:

Cage Busters Academy 

Journaling, yoga, and diving deep into self-reflection are the cornerstones of cage busting and you do not have to be woo to get the benefits from it. If there was one question that cageology and cage busting revolved around it would be:

“What kind of world would we have if we all stepped outside of our cages and embraced life for ourselves rather than the image we broadcast to other people?”

Cage busting is about looking at the shiny cages we have constructed for ourselves, discovering our freedom thieves (or all those things that keep you from just opening the door to that cage and walking on out) and then creating a life we love on our terms. It is about adventure but also knowing that adventure is not a straight line to happiness. We are on a quest to embrace who we are, not running away from dealing with ourselves.

And believe it or not, oracle decks are a fantastic source to access the wisdom of who you are inside.

The questions they ask can be applied to anyone at any time.

Take my card pull for the week of September 2019, I pulled from The Divine Feminine Oracle: A 53-Card Deck & Guidebook for Embodying Love Cards by Meggan Watterson and I had:

Kali, the great destroyer, Inanna, a Sumerian Goddess of war and love, Freyja a Norwegian goddess of war and love, and Yemoja a water goddess of creativity.

If you know me, my life over the past 3 years and everything that cageology is, I could not have pulled four better cards. But even if you are a nonbeliever, those cards hold essential keys to going deeper into who you are.

Kali, Inanna and Freyja are all goddesses of both destruction and love. Cage busting is about destroying your cage to bust out into a life that you love. These goddesses know that you don’t get to mess around with building a new life. It can hurt, it can hurt you and it can hurt others. But the rewards are rich and vast. With Yemoja looking over those three cards with creativity being a guiding force and bathing the wounds you may have sustained, we know that creating a life we want is difficult but worth it, especially when we do so from a place of authenticity and deep love for ourselves.

Woo or not, the cards each come with a question for you to journal and reflect upon, and it does not matter which deck or cards you pull. Sit with the question the guidebook or the card offers and see how it applies to your life. You can pull one card or do a whole spread. Look at what the card asks of you and dig into your life to see how it fits.

For a free pdf handout to use with your journaling head to the Cage Busters Academy member vault page:

For those interested in a wounds to wisdom healing journey with Inanna:

Journey to the Dark Goddess: How to Return to Your Soul by Jane Meredith

The deck I used for this particular session: The Divine Feminine Oracle: A 53-Card Deck & Guidebook for Embodying Love Cards by Meggan Watterson

And a fabulous journal tool from my friend Mariella Smith:

Tarot for Creatives: 21 Tarot Spreads for Writers and Other Creatives

Cageology and cage busting invite you to go on an adventure to connect with your innermost desires. It helps those who yearn for more find the freedom to start the quest to learn who they truly are and create a life on their own terms – be it in their kitchen or the middle of Mongolia.

And it starts with being awkward and vulnerable and showing up anyway until the tentative becomes vibrant.

Join my email musings and get your choice of 3 books. I really hope you do hit subscribe after all, as thanks to some icky behavior by the bigger social media platforms I am moving more of my public musings to my mailing list rather than social media posts.

You can choose your own adventure or choose all 3! My Yoga Journey for journaling and inner exploring, The Long Way Home for the call of the open road and freedom and Books Boats and Babes for a family just starting to plot and plan to explore the world by sailboat.

Some of the Amazon links are affiliate links, which means I earn from qualified sales at no extra cost to you.

If I asked you to imagine your dream life, would you be able to do it? Or would you, even within the realm of fantasy, censor yourself?

Start the process of finding your key to freedom in this free challenge:

Just sign up here!

Cageology and cage busting invite you to go on an adventure to connect with your innermost desires. It helps those who yearn for more find the freedom to start the quest to learn who they truly are and create a life on their own terms – be it in their kitchen or the middle of Mongolia.

And it starts with being awkward and vulnerable and showing up anyway until the tentative becomes vibrant. These videos are me living that truth.

Join my email musings and get your choice of 3 books. Although I really hope you do hit subscribe after all, as thanks to some icky behavior by the bigger social media platforms I am moving more of my public musings to my mailing list rather than social media posts.

You can choose your own adventure or choose all 3! My Yoga Journey for journaling and inner exploring, The Long Way Home for the call of the open road and freedom and Books Boats and Babes for a family just starting to plot and plan to explore the world by sailboat.

bit.ly/cagebusters

All writers know it. That voice that creeps in and then begins to scream at us:

YOU SUCK

And the voice is rather convincing. So much so we run for cover and refuse to write.

So the voice wins.

Too often we believe that beating that voice involves a feat of Herculean strength.

Which, let’s face it, most of us don’t have. We’re exhausted and just making it through the day as it is.

I know.

It took me 37 years before I was brave enough to hit publish on my first work of fiction.

And 5 years of publishing non-fiction work before I could claim writer.

I tried everything.

Screaming at myself.

Berating myself.

Cheesecake.

None of it worked long term.

Every time I thought I was on track I fell right off of again.

And then magic happened.

I transformed into an oily writer.

Instead of chocolate and lattes, I have tea and my diffuser. (Chocolate and lattes DO still have their place of course. But now it’s a healthy relationship instead of me chasing and begging for that sweet caffeinated combo).

And I journal.

Sometimes it’s just morning pages style word dump until the anxiety and self-doubt is gone and I begin to work on my WIP.

Other times I list all my fears and counter them, to realize they are not so scary after all.

Sometimes I start from my character’s viewpoint and they tell me all the things they think it’s wrong with my WIP.

They can be very persistent about who they are.

And if I’m really stuck I pull a card and let that guide my writing.

The key difference is that I go in gentle and I go in with the intention that there are no mistakes. Just exploration.

And with the pressure off and the oils soothing my body while the tea is delicious without pain or cheesecake guilt. (Not weight, no body shaming here. But I can’t walk if I consume too much milk. But if some writers destruction of choice is alcohol, mine is dairy. Not nearly so cool but I’m a total geek. Plus now I’m a geek mom. ).

My favorite oils? At the moment I’m in love with any of my citrus blends (how can I not be happy when it smells like sunshine, it’s my light against the dark) or I use the mermaid blend I found on Pinterest because I’m also a mermaid.

Try the gentle way. You’ll be so much happier. Writing is our bliss. We don’t need to self-sacrifice to be deserving of it! Just open to exploring and a second draft!

Get the book that is a 5 day kick writer’s block to the curb challenge! (Affiliate link used! You won’t pay more but I will get a commission! I stand by the book though, I wrote it.)