Afternoon Tea - a great British tradition and one that I love. 

There's nothing quite like stopping for a pot of tea.  

It got me thinking that there are many teapots that need airing and teacups given a voice. There are so many stories behind them and a gorgeous selection of women from around the world to chat to virtually!

So I dreamt up Afternoon Tea with Jules.  

A place where two women can have a conversation about life, love, ritual, practice, and everything in between.  

I offered this out to my community and Gwynn Raimondi stepped forward to have TEA! 

Gwynn guides people to finding themselves again, to becoming grounded in their bodies and discovering the joy and pleasure of the present moment. 

She is a a compassionate body-centered mindfulness guide. A cultivator of pleasure and play, inspiring deeply grounded connections in the lives of many.

You can find more about her online courses at www.gwynnraimondi.com 

I hope you enjoy my very first Afternoon Tea with Jules - Look forward to sharing my next guest - you'll love her too!!! 

Till next week
All blessings to you.
Namaste
Jules xx 

About Afternoon Tea with Jules:

 A conversation, chat, chinwag and muse; connection between two women about all things to do with life and love.    No agenda, no formula but an intuitive conversation to remember and reconnect to ritual, sharing stories and practice  Things that go right, things that go pear-shaped;
Learning new tricks along the way.
How we nurture and love up our body, mind and spirit.

So I'm here, on Day 17, of Spirits of Joy, being given the prompt by Hannah to 'play with black and white' and see how this unfolds.  How does it feel inside these shades?

Since beginning this, I have spent time each day digging into magazines, without any real thinking (no hardship!)  Now I have 17 pages, I'm beginning to see the messages behind the pages.

• Pages that provide me with glorious phraseology and images.
  
• Pages that provide me with inspiration about what my heart craves.
  
• Pages that provide me with Inner Peace and Purpose.
  

Just so you know .....

I never know what I will cut from the magazines, I allow my mind to take a break. 

I have a collection of magazines that span about 5 years from my days when I facilitated vision workshops.  

I don't play music, I sit with the silence and it fills me with warmth.

This black and white page revealed some interesting insights.

"It's time to burn those old bras"

Not about the physical notion of burning my old bras, (ha, tho this is quite funny as I have recently thrown them out and bought new ones). 

This is about moving into a new phase of grown up ness. Of taking myself seriously, of taking my creative business seriously.

It's moving into the new of Julia, who wears what makes her feel lovely.

And why the heck not?!  

"The Pleasure of Creation"

For me, it has always been about creation and passing this on to those around me.  I love to create, whether it's my life plan, a career pathway or a physical piece of art.   More so, it's about pouring my teachings and love of creativity and healing into online resources.  

It's about taking a big bold step and just doing it, letting go of comparison and the feelings of "I'm not there yet."  

Who is ever there yet?  

I sometimes hold myself back because I think I haven't got the equipment, when really, I want to just take a step forward and release my art, release my online programmes, release my healing, continue to create for others to find their own healing and peace within themselves.  

"When you really need to stop. stop."

The image of the swans taking off and landing really drew me in and at the same time the sentence (completely unrelated) 'when you really need to stop. stop,' jumped out at me.

Strike that.  Seriously - it screamed at me.

From having my Holiday at Home at the end of August, I realised that I have to stop, when I really need to stop.  I don't need anyone's permission except myself as I am my own boss (gosh, I am a tough boss).  

What really hit me here was the second stop, right at the end, it didn't have a capital S for stop.  I knew that this word meant something significant.

As I was placing it down, I realised that it was because I didn't have to make a big song and dance about stopping, it didn't have to be big, (like the beginning of a sentence), it could just be a quiet little stop, that is all I need.

"AND SO IT BEGINS
your fascinating journey"

The piece de resistance.  Stepping forward into this next fascinating journey.

Embodying my art and healing practice.   Feeling like an Artist.  A creative healer, teacher and author.  Finally starting my 3rd book about my healing journey back to health.  

Just doing it all.  
Little steps.
That's all it takes.

If I look at the big picture, it scares me and I wonder if I'll ever get there, am I just wasting my time?

Then I pull back and see the little steps of purpose, passion and creativity.

That's what keeps me going.

