You are here: Home / Blog

Why I’m not Blogging About My Minibook – And How I’ve Brought the Adventure Home

January 10, 2012 By 2 Comments

As you know, the minibook “The Conscious Girl’s POCKET Guide to Backpacking” is published and I’m happy to say it’s already in the hands over hundreds of women – in just the last month! Wow!

You can get your copy here.

It’s such a *thrill* to hand it to someone and watch their face light up. Like, my personal banker who has an adventurous 10 year old daughter. Or, the young girl who came into the shop the other day and was beside herself that I gifted it to her. It’s such a *thrill* to see them hold it, like it’s a precious gift, resonating perfectly in their hands. I’ve loved the Facebook love it has received, some from total strangers. The design, the colors, the illustration, the title, the language, every single word inside of its pages…oh, the hours of love and meditation and thought gone into their selection. Ah!

Thank you for your love and support on this incredible journey.

KEEP TELLING ME about your adventures, and how this adorable, passport-sized wallet full of cosmic punch speaks to you on your journey.

You’d think that with a book published, I’d be tearing away blogging and e-marketing…

(here comes a confession)

…but instead I’m following my heart.

In fact, the end of 2011 solidified a huge shift for me spiritually that had been shifting throughout the year.

Instead of “marketing” and “generating content” for Conscious Girl’s blog – something all the experts say to do – I’m doing something completely different…

You may not know that I have had a career as a vocalist – I began studying voice when I was 12, studied music at the University of Virginia, am always performing in ensembles, often leading some kind of group – like workshops or a small choir – and it’s “that thing” that always seemed to happen wherever I go.

I’m making a bold move, and dropping marketing on “Conscious Girl” so I can take my singing career to the next level.

I’ve met most of you through the juncture of me deciding to go abroad for a year – to teach music in Guatemala. “Conscious Girl” was born at the juncture of returning home and being hit with this book, and my coaching practice was born from a logical place – all the marketing experts I was following were teaching that in order to ensure the success of your book in the world, that you needed to be able to coach people and leverage group coaching. Well, “The Conscious Girl’s Guide to Backpacking” was SO IMPORTANT to my heart and soul that I wanted to be sure to follow the advice of the experts so that I could ensure its safe delivery into this world, so it could blossom and grow like the healthy book baby it was.

Funny thing, though. Even though people routinely seek my advice on how to step into their adventurous lives, leave behind insecurities, and go where they’ve always dreamed of going – literally or figuratively, I earned more money singing in 2010 and 2011 than with coaching!

The numbers had begun to speak to me. I have felt dissonance around “blogging” for Conscious Girl, as if somehow the “Why” wasn’t placed in the right space. In fact, it hadn’t been. My relationship with the blog was almost out of obligation – obligation and safety – instead of joy of creation. Such weight! Such self-imposed pressure! Naturally, I recoiled from this. And as I should have, since obligation and safety are not exactly resonant with the themes of following your heart, wherever it leads!

It wasn’t until a conference that I attended last month in Atlanta filled with passionate, purpose-driven female entrepreneurs did I really come home to something I knew in my heart:

I am a singer! I am a singer.

You guys have heard me talk about this. It’s been like this total peeling back of all the layers of my soul.

I’ve been so worried about “The Conscious Girl’s Guide to Backpacking” and bringing her into the world that the brilliance of it is this:

Conscious Girl delivered me.

The moment “The Conscious Girl’s Pocket Guide to Backpacking” was out and in hands a month ago, something inside me shifted and released. I know that in order to bring her and her spirit into the world that I have to bring me and my spirit into the world…and that any marketing moves, choice, plans, crafting, etc. needs to come from here. What that means is that in 2012, my primary focus is going to be singing and performing and connecting with people through song – and that anything Conscious Girl will happen in the aftermath of that.

Do you have something that you know to be true about yourself, but sometimes have a hard time expressing?

As we step into 2012, it is still my intention to inspire women – and men – to follow their hearts wherever they may lead – but I’m going to be doing it in a way that is purely authentic:

I am singing, and all marketing for Conscious Girl will be coming out of and created in the wake of that joy of expressing who I really am to the world.

So it makes me want to ask you – what is that thing that you’ve always longed to do? That you always squeeze to the side, saying that “One day, when my ducks are in a row and I’ve proven my worth and my value, I will be allowed to do it”? What is the thing that makes you cry as you are triggered with information from the outside? When someone asks you, “If you could be doing anything, what would you be doing?” what is your answer? Does it make your heart swell and your eye tear up?

I’m here to simply remind you today that THAT is your calling. It’s not your time to wait until someone else deems that you’re worthy enough to pursue it. It’s a big world! It’s a big time! It’s time for you to step into your glory, kinks and frustrations and all. You are so worthy of it!

Literally, a year and a half ago, one of the world’s most exclusive coaches asked me “If you could do anything, Heather, what would it be?” I teared up. “Singing. But I can’t do that yet. I have to finish this book.” And I went on to list a gazillion things that I needed to be doing.

