Ep #111: The Season of Miracles

There is a line from the movie Miracle on 34^th Street where the character Chris Kringle says, “Oh, Christmas isn’t just a day. It’s a frame of mind.” So, what I want to offer you, no matter what you celebrate, whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah or none of it at all, what I want to invite you to in this episode is to join us, to join the Art School community in celebrating a season of miracles.

This podcast, this particular episode is going to be highly experimental. It’s going to be a collaboration; a collaboration between you, me, and all the other listeners out there who want to join in with us in not only celebrating miracles, but being miracle-workers.

I deeply believe that creativity in general is a miraculous capability that we have as humans. So, let’s join together and flex that creative miracle-making muscle together today.

You are listening to The Art School Podcast; a show for artists and creatives who want to become the next greatest version of themselves. Learn how to cultivate an extraordinary way of being and take the mystery out of making money, and the struggle out of making art. Here is your host, master certified life coach, artist, and former lawyer, Leah Badertscher.

Welcome everyone to another episode of The Art School Podcast. I am recording this the week before Christmas. Myself, my family, we celebrate Christmas. And if you do or if you don’t, please know that I’m just sending you the warmest wishes. Also, I think no matter what our background, what holidays we are or are not celebrating, I was thinking about one thing that we can join together in celebrating. And that is this miracle that is being human and is having this creative ability that is inherent in all humans.

And using that ability for good, using that miraculous, creative energy we have coursing through our veins as a force for good in our own lives and in the lives of those we touch. And I know coming together in community amplifies that.

And so, what I thought would be so fun and festive, because that’s something I love about this time of year, would be to come together and experiment with setting an intention that this particular episode be a miracle-making co-creative collaboration between you, between all of the other listeners, between myself, and then inviting in anything bigger than us of which we are all a part, inviting in that Creativity with a capital C, so that your life is infused with fun, with magic, with the miraculous, with the impossible becoming possible, becoming the ground upon which you walk, the air that you breathe, your daily bread and butter, and for that flowing outward into the lives of everyone that you touch as well.

So, this particular episode is going to combine a couple of my favorite elements of this time of year and season. You know, it’s that movement towards the winter solstice, and movement into the darkest time of the year. It’s a great time for reflection. It’s a great time for silence.

It’s also the time when light returns and the light comes out of the darkness and we all have the capability that is a creative act to bring life, light forth from the darkness as well. So, I’m going to sprinkle in some elements from both of those worlds, like questions that accompany your reflection at this time of year, and then also trying to make this podcast as interactive as a podcast can be, where it’s like a coach with me, but this entire episode is really coach with me, where I want you to go forth and work some miracles out in your life.

How can you be a miracle to someone else this week? That’s my first question for you. So, that’s both a reflection and that also is an invitation to action, not only answering the question, what could you do? But what are you going to do?

And a miracle doesn’t have to be something momentous. I love this line from A Course in Miracles that says, “A miracle is a shift in perception from love to fear.” And now, I know some people like to argue that that’s not an all-inclusive exhaustive definition. Maybe, maybe not. But one thing I do know is if there is a greater realm or definition of miracles, okay. But within that, I’ve experienced transformations that were absolutely that shift from love to fear and a shift in perspective in how I was seeing things.

So, even just I’ll give you a small example, but it stuck with me. Last week, my daughter and I were driving over towards Lake Michigan. We were going to visit some small shops that were over there to do a little bit of Christmas shopping.

And so, the road was really crowded on the way over there, and I generally had run into some people that seemed kind of grouchy lately. And the temptation is to feel offended or grouchy in response. But you know what? There’s a lot going on in the world. And people are at their wit’s end, fuses are short.

So, I was just thinking about thinking and feeling greater than what seems to be around and you thinking just generally of the pressure cooker that this year has been. And I happened to come upon – there were a couple of state troopers who were pulled over to help somebody at the side of the road who looked like they were having car trouble.

So, I just slowed way down. I slowed way down and made a big berth around them. And as I drove by, one of the state troopers – this seems so small but it’s going to make me try – he just put his hand, made a fist with his hand and put it on his heart and, like, tapped his heart a couple of times like a thank you for slowing down and going around wide. And I was going slow enough that I made eye contact with him and I could just feel a thank you and kindness in his eyes. And I thought, gosh, that required nothing of me to just be respectful and slow down. And he certainly didn’t need to make that small gesture.

