Let us release 2018 with grace and gratitude for what she’s taught us and the tools, wisdom, and experiences she’s given us. This past year we got to see big bold egos at play in the wide open, in our politics, boardrooms, and in the denial of climate change while our cities burned. And then the ageless wisdom arose in the feminine rising in politics, new entrepreneurs rocking socially responsible businesses, and our children standing up to the older generations to demand they take responsibility for the planet they are leaving in an unconscious consumer-wake. We saw transparency, the end of plastic straws (in many places), veganism making news, a call to end single use plastics, and the end of abuse both to women and nature. If you look between the headlines, you’ll see wisdom waking and slowly inspiriting the chaos of this past year. And…OMG, so glad it’s over! 🙂

2018 whispered to us that the world is entrapped by ego, then she yelled it. We now know what we DON’T want as much as what we do want. Grace shows us our own way forward, and shedding the ego’s hold on us is at hand.

When you review your year, do me a favor and give yourself some kudos, it’s not easy being human—as my mom says, earth is the learning planet, and that doesn’t mean she’s an easy planet for any of us. But we made it, you made it, we are here now, together. Our egos are slipping away, losing hold of the reigns of “wrong and right” “us and them” “Left and Right.” It is time to see us all as souls made into form by creation; it is the pure force of creation which birthed us, so let us reclaim creativity as a response to 2018 as we step into the year ahead.

My entire life shifted in 2018. I left Simon & Schuster, began a new endeavor: MagicHour (which will be unveiled to you in early 2019), and deepened my lifelong commitment to bring light and inspiration to the world. I have nearly completed the first draft of Goddesses of Ojai , a novel that will bring humor and light to the travails of spiritual growth and the evolution of humanity (just that :)). My son graduated high school, my daughter began 3rd grade at the Krishnamurti school, and our hearts healed as our community rebuilt after the Thomas Fire.

Zhena

Visit Club Magic Hour

I came to Ojai exactly 22 years ago today. It was my 22nd birthday, and today is my 44th. 22 is a significant number for me, as it’s a master number and happens to be my personality number in numerology. But even more, it signifies that I have now lived exactly half of my life in Ojai. Half of my human existence has been spent in the sacred folds of this valley with her moonrises and sunsets mesmerizing me each day and night—reminding me of the magic of life.

They say Montana is big sky country, but so is Ojai, and California in general is the most diverse ecological place I’ve experienced on the planet. It is special in the sense that nature is our ally but also our teacher, for she can burn your home down in one minute here and then inspire you to rebuild in the same fire zone just to be a part of her natural wonders. She can wipe you out then kiss you goodnight with a dusk light so transcendent you don’t care if you’re sleeping in your car or in a mansion on the beach. Ojai especially has a nurturing vibe that holds you dear while cooking you, distilling you in her heat each summer then cooling you in her healing moonscapes.

Like now, the sky at 6:44am is laced with lucid pink clouds in strokes across the sky, the sky itself a blue the color of tropical seas—those of the white sands in the Maldives. The citrus trees are reminding me to not be so relaxed, as their leaves are curled from the decade-long drought and the trickle of water we allow their roots to drink, like prisoners who continue to sing in their cell with little subsistence. They are laden with sweet fruit, true giving trees bent on providing for us by their tired limbs.

Ojai is a magical land, filled with stars both human and celestial. A valley in which one could lose themselves if they aren’t careful, and one that can bore you silly if you’re not working on endeavors of the soul. Ojai is a place and a spirit, a fiery summer Goddess and a sultry winter lover. I remember being single here, my baby boy at his dad’s part time, and me navigating my mid-20’s. I lived in the Mallory Way apartments, an old Summer resort with tiny apartments, perhaps 500 square feet at the most. I was restless and fell in love with visitors I’d meet on long walks or at “Calypsos” which is now The Jester. It was the only place to go for me, on foot, where it was safe and fun to be alone amongst supportive strangers.

I didn’t have any friends when I moved out of my son’s father’s place in Matilija Canyon. He demonized me and made me bad, but we’d been roommates and then had Sage. I was too young to know anything other than Sage was the center of the universe, I was ostracized and alone, the only friend I had was my old neighbor from Matilija, but she was now living in Hawaii. I had a flip phone and an old Mac laptop, I wrote every day as my solace and my medicine.

Ojai nurtured me then, she took me in her arms, inspired me to start a tea company that empowered women and helped end poverty. For mothers She showed me how to give what I myself needed. Giving what we need is the lesson of this valley and also of the spirit. She brought me investors, both good and bad, and eventually brought me the lessons of love that a harsh mentor might teach a young student whose head is too thick about such things. She then brought me women. Tracey, Carol, Jane, Ramona, they came first and supported and pushed me toward building something beautiful in the form of Zhena’s Gypsy Tea. They listened to me, cared, and were loving in the ways only a group of strong women can be. She then brought me Sunne and Allee, Melanie, Rebecca and Henrietta. Ojai brings the women and the love whenever you need it. Try crying at a party and see what happens!

Then, the tea company took off. I’ve always said, “Anything you plant here grows,” and I mean it. The company became a global boutique brand. I was able to bring Fair Trade to mainstream grocery stores all over the Northern Hemisphere and we even took it to Iceland, Brazil, Australia, and the UK. The tins with the dancing Gypsy woman traveled the globe from this magical Valley of the Moon. They were blessed with the beauty and spirit of Ojai. Each product conceived in the wee hours and Ojai’s had an energy that was transformative—people could taste the love and magic and that energy was tasted and felt by millions of people far and wide.

