Today was an ugly duckling day for me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ugly_Duckling 

I felt out of sync and awkward in my will. I felt I didn’t fit in or belong to my work goals.  I couldn’t find the truth of myself in my deeds. No matter what I did, it wasn’t the right thing, my thing, to be doing. I felt all wrong. I felt ugly.

I also felt undeveloped, immature and undisciplined….the duckling. I lacked grace, elegance, and strength.

Where is my neck? My long, graceful, elegant, strong neck?

I’ve never called this inner feeling, this kind of day “an ugly duckling day,”  but that is exactly the right name for this particular experience of self.  Just like the ugly duckling seeing its truth…the swan reflected in the water and welcomed by the other swans, I saw the truth of my day.  My swan self had an ugly duckling flashback. The naming was a delight, a freeing metaphor, on the mark and beautiful, full of compassion, wisdom and humor. 

I am a swan! A swan with ugly duckling flashbacks!  I can live with this, even celebrate it, because it makes sense. 

A flashback is a psychological phenomenon in which an individual has a sudden, usually powerful, re-experiencing of a past experience or elements of a past experience.

Today was not a great day, true. I had wanted to accomplish a lot more. I wanted to feel more directed and strategic.  But the ugly duckling feelings and judgments of self, the loss of my inner swan, was an involuntary flash of the past.  

Now that I have the name that reminds me that I am a swan having a less than perfect day, that I am snowy white, that my neck is one of nature’s most beautiful gifts…that the ugly duckling is no more, I have an imagination of self that gives me wholeness, strength and a smile.

Another bit of ugly duckling wisdom: My ugly duckling day was around my will and doing my work, living my passion, but there are other ugly ducklings. The ugly duckling flashbacks can appear in your thinking (the stupid ugly duckling), your relationships (the unloved or the unloving ugly duckling), your body image ugly duckling (too fat, too old, too whatever)

Does this metaphor resonate with you?  Do you have Ugly Duckling days, or moments? Remember you are a swan! 

Please share your comments here.

Inner work is tough work and hitting the mysterious and labyrinthine trenches of your soul requires guides, tools, support, creativity, humor and perseverance. 

Books, prayers, coaching, counseling, meditation, workshops, good friends...every kind of help is needed and available.  But ultimately, only you can do the work of becoming you. 

Below are the ways I can help you with your 2015 inner work of finding, knowing and becoming yourself… and making sense of it all. 

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Conversations with Me

Is this the year to answer a question, solve a mystery, survive a crisis, take a leap, imagine a future, find self-compassion, balance inner extremes, connect with a spiritual mentor and friend???  Can I support you, coach you, mentor you, celebrate you as you take on this threshold experience consciously and creatively.  I will bring a cosmic and spiritual context for understanding the challenges and realities of your life and make the cosmic and spiritual intimate and practical. 

Why don’t you schedule a complimentary 20 minute conversation here...let’s talk about what you are seeking and how I can help.  

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The Imagine Self Academy

All Imagine Self Academy courses are offered online through recorded presentations and loads of valuable materials. Some include live group conversations and Q & A with me. Everything is downloadable. 

I just want to give you a brief rundown of the major courses available in 2015. I’ve included dates and costs so you can plan and budget.  I will be sending out detailed descriptions for the courses closer to when each one will be opening registration.

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Core Imaginations

the Imagine Self Curriculum for Imagining the

Whole Core Reality of Yourself

Registration opens September 22.

...the most powerful, healing, liberating curriculum in the Imagine Self Academy.  You will want to come back to these courses many times throughout your life.

Core Imaginations is a year long, life long, curriculum that teaches you how to do self-compassionate observation and guides you to a fully alive imagination of yourself in ten core expressions: 

Your Image of Self in each of the Four Realms of Existence:

1. As a Physical Self in Dimensions of Space,

2. As a Living Self in the Flow of Time,

3. As a Conscious Self in the Possibilities of Relativity,

4. As a Divine Self in the Absolute

Your Image of Self in the Three Activities of Consciousness:

5. As a Thinking Self with a desire to know the heights of Truth

6. As a Feeling Self with a desire to seek the expanse of Beauty

7. As a Willing Self with a desire to act in the depths of Goodness

8. Your Image of Self as a Personality shaped by the Four Temperaments

9. Your Image of Self as a Perceiving Being experiencing yourself, the world, and others through the Twelve Senses

10. Your Image of Self as a Processing Being engaging with life  through the Seven Life Processes

 Cost is $477 for lifelong access to the entire curriculum (monthly payments available).

Click here for the description.

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Holy Imaginations & The New Festivals

I have found that the Christian Festivals (including the Marion festivals) offer extraordinary insights for individual inner work. I offer blogposts and courses inspired by the festivals. I approach these with an esoteric, non-religious, universal, 21^st Century understanding, not for belief or tradition, but for a brilliant yearly path for self-development.  The blogposts including the Inner Christmas Messages are a gift (but again, donations are so very welcome.)

The New Festivals courses are for self-study with one or 2 live Conversations with Lynn. Cost is $47 each.

Inner Lent 

5 lessons on facing the mysteries of temptation and overcoming all that challenges the well-being of your soul. The work of Inner Lent can serve your soul at any time of the year. 

Learn more about Inner Lent here.

Inner Advent

begins November 25^th 

4 lessons for recollecting, reviewing and releasing your year...preparing for Christmas and the Holy Nights 

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Wisdom Imaginations

the Imagine Self Curriculum for inner love and inner freedom

Imagining Your Inner Misfit

available now

guides you into a new relationship with the difficult parts of yourself. $27

 click here to register

Imagining Your Inner Mother

beginning late May

We will look at the four great maternal gestures and recognize their presence or absence in our childhood.  We will learn how we can awaken each of these maternal gestures in our own soul for self-mothering. Cost: $47

Imagining An Inner Father

beginning late June

This course brings to our souls the great paternal gestures for self-fathering. Cost: $47

These two courses are excerpts from the Inner Mother Inner Father course.  We need an inner mother and an inner father to meet the needs of our inner child.  ​Both courses together $77

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The Swan's Journey

A Yearlong Program for Women Seeking Outrageous Wholeness as the Turning Point in Their Lives

Registration opens June 1

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Here’s to your inner work and becoming new in 2015!

Blessings & Imaginations,

Lynn