"I have always been able to see what others were unable to see; and what they did, I did not see."

- Salvador Dali

Several years ago while in New York I stumbled on a book that was to change my life - "Psychic living: tap into your psychic potential" by Andrei Ridgeway.

"In this technological day and age filled with busywork, " he writes, "many of us neglect our psychic potential. Our instincts are repressed and our inner voices buried...."

"...For many, the word "psychic" is so big, so titanic, they can't accept it. They don't realize it is a normal state of being, that as a lover, and a friend, we use this part of ourselves all the time."

Today as I continued to feel my way toward my preferred future, my true path with heart, and needing a boost I decided to try one of the exercises in the book - evoking the seer.

"For an artist, whatever, he is looking at has meaning. He doesn't need to use the word "clairvoyant, " because the whole universe is holy. Whether it be a spirit that appears out of thin air, or a piece of fruit on the table, it has soul," he writes. Then he encourages us to see the world as an artist and expand our vision to see into other times and places. "It is a wake up exercise, like a cup of coffee for the eyes."

Seeing exercise

Try Andrei's exercise - I just did and it was extra-ordinary! (I've posted my experience at the end of this entry)


Step one Go to a bookstore, library, art gallery or museum and visit the art section. You can make it a filed trip with a friend or lover. Give yourself time. Pretend you are living in the Renaissance, before the invention of People Magazine, when art mattered. Go through the books as if you have never seen any of those painters before, and be especially open to painters whose work you have never seen before. If you have not been in the painting world for a while and feel the need for a starting point, try one of these artists: Salvador Dali,Alex Grey (especially his book Soul Mirrors), Georgia O'keefe, or Claude Monet.

The books that you are drawn to will contain images and colours that resonate with your soul. Go through the pages/view the paintings at a leisurely speed. When you find a painting that really moves you, that stirs your optic cells, sit there and stare at it for a while. Let the light and the colour fill you up.


Step two Write a paragraph about your favourite painting, why it touched you, what is was about it that awakened your soul, Write stream of consciousness (IE just free write without "thinking") I liked the painting because it made me think of god and being a little kid and no end to wonder with yellow warmth and excitement in my belly. Let your pen go wild. No censorship.


Step three When you enter back into reality - your home, office, or the coffee shop next door - see if you can perceive in the objects and people around you the same level of beauty you saw in the painting. Rarely do painters create strictly from the unconscious. Most of them combine their hidden selves with the world around them, blending spirit with matter int heir own masterful way. See what it feels like to perceive life through this double lens, to bring your soul vision into the mundane, to see in the face of a stranger the same wonder and intensity that lived in the painting.

If the painting you chose was famous, buy yourself a print and put it somewhere in your home. It will act as a reminder of how your soul sees the world, keeping your eyes attuned to beauty as you pass through the day."

(excerpt from "Psychic living: tap into your psychic potential" by Andrei Ridgeway, pg 43)

Seeing Cass


Leap Away Girl 1969, Ian Scott

Today I went to Te Papa and after wandering around the many walls of art this painting "Leap Away Girl" by Ian Scott immediately called to me.

Here's what I wrote:

"Fresh yellow greens, clear blue sky and white puffy clouds - the colours call to me as does the name of the painting - Leap Away Girl. "go follow your dreams" the painting called, "look to the horizons and keep following your dreams, allow the fresh, invigorating colours of nature to guide and inspire you - the red energy of passion and goals, of motivation; green the energy of pastures news, of the heart chakra , of feeling energetic and alive, connected to nature, of following the seasons; blue the colour of peace and calm of warm days and summer skies of mother earth and the heavens that envelope her; white the colour of purity, marriage, union, partnership and marriage - contracts of love."

The energy and vitality of the painting arrests me, stops me in my tracks, draws me deeper still - it's joyful, hopeful, sensual,epxectant . The curvy shapes of the clouds in the sky and of the hills - dancing, playful, irregular, creative, uniform - heralding surprises, defying expectations.

"Let go. Let live. Follow your dreams," it challenges and encourages me. Allow the green of the heart - of courage and positive emotion, growth and renewal to nurture you; the blue of the horizon and sea to guide you - to flow like their currents to distant shores and new memories awaiting. The white of the clouds to soften your fears to life you higher still."


