Kim Hermanson's Blog, page 30

Fullness is a full-time job

The daisies aren’t worried about what the worms or bees are doing; they’re not comparing themselves to the trees; and they’re not trying to take care of the sun.

Because their fullness is a full time job.

“I am in my fullness. I am so full that I can’t stop to worry about other people. Fullness is my full-time job.”

Finding YOUR Way to Self Care

Ivanka Trump was widely panned for suggesting that busy mothers should get regular massages, because for many of us that’s just not realistic.

I myself, have never been into meditating. And if I don’t like something, I’m not going to end up doing it.

A friend says that people always tell her to slow down, but she’s a raging extrovert. Being around lots of people is what recharges her.

Self-care requires clarity about what we need. Not what others think, or what we’re “supposed” to do, or what experts prescribe. Good self-care requires an ongoing connection with what’s true for us.

At different times in your life, self-care is going to look different. At one time, self-care might be stepping up into leadership in your community. Sometimes, it might be about doing more. At another time, it might be letting go, shifting gears, or resting. For some of us, self-care may be about saying ‘no’ to the part of ourselves that wants to spend the day lounging. For others, it will be saying ‘yes’ to that desire.

And for many of us, self-care requires addressing that negative voice in your head that says you don’t have the training you need, or you’re too old, too poor, or too broken.

I worked with a client recently who knew she needed to stop and take a breather from all the intensive training programs she was involved in, but she was having a hard time shifting gears. She’d invested so much time, energy and resources going down this particular path. I have another client who’s been intensely trying to finish a book these past few months, and taking time out to address her own needs has gone out the window.

I don’t know why it is, but when when we’re most in need of self-care–when we’re most in need of slowing down and connecting with our own deep inner wisdom, when we’re most in need of feeling deep support–that’s often the time when it’s hardest to access. When we get tired, worn out and overwhelmed, or when we’re anxious about something, it’s harder to make that inner connection, and harder to do those things that would most serve us.

I’m offering a tele-class this week on self-care, and I hope you will join us. I’d especially love for you to join us if:

you’ve been feeling super disconnected…from yourself and Spirit
you need clarity and direction
you know you need to make a change, but you’re hesitating or resisting it
you feel anxious, scared or off-center about something
you’re struggling with depression
you have an addictive pattern you would like to change
you’re not sure what you need right now

We’ll be going deep into our own inner landscapes, discovering what Source energy wants to say to you right now. We will shift into a place where whatever it is that you’ve been struggling with is not present. In that space of deep clarity, you will know what you need.

Dates: Thursdays  June 13th and June 20th.

10 am – 12 pm PDT.

$75, includes class recordings, handouts and a private reading with me.

NOTE: If you can’t make it live, you can still sign up to receive the recording and work with me individually.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

 

Deep Self-Care: Resting into Something Greater Teleclass

We live in a world that constantly gets us to neglect what’s truly important. For many of us, that includes self-care…taking time for rest, creative fun, and solid connection with our own inner wisdom.

When we lose touch with our selves, we lose ourselves in this world.

If you’re seriously overwhelmed or burned out, if you’ve had a nagging health issue that’s not improving, or if you’ve been struggling with something that’s wearing you down, please join us.

This two-week experiential teleclass is a sacred time-out to reconnect with what is most essential and valuable for you at this time in your life.

You will discover the Greater Source Energy that YOU can rest into.

clarify what self-care looks like for you right now
deepen your connection with your self & your inner wisdom
align with your creative flow
somatically experience deep Source energies that will shift the way you think about your life
uncover inner resources & possibilities that wouldn’t be revealed any other way

Oddly, the more time and attention we invest in self-care, the more productive we actually are. While the ego rushes to achieve and make things happen, real success comes from our connection with our selves. The quality of this relationship defines the quality of our life. You’ll leave this class energetically experiencing the loving support of Spirit.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

 

GROUP CALLS: Thursdays June 13th & June 20th

10 am – 12 pm PST 

* If you can’t attend live, this event will be recorded.

