Self Love Sadhana E-Workbook Sample

1. !!   1 Shakti Business Self Love Sadhana

2. Self Love Sadhana Day 1 Introduction !!   2 Shakti Business ! ! Welcome to Shakti Business’ Self Love Sadhana. We’re overﬂowing with love and gratitude as we embark on this 28 day collective self love practice. ! This program was created by you, for you. We’ve collected gorgeous personal self love stories from Shakti Business members, inspiring new friends and the Shakti Business guardians, Mira, Delamay, and Nianna. Using the self love stories as launching pads, we’ve also created pages with poignant questions for self discovery, a self aﬃrmation challenge, and a mini visual project. ! As we take this journey together, we invite you to share your Self Love Sadhana with the community in the Self Love Sadhana forum, inside our NING network. ! ! It’s our intention to hold sacred space for this collective journey so that we all may cultivate self love and fully live out our most radiant selves. ! Biggest Blessings, ! Shakti Business ! ! ! *Self Love artwork by Rita Loyd

3. Self Love Sadhana Day 2 Kimberly Moore ! ! by Kimberly Moore - Shakti Womyn ! A few years ago, I hit a point in my life where I lost almost everything. My marriage split while I was living in another country. My career and the economy joined hands in a magnificently tragic swan dive into the gutter. Stress eating became an Olympic sport for me - I was going for the gold and I gained more than 50 pounds. At one point, I went to bed for an entire month. The topping on the cake in a vitriolic separation with my husband was losing a storage unit that contained everything I owned in the world except 10 boxes. ! Wallowing, grief, and waves of anxiety were my daily meals as I replayed every dramatically toxic conversation and event over and over in head. The conversations from me to my Self were not kind or helpful. The woman in my mirror was so unrecognizable that I stopped looking in the mirror for almost two years. In short - I was a mess and so was my life. ! Looking back at that time, I would not trade it for the world. Pain, trauma, and fear forge our souls in ways that we cannot understand until we are on the other side and into active healing. The scary part is getting from the rough patch to the healing stage. The gorgeous part is moving from the healing stage to the Coming Home to Our Selves phase. 3 Shakti Business

4. Self Love Sadhana Day 2 Kimberly Moore ! My circumstances were not unique or even particularly remarkable in their trauma. We are all going to experience life events that are similar and/or much worse. What becomes unique and the most vital part is how we choose to cope and rebound. For those on this path or entering their healing phase, I am so honored to share a few thoughts from my own journey. ! Time heals. Memories fade, pain recedes and life does indeed move on. Being in your grief and acknowledging loss and trauma is an important and an integral part of the process to healing. Bubble Woman Syndrome can only be sustained for so long before we have to pop the bubble and begin again. ! Joy is a Choice. Each moment brings us a choice and we are offered options. We can choose to remain in pain and loss or we can choose to move up and out of it. The wisdom of these choices is honoring the time that we need for healing but also honoring the need for our Selves to get back up, dust off and get back into action. ! “Joy is a choice – a deliberate, conscious choice. That choice is available to us each day. Our joy isn’t controlled by others or by outward circumstances. Joy comes from a deeper place, a place of security within ourselves. It’s an attitude, not a transitory emotion. Remember to be kind. Remember to be loving…. But most of all, remember to be happy.” Melody Beattie ! Seek Sustenance within and without - release and renew. Begin a journal. Write your feelings even if they don’t make conscious sense. Be in nature. Find a new book that feeds your soul. Pray. Watch something that makes you laugh. Be with people who support you, love you and nurture you. Stab a voodoo doll. Cuddle with your favorite animal. Chant. Play with children. Laugh some more. Stop judging and acknowledge your emotions (even the ugly ones) and then release them. Scream into a pillow. Have a lovely cup of tea. Reach out to available resources like a spiritual counselor, support group, therapist or the mighty shoulders of a loving friend. Most importantly, take one positive action a day. Photography saved my life (literally). Getting into nature to take pictures gave me focus and pleasure. Small actions lead to energy moving and movement is always preferable to stagnation even when you aren’t quite sure of the destination. 4 Shakti Business “Joy is a choice.” -MELODY BEATTIE