And in any great story, there are forces that wish to steal, control and take such beauty for themselves. There are forces that don’t want to share, they see beauty and magic and want to lock it up and then to cheapen it, live off of it, degrade it, and to squeeze what money they can from it in the name of business. Every protagonist needs an antagonist to grow. New York and its harsh investors were my antagonist, but first they were my friends and lovers, my guides and generous-seeming partners.

Once I’d excitedly climbed into that golden carriage, it turned into a gilded cage. My heart stopped bleeding and then hardened. My defenses became polished by the war going on inside of me. I sold out, not because I was wise, but because I was wounded. I didn’t know danger when I saw it. I only knew possibility. I was naïve by nature, I was not a woman ready to Run with the Wolves. I didn’t have the tools of discernment at the ready. I could have cut costs, I could have stopped launching new products, I could have reigned it in, but the Red Shoes were on my feet and I couldn’t stop the frantic dance toward bigger and bigger numbers. Each milestone we hit was not enough, there was a voraciousness to it all and I take responsibility for it.

I look back, and I was only 25. The 25-year-olds I know now are wiser, older somehow. But I was not. I was ambitious and as I grew the company I kept the upward trajectory at a 90-degree angle—that was my choice. That was the choice of a young woman trying to prove her worth. Then, just as it had begun, it was gone. Disappeared. Poof. The new management team moved the company to a city called COMMERCE. We’d gone from the Valley of the Moon to Commerce. And that was the way they saw it. Magic left then. I commuted to Commerce and slept in the casino hotel by the new office. It was my worst nightmare, I gained so much weight, I ran from my soul, I grew numb and became so depressed I had to medicate to get through.

Ojai is a stern teacher. She is also a loving mother. Who brought me back to life were my sisters here, to women who have risen to support me when I’ve been weak and tired, a groveling wreck and a needy friend. The women of Ojai once again healed and saved me, they came to my support as I held a group in my yurt. Jane, Patty, Kathleen, Terry and Donna, Beth, Liz and Summers. A group I called the New Moon Mastermind. I sent out a call and they all came. Again, Ojai has a feminine edge, she speaks through the feminine which is fierce and loving, kind and firm. We spent two years together, meeting at the Dark Moon each month, setting intentions and growing our visions. I felt home again in my body and my heart. Then one night, I held a ceremony that called for us to remove the blocks to our destinies. We prayed and chanted for Divinity to bring us our destinies and to take away anything blocking us from it.

Within a week I got fired from the tea company. I had never once considered IT was the block to my destiny! I was shocked. I cried for months. I mourned and complained and the women of Ojai held me, comforted me, created space for my brokenness and with their love glued me back together.

But this isn’t where the story ends. It’s where it begins.

Because there was no more block to my destiny, a miracle occurred. I was set free to do what I came to do on my 22nd birthday, write. I got a book deal, and the publisher hired me when she learned I’d been fired. From there I got to be a publisher at Simon and Schuster—in New York—from my little house in Ojai! I spent 4.5 years doing that and was able to publish some of my favorite Ojai people: Deb Norton, Josh Tickell, Jes Maharry and Michaela Boehm. What an honor to connect the greater world with our local brilliant talents! It was fun, hard, and transformative.

As I sit here, the sun has begun its ascent and the sky is now a crystalline white, with powder blue accents, the birds are coordinating their sunrise symphony. I am in the greatest rebirth of my life. At 44 today, I can now see the failures of the last 22 years as an epic journey in gaining absolute wisdom. I can see I am the leader I needed these past 22 years, but there was no way to get here except by the experiences of growth, success, and then loss.

As we heal from the Thomas fire in the valley, as we rebuild still our homes, our lungs, and our resilience, there is a hope that pervades each breath I take on this day. The memories flood me. The walks in Matilija, the soaks in her springs, the nights at Calypso, the days building the company in a little warehouse on Bryant, the women who came to my rescue over and over, the circles we held in my yurt which is now gone, the circles that still happen in living rooms and around fires in the backyard, the teas sipped, the visions had, the dreams made true

And now I’m planting a new garden here. It is from a place though of wisdom and meticulous care. A place of creative concentration not abandon. A place of honoring the women and our rituals, those that saved my heart when it was shattered, and those that make us laugh in guffaws over the absurdity in life. It is a company and a vision, built from dreams and spoken to me from spirit in our Ojai meditations.

It is the distillation of the sunrises that have brought me rebirth and hope, and the sunsets that signify the sensual, still nights of this Valley. It’s a company based on our turning planet, and how we are the passengers in the cosmic scheme of things. It is a series of teachings from our valley’s finest mentors and guides, melded with a monthly delivery of divinity in the form of tea, potions and healing herbs we may sip at sunrise and sunset in order to imbibe the magic of the moon and the sun as they phase our days and our lives.

It is combining all I learned from the tea company and from being a New York publisher the past 4+ years. Taking the best of each and making a recipe for all of you to imbibe, enjoy, celebrate and heal.

