Saturday, May 30, 2009

The Art of Fashion: My Own True Colours

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Do you ever wonder why I have so many photos of me in various outfits? (You'll see dozens as you browse around this blog and my websites!)

Well, it's not just vanity but a genuine delight in sharing my own creative expression with you in the form of my unique dressing art, my own True Colours!

Many have commented and complimented me on my dress sense, have encouraged me to start a design business and so on, so I thought I'd love to share a little background on how I use my flamboyant flair for dressing up as a celebration of spirit!

I take the view that when we celebrate our appearance and make Art out of ourselves we are into our Godhood. And I would like to show you how we can use even these 'credit conscious' times as a great opportunity to step into the dance and flaunt our natural abundance of spirit, teamed with our creative flair in dressing up to whole new level.

I emphatically feel that fashion, dress and accessories can be used as exotic tools and powerful aids in your journey of expressing "The Art Of You"; they can help you tap into and give you confidence to be the authentic and artistic you.

Just as Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz putting on her red shoes helped her key into the ambiance of another world of her, I too use my love of colours to create great love and art out of me. Each morning I survey the palette of my wardrobe, all artistically arranged in different colours, textures and hues smiling at me, inviting me to take the plunge and play.

I see my accessories: beautiful jewellery akin to treasures glinting in the early morning light; handbags smelling of old well-loved leather with a hint of spice in gorgeous shades of regal red; emerald green or turquoise blue, bright harlequin scarves; silk ribbons glistening with jewel-like colours; feathers in all hues; leather thongs in rainbow colours - all begging to be played with, draped and swirled.

And so, like a great artist, I dive into the palette of my wardrobe, letting my spirit, my excitement guide me, rather than the limitations of what's 'in' or what a 'well-known' celebrity is wearing (unless that truly feels like me!) And even then, I will play my unique slant on it, giving vent to the wild, crazy in me as I seek inspiration from all round me, inside and out: my imagination, my fantasy, the colours in the landscape and in nature, or by indulging my senses and my lust for excellence in a fashion fest found in high class glossy magazines. This is how I rediscover my unique style each day, seeking and nurturing the authentic me and then by wearing my creation, I get to play out the real me for real!

Clothes and accessories pulled together in unexpected ways can be a sure pointer to the real you. Your selection of shoes, clothes, scarves, belts, tights, handbags and fragrance can be a joyful and fun adventure in announcing to the world who you truly are as you discover and make great art out of your appearance and allow yourself to take it to the limits

Just remember: how you dress should distil your personal style to its purest essence. So, either love wearing it or play with another colour or style. Or, by the judicious placing of an accessory in a contrasting colour that you love, like a tie or a necklace or scarf, you can really bring out the true beauty in you. And so, through my fun, I promote my love of dressing up to the realm of being a fashionista!

And so, in being an artist of the heart I feel it is imperative for me to live in the exaltation that beauty and art of our world is both inside cooking in our imagination and extrapolated outside into our physical world for us all to see and rejoice and celebrate in. The physical and the spiritual must not be divided, but allowed to infuse with each other; we are the artists, the inspiration and the art. This is my Art from my Heart and our jobs as artists and creators are to make great love and great art out of our lives.

I love ecstatically to share my true colours with you, my wonderful friend, in many ways which express my Soul, not only through my evocative, spirited, inspirational writings and the songs and videos of my love, but also through my own dress-art. Each day I create an entire artistic composition out of my harmonically chosen ensemble of garments and accessories...

Oh, and just for the record, although I do have a couple of expensive outfits, primarily, I so enjoy the thrill and adventure of discovering amazing garments, accessories and gorgeous designer dresses at massive discount prices (maybe even 90% off!) in designer discount outlets, or even total bargains in charity shops.

In a way, it can be like embarking on a great treasure hunt, an expedition into my soul as I go exploring for new gems to add to my collection. I may find myself leaving the familiarly and the mediocrity of the high street and taking swift right turn down a narrow cobbled alley, my excitement pulling me as I venture into a little shop that just caught my attention with a very unusual item in the window, like a hat reminiscent of an exotic headdress - all feathers and sparking jewels. On entering, I quickly become accustomed to the dimmed light of this Aladdin's cave of delight as I survey piles of beautiful fabrics: dusty satins, plush velvets with an elusive scent enrapturing my senses to another age or time. I have to be open to the unexpected, for then I do not miss an item - a belt, a bracelet, a brooch, which may capture my imagination, just because I allowed it. All this feeds my spirit, quenches my thirst for adventure and slowly, but surely, builds up the palette of costumery delights' that awaits me each morning.

Or I gaily join the hordes in my favourite discount store (TK-Max!) feasting on the row upon row of untidy, jam-packed, ridiculously priced-down garments. My glance quickly scans the territory, looking for the one, the one item that's calling me, that shines out at me, that's got my name stamped all over it. And then in a flash, it catches my eye: the colours are me, the style is so mine, it's even in my size; and then the price, well, what can I say, they're giving it away! It's a manifestational marvel - a miracle of materialisation! It's as though we we're destined to meet and it's love at first sight!