Now that I am back at the office the painting lives inside me still, whispering to and challenging my soul. I have printed out a copy of the painting and placed it on my inspiration wall, saved it as my screen saver, and pasted it in my inspiration journal. I see myself in the image of the girl - colourful, jubilant, happy beyond belief. It reminds me of my dream "I dream I am on vacation, it's the perfect career for me" - taken from a song by the Eagles. And of my morphing back toward art, writing, photography and photo journalism - and there on my business card for all to see is a reminder:
Cassandra Gaisford - Artist, life coach, author, photojournalist"


"Art washed from the soul the dust of everyday life." Pablo Picasso


Try this exercise yourself - I'd love to hear how awakening the seer within transforms your life.

Labels: Colour, Cultivating Creativity, happiness, intuition, Life coaching, Motivation, Spirituality in art, Thecolourgirl.com

We are all priceless works of art - complex, vulnerable and capable of stirring great emotional reactions in others. As any artist knows putting your work "out there" can be a very challenging and difficult thing - our art is who we are, part of us, something we have created. Our art like our hearts is something we hope others will appreciate, maybe even love. But what if nobody likes us, what if they don't appreciate us, or judge us prematurely. What say they riddicule us, or try to tear us down. What say they simply paint over us, ignoring the quality and uniqueness of what lies below.

As works of art we hope that people take the time to see below the surface and recognise who we really are and who we could become. Perhaps our true beauty is there close to being realised or perhaps it needs time and gentle peeling back and restoration to overcome layers of scum built up over a lifetime of neglect.

Perhaps we have been so forgotten that a major escavation, archaelogy style is needed


As with any work of art the process needs to be gentle. There is so much to gain and so much at risk:
Will someone take the time to restore you to your innate glory?
Will they accept you as you are - splendid in your imperfection?
Will you do the same for others?

The most important legacy you can leave the world is to be loved and to love others in return. If this is an area in which you struggle take a leaf from the artists guide to love:

1) Put yourself out there - you won't be discovered sitting at home with the curtains pulled...except of course if you are working the internet! Dating on-line could be the way to go initially

2) Don't be afraid of rejection - every step you take gets you closer to success. Even some of the most famous artists of all time were rejected at some stage of their career.

3) Stay away from your critics. You can't be everything to everybody.The critics hated french painter Pierre Bonnard's colourful works of art but the public adored them. If someone you care for is critical of you they're not worth paying attention to. Maybe they'll change their mind, maybe they won't. The important thing is not to take their criticism to heart and to continue to be your biggest fan.

4) Surround yourself with your fans - people who support you. The French impressionist painters were famous for getting together and supporting each other. The great people in life are the ones that believe that you are, or could be great too. They encourage and support you and walk with you as you embark bravely on new adventures. Get together with like minded friends - why not join a dating group or buddy up with another single friend and share strategies.

5) Walk away. Nothing you want is upstream. When doors close or relationships fail to seed tread carefully. Doors open for you when you are following your bliss. Every great love I have always had has been a case of instant magic. The relationships that have soured were hard work to begin with. The trick is to find the balance between deciding whether to walk away or put in some effort. Sometimes the best things in life, like a great work of art, do take effort. Let your in-tuition guide you. The right decision is one that fills you with a sense of peace.

6) Perservere As America singer Meat Loaf said, "If you flog what you have endlessly, eventually you will find an audience." Don't let any setbacks stop you in your tracks. Meat Loaf was told endlessly that no one would ever buy his album "Bat Out of Hell." He was told he was too fat, too ugly and too unconventional to ever be taken seriously. As of 2007, it has sold an estimated 34 million copies, and continues to sell approximately 200,000 per year - living proof that passion and individuality, not stereotypical notions of perfection, hold the key to an authentic, successful, love filled life.

7) Go natural. Resist the temptation to try too hard to impress. You are perfect as you are and sometimes less really is more. As one of my favorite artists Helen Frankenthaler says:

"A really good picture looks as if it's happened at once. It's an immediate image. For my own work, when a picture looks labored and overworked, and you can read in it—well, she did this and then she did that, and then she did that—there is something in it that has not got to do with beautiful art to me. And I usually throw these out, though I think very often it takes ten of those over-labored efforts to produce one really beautiful wrist motion that is synchronized with your head and heart, and you have it, and therefore it looks as if it were born in a minute."

Attracting love the artists way is a colourful, inspired way to live. It involves living out loud and actively creating your love and your life. Stay tuned for the next update on how to love, work and live with passion! In the meantime continue to be playful and let your work of heART evolve.