5. Self Love Sadhana Day 2 Kimberly Moore ! Be Mindful. Awareness is key. For some time, all I could manage was to be aware that I was self- destructing. That was the first step to acknowledging that I could choose healthier and kinder behaviors and begin to transition - my little bird of hope in the bottom of Pandora’s Box. This does not happen overnight. Stay alert for signs that you are beginning to shift and celebrate them by taking action. ! Find your Faith. As an avid observer of life and my own life events, I pondered for a long time what enabled me to come home to my Self - to make it back. I see people who are mired in toxic behaviors and negative loops and I acknowledged there but for the Grace of Goddess/God go I. It was an AHA moment. “There but for the Grace of Goddess/God go I”. My spirituality has always been intrinsic. My faith and dedication in Goddess gave me a driving force when I personally had nothing left to give. Prayer and my mantra practice were life and spirit affirming and worked on my subtle energies and at the soul level. ! ! Be Grateful. Cultivating a gratitude practice heals a multitude of pain. In your journal, if you write nothing else, write what you are grateful for on a daily basis. The list may be short some days but gratitude worms its ways into our soul and slowly fans the flame of spirit. Accept the blessings that life IS giving you. Release the lack mentality and enter the blessing mentality. ! Find Your Bliss. I left my career with the economy in that tragic swan dive and departed healthcare industry after 20 years. I started my own Social Media company, continued writing and blogging and pursued my passions. One of my passions is food which I combined with my writing and photography. The first few years were tight as all entrepreneurial endeavors are but I held the vision. I am no longer surviving but thriving after kicking my lack mentality to the curb. Working with food has also put me on an exciting adventure of healing my body with food. The weight I gained? It began to melt away like magic as I affirmed that Self Love was going to be my daily choice. ! 5 Shakti Business

6. Self Love Sadhana Day 2 Kimberly Moore Know that Self Love is Self-ish. Self Love also involves all kinds of other, wonderful SELF-ish things like Self Compassion, Self Care and Self Trust. Taking care of our Self is one of the most vital life activities that we will ever learn. And it is a learning process. ! We are confronted daily with the belligerent phantoms of would-have, should-have, could-have and negative and critical self talk learned from childhood and beyond. Society and cultural memes reinforce that we should be ALL - super woman, perfect Mom, good wife, dedicated worker, culinary genius, and life coordinator for everyone around us. Negative patterns in our lives have taken years of insidious indoctrination. It doesn’t have to take a full on life meltdown to stop the madness and return to the Self. To be honest with my glorious, healing Self, there were signs and symptoms that the pressure that I was exerting and allowing others to exert on my life was going to end in tears. ! Be Self-ish. Leave the idea that being self-ish is a bad thing. Embrace the concept that if you don’t sustain and nurture your Self, no one will do it for you. Recognize your choices and slowly begin making them and sticking to them. Easier said than done? I agree which is why slow progress and small changes are the keys to claiming Your Self. Is chaos abounding in your life? Take 15 minutes every single day. Lock the bathroom door. Journal even when you are tired. If you don’t stake your claim, then the people around you will not honor you either. And in the end, as you are coming home … get rid of that which does not serve you. Ask the questions: What does my Self really crave? Is this moving me forward? iI this making me happy? Am I proud of me? ! Finally, I have one piece of homework for you. Write a love letter to yourself. Pour out all of the hopes and blessings and wishes that you want for your Self. Make a Pinterest board that reflects all of these marvelous things. A good friend of mine thought of the Pinterest board and doing it was an electric epiphany! Then, make a pact to take small actions to accept those blessings and come home to your Self in a blazingly spectacular flash of LOVE. ! Self-ish Resources Desire Map by Danielle LaPorte - a process (book and workbook) that begins with the masterful question: How do you want to feel? ! Books by Brene Brown - The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are is my absolute favorite and talks about shame resilience therapy. Mindblowing. ! Jennifer Louden - The Life Organizer - this book is phenomenal for mindful questioning to kickstart your journey home to your Self. I use the questions as journal prompts. 6 Shakti Business

7. Self Love Sadhana Day 2 Kimberly Moore ! Pema Chodron - all of her books are divine but I highly recommend When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times. ! ! Kimberly F. Moore is a writer, photographer and Goddess-Powered Entrepreneur. Creativity, Passion and High Energy are her Super Powers and building empires of radical bliss is her life focus. She creates social media strategies for companies from solopreneurs to large brands. Kimberly lives in South Florida with her teenage son and two kitties and her days are filled with words, tweets, photos, recipe ideas and Goddess. She is the embodiment of the multi-armed Shakti. You can connect with her at: ! ! ! ! ShaktiWomyn.com TheHungryGoddess.com TheMotherHouseoftheGoddess.com LaughingWomanMedia.com ! ! @KimberlyFMoore on twitter !@HungryGoddess on twitter! ! ! Kimberly on Facebook! ! ! !Kimberly on Flickr! ! ! ! 7 Shakti Business

8. Self Love Sadhana Day 3 Self Love Relfection !! ! 8 Shakti Business ! ! “The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.” ― C.G. Jung

