Wisdom at the Crossroads

Fifty is definitely cause for celebration for Wisdom at the Crossroads the podcast. This episode is shared with gratitude for all who are along for the ride: seeking, discovering, and finding pause within the noise of the busy lives we have chosen. Your support and enthusiasm is appreciated. Numerology aficionados would remind us that 50 signifies completion while also inspiring new beginnings. 50 offers an opportunity to reflect on the growth and evolution that has brought us to this present moment, while also inspiring us to trust our intuition and embrace the possibility the future holds. Our mindful meditation concludes this episode with a colourful visual journey in support of our creative enterprise. We invite our inner child out to be inspired to play, with colour and materials. Believe me when I say, there are no lines to be coloured in here. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

Tis the season for new growth with spring hopefully on the horizon at last. A new season on the paint wall is allowing for experimentation, discovery and, dependably, colour. Preparations for a “Spring Fling” at The Pulse Gallery in Winnipeg are shaping up to be the beginnings of a refreshingly colourful new chapter. Locals can join your host at The Forks April 1st, 2-4 pm. You’d be April foolish to miss it. NO JOKE! The show continues through till the end of the month. The Mandart meditation that concludes this episode continues the theme of growth and discovery. We take in a little forest bathing without the need for travel or passports. This self care practice can refresh your senses and help you to soar whatever the weather. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

“Each day is an opportunity to begin again, to forget the troubles of yesterday, to abandon our attachment to the promise of tomorrow.” Getting quiet and being still sounds simple but it can actually be quite complex. The queen of distraction gets lost and found in this episode. Organization may not be my forte, but it seems when I am ready for the words I have written while getting in touch with the deepest parts of myself, the universe will find a way for them to literally cross my path. Rediscovering meditative notes on presence when I am ready to accept and share their resonance was a reminder that today is where we begin. Nowhere is there more promise or potential. Join in the mindful self-care moment at 8:45 in the recording to seek and find presence, possibility, and peace, as we take a literal breath and engage in a simple process to alter the course of our natural rhythms, and connect to the wisdom the resides at our core. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

This episode is about embracing the season where a Canadian winter, wind sculpted snow banks, and variations on a white theme inspire a reflective trek. In a world of white, we dive into the magic of the landscape on a day where boundaries merged with atmospheric change to insulate the view. A view viewed through a window on the warm side of the glass thank you very much Easy does it is the theme of our self care practice in this episode. In a world where our only constant is change, we get reflective and together encourage a moment of respite from the busy lives we have chosen. Our vision narrows yet somehow simultaneously expands. Join in on this self pause at 4:36 in the recording. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

Every journey begins with a single step. In this one, we get a little primal, exploring first steps on some big new panels on the paint wall for an exhilarating trip through the process of marks and the making. The legacy of creators through generations of history, thought, and process, became the focus of travels in real time through the Art Gallery of Ontario during recent travel. How great is it to get out of town to explore art and history, to be inspired and curious and to make connections to the past, to wonder about the lives of others in different times? Like many of our mindful moments, the meditation in this episode is a virtual experience we explore together. Getting cozy and curious, we are encouraged to consider the marks that are left behind, the marks we are making in the moment, and what future marks might become our legacy. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

Warm thoughts on the paint wall on a cold winters day take us on a visual journey. Creative action invites some reflection as works in progress flow through the lovely subtleties of initial marks, only to crash and burn when judgement is applied. Add your own expletive here! In the meditation, we repurpose those flames and take a stroll down memory lane to a crisp evening in the fall. The story leads us to pause around a campfire, to visualize the snap and pop of poked logs in a contained circle where we too pause to be present, and to invite the aromatic medicine of the sacred fire within. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

A new year for the podcast! This anniversary edition inspired a new beginning that starts and ends with gratitude. Thank you for joining me in this experience of story as we pause to connect, to make ourselves available to the creative magic all around us through the action of slowing down It was your curiosity that motivated me to visualize this virtual morning tea or afternoon coffee break. In choosing to be present for you I am reconnecting with my own need for stillness and for that I am grateful Self care is the focus of our meditative practice in this episode where we encourage our automatic pilots who easily express gratitude for others, to step aside. This practice brings gratitude home by directing our mindful pause in mantra form, to all the parts of our body. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

Life is seriously too short to take ourselves too seriously. Through our mindful moments we can learn to nurture the elements within us. In the creative process I find myself in a place where the world quiets around me and I am fully present. I guess really I have learned to take myself to a place where the action and presence meet. In this episode, we open ourselves to getting our chi flowing and receiving the universal energy that supports us, wherever we are. It feels a bit like a cosmic embrace where we breathe, focus and receive and colour blooms to flow to all the areas of our bodies. Colour is a focus in my world. With this episode today we focus on a little blue period that encourages our throat chakra to speak and to share our personal wisdom. Together we go with the flow to discover “It is, I am, we are, and our only constant is change.” A version of this meditation originally paired with “Singing the Blues” in episode 10. Find the blog at www.mandart.ca for the expanded notes and visuals of both episodes and please feel free to invite a friend to join in for this weekly self care project. Together we’ll learn to create a personal sanctuary as we seek wisdom at the crossroads where action and presence meet. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