Labels: Life coaching

Love stuff is top of my mind and soul at this time - unfortunately so many people I know seem to be having a bad time of it. I know men who cheat and wonderful women whose partners beat them. I know so many people who have lost their life partners, and great woman and men who yearn for more and don't know how to create it. Of course I know fabulous, committed couples who have got the love stuff sorted - but for those of us who don't harnessing the transformational power of creativity will help you attract more love into your life.

LOVE STUFF - PRACTICAL STRATEGIES TO FIND LOVE IN THE REAL WORLD
Many of my clients have been re-evaluting their relationships. For some they are wanting to find love again after years of grieving following the death of a dearly loved partner. Others are looking for ways to re-ignite the passion they used to feel before babies and/or teenagers. Some would like to find a soul for their soul – but don’t know where to start. Love stuff is a big area to cover in such a wee article – so we’ll start small and add to it in future entries.





1.) Prepare for love – visualise success and rock to some music! My client, Suzie was keen to find love again after some pretty hurtful experiences. She was feeling anxious and her thoughts were filled with worry. I suggested taming her thoughts with visual and musical affirmations. Gathering images of happy couples, especially ones she personally identified with, helped her counter a negative belief that “no one has happy relationships.” Similarly, Carol a fuller figure woman in her 50’s gathered examples of people who found love again later in life.
"Your Love Gives Me Wings" - If you like the canvas art above you can purchase it online from my website http://www.cassandragaisford.com/shop/index.php?cPath=32. Order now and feng shui your relationship corner

Click on the following video link of my interview with Brendan Pongia on The Good Morning Show and have a peek at one of my client's love inspired image boards. Check out the Media Page http://www.cassandragaisford.com/media.html.

To help you get into the mood compile a list of your favorite love/relationship songs and let the lyrics inspire and direct you – no sad or angry songs obviously! On my list I have Edith Piaf’s La Vie en Rose, and Je n’regrette; Stand Up For Love, Destiny’s Child; I’m Having A Good Time, Alberta Hunter; Love You I Do, Jennifer Hudson and Bringing Sexy Back, Justin Timberlake. I’ve got a load of others too. Perhaps not the most traditional love songs sound track but just right for me. Right now my favorite (positive) break-up song is by the Eagles, “too busy being fabulous” What songs would be on your love track?

2.) Write it down, make it happen – knowing what you want and then getting it are pretty closely connected. Of course, we’ve all heard about love at first sight – these love doves may say they didn’t have a check list of wants and needs, but somewhere deep down both partners probably knew what they deserved – souls know this stuff…the rest of us mere mortals could do with a bit of clarification. Affirm for what you want by writing a letter to your desired partner. Writing can help you clarify what you want, focus your mind on your dreams (not your disappointments), tap into your intuitive guides, remind you of the love you deserve and reassure yourself that when the timing is right the perfect partner will come in search of you.

3.) Order on line – create and manifest your dream man. Internet dating done safely can be a wonderful thing. Where else can you place your order for your best fit partner? Some people get really worried and worked up about the idea. But the good thing is it’s an anonymous and harmless way to get out of your comfort rut. When the feelings are good and the timing is right you can arrange to meet in a safe place and see if sparks fly. Personally, I’ve met some wonderful men this way. I’ve met some challenging ones too, but it’s easy enough to walk away and nothing ventured, nothing gained, aye! Make a commitment and put your own profile on line. Try sites like www.findsomeone.co.nz for starters. Use a password that is personally meaningful – like biglove, or myknight so you affirm for what you want (and have a giggle) every time you sign in.

4.) Diversify and get out there - Artists by nature tend to love variety. They adopt an eccletic, playful approach to life. They also have to be good marketers to achieve success. Just as it does with job hunting, it pays to be proactive and diversify your love strategy. If 80% of all jobs are found through networking then it makes sense that getting out and about is going to maximise your success in the love market too. Personally I’m a big fan of letting your interests guide you. My mum was interested in boating and marched on down to the port Nicholson Yacht Club and met the man she is still married to – 35 years on and still going strong. Last month I dragged a friend of mine to an art do, with a little bit of meddling (I prefer to call it match making) she and the man she met that night have fallen "madly deeply." 9 months ago, he’d just broken up from his wife and here’s what he told me, “I can’t thank you enough for introducing us – it is soooo nice to be able to share my passion for art with Claire – my wife never wanted to go to exhibitions at all.” The other cool thing is that he recognised imediately all the wonderful things about Claire - things no one else had ever seen nor affirmed.