Now, I am focusing all of my energy towards singing and I can tell you this:

  • I am at ease within my own body
  • I am accomplishing more in the course of my day
  • New opportunities are showing up to implement that are fun
  • and most importantly….
  • That sexy, adventurous spirit who I always find inside of myself ABROAD…IS NOW HOME WITHIN ME. Back here at home.

This, to me, feels like the biggest deliverance of all. I am so excited about the year to come. And I can’t wait to share it with you.

I’m not really sure what I’m going to be doing here on this blog. I’ve given myself permission to step away from it and until the time is right to come back here, you can find me at www.HeatherHightower.com, where I’ll be celebrating music and performing and all the things that go with it!

 

And, who knows…maybe in the permission to step away will come something new and beautiful…like permission to simply write to you all as is.

 

 

Filed Under: Adventure, Minibook

Save Money on Your Minibook Order

December 18, 2011 By 1 Comment

Get your adventurous girl her copy before she hops off on that plane!

 

It’s that time of year – time for quitting jobs, reevaluating your life, taking the adventure you’ve been promising yourself, going on the semester abroad. It’s the perfect time to give her the “The Conscious Girl’s Pocket Guide to Backpacking”!

Save Money – Order Your Minibook Copy Directly Through Me

As you know, the minibook is now available on Amazon. However, it turns out shipping and handling prices before Christmas is rather steep!

Order through me directly for REDUCED SHIPPING PRICES

If you need your order received before Christmas, you can place your order directly through me and save significant money on shipping and handling! (good for US residents only – sorry international peeps!)

Just email me at heather (at) heatherhightower (dot) com with this information:

Your Name

How many copies you want

Where they’re being shipped to

Your Phone Number

and I’ll send you a paypal invoice directly.

How much money will you save?

For example, if you order 10 copies on Amazon.com, you could pay $39.90 in shipping and handling. Order through me and you’ll most likely pay less than $15.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

 

Filed Under: Minibook Tagged With: , , , ,

Buy Your Copy Today! “The Conscious Girl’s Pocket Guide to Backpacking”: Now On Amazon!

December 14, 2011 By 2 Comments

Get your copy of “The Conscious Girl’s Pocket Guide to Backpacking” TODAY!

The minibook is now for sale on Amazon.com!

Woooo hoooooooo!!!

Please place your orders as soon as possible to ensure delivery by Christmas. We’re just a few days away!

Why buy:

Click the image to read the Top 10 Reasons Why It's the Best Stocking Stuffer (and, reason #11 is that it is small enough to fit in a standard envelope and use only one stamp! Easy-peasy gifting!)

 

Why this book exists:

Click the image to read how it all started, and how this book offers you more than just a penned friend for your pocket.

Filed Under: Minibook Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

10 Reasons Why “The Conscious Girl’s Pocket Guide to Backpacking” Is the Best Stocking Stuffer

December 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The minibook is literally passport sized! And a lot easier to get than a passport!

 

 

Here are my top 10 reasons why “The Conscious Girl’s Pocket Guide to Backpacking” makes for the best economic stocking/backpacking/passport holder stuffer ever (just $5!):

10. Demure design. It fits there right next to your passport. No gaudiness. Cute and makes an impact without creating a ruckus.

9. No demands. The minibook isn’t going to ask you to choose between your gortex shoes or your sexy “going out” cardigan. She is strong enough to be stuffed away without ripping (though she may crinkle), and small enough to accommodate your other needs.

8. Power Packed. Yep. She may be only 32 mini pages long, but the words in these pages just might change your life. If you’ve ever been racked with fear about your impending death-by-parasite, insecurity-by-sketchy-man-leering-at-you, or that there will never be a place for you in this world, find words on her pages that bring you back to a stronger center – a center in yourself that asks yourself to remember who you really are.

7. Words that have been lived out. There’s a reason that this book is printed literally four years after the words first hit like a ton or bricks. While a tiny dose of cosmic goodness,  my words are backed with experience and perspective. From chronic disease and cubicle hell to adventurous, feel good, balanced life (while still a total work in progress), this little book has a real, balanced person behind it. And that’s a good thing.

6. Great transformation just needs a catalyst. Choosing to go and live your life is a choice and one that only you can do for yourself. If you’ve got itchy feet, a sense of dying a little bit on the inside every day, or a desire to simply know yourself or the world more, this book gives you (or her) the confidence to GO and not to stay behind in a life you know isn’t working for you anymore.

5. Get more than the book – get priceless guided exercises! Once your spirit is sparked, you may want to take the lessons a little deeper. At the very back of the book you will find a url to a site (not connected to this blog) where you can input the ID code found on that page. Once logged in, you will find an online environment with your own private journal pages and weeks worth of guided exercises that I created and used for a virtual course I taught last year called “Adventure Rockstar: Be the Powerhouse You Know You Are.” Adventure is fun on the road – but an adventurous, feel good life no matter where you are is even better – and these guided questions help bring you into that space for yourself – so you don’t have to necessarily go broke living country to country. So for $5, you get so much more!

