Do you have questions or topics you’d like me to respond or cover to on the Spark My Muse podcast?
I’d like to hear from you! :)
Questions about wine? (or vineyards, viticulture, wine grapes, managing a tasting room, etc)
About Christian spiritual practices? (pray forms, spiritual growth, discipleship, the Bible, etc)
About Creativity? (productivity, being “in the flow”, inspiration, overcoming discouragement, etc)
Something from a blog article you’d like me to expand on?
Or, “other”….
Leave a voice message and I’ll pick the best ones to feature in future podcast episodes. If you want to, you can leave your website and reach a few thousand more people too.
(Microphone shy? Just use the “contact page” and type something to me.)
Shownotes:
Spark My Muse Episode 9 – Wine: moderation vs. medication (The famous HALT method)
This is a surprise “mid-week” episode. This show normally goes live each Wednesday. Episode 10 and 11 are longer special interview episodes.
Episode 10 (airing May 27th) Emily Miller writer and journalist for the Chicago Sun-Times and Relevant Magazine
Episode 11 (airing June 3rd) Daniel J. Lewis prolific creator of an entire network of podcast programs, including nationally-awarded shows on how to podcast, comedy, and the #1 rating discussion show for ABC’s series “Once Upon a Time”.
Check back for those!
This episode was brought to you by “The Daily Sharpening Ritual”–The perfect way to supercharge and renew personal awareness in your life.
The simple but effective worksheet was designed to create extra awareness and transformative improvement with minimal planning and effort.
It takes just 3-5 minutes each morning and at night. • You can see big changes for the better in only 5 days. Give it a test try, you have nothing to lose.
(simply print out 5 copies and follow-through!)
While tipping is appreciated…these are yours to use for free.
Choose either or both options and see which one you like best:
How much wine is considered “drinking in moderation”?
• Rule of thumb: 2, 5oz glasses per day is moderate drinking, and no more than one drink per hour, or four drinks per occasion (like an all-day event like a picnic or wedding)
But if it’s hard to go a day without drinking wine (or wanting to), rethinking your relationship with wine is needed.
The show details some physical repercussions of over-consuming wine, and a practical way to build mindfulness.
• If you unsure that your consumption is healthy, jot down the feelings behind the desire to consume wine so it doesn’t master you.
• Wine can too-quickly be used to medicate ourselves, and this hurts our Souls. Be mindful. :)
(“Soul” meaning what it does in Hebrew: our whole-self, mental, spiritual, creative, relational, etc)
Sparking your muse
Featuring the book by Brennan Manning called, “The Wisdom of Tenderness”.
Explaining “the HALT method” for decision-making:
Brennan Manning died last year, and he is probably best known for writing the Ragamuffin Gospel. He accumulated a lot of wisdom through life, but it didn’t come cheap. Poor choices, wrong turns, and hard lessons molded him, eventually, into a person of great compassion and grace–a sage for the poor in spirit and those smart enough to listen. Many sought him out for his wisdom.
When Manning came into recovery as an alcoholic he learned a buzzword from AA (Alcoholics Anonymous). AA folks use it as a method and smart tool to create greater awareness in those vulnerable to slipping back into alcohol abuse.
• They stay on the lookout for four qualities that make them susceptible to relapse and are encouraged to seek help when they identify them occurring in their life. Before they take a sip they look for the signs and call for backup.
If H.A.L.T., then halt.
Regular internal check for these:
H – Hungry (not just for food, but a longing in general)
A – Angry (or stressed, or frustrated)
L – Lonely (or rejected, or left out, feeling alone in the world)
T – Tired (often tired from helping others or being otherwise overcommitted)
We all need to cultivate an awareness of our vulnerabilities to avoid a slide into poor choices, creative slumps, or dangerous behavior.
Sometimes we don’t even realize our feelings while we are having them or how we are trying to soothe our selves.
Let’s develop the awareness to halt and take an internal inventory or seek help when we get run down, over-extended, or when we find ourselves feeling in some way hungry, angry, lonely, or tired.
It is awareness which is at the heart of any ingenious creative pursuit, meaningful transformation or spiritual growth.
NEW next week (May 27)…A great interview with my friend, Emily Miller (writer and journalist for the Chicago Sun-Times and regular contributor to Relevant Magazine).
JUNE 3rd, comes an interview with expert creative, Daniel J. Lewis!
