Tend the Flame

In this mini-episode, Kate differentiates between the hard of habit and scarcity (aka unnecessary hard) versus the hard of leaning into life, and the ease of true alignment (which may not always be EASY!)

This episode give you your daily recommended dose of inspiration, to set your mind to live your best possible day. Take this practice forward into your week, and notice the muscles of awareness that you are building. A little bit of presence, goes a very long way.

Thinking about making positive practices a habit? Need to work out the plan for a new project? Let's chat https://www.katebrenton.com/shop/p/listen-to-her-session

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebrenton.substack.com/subscribe

For our first book recommendation here you go….

Grab your copy here

I chatted about how much I am enjoying this book and why in the above love note to you (click the audio).

I hopped on here to tell you that Claudine Wolk and I have to turn off the sale for Sit & Write tonight, so you have time to grab it before it returns to full price.

This morning a writer and master manifestation coach sent me this note:

It’s true. The secret ingredient to writing your book is the SAME magic that you need to manifest your best life. You might want to grab this inspiring and packed-with-insight self-paced class now. You’ll have life long access.

Also, if you happen to be local, Sit & Write is doing a lunch & learn in Doylestown February 8th at Noon at The Coterie Commons on Everything You Need to Know about Writing Your Book. It is a beautiful spaced, created to bring people together to learn and enjoy. Check out more information here.

Let me leave you this full moon with Ursula K. Le Guin:

“If you can see a thing whole," he said, "it seems that it's always beautiful. Planets, lives. . . . But close up, a world's all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life's a hard job, you get tired, you loose the pattern. You need distance, interval. The way to see how beautiful earth is, is to see it from the moon. The way to see how beautiful life is, is from the vantage point of death."

Keep expanding your perspective to include the unseen opportunities of now,

Kate

Sit & Write is a reader-supported, we need you to keep the Muse visiting us and sharing her wisdom.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebrenton.substack.com/subscribe

Overworked and exhausted and looking for clarity and a bit more ease?

This is your mini-episode to reignite your fire.

Learn about Sit, a journey of empowerment for women, easy and inspiring. Live cohort opens February 14th - because we all need to let in more Love. https://www.katebrenton.com/sitinyourcenteronline

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebrenton.substack.com/subscribe

This is a mini-podcast to help bolster your goals and aspirations for the year ahead. Writing lists and wishing into change is fun ...Tending viable soil, will yield a harvest rather than fade away. In this 2 part episode, Kate invites listeners to think of the soil that they have prepared for the year ahead, sharing excerpts from books and loosely veiled garnering metaphors for living your best days.

https://www.clarissapinkolaestes.com

Learn more about working with Kate at www.katebrenton.com

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebrenton.substack.com/subscribe

Dayna Mondello, Artist, Educator and Counterforce for Joy, has worked with children for 30 years- in every kind of school environment and home environment- wilderness and even traveling internationally together for education sake. In this episode we talk about the necessity of nature for humans and especially for children, the power and presence of a Vision Quest, and the steps of the process and also the reciprocal force that responds when we declare a change at a soul level. Cozyup with Dayna and Kate in this fireside chat of Tend the Flame.

Find Dana

IG : ⁠@daynamondello⁠

⁠www.daynamondello.com⁠

Episode Resources

⁠www.carlyrae.ca⁠

⁠www.schooloflostborders.com⁠

⁠www.animas.org⁠

Soulcraft, Bill Plotkin

https://bookshop.org/a/84615/9781577314226

Stay Connected with Kate www.katebrenton.com Kate writes at www.katebrenton.com

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebrenton.substack.com/subscribe

In this solo episode bonus, for the first & powerful new moon of 2024, Kate talks about the simplicity of starting your morning with a mind-that-is-set. Master your Mornings.

4 Session Coaching Package

$150 discount available at https://www.katebrenton.com/shop/p/flame

Offer expires 1/15/24

Step-up and set your mind for your intention and horizon for 2024.

