Caroline A. Shearer's Blog, page 3

How Taking Care of Your Things Can Be the Key to Taking Care of Yourself in ALOVEDLIFE Volume 4

“The water was dark and murky, nearly black. What was once a beautiful, blue fountain full of flowing, crystal-clear water was hidden below years of neglect.

How did it get like this?

I thought I had been taking care of it, properly cleaning it, but evidently not. The reality was glaring: The fountain begged for my care.

It was time to get to work.

After researching how best to care for a fountain, I grabbed the suggested cleaning materials. I had no idea how long it would take, but with slow, patient focus, I put my elbow into it and began the hard work of restoration.

As I scrubbed, I could see piercing blue, bit by bit. As the bright color appeared, a light bulb went off in my head, and I had a miraculous experience.

In that moment, I was no longer separate from the fountain. I was the fountain. We were connected, as one.”

Read “How Taking Care of Your Things Can Be the Key to Taking Care of Yourself” by Ellen Phinney, exclusively in ALOVEDLIFE volume 4, a timeless bookazine by Absolute Love Publishing featuring stories on Intentional Living, Elevated Action, Conscious Connection, and Sacred Self Care. Learn about all the editions here.

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Use Sound to Uplift Your Life in ALOVEDLIFE Volume 4

“The subtle energies of the body — and even the energies in an apparently solid object — move in patterns: Energy vibrates in waves, it congregates in fields, it communicates via resonance and influence. Resonance is when one energy sets another vibrating in attunement, even at a distance. Influence is when the vibration of one energy catalyzes vibration in another. 

Sound is a tool we can use to easily and intuitively communicate with our subtle energies via resonance and influence, using vibration, patterns, and fields of sound. You have probably experienced this: Shifts in mood and energy level occur when you hear a lullaby, listen to a favorite song, chant for a few minutes, get lost in an orchestral masterpiece, or overhear a pounding beat in the car next to you at a stoplight!”

Read “Use Sound to Uplift Your Life,” an excerpt from The Language Your Body Speaks by Ellen Meredith, exclusively in ALOVEDLIFE volume 4, a timeless bookazine by Absolute Love Publishing featuring stories on Intentional Living, Elevated Action, Conscious Connection, and Sacred Self Care. Learn about all the editions here.

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After The Fall in ALOVEDLIFE Volume 4

“It had been a perfect Southern California day, and we had been having a nearly perfect lesson.

It was my first time jumping Axel since I’d brought him home. My trainer, relatively new to her post, had been riding him solo to ‘work out the kinks.’ (Par for the course for powerful, athletic show horses, especially ones unwittingly sent from the lush, green pastures of New Jersey to a beige desert canyon outside Los Angeles.) I hadn’t ridden much since the cross-country trip, so we were easing me in over cross rails. Each jump had been relatively smooth sailing, and all three of us were brimming with anticipation.

‘Let’s do one more!’ the trainer yelled. I emphatically agreed and went to pick up a simple left-lead canter.

It’s funny how quickly great expectations can be eclipsed by inescapable reality.

There was no other horse in the ring, no random desert animal milling about us. There wasn’t even an overly exuberant bird in the sky or a stiff wind. Nothing provoked what came next.” . . .

Read “After The Fall” by Gia-Raquel Esposito, exclusively in ALOVEDLIFE volume 4, a timeless bookazine by Absolute Love Publishing featuring stories on Intentional Living, Elevated Action, Conscious Connection, and Sacred Self Care. Learn about all the editions here.

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The Ebb and Flow of Creativity in ALOVEDLIFE Volume 4

“I live by the ocean, and this is not by accident. Something deep within me responds to water, and one of my favorite ways to spend time is sitting at the water’s edge, watching the incoming waves crash against the shore and then slip back out to sea. The rhythm is mesmerizing and calming.

Nature has often been a helpful metaphor that has affirmed over and over again the natural ebb and flow of the creative cycle. Dormancy and activity. Hiddenness and visibility. One thing creativity is not is a machine. It is far too nuanced for that. Of course, it is possible to make it into a machine, and there are people who do. But that process then becomes something quite different. It is no longer Art with a capital A. It may still be something creative or inventive, but a different mechanism for producing has taken over. So when I talk about the cycle of the creative flow, it is with Art in mind that I do so.” . . .

Read “The Ebb and Flow of Creativity,” an excerpt from The Reluctant Artist by Karen Kinney, exclusively in ALOVEDLIFE volume 4, a timeless bookazine by Absolute Love Publishing featuring stories on Intentional Living, Elevated Action, Conscious Connection, and Sacred Self Care. Learn about all the editions here.

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Unwrapping the Gifts of the Heart in ALOVEDLIFE Volume 4

“About a half-hour north on a dirt road off the highway is a small, tin-roof stand selling Coco Frio: ice-cold, fresh coconuts. We stop for a drink. They slice off the top of the green, football-sized fruits; plop in a straw; and the cool, watery liquid slides down into the depths of my heated body. It’s the rainy season and oh, so hot and humid. I feel a breeze from a passing car. My eyes follow it with longing. Any breeze is a sacred gift.

We drive another hundred meters or so to another dirt road. This one guides us far from the sounds of the highway into rolling fields and then … the jungle.

It surrounds the river like a lush, elegant cloak, vibrating with life, with energy, with humidity I can taste. We drive through mud, rocks, even fording the river once or twice. We get out, gather our backpacks—already wet with heavy air—and begin our trek.