* All participants will receive a personal reading from Kim as part of the class.

 

 

“Kim’s work is pioneering.”   ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, New York Times bestselling author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

“I’ve been involved in the Jungian movement for 40 years and worked with many world-famous Jungian teachers. None of them were ever able to connect my images to me like you did. You are onto something.”   ~ Joan Green

“Kim’s work is powerful. A single session with her gave me a breakthrough on an obstacle I’d been struggling with. I recommend it to everyone.”   ~ Bonnie Bright, Ph.D., Founder of Depth Psychology Alliance

 

Kim Hermanson, PhD. is an author and transformative coach, known for her skill in quickly shifting people out of spiritual and psychological difficulties into a place of profound beauty, healing and creative flow. She is adjunct faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute.

The Deep Creative has been my guide

Many years ago during the summer after I received my PhD, I stood on the mountain overlooking Berkeley and the bay. It was late at night, with a brilliant, star-filled sky.

I gazed out over the city and Bay and committed to myself that I was going to live a creative life. Creativity was going to lead me.

I just finished writing a song where I make a brief mention of losing my father at a young age: “I saw my daddy die way too young, and swore my life was gonna be about fun…”

Freedom is perhaps a better word than fun… the freedom to follow a deeper calling, a deep truth, a deeper way of knowing.

The freedom to follow the Deep Creative. I can’t imagine living any other way.

The only difference between creative people and non-creative people

 

Creative people aren’t any different from people who don’t consider themselves to be creative. It’s just that creative people have chosen to say “yes” to their heart’s longing to express itself.

Aligning with the Deep Creative

Picasso famously said that every act of creation begins with an act of destruction.

We live within a creative process…a creative process that is continually destroying and transforming our man-made things, relationships, and institutions. It’s as if the Universe is in a continual process of “making” and we are its ingredients.

We’re part of the Universe’s cauldron of soup.

Often…unwittingly.

But we’re not completely at the mercy of this creative force. We have a way to tap into the Deep Creative in its pre-emergent state, before it springs itself upon us.

Through metaphoric imagery, we can directly tap into the wisdom and direction of the Deep Creative. Metaphoric imagery allows you to go deep into your own inner creative terrain… viscerally experiencing the direction of the Deep Creative in your life.

Metaphor has the uncanny ability to offer us both deep wisdom and guidance, as well as a visceral, sensory experience. We can energetically feel “crashing” or “crossroads” or “fire” or “stillness” or “rest.”

Your task is to be in alignment with that visceral wisdom.

Rather than be jolted by life into the next thing, or the next path or direction that Spirit wants for you…

Rather than build something that doesn’t work, or spend huge amounts of money on a training program that puts you into debt but does nothing for your career…

you might draw on the power of metaphor to directly connect with your own internal wisdom.

The Deep Creative won’t lead you wrong, it wants what is best for you. That connection with Source is the one thing you can deeply trust.

It wants to work with you.

If you’d like to discover Deep Creative wisdom in your own life. Or if you need direction, are feeling overwhelmed, or struggling with something, I invite you to join me for a Doorway session. Click here for more info: https://www.kimhermanson.com/doorway-sessions/

Sigh. Fond memories of teaching at UC Berkeley’s Tolman Hall….

My very first teaching gig was in the Adult and Vocational Ed teacher credentialing program at UC Berkeley. I taught there for two years, before moving on to other things. Those classes were so inspirational for me… my students were working teachers of all ages who taught all over the Bay Area. They taught in hospitals, corporations, high schools, junior highs, and vocational education programs of all varieties. I had someone who taught snow boarding, another taught people how to run a restaurant, another taught in prisons, some worked with seniors, several worked with persons with disabilities. It was amazing.