DISCLAIMER: This meditative process may lead you to find the wisdom your soul yearns to share. Viewer discretion is advised! I am a fairly private person and not generally prone to public vulnerability yet i am the Mand in this mindful MANDart moment where I invite you behind the curtain to experience the magic of process as it is revealed. This episode is all about personal practice. In it I step way outside my comfort zone to share the written meditative process I use to access the wisdom at the crossroads where action and presence meet. Listen in to rest your heart in the details of your own story and trust me this process, with practice, will be an enlightening and inspiring interaction to add to your meditative tool kit. A version of this meditation originally paired with “Wonderland” in episode 23. Find the blog at www.mandart.ca for the expanded notes and visuals and please feel free to invite a friend to join in for this weekly self care project. Together we’ll learn to create a personal sanctuary as we seek wisdom at the crossroads where action and presence meet. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

Take a break…Kit Kats are purely optional. The meditation in this Mindful Mandart Moment is a guided journey to an incidental green space dappled in pockets of sunshine. There’s a little elemental magic involved in getting quiet and becoming aware of all things small in our natural environment. Today's self care break is all about allowing ourselves an opportunity to pause and spend a few minutes in our own company, because, we are definitely worth it! Join me as we engage in a moment of respite and allow haste to dissolve succinctly into ease. I hope you find something within the time we spend together that resonates for you. Join me on the blog at www.mandart.ca for the expanded notes and visuals and feel free to Invite a friend to join in for this weekly self care project. Together we’ll take a short pause as we seek wisdom at the crossroads where action and presence meet. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

Celebrate the power of intention with this self care pause Red is one of my favourite colours. I appreciate the resonance of quinocridone red light (try pronouncing that one with an accent on a podcast). Though painting quiets my soul, I am strangely attracted to the screaming nature of particular shades of Pyrole. These lovely reds seek attention like noise in an airport so by association the grounding quality of red inspired the sanctuary building meditation in this episode. This self care pause is definitely one for the books. It celebrates the power of intention and encourages us to act instead of react, to curate a sanctuary within, o especially in stressful circumstances. You will definitely want to add this self care strategy to your hand luggage, as I do, when you travel. Join me on the blog at www.mandart.ca for the expanded notes and visuals and feel free to invite a friend to join us. Together we’ll learn to create a personal sanctuary as we seek wisdom at the crossroads where action and presence meet. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

ENJOY THE HEALING POWER OF A RESTFUL MOMENT HERE. I am excited to be sharing what I am calling a ten pack of Mindful Mandart Moments with you. The meditations that usually pair with the back stories of studio practice have come to the foreground to help us to be more and do a little less in the hectic lives we lead This meditation this episode explores an experience of landscape. It is an invitation to enjoy a restorative moment inspired by memories of connection to an iconic “place” and to be comforted by a connection to a much younger version of ourselves. This reflective pause is destined to inflate your soaring desires and encourage a short period of restful self awareness. Join me on the blog for the expanded notes and visuals and if something has resonated for you in this episode please feel free to Invite a friend to join us. Together we’ll learn to create a personal sanctuary as we seek wisdom at the crossroads where action and presence meet. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

Let's get actively still. The meditation in this episode of Mindful Mandart Moments pairs action with stillness and takes us on a contemplative visual journey. The labyrinth, in existence for thousands of years, is usually a compact journey that winds its way to a contemplative centre and unfurls as it returns us to where its curved path began. So far in our meditative practice together, we have paused to contemplate and reflect as we have taken time for ourselves at the end of each episode on the podcast. I thought a labyrinth walk might make a thoughtful physical addition to our mindfulness practice. It provides for a nice combination of stillness and action for all of us who struggle at times with slowing down to “BE” more, and do a little less. I hope you find something within the time we spend together that resonates for you. Join me on the blog at www.mandart.ca for the expanded notes and visuals and feel free to invite a friend to join in for this weekly self care project. Together we’ll take a short pause as we seek wisdom at the crossroads where action and presence meet. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

This renewal comes with a chakra cleanse. In this Mandart Moment of Mindfulness, colour was the inspiration that initiated a visual journey that grows and glows through the chakra column. The chakras form a column of invisible energetic support common to all of us. There are 7 chakras that form this internal column beginning with the root chakra at the base of the spine and rising to the crown chakra just above the top of our heads. Becoming aware of the properties of our chakras can help us to consciously align ourselves with our greatest potential. We may not like cleaning up, but this visualized cleansing ritual will be a great addition to your self care tool box. There are many ways to visualize a chakra cleanse. I return to them often in a variety of ways. In this version of an energetic cleanse, we expand, we rise, we imagine, and together imbue our chakras with crystal magic from head to toe. I hope you find something within the time we spend together that resonates for you. Join me on the blog at www.mandart.ca for the expanded notes and visuals and feel free to invite a friend to join in for this weekly self care project. Together we’ll take a short pause as we seek wisdom at the crossroads where action and presence meet. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

