Colourful Cocoon

Colourful Cocoon – Digital Art by Mary Mikawoz – Click on image or link to see the bigger picture.

I drew some symbiotic lines. I was letting my pen flow on the surface of the paper. I took the image and scanned it into my computer. I felt I needed something vibrant in colour. I wanted the image of the cocoon to be the centrepiece.

When I see a cocoon, I think of transformation from a beginning through to the next stage of life. I think of a beautiful butterfly coming out to great the world after it has morphed from one stage of development to another. May we all continue to grow as human beings in a similar fashion as we learn and alter out environment for our own betterment and evolution.

With my art, I am often in a zen-type of mood and with my photography, I feel as if I am inspired by God or the Universe to capture these moments in time.

Thanks in advance for liking commenting, sharing and purchasing. Check out my other images and collections. Thanks for all positive feedback. 

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Check out all my collections by searching Mary Mikawoz on FineArtAmerica or Pixels.

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For a portfolio of creative work including art, photography and mixed media by Mary Mikawoz, click here.

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Choose to Win

Choose to Win

 

Book: “Choose to Win: Transform Your Life, One Simple Choice at a Time” Tom Ziglar, Harper Collins, 2019

Book Review by Mary Mikawoz

Book available: March 5, 2019

Tom Ziglar is the son of Zig Ziglar, an influential speaker over 40 years time. Tom has essentially followed in his father’s footsteps. He has written a book called “Choose to Win.” In it, he recounts the Wheel of Life which Zig Ziglar has used but not exclusively to him. I heard of the psychological concept about 20 to 30 years ago and many people have used it to balance life’s priorities and seven areas of life from the mental, the spiritual, the physical, the family, the financial, the personal and the career. The seven spokes are evaluated based on how well you are doing in each area. If you are well balanced in all areas, your spokes and tire pressure will be the same and all inflated to a good height level.

He reviews the areas in quite a bit of detail with individual chapters. He, however, repeats the same thing at the end of each chapter and so it is repetitive. He essentially says to replace a bad habit with a good habit. The premise of the book is basically this which to me is not a novel concept and is only common sense. I do not know how this is a new and exciting concept. Of course, you change a bad habit with a good habit and of course, you do it in incremental baby steps. Tom says you should do something for 66 days, but I have heard of 28 days, one month and so forth as other optimal times to make a habit habitual. James Clear agrees with Tom Ziglar but according to the Phillipa Lally’s study, it can take anywhere from 18 days to 254 days to form a habit depending upon a number of factors.

The other predominant concept in the book is to leave a legacy behind because you are already are either intentionally or not. This reminds me of another book I reviewed which deals in entirely with leaving a legacy by Terrie Davoll Hudson called “Leave a Legacy that Counts: Create One at Any Age.” It is quite a bit shorter but the messages between these two authors are similar.

Finally, the steps necessary to fulfilling a goal are as follows:

Step 1 – Identify your goals

Step 2 – My benefits to reaching this goal

Step 3 – Major obstacles and mountains to climb to reach this goal

Step 4 – Skills and knowledge required to to reach this goal

Step 5 – Individuals, groups, companies and organizations to work with to reach this goal

Step 6 – Plan of action to reach this goal

Step 7 – Completion Date”

Overall, this book has some good information in it. I found it heart-warming to hear of the last few days of Zig Ziglar’s life from the family perspective. As well, Tom Ziglar asks some very good questions throughout the book to help the reader along and has some good tips added in.

His trust and belief in God and Jesus Christ is paramount and not so different than the spiritual books I normally review.

I give the book a 3.5 out of 5 stars. I have changed my mind since and now give the book a 3.75 based on the very good questions he asks.

Tags: Business, Self-improvement, Self-development.Individual, Goals, mental, spiritual, physical, family, financial, personal, career, legacy, Tom Ziglar, Zig Ziglar, Attitude, Effort, Skill, Transformation, Religious, God, Jesus Christ, Bible, Mary Mikawoz, Mikawoz, Book Review

Everyday Empath

Everyday Empath

Book: “The Everyday Empath: Achieve Energetic Balance in Your Life” by Raven Digitalis, Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd., 2019.

Book Review by Mary Mikawoz

The book is available March 8, 2019

Raven Digitalis has been an empath all his life. He has focussed on Wiccan and pagan pursuits and is also a farmer. He now explores empathy for those who are newly grounded in it or for those would like to understand highly attuned empaths in their lives. Empathy is an emotional internalization. It is a word that is less than a 100 years old and comes from the German word to “feeling into” where you feel somebody else’s emotion as your own. “Empathy is considerate, compassionate and engaging.”

Unlike sympathy which is a feeling “for” somebody, empathy is a feeling “as” somebody. The empath is “absorbing” the emotional frequency. Everyone is empathic to one degree or another. It all depends on how much you have developed it. Many spiritual people indicate that the emotional response of empathy affects our karma.

