Pilgramage and Traveling Your Life Path with Jen Cohen

Dear Magic Party women!
Thank you to those of you who came to the last Magic Parties’ Women’s Circle in September. If you weren’t with us, I am sharing thoughts with any of you on a journey, on a personal pilgrimage, or at a crossroad. If you were with us, we would like to hear what is opening up for you, what questions got evoked, what answers flooded into you from sitting with these question, how you are feeling on your path today, which lesson you think you are learning most directly now? If you were not with us, read the lessons and questions below in this blog as they will help move you forward along your life path.

Some thoughts on pilgrimage:
Some of us go willingly at first at least. Some of us go kicking and screaming. Either way the pilgrim is compelled by the forces of blank ( you fill in the blank that fits for you) to step onto the path and walk. What you find along the way will make you forget why you wanted to walk at all, it will make you wonder if it mattered at all, will force you to go beyond your current ideas of who you are and how you are. And that dear ones, is the point I dare say.

I thought I’d also post the questions I asked at The Magic Parties Women’s Circle. Some of you may want them for future reference.

The lessons and The questions:
1. Entering the unknown: What do you know for sure? Are you willing to trust that completely?
2. Letting go: What would you have to let go of to take this pilgrimage? Are you willing to let that go?
3. Dealing with fear and scarcity: What would you have to confront on this pilgrimage? What would you need to have with you to be able to confront that?
4. Letting desire be bigger than fear: What is already dying or dead but you are willing (using your will) yourself to do anyway? What is calling to you from your future that you are avoiding hearing?

We’d very much love to hear from you!

Blessings on your way to mecca........Jen

Poems from the Women’s Circle

For A New Beginning
John O'Donohue's To Bless the Space Between Us, A Book of Blessings

“In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life's desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you”

Ready to Lead?: a story for leaders and their mentors pp.63-64– Alan Price

“We all reach the point where we dream of packing our bags, walking to the shore, and setting sail for new worlds. But few of us actually set sail.

Many get lost in the dream and never take action. Many pack, unpack, and repack their bags, but never walk to the shore. Many walk to the shore, enjoy the breeze and the view, only to walk back home. Many step onto the boat, load it with provisions, check the maps and instruments, but never pull up the anchor. Many set sail but only go out far enough to look back at the land from a new view.

A few sail off and break free of the land. They go with the deeper currents, follow the stars that call them, and reach new worlds. Let us set sail for new worlds. Let us reach them together. “


Let us know what’s up with you. Use this space to blog and comment to our community.

Work Life Balance

In our "Turning our Dreams into Action" teleclass, we've been working our dreams for the last 10 weeks. Our dreams are varied as we are individuals on our own journeys. Some participants dream of a deeper relationship with their husband, some dream of being a well known author, some dream of creating health and well being in their lives, some dream of the contribution they have yet to make in the world, and I've been dreaming of my own television show.

One participant is dreaming on creating work life balance. We each have a partner that we work with as our "buddy" for the 12 weeks to be accountable to, to make us feel better when the going gets tough, to witness our challenges and accomplishments. Here is what one buddy said to her partner that I thought was worth sharing.

Work/life balance doesn’t mean you get up every day and 50% of your day is work and 50% of your day is life (non-work). Work/life balance is about ebb and flow. Some days you can invest more of yourself into non-work and some days you’ll need to invest more in work. Look at work/life in chunks of time vs on a daily basis. The challenge is once you get through a heavy work period, think about swinging the pendulum more towards “life” for a little while to even things out. Ebb and flow.

I think this perspective on ebb and flow makes many of us not feel like a failure daily when it comes to my work/life balance challenges.

