Getting Strong Again

In 2008, after making motion sculptures and choreographies for other performers for years, I decided to make a piece for myself. I needed it. I had been going through a rough breakup. I had spent a year crying and obsessively wondering why it had to end. I needed to cast a spell. I needed real witchcraft.

I was at Djerassi Artist Colony in Woodside. After getting frustrated with my inability to draw my new motion sculpture ideas, I began bending wire to make moquettes. It was a breakthrough. I was able to conceive of much more complex sculptures this way.

This is how I made my first Perfect Flower sculpture. It was a shape that was fucking itself, as it were, abstractly. This was what I was aspiring to. I wanted to be so complete within myself that I could stop feeling like I needed this person who had ghosted me.

Scientists use the term Perfect Flower to describe a flower with both male and female reproductive structures. They can self-pollinate in a pinch. I wanted to feel that sort of inner strength and confidence.

The solo I created on the sculpture is physically very hard. Even at 34, I had to get strong to do it. It begins with a slow-motion pull-up that inverts into a dangle. Leading up to every performance of this solo, I had to add upper body strength to my usual dance shape. 

Recently, I offered this solo to a friend for his 40th birthday party. My kids watch me begin the process of getting strong again.  They see me not get through the solo the first few times. They see me commit to running it most days once, then twice, then three times a day. They hear me grunt. They see Paramvir (my husband) rubbing me out afterward. They know that I made a commitment and that I steadily work toward the goal, knowing it is hard - knowing it will hurt. 

They see me commit to getting strong again. They see me feel great once I have developed that strength - amazed that this process continues to work. They cheer me on even as it takes longer each time. Now as I am about to turn 50, I place these engagements in my path so I can recommit to myself - recommit to getting strong again.

I hope this grit rubs off on them.

Don’t Listen to Me

Most self-help gurus can offer techniques as to how to achieve your goals. This is excellent for learning. I ingest their media, information, and wisdom all of the time. I don’t know everything, so I listen and learn.

But no person can tell you what is a worthy goal. You alone can do that. Mushrooms will help you hear yourself - your deeper voice. Mushrooms will make certain pursuits seem ridiculous. They will poke holes in all that is ego-driven and human-constructed. It only cares about Nature’s way.

As a guide, I try to get out of the way. I try to get everything out of the way of my traveler’s path to their muse. It isn’t about me - ever. The Taoists understood - “Run like Water, Reflect like a mirror, Respond like an echo.”

Don’t listen to me. Listen to yourself. The mushroom will amplify.

Shitty Little Drawings Realized

Shitty Little Drawings

I was giving an artist talk before my twenty-year retrospective performance at Yerba Buena Theater. The sponsors of the Transform Festival for which my show was a part listened respectfully as I told the story of my shitty little drawings. I handed them out and let them see how bad they looked. I am sure some of them were wondering why Yerba Buena Center for the Arts had decided to present such a bad artist.

After the show, as I had hoped, one of the couples from my artist talk came up to me and said, “Oh my God, you are a genius. When you gave your talk earlier and showed your drawings, I really couldn’t imagine where you were going with these drawings. And then, there on stage, we saw them - sculptures in steel, fiberglass, and ropes, costumes, everything. It is amazing what they turned into.” And I replied, “I know…isn’t it crazy how that works?”

I am not a perfectionist. I don’t believe everything I touch is gold. I believe in sketching. I rough it out. I make what I call shitty little drawings of my sculpture, costume, and choreographic ideas. I even make shitty little drawings about how I want to guide individual psychedelic clients.

My shitty little drawings are not meant to be viewed. They are thinking tools. They allow me to imagine something that has not yet transpired. They open the channels to my deeper wisdom and solve problems before they arise. I imagine what it would feel like to be in right relation to projects, people, and events.

I call them shitty little drawings because I want the bar to entry to be that low. I don’t want to be hung up for a second on trying to make something beautiful in that moment. I just want to get the idea out. If it is a good idea, I will make twenty more drawings and then hire professionals to draft the idea for me and do scaled 3D renderings.

My job is to hear the whispers, listen to the muse, and do what it says. This service attitude is helpful. It is humble. It allows me to do without triggering the ego’s protection which might stand in my way for fear I might make something ugly. ‘Look, I already said it was shitty and little. There is nothing for you to protect, Ego. Now let’s get to it!’

Shrink It

Some conflicts feel intractable. These can get me stuck in a thought loop. As someone who loves solving problems, I’ve learned that when no clear solution emerges, the best move is to shrink the problem. Let me explain.

