Cutting My Dreadlocks, Contagious Clippers – And a Video!

Jan 3rd, 2012

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The always gorgeous, always talented Tiffani Bearup sent me over the first of two videos of our Head Shaving weekend.

I love you, Tiffani. You helped me commemorate one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Thank you for your talent, your heart and soul and all the tiny things you offered me in one brilliant weekend. ♥

It’s Contagious, I Tell Ya

There is something about it that is contagious. Check it out:

From Wild Zen:

It was perfect, a part of the deep cleansing I was doing, a way to take what was inside and wear it outside, a symbol of new transformation in my life. I thought it was going to be a lesson in embracing my ugly – I wasn’t expecting to feel so radiant and sexy! I have bounds of clarity, especially in what is “other people’s stuff” and what’s mine (like how some people can see my beauty, some feel shaving my head is weird, and some people were way more attached to my curls than even I was). Sometimes I feel like a monk ripe with readiness for enlightenment, and sometimes I feel like a gypsy goddess extraordinaire. One thing is for sure, this is the mark of a new beginning for me. I feel reborn. I have been making some serious space in my life over the past few months, and I look forward to growing with my hair and appreciating it all in new ways. My curls are not what make me beautiful – I am

From Alicia Thiede of Milagro Girl:

Within hours of coming home from that meeting I shaved my hair, all of it. And it felt very liberating. It felt like I had finally dealt with this thing that I was called to do and had resisted. It felt like completing this task that had been waiting and calling to me.

That was five days ago. It still catches me off guard when I see my reflection and I’m reminded that that’s really me staring back. There is no hiding anymore, there is no cowering behind the fringe on top. I am all out there.

Since then at least 8 other women (and kids!) have joined the ranks of buzzed, including Zeb who didn’t shave it completely bald but came pretty darn close AND Tiffani who shaved her head right after finishing with my photos!

I’m thinking of starting a club…maybe a “No Hair for Women Club” or a “Hair Liberation Club” or a “You Only Live Once, Better Rock It While You Can Club”.

Okay, maybe not a club, but at least a collection of stories.

I would LOVE to hear YOUR experience with shaving your head. Your photos. Your videos. Your blog posts.

WHY did you feel drawn to it? WHAT was the experience like? HOW did it affect you as a woman?

Share your experiences in the comments below!

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

And lastly: Burning My Dreadlocks: The Final Goodbye

Posted in: Celebrations, Organic Wisdom.
Tagged: Dreadlocks · links · organic beauty · shaving my head · video

How to Create a New Year’s Time Capsule with Your Family

Dec 31st, 2011

by TheOrganicSister.

3 comments

We learned how to create a New Year’s time capsule a couple years ago and really loved it. It can be a fun New Year’s idea for the kids (eve or day), and as simple or elaborate as you’d all like it to be. It can also be done alone or for someone else or together as a family project.

The most important part of this project is to connect to your intention for it – not your expectation of it.

I say that because it may be a project that you love, but your kids aren’t interested in it. If you’re expectation is to all sit around drinking sparkling cider and merrily creating a time capsule and they would rather not, you’re not going to enjoy this at all.

But if your intention is to capture memories for yourself (and maybe for them later), then you will be able to recognize that you can capture those memories in a dozen ways that feel good to everyone (even if that means they head off to play or watch movies and you work merrily toward your intention).

Some intentions to consider:

Connection – If the whole family is interested, keep connection – not the idea of how connection “should” look – at the forefront of your mind.
Fun – Pretty self-explanatory. If you’re not having fun, shift.
Capturing Memories – Slowing down, creating mindfulness around our experiences, around where we’ve been and where we’d like to go, spending time with the experiences that have fed us or taught us.
Creating Memories and Traditions – Just creating these New Year’s time capsules will create memories and traditions that you and your family have the opportunity to look back on. Sorta wraps all four of these intentions into one.

The second most important part is to decide when you’d like to open these New Year’s time capsules. Since I don’t know the actual term for it, I’m going to refer to this as the “opening date”.

You can do so the following New Year, 5 years from now or depending on your kids’ ages, you can create a shoebox full of annual time capsules to give to them as adults.

If your kids would like to participate in this, let them decide…and let them change their mind if they’d like to! Remember: Intention, not expectation!

Photo Source

What You’ll Need For Your New Year’s Time Capsules

Like I said, there are many ways to do this, so I’m going to offer you a few ideas to get the juices flowing. You can do one or all or some combination of these ideas to create your own family time capsule. (I hope you’ll share your ideas in the comments below!)