Less can be more when we discover abundance. Mindfulness has become a mainstream term in recent years. The practice of paying attention is what I like to call it. By being mindful we can help ourselves to pause and be present. When we are present in our own lives we can make ourselves available to all of the magic available to us through the action of slowing down. In this episode of the Podcast we are bringing the meditation to the foreground to help us to find our own rhythm where nothing is forced, nothing is extended and nothing withheld. In this interior journey we get out of our own way in the pursuit of peace and search for a place where less can definitely be more. Let’s get ready to discover the abundance that is infinitely available to us all. Find the visuals and notes to accompany this episode at www.mandart.ca on the blog or podcast pages. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

WE GROW IN COMMUNITY and this self care episode is all about growth. Mindful Mandart Moments continue with this episode that brings the meditative practice to the forefront. This instalment was inspired by a trio called “BLOOM” in episode 14. It is a guided meditation that inspires us to visualize the conditions we personally need to bloom, flourish and thrive. Creativity has long been my road to presence and so with this meditation I invite you to experience my thought process in action. In it we continue the journey to connect to our world, to experience where we are, wherever we are and vicariously we connect to ourselves. Together we are reminded we grow where we are planted within the context of the choices we are free to make. I hope you find something within the time we spend together that resonates for you. Join me on the blog at www.mandart.ca for the expanded notes and visuals and feel free to Invite a friend to join in for this weekly self care project. Together we’ll take a short pause as we seek wisdom at the crossroads where action and presence meet. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

This episode is all about acceptance. I am excited to be sharing what I am calling MINDFUL MANDART MOMENTS in episodes 34-44 in the podcast. The meditations that usually pair with the back stories of studio practice are coming to the foreground. With open palms, this one is all about ACCEPTANCE. In this first episode of mindful moments, we are encouraged to be mindfully present. The meditation offers an opportunity to rest and inspires us with a visual description of the unseen support that surrounds us all all of the time. It was actually the very first meditation I channeled as I began to gather my thoughts for this podcast. I hope you find something within it that resonates for you. Join me on the blog at www.mandart.ca for the expanded notes and visuals. Please feel free to invite a friend to join in for this weekly self care project if something within it resonates for you. Together we’ll take a short pause seeking stillness, as we seek wisdom at the crossroads where action and presence meet. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

Still life sounds a bit like an oxy moron doesn’t it? For someone who struggles to colour in the lines, a little contained floral action can’t help but be big on personality. What was once a ‘false start’ is now a studio companion with a cheeky personality despite her bland title, “Active Still : Purple” Check out the expanded show notes and images of Active Still: Purple in my blog! The Meditation The meditation in this episode also pairs action with stillness and takes us on a contemplative journey. Join me for 14 minutes of self care as we navigate a snow covered labyrinth and learn the paths we take might not always be clear but a thoughtful walk can bring with it, a little clarity. Tune in to your own intentions at 7:00 in the recording and allow this virtual journey to lead the way forward where the universe will help us to know and understand what we need to know and understand. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

Tom Thomson and the Canadian Group of Seven were not the only adventurers and artists to fall in love with delicious destinations like Honey Harbour and Blueberry Island. Listen in to todays episode to Channel the backstory of a pair of cousins inspired by a twilight boat ride through a quintessentially Canadian landscape. Around every corner in Georgian Bay granite outcroppings, wind sculpted trees and quirky bunkies and boathouses connect generations of families to each other and to their summer destinations. Check out the expanded show notes and images of Audience and Channel in my blog! The Meditation The meditation is 12 minutes long in this episode and begins at 11:44. It’s all about gratitude: for invitations to summer cottages and for our ability to be and do. Our travels might take us far and wide but we can always come home to ourselves with a little self care. In this instalment of our evolving process we turn our focus inward, we choose acceptance over judgement and give thanks to all the parts of ourselves. Find it at x in the recording only. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog

A backward glance inspired the name of this big bold square that came together like the magical arrangements in the colourful child’s toy. There is nothing childish about this confident shapely girl who fledged the nest early. Check out the expanded show notes and an image of Kaleidoscope in my blog! The Meditation The meditation came about organically at my dining room table where it was unusually, recorded live. Quiet moments engaged in a simple repetitive action took me out of my own way as a composition with words evolved. Join in at 8:45 in the recording to add your own colour to this arrangement. This meditation is 14 minutes long. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 Instagram: @mandartcanada Website: https://www.mandart.ca/ Blog: https://www.mandart.ca/blog