9. Self Love Sadhana Day 3 Self Love Relfection !! ! 9 Shakti Business

10. Self Love Sadhana Day 4 Mira Jamadi ! ! by Mira Jamadi ! Without being too conscious of the state of the union of my own Self Love, working on and preparing Shakti Business’ Self Love Sadhana, the sadhana has been working on me. ! Revelations have been popping up into my awareness left and right at such a rapid pace that I realize that simply being in the space of Self Love is potent. ! Reading the Self Love stories of our contributors and viewing the Instagram #selflovesadhana photos has been super powerful and transformative. ! Although I’ve been working on discovering who I am at my core and working on fully accepting who I am for years now, I realize that there are still traces of judgement and self criticism that block me from total self love, which impedes the full expression of who I really am in this life, in this world. ! Needless to say, these traces are the most important and fundamental ones! I’ve worked through the judgements that have been the easiest for me: fully accepting my physical body, fully accepting the fact that I’m an introvert, fully accepting my spiritual calling, fully accepting that I teach more 10 Shakti Business

11. Self Love Sadhana Day 4 Mira Jamadi through fire than through tenderness, fully accepting my difficulty in keeping a clean house, keeping organized (aahhh, there are still hints of self judgement there, I must admit)….for many, these aspects of one’s person may be more difficult to accept. For me, pretty easy once I became aware of the criticism that I was imposing on myself. ! So what’s left? ! What’s left is what I’ve seen as my instability. I’m twice divorced with two children. I move a lot. I haven’t yet bought a home where my kids can grow up. My income is off and on. ! My family, my friends, those who love me worry about me. I worry about me. ! Stability is something that I really do want for me and for my children. It’s something that I’m working towards. Yet, somehow I get the feeling that I won’t get there as long as I’m judging myself for not being there yet. ! This judgement weighs on me. I feel like there’s something wrong with me. I haven’t been able to take the mainstream route and I haven’t yet figured out how to get where I want to be by taking my own route. ! I know it will come, but only when I allow it. What I want will only come when I fully accept the path that I’ve taken so far, the experiences that I’ve had a long the way—pleasant or not so pleasant. It will come when I fully forgive myself for my own mistakes, when I’m grateful for the lessons learned from those mistakes. ! It will come when I let go of the false idea that I really should be perfect and why the fuck am I not!???! ! What I’m seeking will come when I fully accept who and what I am right here and right now in this very moment. ! During this Self Love Sadhana, I invite you to join me in total and radical immersion in the present moment, fully accepting ALL of who we are, right here and right now, honoring the path we’ve taken to get here and rejoicing in it. ! Sending big love, Mira ! ! !! ! ! 11 Shakti Business

12. Self Love Sadhana Day 4 Mira Jamadi Mira Jamadi is a Shakti Business guardian and Prana Flow yoga teacher. A native of Southern California, she is now living in Aix en Provence, France with her two sons. Dedicated to the practice of feminine spirituality, Mira was called to move to France to first live in La Dordogne, site of a prehistoric goddess worshipping culture and then to Provence, the land of Mary Magdalene. Through Shakti Business, Mira hopes to participate in the remerging sacred feminine consciousness. ! ! ! www.mirajyoga.com ! ! @mirajamadi! ! ! Mira Jamadi! ! ! ! @mirajamadi! ! ! ! Mira Jamadi! ! ! 12 Shakti Business

13. Self Love Sadhana Day 5 Self Love Relfection !! ! 13 Shakti Business ! “The difficulty does not lie in finding new ideas, but in escaping the long outdated belief in old ones.” ― Jeffrey Fry

14. Self Love Sadhana Day 5 Self Love Relfection !! ! 14 Shakti Business

15. Self Love Sadhana Day 6 Christine Arylo !!   15 Shakti Business Do You Really Love Yourself? ! ! How can you tell if you love yourself and if you don't love yourself - check out this video and take this short self love check in with Christine Arylo and see if you need more love, from yourself. ! ! Access this video on the Shakti Business Videos page

16. Self Love Sadhana Day 6 Christine Arylo !!   16 Shakti Business CHRISTINE ARYLO, INSPIRATIONAL CATALYST, BEST- SELLING AUTHOR, AND SPIRITUAL ADVOCATE, IS ON A MISSION TO CREATE A NEW REALITY FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS, one based on true feminine power, freedom and self-love instead of the relentless pursuit and unsustainable pressure of having to do, be and have it all. She’s written two best-selling books, Choosing ME before WE and Madly in Love With Me, The Daring Adventure to Becoming Your Own Best Friend, with a third on the way, based on her breakthrough program Inner Mean Girl Reform School which has helped over 23,000 women on 6 continents transform their inner critics. Her opinions and transformational techniques have been featured on CBS, ABC, FOX, WGN, E!, in the Huﬃngton Post, and on radio shows, spas, conferences and stages around the world, including TEDx. She usually lives in Northern California with her partner, Noah, but in 2013 they sold their house to live their dream of living, working and speaking and teaching from anywhere in the world… true freedom, power and love! ! ! ! ! @ChristineArylo ! ! ! Christine Arylo ! ! ! Christine Arylo ! ! ! ! Christine Arylo

17. Self Love Sadhana Day 7 Self Love Reﬂection ! ! 17 Shakti Business ! ! “The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.” ― Marianne Williamson