Small Manifestations

28 Dec 2024 Leave a comment

by Dr. Tricia Wolanin in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

“Everything you seek and everything you experience – everything– is inside you. If you want to change anything, you do it inside, not outside. The whole idea is total responsibility. There’s no one to blame. It’s all you.”-Joe Vitale

I’ve always been a fan of the film and book The Secret, created by Rhonda Byrne in collaboration with numerous other teachers.  At the time, I was exposed to it, I was working at a homeless shelter in the Bronx.  I was so inspired by it, I bought the DVD, and had a screening at the shelter with a mini workshop. I shared it with friends and parents, who implemented it into my life. And that was the initiation of vision boards in my life. 

Manifestation is a tool I’ve continued to intentionally dabble with in my life, generally at this time of year.  There had been some lashback over the years with the film, because of it’s focus on material things.  I admit that it’s not always on the forefront of my mind of manifesting the life I want.  I sometimes go by the mantra a client once said to me, “life just lifes.”  Yet, over time what is becoming to become apparent is we are constant manifestors, although often unintentional.

The past several days, with preparation for the new year, with fresh goals and intentions I have been listening to interviews with manifesting teachers such as Emma Mumford, Joe Vitale, and Pam Oslie.  There is a reminder that manifestation is a process, but also we are constantly manifesting without even being aware of this. Our thoughts create our reality. The reality we are living (even all that we are complaining about) we manifested this.

I had all this in my mind lately, prior to walking my dog Bella yesterday. A passing thought came of her poop bag by the side of the outside door. I kept it there and didn’t throw it away, because it was a small poop and thought I could add to it, by reusing the bag.  As I opened the front door, the poop bag moved several feet to be on my doorstep waiting for me. I manifested it. It made me laughed but reminded me we manifest on all layers.  However small or large. Our thoughts create reality.

Several weeks ago, I was in Santa Fe New Mexico, inspired by the communal creative vibe that exuded from that city. I went home, wanted create art, and was on the hunt to find a canvas.  I stepped into various everything store shops, and couldn’t find the perfect size.  After having lunch with a friend in Silverlake, in the parking lot was a new canvas and a chair, with a note from the previous owner offering his blessing of creative possibilities to the new owner. I manifested this! 

If I can manifest canvases and poop bags, what else can I manifest?

I share this because the stories we hear of manifestation don’t just have to be big dramatic shifts and changes.  They can, but they start with witnessing and acknowledging the small ways we manifest.  It’s easy to get frustrated with what life seems to throw at us, we seem to be living the motto “life just lifes.”  But we have the power to shift things.  When we complain or act as the victim, we are simply bringing more energy to that situation and remain in it versus taking action. We do have the right to vent, but do we want to live in it?

And so as I write this, what will you manifest?  I will end with a question one spiritual teacher Cynthia Sue Larson asks herself daily…

“How good could it get?”

Denim Creativity

18 Dec 2024 Leave a comment

by Dr. Tricia Wolanin in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

“A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life. Living in this manner—continually and stubbornly bringing forth the jewels that are hidden within you—is a fine art, in and of itself.” 
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Sometimes we seek out creativity without knowing what to expect.  This was the case several weekends ago in Santa Fe, where my mom, friend, and I went to a free Denim painting workshop put on by the Site Santa Fe Museum (also free to visit) and 4Kinship, an indigenous owned clothing store in town.  We didn’t know what we were in for, as I thought when we signed up that this would be a class to teach us how to paint indigenous designs.  Instead the class offered permission and paint to design whatever your heart called for.  The theme was joy. 

But for before the class began the owner of 4Kinship shared a story of how she had partnered with an organization to build a skatepark on an indigenous reservation.  On the inaugural day of the skate park opening, legend Tony Hawk was invited and came to skate in conjunction with all of the other skaters.   The owner of 4Kinship recruited an individual Shawn, who had been skating for years, to serve as a mentor 2-3 times a week to teach and lead skating lessons.  He offered through mentorship and skating, alternative ways of being and living could be discovered to indigenous youth. Another indigenous creative was there who created a bespoke skateboard company (he also happened to be half Filipino). As this story was told, the owner began to tear up, which made me want to cry out of the beauty of collaboration and commitment to community.

And here we were in a free denim workshop.  She gave us permission in that moment to create for the sake of it.  As we did, there was initial hesitation and trepidation, what if we paint something and it’s wrong? There’s no erasing…. But we began to follow our intuitive hits.  My friend Crystal, had images of faded checkered lines on the back of her denim coat, and was advised a way to seek out those results. My mom free styled a Desigual-esque vibe, as I tried to mimic the essence of examples that were hung of denim with indigenous patterns.  Beats played in the background, we all got in the zone, chatted, and painted.  It didn’t matter what the results were, we temporarily were all being creative collectively.  And there was such beauty in this…

Being in Santa Fe, at this workshop, then strolling down Canyon Drive with dozens of galleries, gave permission to step into my own creativity once again. It’s easy to get caught up in the everyday drama of life, focusing on the daily busy-ness of work and to dos.  But to let your mind wander, let the paintbrush move on a canvas, there was freedom there. As someone who is a creativity coach, I am used to talking to people 1:1 about their creativity, but there is a sacredness in doing this in a group.  Separate and connected.

Reframing Love

14 Dec 2024 Leave a comment

by Dr. Tricia Wolanin in Uncategorized Tags: , , ,

            As a devotee of romcoms, it seems the world is framed that the potential of romantic love is always a possibility.  Fairytales mold young girls to feel as if their lives are not complete without their knight in shining armors.  And so it’s easy to be feel one is always on the hunt for their other half, and as we go out and about in the world we are programmed to seek couples who exemplify this idealized standard. When we don’t find it, a sense of dissatisfaction and incompleteness can arise. 

            On this Saturday morning, at a chill café in Los Feliz, I did spot a handful of couples.   But what I saw exemplified love to a greater intensity.  It was not the cutesy couples kissing in a corner I saw.  What I witnessed were tables of friendships, groups of men or groups of women meeting up to share their week’s joys, struggles, laughter, goals.  And I realized this was who the majority of the customers were on a Saturday morning.  This was real love.  Love that is loyal, consistent, stable, kind, non-contingent, and long lasting.  Friendship love. 

            So often we are in search of the essence of something that we may already have.  Instead of worrying where one may find love, why not be love, or reside in love that is in one’s atmosphere?  This could be one’s family, friends, or even pets.

            As I write this, I am aware it seems Pollyanna-ish.  Yet love is already all around.  We may not label these interactions and relationships as such, but it offers the same warm feeling of being cared for and offers a sense of belonging. Love is a verb.  Love is an action.  It is not an elusive thing to grasp, and therein lies the problem.  How we believe we should perceive and experience it. At the moment, we may view ourselves as lonely, but ultimately that is a choice in perception.  Allow oneself to experience and feel all the way love shows up in your life this weekend.  Then note how you feel.  Instead of the sense of seeking, there may lie within a sense of satisfaction.

“Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation.” — Oscar Wilde