The healing teas and potions are both the original recipes I created in my little cabin in Matilija Canyon, and the new recipes I’ve created to move through the journey of life. They are meant to bring us communion with our soul at Dawn and Dusk, where everything is possible. They are meant to signify to the subconscious that it is time to commune with the divine, the cosmos and with each other. They are meant to create a Ceremony of Connection for those of us who feel alone, or want to be more connected from our hearts.

The first batch of beauty will be based on the very very very first highest rendition of the Gypsy Tea Classics. Coconut Chai, Gypsy Rose, Raspberry Earl and a Lychee Apricot Matcha that came to me when I needed renewal called Renewing Matcha. These will be available first as they were and are the blends I miss most, and from the letters, emails, calls and messages they seem to be the ones you miss most too!

They will be available to order on January 24th.

And then on February 14th, we will start the MagicHour ritual club. This is combining the gift of love, support and teaching with gathering and tea. The club will be filled with exclusive content brought to you by Ojai’s greatest teachers. Local Luminaries Gay and Katie Hendricks will teach conscious loving and MagicHour Rituals for relationship. Upper Ojai’s and World Phenom Tantra teacher Michaela Boehm will teach embodiment and rebirth after losing her home in the Thomas.  Ojai Native Rikka Zimmerman will teach the self-care techniques she used to heal her body when she only had 4 weeks to live, and who is now cancer free and thriving.

Those are just the first teachers we will bring forth through Club MagicHour. The combination of Tea & Transformation is how Ojai has taught me to heal. Ritual and Connection have been mainstays of how I have healed and grown through the ups and downs of life. It is the culmination and the combo that this Valley has taught me and that it continues to teach me. It is my offering to Ojai and to you. And from our cups and hearts we will transform the world.

The teas are also a testament to the magic of nature. They are Biodynamically grown which means they are planted, harvested and nurtured on a schedule based on planetary motion. They are harmonized with the sun and moon, but also with Venus, Mercury, Jupiter and Neptune. This is a method that was distilled by Rudolph Steiner and even our own Theosophists. Harmony with the cosmos means harmony in your life and with nature. They are grown in Sri Lanka where the workers threw my wedding to my beautiful husband. We were married in a Lakshmi temple in the tea fields. Lakshmi is the goddess of fortune, may she rain her fortune on this little town and on each of you.

The teas are also filled with additional surprises for your palate and for your health. But I’ll wait to share all of that with you until January 24th when we officially launch (per my astrologer, the planets will align on that day for us ☺).

Combining Tea and Transformation is back to the original idea of Zhena’s Gypsy Tea—those Gypsy Tea Parties were a celebration of femininity and creativity and even freedom to express. We are now taking it to a place of sacred reverence, honoring Mother Earth and our connection to each other. It is still fiercely feminine and also balancing to the masculine. It honors both man and woman, child and adult, lover and friend. But now through technology has a means to reach people via the robust network of the internet. We can broadcast the magic of Ojai now to the world, and we plan to.

MagicHour is as much my healing and my story as it is yours. MagicHour is our latest Ojai treasure made as an offering to the world. Club MagicHour will allow others to experience the love and caring that got me through and gets us all through tough and lonely times—just like all of you have helped me through, we will now continue that but even more, we will create a means to share it with the entire globe.

I have a vision for the world. That we remember the sacredness of life each day at least twice: At Dawn and at Dusk, where the world turns itself and the sun and moon delight and remind us of our celestial origins. MagicHour and Club MagicHour are the means of remembering.

Welcome home. Welcome to your very own MagicHour. Planted in Ojai, a gift to ourselves and our world.

With Magic and Devotion,​​​​​​​

Zhena

Mistress of Ceremonies, Club MagicHour

www.clubmagichour.com

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New Moon Mastermind
Astrology by Genevieve Sky
of @the_pigeons_heart

This month is for dreaming. We are on the precipice of new beginnings and fast changes. If we tend towards confusion, it is time to learn about sensitivity. While this New Moon passionately encourages our faith in adventure and expansiveness, she is closely linked with imagination, divine sensitivity, and unconditional love. Draw on her creativity and vision to tend to the seeds of your work and relationships in 2019. We are connected with magic. Let your heart be full and your visions wild. As we prepare for the end of the year, indulge in dreams. Projects and passions can ignite. However, if the traditional symbol of Sagittarius is half human-half horse with bow and arrow, this lunar month we are half human-half deer. Our vision will not clear unless we are able to connect with tenderness and feeling. We need be willing to feel, everything, with courage and acceptance. As our sufferings and disappointments touch us, righteous fury transforms into imaginative and intuitive vision. If you are instead inclined towards escapism, numbness, or moralism of any kind, still yourself. Touch in with awareness of presence, have a love affair with, for example, the space around you in a sunlit room. Or the sensations in your pelvis and feet. Move with your hips. Dance out of any pattern of habitual victimhood. Your perception can reveal your sensitivity to you, and even re-acquaint you with your heart. Let the archer’s arrow shoot for awakening of unconditional and creative spirit. May we soften to our passion, instead of acting out impatiently or reactively. May our love be an invitation. You will access a depth of unexpected insight about yourself, your path, and intimacy. Mercury’s station direct in Scorpio in quincunx with Uranus in Aries, delivers these gifts.

