It was a jam-packed two weeks and it certainly flew by!

Friday’s interview was with S.A.R.K. who is kind of a legend in creativity/live-your-dream circles. I’ve known about her work for a couple decades but hearing her story (even in an abbreviated form) directly from her really puts a lot in perspective. And, once again, I was happily surprised at how down to earth her core message was (just like with Dr. Maisel on Thursday) when you could easily expect airy, ethereal, head-in-the-clouds capital-w Woo. It really was a treat to listen to her speak.

Because her work has been around for a while and has disseminated throughout various nooks and crannies of the Internet, I was familiar with (and practice many of) her methods, even if I didn’t know they were “hers.” Things like acknowledging negative feelings and giving them their due? Yup. When I feel low or get a case of the “mean reds” I give myself permission to be in that mood, to wallow in it if necessary, and you know what happens? It’s over a helluva lot quicker than if I’d spend time denying or fighting it or, worse, lashing out at others and making bad decisions because I wasn’t in tune with what was really going on. That’s super-similar to SARK’s “inner feelings-care” practice.

Her talk about the Inner Wise Self and how to activate it daily and always instead of just in the Big Moments where we think we need extra reinforcements is a good lesson in trusting our guts, intuition, or Higher Self—all the same thing, just different names and approaches. And her “inner critic-care” reminds us that our inner critic (or inner editor, for the writer types) is just trying to keep us safe and protect us, and it’s our job to recognize that and learn to use that and work with the roots of those insecurities and views, but not to be hampered or hindered by them.

One of the last things she said was, I think, really important. It’s not about feeling good all the time, it’s about feeling good more often and spending less time in the negative spots. (close paraphrase) That’s the kind of down-to-earth bits I mean, the recognition that no matter what, it’s not all going to be sunshine and rainbows and puppies. There will be lows, there will be suckiness, and to expect otherwise is detrimental to our overall well-being. But if we can work with and around those lows, take them for what they are, our expectations won’t be shattered every time we have a bad day (week, month, year).

I don’t know about you, but I find that incredibly reassuring!

And, of course, today being the last day of the Summit and still possibly the last day the the last Summit of all time, it was bittersweet. But because I upgraded to the Premium Pass, it wasn’t really over. We still have 2 coaching calls to go (we had one this week already and it was fabulous!) and access to Jenn and her Licensed Facilitators in the private Facebook group through April. Not to mention the bonus goodies that are also part of the Premium Pass upgrade. But the end of the “active” Summit, we’ll call it, means I now have time to process all the great information taken in at otherwise top speed. That I get my lunch hours back to read a book for fun or work on something or go run errands. (Yes, I could have done this these last 2 weeks and just watched the replays, but I really do enjoy the live-chat as part of the experience, even if I only catch maybe a third of what’s going on–that’s what the transcripts are for, right?)

*One last affiliate link ahead*

So, if you’ve been reading through this or even just seeing my instagram photos from each day, and you’re thinking, man, I really wish I’d signed up for this and now it’s over–hold up there just a second 🙂 It may be too late for the live options, but if you head over to RightBrainersInBusiness.com and click the upgrade button, you’ll still be able to sign up for the Booster or Premium upgrades. The Booster gives you forever access to the videos, plus downloadable audio files of the interviews, illustrated learning maps, chat transcripts, and left-brain checklists of action steps taken from the sessions. With Premium you get all that plus full transcripts, the private Facebook group, the live coaching calls (plus their recordings), and a bunch more. PLUS! If you upgrade through Tuesday, March 24 (2015, of course), you still get the early bird rate of $67 for the Booster or $137 for the Premium (compared to $97 and $197 respectively).

Well, I’ve got a business plan to work on (my challenge this weekend in the financial projection for the store, and the FB group is holding me accountable to get it worked on, which is so very helpful)!