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Monday, November 10, 2014

The Gift of Shame


"...real freedom is not about getting away from what is troubling us but rather about going into and through it.We emerge with a few scars and probably a little less skin, but emerge we do, no longer bypassing our less flattering qualities. This is fierce, unconditional love for ourselves, alive with spiritual boldness that serves us all."

- Robert Augustus Masters (Spiritual Bypassing - When Spitiruality Disconnects Us from What Really Matters )


A few weeks ago in honor of Halloween and Day of the Dead, we decided to have a funeral for Shame. Nothing too fancy, we would paint as we normally do on Saturday morning, but also build an altar in the middle of our gathering table so after we finished painting, we could "lay our shame to rest". It was amazing what happened because at the end of  the painting session, we all came to the same conclusion, we didn't feel like we could lay our shame to rest because it was still very much a part of us and it wouldn't feel right to bury it because it for sure wasn't dead! Burying Shame felt like another way to push aside valuable information we are given about our interior. Instead of being ashamed of the shame, we could come to see its' presence as a gift and something to get curious about and explore. 

What an incredible idea! What if, instead of locking away the parts of  ourselves that feel too yucky to show to the world, we brought them out into the light and began to love the them? What if we were all really honest about our shame and started talking about it to people every day?  This is what we cultivate in the studio. Honesty and and working to meet our wholeness are the things that come up again and again at Nectar. Working in this way isn't always easy. Process Painting is invisible work and something not easily explained, but it is potent and when we are ready, it can be absolutely life changing.

Monday, November 3, 2014

Giving Thanks


We are still reeling from the amazing response we had to our Indiegogo fund raising campaign. Just 6 weeks ago we took the scary leap to publicly ask for help and boy did we get it! With over 700 views and an astonishing number of shares on Facebook and through email, we were humbled and our hearts were melted. Thanks to your many generous gifts, the studio raised $7,530.00! With this money we will be able to move forward into Nectar's next phase.

Please check back here for updates and more blogs from the studio in the very near future.
THANK YOU from the bottoms of our hearts. What a perfect way to begin this Thanksgiving season....fully immersed in gratitude!

With Love and Thanks,
Steph and Jen