It’s funny; I recently remembered I set the intention to create some fun home videos over two years ago.

It makes me smile to realize yet another forgotten intention came to fruition in its own timing. Mmm…the things I used to stress over I’ve learned to trust and allow. That feels good (now to learn how to apply it to other areas).

P.S. Apparently, YouTube censored my video because of the song I used to show our videos and pictures. Ironically, it was the song “One Love” by Bob Marley…you know, the guy all for love and gratitude, instead of greed. Apparently, the record company didn’t get the memo. I wish I had time to redo it but I don’t – and I’m leaving it up because I can still watch it. But I’ve included our photos of our time below as a lame alternative to an otherwise great video.

I assumed when I cut my dreads I would still have to let them go afterward. I pictured myself spending time reflecting on them as I burned them or buried them. I pictured it being ceremonious and personal and meaningful.

Yup, not so much.

From the moment I turned around from checking out my bald head in the reflection of the truck’s window and saw my pile of dreads laying on the ground, I’ve had no attachment to them.

They felt so distant, like looking at a relic of my past…once a part of me, now just a detail in my story.

Maybe it’s because it wasn’t the dreads that I had so much gratitude for, but the experience of them.

Or maybe once I do take the next step it’s when I feel ready to truly let go of the last.

Or maybe cutting them off cut that tie to the heavy energy they were carrying for me.

I don’t know.

All I know is that my dreads have been wrapped up in one of my favorite white scarves and I’d like my scarf back now!

We spent last week camping with such gorgeous, soulful, conscious friends and I thought maybe it’d be meaningful (and in good company) to release them then, around the fire or in the lake.

So I grabbed a couple and threw them in the water and laughed at the idea of someone’s dog finding them.

Then I grabbed a small handful of my dreadlocks to burn in the fire.

(I thought about burning them all, but wasn’t sure just how much hair smelled when being burned, so I opted against stinking everyone out just yet.)

And there I stood.

Standing under the full moon, twisting five dreads around each other and waiting in front of the heat of the flames, waiting for some sense of ceremony or rush of emotion or depth of experience to come to me.

And it didn’t.

So I smiled and gave my heart a hug for its powerful ability to release without doubt or second-guessing or need for fanfare and I tossed them in and watched them sizzle and burn (and yes, human hair smells badly when burned).

I had 40 dreads to begin with.

Two went to a soul sister, two to the lake and five to the fire. 31 are still occupying one of my favorite scarves and waiting to be sent off.

I’ve been thinking how I’d like to finally release the rest and the fire still calls to me. But maybe this time I’ll go it alone and see if they have any last words of wisdom to whisper to me in the stillness. And maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll just get on with the freedom and laughter I’ve been enjoying instead.

Want to read more about my process from dreadlocks to a shaved head?

All dreadlock posts from start to finish are here.

Part One: My announcement video of my decision to shave my dreads

Part Two: A more in-depth, emotional and raw video on my decision

Part Three: Putting The Process of Shaving Them into Words (and lots of photos)

Part Four: A GORGEOUS Video and words from other women who’ve done the same

It’s all on the topic of finding stillness, the importance of prioritizing our own well-being and the work-life balance of raising a family, owning a business and celebrating the holidays in a way that sustains us.

We’ve made a declaration of our own intentions.

And we are offering you a challenge to join us!

(Don’t have time to watch the whole thing? Skip to 31:30 for details on how to join our Holiday Reset Challenge!)

Links mentioned in the video:

My recent interview on Erin Goodman’s blog
Hannah’s Website

Will you join us? Click over to Hannah’s blog post to let us know!

Are you needing to experience mindfulness this holiday?

Dealing with the “mainstream” when you feel so unconventional, handling the comments or the increased energy or the expectations and obligations…it’s pretty much the epitome of “survival mode” and it pretty much sucks.

If you’re ready for a different experience, I invite you here.

Did you know, up until not long ago, I used to sulk in my hubby’s shoulders and ache?