When I was premiering ‘Okeanos’, I partnered with a trendy organization for preshow talks. In our initial meeting, the producer said she would purchase 300 of our tickets for $30 each on Friday night and we would provide a free venue for her event. We shook hands and I thought it was done. I was naive because the next time we spoke about the details, she stated she would only pay $25 per ticket. My entire production budget had been built around selling those tickets for $30, so this change presented a major problem. Without a formal contract, I had no leverage. To make matters worse, she claimed I had agreed to rent specialty equipment for her event, something I had never agreed to.

At first, I spent a lot of time stewing over the unfairness, thinking about karma, bad energy, and how she was a deceitful person hiding behind her supposed love of the arts. But ultimately, I realized that this kind of thinking wasn’t going to get me anywhere.

I made a wish for myself. I wished for the Saturday night show and collaboration to be so successful, it would shrink the power of her 300 tickets. For this night, I collaborated with one of my science advisors Dr Tierney Thys and National Geographic. Thys lined up such an impressive roster of pre-show speakers including a NASA astronaut, celebrity chef Barton Seaver, and her Deepness Dr Sylvia Earle that we sold 600 tickets for that night. The sheer celebratory positivity of the second night fully dwarfed the darkness of the Friday production.

When I am stuck in a situation where I can’t find the solution, sometimes I think it is better not to win. Maybe the better answer is to focus elsewhere and shrink that negative situation by comparison. This approach is projective rather than reflective. I put my powerful brain-actualizing machine on where I want to go. I imagine a future so bright that this shitty past situation is shrunk in comparison. It goes from being massively oppressive and laden with powerlessness to something small, twisted, and irrelevant. It also gives me something to push against as I reach toward something fun, satisfying, beautiful, and empowering. I run toward the world rather than being trampled by my past.

Perspective is powerful. Psychedelics offer new perspectives by breaking you out of your neural habits and desynchronizing areas of the brain that are usually tethered. Let’s shrink that shit and run toward your big bright future!

Saturday Night Curtain Call for Okeanos at Fort Mason, SF - Photo by Guillaume Desachy

If you or someone you know is stuck in a fruitless thought loop, reach out. We might be able to help. journey@jodilomask.com

Call Your Spirit Back 2

Last night I was speaking with my ten-year-old son as he fell asleep. During the day he had spun out, as he does, on doing something perfectly. I had critiqued his work and he freaked out. I let him know that I was only delivering the next lesson. He had done well and now I wanted to help him take it to the next level. This is triggering for him as he is an anxious child and worries about trying new things.

I told him that when he feels himself spinning out on something, getting off-kilter, he needs to call his spirit back into his body. If he does this, he will become calm again.

This is true for everyone. When we get upset, spun out, stressed, etc. it is because our spirits have left the body and are wreaking havoc in our minds. Call your spirit back.

Before you solve anything. Before you handle anything. Call your spirit back, so your actions are powerful rather than desperate.

If you don’t know what I am talking about, this is good information. Psychedelics can help you find your spirit.

If someone you know is spinning out and having trouble managing anxiety, we may be able to help. Visit creativejourney.us.

Selfish

No one told me that a truly selfish person gives to others.

I want to live my best life. I want to have the most fun. I want to be surrounded by sparkling, smiling, fulfilled people. I have the power to help people in small and profound ways to liberate themselves, feel supported, get excited, feel inspired, and simply connect. When I do, I get the benefit of their delight, their relief, their excitement, and their smile reflected back at me. So yes, giving is the most selfish act. It helps me live in a more beautiful world.

I notice you sparkle when I extend that invitation. You like parties. This makes me happy. I notice when I help you feel a crucial adjustment in your body, you feel relief. This makes me happy. I notice that when I hold you, you relax and feel more peaceful. This makes me happy. I notice when I serve you tea in my mismatched tea set, you feel like my honored guest. You are. This makes me happy. I notice when I come up with a creative role for you to inhabit in one of my events, you are tickled. This makes me happy. 

The bummer is when you give the support, the energy, the time, the resources and it doesn’t help. It isn’t received. It isn’t valued. The energy leaves your body, your life, your mind, your time and it isn’t reflected back to you. This is a true loss. I notice this too.

Am I giving to the wrong person or people? Am I giving the wrong thing? Am I giving under the wrong circumstances?

We all want to give something powerful and meaningful so we can live in a more beautiful world. We all want to give what we specifically give so very well.