And so I fine-tune my artistic eye and my ability to scan lines of the mundane and sameness, looking for the beauty in the ordinariness, even in the junk piles. For I believe we come into our own as we extol and source the beauty in the mundane and the resources at hand, and that as great artists, this is our job and we should do it with passion. I certainly adore creating great art out of basic materials that at first glance may easily be dismissed as unworthy of my attention! However, if the material is gorgeous, or the cut and style is fantastic for me; or there is something about the colour that sings to my soul, then I grab it to add to my treasure chest. For example, I recently got the scissors out and learned some simple dressmaking skills and it was the beginning of a beautiful new relationship, even a 'romance' with my own artistic tailoring side. Now, when I find a dress or skirt that may totally unfaltering or simply wildly the wrong size, but it's made from a beautiful piece of material, I don't discard it, but honour it and take it with me (sometimes only for couple of pounds!) and then I culpably take it apart and restyle and fit it in my own new way!

Imagination and making the most of what's around and available is part of the creative process! One, day I discovered the joys and possibilities of dyeing! I had found a gorgeous pair of suede boots in a rather subdued shade of beige in a charity shop, whereas I have always hungered for a pair of purple boots. And so I dyed them a lush shade of Lilac with special shoe dye. And what an amazing effect from something so simple! I am often stopped in the street and asked excitedly: "Where on earth did you get those gorgeous boots?"

And so I've been building my wardrobe and accessory collection like this over the years, finding innovative ways to keep them visible and displayed for my daily play and artistic creation. And now my world has rewarded me with my own sacred 'walk in wardrobe', like a temple to the divine Dressing-up Goddess!


So, each day, time permitting, I linger lightly over my palette, allowing inspiration and combinations to compose themselves, juggling many options of colour, texture and style, until finally it's all hanging together there on me, like a painting in a mirror... yet still waiting to be finalised with a 'piece de résistance', a finishing embellishment of a scarf or piece of jewellery and a viola! - another gorgeous and distinctively coordinated new outfit has been birthed and I am wearing my own True Colours. And it's got my own unique 'designer' label on it!

I have metamorphosed into a walking Work of Art, as John calls it! Actually, I feel that my outfit IS me, and so the finale, of course, is wearing my art during the day in the joy and celebration of my life and of creation itself. I love to share my own True Colours with anyone and everyone, so I'll wear it all when I go out, down the road, in the supermarket, sometimes, even when I'm out walking! And even if no one's around I still love the joy of wearing my creation, as it exalts me to another expanded level of me, and that feels so good.

And when I feel fantastic my world feels good too: I see it reflected in another's happy eyes, in the smile of my beloved, the appreciation of a passer-by who says, shyly: "You have made my day", and we exchange heartfelt words of love before I silently pass on, leaving an echo of tinder to awaken their adventurous spirit.

Furthermore my partner, my love: Nature, seems to revel and love me even more when I feel good and display my own True Colours. I see nature itself, returning my celebration with its own display, becoming even more rich and verdant, with blousy wildness of rampant flowers, a sun that shines much more brightly and a sea that rises up meet me and move with me in my exaltation

And so dear friend, I invite you to pick up sticks and gather your adventurous and artistic spirit too, and start playing and making art out of your appearance and dress, every day, even in the smallest way: a touch of colour here, of flamboyance there - whatever makes your heart sing!

I promise you it will change you and have a wonderful ripple effect on you, your life and your relationship with your world.

And if you would like me to help you personally with discovering your unique style, your own True Colours: well that would be such a joy and pleasure for us both. I have designed a special service, uniquely tailored to you, whereby we spend a whole day together to help you transform your own style and find Your True Colours. So let's go and dance together in the streets of Truro or Falmouth, or I can possibly come to you. Read all about it on my website: http://loveandinsight.com/colours

And we thus will both become icons of inspiration.

Go on unleash the artful artist in you,

Your greatest fan,

LeelaLight

PS don't forget "Ask Leela" on Spirit Talk Radio show Sundays 5pm UK
(12 noon Eastern US time) - 1 hour EARLIER in winter!

Join in or email me with your questions: leela@loveandinsight.com
Next show airs: (time shown is YOUR local time!)


I do hope you will join in, there's detailed guidance on my website at:
loveandinsight.com/show
You can download previous episodes too!

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Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Our Secret Lives

Do you too have a Secret Life? A Life that in some ways is more real than your everyday life? Maybe it's calling and you've yet to fully hear it, such as while you're deep in your sleep, whispering to you in your dreams; or perhaps it is speaking to you in the rustles of the leaves or the howling of the wind.

I would love to invite you today to explore your own secret nature and let the play and flow of your hidden self take you into a new realm of being you.

It just might be the ticket you have been looking for.

Let me give an example in the form of my own Secret Life: I have such an affinity and resonance with the Elementals. Elementals, or nature devas, are etheric, spiritual cosmic entities aligned with the elementary energies of air, earth, fire or water. Through Love, they transmute the etheric, the blueprint for nature, within their own beingness into a more condensed physical form, such the trees, plants, flowers and landscape around us.

