| The Birthday Wall: Create a Collage to Celebrate Your Child
by Dawn Herring
I'm excited to share with you my new e-book, The Birthday Wall, which is a detailed, step-by-step instructional book I've written that shows how to create a multi-dimensional, colorful visual collage to help celebrate your Child's birthday! As creator of this family tradition, I share how to research, plan, gather, create, and display all the elements of your child's Birthday Wall, which can enable you to validate, affirm and show appreciation for your child with who they are right now. You can buy it here on Amazon or here on Smashwords for just $2.99.
**A BIRTHDAY WALL STORY, FEATURING SARAH JOYCE BRYANT AND HER SON CODY**:
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Refresh Your Work
Have you ever taken a few moments for silence in your work day? When you tune in to your heart in quiet, you may discover creative answers to questions you have for tasks to perform. Making space for doing nothing and being silent can energize you and broaden your vision for your work day. Enjoy the quiet.
Refresh Your Home
What do you hear
when you sit in your favorite room? A dog barking? A cat purring? Music playing? Traffic? How about silence? You know that quiet sense of being alone that calms and creates a sense of home and heart. Make it a point to have times of silence in your daily life; you might just hear something new that speaks to your heart song.
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For Your Journal
Journaling Tip:
Silence can be a friend; use your journal to explore your quiet experiences and learn more about yourself in the process.
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Q: In your journal, have you ever compared being silent to having spoken when you later wish you hadn't?
Any time I have written about times of silent meditation, I always come away feeling more expansive and in tune with my authenticity.
My journal gives me a chance to reckon with my speech, especially when what I said would have been better left unsaid.
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You're welcome to join me in a new journaling exercise for your emotional awareness that I published in Outlet E-zine and am actively engaged in with my journaling practice.
You're welcome to share your discoveries by replying to this issue of Refresh Journal!
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You're welcome to reply to the weekly journaling question; I may share it in a future edition of Refresh Journal.
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My Blog Post: Expansion
You're welcome to subscribe to my blog Refresh with Dawn Herring so you will always get my latest posts in your email to read at your convenience.
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THE ARTIST
There are times when we need to listen more carefully to the silence within, giving room for the greater vision of what it is we want to express as artists.
Making space to expand our purpose and create from a place of authenticity in the realm of where that silence leads us can make our path even clearer.
Open your heart to that quiet realm of truth; then express what it speaks in a way only you can share.
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"The key is in your heart."
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Special Thanks to:
for these kind and encouraging words:
"Thank you for sharing with me the joy of journaling and for refreshing me with your support!"
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Greetings!
Picture a study hall. The kids are supposed to be working on homework or simply staying busy and being quiet. But inevitably, the chatter starts. Then the teacher in charge has to say, "Ssshhh," to keep the noise from getting out of hand.
Of course, the students feel imposed upon since they're probably bored and just want to relax.
Picture a musical or live acting performance. You sit in the audience and are enraptured and fully enjoying the experience. You feel perfectly comfortable not saying a word.
Your silence is a choice because you know it just feels right, showing respect for the performer and the audience and your own experience in the matter.
Silence is not always a choice when we are in a public setting.
But it is a choice when it comes to how we engage in our private spaces.
But do we make space for silence, or do we find it too imposing, outside of our comfort zone? Maybe we find that it enhances our life in ways we didn't expect.
Sometimes silence can be a golden element in our minds and hearts when we understand its value and compatibility with who we are and what we're here for.
Listening carefully to what the silence has to stay can help expand our vision and go deeper into our authenticity.
We touched on the subject of silence and how it can enhance our lives and well being as we keep track of what we learn and how we grow from it in our journals during our recent session of #JournalChat Live with our topic, Your Journaling: Golden Silence. Highlights are below.
Also included this week are refreshing tips for your work and your home and a song pick by Ally and Aj. a.k.a. 78violet titled, "Silence."
Silence is a great way to tune in and give yourself the space you need to grow. Try giving yourself a few minutes to just be in a quiet space; listen carefully to what your heart has to say. Then go in peace.
Thanks for making Refresh Journal part of your life enhancement in the quiet.
Be refreshed,
Dawn Herring
Your Refreshment Specialist
JournalWriter Freelance
Host of #JournalChat Live and #JournalChat Links edition
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JournalChat Pick of the Week:
When it comes to doing business, it's easy to get bogged down with responsibilities, decision making, and day-to-day operations. Journaling can often be the Key to Business Success when applied in various ways according to our specific needs.