What are the things that you do that get you the reflection you enjoy most in your life? 

Be Selfish. Give More.

Jodi Lomask and Mich Wong at Burning Man 2011

Acid Leads to Precision Thinking

The themes present in your mind before a journey tend to play out in the journey. In the case of the half tab of acid I took a few weeks back, I had recently heard news from my father about my brothers and the land where we grew up. Unintentionally I went in with the question, ‘How did these relationships go totally to shit when there was another time when we were friends?”

At first, I was bummed that this story and question were invading my psychedelic journey, but eventually, I had to accept that this was where my mind was going. Once I did, I could dissect a moment fourteen years ago when things began to fall apart. I pinpointed the singular event when things changed and the following moments when I became aware that things had changed. From there, all the resulting events made narrative sense. It was like a constellation appearing. I understood the how and the why. Far from right and wrong, it was simply what had occurred and why.

When I came back to myself, it was with great relief. With this greater understanding of this sad state of things, the loops of creative problem-solving stopped. I could accept it and realize that there is nothing to be done. This is how the story played out. It is.

The acid brain allowed me to focus on the precise details of a complex story and locate the root for a considerable time (actually I’m not clear on time, it may have all happened very quickly!). I am certain that LSD is very good for all kinds of creative problem-solving at these lighter doses if you prime the mind to work on a particular problem.

If you know someone that is mentally stuck and needs a mental refresh, send them to creativejourney.us. We are here to help.

Creative Excitement

I run on creative excitement. It is the charge of energy I get from the birth of a new idea; a solution or when I finally finesse something I've been working on. Even a simple reply from a contact who’s doing something cool can ignite that spark. The possibilities fill my tank - rev my engine. 

The idea isn’t necessarily good or the one I should pursue. The contact might not be serious about working with me on anything. But the possibility of making something great or going somewhere exciting or working with someone excellent offers a pulse of verve and motivation which can fuel a lot of tasks and a positive outlook for a day or two or more.

I used to try to temper it. ‘Well, Jodi, we don’t know if it is going to work out. We don’t know if it means anything real.’ And sometimes I still give myself some reality checks because my mind is very good at take-off and flight. It might not notice that someone is just being polite. I want to avoid a crash landing. 

But now, I understand that nothing is real until it happens. It’s a waste of time to prepare for a crash landing when the chances of anything reaching reality in a big way are slim. So, I take the energy and excitement. Use it to fuel a good high feeling and help getting some things done. 

Work done in this state of mind is easy and fast. You are free from lethargy or self-doubt. You feel like you deserve things. Great! 

And if the reason for your good high feeling turns out to be empty, you will be further down the road by the time you figure that out. 

If you know someone who is creatively stuck, send them my way. journey@jodilomask.com I can help with that. I’ll send you a referral fee too!

Acid vs Alcohol

A few weekends ago, I went to an all-night underground party. I didn’t want to drink alcohol, so I took half a tab of acid. I wanted to know if I could function and carry on normalish conversations with people who were drinking or who were sober. Sometimes when I take a full tab, I am entirely in another world. I can’t connect with other people unless I am hysterically laughing at them. I am pretty good at teasing so they usually aren’t offended. But I wanted to see if I had more range on a half tab.

Alcohol dulls the mind which can be very helpful in a world that pokes and bruises us. Sometimes we just don’t want to feel the pain.

When you are on psychedelics, people on alcohol seem repetitive, basic, and crude in their thinking. They are happy to share with lowered inhibitions. If you are on LSD, it isn’t that you can’t relate to people drinking alcohol, it is just a bit exhausting. Communicating with someone else who is on LSD allows you to travel deep and wide rapidly and precisely. Clarity and understanding abound.

So my research continues. Alcohol dulls the pain and the mind. Acid leads to precision thinking. More on this next week!

If you know someone who would benefit from being liberated from a negative or limiting thought loop, send them to creativejourney.us. We are here to help.

Image above is from a cocktail party.

Protect the Orb of Your Sexuality

Sexuality is vitality
It is Life's longing for itself - as Gibran said
It is Life loving itself and wanting more of itself
It is the energy and power of creation
It is a multicolored iridescent ball of inner dimension
It is precious
It is Yours

The world is complicated and some toxic energies and actions may try to contaminate your ball of pure energy. Poor decisions and confusion can muck up your crystalline force.

Protect the Orb of Your Sexuality

As a guide, it is my job to hold space for all of the traveler. I don’t want her to shut down. I don’t want him to hide. And I don’t want to contaminate their perfect iridescent multicolored crystalline orb of energy with my influence.

