Tools to Use in the Valley

Living a life on purpose is not without its challenges. Without question, doing what you love and making a living at it is very rewarding. However, like all journeys, it has within it, mountain top experiences and valley experiences.

In the 17 years I have been a professional storyteller, the valley experiences have included:

• Drastic fluctuations in my income
• Feelings of isolation from working independently
• Sacrificing personal luxuries to maintain financial stability 

How long I stay in the valley often depends on how effectively I use and apply the following tools:

• Journaling: It is the best and cheapest brand of therapy.
• Prayer/Meditation: If I am consistently spending time in quiet reflection, it gives me an inner calm that often can override the outer chaos.
• Support Circle: It has been a blessing to be in a circle of people who can encourage and inspire me when I am in the valley. The organizations, National Association of Black Storytellers and Keepers of the Culture have given me immeasurable support on this journey. My own circle of family and friends have also given me unwavering support. If you do not have such a support circle in your life, it may be time to change your flock. 

On your journey, if you find yourself in the valley, employ these tools and let me know how they work for you. If you have other tools that you have found effective, please share, I am always looking for more. If you need help discovering your life’s purpose, check out my e-book. If you join the mailing list, you can get a free excerpt of the book.

 

Whatever path you take, just remember that the valley is the space between two mountains.

 

 

 

Divinely Ordered Steps on the Journey

Lately, I have been extremely productive in various facets of my life: personal, business and spiritual. My plate has been pretty full. However, I have been able to maintain my center and make significant strives completing my long to-do list because I have been diligent about journaling each morning and doing walking meditations. As a result, I feel more focused and grounded during the day.

Journaling every day is easy for me. It’s a habit I established in my life at an extremely young age. However, a consistent meditation practice has been elusive for me at times.

Recently, Renee Colbert Gadson (my dear friend) and I made a pact to resume an exercise regiment. We acknowledged that physical wellness is an important element to achieving the goals in other areas of our life. We also agreed that the exercise program is not simply to lose weight or become fit but to help us maintain our spiritual focus, as well.

I decided that my regiment would include walking for 30 minutes. My intent was to start off slow and honor my body’s current limitations. Right behind my home is a track, so I made use of it. To be certain there was a spiritual component, I said an affirmation with each lap.

Lap One and Two
There is a great demand for my work as an artist and I am paid extremely well.

Lap Three and Four
All of my relationships are loving, healthy and fulfilling.

Lap Five and Six
Life is easy.

Caring for my teenaged daughter. Easy.
Balancing business and creativity. Easy.
Spending time with my King. Easy.
Spending time with my family. Easy.
Giving back to my community. Easy.

After the walk, I start my day. I am not just physically energized. I am mentally focused, emotionally connected and spiritually aligned.

Throughout the day, I get this overwhelming sense that the Divine really is conspiring to do me good.

For example, the other day I had an appointment that I totally forgot about. When I realized it, it was hours later. When I checked my messages, I was anticipating hearing irate messages from the woman I was supposed to meet with. Instead, she left a message informing me that she had to cancel and apologized for any inconvenience caused me.

Coincidence? I think not.

Life can be seen as a series of unrelated events that occur by happenstance. Life can also been seen as a conscious design stemming from, not simply positive thought, but from the awareness, understanding and knowledge that there is a Divine Presence operating in the Universe that is individualized as you.

I choose the latter as my truth. Besides, even if I am wrong, I would bet cash money that I am having waaaaay more fun than the folks in the other camp.

Calm Seas on the Journey

On the surface of the sea there are moments when it is calm and moments when it is turbulent. However, deep down in the sea, all is constantly still.

That deep stillness and calm is what my aim is on my journey in life. Understanding that there will be times when on the surface things are rough, I strive to maintain a deep inner knowing that all is really well within.

The spiritual tools which help me to sustain this inner knowing are journaling meditation/prayer, visualization and music. If I am consistently utilizing my tools, when the rough seas come (And they always do. That’s just a part of this life journey.) Then the turbulence doesn’t last for long.