A Poem for the New Moon

May we explore every dimension of life
While the cosmos delight in a timeless dance of illusion
May we offer, what we feel
in faith and vision
Tasting feeling
We give gently
Without guilt
Guileless tenderness
No pain untouched
We shape our beliefs from this sincerity
This courage births clarity
Imagination transforms to vision
While all the gypsies dance
In wild knowing
on the tip of adventure’s arrow
We envision
Gifts of fire alight in waves

At this time of year, let us begin our goodnight ritual for the end of 2018.

Let us bring 2019 closer to our hearts by first asking ourselves how to make the remaining days fresh and original. Let us rebel against the consumption spell and set our hearts free to be together—to have our holiday season rituals no longer be habit, nor a derivative of the past, but to be a new experience of what is possible now.

What does this mean?

It means no more derivative living—no more buying stuff for the sake of showing your love. Just show your love instead.

No more overeating and comatose after-effects to experience abundance—create a 50% sharing model to share half of your feast with someone who has less.

Pure original living means no more habitual-going-through-the-motions out of habit or because the “over-culture” has accepted something as “just what we do.”

Because we humans have gotten in the habit of deriving our future from our past.

Offering a “Black Friday deal”

Shopping the sale.

Eating the traditional meal.

Buying something for everyone on our list (do they need a token of your love, how about just your love??)

Putting the big dream soul-goals out of reach.

Overusing the earth’s resources: Plastic, plastic, plastic—be gone!

All in the name of “Thanks-giving.”

Let’s call BS on the derivative model of celebrating and do something different shall we?

Last night as I was drifting in and out of sleep, Spirit asked me: If you knew you wouldn’t wake up tomorrow, what would you do tonight?

(Because Spirit always asks the real questions!)

With this question, I remembered the Buddhist exercise of “dying every day,” and how that practice asks us to hold the beauty of urgency within our time spent on earth.

I decided, if in fact it was my last night on earth, that the most powerful thing I could do was pray. From that prayer, a Thanksgiving Ritual arrived in my heart to share with you. I want to give you the love you deserve. The attention you crave. The permission you need to dance in the light of your sacred existence—and there’s no discount or sale that can do that, trust me, I’ve tried .

Here is the Thanksgiving Prayer, I hope you will join me tonight or tomorrow morning to do this simple prayer and visualization.

***

Sacred Soul, I call you forth.

Sacred Soul, please guide me from fear into love.

Heal the past timeline of hurt.

Seal the sorrows of repression into the dirt

So we may dance upon them

So we may rebirth.

May we know a borderless land

Where every woman, child and man

Can sit at the feet of the sun

Knowing there’s enough light for everyone.

Sacred Soul, bring the darkness of ignorance to the light of Love

So that all may know we are one.

May grace and gratitude prevail

As the wind in our worldly sail.

May we consume nothing this season

Made of plastic or at the cost of nature’s strife.

May we honor the breath as the gift this holiday night.

May we know peace in our heart and solace in our mind.

May we heal the earth with our spirits entwined.

Now Visualize:

Our earth as a healthy, unpolluted, glorious planet of grace for all.

Envision every human being held with ease in the field of one.

See the sun rise as the moon kisses it goodbye

And a new day dawns, where the world responds with no more fear, only love.

***

2018 was– and is—a sacred fire burning away the veil of illusion so that we may live with more grace, gratitude and integrity in 2019.

My dear friend Kathy Davenport writes in her upcoming memoir that trauma cuts the cord of illusion, leaving us with the essentials of what is.

What is?

Our soul wants us to know that what remains is grace, and the action to take is to cultivate even more gratitude.

Thanksgiving is a touchstone of grace—we feed others. And in gratitude, we give thanks. 2018, we can thank for cord-cutting the illusions and opening our eyes to the truth of humanity’s evolution…to hold sacred our original nature and the earth’s regenerative power.

We have gratitude for the gifts of 2018:

Gratitude for the women who spoke up this year and upended the status quo of sexual harassment.

Gratitude for the ability to rebuild after fire.

Gratitude for the opening of our eyes and the shedding of illusion.

Gratitude for the writing we did, the sacred act of creating.

Gratitude for the air we’ve breathed, even now as it hangs heavy with smoke here in the west, we are still alive.

And to be alive is to have one more minute, hour, day to experience and express love.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the US. We feast and take a day off. We show our gratitude as a ritual of connection.

Our souls are the timeless, infinite well from which we come and to which we will return. Our bodies are borrowed stardust, our minds are sharpened receptors of divine will, and our hearts are the GPS program of the soul. In this we give thanks for the chance to experience life on earth. To honor the earth for the feast she tirelessly gives us.

Instead of giving you all a discount on something, I give you my heart. With that I end the Black Friday derivative and offer something fresh: Myself.

Try it, give of yourself in a priceless way that cannot be discounted. I love you all and am SO grateful for your original self!

With Thanks,
Zhena

I write to you today to remind you of your generous, endless, empathetic, pure and glorious heart. Your heart is the energy center through which your soul communicates to you and to the world. According to research by the HeartMath Institute, your heart has an energy field that is 60 times greater than that of your brain. Yep, the heart has it—it’s the boss, by default.