4. See where in the world the book has traveled! Each book is equipped with a “Pass Along” technology. Of course, if you’re the first to buy it, you will be the originating point. Once you pass the book along, others after you are invited to log in their destination. Over time, you can see where the book has traveled and create a whole other journey around the world! Fun!

3. Won’t break your budget. At just $5, you’ve got a book that might just trigger the change of a lifetime for a woman in your life. Or conscious guy. And it won’t kill your gift-giving budget. Who knew Santa was so forward-thinking?

2. You can’t tame a lion, so tell her she can roam. Your daughter/wife/best friend has a huge spirit – and chances are life will be pretty miserable if she’s not living out her dreams. Yet, finding her home-based dreams may just involve some international travel first to clear the channels, get perspective, and feel alive again. Don’t keep her in a cage – let her know that the whole wilderness is hers to explore. Let her know you trust her and believe in her with this little minibook. Set her heart on fire! (a one way ticket might be a nice accompaniment….!)

1. Inspire her. Material possessions can’t be “taken with you” in the greater sense. What better gift is there than inspiration, love and trust? To yourself or someone you love.

 

Read the complete background on the book HERE.

 

**Where can I get my copy?**

The minibook is ALMOST out for sale on Amazon.com. In the meantime, sign up for your free eBook copy in the searchbar to the right and you’ll also be notified when it’s available for purchase (literally just waiting for the books to arrive at the fulfillment center!).

If you’re in Charlottesville, VA, swing by jean theory: on the downtown mall where they are currently available for purchase.

 

Filed Under: Minibook Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Conscious Girl’s Pocket Guide – How to Get Your Early Copy

December 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The minibook is now real, in hands, but not quite online yet!

 

Yesterday I rushed home to get the shipment of 220 minibooks that were overnighted to my door.

Fresh out of the box!

 

I squealed, and celebrated last night over sushi, kettle corn and X-Men “First Class.”

Today, like a proud, new mama, put them out at jean theory:. I posted to my Facebook page today:

Feelin’ like a proud mama – these are out at jean theory: in Charlottesville, VA – one mom bought, told her daughter they’d have to share. 5 min later they walk back into the store and said, “Ok, we have to get a second one! We each need our own!” >^_^< <— that my beam face. Beaming!

If you are wanting your copy, they’ll be available soon.

Here’s how you can get your copy:

  • In Charlottesville, Virginia? Swing by jean theory: on the downtown mall and snag a copy. They’re on the desk! $5 each.
  • Sign up on my email list (in the email form in the side bar) and you’ll get a free eBook sometime this week (limited time offer) – only, I’m leaving for Atlanta in the morning, so that may take a few days to actually coordinate. (Thanks for your patience!)
  • Amazon – Hard Copies and Kindle – should be available later this week, as soon as the other shipment is received by the fulfillment center. Email list followers will know first!
  • Come to my celebration party at jean theory: on December 14th, 6-7:30pm. I’ll be drawing names for a few giveaways, and selling what I’ve got left in my own hands. If you are planning on coming, drop me a note to let me know (comments are good enough!) If you are planning on picking up more than one copy, please email me in advance (asap) so I can do my best to set aside your order (heather (at) heatherhightower (dot) com and not sell it to somebody else)

Have a great night, everyone!

 

Filed Under: Minibook Tagged With: , , , , , ,

6 Steps to RESCUE Yourself: Reintroducing the System for Overcoming Dying on the Inside Every Day

December 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

After years of people coming to me one by one, asking me “What did you do to get to where you are?” (usually these people were most interested in how I regained my health), I finally decided it would be worthwhile to sift through the mass of information I kept repeating over and over and see how to break it down for more people to get into it. Also, I figured I could save a lot of time because I can’t have one on one conversations with every single person in the world! (though that would be quite fascinating and wonderful).

In 2010 (with the guidance of speaking pro, Lisa Sasevich), I introduced my 6 Step “R.E.S.C.U.E.” System to encompass the core of what it is that I teach others who want to know how to rescue their authentically adventurous, and healthy, lives.

Now, I have to say, prior to stepping into a role of sharing with people in a more powerful way, I was pretty typically skeptical of “systems.” Everyone’s got one, and everyone seems to think you should be following their system. I naturally rebelled against this. And this is healthy.

I have to say – now that I’m on the other side of it, I can see this: my thinking was not entirely complete from this old perspective. It’s true that many experts really do push their content on you and leave no room for other alternatives. This is part of what’s so potentially disappointing/deathly about allopathic medicine (let’s be real here). I will probably always be more of a fan of the teachers who skillfully leave room for alternative realities, and, I will always strive to do my best to allow space for your reality to be your reality – full of infinite possibility and wonder.