For instance, in the spring of 2008 I tested positive for a dis-ease that could potentially be with me for the rest of my life. When I got the news, I was walking along the river with a dear friend enjoying an amazing spring day. I was feeling vibrant, alive, healthy, strong, loved and blessed. Everything felt right with the world. Then that call came.

Nothing the medical professional was telling me made sense to me. She informed me that this dis-ease was incurable yet because I have no symptoms, there was nothing I needed to do differently. She told me there are 25 million people in this country who have this dis-ease but do not know it. My thought was, “If they do not know they have this dis-ease, than how does SHE know?”

As she is talking, everything inside me is saying, “This is NOT so. This simply is NOT so.”

After that call ended, through choked words, I told my friend about the news I had just received. On the outside I felt like I wanted to crumble. But inside, something kept saying “It ain’t so.”

I began to sing a song I wrote about letting the river wash over me. In the song, I called out the names of my ancestors who in the face of what seemed insurmountable odds, they not only overcame but triumphed:

Imhotep, Nefertti
Queen Nzinga, Hannibal
Denmark Vesey
Phyllis Wheatly
Malcolm and Martin

In the days following that news, there were certainly moments that on the surface things felt turbulent. However, that inner voice kept telling me that the dis-ease is not so. My wholeness is what was true. That voice kept getting louder and louder. In the depth of my soul, I knew I was healthy and well.

I knew that if I continued to use my spiritual tools I would continue to have the experience of optimum health.

So if that was indeed my truth, why was I having this experience? What was it I am supposed to remember? In the book, Conversation with God. it purports that every experience comes to remind you of Who You Really are?

Whenever I am experiencing any kind of physical challenge I refer to Louise Hay’s book You Can Heal Your Life. In that book she charts an array of dis-eases and provides the root mental/spiritual/emotional cause of that dis-ease along with an affirmation to assist in the elimination of that root cause and beginning the healing process.

Hay cites the root cause the dis-ease I was diagnosed having was guilt. This information resonated with me. I certainly felt feelings of guilt at various times in my life. At certain times, my feelings of guilt have almost been crippling.

So now armed with this information, I knew what I needed to do:

o Continue utilizing my spiritual tools
o Release my guilt
o Affirm my healing
o Claim wholeness and wellness in every moment

I envisioned that the next time I got my annual exam my healing would be complete and I would not have this dis-ease. That was not only my vision but what I knew to be already true.

Just this week I went in for my annual exam. The usual battery of tests were done. Lab work was submitted and the results would be in at the end of the week.

Immediately after the doctor left the office, I began to get dress. I began praying, "Thank you for my healing. Thank you for my healing."

Yesterday I got the call. The lab work was in. The result . . .

I tested NEGATIVE.

All is calm on the surface and deep within me. For now.

New Beginnings

In previous postings I have shared how important journaling is to my journey. Since I was a small, child I have using writing as a way to understand the world around me. Journaling is how I metabolize my life.

Recently, I purchased a new journal. Selecting a new journal is always interesting for me. First, it is often challenging to find a journal I do not already own because after 37 years of journaling I have an extensive collection. Then, I am very particular about the features I want in a journal. It has to be the right size. It has to be lined. It must have a decorative cover. And the list goes on and on.

Finally, I decided on a silver and white journal with 164 ruled pages, stitch bound, with a silk ribbon marker and a picket holder in the back for those loose pieces of paper I jot my thoughts on when my journal is not handy.

When I get my new journal home I am excited. Starting a new journal is literally the beginning of a new chapter in my life. I wonder to myself, "What events, people, circumstances and situations will prompt me to fill the pages?"

Every now and again, I will read the entries of a journal in my collection. Sometimes my own words from my distant past inspire me. When I read some of my past musings it is like reading a self-help book . Other times, I will read about a challenging time in my life and I can scarcely remember the details in the present moment, which makes me think of the adage, "This too shall pass."

In my younger years, I used to feel embarrassed as I read about some heart break I experienced at the hands of some man in my past that now is barely a blip on my life's radar screen. It is that feeling of embarrassment that at one point kept me from even including the names of people in my journal.