All of this from one page and one prompt.

Do you see how this therapeutic visioning can be so transformative?

You get to hear the tiny whispers inside your heart. 

Being able to do this with other soulful women around you, is pretty powerful.

For me, it's a time to transition.

Act now, think later.

As Martin Luther King Jr, said:

"Take the first step in faith.  You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

I will be holding my first ever New Moon Vision Night on Sunday October 6th 5pm-8pm at my healing studio.  If you would like to be introduced to this magical therapeutic art that can soothe your soul and answer your inner questions. 

Why not come along?

The energy exchange is £20, which includes light vegetarian refreshments. Please bring your own blank book for visioning.  Here's one I'm using at the moment, but you can find great notebooks from TKMaxx.

If you have never circled before, then why not email me if you have any questions.

If you're meant to be there, you'll just feel a pull to come.
Go with it.

Till next week.
Jules xxx

The weekend just gone, marked the 1st anniversary of Lucy's passing over to Rainbow Bridge and I created this video: Remembering Lucy: An ode to remembering her life, her love, her ways.  

Set to the beautiful song 'Underneath the Stars' by English Folk Singer, Kate Rusby, it is dedicated to all of you who have said farewell to a member of your fur family and your heart still hurts, even if many years have passed.  

This is for you.

xxxx

On this day last year, I was coping with a very ill Jack Russell.  14 years and 2 months, Lucy was steadily declining in her health and we were watching, praying, whilst going to the vet for more tests, I didn't realise that come the weekend, I would say goodbye to her for the last time on 15th September, which happened to be our 1st wedding anniversary too.  

A day we won't ever forget.

Soon after, at the beginning of October, I began Spirits of Joy, Hannah's visioning journey and although I had always been into therapeutic visioning, suddenly I was immersed into a wonderful tribe of women from all over the world.  Women to hold my pain, support my visions and give me love and healing that I craved. *Thank you gorgeous Joy Sisters*

We name our Vision Books - nothing that the brain thinks up but something that pops up as we're gazing through heaps of magazines.  

This is a very intuitive process.  

The brain takes a rest.  

For Miss Julia Monkey Chatter, this actually works.

So I named my 2012 October Vision Book 'Attunement'.  

I was adjusting to being without Lucy and acclimatising to not having her around me. 

It was such a tough time.  


Prompted by Hannah, I gently spent about an hour every night focusing on each of my pages and when I look back now, nearly a year, I see warmth, fur and lots of cuddly things.  Not on all the pages, but quite a bit.

Because, you know what?  

That's what I needed the month after Lucy died.  

Warmth and Fur.  I missed it terribly (we both did).  

And then ...... 

On the 16th day of Spirits of Joy, Pudding the stray, turned up and entered our life, filling our home with another heartbeat, warmth and fur.  

Ginger Fur.  


If you look closely you'll see I pasted a Ginger Cat. Now I have not grown up with cats, so why was she there.  I don't know? I just felt pulled to her.

Those pages, those dreams those desires all lead me to nearly 12 months later where I am now in Spirits of Joy for the second time and every day, I spend an hour therapeutically scanning and grazing on magazines, from a pile I have stored for this magical purpose.  

This month, my book is called "A refreshing new twist".  It doesn't have as much fur in it, yet it holds me and supports me just as my vision book did from a year ago.  

When I say, it holds me, I mean, it allows my feelings to come to the surface - all of this happens unconsciously.

I don't know what I'm looking for until I start looking.  

Images pop out at me.

Words transfix me.

I cut out many words and then start to play.

Dreams, Goals with Souls, (thanks Danielle LaPorte for that) Feelings behind dreams, this relates to my life, my body, love, relationships, work, home, environment, bigger mission and of course my creative healing business.

I hold therapeutic visioning in very high regard, it has helped me so much. 

Of course there has been another furbaby addition in May.  

Luna... also know as Luna Joy 

She adds to the wonderful mix of our home life.  

Check out Ginger Pudding in the far right page!

I know the power of women gathering and I also know the calling of New Moon energy so I'd love to circle with you, which is why I am beginning my New Moon Circle.  The first one is Sunday 6th October 5pm-8pm, at my studio in Liverpool. I have to get back to in person workshops and if this is right for you, I'd love for you to be there.  

