Category: my one word

Visualize your future

by Karen, posted in Clarity, Meditate, my one word, online courses

Every year we have a blank slate, don’t we?

We have a chance to start fresh.

What get the opportunity to ask ourselves questions like:

  1. What do I want to accomplish this year?
  2. Where do I want to go on vacation?
  3. What do I want my work life to look like?
  4. Who do I want to spend time with?
  5. What hobbies do I want to devote more time to?
  6. Should I change how I eat?
  7. Should I be more active?
  8. Am I saving enough money?

We have a chance to re-evaluate our choices and maybe set our course in a new direction.

Maybe we  realize we are very frikkin’ happy with how our lives are going just as they are. This is welcome news, for sure, but I if you’re like me, you are probably interested in making your 2018 look a little different (eg: better) than 2017. Vision boards help us reframe our thoughts, reframe our thinking.

I find the practice of making vision boards to be an extremely helpful tool in helping me focus my activities and thoughts on what I want, and not what I don’t want.

I have made them all different ways, and for many different purposes. Recently I discovered my 2015 Vision Board (the photo above) and was surprised to see how different it looked compared to this year’s. For one thing, there was a lot more white space in it! I was also surprised to see how many things keep reappearing on my board from year to year (going to Italy!) that I haven’t yet accomplished. Time to do something about that…

Over the years I have streamlined my practice and designed a process that it works better for me.

I believe in this so much that I’ve created an online course to share it with you.

Check it out here:

Visualize to Actualize!

 

Pairing a crystal with your “One Word”

by Karen, posted in Clarity, Crystals, my one word

Once I have chosen My One Word,  I like to have some fun with it.

This year is no different.

Once you’ve settled on your word, the first thing to do is to start noticing anything that catches your attention when you are out living your life. Since I love rocks and crystals, I was very alert to a talk that I was listening to online that mentioned my word (CLARITY) in the discussion of the crystal. As soon as it was over, I looked it up.

Tanzanite!

Three tanzanite: the blue stones atop the chunk of pink rose quartz.

I found this online about Tanzanite from Healing Crystals for You:

“Tanzanite is a deep blue and purple zoisite crystal. It is known as one of the most valuable stones for metaphysical healing. 

They are strong stones to assist you to develop psychic power, so this aspect may help you if you are considering entering psychic employment.

They are high crystal energy stones. These crystals have a quite high vibration and are known as stones of transformation.”

So, you can’t make this stuff up, right? The Metaphysical Nurse is my alter ego. All of the points I just listed above are things I will be working on in 2018. I love having the support of the crystals as I create my best life in the coming year for the highest good of all.

And so it is!

 

Be an overcomer

by Karen, posted in Being BRAVE, Catching women being brave, Clarity, Grace, health, Music, no fear

We all have things happen to us in life. Some are wonderful. Some aren’t. It’s how we respond to adversity that makes all the difference.

 We can succumb…or we can overcome.

Most of what happens in our daily life is probably fairly benign.  It’s when the big things, the unexpected, the often unwanted things happen that test us and help us remember that we can respond or react. The choice is ours. Often, a fair amount of grace is required to help us not succumb, to support us to overcome the adversity and carry on hopefully stronger and even better than before. Even if at first we don’t realize it.

I think Mandisa captures the essence of this magnificently in her song and her video, Overcomer.

Maybe you’ve heard her song before, but if you’ve never watched the video that accompanies it, then you’re missing out. I am posting it right here below.

And here is my challenge to you:

Listen to the song and watch the video. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to do this so you can see what I mean. It’s something you will feel in your body as the music and images play out. Please watch it to the end, and then post your thoughts in the comment section below.

Goodbye, my friend

by Karen, posted in friends, good grief, Grace, relationships

A very dear person passed away over the weekend.

I met Karen when I worked with her at Sirona several years ago. We worked together via the telephone, so actually our voices met first! As many of you may know, you can tell a lot about someone by their voice. I liked her right away.

She was a supervisor, but she was every inch one of the gang as well. She was always a calm, reassuring, even loving presence at work. If Karen was on the job, I always felt better knowing that. When I was new in my role, of course I made some mistakes. When Karen was the person in charge and I needed to reach out for help, she was one hundred percent there for me. She somehow made me feel like she had made that exact same mistake dozens of times, just last week in fact. And hey, it was no big deal! Oh, and here’s how to fix it. And by the way, here’s  how to do it better next time. You may have heard that “Nurses eat their young.” Well, Karen never got that memo. Karen nurtured her young.

