Hey There,

I have been considering where I fit in the intersection of art and therapy. On the one hand, they have felt like separate forms and on the other hand, they keep colliding, becoming one thing. This video is that collision.

I designed and fabricated this chair/throne. I wanted to create a distinct seat, a space for someone to come and boldly inhabit, an invitation to really sit in all their power, all their experience, all their knowing.

This shell throne is still in process, but as I walked by it my backyard, I couldn’t help but feel the pull to sit there. In therapy, we often use the empty chair technique and welcome the living out of the unspoken, the unfelt, the unrecognized. The demonstration or living art in the video above, plays with the direct intersection of art and therapy. Where one becomes the other and then becomes the other and so on.

May this work bless your perspective, bless your seeking, bless your awareness, bless your arriving.

Cheers!

Elyse

Reflection Questions from inside the bubble of you:

I am ...

I need ...

I want ...

I feel ...

I know ...

I will ...

I can ...

I am ...

Happy New Year! I hope this episode finds you just as you are - maybe fried from the holidays or bright eyed and full of new year resolution vigor.

This is episode 230 and is technically the 27th lesson of the 40 things part of this podcast. Next: You actually don’t have to have it all figured out. You don’t have to know what you’re going to do “next”. How could you possibly know that, if you don’t know how to be here now?

Listen to this episode to find out what presence and Fire Horses and the collective unconscious have to do with you.

May you be met this year with really grounded and also really passionate momentum.

Cheers!

Elyse

P.S. I made some big changes last year (sold a business) and am now full circle back in my own private practice. If you have been thinking of doing any work together, I am offering 1:1 coaching, one time sessions for ppl looking to jumpstart an idea, and journey within sessions. You can find all that on my website. Happy New Year!

Make peace with seasons. Beginnings and endings and starting again. Relationships, careers, roles, homes, friendships, your view of yourself, the hard phase you’re in, or your kid is in … it is all only right now, not always. Breathe.

What would change about the season you are in if you knew it wasn’t forever?

Today’s episode dips into the concept of impermanence and the various seasons we are in simultaneously. I walk you through an exercise on seasons and landscapes and how to use your visual cortex and imagination to take stock of where you are now. This is one of my favorite episodes I have recorded, I hope you enjoy it too!

Cheers,

Elyse

Hey there,

Back at this 40 Things journey with Episode 228: Possibility.

Resolve to not know everything. Commit yourself instead to wonder, to what if, to why not.

May this episode open for you new paths and moments of exploration along your way.

Cheers,

Elyse

Hey there,

Happy back to all the things … I don’t know how your week is going but I am feeling inundated by all the back to school-sports-extracurriculars that are now on my calendar. I was talking to myself in the car about the different carpool schedules, trying to figure out which days would work best to drive when my husband asked me what I was doing … I didn’t even realize I was talking out loud. So there’s that. And then the creation of this episode … finding neutral. In the urgency and good chaos of all that is life right now, I need neutral, I need pause, I need exhale and peace and ease.

This episode moves through two different exercises to help you find your neutral - breath work and guided visualization. I hope they bring you some sweet relief this week as you navigate your To Do lists. May we find neutral so we can find joy.

Cheers,

Elyse

P.S. I just opened my calendar for Fall bookings if you are interested in doing some work together: www.elysesnipes.com. 20% off an appointment when you mention this episode.

Hi There,

Interrupting our regular flow with some back to school thoughts on good grief. Didn’t see that coming huh?

This week I sent my two sons to middle school and my daughter to fourth grade. Cue the memory lane of middle school moments and feeling like maybe parenthood is finally going too quickly. Then I ran into a friend of mine who is sending her first son to college so we both cried, naturally. What hit me after this interaction was the concept of good grief. What if there are good things, really good things that we have been hoping and planning for and praying for and they happen and then we just want our baby back thank you very much? What good things are happening that are also kicking up some grief?

Give this episode a listen and let me know what you think. Do you have any good grief?

Cheers,

Elyse

P.S. I am now accepting appointments for Fall if you have been considering doing some work together. www.elysesnipes.com

Dismantle the idea that you have to earn good things. That you have to somehow work hard enough or be good enough to rest or laugh or enjoy something. Instead go all in on simple free accessible right now joy.

Listen to this episode to stretch your experience of accessing joy here and now. Let yourself linger in the good stuff.

Elyse

Find a hobby or a thing you have no business doing and enjoy the thrill of being new at something. Find freedom in learning.

When was the last time you laughed at yourself? Risked public scrutiny in the name of spontaneity? How could foolishness be a growth edge for you?

There is immense learning and liberation for the beginner’s mind. There is no pressure to be good at whatever the thing is because you’re new to it. You showing up, trying, taking a swing at it, is enough. As adults, we can become obsessed with mastery and being “good” or getting “better” at our hobbies or work. We rarely continue to do things that are fumbly or awkward or foolish … what a bummer. There is so much life to be lived right at this intersection.

Today’s episode is an invitation to your own humanity, to doubling down on joining the fun and giving yourself the opportunity to get to know your own wonderful weirdness. Do something unexpected this week, I double dog dare you.

Elyse

www.elysesnipes.com

INDULGE: Figure out what you do for fun. Don’t underestimate how much we need to laugh and do something just because. Make time for your fun unapologetically.

What if I asked you, “what do you do for fun?” … be with that for a moment. What do you actually do for fun? When was the last time you did your fun thing? How does fun change your experience of your life?

A couple years ago, as I was planning my children’s fun summer, I realized I didn’t have a single fun thing for myself on my calendar. In fact, I hadn’t even thought about it and couldn’t remember the last time I had. I wasn’t on my own list. How sad. So, I made some changes …

This episode explores finding fun again and prioritizing it, actually doing it, not just thinking about it. So, tell me, what do you do for fun?

Elyse