JEANETTE AMLIE
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Free Intro to Creative Inquiry Course

2/8/2017

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I am so grateful for the amazing women that joined my first Creative Inquiry Group in January. I learned so much and was so inspired by their insights that I wanted to find a way to introduce this journaling process to others. So now you can start your own Creative Inquiry Journal in my new, FREE, online course at The School for Creative Awakening at Intro to Creative Inquiry. This is a 5 part, mini-course that shares the basic process with you for you to try. It uses intuitive creative expression, uncensored writing and somatic awareness to access your inner wisdom. So jump in and give it a try!
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Giving Thanks for Earth, Water, Fire & Air

11/24/2016

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Sacred Song by Jeanette Amlie
It is said that the first Thanksgiving was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims. Today I pray for peace and unity among us all. Today we are faced with a nation that is being divided by fear. There are those who are fanning the flames of the belief in scarcity and the need to defend ourselves from others in order to secure what we think we need to survive and thrive. But we are also being called to evolve and rise above those beliefs and to see that we need not pit ourselves against one another.

Some of the most profound Spiritual teachings I have ever received in my life have come from the Native American people in New Mexico. It was there that I learned to pray out loud with honesty and sincerity in the presence of other people. I learned to trust total strangers with my deepest pleas and confessions. I learned the importance of feeling my connection with the Earth and all the Beings that dwell here. I felt the Presence of Divine Blessings in the form of Feminine wisdom, which so helped to heal my own torn heart. 

So today I invite you, all of you, to take a few moments in your busy day to truly give thanks for the elements that this entire world is made of.....Earth, Water, Fire and Air. Recognize the interdependence of us all and how crucial it is for us to care for all of this and All the Beings who depend upon it. May we all be the protectors of life and liberty for ALL!
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Imperfect Readiness

11/14/2016

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The Offering by Jeanette Amlie
Sometimes we must accept that we are ready for what comes next despite our flaws and failures. Sometimes it is our very imperfections that make us ready for what is needed in the world, despite what we may feel. Sometimes we need to step forward into life with doubt and fear as our closest companions, knowing that they are our teachers too. This feels like one of those times. 

I have been doing some deep inner work over the last few years that has taken me into terrain I never could have dreamed of. Sometimes I thought I would never emerge again in one piece, for gathering my pieces was much of what I was doing. 
Yet here I am...perhaps as whole as I'll ever be. And maybe that's enough. No, maybe that is just perfect. For I have realized it is my ability to be with what feels broken or divided or lost or intolerable and not shy away from it, that has given me my greatest strength. 
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I'm a deep diver by nature. I bob up to the surface to say hi to folks I love from time to time, but then it's back down to the rich and mysterious depths again. This time of year invites deep diving for me. For years I have gone into a sort of creative hibernation, where the darkness is my friend and makes it safe enough for the timid and the sketchy parts of me to reveal themselves. However, this year feels different. I don't feel like I have that luxury. This year it feels like my whole cast of characters is being called up and out into relatively unfamiliar terrain.


Part of that will be starting to offer these creative processes to you, whoever you are. If part of you likes to go spelunking in the caves of your unconscious mind and soar to distant realms with your Higher Self as your guide, then we may make pretty good traveling companions. 
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Painting: Better Than Prozac!

11/3/2016

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Like so many other people, I too have tried many cocktails of pharmaceuticals in order to manage depression, anxiety and other symptoms that have accompanied me on my journey of awakening. But the benefits never outweighed the side effects for very long. Yes I agree they can help us get through a rough time and if we have children or circumstances that don't allow us to attend to the deeper issues, they can literally be a life saver. Yet eventually their effectiveness wears out and dosages must be increased to maintain any efficacy. So what then?

It took me decades to realize that I have a creative soul that already knows how to process and heal me, if only I would let it do its thing! But I was taught that my creative talents should fit into a standardized box of what is artistically acceptable and valuable. It wasn't okay to just let my soul have complete freedom to express itself. Instead I needed to learn how to make it conform to people's ideas of beauty or aesthetic ideals. So I left art behind and immersed myself in craft for decades. There I could expend much of this pent up creative energy without ever offending anyone and make a useful product at the same time. The only problem was that my soul was still knocking on my inner door wanting to be let out.

Finally, many years later, a good online friend sensed that I had anger bottled up inside me and suggested that I let myself express it artistically through painting. So cautious I picked up the brush again that had lain dormant for 33 years, and for the first time ever I just let her rip. What proceeded to come out floored me. It was as if I had never stopped painting at all, technically speaking. But now it was charged with the passion of my own personal content that had always been masked or silenced before. Over time I began to realize that this bottled up, passionate expression was indeed what was fueling both my depression and my anxiety. Now I'm not saying painting is a silver bullet that fixes everything, but I did learn that in conjunction with a good trauma therapist, uncensored artistic expression opened doors that nothing had been able to pry open before. And yes, there were demons in my dungeons, but the angels were locked up in there too. I discovered it was a package deal and that I couldn't access one without the other.