Now that I am a woman of a certain age, I rarely admonish myself for my past transgressions. To paraphrase Maya Angelou, " Always have the courage to give love one more chance. And always one more chance.

So I hope this new chapter in my life is filled with captivating stories. I pray the mistakes of my past are not the mistakes of my future. And if I gain some pearls of wisdom along the way, I promise to share it with the readers of my blog.

Promise.

My Companion on the Journey

Writing is my spiritual companion on this Journey. In my valley experiences and during my mountain top highs, writing is there to sort things out for me. On the page is where I metabolize my life. It is not simply a recording of the Journey. At times, writing gives me the sign post for which way to travel. It is the warning sign for dangers ahead.

Writing rarely allows me to be stagnant. It moves me both figuratively and literally. Through writing, I am able to move pass anger to discover the authentic truth. I may start off complaining about who has done me wrong but writing will not let me stay there. Soon I uncover how I put myself in the position to be victimized.

When I am on top of the world, writing helps me appreciate the beauty of the landscape even more. Through writing I notice the brilliance of the colors on the mountain. Captured in the words on the page is how the bird's song on the mountain sounds harmonized.

I have even found parts of myself on the page that I did not know existed; some parts I wish never existed; and yet still other parts I thought were long lost but I found through my companion, writing. All of my fears are exposed on the page. Writing will not let me hide.

I can not imagine this Journey without writing. It has been there from the beginning. My writing as child was done in a diary with lock and key which is still within my reach at my bedside. As an adult it is done in colorful bound books that fill baskets all around my bedroom.

Writing is the best brand of therapy I know (and the cheapest). It holds my confidence. It is unrelenting when it has to be. Gentle when it needs to be.

Journaling Tips - For the Journey of Life

The best way I know how to navigate this journey called life, with its ups and downs, is to journal. Since I was old enough to hold a pencil I have escaped to the page. Writing is my spiritual companion. In my valley experiences and during my mountaintop highs, writing is there to sort things out.

For example, through writing I am able to move pass anger to uncover the authentic truth. I may start off my journaling by complaining about who has done me wrong but my Inner Wisdom will not let me stay in anger very long. Soon, I uncover how I put myself in the position to be victimized.

When I am on top of the mountain, journaling helps me appreciate the beauty of the landscape even more. Through writing, I notice the brilliance of the colors on the mountains. Capturing the words on the page, I am able to hear harmony in the songs of birds. I have even found parts of me on the page that I did not know existed and some parts I wish no longer existed. Yet still, I find other parts I thought were long lost.


In her book The Right to Write, Julian Cameron says, “We should write because humans are spiritual beings and writing is a powerful form of prayer and mediation, connecting us both to our own insights and to a higher and deeper level of inner guidance as well.”

If you want to use journaling as a tool to navigate through your journey of life, there are easy ways to get started. A blank page intimidates some people. If you find you come to the page and have nothing to say, then take one of your affirmations and write it over and over for the 15 minutes. You are likely to find that, as you are writing the affirmations other thoughts come to you. Get those thoughts down no matter how disconnected, obscure or nonsensical they may be. Get it down! It might be the grocery list. It does not matter. GET IT DOWN. Remember this writing will not be graded ;-).

Journaling does not have to be a daily account of what is happening in your life - but it can be. You may find that detailing what happened yesterday or what your plans are for today is a good place to start your brain dump.

If writing an affirmation repeatedly or writing a daily account does not get your thoughts flowing, use one of these starters. (You may want to write these on the inside cover of your journal for a quick reference should you need them.)

• If the desires of my heart were evident to the world people would know that I am_______________________________.


• What frightens me most is ___________________________.


• If no one were to ever find out I would __________________.

Whichever way you start does not matter. What matters is that you go to the page. Writing is the best brand of therapy for me. It holds my confidence. It is unrelenting when it has to be and gentle when it needs to be.



Check out My Book: Journey to Purpose