I ached for a connection I never had, but had seen glimpses of.

I ached for that deep and unmistakeable connection you feel with another woman, a girlfriend, a best friend.

I haven’t had a friend like that since I was 18 or so.

I had my sister and we were thisclose, and it was strong. But as I shifted and changed, so did our relationship for many years.

And I ached.

I mean ached…literal heart-aching for a woman I could call and cry with and laugh with and grow with.

My mama had that.

Her bosom buddy, Melodie, was also like our godmother. She was confident and hilarious and warm and authentic.

And I watched them, my mom and Mel, as they sewed together and laughed together and raised children together and held each other as they cried together.

And I watched my mom’s heart break and her world dull as her female soul mate slowly slipped away to cancer 12 years ago.

And I wanted that.

I wanted that friendship that lit up my whole being, a friendship with a kind of woman who could call me on my shit, then cry with me at the thought of losing each other.

The kind of friendship that hasn’t been replicated in 12 years.

Those deep relationships cannot be duplicated.

They may even only come once in our lifetime, if we’re lucky to find them at all.

And I knew this.

I saw the magic that was created between these two women. I felt it every time we had pizza and movie nights and they would be off talking together. They had something powerful in their lives – each other and this thing that got created between them.

I knew what was possible.

And the bar was set high in seeing their friendship.

And so I ached.

Truth from Rumi

If I’ve learned one powerful thing about myself, it’s this:

Anytime I find myself longing for something, wanting to create change or experience something new, I never get to start with things outside myself.

I get to go within.

And so I sat with the ache.

I breathed into it and asked for guidance through it.

And I heard this…

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. – Rumi

Those were the words that went ringing through my heart.

Seek and find within myself my own barriers.

So I said okay…and I began to slowly dig deeper and deeper into those places.

And I found them.

They were places built on fear, on hurt, on mistrust.

They were barriers of value and authenticity and self-worth.

And they were holding me back.

And that’s when everything changed…

Looking back I can’t even pinpoint where I began to heal those fears and beliefs.

But I do know that I began to open myself to the possibilities.

Oh, those sweet and beautiful possibilities.

It’s always been my experience that when you open yourself to them, they open themselves to you…they come rushing in to envelope you.

And at the same time it feels subtle as it happens.

So subtle that it wasn’t until just now that I took a step back and realized just how full my life is with that feminine connection I so longed for.

My life, my cup, is bursting with amazing women that I get to call my girlfriends.

Women who rock my world with their authenticity and strength.

Women who amaze me with the transformation they are taking on in their life.

Women who blow my mind with clarity and intuition and compassion.

Women who will hold space for me as I scream or cry or vent or profess my weaknesses or threaten to give up.

Women who allow me to hold space for them as they do they same.

Women who light up their world and share in the wonder as I light up mine.

♥ My sister and I, having been close and distant and back again, are so completely moving back again, but with a new ability to light each other up, to stay authentic and true and independent in our own light and the shared light we have the ability to create together. We can see each other more deeply now than ever before and it’s breathtaking from here.

♥ Last weekend we crossed paths with a beautiful family on the road and later after they moved on, this beautiful mama bear and I stayed up late one night on the phone, talking for almost three hours, then both went to bed and continued the conversation in our sleep – two states away by then but so completely attuned to one another that I still feel her heart.

♥ The very next day I finally reconnected on the phone with one of my closest girlfriends from Vegas as we talked love and business and life together as if we were sitting across from each other at her kitchen table again as our boys played upstairs – but this time across the country and walking our respective neighborhoods as we chatted into our headsets as if it hadn’t been (or maybe just felt like) months since we had coordinating time to connect.

♥ Yesterday afternoon I connected with my Soul Sisters, a small group of women I’m honored to be a part of, as we talked about our passions and our purpose and that magnetic draw toward something So Big in our lives, and then talked each other through our obstacles and fears until we were all tingly with excitement and energy and love for one another and for our next steps.