But I want to share that with you because one, it’s been on my mind and it could be written off as just this small thing. But it is an encounter like that, those seemingly small encounters that we could dismiss that remind us that they matter.

There’s another gesture someone could give when they’re driving and we know that that could make us feel offended or inflamed. But instead, just that gesture of warmth, of kindness, of love even, what ways could you share that this week? Just reaching out and reaching out to a neighbor that you might not otherwise, or you’ve been thinking you should and you just haven’t crossed over the fence.

So, it doesn’t have to be something tremendous. And there are, I’m sure, many organizations in your area too that would love a little bit of extra assistance. And just think that if everyone listening to this podcast did some sort of kind gesture, whether it was greeting a neighbor, leaving something on their doorstep, an extra random act of kindness, a few extra bags of food to your local food pantry or a little extra money to an organization near you, or a lot. I don’t want to cap you either if you want to keep going.

But just think about – it gives me the goosebumps to think about I don’t even know everyone listening that will do this. But I know so many people in this community that I know they will do it. And so, knowing them, I’m kind of extrapolating to those of you that I don’t know and I’m just assuming that are, like, of this similar creative generative generous gracious loving kind spirit and will go out and extend this kind of miracle work, these kinds of shifts from love to fear out in the world.

So, that’s one of the interactive invitations that I have for you today. The second one comes from a woman that you’ve heard from on this podcast recently, Betsy Pearson.

We were just on a virtual artist date call for the Art School, one of our bonus calls. And that’s the day of the week, Thursdays, are the 90 minutes where you can bring anything that’s sacred and essential to you that maybe in the rest of your life, it gets too busy. Things get lost in the shuffle. But you know that there’s something that you really want to focus on that’s essential to move your life forward, your dream forward, or just to sink in deeply and realign yourself and center yourself and find that sacred ground again.

So, what Betsy brough today was that she was working on a mindset piece and the question that she was focusing on, and I love this question and I asked her if I could share it today on the podcast, is this; what do I really, really wish I could believe? I was so grateful she brought that up today, not only in general is it an amazing question. It’s also timely because this time of year, this season of miracles, potential for miracles that we are in, this upcoming New Year and the year we’ve been through and what we are moving towards and wanting to create in the future, to me, there is so much potential. There is so much possibility.

And that is going to be a central theme and focus in a lot of the work I’ll be doing, in a lot of the free offerings that I do, other programs and trainings, including the week-long possibility immersion in January. And I want to, not only through this podcast and all my other work, be able to have you steep in the energy of possibility. I also want you to steep in the energy of taking what’s possible, taking the lid off what’s possible and moving beyond and up-leveling and then take that and actually create it, develop the creative muscle within yourself to dream, to imagine, to keep moving that frontier of the imagination, keep testing for where the boundaries are.

And then bring it back into this world and develop the muscle necessary to create something in the world, create something that has never existed before, do something that’s never been done before. And so, I think Betsy’s prompt is such a great way to cue up your imagination as well as your mind, body, and spirit to start to point you in that direction of not only possibility, but then creating the possibility.

What do I really, really wish I could believe? And it’s also the way this is phrased which makes it a brilliant coaching prompt and question. Because it’s not saying, what do I believe? But what do I really, really wish I could believe?

It kind of then allows you to not have to go through the, go by the gatekeeper in your mind, that prison guard that is the analytical rational mind. It lets you go in through the side door because you’re saying, “Hey, I don’t believe this. But what do I really, really wish I could believe?

And it also helps us return to that child-like capacity to imagine and this is such a great time of year too to recall what it was like to not have a limit on what you believe, to wonder, to dream. And maybe you didn’t have that as a child, so this is your invitation to go there now.

Another way to approach this line of thinking and imagining is to ask yourself, what would feel like a miracle to happen in my life so that a year from now I’ll be like, wow, this last year has been miraculous? And then, I would do that again for three years out, and then I would do that again for 10 years out and just say, what would that be? What would feel like a miracle in one year, in three years, in 10 years?