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Creating Our Dreams

We’ve started our teleclass, Dreams Into Actions…Powerful Beginnings and are now in our second week. In the first class, we announced our dreams to each other to put them “out there”. Some of us felt exhilarated by announcing our dreams out loud and some of us felt scared. Dreams of the women in our class included:

• balancing work and family better

• losing weight and getting healthy

• moving into career and work that we adore,

• being role models for our children

• making millions of dollars

• becoming an author

• being on television or having our own television show

If you are reading this, you too might start by announcing your dreams out loud. Select your audiences carefully and only declare your heart’s desire to those who support you unconditionally; otherwise your dreams may get canned before they have a chance to take flight.

To prepare for our second class, we were invited to work with a buddy to help support the actions we each agreed to take to move our dreams forward. I was pretty surprised by the range of experiences in an assignment that seemed so simple and easy to accomplish. Some women were psyched and their dreams got fueled by their enthusiasm and the support of those around them. Other women ran smack into their expected roadblocks when they announced their dreams to their family members who thought they were nuts.

I found myself jealous of my buddy’s success and accomplishments as we emailed our progress to each other daily. And then felt terribly guilty that I would feel this way about a woman I adore and respect; wondering what the heck is wrong with me?! I began to wonder how women can support each other unconditionally and cheer each other on, and not have it mean they are “less than” or unproductive themselves. I wonder if there is a way for each of us to ride in the wake (to use a boating term) of another’s momentum and success and use that energy to inspire us instead of making us feel inferior. I notice how much work I personally need to do in this arena.

Magic Party 2nd Annual Summer Retreat

Our 2^nd annual Magic Party summer retreat last Saturday was wonderful. We were 18 courageous women declaring our dreams and working through a magical process led by Alexandria Hilton, Magic Party Faculty to manifest them into the world. It was exhilarating. It was scary. It was magical. The feedback we have received has been similar to this one,

“Thank you for a powerful day of deepening and expanding our visions and identifying what tools we will need for the journey!”

Alexandria Hilton sent the following email to participants after the retreat. We thought we would share this with you so you can use some of her suggestions to help you make your dreams come true too!

Hello Powerful Dreamers!

It was such a pleasure to work with all of you at the Second Annual Magic Party Retreat!

You all inspired me with your openness, courage and daring to declare your dreams. We are all on this journey together! I am excited to hear of your progress as you take the next steps to make your dreams a reality.

I invite you to use your Angel Guidance cards as a touchstone reminding you of your vision. Post them on your refrigerator, mirror, in your planner, where you will see, touch and read them.

Remember my warning about the old paradigm (the way you used to think of yourself and what was possible before coming to the retreat) conflicting with the new paradigm (the new way you are now stepping out into your dreams and living them starting right now) . Remember my warning that the old paradigm will morph into a new voice, a new objection, a new resistance (the old, ‘I could never do that” voice in your ears) and it is up to you to recognize it and choose what you will do based on your commitment.

This work is not easy. It is challenging, sometimes tedious, always demands that we grow. It is not for girls who only want to have fun; it is a journey for women who want their lives to matter and to realize their potential. This journey is for women who dare, who care, who stand together and support each other to be all they can be.

I welcome you into this amazing realm of discovery, new beginnings and being, doing and having what you have always wanted. It will take work. It will require support. Do not do this alone.

As you take the next steps to manifest your vision, be sure to call upon and utilize your allies (the support system of individuals you created). Wendy and I are partnering with each other to manifest our dreams and we now have a daily check-in with each other to keep the spark of creativity and the fullness of our visions alive!

To those of you who have chosen to work with the support of the tele-class, welcome and I am delighted to continue our work together. If you choose to go forward with your own support system, terrific, please let Wendy and me know how you are doing so we can share your success with the tele-class.

I have been a participant in a tele-class and I guarantee you that you will get out of it what you put into it. So, give it your best effort within the life you have with your families, careers, and other personal commitments.

Some of the benefits of working with a circle of women in the tele-class include:

1. You will be committing every two weeks to take the next steps in executing your plan and will be accountable.

2. The momentum increases when you are working with others supporting you, your results come more quickly.

3. You have others with whom to celebrate your successes.

4. You have the support of these women when you stumble, get

stuck, slow down or want to quit.