A Letter to Your Child/ren – You can write a letter to your children, elaborating on their past year: their favorite things, their best friends and what they’ve done. Add a recent photo (or photos) of them to the envelope, seal it, label it with the child’s name, date it and write down it’s “opening date”. This is probably the simplest (although possibly most time consuming, depending on how it’s done).
A Letter From Your Child/ren – If your kids would like to be involved, I do NOT recommend asking them to write an entire letter. That’s a lot of pressure for most kids (although some will love it!). I’d recommend printing out something like a questionnaire that they can answer, and leaving plenty of space to write or color pictures. Some questions to get you started:

What was your favorite part of the year?
What was your least favorite part?
Other favorites: toy/game, movie, clothing, color, activity, food, etc.
Who was your best friend this year?
The question can obviously vary based on the child’s age. For older kids who are interested, you may look up writing prompts to get some really juicy answers for them to read later!
You might also add some basic info to these, such as gas prices, political leaders, major events, etc.

A Fortune Teller Letter – This one is a lot of fun for kids. Ask questions that allow your children to play Fortune Teller with their answers, essentially trying to “predict” the upcoming year. (These are good ones to read at the end of the next year to see who was closest. Think of questions such as:

How much do you think gas will cost at the end of next year, five years, ten years?
Who do you predict will win the next election(s) and why?
What one amazing world event do you expect in the coming year(s)?
What one amazing thing do YOU expect to do in the coming year(s)?
What’s going to change about [you/me/someone or something else]
What do you think you’ll be doing in [choose a month or year]?
What would you LIKE to be doing in [choose a month or year]?
You can also add questions about one another or other people you know, predicting what they might do later in life, who they might marry, where they’ll live, etc (um, might wanna keep it positive – don’t want to open something hurtful in the future).

A Photo Time Capsule – These are really fun. Take film photos of everyone (no digitals, since you’ll have copies of those and they won’t feel all time-capsuley that way, unless you’ll print them out and delete or hide the digital copies). Look at them one time, then place them in the time capsule. You can take photos of everyone doing something they love or showing off their favorite things. You can take good-natured funny photos (as long as you think everyone will find them funny). You can even create a video to burn to DVD and lock it away.

Saving Your Time Capsule

After you’ve decided WHAT you want to create, and WHEN you want to reopen your time capsule, your next step is to find a secure place in which to put everything.

Some ideas: If you’re doing letters to be open the next year, you can label them and place them on your desk. If you’re doing something bigger or longer-term, consider a small safe to hold your New Years time capsule in (without worry of water or fire damage). You might even want to use a safe deposit box, or a canister of some kind (like a metal coffee canister) to bury them.

You can even do a virtual time capsule with letters and photos, saving everything online (they even offer “virtual time capsule” services). And let the kids go wild with decorating or creating a really artful was to encapsulate the project if they want to!

Just remember to think long-term!

You don’t want to forget about it (setting a reminder on your online calendar is a good idea) and you don’t want to leave it or bury it somewhere that you might not have access to later (or where someone else might find it).

But then that goes back to intention.

If the time capsule is lost or forgotten, your intention of connection, creating and capturing memories, and having fun (rather than your expectation of how that intention would look) can still be honored and enjoyed.

This year I intend to write a letter to Zeb and will continue writing these letters to give to him as an adult. We may also do a time capsule together, but 12 year old boys tend to be rather unenthusiastic about these kind of things (or maybe that’s just my 12 year old boy ).

What ideas can you add to this list?

Posted in: Celebrations, Creating, Organic Parenting.
Tagged: art · new years · projects · time capsule

Part Three: On the Experience of Shaving My Head and Being Free (Before, During and After Photos!)

Dec 28th, 2011

by TheOrganicSister.

82 comments

I’ve sat here looking at a blank screen grasping at inadequate words to describe the shaving of my head for way too long.

Incredible? Weak.

Empowering? Still weak.

Enlightening? Closer.

Let me start by backing up a little to the beginning of my weekend. We’ll see where it goes from there.

Tiffani, my badass freeplaylife photographer, arrived in Orlando on Friday evening.

Now let me just say something about Tiffani.

She’s flipping amazing. Colorful. Playful. Daring. Vibrant. Envelope-pushing.

But she also has this deeply sensitive side that you only get to see in her photos or videos or in long conversations about Life.

So I knew she was the perfect person to help me commemorate this powerful step. Because she totally “got it”. ♥

We had an amazing weekend that I know I’ll be talking more about later.

But the photos!

Oh wow, the photos.