As I write this California is once again burning. It’s only been 11 months since our own devastating fires here in Ojai. We are at once reminded of the poignancy of being human, as we face cataclysmic climate change with an administration in full drama-denial and reality show level assaults on our human dignity. We in the US are berated by the headlines as we attempt to navigate the destruction of our earth. It’s heavy and it’s real.
​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​So what can we do?

How can you care for yourself while caring for the world?

We can eat less meat. Refuse the straw. Ditch the plastic (it’s fun, really). Stop using one-use cups at the coffeehouse. Drive less. Go organic. Offset our carbon by buying carbon credits for our impact on CarbonFund.Org. We can vote with our dollars and support companies that are actually REFORESTING the rainforests, like Sambazon Acai and Guayaki Yerba Mate.

But what of the duality of these times? The reason the planet is being destroyed is money. Those that cannot afford the luxury of more expensive eco-products, solar panels and hybrids are struggling to make enough money to feed their kids and warm their houses over the winter. They are worried about not having any resources and have very real problems to which the more affluent are often blind.

The place to meet is in the land of non-duality, the place to meet is in the heart.

We must continue to fight with warrior-like focus for our trees and waterways. We must end the use of coal and reduce our personal emissions. But in the meantime, we need to be in the space of the heart because it is the only place where a resolution can be found.

We can care for our heart. We can breathe into our heart and give it the attention it deserves. We can nourish our heart with a hand placed gingerly on our chests, and know that when our brains go numb from so much negativity and fear, our hearts are there to hold and guide us.

Yesterday I was in a state of total exhaustion. With the whole region on fire, sharing our home with our beloved friends who lost theirs, and feeling the weight of the world on my heart, it felt so so heavy. And then my dear friend and healer, Brandy Gillmore texted me and we began sharing love and gratitude for each other, those texts burst the weight over my heart into a thousand pieces, and suddenly, I realized my heart was as strong as the sun, and could regenerate others and nature if I simply gave it the nourishment it needed to work its magic.

Hidden in our hearts is the consciousness, calm and compassion we are seeking.

So today, take care of your heart. Breathe light into it, do things that bring it energy like giving deep gratitude, sharing a kindness, caring for one who has lost their home, or baking a cake and sharing it with your neighbor. Your heart is the most powerful force for good on this planet. Care for it like our world depends on it—because it does.

From my heart to yours,​​​​​​​

Zhena

I’m in Loveland, Colorado this week sitting at the feet of master storyteller, author and divine teacher Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes—the author of Women Who Run with Wolves (my all-time favorite book).

We are learning about Original Voice and the soul of creativity. Dr. E has taken us through several days of story based on the Dark Night of the Soul poem by St. John of the Cross who wrote it while locked away in prison by anti-reformists. Here is the poem as translated from Spanish.

STANZAS OF THE SOUL

                        One dark night,

                        fired with love’s urgent longings

                          — ah, the sheer grace! —

                        I went out unseen,

                        my house being now all stilled.

                        In darkness, and secure,

                        by the secret ladder, disguised,

                         — ah, the sheer grace! —

                        in darkness and concealment,

                        my house being now all stilled.

                        On that glad night,

                        in secret, for no one saw me,

                        nor did I look at anything,

                        with no other light or guide

                        than the one that burned in my heart.

                        This guided me

                        more surely than the light of noon

                        to where he was awaiting me

                         — him I knew so well —

                        there in a place where no one appeared.

                        O guiding night!

                        O night more lovely than the dawn!

                        O night that has united

                        the Lover with his beloved,

                        transforming the beloved in her Lover.

                        Upon my flowering breast

                        which I kept wholly for him alone,

                        there he lay sleeping,

                        and I caressing him

                        there in a breeze from the fanning cedars.

                        When the breeze blew from the turret,

                        as I parted his hair,

                        it wounded my neck

                        with its gentle hand,

                        suspending all my senses.

                        I abandoned and forgot myself,

                        laying my face on my Beloved;

                        all things ceased; I went out from myself,

                        leaving my cares

                        forgotten among the lilies.

Dr. Estes is using each stanza of this poem to show that the creative self cannot, even when imprisoned, starved and tortured, be completely taken from us. Our creative force will prevail even when the “over-culture”—what Dr. E calls society, its pressures and judgments—threatens to hold us captive. We are born to be creative. We are the containers of creative life force.

What holds your creativity captive? What aims to distract, squash and beat the creative voice, the originality and “weirdness” with which you were born into submission? Let us take a look at the modern versions of St. John’s prison.

Social Media: How much time is healthy & how much is imprisonment? Do you find yourself scrolling when you should be creating? Yeah, me too. Let’s stop it!

Politics: and as Dr. E calls: 1-inch deep news: I know I can’t take my eyes off of the news app on my phone at times. It’s all story, and I am obsessed with story. BUT, deleting the App has freed me to have more hours and focus on my creative work. Even in the voting season, get your key info and get out of dodge lest it create anger or confusion in you.

Money Pressures: How many of you can’t write because you have to work? Oh, this is my favorite “excuse.” But guess what? Dr. E wrote Women Who Run with Wolves in 10-20 minute increments as a single mom, full time student with two jobs. Yikes, that kinda washes away our pansy ass excuse ha!

Doubt and Shame: These are the monsters of the psyche and they’re out to smoosh your creative child spirit to smithereens. I don’t know about you, but I am not apt to give these illusions another dollop of my precious life force. Sure, I doubt my writing and yes, there is a little shame punch going around in my creative cup, but from where do these things come? The past. And where will they keep us? The past. Where do you want to live? Me too. NOW.

