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KaleidoSoul Media

Mailer 02

 

Soul Songs

Spinning the fragments of
your world into wholeness & beauty through SoulCollage®

Issue #16 October 2006
Theme- Embracing Our Shadows



Welcome!

Greetings, and welcome to Soul Songs, the official KaleidoSoul newsletter, and the only newsletter which features SoulCollage® ideas, resources, and artists.

Our intention is to fill each issue (and your life) with inspiration, soul-solace, and delight. Whether you are new to SoulCollage® or already immersed in the creation of your deck,
Soul Songs is for you.
 
Please feel free to forward this newsletter to any friends or family members who will enjoy it.
 
 
If someone forwarded this issue of Soul Songs to you, please subscribe here.
 
May we continue to allow SoulCollage® to transform us from the inside out, so that we are able to sing the songs we were born to sing,
every day of our lives.
KaleidoSoul Cafe
Grab a cup of your favorite hot (or cold) drink and cozy up to the computer while you browse around the KaleidoSoul website.
Here's what's new and exciting in the world of SoulCollage®.

The theme of this issue is the Embracing Our Shadows. Have you read the KaleidoSoul page, SoulCollage: Light and Shadow yet?




Kaleido-Deal of the Month
October

Purchase any one of the 7 Kaleido-Deals on sale now
in the KaleidoSoul Shop
and receive fr*ee admission to the October 18 tele-playshop
with special guest, Seena Frost, SoulCollage's creator!

The perfect way to deepen your SoulCollage practice,
and connect with other SoulCollagers.

$10.00 value, our gift to you!
Note: If you can't attend the tele-playshop,
we'll send you the audio recording instead.


All New Tele-Playshop!
Embracing Our Shadows:
 
With Special Guest Seena B. Frost

Wednesday October 18 @ 5 pm EST
More information here


Do you live in New Zealand ?
Have you always wanted an opportunity to attend a workshop
with a trained SoulCollage facilitator?
Well now you have the chance!!!
Karen Mann will be presenting a SoulCollage workshop
on November 25-26 in Napier.
More details will be published shortly, but in the meantime,
please contact Karen at
info@flyingcolourscreativity.com.au
to express your interest in finding out more information.



Soul Singing With Anne Marie

Hi! I'm Anne Marie, the creator of KaleidoSoul, and a SoulCollage® facilitator in Massachusetts. If you're just starting to sing your song with SoulCollage®, then this column is especially for you!
 
 

Suggestions for Newcomers to SoulCollage:
  • Find a SoulCollage Facilitator near you.
  • Download the Getting Started with SoulCollage Workshop.
  • Visit KaleidoSoul and click on What is SoulCollage, SoulCollage Deck, and
    Making the Cards on the left menu.
  • Seena Frost is the one who created SoulCollage®. Visit Seena's website and see what four cards come up for you in the automatic reading, then read some of Seena's articles.
  • Read Seena's book, SoulCollage.
  • Listen to Seena's CD, Introduction to SoulCollage.
  • Don't forget to take it easy and always, always
    trust the process!


    What's So Great About
    Our Dark Parts, Anyway?

    As a SoulCollage facilitator, one of the questions I hear most often is this: Why do I have to make cards that focus on the parts of myself that I don't like? I just want to get rid of them!

    The answer is very simple, but it takes some time to fully grasp the power of it.

    The answer is this: the parts of ourselves that we don't like (our negativity, our shame, our anger, our self-loathing, our depression, our loneliness...) will never go away unless we accept them.

    Making SoulCollage cards for these parts is an excellent first step to accepting them, to making peace with them, to creating an inner wholeness that changes our lives for the better.

    The very best way to understand the power of how this works is to jump right in and make a card for a part of yourself that you don't like, or a part that makes you uncomfortable. Then sit down with the card and let the image(s) tell you its story, using the I Am The One Who... exercise.

    It's okay to be doubtful about how this works. Simply give yourself permission to trust the process. Give yourself time and patience as you find the right images for your first "shadow" card, and begin to work with it. Don't rush yourself. When the time is right, and the images present themselves, you will know it.

    If you have questions while working with your shadowy parts/cards, please feel free to join us over at the KaleidoSoul Community Board on Yahoo. You'll find a supportive group of SoulCollagers plus several facilitators who will be glad to help you through it.

    It may seem uncomfortable and strange at first to be creating cards for and dialoguing with parts of yourself that you never liked, but you will find that after a while it's another powerful tool for self-discovery and radical self-acceptance.


    Anne Marie Bennett is a freelance writer, self-
    taught artist and SoulCollage® facilitator who trained with Seena Frost. Her background is elementary education, computer software training, writing, and mixed media art. She lives, laughs, writes, and sings (and makes her own SoulCollage® cards!) in Beverly, MA.

    Click here for:

    upcoming workshops with Anne Marie.


Soul Symphonies With Karen

My name is Karen Mann and I'm a SoulCollage® facilitator from Melbourne, Australia. This column is for those of you who have already made some cards & are ready to discover the symphony of voices inside of you and around you.

Embracing the Shadow 

 

When we work with the shadow we are essentially working with an aspect of self that is out of balance. In a Neter which is "shadowed" there may be too much of an aspect (eg: too much anger can manifest as an "angry young man" or a "bitch") or too little of an aspect (eg: repression of anger may lead to someone being overaccommodating and a "pushover").

I believe our aim when working with a shadowy part is not to "fix" it or to get rid of it. Shadow work is about getting to know this aspect of self, seeing it honestly, accepting it, loving it and then, over time, learning how to live with it, and finding a way for this Neter to live a balanced existence.

