Posts in Category: About
Joyful Emancipation [Free Printable!]
In other words, goodbye. Not goodbye in the absolute sense. More so in that I’m moving on, embracing all of my creative/professional/wellness profession(s) and putting them into one big pot of multidisciplinary, multiple streams of (modest) income action.
This blog, as it exists now, shall make its exit. While Jen and I had some baby plans for this website, alas, it is a project that we just did not have enough time to come together on. Besides, that woman is entirely ROCKING her career as an Indigenous writer, director and producer! (Her new site and social media graphics BTW, collaborated on by yours truly!)
I’m trying to keep things simple with this post, to compliment the framework I’m manifesting for my professional self. Where the lines blur personally; as a digital storyteller, as an advocate for women’s health, a social media and branding dabbler; and someone who generally gives a damn.
A new selena [dot] mills [dot] com site is coming soon. Outlining my professional services and workshops (both online in creative/public spaces). I’ll still have a blog to tie into my humble wellness coaching practice, sharing recipes and personal stories about my own journey in mothering; enriched and healthful well-being.
I’m writing for CBC parents now, which is SUPER fun and, well, someone PINCH ME. Because CBC. ‘Nuff said.
There is one last exciting project (HA! Last project! From my mouth!) that I am collaborating on with four other fierce, mystic, entrepreneurial, health-revering women … but I’m not going to any more detail on that for now. It’s been slow, organic and so rewarding on a deeply personal level to work with these women and our loyal clients that if we never do more than what we’re doing RIGHT NOW together; I would be happy. I’m attracted to humanitarian eccentrics and dominatrixes. Generous, courageous, women. I’m also passionate about empowering other women in business AND health (including myself!), and apparently we’re onto something good, so blaze new trails we shall. We’ve been tackling emotional and mental clutter together and we continue to work with other women (and a few choice men who revel in such supportive folds), and leading by example. We focus on sharing personal values and “mindful” decision-making.
I lead a top secret community group on Facebook and create daily prompts/exercises with services that include:
→ Healthy eating strategies and recipe sharing
→ Meal planning and meal prep resources/ideas (PDF recipe and nutrition guides, grocery lists, etc.)
→ Online workout reviews
→ Assistance with choosing realistic, at-home fitness program to suit the individual’s likes/dislikes and/or physical restrictions/limitations
→ Personal development exercises: goal mapping (career, relationships, understanding triggers, trauma work, healing, digging deep)
→ Daily encouragement, self-care, mindfulness routines and activities where we lead by example
→ Accountability check-ins EVERY DAY
→ Endless support in a guilt and shame free zone
→ Having FUN!
We specialize in working with those who:
→ Have dietary restrictions due to auto-immune, inflammatory or other diseases
→ Live with food disorder(s)
→ Have PTSD and other related mental illnesses
→ Are women and/or mothers whose own own self-care has fallen completely off their daily to-do list(s)
In addition, I’ll be running short, group-based, online workshops (again, private FB groups) for:
→ Sparking Creative Fires (last month we did a BETA run of Vision Boarding in our main group!)
→ Sugar Detox
→ Bullet Journaling
Instead of focusing on a number on the scale, we focus our energy on being healthy, what that means, and how to get there. If you’re curious about joining us for the month of November (active membership is only $10 bucks a month), email me for more info and we’ll get you started! This month’s theme is all about turning up the heat, going deep, playing bigger and getting things DONE.
This will be my last post here and I wanted to gift y’all with something pretty, something you can print and hang where you’ll see it everyday. These words represent much of what I’m doing right now. I shared two versions of this inspo print with the fabulous women in Being Boss group on FB and got such an wickedly supportive response that I couldn’t choose, (compared with what my clients in our private group preferred), which was the whole reason I was asking for feedback, to help me choose which one to share. So pick the one you prefer.
Part of my multidisciplinary-arts-professional-self, will include selling some prints from time to time on my soon-to-be rekindled Etsy Shop (under a new name), so consider this my free gift to you, pre-launch. (And by launch I mean, I don’t have grand plans for the Etsy shop venture, I’m just going to post listings of things I’m already making and creating now and then. No craft shows, no eggs all in one basket sort of thing. How liberating!) Hand-drawn, hand-painted, scanned and cleaned up in PS from me to you!