This is tricky.

I hold the container and don’t mix with it. Sometimes I need to step away.

The Patriarchy teaches women from birth to smother and hide their sexuality. To embrace it scares everyone unless it is for marketing purposes. Society makes room for selling at all costs.

Creation can become destruction - of relationships, societies, and communities. To give it space to bloom is to put others on edge.

I’m over hiding. 

Bluntly - I am taking up space. I am designing what I want. I’m not hurting anyone. I’m not here to scare. I am boldly authoring my own story of vitality. By doing so, I give other women room to want and men the experience of being appreciated - not for their money and status but for their beauty - their raw, animal, brut beauty.

Tendencies and Tells

We all have tendencies that aren’t ideal. I’ll share one of mine. Maybe it’ll help you think of yours. 

I tend to spread myself too thin, to get super excited about too many ideas, and to end up in situations where I am trying to do more than is humanly possible. Unfortunately, the quality of what I can do begins to falter and I hate this. I want everything I do to be excellent. And when I lack preparation or clear intention or am less thorough, I get very disappointed. I don’t like the feeling of being spread thin. I feel less centered, less powerful. I don’t have time to simmer on things. I don’t have time to ruminate. I make poorer decisions because I don’t have time to feel into what is happening - and if I can’t feel things, I miss things. I miss the unspoken realities. I miss the truths people around me feel but aren’t expressing openly. I am a feeler. I need a certain amount of time to tune into that level of communication.

When I am spread too thin, I have a tell. There is a way that my subconscious mind communicates with my external reality: you can tell by my cuticles. When I am stressed or anxious, my hands are a mess. I don’t bite my nails or eat them. I get overcommitted to exfoliating my fingers and toes. I want to get rid of any dead skin until it hurts. It's a gnarly habit, but it is also useful information.

I have begun to do a self-search when this happens, to figure out what is making me anxious and chances are, I need to prune my life not my fingers. It is an indication that I have spread myself too thin and I need to curate, edit, prune, and choose the projects with the most heat, the most excitement, the most potential, and the most momentum. Things that can be shelved, should be shelved. 

How to decide? I love them all. Some have more Yes coming back to them now. Some are working and some are continuing to cost without delivering.

What is a tendency of yours that tells you something about your deeper state of being?

Deeply in the Body

I have spent my entire life training in dance, getting more in or out of shape, and performing on stage, since I was three years old. I turn 50 this year. That is a long time.

I have known the experience of being more or less in the body, depending on where I am in a performance cycle. I have become softer and then firmer, tighter and then looser, more connected and then more distant from the feeling body.

I LOVE being deeply in the body. The more I put into my body, the more I get out of it. I give it time with a dance class, a workout, a stretch. I nourish it with wholesome foods—lots of protein to build muscle and high-nutrient foods like fruits and vegetables. I ensure it gets rest, doing my best to get at least seven hours a night. I keep it tidy—flossing, scrubbing, grooming. The more I move and stretch, the more my body wants to move and stretch. It is such a responsive partner.

Everything is better when you are deeply in the body.

When I guide travelers in nature, I begin by helping them get deeply connected to their bodies. I am their partner for this experience. If they are not relaxed, they may brace against the journey and not have a gentle lift-off. If the mushroom isn’t prepared properly, they may be distracted by gastrointestinal distress during the experience. If they do not feel safe with me, their journey is more likely to take a dark turn.

In the ramp-up into the experience, I help travelers accept the compound into their bodies - accept the temporary state of being that they will soon embark on - accept it all. Then they may find deep pleasure along the way.

Abstraction Saved Me

I design sculptures and then choreograph dances on them. The sculptures and dances are non-linear. They have a flow and if you listen carefully, you can follow the story.

Abstraction allowed me to disguise my story in a way that I wouldn’t have to offend anyone or create a new trauma by sharing my painful experiences with the world. I made shapes and movement textures that summarized my experience. This way I got my story out of my mind and body and owned it. I regained control by becoming the author. And I no longer was in danger of poisoning myself with its content.

I didn’t want the story of my trauma to become a theme for other people in my life. I just wanted a way to make peace with what I experienced. And art is good at that.

The people I guide have pain in their pasts. We make things. We process pain. Abstraction allows you to connect to the crudest experience of pain and makes it safe to share those creations with the world.