But, when I used to sit there poo-pooing on other people’s system, my feelings came from a disempowered place – because I was rebelling against their seeming unwillingness to see it from my perspective. I wasn’t yet empowered enough to speak up and hold true to what I knew to be true. I let them hold spiritual authority over me as I clawed my way to reclaiming mine.

Now the tables are flipped – and so I’ve begun the best way I know how – sharing what I’ve learned to be true in my experience in an effort to brighten the lives of many others who might be subconsciously seeking this ray of sunshine.

Structuring your information in a way that enables people to connect with it is a powerful move- and helps things evolve. I consume other people’s systems voraciously, because it provides fodder for exploring alternative possibilities within myself. It’s pretty fun.

Today, I reintroduce to you my 6 Step System, so fabulously emerged as the word “R.E.S.C.U.E.” (seriously, when that acronym emerged in the conference, it was like letters coming to me through the fog! I had to smile). I feel like it’s important to me to acknowledge to you that I understand the conundrum of systems - the push and pull, the need to share information effectively, and the danger of putting forth a possible truth so powerfully that it influences too much.

As you take the information, remember what you already know – you’re your own shaman. I expect you to take it all with a healthy grain of salt. I share it with you because it answers the question “What did you do?” at a very digestible level, without having to tell every single one of you about every epiphany I had along the way with each of the dozens of practitioners I had sought out. I’m not saying this has to be or is going to be your path. But I give it to you to answer the question people consistently ask of me, “What did I do?” There will potentially be something in it for you to take away and share with someone else.

You’ll hear me talk about this system more, breaking it down, explaining it. It’s in the minibook, and the minibook connects to a free online environment that gives you worksheets I created around the R.E.S.C.U.E. system so you can start working the content – and potentially changing your life – for basically no investment. To me, that’s a gift. Take my $50,000+ and 6 years of personal investment and start fresh from where you are.

We are living in a beautiful, challenged world right now. There are millions of brilliant, powerful, disempowered people out there who have forgotten who they really are. Maybe that’s you or someone you know – sitting at a desk, knowing exactly what she wants to do with her life, but feeling like it might be impossible. She might be aging prematurely, grumpy, irritable, frustrated, and plagued with a sense that she was born for more than this.

If you want to give her a Christmas gift, gift her the resources in the little $5 minibook. She’ll either “get it” and thank you, seeing you with new eyes, or it will sit tucked away somewhere until she’s ready for it. And then, magically, it will surface.

And then when you’re out there in the world, backpacking, facing danger or destruction, if you’re no longer wrestling with physical malaise, these steps still work wonderfully to snap you back into a place of empowerment so you can make more powerful, informed decisions for yourself. It gives you a system to remember how to create your own miracles, and become conscious of the miracles you are constantly creating.

Filed Under: RESCUE Yourself Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Designing a Minibook Cover: Adventures on Trusting Your Inner Wisdom

November 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

About a year or two after the idea for “The Conscious Girl’s Guide to Backpacking” hit me, I was also hit with a vision for the cover of the full-length book: soft cover, black (like the Methodist “The Faith We Sing” contemporary hymnal), with simple and fun lettering in white, and a little quirky, audacious, slightly irreverant earth shining out from the top third. My name would be at the bottom, there would be no subtitle, and the discreet cover could be comfortable carried by uncomfortable women everywhere.

So, as the mini book was ready for its cover I shared this simple concept with my designer. Seemed straightforward enough, right? After about 3 weeks, this is what I got:

Draft of the minibook cover that forced me to see beyond my vision.

Christian Detres, consultant and brand director for Gungho Guides, had tried to tell me that something that denoted backpacking had to be on the cover. Like a sick person who can’t yet hear that wellness is possible, I couldn’t hear it. (I admitted to Christian later the wisdom of his ways!)

A talented young designer and artist named Emerald Grippa helped it get to this point, and with all her talent and all my words and about 15 hours looking for fonts, it was telling when Marijean Jaggers, PR and brand consultant and friend, said, “Yeah, I mean, it doesn’t make me want to pick it up.” Gah! Time was running out.

My perfect vision had not translated at all. Given the amount of talent and expertise helping me, I finally admit that I needed to change course. This was hard to do.

In comes Howell Burnell, a friend of a friend who had happened to swoop in on me (serendipitously) the final day I had gotten to get the design to the printer in time for printing for the conference I’m going to next week. Howell put me at ease the moment he looked at the design and had the same initial gut reactions about size and spacing that I had had. Howell listens to me intently for an hour, he asks me all sorts of supportive, pointed questions. That night, he quickly churns out exactly what we had talked about. I was confused, because I still didn’t get the vibe I wanted but I loved where he had gone with it. Something was still missing.

Poor Howell got about three more effluent emails from me, until we decided that a range of berry colors for the title colors would be appropriate.