Free printable: CLICK HERE for a high res PDF download SANS Shadow, CLICK HERE to download the shadow action. Please share your prints on IG of FB with me, and even use the tag #giveadamn if you’re into that sort of thing. Can’t wait to see where you hang them!
AND I’M BACK, WITH A FRIEND THIS TIME: INTRODUCING THE NEW BLOG NAME & DIRECTION!
Without further ado, I’d like to introduce you to a good friend of mine – my new blogging partner Jennifer Podemski. Below is a video that we did (mostly) on the fly. Poke around the new layout – if you’re a previous friend of le petit reve, you’ll see some of the same and quite a bit of new. New categories, new breath, new life.
Jen is well familiar with being behind the camera – I however, am not. Which you will quickly discover, although we’ve been told that we have a good dynamic. The video is a lot longer than we intentioned and truth be told it’s been edited down. The ‘experts’ say that if we want to engage audiences new and old with blog videos, or vlogging as the official term apparently is…that we’re supposed to keep it short and sweet.
Clearly nothing short going on here. So please, tell us in the comments if you’d like to see more of the long or if you think we should pare things down a bit with our future vlogs; something of which we look forward to doing a lot more of! As we get more confident with letting the veil drop and converse as we would without a camera pointed in our direction…we’re hoping the content appeals to you as much as it does to us.
Throwback Thursday: The Truth Can Cage, Rattle & Set You Free
Do stories really tell a picture? Of course they do. The ones we want them to at least. With photographs we get to filter – and not just with phone apps. Take for instance, one of the most popular hashtags on Instagram, #tbt.
And Then There Was Me
Hello friends. Its been more than a while and all the things that I thought I wanted to do with this blog have changed.
So many changes.
Much to do with personal happenings and relationships in my life that I shouldn’t write about becasue, well, they are not only my stories to tell.
I’ve been thinking about starting an anonymous blog. For reals. My journal (for actual pen to paper writing), has been my cathartic weapon of choice , but it’s starting to feel as though I’m not holding it right. It’s not filling the gap, I’m yearning for something more.
It has been a few years now that a couple of close friends, who know all the stories… (and even then some they don’t, as I myself am just starting to figure them out) …and they keep telling me. Write them Selena. Use your gift, in the ways in which a traditional story-teller would. (Not a blogger.)
That last part I say to myself.
What am I looking for you may ask? Community. I have always found solace in community. There are others out there with me who struggle with the same sorts of things that I struggle with, there are those who have stories much like mine.
There are those out in the world who are ‘misfits’ just like me. I think I want to find them. Because whether some people may believe so or not, there is power, there is healing, there is regeneration to be had by using the power of you voice, of your pen – your keyboard…to share the stories that don’t shine. The ones that crumble and heave.
Because at the same time those stories are hope. They are strength. They are survival. They are me. While I may not be ashamed of who I am anymore, the whole of me – all of my stories don’t belong in public sphere with my face next to them. It definitely doesn’t feel right to talk or hint at them in this place anymore.
This is where I share the happy stories. The shiny ones of my children. Of my hobbies. Of my loves. All of the good and vastly wonderful parts of my life. Perhaps even the not-so-good and the undeniably hard parts of mothering. Those sorts of topics belong here.
Perhaps this explains why things have been silent here since before the New Year, and if vague blogging is what these first few paragraphs could be defined as – so be it. This is after all, my small corner in the universe. I’m struggling to define a new space here and define a space that is real, that is me.
So. I’m not going to talk about this anonymous blog thing again and if it happens – it happens. It will be my way of delving into chapters and who knows – perhaps one day it will become a book, when times are different and more stories will be okay to share. Memoirs take decades to write. Having a private blog, for me – seems like a good way to start the process.
As for here…gosh. I’m thinking of a white slate. Starting fresh. Stories and pictures that my children can look back on and know how much they were loved. The recipes and DIY projects that come easily to me. An editor of mine recently told me, just share what you’re good at. Screw what anyone else thinks or comparing yourself to others.
This must be my new mantra. I am all-too familiar with the soul sucking, dark-art of comparison. I’m a mom who on most days…most days, it’s all I can do but to love-on my kids. Make sure they’re clean, well-fed and nurtured. That my house isn’t in complete and manic disarray. To keep on top of the myriad of things it takes to run a house-hold and keep a family happy. For whatever reason, I feel like a failure if ‘that’s all’, I am able to muster.
