VINTAGE GYPSIES COLORING BOOK (For Grown-ups)

It’s finally here – the second volume from the Come Color with Me Series:VINTAGE GYPSIES Coloring Book (for Grown-ups)

And here’s a sneak preview of a few of my favorite images inside – can’t you feel the freedom and adventure that your Wild Heart yearns for?

Where Have You Left our Heart?

A Party Full of Gypsy Spirits

I Can Smell the Suntan lotion ~ and I Think I Hear the Blender Whirling!

And this is what can happen when you add your own burst of color:

Can you hear your Wild Heart singing yet?

Brought to you by a Moment of Gypsy Heaven....

YOU HAVE WINGS...USE THEM

Don’t fall prey to good enough in your life. If your thoughts and behaviors do not make your heart soar, then they are not good enough to keep. Life is precious and so are you – let go of what isn’t working for you. You have wings – use them.

EXPECTATIONS - FRIEND OR FOE?

Dear Adventurous Hearts,

I’m at the end of a major project (Yes, my new coloring book is just days from being available!!!). And as happens soooo often, I am in a period of adjustment – a lull of sorts: The calm before the storm. Quite frankly the first week, I didn’t know what to do with myself. Now I’m in a period of deep reflection….What to do next? Where to begin? What to continue to invite into my life – what to consciously let go?

It's a period of unrest - not unhappiness, per se, but just a period where I look around and see how my life is arranged. Am I still going in the right direction? I find myself evaluating everything....and then there's that fuzzy area of what is not good enough to keep, yet not bad enough to throw away. 

The concept of “Expectations” had been with me on my mental journey this last week. I find that they can be a killer of creativity and joy.

I decided to try and figure this out more deeply and I came up with this activity. I’ve created it specifically for EXPECTATIONS, but now that I’m done, I realize that I can use this for many, many things in my belief system that just might need some adjusting. So I created an activity that helped me shed some light on my thoughts and beliefs...hmmm, now that's always an interesting adventure, right?

For the complete step-by-step activity (mine as well as worksheets for you to do your own) go to zanpackard.com

Happy Journaling - it's always and adventure into to Journey Within

JOURNALING PROMPT: FALL

Fall is the season that I wait for, I live for, I love for. This is my time of year . . .  and I’ll tell you why: fall brings with it my favorite feelings – excitement, anticipation, energy, comfort, letting-go, and just plain joy.

It doesn't matter much why I feel this way about Fall or why I feel differently about other seasons. To me what matters most is that I know ahead of time when my optimum time of year is (and conversely when my most challenging time of year is). Armed with this information I can plan accordingly.

Last year, I forgot, and planned the final stages of my first coloring book during a time of year when I am my most vulnerable. Silly me, what a struggle that turned out to me. I still got my work done – albeit a week late -  but I was a basket case every single step of the way. NEVER AGAIN. This year my next book is scheduled to print by November 1^st and joy of all joys, it came in 1 week ahead of schedule….and even more importantly, I really enjoyed the process.

If you are not aware of the natural rhythms of your inner workings, I would suggest that you begin to keep a calendar of general feelings. Begin now, using a simple month-at-a-glance calendar and write a ONE WORD feeling on each day – at the end of the year you will have a fairly graphic representation of your rhythms.

We all have natural ebbs and flows of our energy and emotions – knowing when they are is the first step to setting yourself up for success - the first step of taking control of your life.

For me, I know I can pack a lot into the Fall season. My energy and emotions can handle the most at this time of year. And that is exactly what I’m planning to do this year – my next book is due to be in print by November 1^st and I’m heading out on adventure…

“Start spreading the news, I’m leaving today (not), I want to be a part of it, New York, New York…”

New York and Pennsylvania are on my itinerary this year….I’m planning and preparing for a glorious time – cuz it’s my time of year.

I'm Feeling the Urge to List

Dear Wild Hearts,

Every year about this time I begin to plot out the remaining months with to-do lists, and this year will be no different, but I also feel the urge to begin to think of how I want next year to unfold.

I am happiest when I am working toward a goal, which I admit makes living in the ‘now’ a challenge…but not undoable. I have discovered little ways to take a Here-and-Now Break in each and every day. (Theoretically . . . I’m still working on that when I am on deadline).

Lately, my Here-and-Now Breaks are more about taking a moment and offering up gratitude for the abundance that is currently in my life. I do this because it’s so easy to lose sight of what you have while your focus is on where you’re going….but I’m learning more and more about the unique ways that my mind works with these issues.