Howell sends me 5 versions. They were all awesome. But I panic. I needed to make a decision, and fast, but I was worried I would choose wrong.

Here’s the final conversation that proves Howell to be the true pro that he is, and the conversation that led to Conscious Girl looking so awesome on the front cover (he granted his permission for this google chat to be printed!):

me: oh hey look, google chat!
not showing up yet…big file i gess
Howell: Yep. Five files around 3000K each…
me: hahaha I’ll go grab a beer…:)
Howell: :)
me: I’m so excited that this worked out so well
thank you for stepping in and being awesome
Howell: aw. chucks.
Sent at 8pm on Sunday
me: maybe if i didn’t sit here, they would show up.
brb…
Howell: likely
Doh. Helps when I press send.
Sent at 8:02 PM on Sunday
me: hahhaha
see? it helped that I got up!
Howell: righto
me: ok…going silent for a few while I open…are all your clients as creatively neurotic as i feel i am?
wait, no, going silent…
Howell: :)
Sent at 8:06 PM on Sunday
me: oh yeah, they are all awesome! my initial reaction – like total gut – is that 9 and 11 are not it. going to go sit with them
Sent at 8:07 PM on Sunday
me: ffff, maybe this is why all things marketed to girls are pink…i’m totally responding to the pink in number 8!…i need to go digest…
Sent at 8:11 PM on Sunday
me: i don’t want to like the pink!!!
but i love it!! still digesting….
Sent at 8:13 PM on Sunday
Howell: gonna grab a quick shower, back soon
me: sounds good.
Sent at 8:15 PM on Sunday
Howell: k. i’m back
me: ok. so i’m feeling torn because at the outset i really felt bent on avoiding pink and going all girly on them. but…i really like #8
but
can i just type out how i’m feeling?
:)
or do you want to talk on the phone?
Howell: type away, i’m about to shave and will check back in 2 mins
me: ok
Sent at 8:25 PM on Sunday
me: ok so i keep getting drawn back to #8. I opened #10 (the red one) up first and as soon as I saw it I thought “that’s it!” #7 was the color i basically had in my head, but i think i’m not really as drawn to it
and, i kind of miss the fun orange of the last jenna sue, but don’t see how that could be worked in
Sent at 8:28 PM on Sunday
me: i really want to finish this tonight, but i kind of wonder…what if i posted them up on my blog in a post and let my audience give me their feedback? ouldn’t that be the smartest way to use my market to know how to communicate with them?
Sent at 8:30 PM on Sunday
Howell: Are you willing to do a small exercise to help?
me: absolutely! here or on the phone?
Sent at 8:31 PM
Howell: Here. Find a post it not or a small piece of paper. Write the number of your two top choices, one number on each side of the paper. When you are ready let me know
me: one sec
ok
Sent at 8:33 PM on Sunday
Howell: now, close your eyes, hold out the paper, let it drop to the floor. When you open your eye and see which number is facing up, let me know how you feel about it. No thought. First hit only.
me: #8, relief
Howell: That’s your choice. Go with it and don’t turn back. Trust your inner wisdom.
me: I LOVE YOU, HOWELL!!!
Howell: Ditto!
me: so….all that talk of orange and yellows…why was I so drawn to that on Friday night? it just felt so right when I was describing it to you
Sent at 8:36 PM on Sunday
Howell: You had to go down the path to see if it was right for you. It wasn’t.
me: man. i’ve crossed every color so far.
trying to avoid pink.
Sent at 8:39 PM on Sunday
Howell: Lovely. You are a joy to explore with. So, you have your design. I’ll prepare it for the printer and send you a version for you to send them. Maybe send this to you tomorrow AM.
me: That sounds GREAT. I am SO EXCITED.
Sent 8:42 PM
Howell: Thank you. Be well. zzzzz

 

And, as you know, this is what the cover now looks like. Did you catch the Conscious Girl inherent wisdom in his ways? “That’s your choice. Go with it and don’t turn back. Trust your inner wisdom.”

The final cover for the minibook (3.5" x 5"!) So Cute! Hire Howell!

Filed Under: Minibook, Trusting Your Process Tagged With: , , , ,

The Conscious Girl’s Pocket Guide to Backpacking – How it all Began and How You Can Start Your Own Adventure Now

November 29, 2011 By 4 Comments

Minibook Now (Really, Truly, Almost!) Available

I had just come back from a year in the highlands of Guatemala and I was facing some severe culture shock. After 3 months curled up on the couch, consuming far too much MTVTres, I traveled to Central Virginia to house sit for a month. It was cold, I was sick with a stomach and gut full of parasites. Since my return, what I had known to be true about who I was and my place in the world seemed to have become irrelevant. I wasn’t lost – I just refused to step back into old patterns that weren’t working for me.