We started with the before photos (for obvious reasons) and let me just say, one amazing photographer can make you fall in love with yourself.

She captured so much more than either of us felt was possible to convey without being there.

Because, oh being there was amazing!

We laughed, drank wine, ate and talked, shared epiphanies and dreams and laughed some more. I love that woman so much. Yes, I’ll definitely be writing more about that soon.

But back to the experience…

Capturing the “Before”

I wanted to capture it. My dreads. What they meant. I wasn’t sure if it would be possible but if anyone could do it, I knew it would be Tiffani.

And she did.

And I love them, each and every one of the “Before” shots. They so perfectly capture the depth and love I’ve had for my dreads. They leave me breathless. Speechless. In awe and honor of my own spiritual path, of where I’ve been and Who I Am because of them.

I’ll let my favorites do the talking…

I looked at them on her camera between Day One of photos and Day Two. And I had an ache. I saw the beauty and the story Tiffani had caught for me. And for the span of one deep breath, I loved them so much I couldn’t fathom letting them go.

But then that breath passed and I felt my whole body, my whole spirit say “Trust”. Mmm, yes I can do trust.

The During and After Experience

As much as the before photos LOOK amazing, it was (and is) the during and after process of shaving off my dreads that FEEL amazing.

And that feeling of “amazing” was something that the camera couldn’t capture.

The way it FELT to have my husband there, the man who spent 14 loving hours putting my dreadlocks in, handing me the empowerment, the strength to take this next step – on my own this time.

The way it FELT to acknowledge my fear as it turned my hands cold and made my heart pound and asked me to pause, to breath, to give it a just a moment to be heard so that it could willingly let go.

The way it FELT to call forward the faces of the beautiful women, my many sisters, who had emailed or texted or messaged me their love, to feel them circling around me.

And then the way it FELT to remove my dreads, one-by-one, to feel the world shift beneath me, while also shifting me forward, the rushing in of exhilaration, and of an emotion I still do not have a name for.

I’ve said it so many times but it bears repeating again: It was as if my dreads had, over the last 43 months (to the day, I just realized), systematically entangled all the energy of my past, the fears and challenges and limitations and all those things that were not serving me.

And towards the end of my three and a half year journey with dreadlocks, it was “heavy” with the past and the stories that were ready to be let go.

And so, with all the yuck carefully secured in my dreads, I began to snip it all away.

The past that didn’t belong in my present, the heaviness…

The weight of the world fell off my shoulders.

One at a time. Landing on the ground. With only a few feet between us but feeling as though it was the length of the world now separating me from it.

Distant. Done.

Old and gone and unattached.

And then the way it FELT to see “the past” lying on the ground, to hold it in my hands, to feel as though it was ancient history, detached from me – something to honor and smile upon, but not something to ache for or regret or miss.

(To miss them would’ve felt awkward, like going backward, like losing wisdom, slipping into clothes that had once been comfortable but that I had outgrown. It would’ve felt silly trying to wear the things of my past, like a grown women trying on her favorite childhood shirt. It was and is and always will be beloved, but it’s not comfortable anymore.)

I felt LIGHT…not weight-light, but energy-light.

I text my mom an After photo and she said it perfectly in just a few words:

You look beautiful. And FREE!!!

Free.

Yes, that’s what this feeling is.

It’s the feeling of being free. Open. Unencumbered. Spiritually showered.

A lot of people (my dad included) don’t get it. How was I not free before?

But I AM FREE now. I recognize the difference, in the way only a previously and ignorantly unfree person could recognize. I’m suddenly free of the past. I’m free of the expectations I’ve accepted in my life (from myself and others). I’m free of the facade, the props I would use to convey Who I Am.

I’m free of the NEED to convey Who I Am.

I am free.

I never expected to feel as free and as feminine and as sexy in my own skin as I do right now with no hair. I’m walking on clouds, in love with my raw self. Feeling as though I’ve settled into Who I am, dropping into my own essence, JUST my essence. Nothing trailing along behind me.

Calm and simple and joyful authenticity.

I can’t stop rubbing my head or reveling in that menthol-cool feeling of the air across my scalp or the warmth of the sun or swimming in the pool, holding my breath beneath the water, feeling the sensations moving around me, no more worry about “getting my hair wet”, nothing taking me out of the moment, out of the experience it.

Present-moment awareness. How does having no hair offer me that?

I don’t know but there it is.

The whole experience. Commemorating my dreadlocks. Preparing to send them off with love. Those two minutes of fear, where my hands went cold and shaky and I wasn’t sure I had the courage to take my next step forward.

