Naked Prayers

New shoes. New perspectives. Expanded horizons.

Who doesn't love a new pair of shoes?

Yeah, I understand the value of an old, comfortable pair for floppin' around the house. But, I'm talkin' about struttin' your stuff in a brand new pair of sassy heels, rugged boots, or get-it-done sneakers. We all love the feeling. We remember stand-out pairs from our childhoods. We even remember the events surrounding the acquisition - whether as a gift from Santa, lusting after the perfect pair for going back to school in the fall & visualizing the new friends they would bring our way, or choosing the special pair of sandals for vacation & thinking about the ease with which they would slip on & off by the pool. Shoes are pretty exciting stuff!  

New shoes give us the feeling that we can walk into a new world, express ourselves in a new way, take a journey into new territory. New shoes can do far more than just clothe our feet, if we allow them to work some deeper magic. When we envision the places we can go & the things we can do in our new shoes, in the same way we did as children, we shift perspectives. This shift can expand our horizons & literally carry us to realms previously unknown to us.

The imagination is available to create the lives we long to live. It is far too powerful to be shoved into a corner, playing second fiddle to the intellect (or not playing at all). The imagination is where genius reigns.

Put on a new pair of shoes. Then, share in the comments below where you plan to go. 

Walk into your dreams. Transform yourself. Grrrrrrrrow!

Your Relationships: Crime Scene or Love Scene?

Relationships form the foundation of our lives. What do you think might happen if we focused on bringing our core strengths every time we show up on the playground?

I interviewed Krisandra Parsons & Mark Demos, of Life Scene Investigation, & they've got some truly enlightening & empowering ideas to share on relationship "forensics". We each have a body of evidence to inform us of the ways we show up in our relationships & how we can use that evidence to shift from strife, fighting, anxiety & dissatisfaction into thriving encounters that bring out the best in us & others. See what they have to say in this video & leave your comments below!

 

Love, Sex, Money - how do they show up in your relationship picture?

Radical EvolutionAry Love Makers & Richard Branson "Screw Business as Usual"

Richard Branson's new book, "Screw Business as Usual" is a fresh & seriously needed blueprint for the way businesses must operate if we are to experience a thriving future. Branson models a mission of creating good in the world, as the primary objective, then deriving profit from those efforts. He shares the ways his own Virgin brand companies & others are doing it.

So, when Branson asked "How are you screwing business as usual?", I answered with a video. It's live on his non-profit site, Virgin Unite. Now, I need you! Enough "Likes", Tweets & Google+ (on their site) give me an opportunity to meet with him & other world change-agents to put ideas into action!

Radial EvolutionAry Love Makers, aka The REALM, is an art & entertainment entity creating music & multi-media to enlighten, elevate, & educate. Branson can be a catalyst in helping The REALM provide scholarships & more. 

Click the photo to watch on the Virgin Unite site. If the video takes more than a few seconds to load, hit "enter" in your browser bar to reload. The video itself is only 3 minutes.

The project goes through April 20th.

 

People are tired of doing business with companies whose only agenda is to make a profit, regardless of the adverse effects on people & the planet. I was excited to read that a multi-billionaire is leading the way for us to think differently about the way we make our living. We can see that our governments are unable to correct the staggering issues of poverty, corporate greed, pollution, disease & more that prevent us from realizing global peace, justice, health & abundance for all humanity. It's going to take each of us, as global citizens, to create the changes we want to see in our own unique ways & to educate others.

Thank you for helping me in my endeavors to "be the change". It's a ripple effect.

2011 REALM Scholarship - Education for Body-Mind-Spirit Leader

Happy Holidays!
I mean it - I'm ready to make someone's holiday very happy.

'Tis the season for giving & I believe that "season" should be all year 'round. One of my life missions is helping others receive education so they can fulfill their dreams & share their brilliance with the world. We are always in need of more educated minds with big hearts.

Last year, I realized - Duh! - that I don't have to have millions to share. I can begin with what I have! I awarded my first scholarship to an amazing young man & it was a wonderful experience for me.

So, I'm ready to repeat! I'm looking for one person who is ready to grow their spirit by furthering their education & contributing their gifts to the world. A leader who has a keen understanding of the mind-body-spirit connection. Is it you?