5.) Stay the same – you don’t always have to change in order to have the love-life you desire. Chances are you may be looking for love in all the wrong partners. As author Joey McIntyre says "Don't you ever wish you were someone else. You were meant to be the way you are exactly. Don't you ever say you don't like the way you are. When you learn to love yourself, you're better off by far."

I know the power of this one only too well having just split up from a man who demanded I change – the trouble is he had some really unusual and greedy attitudes to intimacy. I balked (actually I ran) when I saw the hook hanging from his ceiling, the handcuffs and the tool box full of kinky props. When the conversation turned to group sex I knew this relationship was going to be a non-starter! You’d think after knowing this guy for over 4 years as a friend, I would’ve seen it coming! I’m a flexible kind of gal – but not that flexible….so I’m staying the same - a romantic girl who aint into sharing! I got called a few names ("silly" and "control freak" for starters (classic projection if you ask me). Sticks and stones and hooks in the ceiling (!) may break my bones (and spirit) but names will never hurt me. Besides I love and respect myself too much to get into that kind of dark stuff. Maybe he will change - underneath it all I see a really great guy. Everyone deserves a second chance but I'm not hanging around waiting.

6.) Don’t settle for less. Treat your love life like you do your work-life. Define your non-negotiable criteria - when passions collide expect to be inspired. The perfect relationship is one that allows you to be yourself. If you believe in honesty, commitment, loyalty, romantic sex, fun etc. don't settle for someone who doesn't share these values - it'll only end in tears. Suzie’s non negotiable was: "Someone I can rest my head on.” Suzie is looking for a pillow! Perhaps you have bigger dreams! :) Seriously, she’s looking for someone she can rely on and snuggle up with and adore - someone firm and supportive. What are your non-negotiable criteria and what are you offering in return - know your value and your priorties and don't settle for less. Less is less!

7) Get inspired - I have the "Your Love Gives Me Wings" canvas print hanging above my bed – actually I have included a canvas print of Rodin's "the kiss" (a pair is better relationship Feng Shui!) and I also have a painting by Patterson Parkin called “Passion and Purity” I love it. I love the technique and I love the title – passionate and pure at the same time. I met Paterrson at an art do recently and asked him if he had the male half so I could feng shui my relationship corner!!! Anyway I think he said something about if he did male nudes people might think he was gay! Well that got me thinking - yes please...let me be the one to do male nudes – I adore male bodies...think Beckham, think Mr Darcy, think Daniel Day-Lewis in Last of the Mohicans...well you get it! Maybe you could have a go at painting your life partner – if all else fails build a visual profile from magazine cuttings. Click on the following video link of my interview with Brendan Pongia on The Good Morning Show and have a peek at one of my client's love inspired image boards. Check out the Media Page http://www.cassandragaisford.com/media.html.




8) Maintain the faith - it's easy to get despondent if you think love keeps letting you down. Take a leaf from author Richard Bach's wisdom, "There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary to reach the places we have chosen to go."

Not getting what you want is often a vital part of clarifying what you need and taking postive steps toward your preferred partner. As he so honestly writes in his book Bridge Across Forever, "We met as early as we could have met. Earlier than that, you know it - I would have destroyed you or run away from you or you wouldn't have had the patience. You would have walked out on me, with good reason. It never would have worked: I had to learn my way through the mess. I'd never do it again, but I'm not that person anymore...every step we talk got us closer across the bridge forever."

What steps are you prepared to take to take today, tomorrow, and into the future. You are the creator of you life - now go create it!

9) Maximise your impact with colour – what colour is love to you? Unless you are depressed love is defintely not black. Yet so many people wear it. Unless you are going to a funeral why wear black? "Because it'm in hiding" one lady, dressed head to toe in black, said to me recently. I know it seemed obvious but I couldn't resist saying, "I can still see you!" (what I didn't have the heart or the rudenss to say "...and you look like death warmed up!" Unless you suit black or have a special reason to wear it don't let black energy near you. Personally I'm leaving strict instructions that no one is to wear black when I leave this earth - odds are people will be celebrating anyway!