Busyness: Being busy is like spinning wheels in mud. You expend extraordinary energy but accomplish little. You can look at your accomplishments at the end of the day and realize you were busy but ineffective. This is a common form of being captive. Your ego thinks that being busy will keep you from being useless, and that daydreaming, writing, and/or creating will be a waste of time because you might not get that publishing deal or sale anyway. This is BS and must be stopped. Stop being busy, and focus instead on a goal like 1,000 words a day, or a stanza of a poem a day, or…

Ambition: “Ego sabotages the creative force by ambition.” –Dr. E said this today in our session and I almost choked on my Earl Grey. Yes, she’s right. I can’t tell you how many people asked me as a publisher, “How do you write a bestseller?” I always said back, “A bestseller cannot be manufactured.” The ego will demand of your creative work more than it can deliver. That’s the most dangerous way to kill your idea before it’s had time to see the light of day. Stay away from ambition and instead focus on your craft. A bestseller is built by craft, not by wanting fame or fortune. 

The Dark Night of the Soul shows us that nothing that is real can truly be threatened, and that your true creative force cannot be extinguished—unless you allow it to be.

I recommend reading the poem each time you feel you cannot go on. Remember that St. John was locked up in a cell with no room to do anything other than stand. He had no light except for that of the cell next to him. He was fed salted fish scraps, bread and water. And yet, he created, wrote, and praised God with every cell in his humble body.

We cannot afford to let the world or our ego take us under. We need to be creating AND FINISHING the creative projects that will ensure our soul’s freedom and expression on earth. Take the time to follow that call. Know that you are called and no one else on this planet can say it or sing it the way you can.

And know this:

“Time is the only asset you can’t get more of.”

–Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Now go write, dance, sing, and create, beloveds.

With Infinite Inspiration,

Zhena

Today we bring you the last in the series, POP! Tip #7: Your Playdate with Destiny – What does it take to Launch?

What are you launching? A book, product, or service? A rebirth of your career? A nonprofit or support group? Are you launching a new coaching or health-related business? Any of these endeavors deserve a stage. YOU deserve a stage. And right before launch is when STAGE FRIGHT can arise. For me I get nervous and bitchy around details I feel aren’t being managed. I rearrange the house. I shop online. I do a lot of brilliant idea generation–anything to avoid LAUNCHING…why? Why do so many of us do this?

Because it’s a little scary to get what you want–what if you get it and realize it’s not what you wanted? Or if you get it and…you liked wishing for it more than actually HAVING it?

I’ve been consulting for other people’s companies now for almost twenty years. Creating and naming products, services, and businesses for others is a blast. Media strategies make me swoon. Writing speeches? OMG bliss…

BUT, at a certain point, it becomes time to own our own creativity again. Pouring your love and energy into other people’s businesses and lives is great, but at the end of the day, what do you have that is yours? Do you have a website or container that will hold the life force, dreams, expressions, and passions that well up from deep inside of you? Or do you take that life force and exchange it for a consulting fee or paycheck? This isn’t wrong, as we all have bills to pay–but if you aren’t building something for yourself, it can feel like something is missing.

Launching your platform is like getting the house ready for a dinner party. You create beautiful graphics, imagery and prose. You dress up and do your hair. You spritz your favorite perfume on and light candles. You prep the food and arrange the flowers. When your guests arrive, what do you do? Run and hide in the bathroom? Lock the door and drink the wine and eat the food by yourself?

NO! You smile and welcome them warmly into the space you have created to exchange energy, love, ideas and conversation. You CONNECT with them and nourish them while they become delighted by your expression of hospitality and creativity.

That’s pretty much what launching an online platform is. It’s about connection, relationship and love.

So, if a majority of people who say they want to launch a book, program or business aren’t willing to master platform building–aka throwing the dinner party of marketing–then what will result?

A sea of “what ifs,” “should haves,” and “man, that was MY IDEA!s”

For me, it’s like having a ton of potential that never gets realized. Launching is the key to claiming your destiny. It’s the same as entertaining, it is FUN, fulfilling, and a little scary if you’re hosting new people and you find your kids have clogged the toilet or flung ketchup on the walls–oops, I digress. 🙂 But really, a launch is 90% preparation and 10% launch…

So let me ask you this.

What are you preparing for?

Are you preparing to launch your next creative project, a new goal, or are you in the limbo land of waiting and seeing…? If you have a dream, you need to prepare, work on it, pour your love into it and then at some point press the “Publish” button or the “Post” button or send the invites out…

You cannot hold your dream inside of you for your whole life without it making you a little crazy. You might burn the dinner but you’ll make up for it with the salad and dessert. You might have a broken link or a typo in your headline, or you might not even know how to build an online platform, but I assure you, if you set a date, you will find a way to do it.

So, set a date. Our date for launch with POP! is May 5th, 2019. On that day we will graduate the POP! Class of 2019. You are invited, I’ll be sending you all an online invite–you will get to see the POP!Stars introduce you to their new idea, platform, book, or upcoming product…you’ll get to witness the completion of 7 months of preparation, love and energy going into a dream.