The plan is for once every month, so you can start to map the power of your own therapeutic vision books.  But there's no commitment, if you just want to come to just one.

Wanna come and join me and find out how to start?  

The energy exchange is £20, which includes light vegetarian refreshments. 

Please bring your own blank book for visioning, I love any I can find, but I'm really liking these at the moment, I have also found some wonderful ones in TKMaxx.  

If this is right for you at this time, you'll know.  It will resonate and will hit you right in the middle of your gut.  You'll just have to go.

I know that feeling.  Run with it.

Let me know if you're interested: email [email protected]

Till next time
Lots of Love
Jules xx

"It has been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will, of course, you must make it up firmly.  I am not going to think about going back to the asylum while we're having our drive. I'm just going to think about the drive."  Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables.

Anne Shirley makes alot of sense.  Have you read Anne of Green Gables? 

Seen the film (we know the books are always better don't we?)  

I downloaded the entire set of books about Anne of Avonlea (apart from 2) for 77p on my kindle and I am loving exploring these books again.

This is how I began my holiday at home.

What started out as a fun little experiment, turned into a breath of fresh air. 

Who knew?

After finishing everything up by Sunday afternoon, realising my diary was clear with no appointments, I suddenly went so tired - like ... zooomph ... tired ...like a roller blind being released and falling down quickly.  

I didn't have any set plans but I knew that I wanted to go to the beach.  This is exactly what we did on Day 1, which also happened to be a bank holiday here in the UK  

I had forgotten how recharging the beach was for me.  The nearest is about 25 mins away with a toll of £3.20 (why do they keep increasing it?!) 

The recharge I got from walking barefoot on the sand reminded me of Earthing and just how crucial it is for us humans to to earth ourselves.  As energy beings with an electro magnetic field around us, it's vital we do this.  So I happily earthed myself that day in the sand (other ways to earth are grass, soil and concrete, just not tarmac).  

So Day 1 was about napping and unwinding, sitting on the hammock, huggles from the furkids and reading my downloaded Anne of Green Gables.  The weather was glorious and really rose to the occasion.  

Day 2 was another beach visit, just me and the dog, and then an afternoon photo walk around this historic house in Liverpool,  Sudley House - I enjoyed the flip of being somewhere without an agenda, somewhere of history and beautiful grounds.    I enjoyed conversations whilst I had my sparkling elderflower cordial. 

Day 3 I got out my sketch book and began sketching, illustrating, just for me, it made me realise how time passes and I lose myself in the paper.  I did this outside in my garden. Dog walks in the park and reading again.  

I did not open my Laptop once.  

Admittedly I was posting photographs on Instagram (which I love) and accessing Facebook from my phone or Pad, but didn't do any work, or get distracted.  Not more than 5 mins, twice a day.

Day 4 was "Become A Tourist In Your Own City" day and I walked round my city of Liverpool, buying some new pieces for my wardrobe, which has reduced since all my charity shop giveaways.  I ate ice cream and vegetarian sushi and just generally enjoyed being out in a vibrant city.

Day 5 was Swedish Massage Day - only available at 9.30am which was a weird time for a massage but actually I felt so soothed, relaxed and stretched that I just spent more time sketching and illustrating.  I then went out for Afternoon Tea with a friend and we talked all manner of spiritual (nothing I like more).  A little planning but sitting in a veggie cafe, didn't feel too bad! 

So what was my take away from Holiday at Home?  

Did I do everything that I wanted to do to make me feel the way I wanted to feel?  

No. 

But I'm not berating myself for that, there are now more things to do, seek and experience.  

It has transformed the way I'm working.  I got more clarity away from the computer screen. I can grow my business in many ways. 

Ultimately I have to look after myself and not neglect myself. 
Self neglect = not good

I learnt that it's OK to veg out. 

Switch off
Unplug
Create for creating sake
Take afternoon naps
Meditate every single day to Deepak's dulcet tones.

Did you have your own holiday at home? 1 day, 2, 4? Want to share? I'd love to know in the comments below, let me know.  What did you do? What worked?
How did you become your own best friend?


Share Happy! 
Till next time
Jules Dolly xxx