The Love is Free

When someone asks me to guide them through psychedelic transformation, they hire me for my extensive experience in designing optimal psychedelic journeys. They hire me for my history as an artist, harvesting from the psychedelic journey many visions I then turn into reality. They hire me because I know these compounds and how to consume them skillfully. They hire me because I can shield them from distractions and help them feel safe to explore. They hire me because I give them a lot of time and attention.

When I am guiding a journey, in the depth of it, when I am holding or supporting the traveler, affirmations come to mind. I don’t know where they come from.

Do they come from the traveler’s story as I have come to understand it in the weeks leading up to the journey? Do they emerge from the psychic environment that is so wide open during the journey's depth? Do they spring from my intuition?

I don’t know. But when these affirmations arise, I repeat them in my head. Sometimes they are “You are loved,” “You don’t have to do anything for the love you need,” or “You belong here.” Maybe it is “You deserve to take up space.”

This is a powerful experience for me as I hope it is for them. I feel like I am giving them, in the most direct way, what they need. I am echoing back to them what I sense their spirit wants to hear. This is a spiritual practice.

Love is such an unusual resource. It isn’t depleted from use. It grows stronger and greater as you give it.

The client hires me for my thoughts on creativity and liberation, organizational ability, knowledge of the compounds and how they work, time and labor — but the love is free.

It only works when it is free.

Pokey People and Weird Mirrors

Last week, I spent about four hours pulling pokey weeds from a nature site where I guide psychedelic journeys. Usually, I prefer untouched natural environments for guiding, but I reserve the right to remove particularly stingy or scratchy weeds to ensure a friendlier, safer, and more enjoyable experience. The last thing my clients need is a rude awakening from a stinging nettle.

I pride myself on my ability to connect with people, so it surprises me when I struggle to connect with someone despite my best efforts. What usually feels effortless and smooth—lovingly syncing up with someone—can sometimes feel pokey.

This weekend, while spending time with one of my husband's old friends, I was again surprised by how hard it can be to connect with someone who feels like a pokey weed. Everything I said seemed to rebound back, sounding egotistical. The story I was telling wasn’t very important or deep to me; usually, it would have been just a simple way to connect. But this time, I sounded like someone seeking credit for knowing famous or important people, which isn't how I see myself.

Earlier that evening, I had taken a mushroom gummy. It wasn’t a lot, but mushrooms can be tricky in social situations as they amplify your ego and allow you to see it from the outside. Interacting with others while observing your ego expand and contract can be confusing.

To this day, I don't know if my husband’s friend thought, “She is full of herself” or “Why does she think she is cool because she used to do yoga and run with so-and-so?” But this is what I imagined he was thinking.

My initial impulse was to set that person aside and continue connecting smoothly and easily with the rest of the people around me. However, this approach can worsen the situation with someone you’re not gelling with, as they may feel neglected and ignored, inflaming their pokes. But it also takes energy and focus to connect with someone who requires more effort.

Do I put on gloves and get into it? Do I practice radical honesty and say, “Everything I’m saying to you sounds egotistical to my ear. Is this in my own head, or are you hearing that too?” Or “Sometimes when I’m talking to you, I feel like you see me as self-aggrandizing. Am I imagining this?” Or “Sometimes I feel like you wonder why people think I’m cool. Is this paranoia?”

Is he a weird mirror, reflecting a true view of myself that I don’t usually see or enjoy? In reality, he is neurodiverse and might not be doing the empathetic things that help others feel good. Or he could be jealous that people like and follow me sometimes. Or maybe he wants more attention from me. I can’t know which, if any, of these thoughts he is having. Regardless, is there something useful for me to see in this weird mirror?

By peering into it, I’ve learned that I care deeply about my community and value my ability to connect with a broad range of fascinating people. I am a curator of brilliant and colorful individuals. I feel better about myself and more grounded in my life when I feel anchored in my community. It’s something I like about myself. My ego appreciates this ability; it makes me feel rich and powerful—rich in love and powerful in my capacity to create peak experiences.

Thank you, pokey weed. I needed that weird mirror.

Let it be Empty

The project is done.
Let it be empty.
Don’t keep checking your phone to see if anything came of it,
Let it be empty.
Don’t fill the space with conflict and emotion.
Let it be empty,
Don’t rush into the first thing that arises.
Let it be empty.

Exhale, Ahhhhhhh
You are still traveling at the speed and force 
Of what it took to complete the project.
But now it is done.
Let It be empty.
Things fill up again, they always do.
Let it be empty.