Please take part in this anonymous 30-second listener-survey so I can continue to produce the show.
I’m reading the book by Brennan Manning called, “The Wisdom of Tenderness”.
Here is a gem I read today on page 107 and that I found really potent.
Brennan Manning died last year, and he is probably best known for writing the Ragamuffin Gospel. He accumulated a lot of wisdom through life, but it didn’t come cheap. Poor choices, wrong turns, and hard lessons molded him into a person of great compassion and grace–a sage for the poor in spirit and those smart enough to listen. Many sought him out for his wisdom.
When Manning came into recovery as an alcoholic he learned a buzzword from AA (Alcoholics Anonymous). They use it as a way to create greater awareness in a person who is vulnerable to slipping back into alcohol abuse.
• They stay on the lookout for four qualities that make them susceptible to relapse and are encouraged to seek help when they identify them occurring in their life. Before they take a sip they look for the signs and call for backup.
H.A.L.T.
H – Hungry (not just for food, but a longing in general)
A – Angry (or stressed, or frustrated)
L – Lonely (or rejected, or left out)
T – Tired (often tired from helping others or being otherwise overcommitted)
People in AA have to rely on each other to find support and avoid the demon booze. People in AA need to cultivate an awareness of their vulnerabilities to avoid a slide into dangerous, even life-threatening, behavior. But, don’t we all need help in the same sorts of ways? We engage in all sorts of bad habits from over eating, to binge tv watching, trolling on Facebook, eating a pint of ice cream out of the box, to watching or reading licentious content, to pill popping....or whatever…it’s probably very different for each person.
Sometimes we don’t even realize our feelings or how we are trying to soothe our selves.
Let’s develop the awareness to halt and seek help when we get run down, over-extended, or when we find ourselves feeling in some way hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. It can be the escape route from trouble, bad choices. It is awareness at the heart of any meaningful transformation or spiritual growth.
Will you be able to know to H.A.L.T. before trouble?
I’ll post other tidbits as I find them. Enjoy the book for yourself if you can. You can get it used for pocket change.
This project is on hold because of the current projects I’m working on. I will update again when we move toward this happening.
3 Things today!
1. A lot is going on behind the scenes to produce a podcast.
I’ve done a bunch of reading, learning, and research.
The logo is ready (this will be revealed later…exciting stuff, stay tuned).
The intro is done, the mixing and recording software is getting figured out…kinda… sorta…
It’ll be a half a dozen weeks, probably, until so much gets figured out…recorded, edited, produced, and uploaded.
Here are some upcoming topics if you’d like to be on the show (you can phone in or we can pre-record).
I’d like to hear from you if one of these is close to your heart.
• Best ways to rest and retreat
• Suffering that produced courage (story-based)
• Finding purpose–accidentally (story-based)
• Life-giving or growth-producing rituals
• Embarrassing Moments and Vulnerability
If you want to be a sponsor of the show and feature with a product, service, ministry, book, project, or website, use the contact page to send me a message!
2. If you like what you’ve read and what happens here, consider getting my in-depth but consice weekly correspondence coming in February.
Learn about it here.
3. There are only a few more days for you to get in on the children’s book we’ve done. It’s a fantastic project and I’m excited to share it with you. Check it out here.
I wanted to be more intensional about my mindset in 2015 and I created something for myself to do each morning and evening to super charge that. It’s a simple worksheet that takes only 3-7 minutes in the morning and in the evening. And you see results and improvement after just a few days.
It’s free, so you why not give it a try and see for yourself.
You can download it, distribute it, use it in groups, or for yourself.
Just print out a copy for each day, or keep a journal and use the worksheet as your guide.
Habits and rituals for re-centering on what matters are a huge boost to personal improvement on all levels (career, relational, emotional, physical, spiritual, etc). A format (or roadmap) makes it easy to start and execute, but most of all, easier to stick with it until it can transform your thoughts and actions.
If you think that you’d like the new year to get off to a great start or if you feel like you need a guide to get back on track, this is a great resource, I promise you. Simply, download it free, print it, and try it. If you like it, let me know, or tell me what would improve it.
In a goodwill gesture and love and warm fuzzies, I am releasing these to you and the world under a Limited Creative Commons license. (CC). They are free to reproduce, use, and distribute with author attribution to me (Lisa DeLay).