In fact, the circumstances a year and a half before surrounding my choice to leave my secure job in fundraising, complete with institutional healthcare benefits that allowed for very expensive preexisting conditions, were shaped by a fierce, gut desire to ditch the life I had come to know as a “chronically ill person.” I had been diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis in 2000 and on pharmaceutical drugs for this disease – expensive, heavy, immuno-suppressant drugs – since that time. At the ripe young age of 24, I used to look in the mirror and not recognize the person staring back at me. I had become a shell of who I knew myself to truly be. My body, shortly after securing my secure job, refused more and more to cooperate with this choice of life path.

So I quit. I quit believing that I was inherently sick (this was quite a process, actually, because the rift that this belief caused in my brain and being was quite deep and pervasive). I quit my job. I gathered knowledge and light-filled people around me and in the process of awakening to my true, powerful self, decided that I wanted to do three things:

1. Go abroad, since I had never gone in undergrad (thanks to my sick and dependent state of being)
2. Brush up my spanish (I had always liked Spanish, but couldn’t keep up with my course load as college went on)
3. Teach music (since by that point I had decided that the vocal performance masters programs that I had been accepted to felt like the wrong next choices for me, too).

Literally a week later, I met a woman – the mother of a friend – who was offering me a job teaching music in the highlands of Guatemala, starting one month later.

No joke.

So I went. I went to Guatemala, and I lived and I laughed and loved and freaked out every time it seemed like I might be dying. I focused hard on restoring the connection to my mind and body, and opening the pathways between the two. I found that the things that grounded me in my own power and possibility were simple, universal phrases of belief that somehow seem to have been lost in our modern day, technological world.

These are the phrases, this core knowing, that I put forth in “The Conscious Girl’s Pocket Guide to Backpacking,” to serve as your, the reader’s, loving reminder of your true essence.

Phrases like, “You have the divine right to perfect health” snapped me back to my essence every time my mind could envision thirty ways I was about to die from something I had just inadvertently consumed.

Or reminders like, “You are your own Shaman,” helped guide me away from teachers who were not right for me at the time and kept me coming back to my own spiritual authority on tender subjects.

As I stepped into the kitchen of that house in Central Virginia back in January of 2007, my mind was empty. For once. And then it hit me.

You will write a book called “The Conscious Girl’s Guide to Backpacking.”

And it started writing itself.

The minibook I present to you here today, is the fruit of this path – this path of ditching an insidious habit of dying on the inside a little bit every day, opening up to my own power, and choosing to live an influential, positive life full of passion, creation out of joy and beauty, and restoring my own sense of adventure in the every day living. I have lived out the messages put forth in this book, and held off on publication until I felt that I had created a firm enough foundation of my own life that the outgrowth of this ripple effect may be something beautiful. The Mayan Gods marveled at humans for they had thumbs, with which they could create beauty….

And for those who choose to hear its message, you will gain from my heart-felt and heart-led offering at the very least this:

  • Confidence to admit to your heart’s desires
  • Courage to follow your heart, wherever it leads
  • Community in knowing that they are part of a growing movement of beings who are determined to live fully and brightly, with integrity

If you are inspired by the material, you can take the learning further: every book comes with access to a private, online environment where you can dive deeper into the teachings and begin to apply it to your own life for positive change, starting right here, right now. I provide you with worksheets and structure to explore the application of bigger concepts.

If you are leading a group of employees and gift them this token of appreciation for the holidays, you might expect to see the following changes:

  • Confidence to speak up with a new idea
  • Courage to take action in a way that defies the ordinary or expected
  • Community in knowing that they are a part of awakening colleagues who are stepping into their authentically adventurous paths, right there from the office from which they work, marked by personal integrity

Not all massive change is brought by hopping on a plane and ditching the life you once knew. At some point, the core issues come back for you to deal with. That may be two weeks, two years, or two decades after you leave. In the end, you need to know how to create your adventure from the inside out. And that’s why this is not just a “Girl’s Guide” … this is the Conscious Girl’s guide. Your journey to following your heart may start with backpacking, but it comes back to finding the courage to follow your heart, wherever it leads.

From my heart to yours.

Love,

Heather

p.s. The minibook is listed now on Amazon, *but* you can’t make your purchase until the books arrive at the fulfillment center – which looks like it should be sometime next week (December 7th-ish)

p.p.s. The free eBook is an immediate download as soon as you enter your name and email in the email signup form in the right side bar. Enjoy! It’s my holiday gift to you!

 

Filed Under: RESCUE Yourself, The Book

An Adventure of the Intangible: Vocal Improv and Its Gifts for Getting Through Mucky Parts of Yourself

November 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Sometime in June,  a musical friend of mine, (I’ll call him “E”) wanders into the denim store where I was working. He is a performer, a teacher, and a choral aficionado. We geeked out over SSA arrangements on our first meeting. He says, “I’ve been thinking of starting a vocal improv group. Wanna join?”

I say, “Uh, yeah. Tell me when and I’ll be there.”