Caroline lays out a business journaling plan that is savvy, smart and spiritual, a powerful and pleasurable combination! Dealing with ideas, working through decisions, and keeping a strong vision with a spiritual thread that powerfully holds it all together is a terrific business strategy with journaling as the Key Tool.
For this week's #JournalChat Live, we will discuss how we can use our journals to help us navigate the business world with finesse, confidence, and spiritual passion for our purpose in the world. Our topic will be Your Journaling: Business Basics.
You're welcome to read this post prior to the Live chat on Thursday, and perhaps write an entry about how you have used your journal for business that is purposeful and pleasurable. You're welcome to share any discoveries you've made during our chat.
So join us on Thursday, May 2, 2013 at 5 p.m. EST (2 p.m. PST) for #JournalChat Live on Twitter. Be sure to use the #JournalChat hashtag in your tweet! I recommend tweetchat.com.
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Highlights from #JournalChat Live
Our topic for #JournalChat Live this past week was Your Journaling: Golden Silence as we discussed how we can use our journals to find meaning and track our times of silence. Highlights are below.
Here are insights from Daisy Ann Hickman with her post, Inviting Silence:
Daisy starts her post by sharing her intention to invite silence into her life. She says we tend to always have something "important" to do that eclipses our need for quiet. She addresses why we may not want to have times of silence. She asks: "Do we somehow equate silence with a sense of lack? A lack of vitality or life itself?" Daisy quotes Rumi, "In Silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving and see how the pattern improves."
Here's my point of view and insight:
I never regret those times of quiet. They are restorative. I find that quiet times of silence for me are best done in the evening after my work is put to rest. Then I enjoy recording what I perceived or how I benefited from that time in my journal before bed. I love the sense of space silence gives me; I feel more open and alive. And then describing that experience in my journal is very validating and thought provoking. Silence has an energy all its own, really. We can be friendly with it and know its purpose is for our well being.
From Michael Pearlman:
Being in silence is an optimal use of time. The ego IS a compelling argument, the adversary of silence. We separate the experience of the deliciousness of the silence from the identity's fearfulness and its ultimate delusion. I love mornings of peace and silence before my mind revs up. The silence is the sou'ls medium, discerning its presence is to live your inheritance. Being in flow with activities we love is truly connected to that peace, silence. Knowing this is sublime.
From Cheryl Hulseapple:
The thoughts and feelings that come during moments of silence can be both frightening and enlightening. Silence allows me to relax into myself and hear myself. It's interesting to ask, what is our history with silence? How did we experience it in childhood? With comfort or anxiety? Then you can journal about the belief that you "shouldn't" worry, why and where it might come from. I like to try to get to the root of my journaling, going as deep as I can.
From Stephen Van Vugt:
I think I equate certain silences with lack, but not all. There are many silences in my life. I find certain silences rejuvenating - meditation, watching my daughter sleep, spending time with my wife. There are other silences, like the one I hide behind when I'm afraid to speak up, that teach me, if I pay attention. Some of my most important journal entries have come after a half hour of silent meditation. The mind is ready to chat! Golden Silence for me is light and inspiring. Full of possibility.
And to Summarize:
When you initiate a time of silence to show yourself nurture, you will have Golden Silence.
Develop a time of silence for your well being and journal your silent journey.
Check out the transcript Part I Part II for #JournalChat Live on 4/25/13. Special Thanks to Daisy Ann Hickman for her fabulous post, Inviting Silence, which was our journaling resource for this week's live chat.
Join us on 5/2/13 at 5 EST/2 PST for our next session of JournalChat Live. Topic is in the section for Pick of the Week.
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SPECIAL FEATURE
YOUR AUTHENTIC REFRESHMENT
Interviews of Engagement
An Authentic Refreshment is one that enables you to appreciate yourself for who you really are, validate your emotions and feelings, and nurture your soul.
From my new blog, Your Authentic Refreshment, I am featuring interviews from folks who have found and engage in their authentic refreshment and how it enhances and adds value to their daily life experience.
If you have an authentic refreshment you would like to share, please reply to this issue of Refresh Journal and I will give you the details!
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Sometimes Silence is Everything.
 | | Silence - Aly & AJ .a.k.a 78violet (with lyrics) |
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As you make time for silence this week, pay close attention to the meaning and cadence, to what it speaks beyond words. Encourage a friend to make time for silence too. Then share your perspectives and your experiences together. Sometimes hearing another's point of view on an inward activity can give you an even clearer understanding of your own.
Appreciate the quiet and enjoy.
Be refreshed,
Dawn Herring
Host of #JournalChat Live and #JournalChat Links Edition on Twitter
Author of The Birthday Wall: Create a Collage to Celebrate Your Child
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