Singer Paulo Nutini knows about the power of clothing to change lives. In his upbeat song New Shoes he sings about the time he was feeling flat and blue one day. He went to his wardrobe and put on his old shoes and something just didn’t feel right. So he went out and brought some new shoes and suddenly everything was ok.

I thought that sounded like a great excuse to buy some fabulous red shoes I had my eye on but couldn’t quite justify spending money on. Wow! What a transformation they made - instantly eveybody started commenting on them and I seriously gained a new lease on life. Attract more spice into your life and purchase the New Shoes photo on line http://www.cassandragaisford.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=67

COLOURFUL PEOPLE HAVE MORE FUN!



4. RESOURCES TO HELP
Life Coaching: being in the love wars can play havoc with your self-esteem, confidence and emotions. Prepare for success by getting these things in order. When you love yourself others will too.

Career coaching: If you are unhappy@work chances are its affecting your love life too. When you do what you love, other loves come too. Get a career makeover this autumn. Career coaching can help you discover your life purpose, get clearer about your passions and goals and tap into proven strategies to help you achieve them.

Check out our website www.worklifesolutions.co.nz for more information about career or life coaching or contact me in person. We offer one off sessions, email coaching and face-to –face session individually tailored to your needs. Cassandra@worklifesolutions.co.nz . I’d love to hear from you.

Labels: Life coaching

“Creating your dream job/life”

Check out the video link and watch me on The Good Morning show discussing the power of creative visualization with Brendon Pongia and to see several examples of the things I'm discussing below:) http://www.cassandragaisford.com/media.html


"If you want to be creative, stay in part a child, with the creativity and invention that characterizes children before they are deformed by adult society"
JEAN PIAGET, Educational Psychologist

Issues:
• Many clients say they could do anything if they only knew what it was
• Many people feel trapped by lack of experience or lengthy years working in a specialist field
• Some people struggle with visualising their preferred future
• Others know what they want but lose sight their goals
• People struggle with maintaining motivation and following through on goals
• Fear and visualising failure consistently limits people’s potential


Keeping up with change, finding the job of your dreams and standing out from the crowd begins with an idea, a dream, a hunch about what you would love to do and why. However this is not the way that many of us have been conditioned to think about careers.
Historically people chose jobs or were matched to roles based solely on the skills they possessed and the skills required by a role and career practitioners favoured inventory’s checklists and personality profiles as part of this matching process. They often ignored the role of emotion, intuition and hearts desire. But being good at something doesn’t necessarily led to job satisfaction or success. There are too many variables that purely scientific, non creative approaches ignore.

“Passion is in all great searches and is necessary to all creative endeavors”
Eugene W. Smith


Solution – Create your preferred future:
Discovering and achieving what you want means allowing yourself to dream and explore. It means engaging the right side of your brain, and listening to your intuition and the stirrings of your heart. It means tapping into your subconscious where unexpressed desires dwell. It means allowing yourself to dream and imagine a reality that doesn’t yet exist. It means being creative.

Many people get caught up in the classical definitions of an artist when they think about creativity, but you don’t have to be an artist, painter or sculptor to be creative. Imagining what doesn’t yet exist and then bringing it into being lies at the heart of creativity.

Success Tip! Visualise your preferred future

Visualisation is a powerful technique used by many successful business and sports people. See your way to success. Try to visualise your preferred future by closing your eyes and imagining a time in the future 1, 5, or 10 years from now. What are you doing? Who is there? How are you feeling? Walk toward the future and look back to today. What steps did you take to get there?

If you spend time imagining the future you want you have without even knowing it begun to make it happen.
Benefits of creative visualisation:
• Opens up the sense of possibility
• Reawakens dormant dreams and passions
• Inspires self and others
• Can be used by everyone in the family etc
• Taps into creativity – using existing images to create preferred futures
• Leverages off the law of attraction – where you focus on you will attract!


Use pictures not words.
According to mind-mapping and creativity expert, Tony Buzan, we think in images not words. Surrounding yourself with images that symbolise or reflect the things you want to create allows these images to inspire and excite you. Adding a dose of colour and engaging all your senses makes this technique even more powerful. Colour experts recommend surrounding yourself with warm, expansive colours such as orange to stimulate creativity, ingenuity and desire.