A couple of weeks later in June I take my boyfriend to a potluck. A potluck of music grad students from the University, celebrating the departure of one of the first wave of PhD candidates and good friend of mine. I was officially a groupie friend of the music grads for a few years, back as I completed undergrad and explored what a career in music might look like. Karaoke at said potluck was an unusual surprise.

Of course, when the guy with the stage presence and good voice gets up there and sings well, I’m intrigued. Not to be upstaged, I bust out my karaoke go-to song, “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston. Met with rousing applause (well, they were at least rousing in my head;), Karaoke Boy  (who I’ll call “M” for the purposes of this post) comes up to me and is like, “Hey, let’s sing together!” Dude. The boy with the good voice is asking me to sing with him. “This is the power of doing what you love!” I’m thinking to myself. So I say ‘yes,’ of course! We sing a rather…interesting… duet version of Elton John’s “The Circle of Life.” He asks if I ever want to sing at a bar with his band. Dude. This is like my secret dream come true (though it has yet to happen). I smile at my boyfriend. “Success!” we both inwardly cheer.

I tell M that my friend, E, is starting and improv group. M is intrigued and asks to audition. I tell him I don’t think it’s going to be that kind of group, but I’ll let him know. M keeps after me with emails to make sure I tell him when the group is getting together.

In August – E and I finally set a rehearsal date. E brings “L” – our amazing alto. So, somehow, magically, we have all four voice parts covered:

Heather – Soprano

L – Alto

E- Tenor (I’m sorry, but when does THIS happen?)

M – Bari/Bass

And somehow, magically, our voices blend together. And somehow, magically, we all have good ears and varied musical backgrounds.

Well, I’ll be darned!

This group really was an answer to the summoning of our silent prayers, and stepping into the space with each other was something special – and we could all feel it.

It turns out L has studied rather extensively with vocal greats like Bobby McFerrin and Rhiannon, so she brings to us a wealth of vocal improv “games” (as I like to call them). E has a great sense of chord progression and choral structure. M has a great sense of power and bass line beats. I bring something (an angelic quality?), but I can tell you that this musical adventure of the completely intangible has stretched and stretched me.

With a classical training, I am quite good at reading, leading, blending and following the leader (and evoking group spaces that promote others following the leader as well). I had my jazz band days back in middle school, and I grew up playing stand up bass. However, to sing something out of nothing in front of others has forced me to face up to some serious road blocks within my brain that I had thrown up at some earlier part of my musical experience of my self.

It’s fascinating to watch my brain shut down out of fear, it’s enlightening to experience myself as extremely open (usually happens after warming up and singing into the groove for a few songs) and incredibly closed (often the way I arrive to the group). It’s a fascinating study to realize we spend most of our days in a state of “productivity” that is actually often intricately tied to a way of being that is constricted, closed, and so narrowly focused that we miss the brilliance of spontaneous creation. Vocal improv challenges that way of being, invites the mind to soften, invites the body to open, and challenges to you instantaneously access what is already inside of you and what is brewing moment to moment. You become the vessel for utmost brilliance.

Of course, skill is behind the supporting of sustained brilliance, and it takes time to build improv skills. So, our group, Soul 4 Soul (as we’ve at least temporarily dubbed ourselves), meets once a week. We’ve been doing this now about 3.5 months. Now that we know each other better, our next step is to hone a few pieces. We’ve tinkered with the idea of doing a group led retreat at some point this spring in scenic Central Virginia because the takeaways from vocal improv are so…transformational.

Every week I face feeling like the weak link and getting over it. It’s not that I’m the weak link so much as that my skills lie in different directions and the weakness I’ve shown is a symptom of practiced inflexibility of the brain. The untraining process of this mental madness is one of the greatest gifts I’ve given to myself – because the medium for learning is beautiful: it’s song! Song, produced by your own instrument, is seriously exquisite to experience within your own body, especially when you get the joy of feeling someone else’s sound rub up and down your body, too.

So…what’s the moral of this story? Sing and let the brilliance flow while you undo trauma in your emotional body. Vocal improv helps you get through the mucky parts of yourself and into your awesomeness!

 

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Preparing the Nest: Getting Ready for the Next Steps

November 27, 2011 By 2 Comments

A long, long gestation period. (photo courtesy of bigyahu on Flickr!)

 

I feel kind of like a whale – maybe two in one body – having had the world’s longest gestation period. The seed concept for this book was born in January 2007. In the fall of 2009, after having spent two years overwhelmed – or rather, having had the magic of inspiration perform its transformative work on all levels of me – I signed up for a writing course. The writing course was designed to help people like me – people who feel like they had something very important to share with the world – get words onto paper in a format that made sense to the reader and enabled someone like me to start getting the word out in a small, manageable way: a minibook.