♥ Then to get on the Tribe call last night and speak about Who We Are, to share openly with one another, and feel that safe space surrounding us, knowing that we are creating a one-of-a-kind experience that can so totally rock our worlds.

♥ And then to connect on Facebook with a powerful mama who is rocking something powerful in her life, her business, her heart and the hearts of others and hear her thank me for our connecting several weeks ago, for a conversation in which we opened our hearts to one another and supported each other, that so inspired her to do some big and incredible things in her world.

♥ Receiving another email from a dear sweet friend who could lean into me as I sent her the love and peace she was needing.

And the culmination just hit me.

Here I was aching for this idea of what it would take to fill my cup…a beautiful idea, but of what my mom had.

And I wasn’t even aware of the possibilities.

An idea of what *I* could have, if I just reached within and then reached out.

The ability to connect so deeply, so completely to women across the country, or even across the ocean.

To feel as though we are sitting side by side and wrapping our arms around each other.

The ability to receive such love and support and friendship from so many women, from so many walks of life, with so many unique voices and perspectives, all of whom affect me spiritually and emotionally and intellectually in the most profound ways.

There I was, thinking it had to look a certain way, that I couldn’t possibly find that closeness while we were traveling, always on the move, feeling as though maybe I just wasn’t one of those lucky enough to have it in my life at all. And sitting in the pain such beliefs triggered.

There I was aching in loneliness without that friendship I so longed for…

Instead of seeking and healing the barriers within myself that kept me from experiencing the outpouring of it everywhere.

All around me.

All the time.

I am so deeply in gratitude for all the beautiful woman in my life…the incredible ones I coach with, the beautiful ones who inspire me on Facebook, and the special ones who hold my hair back while I emotionally vomit, then take their turn.

My cup, my heart is so full, it’s overflowing.

Aching again, this time with the love and connection with which it’s been stuffed to the brim.

Jo Anna, from The Receiving Project, is organizing an awesome fundraiser for the L.A. Food Bank: The Service Project!

You can donate and be entered to win one of SO MANY prizes, including one of several free copies of Digging Deep!

Hop over, check it out and share, share, share it with others!

I had made it quickly because it started pouring out of me and my audio and video wouldn’t sync.

But that’s not why I almost didn’t share it.

I almost didn’t share it because my entire life I’ve been shamed for my body type, taught to feel less than other women or self-conscious or care too deeply about what others thought of my body.

Taught to be wary of going to the bathroom too soon after I ate because someone would derisively accuse me of being bulemic.

Taught to wear nothing above the knees out of fear that someone would comment on my thin legs.

So after this video came pouring out of me, I began to waver.

“Maybe I shouldn’t.”

“Maybe I’ll offend someone.”

“Who am I to talk about body image?”

It took a sweet woman speaking up a couple days ago on this very issue that reminded me that I’m accepting that Body Shame we’ve all been taught.

And you know what I say to shame?

Fuck that.

So here it is: My Truth on “real women” and the lives we are taught to believe and that we continue to live out, even when we think we’re not.

Or view it on YouTube.

Here’s to real women everywhere:

The ones who love with all their heart…

And look shame and fear in the face and give it the finger.

Who look in the mirror and stand in awe of the beauty that shines within them…

And takes that light into the world and lights up the darkness.

The women who sees beauty in all women, even the ones who are lost or in pain or are blind to beauty themselves.

The women hold hands not grudges.

Who can lift up another without feeling put down.

Who share Wisdom and Truth, instead of rumors and lies.

The women who can be vulnerable and strong at the same time.

And who fiercely protect that vulnerable strength in others.

We are all real women.

Regardless of size or shape or color or background or beliefs…

Regardless of whether we’re in touch with our own inner Self or not.

Regardless of whether we’re in our own power or in our own pain.

We’re all real women making our way through the same messy world, doing the best we can with the tools we have, learning and growing.