Strategy: Create your own story
Imagine you are a character in a novel and mapping out what will happen to your character is the story unfolds. Plan for a happy ending!
Creating your own story begins with creating a story or image board and gathering images that help capture the essence of what you are wishing to create in you life. These may relate to career, lifestyle, weight/wellness, financial, relationship, spiritual goals or something else you want to achieve. Strengthen the impact of this powerful visual strategy by combining the motivational power of words, symbols, and motivating colour.
Take control of your preferred future by adding new inspiration and looking at your dream board daily.
Many best-selling authors begin plotting their books in this very visual way – sometimes they can map out a whole book on one board!

A similar strategy is to create a dream journal – check out the video link and watch me on The Good Morning show discussing the power of creative visualization with Brendon Pongia and to see several examples


Remember - IT ALL BEGINS WITH AN IDEA!


Tips to create your life/career story board

If you are starting to design your life/career from scratch, then it makes sense to consolidate all your random ideas into some sort of order. The best way of doing this is to put them onto paper. Take a leaf out interior designers books and create your own story board.

Designers use story boards to show clients what they are thinking. They include samples and photographs of the sorts of fabrics, colours and furniture that will make up scheme and use sketches and magazine cut outs that sum up the atmosphere of the proposed room.

These boards take their name from the notion that good design does indeed tell some sort of story. Their advantages are three-fold:
• They give a three dimensional format to a set of ideas and themes
• They allow you to see how different elements will work together
• They show where the inspiration has come from

Storyboards often begin with one glorious image, from which the rest of the design inspiration comes from. It could be an art exhibition catalogue, A glossy fashion photograph, a postcard from an exotic location – absolutely anything that sparks off a new set of ideas. Sometimes the starting point comes from me, but often it comes from the client, who might have collected ideas from magazines. One thing leads to another and soon the board will be covered with all sorts of images to support the first one

To create a career story board you might want to include the following sources of inspiration:
• Images of your ideal work environment, colours, furniture, settings, people, animals (I know of a Wellington legal firm who has a pet dog, some people have pet fish, why not a cat?
• Cuttings of role models, inspirational people (John, dreamed of being a professional speaker. His story board had pictures of Zig Ziglar and Tony Robbins)
• Your preferred daily, weekly, monthly, year planner – scheduling in all your preferred activities, peak times and rest times
• You may wish to start with a central theme to kick start your inspiration: Claire didn’t know what she wanted to do yet, but she did know that she wanted to feel happy. Her career story board contained all the images that made her feel happy such as sunflowers, her family, worklife balance etc. Common themes are passion, love, life purpose, success.

Collecting these images will help to keep you visions alive, clarify your preferred direction and remind you to take action to achieve your goals. Best of all it's fun!.

Watch me on TV chat re these ideas and others

Labels: Life coaching

IIt’s official: black is banned from everything I do. It’s fine as an accent but other than that does little to lift the spirits or inspire. John Gage, author of Colour and Meaning, believes that colour is more than just a physiological phenomenon. It affects feelings and emotional states. Just how and why it does that, he believes, lies in the particular historical context in which it is experienced and interpreted.

In parts of Asia for example, black is believed to be a very lucky colour. What about New Zealand? Other than the (normally) positive association with the All Blacks, black too often is a colour of mourning – the stock standard attire for funerals. I walk down Lambton Quay in Wellington and I feel like I am going to a funeral every day. Perhaps it is the same in your city or office building. Heaven forbid it may be the standard color you put on every morning!

As artist Paul Klee said, “one eye see and the other feels.” If you want to feel passionate, positive, motivated, excited or any other joyful state join me in the November Colour Challenge and banish black from your life too. If you can’t banish it completely try to do something every day to bring a little more colour in the world. You could accessorise with new shoes, a scarf or tie, a brooch or environmentalise (new word) with flowers on your desk, a lick of paint, happy music (see interesting facts) a colour screen saver etc.

The truth is that the more colourful you are the happier you can make others feel. Today it was rainy and cold so I put on my most colourful dress (purple, orange, red and white- recently purchased in sunny Hawkes Bay) grabbed my orange bag, popped on orange shoes and headed into town. The first thing my local barista said was, “here’s my little rainbow - you’ve brightened my day.” I didn’t even say a thing. What I wore said it all. What are you saying when you wear black? How do you want to be remembered? Maybe you don’t! Some colourists believe that black can prevent us from changing and growing.
"We often wear black when we wan to hide from the world,” says author Suzy Chiazzari.