And then, as you answer these questions and you reflect on your responses, to look within those responses for the essence, for is it beneath this much money in your savings account or having moved to a different area or published your book or landed the dream role? Look for what’s beneath that.

Is it that you would then finally believe that you were good enough? Is it then you would have freedom? Is it then you could trust your own creative instincts and be free of constantly doubting yourself or being hard on yourself?

So, look for what the essence is. It could be deep peace. It could be a feeling of just feeling solid, again, that feeling of trust, that feeling of freedom. It could be a feeling of fun. Maybe what would feel like a miracle is you envision yourself working with a dream team, with A-listers and you realize, to have that sense of collaborating and co-creating at a very high level and you’re not censoring yourself, you’re not questioning if you deserve to be in that room, you’re just in the flow and loving the experience of, again, playing on that varsity level where all systems are go for you and for them and nothing is held back. It’s just that feeling of being connected to something bigger than yourself and being fully alive.

So, clearly as well as I’m able to describe that, you know what one of mine is, what one of the essences of mine, what would feel like a miracle to me is. And it’s then from that place where you identify the essence. You can begin to open yourself up.

Sometimes, you don’t even have to do a lot of work to bring that in. it’s just raising your awareness of what it is that you really, really want and welcoming that, inviting that miracle into your life and inviting forth from within yourself that miracle that you already are.

So, now I’m going to do this step in here where we do this dance back to more of the action-oriented part, where you flex that creative action muscle in the world. And if you reflect on your responses to what do I really, really wish I could believe, and what would feel like a miracle to me, then ask yourself, what would I do differently today? What small seed could I plant today that it might take a few years to bloom, it might take a couple days, you don’t know? But what small action can you take on behalf of participating in that future miracle?

And again, let me remind you that this is the part of the podcast where you don’t just listen and you don’t just answer, “Oh, here’s the action I could take.” This is where you actually go and do that, where you actually go and work the miracle and put it into play and join in this collective rising expansive fun momentum energy of knowing that there are so many other people out there doing the very same right now.

Okay, next miraculous element. It’s another power question. How can I see this differently? So, again, very much related to a miracle being a shift in perception. But if there’s anywhere in your life where you are feeling blocked or you feel like you’re missing something, or you’re still frustrated or feeling something less than your most wildly gorgeous powerful magnificent miraculous creative self.

Ask yourself this; how can I see this differently? Can I be even a little bit willing to see this differently? And sometimes, my favorite, when I’m feeling both frustrated and stuck, and also something about that is some part of me is very obstinate and deliberately remaining frustrated and stuck is I will say, “Let me see this differently.”

And finally, this brings me to my last invitation to creating miracles. So, I want to pause for just a moment and say, when I was thinking about this particular episode, and again, celebrating the spirit of giving this season, giving and receiving and celebrating the spirit of miracles, I thought, what can I gift my listeners? And right away, I had the image of walking with you or sitting by the fire and talking and having this conversation about miracles and creating miracles in our lives and in the world, which was so beautiful and lovely.

And then my analytical mind, my logic kicks in and it’s like, “Then how do you propose we do that, Miss Leah?” So, here is a way that I think that maybe I can get close in this experimental episode of trying to do an interactive podcast with all of you.

So, you can pair this particular element with any of the other elements, any of the reflective questions. It’s actually something that I wrote about in a book that I am publishing this year. It’s a book that is a combination of some of my poetry, as well as some prompts for your imagination and creativity. The book is called Wild Blue Yonder and I’m so excited to share it with you.

It won’t be released or ready yet before the end of the year, but it is done and off to print. So, I’m celebrating that. And then also, this seemed like the perfect thing to wrap up this episode with and share with you.

The prompt is called walking into the life of your dreams. And so, I will just read to you what have written, “Movement, for me, is such an essential part of creativity. And while I cannot yet prove it and am only relying on my own experience, anecdotal stories of my clients and other creative geniuses who used movement as a part of their process, and relatively recent scientific research, I’ll just dare to go out on a limb and say I think movement can be a master key for unlocking new levels of creative genius for anyone.

Here is an imagination meditation that you can use with many of the other practices I’ve shared in this book.” Or sidenote, in this particular podcast episode. “This is how you take your dreams for a walk, as a way of walking into the life of your dreams. Consider a dream you have. Choose one specific thing to focus on that will be a part of your living, breathing, waking life once this dream has become a reality.