Later when it and you speed up again,
You will be grateful for this time.
Let it be empty.
Look around your environment, notice things
Let it be empty.
Was the project worth it? You can’t know now.
Let it be empty.

Come Close, Dear Jealousy

One of the greatest challenges in changing your life is that many people don’t know what they want specifically. While I don’t believe that simply knowing what you want will guarantee that the universe will deliver it, having a clear sense of direction certainly helps in making choices.

There are certain emotions that society has deemed undesirable, and jealousy is one of them.

Jealousy may not be the most enjoyable emotion, but our impatience often exacerbates it. We feel desperate for it to pass, longing to achieve what we desire so we no longer have to experience it. Moreover, we are often taught to feel guilty for feeling jealous, as if it indicates a moral failing.

I beg to differ. I believe that jealousy is one of the clearest communicators in the array of emotions available to us. Want to know what you truly, deeply desire? Look for jealousy. Listen to jealousy. Jealousy knows what you want more than almost any other emotion.

When I was new to San Francisco, I was jealous of a pretty dancer who seemed to garner attention from the choreographer running the dance workshop I attended. She exuded confidence and seemed assured of her imminent success. At that time, I wanted to be a sought-after dancer. I was actively auditioning for various companies. Having trained in Ballet since I was three, I craved recognition from choreographers. I worked for three companies and soon after founded my own arts company. Then my jealousy shifted.

I became envious of choreographers who received funding from city, state, and national institutions and foundations. I envied touring companies with abundant opportunities. I envied choreographers with strong reputations and dedicated dancers. I envied those who could sustain themselves through their art.

This jealousy lasted longer. It persisted through my achievements of winning city, state, and national funding, touring nationally and internationally, developing a reputation as a talented and innovative choreographer and director, and forging deep relationships with dancers that have lasted to this day.

Then I envied those who had found their life partner and had groups of friends who did things together (for a long time, all my friends were one-on-one friends—best friends, but not a group). Then I envied people with babies. Then I envied people with houses, cars, and gardens.

So if I track my life, jealousy has always been there, guiding me toward what I wanted, which has shifted many times throughout my life. Often, the people I was once jealous of turned out not to be as successful or enviable as I had imagined, but my jealousy of them was still useful for a time.

Now I have a new set of jealousies. To learn about these, you would need to sit with me for some tea in my garden. I am happy to share, but the real and now requires real and now time.

What has jealousy shown you about your true desires?

The Choreography of Our Relationship

When I consider working with a new creative journey client, I search myself for an image of the relationship. This image, if it arises, helps me to answer the question, “Can I help this person? Can I support this person?” The image is a choreography. It is a way I will relate to them. I usually draw the image so it is easier to remember - it is something to go back to throughout the process. It is a way to recenter the process if I get lost.

The image has been a side hug walking. It has been a person lying down and me supporting the back of their skull. The image has been me standing behind them, supporting their lower arm in my lower arm. The image has been a face, cradled in my hands, evaporating into butterflies. This is the way I open my subconscious mind to my working practice. I don’t question it or ask it to make sense to me. But once it is out, I can ask myself, “What does that mean?” If there is a lot of distance between me and the other person, I can see that maybe the person doesn’t yet trust me and it is best to connect while respecting some distance. If there is a friendly connection in the image, I might imagine that the journey will be full of ease. If there is a closeness, I imagine that there may be a path to intimacy.

This process is so connected to who I am and how I create. It helps me to ground my practice in the liminal space between the conscious and subconscious mind. It makes the practice personal to me. There is a vision at work. The traveler feels this and let’s go.

Seeds of Greatness

Do we pathologize our ambition too often? Can ambition also be born of simply having a sense that we have the seeds of greatness within us that have yet to develop and express in some way?

I have had many successful clients wonder why they felt the need to be so successful - why they felt like they had to be.

I often wondered if the work-a-holism of my younger years was based on a story of neglect or attention poverty. My sister says it’s just who we are - maybe a genetic quality. She sees obsessive work-a-holism everywhere in our family. But recently I wonder if my ambition has had nothing to do with my dad, my childhood, or my genetics, but more of a sense that I had something I needed to get done, to actualize in the world. I have had the pleasure of doing many great things but maybe there is still more in there- still in the husk. Perhaps, I sense that there are seeds of greatness within me that have not germinated, sprouted, and grown yet.

How might you image a greatness in you that is still in the husk?

If you care for someone who has lost touch with their inner greatness, consider referring them for a Creative Journey at journey@jodilomask.com