It’s as though I need to be great multiple things in order to consider myself a worthwhile, intelligent, contributing human being. A person who makes things happen. That used to be me. What I’m starting to realize is that I’m making a whole new wave of things happen that aren’t defined by the amount of career goals I meet or ideas founded; they are defined by the greatness in which I mother.
Love my partner. Love myself.
Perhaps that sounds cheesy – but right now? My biggest task at hand is finding peace within and exuding that grace to bestow upon my loved ones. To mire through our recent struggles and my own – and to come out on top. That is all. This is most important.
In the wake of the constant doing, that I used to attribute to being a natural part of who I am – there has been a break in the noise.
To present new truths amidst the old ones; that I can’t ignore anymore and which require my full attention.
Until the next. Thank-you as always – for reading.
From The Vault: My Most Favourite Posts
I’ve noticed quite a few, “Top Posts of 2011″ and the like from writers in the blogging community.
I however have decided to choose from the much smaller collection from whence this blog began.
Why? Because I started out as an irregular, complete novice. Who still does not post everyday. However, come this year a whole lot of things are changing. The face of this site for one. Come February it’s going to be shiny and new, a hub for all that I do. More on that later.
This collection here? Is for me to share with those whom want to get to know me better, or those whom I really, really, like and want them to know me better. The awesome part about that is that it’s often a combo of the two.
It’s also a source of inspiration, for me – to come back to and meander over how I’ve evolved as a writer, found my voice and developed my mad blogging skillz. Because. Like I said. I plan on doing much more of this. In many ways. As an advocate, as a story-teller, as an ambassador and paid writer. But most importantly, for me and other women like me out there. Because the writing stuff? It heals. It empowers. It unites.
So. This curated list will be the first step into my second coming. A more frequent, constantly learning, embracing the everyday that is me. As a writer. Gone the name acronyms will be, it’s about to get straight-up – the edgy that is me, REAL in here.
Without further ado…to serve as reminder to me. Kicks in the pants to me and FYI’s for you. So pull up a chair. Pour yourself a glass of vino. (I’m publishing this in the eveing people, as I pour myself a glass). Dig in.
Abigail’s Birth Vlory
Like a birth story, but in video. What? I’ve been doing the parenting thing on my own for the past week with an added 2 more kids to ours (who really have been more of a help than anything else – older kids who have been raised well rock my world!)
So excuse me if I am creating weak analogies about blogging and vlogging and birth stories and birth videos. Can someone also please tell me why my adorable (heck, but she is ridiculously cute) baby girl has gone from having 1 daytime to one evening solid sleep (like 2 or 3 hours) to only sleeping in 20 min. intervals? Please, dear sweet buddha, why? My eyes are burning out of my head and the walls/floors feel mighty floaty most of the time. Vertigo is the new norm.
No No Keshagesh…Reconsider This
*UPDATE 2012: This post is a biggie. Leave it open on your browser. Come back to it often. Soak it up in all of it’s entirety. Please.*
In lieu of the upcoming holidays; there is much to be thankful for, much to discuss in love and unity, much to reconsider. I was in a debate recently over FB. Yea, Facebook. It happens. It was in response to this video being posted by a wise friend.
A 9 mo. Old Wee Strappin’ Lad aka: WSL
Could it be? My sweet baby boy; our Little Big Spirit Running, that you’ve entered into three quarters of a year in age? Nine months and a few days past when you found your place in this realm, here on earth. Leader from the sky; Wyndham Nighanagiizhig Tobias Mills.
You’d been dreamt about by me. Dreamt about by our elder as a wise leader from the spirit realm; here now, to run wild, happy and free. Running to discover the knowledge you have, as given to you by our grandfathers. But first it’s your toes to discover…tiny little nubs round and sweet as corn apparently, as you repeatedly flex them up to your mouth to gobble and slurp upon. The tickle of grass you clench and gritty feel of dirt you claw with glee. Your voice, your limbs, the magic in every corner. Every day is pure joy and exploration through your eyes, transposed into me. You give us such complete and natural bliss. The world is different now to us, to me, through your wise young eyes…
CONNECT WITH JENNIFER
CONNECT WITH SELENA
