This image was created in one of Mary Gravelle's first ever "Igniting your Intention" workshops way back in 2000. My intention for the 28 day process was rather a lofty one: "My personality is now perfectly aligned with my Soul". At the time, I was reading a lot of Gary Zukav and searching for the "true" meaning to my life and work, an issue I am still pursuing. This image was created on Day 3 of the journey and included the following writings:

Intention: My personality is now perfectly aligned with my soul.

Image: A colorful seashell rolling along the blue waters of the ocean. Floating atop the foam of the water and seaweed. A bright yellow sun shines and warms the picture.

Personality: "Behavioral and emotional tendencies. Distinguishing character traits, attitudes, habits."

Soul: "A person's total self. An active or essential part. The immaterial essences, animating principal, or actuating cause of an individual life."
~From the Webster Dictionary

What does my personality look like?

A strange drawing came from this. It looks like a seashell rolling along in waves and seaweed. A glowing sun in the sky.

What is the drawing trying to tell me?

Answer: That you have many attributes and a bright personality you keep locked up...or rather the personality is like the outside of the shell covering up the spirit/your soul which is contained inside the shell. Your shell is decorated with bright colors of orange, pink and yellow with some tears of blue. You are floating along, being carried along by the waves of life. But the sun is out and the sea is calm. You are not as bad off as you sometimes think you are. You need to relax into the flow of the ocean; the flow of the current for it will take you where you need to go.

I found the process to be profound and gained many insights into myself from the Igniting process. The drawings really do talk to you if you listen and will give you messages that you need to hear. Perhaps even some that you don't WANT to hear, but must.

The commitment of sticking with the drawing and writing process for 28 days to make it a habit is difficult, (at least for me it was), but well worth the effort.

This session took us from mid-November to early December. At the time I was working in a place I had out grown and was feeling it was time to leave as well as make changes in my personal life. The igniting session gave me a feeling of power and direction. I sought out a personal counselor/psychologist, I got back into my journal writing, and eventually, (by March), I had a new job. It gave me a chance to quiet down within myself and listen to the wisdom of my soul rather than the ego based self-talk, (or rather for me my self-yelling), I am constantly barraging myself with.

I am currently doing an igniting session on my own and am again getting some valuable information from the combination of writing and drawing. Though I find the process easier within a group who meet on a regular basis for motivation and support, I am enjoying the journey to greater self discovery.

Allison Goodman
Visit my website at: http://pages.ivillage.com/agoodman02
OR shop my on-line store featuring my original artwork (including Spirit Shell): www.cafeshops.com/dreampix

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Email Allison: agoodman02@snet.net

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