The birds tempt me to miss my steps. What color was that one? The plants whisper secrets. I am glowing with intrigue, hardly able to act like a normal human being. It’s all too much for my senses to hold in with composure. And then, we see it.” . . .

Read “Unwrapping the Gifts of the Heart” by Brynne Betz, exclusively in ALOVEDLIFE volume 4, a timeless bookazine by Absolute Love Publishing featuring stories on Intentional Living, Elevated Action, Conscious Connection, and Sacred Self Care. Learn about all the editions here.

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ALP Authors Caroline A. Shearer and Sarah Hackley Featured in Local Article

Are you looking to support women writers based in Austin? Be sure to catch Austin Business Woman for a feature on local Austin authors, including our own Caroline A. Shearer and Sarah Hackley! Featuring books like Dead End Date, the Raise Your Vibration series, Women Will Save the World, Finding Happiness with Migraines, and Preparing to Fly, this article is worth the read!

“These Austin women are the sign that creating, writing, and publishing your own book is possible and becoming a best time seller is reachable if you want it.”

Read the full article here!

  

The post ALP Authors Caroline A. Shearer and Sarah Hackley Featured in Local Article appeared first on Absolute Love Publishing.

Transform Your Life with a Step in ALOVEDLIFE Volume 4

“Transformational Soul Coach Michelle Bateman knew her perspective had to change. Following the end of her second marriage, Bateman felt lonely, isolated, and lost. Describing that period in an interview with Divas That Care Founder Candace Gish, Bateman remembered thinking, ‘There’s got to be more to life than this. I’m so unhappy and feel unfulfilled, but I don’t know why and I don’t really know where to look.’

She said, ‘I had a dear friend who was dying of ALS and was completely paralyzed — and he was happier dying than I was living my life.’

This realization was a wake-up call. ‘I used to be this happy, loving, kind person, and I lost that along the way, and so I had to find myself again.'”. . .

Read “Transform Your Life with a Step,” exclusively in ALOVEDLIFE volume 4, a timeless bookazine by Absolute Love Publishing featuring stories on Intentional Living, Elevated Action, Conscious Connection, and Sacred Self Care. Learn about all the editions here.

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Seek Out Your Beauty in ALOVEDLIFE Volume 4

“Beauty can be described as something that is pleasurable to view, but who makes the decision of what is ‘pleasurable to view’ or not? You, do! Beauty is in everything and everyone – we just have to be open to seeing it. Sometimes it’s easy to see beauty in others but harder to see it in the mirror. Many deeply struggle with this every day.

If we open ourselves to seeing more beauty both in ourselves and all around us, we can leave behind negative messages or pressure and instead live happier lives. Why’s this? Two thoughts can’t occupy the same space. If we’re focused on appreciating something as beautiful, we can’t be thinking the opposite! It takes practice, but there are many ways we can find and appreciate our beauty more. Here are a few to help guide you on your way.” . . .

Read “Seek Out Your Beauty” by Sara Laymon, exclusively in ALOVEDLIFE volume 4, a timeless bookazine by Absolute Love Publishing featuring stories on Intentional Living, Elevated Action, Conscious Connection, and Sacred Self Care. Learn about all the editions here.

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Meet Yourself through Meditation in ALOVEDLIFE Volume 4

“Enlightenment, or satori, is meeting yourself. It’s a moment of revelation that unmasks your earthly self and reveals your divine self.

Spirituality paints the enlightened soul as a puddle of bliss and giggles riding a rainbow made of angels. Is there truly any such unicorn? Yes, yes, there is. And you can be that unicorn. You already are that unicorn. You’re already enlightened, but your naturally enlightened state is clouded by programming. By peeling back the program you can find your true self again— you can find everything you’ve been searching for.

Your program is a fun-bundle of neuroses and snarkery that traps you in delusion, or what I call the sim. You’ve probably heard some version of simulation theory, that our reality is essentially a generated program. The evidence is in front of you. Any object you look at is kinda not there. It’s 99.99% empty quantum particles that only exist when they’re being observed. Reality’s no sure thing. True reality lies beyond those there/not there particles. It’s the thing that generates them.”

Read “Meet Yourself through Meditation,” an adapted excerpt from I, Unicorn by Natasha Ewendt, exclusively in ALOVEDLIFE volume 4, a timeless bookazine by Absolute Love Publishing featuring stories on Intentional Living, Elevated Action, Conscious Connection, and Sacred Self Care. Learn about all the editions here.

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What’s LOVE Got to Do with It? in ALOVEDLIFE Volume 4

“My thoughts raced as the epiphany took hold. Who would I be, I wondered, without my job? How would I be?

I couldn’t imagine quitting a job I had worked so hard for, for which I had sacrificed so much. I couldn’t imagine walking away from an identity I had built my entire life around.

Yet, simultaneously, I knew. It was no longer a choice.

You see, my entire life had been riddled with abuse. It was how I was raised. It was in many of my friendships. It was in all of my intimate relationships. And it was, most prominently, inside my fourteen-year career as an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

At that moment in that hotel room, I knew that if my true desire was to create a life filled with love, then I needed to cultivate a space within myself where love, not abuse, could grow and flourish. And that meant I absolutely could not continue to force myself into abusive environments or relationships. Nor could I continue to tolerate the abuse that was permeating my life. I needed to break loose, set my- self free, and begin to heal—even if I had no idea how.”

Read “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” by Sara Ann Aerts, exclusively in ALOVEDLIFE volume 4, a timeless bookazine by Absolute Love Publishing featuring stories on Intentional Living, Elevated Action, Conscious Connection, and Sacred Self Care. Learn about all the editions here.

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