Nikki Starcat Shields's Blog, page 43

Cultivating Self-Love: Your Path to Wholeness

Okay, it’s confession time. Do you ever struggle with loving yourself? How do you talk to yourself, in the privacy of your own mind? Do you treat yourself with loving compassion? Come on, ‘fess up.

If you’re like most of us, you don’t treat yourself as kindly as you’d like. You criticize, you judge, you feel like you could always do more or better. I’ve been there and done that. Finally, a couple of years ago, I decided that enough was enough. I set out on a quest to find self-love.

After much...

Nearly Ready

This summer has been a whirlwind of intense energies. Are you feeling it, too? My astrologer friends have been talking about all the powerful conjunctions, squares, and oppositions affecting us, not only individually but as a culture.

It makes sense to me. We made it through the portal that was 2012, the end of the Mayan calendar, and now we’re on to something completely new. Yet we don’t quite know how to approach it. Personally, I feel like I’m clearing out old energies and making way for a...

Having Good Tools

As I mentioned in my last post, I have just joined the world of smartphones. Before this, I had the same cell phone since 2006, and we’d gotten rid of our land line at about that same time. I mostly used the phone, well, to make phone calls, plus as an alarm clock when I needed one, and I did a limited amount of texting. It could take photos, but I had long since maxed out the memory it had available and didn’t want to get rid of any of the pictures to add new ones. I also didn’t need to, as...

Starcat’s Favorites: August Already?!

The month of July seemed to zoooooom right by! As I’ve written before, August is perhaps the busiest month of the year for me and my family. So, here goes!

Some of the projects and fun things I’m involved with this crazy month: family birthdays, finalizing details for our trip to Texas for our Rethinking Everything adventure (and the trip itself is later this month), playing gigs with Dark Follies, getting my new e-book ready to release (coming soon soon soon!), preparing for an exciting autho...

Starcat’s Corner: August Already?!

The month of July seemed to zoooooom right by! As I’ve written before, August is perhaps the busiest month of the year for me and my family. So, here goes!

Some of the projects and fun things I’m involved with this crazy month: family birthdays, finalizing details for our trip to Texas for our Rethinking Everything adventure (and the trip itself is later this month), playing gigs with Dark Follies, getting my new e-book ready to release (coming soon soon soon!), preparing for an exciting autho...

That Other Place: Six Quotes on Imagination

I don’t know if it’s the alignment of the planets (which is pretty wild right now, just so you know) or what, but my imagination has been super active over the past few weeks. Today I thought I’d share a few of my favorite quotes on the imagination.

“I’ve come back to reality. Which is the world of the imagination. That’s the true world, Monsieur. Why did I ever allow myself to forget? You have to conjure it, that’s all. Sometimes you can completely forget it’s there. You get ground down in th...

I Guess I’m Dead

I had a dream last night that I was in an empty office-type area, I think on a college campus. Some people, strangers to me, came in and started talking with me, and pretty soon one of them said to me, “I think you’re dead.” Another one agreed, “Yeah, I don’t think you’re alive here. I think you are dead.” My dream self thought this was funny and kind of cool.

“OK,” I said, “I guess I’m dead. I’m leaving.” So I walked out of the office and off the campus. I was walking down sidewalks, past gas...

Triggers and How to Survive Them

No matter where you are on your path, there will be certain situations, places, and people that trigger you. I ran smack into one myself this week. I could have seen it coming, but no. Triggers can sneak in under the radar and get us right in the gut.

What do I mean by triggers? I’m talking about things that bring up emotions that are way out of proportion to the actual situation. They push our buttons, and the feelings that emerge are usually tied to past events. They connect with old pattern...

Touching Base with Yourself

How often do you take time to touch base with yourself? I don’t mean just looking over your to-do list, or noticing that you need a haircut. I’m talking about some focused solitude, where you turn off Facebook and the TV and really listen to how you’re doing.

It’s something I forget to do sometimes, until it becomes obvious to me that I need a break. My favorite two scenarios are spending a quiet evening in my candlelit bedroom, and taking a solo walk on the beach or a forest trail. You can al...

Starcat’s Favorites: Summertime, Summertime

“Summertime, summertime, sum-sum-summertime…”

I love summer, and yet it often means I’m busy and on the go more than usual. This has been just such a week. There have been a lot of fun things: swimming, drumming, meals with family, performing, hanging out with the members of our performance troupe, dancing at a fun outdoor concert, and more. There were a couple of productive meetings, and time spent helping out some friends. Also the usual quota of work and housekeeping and all the things that...