Check out full poem & podcast drawing :) here https://katebrenton.substack.com/p/mind-set

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebrenton.substack.com/subscribe

“For it is not inertia alone that causes the unspeakable monotonous and unrenewed human condition to repeat itself again and again. It is the aversion to anything new, any unpredictable experience, which is believed to be untenable.” - Rainer Maria RilkeI heard that to train an elephant they use heavy shackles to tie him to  a tree, realizing the predicament he is in he eventually resigns himself to domestication — once the elephant relinquishes, the elephant trainers need only rope for restraint. Apparently broken, the elephant could - but does not venture escape.We do this.We do this every day: “the unspeakable montonous.”We do this when we refuse to experience new places or when we only talk to people who think like us. We do this when we refuse to open up to a silly idea from a child or when we go home the same way from work - every. single. day. Did you know that a simple trick for re-sparking inspired, creative thinking is driving a different way?Why?Because when we do the same thing over and over again, the ever intelligent brain says: "There is nothing new to see here."  And doesnʻt even look.Have you ever taken an out of town guest to your favorite restaurant or coffee shop and they notice something you have never seen before? Itʻs because they are looking. They are seeing. Their brain is skrying the environment and noticing.What did you notice on your way to work? The sky? The birds? Your text messages (hope not, both hands on the wheel!) Or are you thinking about what happened before you left — or worrying about what is yet to come?Of course brainstorming and collecting thoughts for the day, or processing a conversation in the quiet of your car is great. But are we ever just present? Or radically grateful that we have a car to drive and a job to drive to?It might sound trite, but allowing new vision - not imprinting the past as the present- reorganizes how your brain works. Because in the present, there is possibility.When you are grateful — your brain says, “Oh, we are looking for things to be grateful for. What can I find now?“ and that sends a message through the neurotransmitters associated with dopamine, which incites the “Letʻs do this again” response. The brain - the ever wanting to please puppy, like all dogs when they have proper exercise, discipline, and affection — feels satiated by completing a task and receiving the reward of positive attention. So you can program your brain to look for things that make you happy.You can allow your brain to inspire you.Gratitude is one way. You can also slow down and notice. Slow down and be. Let new information come from within (put down the phone), take a walk, remember the feeling of inspiration. Can you remember your last true a-ha? Did you act on  the whispers?  Or did you find yourself explaining to friends after the fact, ”I knew it!” But did nothing.Seth Godin recently asked, “What would you do if all your meetings were cancelled? Go do that - now.”  Why wait? You already know what you could be doing if you gave yourself permission.As Elizabeth Gilbert says: "Consider this your permission slip." Now go have fun - be creative. Be a problem solver.When we give pause, we can notice. When we give ourselves permission to dream broader, we act accordingly. We notice a co-worker that needs a hand. We can revision a parenting or an accounting problem. We can have a moment of not-knowing and surrender to that instead of repeating ad nauseam what we do know — and changing nothing but increasing our desperation and therefore inflammation, which serves only to makes us more upset and bitter.To give space, to slow down, to notice beauty - in another, in artwork, in Nature — creates possibility.“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.”  ― Thomas MertonTo notice that your life has changed and perhaps you were once shackled with immovable mental chains, but maybe you arenʻt now. Maybe you are a little wiser, a little kinder, a little more courageous. Maybe you made that move, or started a gentler self talk, or enrolled into ceramics / wine tasting / outdoor canoeing club, and you are not only exercising your mind, you are exercising  your right to joy — and you are letting more of that in. You are letting a little more inspiration shine. Maybe breath by breath and choice by choice that metal chain is becoming a rope — and you can choose to slip it off and walk away.

*originally written November 13, 2017

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebrenton.substack.com/subscribe

Hello!

A colleague of mine gave me the idea to share more with our creative community here. Some of us prefer to listen to the substacks here, so this year I will be handpicking previous posts for a retelling and infusing the piece where needed.

Enjoy!Kate

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebrenton.substack.com/subscribe

Dayna Mondello, Artist, Educator and Counterforce for Joy, has worked with children for 30 years- in every kind of school environment and home environment- wilderness and even traveling internationally together for education sake. In this episode we talk about the necessity of nature for humans and especially for children, the power and presence of a Vision Quest, and the steps of the process and also the reciprocal force that responds when we declare a change at a soul level. Cozyup with Dayna and Kate in this fireside chat of Tend the Flame.

Find Dana

IG : @daynamondello

www.daynamondello.com

Episode Resources

www.carlyrae.ca

www.schooloflostborders.com

www.animas.org

Soulcraft, Bill Plotkin

https://bookshop.org/a/84615/9781577314226

Stay Connected with Kate www.katebrenton.com Kate writes at www.katebrenton.com

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebrenton.substack.com/subscribe

Have you ever thought to soundtrack your past year? To track the ebbs and flow of what you learned or celebrated? What about what you overcame? What would it be like to have a soundtrack for the year to come? Something that embodies how you want to FEEL? Tune into this episode to learn more.

Connect with [email protected]

Kate writes at https://katebrenton.substack.com/p/the-work-changes-your-purpose-doesnt

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebrenton.substack.com/subscribe