There is little that is more comforting in nursing than knowing that your supervisor has your back.

I did get to meet her in person as well, in 2013. We were part of the Sirona Seedlings at the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. I was new to the company and didn’t know a lot of people yet. My daughter came with me, and we walked the track for a while, and we lit votives to honor my parents who had both died from cancer. My mother had the same cancer that Karen endured. Anyway, I was humbled by the grace of this woman who, just a short time after the event, sent out a heartfelt email message to thank each of us for coming, by name, and she included what it was that each of us had done to participate.

I still have this message. I still have my Sirona Seedlings T-shirt. And I still have Karen in my heart.

Farewell, Karen. Like so many, many others, I am better for having known you.

Being BRAVE is catchy!

by Karen, posted in Interviews, local fun, my one word, The BRAVE Interviews, TV series, writing

I was trolling Facebook recently, after working on the next “The BRAVE Interview” for my blog (coming in March, 2017). I must be primed to see the word ‘brave’. You know, like when you’re pregnant and suddenly you see pregnant women everywhere?

capeneddick1

So I couldn’t help but notice this page with Being Brave with Abbie McG emblazoned across the top.

Since I chose BRAVE as ‘my one word‘ in 2015, I’ve been all about the brave.

I created the “One Brave Thing” group on Facebook, a private group for anyone who has read my book (One Brave Thing), where we support one another’s efforts to do brave things.

I launched The BRAVE Interview Series on my blog at kwrites.com, where once a month I invite a reader of my book to discuss ‘one brave thing’ they have done in their own lives.

I acquire ‘brave’ jewelry wherever I find it. This ‘brave’ bracelet is from The Shops at Cape Neddick in Maine.

🙂

I also try not to hide from any chances I get to be brave in my own life now.

So, coming full circle, of course I will be watching Abby McGilvery’s Being Brave TV episode!

MyOneWord 2017

by Karen, posted in my one word

As has happened in the past, I have had my one word for 2017 picked out since about October: COMFORT. I was happy, comfortable even 🙂 , with my choice. Thinking ahead, I could see all sorts of ways that I could be welcoming my new word into my life. Comfy clothes! Comfy shoes! Comfort foods! Warm in front of the wood stove in the winter! Only putting myself in comfortable situations!

And then a different word snuck into the periphery of my psyche. Actually, snuck isn’t really the right word…slammed is more like it. I was just sitting there, minding my own business, when it hit: CHANNEL.

Channel.

channel

I don’t know. It’s kind of growing on me.

I think that comfort, although a very nice idea, wouldn’t push me to grow in ways that channel, like 2015’s brave, might.

I just have a feeling.

Because this year’s word, grace, although lovely, didn’t push me like brave did. As a matter of fact, there have been reverberations of brave all throughout 2016, even though it was the prior  year’s word.

Maybe you’ll choose one word to focus on for the entire year this year. There is a word finder to help you choose on myoneword.org.

Disclaimer: Nothing is set in stone. I reserve the right to change my mind at the last minute. I work best under pressure. 🙂

Humble

by Karen, posted in books, Grace, local fun, writing

Today I was so excited to get a copy of the York Weekly newspaper that my husband and I braved the ice and snow and rode down to the York Hannaford to pick it up before work. After I ascertained that the article did, in fact, run this week (there was a photo of me and of my book cover right there on page B3 of the Living Section!), I folded the paper back up. I didn’t read it on the way home.

york-weekly-article

This was a do-over chance. The first article that was written in the newspaper about me publishing my first novel had many errors (including the name of the main character! Her name is NOT Bebe Kristen Davis!) and so was very disappointing.
I had high hopes for this time around.

When we got home, I had to go right to work, so my husband started reading it. “I found something that you’re not going to be happy about,” he began.

Seriously?
Here is the line: “…she is a registered nurse, a health coach, weight gain teacher and author. 

Guess which part is wrong? Was it that stupid autocorrect?

Now the irony here is that I was just commiserating with a friend yesterday about how I had lost 30 lbs on Weight Watchers several years ago and then gained some of it back–talk about adding insult to injury!

Also, lesson learned. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I should have asked if I could give it a once over before the story ran.