Then the instantaneous and immense feeling of YesYesYes! as I snipped the first dread and it fell to the ground, the feeling that propelled me forward like a mad-woman, feeling the heaviness lift from my spirit, feeling the open space begin to fill with excitement and LIGHTness as each knot of hair was shed.

The JOY and smiles and that sense that my whole body was laughing that suddenly came rushing in, not from my mouth or my face or my words (I was pretty much beyond words), but from my belly, from my core. Bubbling up and spilling out of my eyes, my pores, my fingertips, the top of my head.

The way I suddenly felt lit up, nothing getting in the way of SHINING. Radiating. Reveling.

To feel so deeply connected to Who I Am, to the people in my life, to Spirit and Life itself…

It has been one of the most deeply spiritual (yet insanely, hysterically, joyful and downright silly) experiences of my thirty years.

It’s sounds silly to many.

I even have to laugh at how silly it sounds to me.

It’s just hair after at all.

But it’s not about the hair.

It’s about the experience of my hair. MY experience.

It’s about what this small, seemingly meaningless experience (in the grand scheme of life) had to offer me.

And it’s about me accepting that offer.

It’s about being open to a grandiose, breathtaking and awe-inspiring overture in what looks inconsequential, impermanent, and trivial.

This is life.

Mundane. Simple. Momentary. The details small and ultimately insignificant. A blip on the screen of the Universe. A monotonously repetitive story throughout the span of the centuries.

But still never duplicated in the narrative. Consistently renewed in our emotions. And regularly, excruciatingly and inconceivably mind-blowing to participate in.

It’s all “just hair”. Until we embrace the experience of it. And then it’s the whole Universe bursting alive within the space of one fleeting moment.

Click here for all the photos from our shoot!

All of these amazing photos are from Tiffani Bearup.

Check out her full set on Flickr.

Tell her how much you love her work here on Facebook or in the comments below!

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

And lastly: Burning My Dreadlocks: The Final Goodbye

Posted in: Organic Wisdom, Things To Remember.
Tagged: Dreadlocks · fear · hair · life · organic beauty · organic wisdom · photography · shaving my head · spirituality · trust

Stepping Into This Opening Space

Dec 21st, 2011

by TheOrganicSister.

Comments are off for this post

Today is my last day online before I honor my intentions for The Holiday Reset challenge. I’m wrapping up my online commitments, setting my autoresponder and looking into this week with a bit of unknown.

I feel two opposing forces within me, one with a desire to plan and organize and control this digital sabbatical I’m taking; the other to allow it to unfold and flow organically.

The latter is winning out.

But before I sign off for a week of stillness, I have many swirling thoughts to articulate.

My weekend with Tiffani, my photographer, was incredible.

Yes, the dreads are gone and she’s promised to have all the after photos and the videos ready for the world by next Wednesday, when I come back online.

I have SO MUCH to share on that process, but I’m still stringing together inadequate words.

Soon, I promise.

But I do want to offer you a little sneak peek:

Just wait until you see them all.

This past weekend has perfectly fed into my upcoming week offline.

I have intentions of making physical space by clearing out some old things I’m ready to let go of (clothing I’ve come to discover through our photo shoot prep that does not feed my soul) and reevaluating my past (incredible) year while setting my intention for the upcoming year.

Stillness, reflection, clarity…yes, please.

And then, of course our Christmas celebrations with our rosemary Christmas “tree”, and lots of fun plans we have to celebrate at Universal Studios.

Even if I don’t know exactly what this will look like, the intention and mindfulness tell me I’m on the right track.

My hope is that you are intentional with the end of 2011 as well. Whether you’re joining us in the Holiday Reset or creating a celebration in a totally different way, may it meet your deepest needs for connection, freedom, love and laughter this week and into the new year.

Need Help In Creating an Intentional Holiday?

I’d like to offer you the tools to create peaceful dynamics between the most difficult people, to feel grounded throughout the season and into the next year, to meet your deepest needs with intention and mindfulness.

This kit is only being offered until the end of the day today.

Think of it as a last-minute gift to yourself…the kind that offers so much more than any more “stuff” really could.

Click here to get your toolkit.

Or click here to purchase it now.

Posted in: Celebrations.
Tagged: digital sabbatical · holiday thriving kit · holidays · intentions · mindfulness

The Holiday Reset Challenge: I Double-Dog Dare You! (Video)

Dec 19th, 2011

by TheOrganicSister.

Comments are off for this post

Hannah Marcotti and I connected recently around the idea of taking a digital sabbatical and decided to create this improv video.

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.