Our empathic techniques include the following points: we don’t need to have all the answers, it’s good to be honest, disapproval is ok sometimes, you are not a victim, put yourself first, and cultivate gratitude.

Psychics have an enhanced ability to perceive energies and are more focussed as empaths. For those with highly-developed empathy, we have the benefit of transforming or transmuting the energies by increasing the vibrations. Emotional absorption can take place while on the phone, watching TV, and reading the newspaper, in that these are examples of everyday life energy and it is everywhere. If you feel something negative, transmute its energy field to something positive. If you feel something positive, amplify that to the energy grid.

Although the empath is more compassionate, he/she may be scared and see something they don’t want. Some sensitives turn to alcohol, drug abuse, addictions, video gaming and other methods of emotional disconnection. It is really a good thing to be an empath as we are helping to bring in a new aeon of ages into being. If we isolate ourselves for long periods of time, we are bringing in external negative energy without the ability to project our positive energy.

Some methods for dealing with empathy are to: look at the third eye instead of the eyes, covering up your crown chakra with a a hat or shawl, “fake it till you make it,” carry a rock or gemstone, watch your breathing, and surround yourself with like-minded empaths.

Having said all this, it is important for the empath to have boundaries and reinforce this with visualizing a shield of protection. The Mother Earth and Father Sky shield is a good grounding one. You can try a crystalline shield, an egg shield, a mirror shield, shield of iron, a cloak of invisibility, coat of arms, patterned shield, an empath’s heart shield, shield of prayer, or elemental shield.

Empaths are prone to anxiety, depression and emotional imbalances. There are ways to deal with these problems or issues. An empaths purpose is to inspire unity, growth and healing. Empaths are natural healers and that is what we are supposed to do. That is one reason we should be continuing in our community doing the work of transmuting empathic energy and vibrations.

There are a number of exercises in the book. The first one is to observe people and figure out what is going on. It there a dominant personality and a submissive one? Is it a mother and child trying to work out a conflict? What is the feeling between the couple or the group? A second exercise involves you meeting and talking to your Shadow Self. A third exercise is regarding absorptive and projective empathy. A fourth exercise is self-limitation cord cutting. A fifth exercise is morning and evening rituals for empaths. A sixth exercise is a bathing cleansing. A seventh exercise is an empathic journey into art. An eighth exercise is to think globally and act locally. A ninth and final exercise is for action for animals.

Remember “We are not mere emotional sponges. We are emotional alchemists!”

As a fellow empath, I found the book a good review with some very good insights and also some good suggestions for exercises. I would recommend this book to anyone who feels they are developing feelings of empathy towards others or are into metaphysical subjects. I found the book valuable for myself and found it a good read.

The book is available March 8, 2019 when it will be released to the public.

Tags:Spirit, spirituality, empathy, wiccan, pagan, reading others, shields, protection, Mother Earth Shield, Father Sky shield crystalline shield, egg shield, mirror shield, shield of iron, a cloak of invisibility, coat of arms, patterned shield, heart shield, shield of prayer, elemental shield, cutting cords, alchemists, anxiety, depression, emotional imbalances, Shadow Self, community, animals, transmutation, transformation, energy, vibrations.

Book: “Visualization for Weight Loss” by Jon Gabriel

Weight LossBook Review by Mary Mikawoz

The “Jon Garbriel Method” was the first book written by this author. I read it and thought it was interesting but did not actively pursue it or the visualization that he provided. Now, that I am faced with this second book, I am more intrigued. Jon uses visualization much in the way that Shakti Gawain suggests in her book, “Creative Visualization.” He has taken it one step further, however, and has made some excellent visualizations that look they would work.

They encompass using white light and predominantly the navel as a focal point. Other areas include the forehead. Both of these are near important chakra points and so the visualizations are more powerful.

Jon discusses stress, trauma and fear as factors in being overweight. It is not simply a process of calories in and calories out otherwise diets would work but they don’t. Dieting is an industry onto itself. The food industry system is into marketing processed foods that are cheap to produce and sustain on shelving and so not that good for the human body. The more raw and alive products with one ingredient is much more valuable to the body than products that have been laced with herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, chemicals and dyes.

Jon believes in visualization and offers a 16 week program near the end of the book in which he uses a variety of topics to serve as focal points for morning visualization sessions. In the evening, there is a visualization that you can fall asleep to.

Overall, I found the book to be informative because he backs up his work with scientific researched work which is nice to see. The most compelling part of the story is Jon’s own transformation. He went from plus 400 pounds down to 186 pounds. Plus, he does not have extensions of lose skin all over the place. In fact, he looks as if he never was fat. This is compelling evidence to me and although it may be anecdotal evidence, it is pretty convincing to me and serves as a ray of hope.

I was not financially compensated for this post. I received the book from Hay House for review purposes. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.

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