Today I'm introducing an exciting new addition to The Artful Life:
Artful Woman of the Month: monthly interviews with inspiring, creative women...
it will be a wonderful opportunity for me to get to know some of my mentors and sheroes better and share them with you :) and a chance for all of us to share the wisdom, light and inspiration that these wonderful women bring to the world! I've got an exciting line up for the fall, and I must say I am absolutely thrilled to be bringing this feature into the world with an interview with a luminary of the women's web world, Goddess Leonie Allan of goddessguidebook.com.It seems so appropriate to call Leonie a luminary (one who brings or embodies light).
She is one of those rare beings with a natural gift for bringing joy, light, and beauty into other's lives. I've been folllowing her work for about two years, and continue to be charmed by her honesty, authenticity, and utterly unique style. She manages to combine lightheartedness, and sometimes silliness, with some serious healing magic and wisdom. I talked to her about her work, her ideas about life-balance, and her latest venture, the Goddess Circle (which launches TODAY!).Here's our conversation:
The Artful Life: When did you first know you wanted your life's work to center aroundwomen, healing, and creativity? Do you consider this a "calling?"
Goddess Leonie: I always knew I wanted to do SOMETHING. When I was 4, I wanted to be
an artist, poet, or someone who changed the world. I was just waiting
to find how it would all unfurl... when I would know *how* that would
come about.
When I was a teenager, I remember looking through big guidance
counsellor books of all the different kinds of jobs in the world. The
closest I could find that I wanted to be was artist or priest.
They didn't have an entry for the position of Goddess.
Then, when I was 21, I was invited to my first women's circle. A
sacred gathering of women sisters. And as soon as I walked in that
room that smelled of incense, lit by warm candlelight and saw strong,
beautiful, spirited women sitting in circle... I knew that was where I
wanted to be. That I would be circling for the rest of my life.
Doing what I do utterly thrills me. I can't think of a better job in
the world. I get to do everything I adore: art, spirit, healing,
meditation, joy-making, circling, creating sacred sisterhoods of
women.
The Artful Life: You share so much of yourself on your blog, including your
vulnerabilities and intimate details of your life. I know your readers
find this inspiring, but I'm wondering how you balance this giving
with your own need for privacy. Can you talk about how you maintain
healthy boundaries?
Goddess Leonie: Really simply: I follow my spirit.
I share deeply when it's right for me. I don't when it's not.
I check in with my intuition first.
For example, I shared with the world when I was 6 weeks pregnant,
being fully aware it may not last. I knew in my heart + spirit it was
the right thing to do.
There are a lot of times when I don't share though. I respect my
love's need for privacy too.
I know when I've crossed a line of my intuition as to what's right to
post or not. I sit with it. I re-edit. I re-publish. I don't want to
feel like I've forsaken myself for the sake of a good story. It's
utterly important to me to stay true to the sometimes soft, sometimes
loud, voice inside me which knows what to do.
You encourage women to engage in loving self-care. What are your own
favourite, most important self-care rituals?
I gauge my levels everyday to see whether I'm in depletion mode or
not. I used to run until I could run no more, and collapse in an
exhausted, panic-attack-stricken heap.
After a few pretty rough rounds of that + some health scares, I
decided I could no longer do that. Especially now I'm a new mama - my
health + sanity is uber important and sacred.
So I check my levels. See if I'm running on adrenaline like a flipping
rabbit, or walking the steady pace of the abundant buffalo.
Ways I fill up everyday: Get out of the house for a walk, no matter
how small. Multivitamins. Green smoothies. At LEAST eight hours sleep.
Rest when I need to.
The Artful Life: Leonie, you are an artist, a self-proclaimed "hippy," and your
personal style is so light and colourful and charming; you are also a
successful and savvy businesswoman and a talented web-tech. How do
these apparently disparate qualities balance with such apparent ease
in your life?
Goddess Leonie: Ha! I love being a hippy business woman!
I realised a few years ago that while my passions for art, healing +
spirit were beautiful and gorgeous all on their own... I really needed
to develop my business muscles so I could create a vehicle that would
support them. I needed to find ways to share them with the world in a
way that actually sustained and supported me so that I could share in
a much bigger way.
So that's what I did.
I'm definitely a right brain goddess... but I have the left side of my
brain for a reason! I just needed to exercise it. So I read business
books, inspiring finance books, and started being a whole brained
goddess.
It's been the most delicious, exciting journey!
The Artful Life: You've recently made the huge life-transition from maiden to mother. I
love that you've shared so much of your journey of early motherhood
with your readers, and as a mom myself, I know how challenging and
transformative the early years are. Can you talk a little bit about
the personal and spiritual changes that come with new motherhood, and
how you are integrating those changes into your creative and business
life?
Goddess Leonie: I don't have time to screw around anymore.
I used to spend at least 40+ hours a week working on my business. Now
I have maybe 4-10 hours a week available to work? And these are
definitely NOT consecutive hours - or even whole hours. They come in
20 minute sections usually. But the funny thing is - even though I'm
spending much much much less time in my business - I'm executing about
the same amount of things.
Viva la focus! And not worrying about unimportant work anymore! Just
doing what is utterly necessary + important... the things that will
make the most amount of change in the world.
That's an incredibly freeing feeling.
New mamahood was the hugest initiation I have ever undertaken. Birth
was an incredibly intense experience for me - I meditated through it.
I found inside me huge reserves of courage. It was damn hard work, but
worth it, over and over again. My daughter is just incredible.
Every moment of mamahood I get challenged over and over again to be my
very best self - calm, loving, patient, attentive, joyful. Some
moments I get there. Some moments I don't. But there's always the next
moment for me to try again.
The Artful Life: Now, I would love to hear more about your latest venture, the Goddess Circle, an online community for finding and celebrating your goddess self. I know you are launching TODAY, and I know my readers would love to hear about this gorgeous offering.
dreamed it up - two months ago I had a dream where I got told to do
it, how to do it, how to price it. It came as a complete vision. So I
just did what I was told.
It is the biggest, wildest, most wonderful and generous thing I've done.
It is a year round Goddess Circle for you to find, connect and share
with other goddess sisters. And you get ALL of my e-courses, classes,
meditations + workbooks... over $600 of my goodies for under $100.
I wanted to be able to offer up everything I had + make it as
crazy-affordable as possible... so I could support goddesses to walk
their journeys, and give them exactly what they needed at every step
of the path.
It's a medicine bag of sisterhood + wisdom + joy + creativity + love.
The Artful Life: Any final thoughts about living the Artful Life?
Goddess Leonie: That you can utterly do it. Every moment, you have a choice - to go
towards yourself + to God, or away.
Also! I wanted to gift to you a free 8 minute healing meditation... over here!
The Artful Life: Leonie, it's been a true pleasure interviewing you, thank you soooo much, and best of everything for your Goddess Circle Launch today!!
p.s. You can learn much more about Leonie's Goddess Circle here!
No comments:
Post a Comment