Tag Archives: bohemian

Celebrate Life

Whether we’re on top of the world, or in the depths of fear and despair, LIFE is the one thing that connects us all.  Even when everything is falling apart, it is impossible to deny on a logical level that life is an amazing miracle.

We may not feel like celebrating when we are in the midst of sadness or anger, but the truth of existence remains.  The material world springs from the void in all of its complexity, and our emotion is a direct experience of this.

Whether we are aged 2, 22 or 202, we have reason to celebrate.  Life is the one thing that connects us all.  Whether we are full of love and joy, or feeling disconnected and isolated, getting back to basics and acknowledging the extraordinary experience we are sharing can only enrich our lives.

Ayutthaya, Thailand

When I was younger, this desire to celebrate came incredibly naturally.  To be dancing with other souls on this sacred journey was the best feeling in the world.  All I wanted to do was soak up every precious moment.  It was completely unconscious though.  I was just a young person enjoying the party.

Fast forward a few years, I’d had several premature mid life crises, and lost my passion for such festivities.  Somewhere along the way, I’d forgotten why I was celebrating.  I experienced the other side of life, at times lost in deep sadness and isolation.  However, avoiding parties and festivals definitely didn’t help.  At least not at first.

I didn’t know what made me happy any more, so I took the time to explore my creativity and do some serious soul searching.  I discovered my values and reasons for living, and now I truly understand the importance of celebrating our existence together.

Dressing up as a badger is the best way to celebrate any occasion!

In our society, there is a tendency as we get older to let this celebratory side of us fall asleep, in favour of a quieter peace and contentment (or bitterness, anger and resentment!).  But having experienced the full spectrum of emotions, we have the chance to bring a depth to our celebration that we were previously unaware of.

Every experience feeds our soul in some way.  The more life we have lived, the more our creativity can bloom.  It is our duty to one another to share our magic.

Handmade gemstone necklaces pictured available in my shop www.etsy.com/shop/tessheaven.

Belief in various gods or a higher power unites people in other cultures, giving festivals a deeper meaning, and a reason to set aside individual egos.  However, our lack of a shared belief system shouldn’t prevent us from joining forces, and worshipping almighty LIFE together.

I think this is something we forget in our country sometimes, in favour of hedonism and obliteration.  There is definitely a place for reckless abandon, but maybe there would be less need to escape reality if we were more focused on celebrating the one thing that unites us all.  Being ALIVE!

 

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Sacred Adornment

I wear jewels and adorn myself with beautiful things because it puts me in touch with my dream world.  It is so important to me to express my inner vision in a way that makes me a part of it.

If you’ve read much of my blog you’ll know that I’m a big fan of all forms of creative expression.  It’s a magical process in itself.  When the expression takes the form of adorning the body, your dream comes to life directly through you.  By wearing a piece of jewellery or item of clothing that represents a quality or ideal that you hold dear, you are literally embodying your sacred vision.

anklet blue

Macrame gemstone anklet from my Etsy shop. Details here.

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching, and self image is something that I’ve struggled with.  I used to be so image conscious that I wouldn’t leave my house without curling my eyelashes, let alone without mascara, afraid that if I didn’t look ‘perfect’ people would like me less.

I’ve gone to the other extreme too and embraced my wild side, washing in rivers, wearing clothes with far too many holes in, and letting my hair become what can only be described as one big accidental dreadlock.

I’m coming out of my ‘don’t give a s**t what I look like’ phase now (although I still have my moments!), and jewellery has been the key to unlocking my inner goddess.

sacred adornment

Bracelets, necklace and earrings available in my shop.

Paying too much attention to how we look is seen as vanity.  However, the art of sacred adornment, for me, is about pure joy.  You can’t argue with joy.  When I put on jewellery or clothing that makes me feel like the sacred being that I am, it’s not about what I look like.  It’s about remembering my ‘specialness’, and that I don’t need anything external to make me happy.

I was glowing for hours yesterday after dressing up and taking pictures wearing my favourite jewels.  It wouldn’t have mattered in the slightest if someone had torn them from my neck and I was left with nothing but the bare skin I was born with.  I don’t need jewellery to make me feel sacred, it’s just a beautiful temporary expression of it.

Jewellery, clothes, make-up and accessories are all just tools at the end of the day.  Whether you use them to bring joy, or to cover up insecurities is entirely up to you.  I recommend joy.  Always.

If you’re looking for inspiration or something special to adorn yourself with you can check out my Etsy shop here.

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Living your passion

I could tell you that I am so inspired and enchanted by the magic of life all the time that I can’t help but share my experiences and create beautiful things.  But that would be a gigantic big lie. There is some truth in it, on good days.  The bit I’ve left out is pretty crucial to the story though.

Sometimes I am so full of self doubt and negativity that it literally paralyses me.  If you ever suffer from this kind of lack of confidence then you’ll know that focussing on trying to improve whatever it is you’re unhappy with while in this fearful state can be counterproductive.  You just end up finding further problems and reasons why you can’t succeed.  There are lots of things you can do to change your mindset and appreciate your successes instead, but it may be that remembering what you’re passionate about is enough to make the shift from feeling stuck and hopeless to being inspired and empowered.

I’ll use my personal experience as an example to illustrate the power of this.  I had hit a bit of a brick wall with the marketing side of my handmade jewellery business.  My brain had given up doing its job and my thoughts were scattered and increasingly negative.  This has happened to me enough times to know not to continue down that road.  I tried to follow my own advice and made a conscious effort to remember what I was passionate about.

Sometimes you have to be really honest with yourself when your heart isn’t in what you’re doing.  The reason my brain wasn’t co-operating was because I was trying to deny a major part of the motivation behind my work.

Being self employed isn't all rainbows... unless you happen to be at Iguacu falls.

Being self employed isn’t all rainbows… unless you happen to be at Iguacu falls.

Travel and freedom have played a central role in my life for a long time.  However, because I’d been so focussed on my business, I’d forgotten why I was doing all of this.  I was thinking about all of the different ways to market my online shop, but I had lost my spark.  I had put travel in a box that didn’t overlap with work, but when I remembered my passion it freed up my thinking again.

Poon Hill in the Himalayas, Nepal.  Our guide didn't carry me all the way up, honest!

Poon Hill in the Himalayas, Nepal.  On top of the world, now that’s freedom!

My handmade jewellery and my creativity are inseparable from my love of exploring the world.  I have many passions that are intertwined, and to work efficiently I need to allow them to be expressed.  I need to live my passion for travel, my passion for freedom and my passion for peace, in order to fuel my passion for creating bohemian jewellery for free spirited dreamers.  I need that lust for life to design jewellery that resonates with the people I create it for.

So that’s now the basis of my marketing strategy.  To be myself, but louder.  To immerse myself in the things that inspire me, connect with like minded people who share my outlook on life, and to share my journey and inspirations with them.  With you.

Living my passion is actually pretty essential to both my productivity and my happiness.  That’s the thing with being a sensitive soul trying to make a living from your creative endeavours – if you stray too far from the things that inspire you then you soon get shut down by the first hint of failure!  You need that burning passion to sustain you through the many, many failures that are necessary for your growth.  If you’re truly following your heart and expressing your authentic self then failure just doesn’t feel like failure any more.  You just keep going.

Macrame gemstone earrings.  You can browse my Etsy shop TessHeaven here.

Macrame gemstone earrings. You can browse my Etsy shop TessHeaven here.

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