You can watch it, or you can be part of it. Even if you aren’t able to sign up for POP! this time, you can take this series and use it as fuel to get closer to your dream.

We have one spot left for POP! 2019. If you want to play with us real-time, please let us know. If you can’t, don’t worry, you can still launch your dream alongside us. You can join us on May 5th 2019 and watch the POP! Stars introduce their dream to you. Either way, know this: You are treasured, and your dreams matter.

And that concludes my waxing POP! for this series! I love you all! If you made it this far, you are a true friend–I know these were long emails.

Again, you are bound to be successful. The world needs you to be. We need you to be heard and active. We need to reverse climate change. We need to free those in bondage. We need to feed the hungry. We need to be empowered to do all of this by first empowering our creative and passionate dreams. We can only be what we allow ourselves to be.

Here’s to your Imminent Success!

Zhena

We are honoring the sale price until October 15th, the investment for the 113+ hours of guidance, teamwork, coaching, training, and working with me and my team on building your platform is $7997 (20% off!!). You’ll also have a 20% discount on my upcoming retreats and courses for two years and a lifetime membership to the POP! Academy membership site…not to mention lifelong friendships and a dream made manifest.

Coupon Codes for Discounted POP! Mastermind Registration: 

20% OFF One Time Payment Enter: POP20OFF HERE

20% OFF Monthly Payment Plan Enter: 20POPMONTH HERE

As the New Moon forms with Ceres, the earth mother goddess, we are connected on a deep level with our desire to nurture and receive nourishment. Wherever we may experience obstacles to doing so we may experience grief, resentment, and outrage or anger. Ceres’ myth centers around the abduction of her daughter Persephone by Hades/Pluto, so the grief and outrage we are witnessing on a collective level in response to the dis-empowerment and abuse of the feminine is a part of her story. Ultimately, she can guide us to our innate ability to give and receive nourishment, but along the way we will undoubtedly experience her wrath or the resentment and controlling-ness that are a part of her shadow.

Welcome to POP! Tip #6! The second to last in the the POP! Tips Series. 

This year, we added an extra workshop in order to work on MINDSET! As, with all things, we are only as successful as our minds allow us to be. Mindset is the key to unlocking all of the aspects of POP! When it comes to your business, life, and creative expression.

In month 6 we uncover “Upper Limit Problems” which is the term coined by my mentors Gay and Katie Hendricks. ULP’s are the ways you sabotage yourself when you’re about to receive or experience a level of aliveness, success, or love that you are not accustomed to receiving.  

I have coached hundreds of successful entrepreneurs, women business leaders, and authors and discovered the main blocks to success are the underlying, unhealed, and often ignored emotions around unworthiness, guilt, and shame which manifest as a limited mindset. Many are ashamed for wanting to be in the spotlight, or for wanting money, success, and good fortune. Isn’t that weird? But it’s true, deep down many of us are embarrassed we want what we want!

We become martyrs who need to “work so much there’s no time for my writing,” or people start and start and start new projects in order to never have to finish the ones they set out to create–a realm of avoidance I’d know nothing of (ha). Or we are sad over being single so we don’t pour energy into a creative endeavor–we become “dwellers of lack.”

It’s all a form of the “Red Shoes” as my teacher Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes writes about in Women Who Run with the Wolves.  We become addicted to something other than our creative lives and then self-destruct in small and big ways.

The thing in our life we want most is often the thing we are least willing to give ourselves.

I see this all the time with my clients — they want to write a book, yet they don’t consistently give themselves dedicated time to write. They want a successful business, yet they stop short of finalizing their business plan or funding strategy…remaining in a day job they don’t love is somehow “safer.” They want passive income, but they make unprofitable busy-work for themselves left and right. All of it is a form of procrastination, a form of not taking responsibility for our dreams.

So how do we stop doing this dance with our distant destinies?
​​​​​​​We stop the cycle.
​​​​​​​We reach out to our support system.
​​​​​​​We get the help we need to break the habit of keeping our happiness at a distance.

How?
How do we take these unconscious and subconscious habits and turn them into opportunities?

In POP! I will be teaching the solution to this through a practice I’ve adapted from The Diamond Sutra.

The essence of this teaching is to give others what we hope to receive.
​​​​​​​If we wish to be loved, to love others in the way we wish to be loved.
​​​​​​​If we wish to be wealthier, we then need to help others become wealthy.
​​​​​​​If we wish to be well known, or influential, we then need to give our attention and praise to those we admire.

(doesn’t this all sound like value-based marketing!?)

As I teach in my book: Life by the Cup, if you have a mission to serve, you cannot fail.

I believe this to be true. Except, when you are having an upper limit problem and you are using the habit of serving others TO AVOID doing your destined calling, then it’s just another, sophisticated version of avoidance.

To give fully from a place of spaciousness and joy is the mindset of POP!.

To take pleasure in the gifts of your heart and soul and to offer them as a means of taking care of others is the ultimate goal.

One way to understand whether you are giving for its own sake, or giving in order to limit yourself via an ULP is through energy. If you have a high level of energy that only grows once you’ve given, then you are in alignment. If you are giving, then find yourself scattered, frustrated, winded, drained or lonely–you are giving for the wrong reasons.

All in all, when a Conscious Creative approaches their business, art and relationships, if she is energized by the process, she can tell she’s on the magic carpet of her calling. This is the place where everything is possible.