And when we see that, when we step into our own strength, and we empower others to step into theirs…

That’s when the world will change.

I was going to write about it, but I decided to do a video instead. And even it doesn’t accurately portray how much love and gratitude I’m swimming in right now.

Introducing :: Wild Zen!

Namaste, Sisters (and Brothers)! And greetings from nomads land!

I am on a path of embodying and dancing my personal life philosophy, hence my soulful name, wild zen.

Like wild, I fully embrace the nature model, the divine feminine, the bold and the raw, and joyfully experiencing the flow in life (even white water rapids and tsunamis, when their time or place comes). Like zen, I am calm and stillness, alignment, clarity, and spiritual living.

I am a single mama to 3 soul-delicious children and 2 fabulous felines, and my world kinda revolves around our life together.

I am passionate about birth and parenting and self and learning and minimalism and tribeness and BEing on the road and starting a legacy of permaculture for my children and our generations to come. I love run-on sentences when I want to jam-pack so much deliciousness into one breath, and I love being vulnerable and real with the messages that come pouring (or bursting) out of me. Hmmmm, a few more words to describe me: artful, intuitive, self-guided, intentional, creative, inspired, authentic, changing…

In another life, I got my bachelor’s degree in psychology (emphasis on constructivist psychology), with a minor in womens studies, and struggled between pursuing a masters program in transpersonal psychology, spiritual psychology, and a community-based counseling program that was run so consensually it healed my soul.

I started the latter, but then I had my son and couldn’t imagine leaving him, so I decided to be a home maker for a while, and my energies shifted to radically impacting the world through my parenting and being the change I wished to see.

I founded and co-grew an amazing “alternative living” group for 3 years on a mainstream mom’s site, which is where most of my current transformation stemmed from and where I learned about tribeness and deep sisterhood and mama-oneness, and information on consensual living and unschooling and all things sustainable and homesteady, and so much more.

Everything in that last sentence is why I am wildly excited about my new role with Tara and on The Organic Sisterhood, and connecting with so many of you via other ways.

I just feel like my whole life has been perfect preparation for joining in with Tara’s message of Digging Deep into organic living and respectful parenting and authentic relationships with self and others.

I have focused my entire professional and personal life on these very things, and I’m doing the happy dance about being a part of this amazing journey that Tara is on with all of you! I look forward to getting to know you, to being a part of your journey, to growing my own personal tribe to include many of you who this will resonate for. And I look forward to enabling Tara to start producing more soul-nourishment for all of us, since I will be taking a load off — lol. No pressure, Tara

Can you guys see why I’m so excited?? A nomad, a mindful mama, and a background in the human soul and personal growth. I love when I listen to my own Organic Wisdom and am lead to the perfectly similar and perfectly diverse answer to my prayers. I love being reminded that I can lean into Trust.

And I am so in love with this wild woman. ♥

Last month was the first month with the Organic Tribe and I am soooo in love with this group of women and the program.

In case, you’re not sure exactly what The Organic Tribe is…

The Organic Tribe is a way for women to get connected and get coached in an ongoing, affordable, fun, and interactive way.

Working with a group of women adds a special dynamic to the calls. Questions get asked and answered that might have been missed in one-on-one calls. Ideas and inspiration are shared.

And oh, the love!

You women are truly amazing, and able to hold such a tender and compassionate space for every person who shares their story, their struggle or their triumph.

Beautiful stuff indeed. ♥

Are you a part of the Tribe?

It’s not just for mamas, not just for non-mamas: My goal with the Tribe is to get a diverse group of women, a diverse group of guest speakers and a wide variety of topics, everything from family to passions to personal growth (and really, it’s all about personal growth).

There is no long-term commitment: You can subscribe and unsubscribe at any time, joining only the months that speak to you. Or you can join each and every call and grow your own Organic Wisdom with the ideas and topics shared.

AND right now every Tribe member gets lifetime access to The Organic Sisterhood!