Watch the video to learn what you have to gain & to tell me why you are a great candidate for the scholarship by midnight 12/29/11.
 

Post your written response here on the blog or create a video response & post it to YouTube. (You'll see the "Comments" section when on YouTube & a "Create a video response" link right below it. Click on the link.) When posting a video response, be sure to come back to the blog & paste the link to your video.

Be Creative. Have Fun. There are no rules, except to have passion for your mission. I'll be in touch with the recipient in a couple of weeks. 

Love Rocks the World ya'll! So...let's Rock!

_________________________________________

Update: There was a deafening echo here! So, I went in search of something that was a fit for my mission. It led me to Richard Branson's non-profit, Virgin Unite. They're doing so many great things to educate & uplift people all over the world & it's fun to be a part of that. Hopefully my own scholarship will take better hold in 2012. The quest also led me to this amazing opportunity!

Enjoy this Holiday Jingle!

What better way to share joy at the holidays than through music? My sister, Kelly - aka Local Honey - has created a REAL TREAT for you!

In addition to the upcoming live holiday show, she's done a hip new arrangement on an old favorite tune. Listen & download for free. (scroll down the page)

More great music to inspire, uplift, & create some fun this season.
We all need the joy of music in our lives.

Download our holiday CD, "Rejoice" from ITunes 
(Don't let the name throw you; Frankly Scarlet morphed into Local Honey).

You can even download some cool ringtones for your phone here.

Want more inspiration for your creative journey? Listen to this interview with Kelly.

A free E-book + Tap Your Creative Genius + Sex & Spirit

Sex is God; God is Sex: The Powerful Path to Creative Genius

It's a proposal at the moment. With your help, it can become a manifesto - an e-book freely distributed by ChangeThis.com (a platform sparked by Seth Godin). They're in the business of spreading great ideas & they chose my proposal as a great idea. I'm honored by that. Because they have some seriously great ideas!

How does this benefit you?

If you're a maverick, a fire-starter, a superhero...you want to be a conscious evolver. You know we have it in us to create a better world. And, you want to have fun! You want to feel comfortable in your skin. You want to bring out the best ideas & the boldest visions brewing within you.

This manifesto will highlight some of the ways you can come out of hiding; shed your old out-worn skin & birth a newer, more courageous, more giving, compassionate, adventurous, successful, supa-fly you.

You² have the ability to change the world. You² can show others how to shed their old skin & so on & so on. Get the picture?

Help me spread the great idea of trashing sexual & spiritual repression at the hands of ignorance. It causes much suffering. Let's educate on loving relationships, the gift of sexual pleasure, & the power that lies in the freedom to be our true creative selves.

Turn this proposal into an e-book. You'll get it for free. You can share it with anyone, anywhere.

Vote here. Do it now. (It's the orange button on the bottom of the page.)

Read & Share it with tons of people - because that's what its gonna take!

Voting ends Dec. 1, 2011.

Thanks for starting the fire with me. I can't do it alone. You rock!

Halloween - Keys to the Soul

It's that time of year when we feel a change in the air - a transition into a new energy. Halloween marks the time when the veil between worlds is very thin. It can be scary not knowing what awaits us in the darkness, the unknown.

The unknown holds the keys to transformation, however - to our awakening into new life. A life that we dream of creating.

Take a Halloween walk in the woods with me. Watch this video:
 

 I'll be doing a series of interviews with artists, healers, shamans, fire-starters, & conscious world-changers to bring to light the ways we can use creativity, intuition, spirituality & sexuality to open the doors to our soul's calling - to serving our highest good & therefore the highest good for all Life. Sign up for the Naked Vibes Newsletter to stay in the loop.

Stay tuned for an upcoming video interview with Soul Portrait Artist, Leroy Roper. 

More on Halloween & times of transition in this post.

Share your thoughts, in the comments below, about the ways that you've stepped into the unknown to answer your soul's calling. Or ways that you'd like to step in, but have felt afraid.

It's Halloween. Make it a treat! 

Houses of the Holy - Celebrate the Body as a Temple of Spirit

Houses of the Holy - it's the title of a great Led Zeppelin album that was banned in some parts of the Southern U.S. when it was released in 1973. The issue was the cover art which featured naked children.