I took the course. I wrote a book on overcoming chronic illness. Two months later, I scratched that and thought, “Why am I spending money to print something that isn’t even in line with the inspiration?” I started over. The minibook was basically finished a few weeks after that, but it felt like there were gaps…holes…it didn’t feel right.

The summer of 2010, thanks to the gentle nudging of friend and yoga-ing life coach Jen Yost and author of “Bring on the Joy Now!”, I signed up for Donna Kozik’s “Write a Book in a Weekend” course. Donna’s got a great attitude with production – don’t obsess, and get the biggest things out so you can start using your content and letting it live. Both Donna and Jen were right on that I needed to be doing that, so I dedicated large spaces of life to birthing content and started the “Conscious Girl’s Guide to Backpacking” Facebook page (regret not putting “the” in there!). It felt too rushed. I never completed the larger book because I felt like I was being asked to put forth big concepts, and not to rush them. Reading Nikolai Gogol’s “The Portrait” in the tenth grade either kept me honest or scarred me – not sure which!

Then there’s all the talk of blogging. Blaaaaahhgging. Such a mixed set of feelings on blogging! How many bloggers are out there just pumping out soulless, tired, dry content just to up traffic! I get tired reading it, and yet am seduced by the promises of internet marketers for all of your dreams to come true through tending your blog. And just as I start to open up into my blog, the resounding voice of my middle school principal father circa 1992 come pounding through my head, “Never put anything on paper that you don’t want the whole world to see!” Gah! Paper? Were it only to be so SIMPLE these days! Now, once the thought is there it’s technically – unless you’re that cosmically advanced…which we kind of are…but our brains kind of get in the way as we exist in this consensus – there forever. How will this affect my future chances for presidency?? Right.

Where is that balance between intimate and inspirational? Where is the balancing point between opening up and being undeniably human, wrestling with human challenges of mind versus imagination and physical “reality” and keeping a life line open to the undeniably cosmic, resonant, incredibly powerful nature of who I am/we are? Where is the balance between doing something on the blog versus doing nothing on the blog and operating fully from the higher plane?

These are all questions that I’ve wrestled with as I prepare the nest for “The Conscious Girl’s Guide to Backpacking.” I heard an interview with Sheryl Crow back in 2007 or 2008 and she spoke of a wave of inspiration that hit her in January of 2007 – how the words and songs were there so fully that she couldn’t capture them all. She described it as this euphoric sensation, and of course, there she was on the radio being interviewed about it. Jealousy and fear surged through my body. Had I screwed it up, not writing it all out then? This fear has haunted me.

And it’s that root fear that I’ve sought to address…because if I had written it all out then, gotten it published then, had somehow managed to become an international sensation then…geez…the amplification of that fear would have been…out…of…control.

So I’ve spent four, going on five years, becoming a master of myself. Getting a handle on my energetic body. Uprooting, unleashing, releasing old energetic patterns I have no desire to carry forward, let alone amplify with the collective energy of hundreds of thousands – if not ultimately millions – of women and conscious men across the glob. I’ve sought out the help of masters a few – or many – paces ahead of me on the subjects that have plagued me. As Olga Aura said to me last year in one of our sessions, “Honey, those words that first came pouring all over you…they were for you. Not for the world. For you. Now let that one go.”

Last night I had my recurring nightmare – that someone is out to kill me. It’s really terrible, actually – and this root fear and recurring sensation, has affected how I choose to interact with you here on this blog (if I say something too controversial, etc), and it stops me from saying things I often want to say. Does that sound familiar to you? Sigh.

But last night, in my dream, as I came upon the situation where there were multiple people/beings out to get me, for the first time I had the sense of protection. Maybe it was the People’s Magazine I read the other day featuring Bella’s wedding dress and her Twilight marriage to ultra-hottie, Edward, but in my dream, an Edward-like essence was coming to protect me, the way he finds her whenever she’s in trouble. It was a beautiful feeling. I felt so protected.

 

Today, having the minibook in my hands is literally only six days away. I feel like the hardest work is done – the scraping, the clawing, the fighting to find my own footing within my own body and connection to the largest source. The opening to be able to handle an influx of energy, and the purification of the Self (I mean, there’s still a far ways to go on that one!) so that what is amplified is something that I feel proud about – something I can stand on. Something that when the voices say, “Don’t write anything on paper you don’t want the whole world to see,” that I can handle it and respond in a way that I feel good about. A mature way. A way where I can say, “You know, I don’t mind if the whole world sees this, because it’s nothing but good.”

Preparing the Nest, after long preparation in other fronts. (beautiful photo courtesy of CaptPiper on flickr!)

And, as I await the arrival of my little scoby, today I feel like it’s a day to tend the house. A day to get physical things in order – remember where I put my business check card (silly thing that always disappears), open old mail from old addresses, write people I’m overdue in writing, and clean house so that new life can move and shift and live here with me. The new life of a new chapter.

It’s a good day.

Filed Under: The Book Tagged With: , , , , ,
« Older Posts