And because everyone was teaching in such dramatically different settings and with dramatically different kinds of students, the only thing I could do was go deep down into the foundation of teaching and learning… to a place where we could all connect. That place of connection was our love–for our students, our material, and the craft of teaching itself. That deep place was where we could connect and learn from one another.

Those classes and students inspired my book, Getting Messy: A Guide to Taking Risks and Opening the Imagination. I loved going deep with those students, and they loved it too.

One day I led a talking stick circle. It was the last day of class and a man who’d barely spoken a word during the entire course held the stick. There was dead silence in the room as he wept and talked about the difficult lives of students… who were incarcerated.

And I’ll never forget the very first 15 minutes of my very first class. I was scared out of my boots! I started with a short activity that involved repeating our names in a certain sequence so that we would easily remember them. I said, “A community is a place where we know each other’s names.”

I’ll never forget the standing ovation I got.

Those classes became the basis of everything I’ve done since. I’ll miss Tolman Hall.

The Other world slips into our language through metaphor

In the physical sciences, we think the only world we know is what can be measured. But the creative lives in another realm. This realm, this ‘Other world’ slips into our day-to-day world in various ways—striking images, moments of exquisite beauty, intense dreams.

It slips into our language through metaphor.

Poison oak blisters and teaching

I learned early in my career that I can teach and be in front of a group when I’m not feeling well or I’m sick.

The example that’s forever etched into my memory is when I was hired to teach a day-long seminar at UC Berkeley. And I just happened to have gnarly poison oak rashes on both of my legs—puss was literally oozing down them. I wore a long skirt and took frequent breaks to the bathroom down the hall so I could splash cold water on the blisters. It gave me short reprieves from the itching and the oozing. Yikes.

But it was fine, the students had no idea. When we’re doing what we’re meant to be doing in life, we can do it under any condition.

For whatever reason, just felt the urge to share that little story…

Head Knowing versus Heart Knowing

Every week, I get lots of suggestions from well-meaning folks of all varieties for books they think I might be interested in, videos to watch, articles, and so forth that seem related to the work that I do.

I’m not surprised by this. As someone who has studied learning for the past 30+ years (yikes for admitting how old I am…), I know that the way we typically learn in life is through the mind. And the way that the mind learns is by association, i.e. “this is like that.” In other words, since I work with imagery and metaphor, I get all kinds of suggestions for books and articles about imagery, metaphor, dreamwork, archetypes, and the like.

The mind is a powerful instrument for learning, and I honor that. But our heart learns in a much different way.

The heart learns and knows by following an inner call.

My work was developed from an inner call. Eleven years ago I had a powerful mystical experience, and it has been my guide ever since. I knew at a deep level that it was conveying to me my life’s work.

Anyone in this world who is doing anything truly authentic is letting his or her heart lead. They are following heart knowing… “See-Feeling” an internal vision that is typically hard to explain or put into words.

By the way, this is why metaphor is the language our heart uses to navigate its way in the world.  Metaphoric imagery allows us to “see-feel” vague inner feelings, nebulous nudges, fuzzy forms, obscure pieces that don’t seem to fit, and fleeting glimpses of “Something else.”

Heart knowing is hard to explain or put into words…but through metaphor, we can See-Feel it.

If you’d like to explore what your heart has to say to you, please join me for a Doorway session or Virtual Reading.

Metaphoric Wisdom is a Magic Potion

Information overload and burnout are common problems for most of us. But when we spend time dwelling in the language of metaphor, we’re not stuffing data into our heads. We’re simply relying on the wisdom of metaphor to show us the way…by tapping into a deep source of innate ancient wisdom. Metaphoric images take us under the surface to a place that’s abundantly rich and nurturing.

For this of us with hectic lives, metaphoric wisdom is a beautiful elixir.

When we feel stuck, we don’t need to push or try harder, what we need to do is discover the metaphoric image that can heal us. While our minds often go “round and round” in circles and mentally struggle with dilemmas, metaphor provides innate direction, healing, and a path forward.