It's also what we are. Our bodies are houses of the Holy. Our spirits are large & beautiful, & we reside in these physical temples for a time. When we honor the temple of the body, we allow our spirits to shine more brilliantly, providing an environment of wholeness & health.

As modern as we believe we are, our culture is still having difficulty dealing with the human body. Stories about art teachers being fired from schools when angry parents learn that their children have been exposed to statues or paintings of nudes still pop up in the news. Some religious leaders warn that the physical self is not a connection to the spiritual.   

"Naked Prayers" & the Naked Vibes show are about connecting our physical, mental/emotional & spiritual selves - living authentically & whole-ly - in other words, holy. Heaven, the novel, is about turning over the ideas of sexuality & spirituality & examining what each of those facets of our humanity look like - instead of simply regurgitating the spirituality of someone else (parents, ministers, society). It's also about loving our sexuality & recognizing it as a spiritual gift in all of its mysteries - the multitude of shapes & sizes in which it comes! It's about feeling comfortable about claiming the freedom to be the sexual being you are without any religious or political faction defining it for you.

I believe we have real splintered images of sexuality in our culture that need to be healed. Lots of mixed messages. Tantra is a beautiful practice for deepening the art of sacred sexuality. It, like other spiritual disciplines is not meant to be taken lightly, however. It is not simply a way to achieve heightened orgasms (though that can be a BIG benefit!). It is a path for achieving awareness of the connection between our sexual selves & our spiritual selves.

Why are we still painting pleasure as a decadent thing or as something that is "less than" spiritual?

 Art & music show us who we are. 

  We are Houses of the Holy.

                                                          

       Thanks to these artists for the use of their
       beautiful artwork:

       Bethany Webb, Creative Yogini -
       "Hatha Sun & Moon"(above left)                           

       Tammy K. Bond - "Naked Nun" (above right)
                      
                                     ...and G3 (photo right).

 

International Day of Peace + Marriage

September 21

An important day. For me, personally, & for the world as well.

My husband & I are celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary (plus almost nine years together before marriage). People often comment about how different we are - opposites. We get that!

I see a lot written & discussed these days about marriage being a dying institute, an unworkable arrangement. I certainly understand the challenges. I've also experienced marriage as the greatest spiritual training ground we can undertake as humans. Many people see the "institution" of marriage as a confine. Like any belief, that is a perspective. Perspectives can be shifted.

Marriage, very simply, is an agreement to be in relationship. More simply - to relate to another human being. When we approach others with the intention of relating to them - to their desires, their fears & challenges, their joys & sorrows - we understand that we are more alike than we are different. All of us. Compassion is born & thrives in this state of relationship. Relationship is not static, of course. We must learn to honor the flowing motion of energy. Play with it.

Today is the UN International Day of Peace. It feels so appropriate as my husband & I celebrate our own journey. Take a look at the Peace Day website. Let it be a personal inspiration.

Peace begins within me & ripples out from there. It moves into my primary relationships & then into the world. It's the same for you. That means global peace is entirely possible.

Want peace in your personal relationships?
Want world peace?
Make peace within yourself.

 

P.S.
My parents celebrate their 51st anniversary in a few days.
They play.
And that ROCKS!


 Halloween "Cats"

 

"I love you" sign language to angry "FU" drivers

I'm pondering an experiment with angry drivers. Flashing the "I love you" sign language, especially to the ones who are cursing me, cutting me off, or shooting the middle finger.

This thought comes directly off of an encounter with a guy who was riding next to me, wanted to change lanes & wanted me to move instantly. He didn't care, nor did he take time to notice that I couldn't really go anywhere. I had cars on all sides. I guess he wanted me to throw on my brake in the middle of the freeway & allow him to move freely in front of me to his destination. When I didn't move for him, he began to try to force me over, though another car was on the other side of me. He finally found a way to speed up, force the car in front of me over, move into the lane on the other side & proceed to yell out the window at me - obscenities by mouth & hand. Whew! Seriously. I finally had to laugh, which I'm sure wasn't the reaction he was looking for.

Seems like he could've used a little love, huh? What's sad though - many more of us know the hand signal for "FU"  than "I love you". So, I don't know how this experiment will go over. I've just mused at the thought of starting a movement with it anyway.

What do you think? Can we infuse a little love into the road rage jungle?                

photo credit: http://www.lifeprint.com