Fast forward to today......we are now living in a time of the birth of the Intuitive Creative Expression movement, which includes modalities like Process Painting, Narrative Therapy & Expressive Arts Therapy and many more. This is not about learning the color wheel and how to draw perspectives, which are still useful tools, don't get me wrong. But the point is that all of us enter this life with a creative urge of one form or another and few toddlers need much instruction on what to do with a crayon and paper. They just naturally explore what color and line does in their little hands. So I encourage you to give it a try and see what comes out when you loosen the grip of the censoring mind on your creative soul. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you find!
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Creative Companions

8/18/2016

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I am continually amazed to see what emerges from some random scribbles or splotches of paint on these pages. There is no one here that I am rendering, or is there?

Are you here with me now my dear Lady, with your pensive look? Are you needing company? Are you needing to be seen? Not heard. No your lips say that so clearly. Your lips are sealed and no worries here, for I shall not pry them apart. I am content to just be in your presence. It comforts me in an odd sort of way. It soothes my doubts about the murkiness of "reality". I am comfortable with the lack of discernible clarity between this world and that one. 

Is that why I like my people to be a bit translucent? So they reflect the truth that we are all transient, whether we know it or not? We all have a foot in both worlds, even if we can only perceive the solid one.
You are welcome here, just as you are. You are beautiful to me, in form and Spirit. I am honored that you have come to visit me today.....on the pages of this journal that are a window to my Soul......
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Heart Opening

6/26/2016

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She came to a point in her life where she no longer knew who she was. She no longer knew what she held within herself. She had tried on so many beliefs like the newest fashion and strutted around, parading them like a fancy hat. Yet somehow they always grew old and no longer interested her, only to be replaced by a newer and better idea of herself.

Eventually, she tired of them all and she no longer believed that any of them would last for long. She longed for what would last. She longed so badly her heart would ache. But she refused to try on any new beliefs about herself. Instead she sat quietly, keeping herself company in this unknown place, trusting that what she longed for would find her.
Then one day it happened, on an ordinary afternoon. She heard a tiny knock. Then another. She looked around, but could not find the source. Then it grew the tiniest bit louder and she jumped with a start. It was coming from inside of her! It was coming from her very own chest!

She looked down and there were two new little golden buttons on her favorite red velvet dress. How odd, they hadn’t been there before. So she reached up to feel them and they moved with a tiny click. Low and behold they were tiny doors and when she opened them the most luscious golden-orange light came flowing out like magic honey.

The waiting was over. Finally she knew what was inside of her all along. And this time she knew it would last.
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Whole Brain Journaling

6/13/2016

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I have come to discover that making these crude scribbles and squishy blotches of color etc. followed by a sort of free association writing is amazing at getting under the surface of our minds (and bodies too interestingly enough). I have felt immense resistance to this process, even though I have been artistic all of my life. Yet what has come through when I have used this as a practice for a period of time has revealed hidden aspects of my experiences and beliefs that I haven't accessed any other way. It is soooooo not about making little artsy craftsy projects or about technique or skill at all. It is letting the body be the vehicle for the right brain. It is powerful stuff without any art therapy overlay at all. No need for analyzing or using certain processes or figuring it out. Sometimes great insight comes through and sometimes it just helps to shift some energy that felt stuck or old. Just the action itself can loosen up the locks on the dungeons of the mind. So resistance is almost always a part of it because we put parts of us away for good reasons and it's risky to get out from under the mind's control. But in the end, for me, it is always worth it in my own process of discovery.
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Liberation

5/1/2016

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Liberation by Jeanette Amlie
I knew the day would come. Somewhere deep inside of me I knew that I would see the Light once again, yet it had been so long that I sometimes lost hope. There is no sense in retelling what got me there in the first place….karma, dharma, destiny, fate…it all amounts to the same thing in the end. What I do know is that even the deepest, darkest journeys through hell are a gift, even though we can’t possibly see that at the time

What matters the most is that it changed me. Living in the dark with nothing to distract you does things to your mind. First you start to go crazy, and I’m sure there are many people who get so caught and deceived by the torment that they can’t find their way out. Maybe I was one of the lucky ones, because something inside of me never gave up entirely. Although there were so many times that the flame of faith became an almost nonexistent flicker.
In time my body didn’t seem to matter anymore. It simply wasn’t being attended to any longer. Yet somehow that freed up something else inside of me to notice the energy and the presence of what I must really be. The past had been reviewed to death a million times over. The future was fuel for insanity when you have no way of knowing if you will exist in the next day or the next minute. All that was left was the present, but even that doesn’t accurately describe the experience. What was actually left was the absence of past and future, or of time as we know it. It became blurry and undefined. Within this timeless darkness I began to perceive beyond the confines of my prison. I can’t explain how, I just did. And I began to sense what my body could not possibly be feeling, it wasn’t local anymore.

