When I first made this SoulCollage® card, I was a bit appalled! It seemed to be expressing something on the verge of violence.

On the other hand, I was curious because I had placed the woman with the raised sword on a lovely background of vibrant pastels. After I worked with her a bit, I discovered that this part of me wasn’t expressing violence at all. Instead, she is the one who gives me permission to create boundaries.

These boundaries can be personal, financial, or physical. They can also help me with my creative life as a writer, artist, and business owner. Here is what my inner Boundary Creator says to me when I allow her the space and time to speak:

In order to keep my creative life flowing and growing, I need to call often on the intuitive wisdom and strength of this inner voice. It can be something as simple as planning a thirty-minute session with my art journal once a week and then sticking to it. Or it can be something more complex such as saying no to a friend who wants to go to a movie on an afternoon when I’ve planned to work on my novel.

I have since created a new card for this part, and this one feels bigger than I am, so I’ve “labeled” it as a Council (archetypal) card. It’s called “Not On Our Watch” and you can see it in the right side column here in this newsletter.

Listen to Jan Phillips’ spoken poem The Artist’s Creed. (You can skip the little ad after just a few seconds)

Do you truly believe that you are worth the time it takes to create whatever it is you’re creating?

Where are your creative boundaries today? Do you need to draw some proverbial lines in the sand in order to give yourself the creative freedom you crave?

Be still for a few moments. Notice your breath slowly flowing in and out. Look inside yourself and ask your own Boundary Creator to step forward.

What does he or she look like?

Ask this inner voice to help you decide where and when you need to create boundaries around your own creative pursuits.

Make a SoulCollage® card for this Inner Committee member that helps you create and maintain firm boundaries around your creative time.

Are you a Good Girl? As women, our focus is often outwards on the needs of others, sometimes at the cost of our own well-being. Many of us have been groomed since childhood to please others, forget our own needs and carry the emotional weight in relationships, or become overachievers at school and at work. The good girl’s motto is ‘always be nice.’ The word No is not even in her vocabulary, and she never feels ‘good enough.’ Exploring this archetype will help you understand some of your patterns.

In this 90-minute Zoom class, we will identify the characteristics and the shadow side/pitfalls of this archetype, and find which cards in our deck speak to these qualities. We will also have time for sharing in small groups and in our larger circle.

Please bring: Journal, pen, and all of your cards (or images if you don’t have a lot of cards yet)

Date: Thursday October 29, 2020

Time: 4 pm Eastern

FR*EE for our KaleidoSoul Kindred Spirit members.

Visit this page for more info now.

It’s an interesting time to consider boundaries. Many of us have been in various stages of lockdown, respecting restrictions to set boundaries on a highly infectious virus. We continue our adaptation to bounds on our activities, movements and interactions. This has led to blurred boundaries between home and work, to parents becoming the teachers they aren’t equipped to be. Relationships that were bounded by independent time and space have been strained. 

Emotional and physical boundaries are developing and disappearing simultaneously. I cannot host an in-person meeting, nor have dinner with friends. However, hundreds of colleagues have now met my living room, my cat and my facial imperfections through virtual meetings. These “challenging times” are not coming to an end, and will likely become more complex as political struggles feed the pandemic. Ah, boundaries! How do I ponder thee now?

Michele manos helpers For months, I have mourned for my freedom to venture unbound. With so many of my routine and special activities shackled, I felt angry and hopeless. I turned to my SoulCollage® deck, compiling every card that represented something that I was longing for. It was a collection of the seemingly inaccessible and unavailable—a gallery of grief. Among my Committee Neters were my Traveler, Teacher, Facilitator, Learner, and Performance Lover. My Community Neters included family members, artists and places special to me.

Given the long road ahead, the excruciatingly slow process of returning to safety and mobility, I dedicated myself to pursuing alternative routes to my happy places. I searched my deck for guidance and inspiration, and welcomed ideas from my favorite publications. My Inner Reader consoled my Inner Traveler by reminding her to travel by reading. Indeed, literary fiction set in exotic places has been extremely nourishing for me. My Inner Traveler sorely misses visiting her favorite places for performance art. My Leonard Bernstein Neter reminded me that I knew him first through records, television and radio. In response, I have enjoyed old recordings, innovative virtual concerts, and binge-watching “Mozart in the Jungle.”

This year has brought me a sense of overwhelm that is unsurpassed in my life so far. I am grateful to my Neter known as “Reframing Myself” for some unexpected wisdom. “The One Who Knows how to reframe and retool herself as situations warrant,” revealed an additional function of framing. In the card, you will see that she is looking through a frame, which she can move freely. A frame is a form of setting boundaries on our attention; it is an adjustable lens with which we can select and modulate what we allow into our perceptive space. 

I am working on framing my overwhelming set of responsibilities and ongoing crises into manageable pieces. This form of active discernment has become an invaluable tool for me. I’m also using it to be more conscious of what I read, listen to, respond to and view. New Rule: two hours of focus on uplifting material per one hour of news or political analysis.

Here are some explorations for you to try:

1. Take some quiet time for yourself, and then list what activities, people and places you long for, but are restricted from for the foreseeable future. Look through your SoulCollage® deck and find cards that represent some of these.

2. Ask one of those cards to suggest what boundaries might be expanded, or what new pathways might be forged to allow a connection at this time. Ask whether there are other Neters that might be helpful.

3. Look through your deck to find allies that can help you find your way around the boundary – a different route to the joy that you are missing. Listen to what guidance they can offer.

When we’re wearing masks, we cannot see each other smile. What new ways have you found to navigate this boundary and communicate kindness, particularly to strangers?

1. Hold the frame you use for SoulCollage® or a picture frame in front of you and scan your surroundings. Take notice of how different items, people, and landscapes shift as they are framed. Try framing at a distance (like a wide angle lens) and closely. If you watch videos or television, try it on your screen.

2. Identify a few things in your life that might benefit from the boundaries and specificity of framing. Framing can include boundaries of time, space, energy – whatever you find helpful. You may think of this as managing, compartmentalizing, focusing, or simply setting boundaries.

3. Search through your SoulCollage® deck for allies that will help you exercise perceptual and practical framing. If you don’t already have one, consider creating a card that represents your ability to manage and moderate what’s in your frame. If you have a Neter representing discernment, engage it for support. 

4. Also notice the Neters that may hinder your ability to set your own frame, to choose your own bounds. These may include those you care for, and the parts of yourself that are prone to overextension or overwhelm.

I hope your SoulCollage® practice will guide you to navigate and utilize boundaries.

Dr. Michele Manos lives near Tucson, AZ and is the developer of SoulCollage® Card Games and Playing with a Full Deck Retreats. Learn more at her website here.

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Facilitator Trainings: Information about content and dates/locations of upcoming trainings of SoulCollage® Facilitators.

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