5. It is more fun and as Wendy would say, "yummy" to share

in this experience with women who care and want you to win!!

(To find out more about the teleclass, click here.) http://www.themagicparties.com/Events.htm

Thank you again for bringing your willingness to grow and transform as a woman, a leader and as a visionary doing important work in the world. It was an honor to spend a day discovering our magnificence together. I look forward to hearing from you as your dreams and visions unfold and are realized.

Sincerely,

Alexandria

A New Earth

I listened to Oprah's recent book discussion webclass with author Eckhart Tolle on his new book, "A New Earth". I so enjoyed Eckhart Tolle that I then bought the book and started reading it. Many things in this book started to resonate with me that I was musing to my friend Kate how great it would be to have help putting the teachings from the book into my life. She suggested we start a group book discussion like Oprah did but instead of listening to people talk ABOUT the book, we would talk about integrating what we learned into our lives. A group of us have been meeting on the phone, once a week for 8 weeks, (we have two weeks left) talking about and practicing one chapter at a time.

The things I have been learning through this simple but profound book has made a deep impact on my life! One thing I am practicing as a result of our book discussion group is no complaining...internally or externally. I never realized how much of my life I spend in complaint about other people. (Most of the time I complain inside my head to myself which does NOT make it better than complaining out loud.) The reason I am practicing not complaining is to be a more accepting person and more at peace. Complaining or wishing for something or someone to be different does not change them or make it so but instead just makes me frustrated and crabby and only has me in some sort of state of suffering. And why would I want to do this to myself? While practicing my new non complaining state I have been wondering, Why do I think people should do things my way? Why do I think situations should look the way I think they should look? Why is my happiness tied to things that happen in my life? What if I learned to be more accepting, would I be happier in life?

I am learning that the external world, of which I have found lots of opportunities to complain about cannot make me happy, make me feel safe, or tell me who I am. It is time for me to learn how to enjoy the experiences offered to me in my life without inner attachments to them so that I can be in a state of well being and contentment and maybe even bliss. Although I have a long way to go on this lesson, I am enjoying the practice and catching myself before or right after a complaint more of the time and even these small initial steps has me smiling more often,

Sex in the City

I just went to see Sex in the City with a girlfriend. It may not be quite our Magic Party brand of sisterhood, spirit, and a little chocolate, but it’s definitely the quintessential sisterhood and cosmos movie! There have been many reviews written about this film, some good and some not so good, but if you are an observer of women in girlfriend relationships like I am, this movie had lots to offer its audience.

As I sat watching the movie, I loved how these four women had so many characteristics in their relationship with each other that I value in my own relationships with my girlfriends.

• Sticking with each other and being BFFs through good times and bad.

• Watching each other’s backs and protecting each other, especially when their men went haywire.

• Supporting each other’s dreams.

• Celebrating each other’s successes.

• Taking care of each other when the crap hits the fan.

• Telling each other the truth no matter what.
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Watching this movie actually made me re-evaluate my relationships with my girlfriends. I wondered would they come running and take care of me if my crap hit the fan? Would one of them come out in a snow storm in the middle of the night and sit with me when I needed it, even if I didn’t ask? Which one would tell my man that he better shape up, or else when he did something really stupid?

Most of all, this movie made me miss my girlfriends. I have two wonderful oldest and dearest girlfriends and when we do manage for the three of us to get together; we usually close some restaurant because we love being together so much. And lately we have all become way too busy climbing some ladder that we rarely have time for each other. And I miss them. This movie reminded me of their importance in my life and how we need to create time in our schedules to be together more often.

Upon arriving home from the movie, one of them called to ask me what I wanted for my upcoming birthday. I told her, “No presents this year, instead I want dinner together and a pajama party, just the three of us.” And we picked a date in a few weeks that actually works for us all. Woo hoo!

posted by Wendy Capland