Then one moment it happened. I experienced the thought that my body wasn’t solid anymore, not in the way I had believed it to be before. And in that moment, the shackles simply slid off, or they slipped through me. Something like that anyway. Then I felt the energy rise up within my core and lift me up. I realized I wasn’t really standing or walking anymore, it was more like floating. I also discovered that I didn’t need to see the way because I just knew where to go and what to do. It was the easiest thing I have ever experienced. 

When I eventually emerged from the long, dark tunnel and into the light I could finally see myself. I was glowing and hardly resembled the woman that had gone into that place so long ago. It was very surreal and quite blissful. 

I could still see the world, but the world didn’t seem to be able to see me. It could sense my presence, but not really comprehend what I was. Some saw light, others felt tingly, and still others seemed to hear my thoughts. I no longer felt fear. It was so serene. I knew this was what it was all for, the reason I could endure the suffering that brought me here. Now I could share completely without reservation. Now I was liberated from all that I thought I had to do and be. Now I knew heaven was here all along, as was hell. The difference lie within us rather than out there somewhere. 

I know it all sounds too simple and even a bit trite. I thought I understood these platitudes too before I went in there. Now I know I didn’t have a clue what they were really pointing to. I pray you can see me, hear me, sense me and understand what I have come to know. That is my gift to you, to liberate you from your prison before you have to endure what I did. That is my gift of liberation for you!
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The Wild Ones

4/8/2016

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The Wild Ones by Jeanette Amlie
At first I thought that my life had been saved. I was a little girl stuck in a raspberry briar when Canis appeared.Then he took me to Pneuma and together they woke up a magical world for me. But that is another story.

Those tiny wings budded forth from the love and forgiveness that Pneuma instilled within me. Canis gave me the courage to believe in myself. Together they allowed me to rise above a world I didn't feel a part of. Yet I had to return to that very world feeling even more different than before.

Over time the wings became a heavy burden to bear in a world where I was forced to hide them. I longed to be with my companions and eventually I could stand it no longer and left to live in the wild with them.

I don't regret it. They taught me things that no human ever could have. It gave me time to let the beliefs of the human world fall away. Now they tell me that my time has come and my years of preparation are over. They tell me it is time once again to rejoin humanity with a more humane understanding. Ha! How ironic that I had to learn this from animals rather than people!

I am afraid. I don't know that I am ready. I thought I would feel different about them by now. But how could I really after years without them? My human family knows that I am alive and well. They just can't fathom the choices I've made or why.

My companions will remain near by on the fringes, so I won't really be alone. But I cannot rely on them for my strength and compassion anymore. It is time to find that within me. I do not know what will happen, but I do know that I am willing to follow their guidance and the intuition that has been growing inside me during our time together. Somehow, it will be okay.........

The Wild Ones by Jeanette Amlie
14"x11" mixed media on canvas panel.
Contact me here if interested in purchasing.
All rights reserved.

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The Standing of the Stones

3/30/2016

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She came upon them in the fading light. They were old, so very old. They lie in a jumbled heap as if some giant had used them for bowling pins. She felt a tingle run through her as she stroked them gently with her fingers. Hues of chartreuse and amber lichen pattered their surface adding to the richness of the time etched stone. She even thought she saw some kind of writing on them.

Just then the moon began to crest the far ridge in the east and its cool light washed over the massive stones, defining their curves and edges. Was it her imagination playing tricks on her or did she feel something...like an almost imperceptible seismic tremor? No, it wasn't the earth, it was the stones that lay upon it!

Startled, she moved back to get her bearing. It couldn't be! They were moving! They must have weighted tons and yet there was no doubt, they were moving. She sat down on a small patch of grass and watched in amazement. She didn't know how long she was there. Was it hours? She was mesmerized by this impossible sight. They were slowly stacking themselves in an upright formation, leaning on each other to make an angular arch, which the moon shone through.

Eventually it was still again, except for a slight breeze rusting the dry branches. She didn't know what to do. There was nothing to do and no one to tell. Who would believe her anyway? So she joined her hands and made a deep bow to the stones and the moon shining through them. Then she turned to walk home. 

Tomorrow she could return in the light of day to see if it really happened, to see if they were still standing......or had they been that way all along?

Mixed media painting and story by Jeanette Amlie.
​All copyrights reserved.

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    Jeanette Amlie

    Welcome to my Painted Journey. I invite you to join me as I explore this process of intuitive painting, uncensored writing and somatic awareness. This work is calling me out of my Spiritual/Creative Closet.  It is a passionate adventure in re-discovering why I am here and I know that by sharing the journey we will grow and learn together! ♡ Jeanette

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  • Home
    • my painted journey
  • Artwork
  • Creative Inquiry
    • Creative Awakening >
      • Time of Reckoning
      • Heart Mending
      • Frida Kahlo & Creative Awakening
      • Tree Spirit: A Collaboration
    • Intro to Creative Inquiry
    • Creative Inquiry Course
  • SomaPsycheSoul
  • Contact