So, when I look to the sky I become aware of the Elementals which are creating and holding the sky together and my heart soars on a melodic high; I feel myself being uplifted and airborne, becoming like liquid light: opalescent and sylph-like, my body is luminous light streaming outwards in every direction from my heart's radiant fire, as I reconnect with the Elementals as expressions of, as aspects, of my very own beingness.

I feel my heart's imperative and explosive joy as I sense myself as the light, wispy sylph being I am, taking light energy into my body, transmuting it into the physical form through the vibrations of my Love and Ecstasy and so sculpting and creating from the etheric blueprint for nature my own rich, verdant world. My own Elemental specialty is the plant world and the domain of sky, thus I am constantly experiencing how I am effecting the weather patterns and cloud formations, as well as the growth, blossoming and flowering of the plants in my world, and even nature itself.

I feel the air around me and inside me as it vibrates and oscillates with the possibilities of form and how I, as the element of Air, press towards the light, take it into my body in spangles of light, and through writhing in ecstatic joy and ecstasy it is released, weaved and condensed into plant form and the world I behold. Thus, I cry out in my blessed role: "I am a cosmic agent; I am the Sculptural and the Art Form."

As an etheric light being, I unfold myself and expand within the sound of music in our cosmos finding my Self-expression in the moving current of modulated air. I love it when birds fly through my air space with the beating of their wings causing the air to vibrate, adding harmonics to our cosmic symphony.

And so I, too, soar on the air waves, making cosmic music with my love and dance of the etheric energy out of my consciousness; the sky is my lover, other elementals, such as fairies and elves are my friends, and nature is my playground and there for my glorious caretaking.

Behold! This is my secret life, and I feel that my secret ethereal life is the real me... And, as I ride and fly in streams of light I am surfed up by my luminous life; it's intimately flexible, buoyant and brimming full of sparkling possibilities.

However, it's when I forget and fallout of my 'true me' state, I get myself into trouble: I begin to stall and plummet in my life and descend into chaos. Difficulty and challenge reign, and the rain comes and the wind blows and my world turns to pain ...

When this happens, I have learnt to stop trying to control my life, to 'sort it out' but rather, to simply reconnect again with that Secret Life, with the Real Me.

So I wonder, tell me about you? Do you, perhaps, have a secret life that’s more the Real You?

Would you like a little help to find it? Well, you can find your secret life too, by listening to your dreams, paying attention to your fantasies, listening to the messages that speak to your soul and passion, such as through movies, books or even something crazy, like an evocative advertising billboard or an unexpected road sign (I have one near here that reads under the town name of Penryn: Dreams, Bliss, Reality (and which had been damaged to read Dream is Reality!)). We all get messages from our secret lives all the time, we simply need to pay attention and not dismiss them for pure nonsense or frivolity. If something catches your attention or enlivens you, if it speaks to your heart and soul and makes you feel expansive, more loving and freer, then it's coming from the Real You.

Okay, now I know that my secret life may be a bit way out, but I wouldn't be surprised if you had one too; allow me to share what you may find for yourself.

For example, you may find that you have natural love and fascination of the fairy and elfin world, or indeed the fantasy realm of the Lord of the rings Lore; which may denote a secret longing to be like a being from these books.

Or maybe there's covert wizard or witch in you that seeks soul refreshment in Harry Potter books.

Maybe you are lover of adventure, expeditions and travel and you love to peruse through travel brochures or lose yourself in he excitement of adventure stories: denoting an adventurer at heart.

Or the call of the ocean sings your veins and you long to dive or swim in the world's wildest places.

Or you have an insatiable love for nature: allow yourself to dive into it and see how you would love to share the beauty that you see.

Maybe you love watching movies about super heroes revealing an innate desire in you to be an inspiration and do a great good for others by acknowledging your hidden gift and sharing what pulls your heart.

Perhaps you have a devout desire to express the Divine? Then allow yourself to give it a voice or an art form that is so naturally you...

Listen to your longings, your fantasies what you love to read, or watch in movies, your favourite TV program or character revealing a hidden aspect of you. Perhaps think of your adolescence and what you use to love as a child; often the forgotten or hidden longings point to our secret life.

The thing is not to take it too literally E.g. I have a love of detective thrillers, mysteries and unsolved crimes; which if I listen to my heart and gut is not so much calling to be in the police, but a desire to use my intuition to glean important information and to assist others which, at the moment, is being expressed in my Intuitive life Guidance.

So, the Art is to blend that aspect of you into your physical live by trusting your imagination and asking yourself: "I wonder what would be the way for me that is natural, easy and exciting to express this aspect of me in my life?"

For example, if your heart beats faster at the prospect then you are on track, or if you get the feeling that it expands your life and your relationship with yourself and your world, then you have hit the gold of your secret life.

I know how important it is to honour and cherish the true you, and to nurture, encourage and kindle our urge, our instinctive desire, to blend that part of us into our precious lives; thus expanding our world with our unique view.

And so I warm to you and your happy, joyful prospecting for your own Secret Life, and my heart beats with you.

All my love,
LeelaLight

Loveandinsight.com (my main website: healing, courses, resources)
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