Seriously, I can’t think of a better way for you to get the support and inspiration you’re wanting and needing at a better price. ♥

What Tribe Members Are Saying

There is this huge current in our society going in a different direction, and I know in my heart that I don’t want to go that way. Having a supportive community makes me feel excited (instead of daunted) by those intuitions and beliefs. Thank you!

The Organic Tribe is so important! And the calls have been amazing. I am left with so many ideas, new perspectives, and confirmation of some of the things I just know to be true deep down.

Tatiana

Thank you so much for last night! I don’t know what I was expecting but it was so much more!

I have pages of doodles and arrows and notes and my own thoughts scribbled beside. It’s so amazing to have other people who are experiencing what I am, to share, to hear other opinions. It was so much fun. My mind has been swirling with so many thoughts. Making time to “dig deep” this weekend!

Samantha

Wow! It was so jam packed full of goodness!

I really need this in my life. I think we all do, because we can be so hard on ourselves.

The nurturing factor was extremely good. That is a vibe you can’t mute! The call was marvelous. I was aware of such a sense of love & affirmation with everyone, as I’m sure you were. Love safe places!

Rachel

September’s Organic Tribe Topics

Are you ready to give it a try?

Click here or the banner below to get all the details!

P.S. Stay tuned to a new site design AND several new freebies from me!

What is The Organic Sisterhood?

It’s a community, a counsel, a circle, a Sisterhood.

The Organic Sisterhood is a place for support and encouragement as you move toward your authentic, organic life. A place to ask questions, to find new ideas, to make create big shifts in our life. It’s a place to share your triumphs, your secrets, your dreams, your own Organic Wisdom and your gifts within a safe and sacred space.

There is a creative and healing power in the feminine connection.

There is strength and wisdom found within ourselves and each other. And it’s time we begin to use that power, that strength and wisdom, to create something amazing in our lives.

This is a movement. A movement to come back to the knowledge of Who We Are…as women, as mothers, as partners, as people.

A movement to create a home in which our children never lose that knowledge.

A movement to live a life that rumbles with joy and radiates light and changes the lives around us.

The Organic Sisterhood is our online gathering place.

It’s that safe and sacred place we all search for, a place where we can be seen deeply and heard fully and loved unconditionally while being encouraged and ignited to reach for more and never accept less.

It’s for every like-minded sister who is tired of the conventional bullshit, who is ready to heal the pain and let go the lies she’s been believing, who is ready to step into her own self and to something that lights her up from the inside out and who is ready to experience the magic that Life provides when we say yes to its offer for something deeper.

Already this community is growing and connecting. It’s diverse and warm and magically for me to see so many different women from so many different walks of life going together under the same principles of Being Organic, in their lives, their families, their passions, themselves.

Everyone is somewhere different in their life. And each one has something beautiful to offer the organic whole.

I can’t help but read and sit in awe of what I’m seeing just barely beginning to unfold. I can see the glimpses of the Bigger Picture and the magic sparking from the pages and my heart is overflowing with the vision that I see.

How do I gain access?

Right now the Sisterhood is only open for women who have taken their own step toward Being Organic, either through coaching with me this year, joining the Tribe coaching program or by purchasing Digging Deep.

(You’ll also be able to join through any of the upcoming products and programs I have coming your way.)

If you feel that pull in your bones, or the Voice whispering to you that this is the space for you too, and you are ready to join this Sisterhood of women, you’re first step is to make a commitment to your own growth and healing through one of those offers above.

And if you have taken part of any of those programs and didn’t receive your Sisterhood invitation please send me an email: be@theorganicsister.com

Because it matters.

The Organic Tribe kicked off on Thursday, August 18th, and I hope you’ll join me and the other beautiful women who are already signed up.

I’m hoping to get the Sisterhood up and running very soon, as well, so you will have the space you need to give and receive support.

To learn more about the Tribe and the Sisterhood, click here or the banner below.