Note: if you love the colour black, it suits your skin tones and it makes you feel good, then by all means wear it! Think “little black dress", think The All Blacks, think Audrey Hepburn. Put together well black can be ultra sophisticated. However my ardent, not evidenced by exhaustive research, intuitive sense, is that the majority of people wear black because mass produced clothing outlets offer few alternatives and people just don’t know what suits them. See a colourist, find a tailor - or fly to colourful Thailand and get your clothes there! If you can’t afford to travel, buy a colourful painting or purchase a photograph that puts some joy on your walls….I know just the place:) Come visit me at www.cassandragaisford.com



Websites
http://www.soothingminds.co.uk/Articles.aspx?artid=158
interesting articles including one on colour astrology – no surprise to see that not one of the zodiac signs is black. Being a Libran my colour is green. Currently though my favorite colour is orange…but I am shifting to purple….but I thought it was interesting to learn what my astrological colour says about us “greenies:” Libra is the balancer and green is the energy of the heart chakra and harmony. Those who are born under the sign of Libra are known to be peacemakers. 'Green' people are the ones that you can go to when you have a problem as they are the most compassionate of all the astrological signs. So colour can also help clarify your vocation! As a life coach being compasssionate is essential! Check out the site to see what colour you are.

Books
Colour and Meaning John Gage

The Complete book of colour Suzy Chiazzari.
Includes tips on clothes and make-up, colour and interiors, colour diets for health, finding your soul colours, colour in the garden, healing with colour, your personal colours and more much more!

'How to Heal with Color, Balance Your Chakras! Ted Andrews

Faber Birren Color Psychology & Color Therapy.

Interesting facts

Several of the world's best musical composers have seen colors in music. Franz Liszt was known to say things like, "This is too black," "More pink here," and "I want it all azure."? Ludwig van Beethoven referred to B minor as "the black key." Franz Schubert described E minor as being "unto a maiden robed in white and with a rose-red bow on her breast."

In Thailand every day of the week is assigned it’s very own colour
Sunday - red
Monday - cream/yellow
Tuesday - pink
Wednesday - green
Thursday - orange/brown
Friday - blue
Saturday - black/purple
What is your lucky colour. Go back and check out what day you were born to find out
http://www.thai-blogs.com/index.php?blog=5&title=what_is_your_lucky_colour&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Try it! It really works. My colour came out as orange! Anyone who knows me knows I wear a lot of orange – I even painted my garage wall orange!


Note: if you love the colour black, it suits your skin tones and it makes you feel good then all means wear it! Think “little black dress, think The All Blacks, think Audrey Hepburn. Put together well it can be ultra sophisticated. However my ardent, not evidenced by exhaustic research but intuitive sense is that the majority of people wear black because mass produced clothing offers little alternatives and people just don’t what suits them. See a coloursit, find a tailor (or fly to Thailand and get your clothes there!)

Labels: Life coaching

Fresh from my trip to Paris I am feeling truly inspired. I visited so many fabulous galleries and museums and soaked in the atmosphere in every way possible. I even made a bee-line for cafe's which used to be the favorite haunts of some of France's (or those who made their home in France) most famous artists - Cezanne, Pissaro, Picasso, and - one of my all time favorite colourists - Pierre Bonnard. I can't thank the Lonely Planet enough for pointing me in the right direction - even down to how to take a taxi to the place where Bonnard used to live (very shady indeed - no wonder he painted with such vibrant colours.)

Every since I saw the movie Orchestra Seats and fell in love with The Kiss by Romanian sculptor Brancusi I have been fascinated and truly enthralled with his work. (Those of you who know me well will recall my very intense and inspiring 3 year love affair with Virgil - a Romanian Violinst I met in Venice - so I guess you could say I feel a special affinity with Romanian artists). Imagine how truly excited I was to learn that the Pomidou Centre had a dedicatied exhibit to celebrate the life and work of this most gifted sculptor. The Pomidou Centre is home to the National Museum of Modern Art - and controversially the building with it's insides - air ducts, heating shafts etc - on the outside. How fabulous to see Brancusi's recreated workshop - complete with his tools of the trade and some of his most treasured works. It seriously took my breath away. During my training in furniture design and interior architecture I had the great pleasure of working in wood - something Brancusi was very passionate about also.

DId you know that Brancusi's sculpture "The Kiss" inspired my logo? If you look carefully you will see some parallels.

Well that's all from me for now. I'll be loading some more photos from my French trip - including some of Rodin's magnificent sculptures and some surprises:)

Labels: Life coaching