It could be a thought. For example, I’m a published author. Or it could be a scene. You’re holding the book in your hands, or opening your first royalty check, or your best friends and family are hugging you, saying congratulations on the wonderful, wonderful book and that they are so amazed and proud of you.

What I want you to do next is study your future self, the self that has created the dream and is living in the dream. What is really important is that you don’t go into the problem-solving mode trying to figure out how she did it at this point, you stay firmly in the energy of it is done, you have done it. Then, as best you can for the entire walk, you place the scene in your heart and your mind, squarely in the center of your heart and your mind, and do everything you can imagine to conjure the energy in your heart and mind that matches what you feel the energy of this scene is.

You focus all of your attention for the entire walk, telling yourself I will feel this, I am going to open this particular portal on this walk. I am going to feel, and it’s going to feel so very, very real that it moves me. I will sometimes write a symbol or note on my hand to remind me to focus. Or I will carry a note card with a symbol of this dream on it.

The note card requires some attention to continue to carry and can help remind me of when my mind wanders. And your mind will wander. A good deal of energy in this practice is about training your mind to focus on a single intention for an extended period of time, and so intently so that you actually feel as though you’ve been out for a walk in the future.

Someday in the future, when you’ve created the dream, you will also go out for a walk. Today as you’re creating the dream, you also take walks. Somewhere in the middle, these two versions of you will rendezvous if you make it your unbending intent for that to be the case as you go on these walks and contemplate all the amazing possibilities for your life.”

Thank you for listening to another episode of The Art School Podcast. If you’ve loved this podcast, if these episodes have been inspiring, meaningful, helped you move the needle, helped you realize what a creative powerhouse and miracle worker you were built to be, then the best thing you can do to pay it forward is actually, come to think of it this episode, to go forth and create and do work those miracles in your life and in the lives of others.

The second-best thing you can do is to share these episodes, to share this Art School Podcast, to share the movement, to subscribe and, as always, I love it when you go to iTunes and leave a review. It really is like Christmas morning when I see that there is a new review. Not going to lie, I love that. It’s so great to hear from you all and to read those. So, thank you so much if you’ve submitted one already. And if you haven’t, again, I’m going to unabashedly say how much I love those and appreciate those. So, thank you in advance.

And when you’re ready to take this work deeper, we have the Art School and the Art School Mastermind. There are also many opportunities to immerse yourself in the amazing magical powerhouse energy that is the Art School before they officially kick off in March. And also, by enrolling early, not only do you get to take advantage of an early bird discount for the Art School, but you also are eligible to take part in many amazing bonus calls.

They get you connected with the community right away. They get you in the flow and in the groove of your own creative work, so that when we do kick off, you’re really primed and you hit the ground running.

We also have a week-long possibility immersion week, a week full of workshops coming up in January. Also, very exciting, we are doing discovery consults with the Art School team. So, if you have been thinking now is the time, 2021 is my year, and you’ve been thinking that the Art School or the Art School Mastermind are just the things to get you there, then book a discovery consult.

You can do so by emailing support@leahcb.com with discover consult in the subject line and we will take care of everything you need to set one of those up. Also email support@leahcb.com if you just have any other general questions about the Art School. We’ll take great care of you.
So, to close again today, I just wanted to let you know that whenever you listen to this, here’s what I’m going to be doing next week, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day 2020.

I am going to be going for a walk and thinking about what I really, really wish I could believe. And that is that there are so many more people out there listening that are going to take this miracle working creative force of nature message to heart and are going to be working miracle upon miracle in their lives and other people’s lives. I’m going to take that for a walk around our farm, hopefully it’s snowy.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I am going to walk in the moonlight. I hope there’s moonlight next week. I hope there’s snow. If not, I’ll be walking anyway and it will be cold and I am going to be warm inside of my coat, thinking warm thoughts about all of you out there listening who are just spraying light and miracles into the world, who are stepping into that next greatest version of you, that next greatest version that owns that they are a creative force of nature, that owns that they are a magnificent miracle.

I hope you all have a beautiful, beautiful week and I look forward to talking with you next time.