Your mindset is the one expanding or limiting factor to your success.

There is nothing else. Trust me, I was a college drop out with $6 to my name and now I’ve been a CEO of a multi-million dollar company, a publisher at a top 5 publishing house, and a happily married human of 14+ years–all things I would have never thought were possible…until they were.

Tune in tomorrow for our last POP! Tip #7: What does it take to Launch? Where we’ll take everything we’ve learned in the POP! Course and put your vision out into the world.

Visit www.powerofplatform.com for the all the course info and if you sign up before Oct. 15th, use the Discount codes below for 20% off! 

Here’s to your Imminent Success!

Zhena

Coupon Codes for Discounted POP! Mastermind Registration: 

20% OFF One Time Payment Enter: POP20OFF HERE

20% OFF Monthly Payment Plan Enter: 20POPMONTH HERE

One time I hired a social media manager to help with my book launch. I didn’t know the ins and outs of having someone do my posts and I didn’t direct her. I didn’t know how to manage someone who was being “me” on my social pages. I ended up losing my sh*t on a few of her posts, and let her go. What was the breaking point?

On the day of one of my huge, sultry Gypsy Tea Party events…she posted a very graphic image of a mouth with very gross looking gum disease and the post was: Did you know tea helps prevent gum disease?

I gagged just seeing it, and my audience was probably VERY confused.

My mom always says, “Why do you have to learn everything the hard way?”

Well, it hurts but it makes great content at some point. 🙂 It’s all material right?

What can eliminate embarrassing situations like this?
A Brand Guideline, Content Strategy, and a Content Calendar based on those things.

In month 5 of POP! We dig into the voice, message, heart, and strategy behind creating content that inspires both you and your audience–without embarrassing mistakes that resemble a “drunk dial.” (Oh, and don’t post selfies drunk, ahem.)

Here are a couple of my tips for creating authentic, meaningful and cool content that gets the right people reading and engaged..

• Go grab a thesaurus and create a list of 20-30 words you adore. Words that excite you and reflect the energetics of your essence, offers and work. Ensure they are words you love to hear, write, and read.
• ​​​​Create a sheet of these words and have them with you when you create your overall content calendar.
• Plan your annual offers: Book proposal submission in May? Make sure you’re scheduling juicy posts about your book that month. Retreat in July? Ensure you are posting teasers for it by April, then hotter posts in May and then full blown posts by June…You get the picture–you need to plan, strategize and time everything to serve your objectives while delighting your audience.
• Be funny. Be you. Be vulnerable. And be certain that if your keywords are all about uplifting, you don’t post too many sorrows–unless they are about honoring the grieving process and offer inspiration too…or asking for support (you get the idea).
• Batch your work: Write 5-10 blogs in one sitting. Ensure blogs are 500-750 words and are timed to themes you choose for each month and each week.
• Pay attention to national holidays, points of interest and fun trends. For instance, maybe post your tips for staying sane around Tax Day by giving your audience a happy playlist for check writing. Or something like that :).
• Be sensitive to what’s happening in the world. Don’t be tone deaf and launch/post something that feels culturally out of touch with world events. Be flexible with your schedule and shift if there is a Tsunami, or a Kavanaugh hearing.
• If you’re hiring someone, ensure you give them your brand book, communication guidelines, and your mission and vision as well as aesthetic standards before they start–otherwise you will end up with posts you don’t like. Tone is everything.
• Use an approval system: If working with a team, you need to be disciplined and pre-approve posts before your team member posts for you.
• Use a CONTENT CALENDAR! I haven’t been using one the past months as I’ve been wrapping up Enliven but I have to say, it saves time, creates room for creative flow, and helps so you don’t have to create content from scratch while you’re working on a product, book or service launch.
• Set aside a day a week for content creation at most. If you’re doing it everyday, you should be getting paid for the value you are bringing others–if you’re not getting paid either through book sales, a book deal, increased product sales or other forms of currency, you’ll want to measure why you are creating content: If it’s for pure expression? RAD! But be clear that is what you want.
• ​​​Intention is everything. With an intention setting session before you sit down to design your professional social strategy, you’ll have more fun doing it and it will be more successful. I always set the intention to be inspiring and useful. I hope this was for you!

We are going to be wrapping up POP! Enrollment here in the next two weeks, so if you’re sitting on a fence, contact me here: Zhena@Zhena.tv for a call to discuss if it’s right for you!
​​​​​​​

We are also having a sale until October 15th, the fee for the 113+ Hours of guidance and working with me and my team on building your platform is $7997. You’ll have access to all of my courses at a discounted rate for two years also…Oh, and a lifetime membership to the POP Women’s Academy membership site. We have 11 amazing women signed up, and we are open for 2 more! If you’re one of the 2 more, you’ll know it. 🙂
​​​​​

Next time we’ll dive into POP! Tip #6, the second to last in the POP! Tips Series where we’ll uncover the Magic Mindset of Inspired Success.

And please do share these with a friend. Referral inspiration make the world a better place :).

Here’s to your imminent Success!

Zhena

Coupon Codes for Discounted POP! Mastermind Registration: 

20% OFF One Time Payment Enter: POP20OFF HERE

20% OFF Monthly Payment Plan Enter: 20POPMONTH HERE