For example, a balanced "angry" Neter would express anger in an appropriate manner at the time the emotion is experienced. It would be neither expressed inappropriately nor repressed.

My "Overachiever" card (at left) is a card that represents a shadow aspect of myself that pushes myself to the extreme in order to achieve. "I am the one who tries so hard to do everything perfectly. I need people to notice how well I've done and praise me for it. I will work so hard to achieve the impossible, just so that people will reward me and tell me that I am good at what I do."  

 

This is a part of me that can definitely begin the healing process by being acknowledged, accepted & loved. This part is lacking in self-esteem and working me into an almost obsessive frenzy in order to achieve praise and a self-esteem boost from outside parties. I believe that over time, by loving and accepting this part just as she is, there will be less of a need for this excessive, obsessive "overachiever" to express herself to the extreme. When this Neter finds balance, it will do things well for the joy of seeing a job well done, not to achieve any external praise. 

 

 
 
Another example of a card I made for a shadowy aspect of self is this "Scared Little Girl." This part of me has an excess of fear and shame. This card says: "I am the one who is small and scared. I feel out of my depth and I'm so scared that someone will figure out that I don't know what I'm doing!!! I push people away so they can't discover my secret and I carry a lot of shame and feel like a fraud!"  

 

Acknowledging and accepting this part of myself by making this card has begun a healing process. Now that my "Scared Little Girl" isn't being treated as a "dirty little secret" she is already behaving in a more balanced manner, and asking for help when she needs it, rather than behaving erratically out of self-protection.
 
This shadowy part of me is now less scared to admit she doesn't know what she's doing, because she knows that even when she's uncertain about how to do something she will still be accepted. She is not so afraid of being laughed at or rejected.
The SoulCollage process offers us an opportunity to honestly see and accept these often repulsive shadow aspects of ourselves. It also allows us the opportunity to begin to understand what they need and want, through their sometimes extreme behaviour. SoulCollage can help you to begin to work with your shadowed Neters to find a more balanced way to get their needs met.

Karen Mann is an artist, art teacher, Lifestyle Coach, yoga and meditation teacher, and SoulCollage® facilitator. Karen has been working with SoulCollage cards for more than two years and facilitates a variety of SoulCollage Groups. She also works with individuals. Karen is based in Melbourne, Australia. For more information, or to contact Karen, please visit her website, Flying Colours Creativity.
 
 
 
 
Looking for MORE than
just a monthly newsletter about SoulCollage?

Yearning to dive DEEPER
into the mysterious waters
of your own soul?

Ready to let your creativity
take wings and FLY?


Then...
KALEIDOSOUL KINDRED SPIRITS
 
is for you!


It's affordable & easy to join.
More information here.

The journey is yours to take!
 
**************
Have we got a
KALEIDO-DEAL
for you!

This offer is available
through October 31 only!
Purchase any Kaleido-Deal
in the Shop

and receive fr*ee admission to the
October 18 tele-playshop
"Embracing Our Shadows"
with special guest Seena Frost.

If you cannot attend the tele-playshop,
we will send you the audio recording of it instead.



 
KaleidoSoul Creations
As promised, we are featuring four SoulCollage® cards from our readers in each issue. Please feel free to submit one of your cards for a future issue by sending a reply email to this newsletter.

In keeping with this month's theme, each card below represents a "shadowy" part of
a SoulCollager's deck.
 
 
Lonely Me
Suit: Committee
Artist: Sharry
Location: Oregon

I am the one who
leaves herself out.

I am the one who longs for closeness, yet turns away.

I am the one who has forgotten the way home.

 



Overachiever
Suit: Committee
Artist: Anne Marie
Location: Massachusetts

I am the one who pushes and pushes you to keep doing and achieving. I am the one who works hard and keeps finding more and more and more work to do. I am the one who never has enough time to get everything done. I am the one whose world revolves around work.
I am the one who is afraid of failure, who worries about what other people think of me.


Depressed
Suit: Committee
Artist: Amanda
Location: Minnesota

I am the One who is depressed. When this blackness comes down upon me, I can neither sing nor fly. I am ashamed of my weakness. Imaginary terrors await me around every bend. I am indifferent to beauty, to love, to appetites.
I wait mutely for Death to remember my name. Even my angels
cannot reach me here.
 
 
 
 
The Fury
Suit: Council
Artist: Ruth E.
Location: Washington

I am One Who bears
the energy of anger.
I am One Who empowers you
to resist injustice.


******

KaleidoSoul Notes


Note-worthy sites & resources that are proven to be worthy of our readers!



The Dark Side of the Light Chasers, by Debbie Ford. This book is helping me immensely with the concept of my shadow parts. I can't recommend this book highly enough!

Shadow Dance, by David Richo. Another excellent book on how we can embrace our shadow voices and welcome them into our wholeness.
 

Good films often bypass our intellectual sides and go right for our emotions. Good films also often portray characters who are struggling to accept their darker sides. Spiritual Cinema Circle offers films that do all of this, all of the time!

One of the best ways to embrace our shadows is to journal with and about them as much as possible. Visit the Comfort Queen store today (click on "journals") for your choice of 4 beautiful spiral bound journals into which you can pour your heart and soul, light and shadow.

******

Previews of
Coming Attractions...

Next month in Soul Songs,
the theme will be
The Committee Suit

Look for the next issue on
November 2!
.


******





SoulCollage® is a trademarked process created by Seena Frost.
For more information on Seena,
the origins of SoulCollage, or SoulCollage Facilitator Training, please visit her website www.SoulCollage.com.
 
All articles in Soul Songs are copyrighted by Anne Marie Bennett and Karen Mann, 2006, unless otherwise noted. Articles may be reprinted by permission only.