But back to my lists….

I begin this morning with a focus of how I want to feel in 2013. I start with feelings rather than actions because that way I am not locked into any one particular way to accomplish it.

Happy - Sounds like a no-brainer, but I need constant reminding. You see I am happy most of the time, I just forget to acknowledge it, so I don’t feel it as much as I’d like to.

Emotional freedom - Which most of the time plays out as not letting fear define me: a ‘Let Go, Let God’ process.

Creative

Adventurous

Loving

Thoughtful - I could do so, so much better at this – and I will place this forefront just to get in the practice of it.

Flexible - I put this one on my list with a bit of trepidation….be careful what you wish for because the Universe will find a way to give it to you…and how do you practice being flexible except with opportunities that call for flexibility – oh my.

So for now,  this is a good place to start….in a few days I will make a few other lists – maybe a things I’ve always want to try….Oooh, that could be very fun, because you know what happens when you put something down in writing don’t you? It usually finds a way to happen. (fist pump ‘Yessss’).

My Biennial Journeys

It seems my personal growth has been chunked into 2 year blocks of focus…when I became so stuck that I couldn’t move, I spent two years focusing on freedom and adventure. Which led to wanting more adventure, but my fears were my limiting factors – again, two years changing my relationship with fear so that I can keep moving forward in my life. Then I had this tiny spark of creativity that I’ve spent a year nurturing and blossoming into some sort of reality and along with that has come a sense of joy and wildness. Oh to feel wild and alive!!

During a recent blog consultation to help me define or redefine the direction I am going, the conversation went something like this: “Yeah-but (me) I don’t adventure every day, I don’t Airstream everyday, I don’t sew every day I don’t even create art everyday…I’m very eclectic in my work”. Then I realized that there was a constant in my life…the one thing that I do every day is JOURNAL.

Sometimes it’s creative/artistisc journaling, sometimes it’s pages filled with rambling words, often it’s a combination of both, but it is how I begin my days. I might forget how integral journaling is to me – I might forget its power and usefulness in my personal growth…..but I never forget to journal.

I wake up 2 hours earlier than the world just to have that delicious time to myself and listen to the song in my heart. I switch up my techniques often, so it never gets dull. I get flashes of clarity so I know things are sorting themselves out quite nicely. I have learned to listen and trust my intuition.

But words, while they are my treasures, don’t often capture what is in my soul. I have discovered that some sort of visual journaling can sort things out in my subconscious even better. Draw first, listen second, and understand last.

There is nothing like the feeling of reaching way down into your soul and rummaging around to bring something out into the light. Luckily I am wise enough to focus only on what pleases me (versus what might please you enough to purchase it)…Even more luckily, you have shown me time and time again through emails, comments and your check book that journaling and creativity are the most important to you as well.

All of this is my way of saying that this blog will remain eclectic and you will never know what you’ll find here. But at this time, creative journaling is my focus and passion and I am reveling in letting my wild heart have a turn….

A Bit Out of Focus, But Getting Clearer Every Day

I am continually in a state of change….It is exhilarating and exhausting at the same time, but I am learning to manage my energy better and just sit back and Love the Adventure.

I am feeling a pull into a new consciousness – but I can’t seem to bring it into focus yet. Like having the words on the tip of your tongue, but instead it’s having a thought on the edge of your awareness.

Here’s what is floating around inside my head:

Animals – Art – Love – Freedom – and the quote ‘Sometimes things fall apart so that new things can come together’…..

Here’s what I know today:

The more I am around nature, the bigger my heart expands and my compassion grows. I love that feeling. Yesterday I drew the two young bucks that visited me a few weeks back, and I have a fox that has been in my thoughts as well – while this is all fine, these thoughts don’t feel like a path – they just feel like the place to begin a new awareness….

You just know I drew these two in front of an Airstream, right?

Here’s how I am coping with not knowing:

Stay in the now

Let my heart expand with love ( it does quite often I realize)

Trust that I don’t need to know

Keep doing what I love

Celebrate new awareness – even if it’s fuzzy.

I have one more celebration:

My Etsy Store Loving the Adventure with Zan Packard has been open for 30 days and I've have so many positive remarks from shoppers - I've had 285 views, 19 favorites (hands down the  favorite is 

The Mindful Journey - Color - Create - Journal ) 

My grown-up coloring book is creating much interest on the web (yay!)

....it is a wonderful beginning. I am thrilled to be part of this wonderful site and know that we will have a fabulous time together - more and more ideas to create are always just  a thought away.....