And then I remembered myoneword for 2016: GRACE. I could just accept this with grace. I have made plenty of errors in my own writing, and have always felt terrible when I noticed them (or they were gracefully pointed out to me by others) after the fact.

Here is the article (it has since been corrected): Wells Author will Speak at York Library

This came to mind after the events of this morning, so I’m sharing it with you all:

BOOK REVIEW: A Couple by Peter Raymond UPDATED

by Karen, posted in author, books, Brave books, family, Grace, local fun, my one word

There are so many wonderful books that have come into my life as a result of my book, One Brave Thing.

a couple

This book, a couple by Peter Raymond, I discovered at the Kennebunk Community Market. I brought it home and stood it up on my kitchen table. I then began emptying my car of all the flotsam and jetsam from my author table at the market (note to self: streamline this author table deconstruction process already).

My daughter came in and right away she made a bee-line for the book. “What’s this?” she said, and then plopped herself down in a chair and began reading it. “It’s a picture book,” I said.

“It’s a nice book,” she said.

I stopped what I was doing and sat down to read it with her.
There is a picture that includes the word “GRACE“, which is ‘my one word’ this year. That got my attention right away. It felt like a sign that I was supposed to be reading this book, at this time, with my daughter. Next, I saw a picture of a heron. Hello? I have been seeing the heron everywhere lately. When you see a symbol of any kind repeatedly, that means there is a message there for you.

I’ll stop there, because I don’t want to tell you the entire book before you get to read it yourself! Come to the Kennebunk Community Market and get your own copy!

UPDATE: Peter’s work is also available at his online shop here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/peterraymondimages

My first radio interview at Elemental Energies with Chris Ann

by Karen, posted in author, books, local fun, Meditation, Metaphysical healing, my one word, no fear

I had the good luck to be Chris Ann’s Radio adguest on her live radio talk show last night on unitedpaganradio.net (WUPR). What a great experience! Chris Ann made me at home from the moment I entered her studio. We talked about my book and my other writings and doings.

We also discussed ways of manifesting things that you want in your life.  I mentioned different methods I had tried over the years on my path to publishing my book, like making vision boards, meditating, creative visualization. A big one that I forgot to say was MIND MAPPING. I will talk more about this in a separate post.

I was shocked to hear how many listeners we had! There were 20,089 listeners in 129 countries. What the whaaaaatttt??? Isn’t that amazing? 🙂

If you missed the show, you can listen to it here: https://soundcloud.com/karen-maffeo-creamer/k-m-creamer-one-brave-thing-interview-with-chris-ann

I’m happy to share that my book One Brave Thing is now available at Chris Ann’s store, Elemental Energies with Chris Ann and Jeff, 27 North Berwick Road in Wells, ME! Stop in and buy one! While you’re there, pick up a crystal or two, just because!

Give me the flowers

by Karen, posted in Angels, Grace, local fun, Metaphysical healing, my one word

This month, I felt drawn to attend one of Melissa Boyd’s programs where she channels messages from spirit, but I had no one to go with. By nature I am an introvert, and typically I am not a person who likes to go Tulipsplaces alone. Other than, you know, a coffee shop with a book.

Anyway, this month marks the 20th anniversary of the death of my mother (on leap day).  I think that’s why this month, I felt there was a good chance I might get a message from her, so I put on my big girl panties (actually, my big girl thermal panties -it was -3 degrees!) and went by myself.

Right away, I noticed the pretty pink vase with 3 tulips on the table. Three is my favorite number, and tulips are one of my favorite flowers. I thought that after the program, I might ask Melissa who did the flowers for the event so I could get me some of those flowers, and get me one of those pink vases.

Anyway, in the last ten minutes of the program I realized that I was not going to be one of the lucky ones who got a channeled message. I felt that my mother was there, though! I felt sad and disappointed that she didn’t get a chance to speak to me. I consoled myself with the knowledge that the other people present needed their messages more urgently than I did.

But you know, I wanted some validation that she really was there.

And then I heard Melissa say that she intended to raffle off the vases of flowers.

🙂

So I sent my mother a message: “Ma, if you’re here, give me the flowers”.

They called the first number.

Mine.

Thanks, Ma.

Postscript: It gets better. When I got into the car to go home, a song came on the radio. Here’s an excerpt:

“And I have need for nothing more
Oh now that I have found
That You are here with me
Yes You are here with me.”

(From Mountain of God by Third Day)