LOST AND FOUND: A Journey to Wholeness

Year-long Lost and Found Study, including Monthly Tele-workshops with Karen Ely

Five years ago I published Daring to Dream: Reflections on the Year I Found Myself, which chronicles the year following the end of my 32-year marriage.

Often it’s only from a distance that we’re able to see the gifts we received in difficult times. Thirteen years have passed since my divorce and with that has come a great deal of introspection and insight. I now know that magic possibilities exist in the broken open space between "How the hell did this happen to me?” and a new life.

I know that amazing opportunities appear when you make the decision to use a current challenge as a transformational opportunity. I know this because I've seen it in my own life . . . over and over again.

Many women who have read Daring to Dream or have come to A Woman's Way programs have asked me for "the rest of the story," the prequel and sequel to Daring to Dream.

I'm happy to announce that I've written a book about my journey. Lost and Found: A Journey to Wholeness is my story of moving from an unhappy, confused woman sleepwalking through her life to the peaceful, authentic, engaged woman I am today.

I am nowhere near perfect nor is my life but what I do know without equivocation is that I am lost no more.

There’s great freedom in the journey to wholeness and I’d love to share it with you. So rather than publish this book, as I have my other three books, I'm turning Lost and Found into a serialized opportunity for you to share in my journey, reflect on ways my journey can inform your own, and participate in a forum for discussion and personal growth.

Give yourself the gift of freedom!

REGISTER NOW: Lost and Found (including all of the above PLUS 10% off a future A Woman's Way program) will cost you ONLY $195 if you register before December 15th (after December 15th the cost will be $250). Click here for more information or to register today!

Three Ways to Join Me in France

I'm in LOVE!

I've had a love affair with France since the first time I stepped off the plane at Charles de Gaulle airport in November of 2005.

I felt an immediate and deep connection to the country and also a sense that I belonged there. And that brought me to France four times in the past six years and a realization that I wanted to spend several months there in 2012 . . . learn the language, shop the markets, soak in the culture . . . oh, I could go on and on . . .

This is where you come in!

JOIN ME FOR A PARISIAN ADVENTURE:

~ MIDNIGHT IN PARIS: Writing in the Magic of the Left Bank of Paris ~ May 13 - 18, 2012

Many writers have longed to travel back in time to the sizzling Paris of the 1920s when Paris was the center of the artistic universe. If you're one of them, then pack your bags, your favorite pen and notebooks and join me and a small group of women writers for a weeklong immersion in the magical setting of Paris' Left Bank ~ 2012 style! Click here for details ~ there are only 9 spaces in this retreat.

~ STAY WITH ME FOR A WEEK IN PARIS: I've rented a two-bedroom flat in the creative/prestigious area of Paris's left bank, St Germain des-Pres, for the month of May. We'll be using it May 13 - 18 for the writing retreat, but I'm renting out the second bedroom for any of the other weeks to any woman who would like to experience the enchantment of Paris. The bedroom is double-occupancy and will cost $700/person/week. So call me at 928-254-1897 if you're infested.

JOIN ME FOR A LIFECHANGING JOURNEY:

~ THE CAMINO
Light on the Path: Finding Tranquility, Clarity & Meaning on The Camino
Béduer, France, May 31 - June 8, 2012

The Camino, which comprises a nearly 500-mile trek across highways, mountains, cities and fields of France and Spain, has attracted pilgrims for centuries. People walk The Camino for a variety of reasons: to be part of an ancient tradition, to feel close to nature, to search for meaning, authenticity, a rekindled sense of wonder, to renew faith, or to find it . . . to celebrate or mourn a passage in their lives. To join me and a community of 9 other women for a retreat and 45 mile walk on The Camino. Cick here for details (only 5 spaces left).

I hope you'll be able to join me for one of these extraordinary French adventures . . . it will enhance your life . . . and I know it will mine.

Au revoir,
Karen

I Hope You Dance

I Hope You Dance

I Hope You Dance by Lee Ann Womack is an inspired song of hope and possibilities . . . and one of my favorites. The following are a few of the lyrics:

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance,
I hope you dance, I hope you dance

And not only is dancing fun and great exercise but there’s now mounting evidence that dancing has cognitive and other benefits. For those of us “of a certain age” this is really important information. Read the following research information (from What Should I Do with the Rest of My Life by Bruce Frankl) and then get our your dancing shoes and have some fun . . . and get healthier too!

Mounting evidence from brain imaging studies and other neurological research supports that learning to dance has cognitive and other benefits. In 2003, a twenty-one-year study of 469 seniors, seventy-five and older, that was led by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that of the several activities it studied, frequent social dancing was the only physical activity associated with a significant decrease in the incidence of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. “Dance is not purely physical. In many ways, it also requires a lot of mental effort,” said the study’s lead researcher Joseph Verghese. Among the participants of the study, those who danced three or four times a week, showed a 76% less incidence of dementia that those how danced only once a week or not at all. Still other researchers have begun to find evidence that dance activates the pleasure centers of the brain, explaining in part why we like to dance.

With a dancing heart (and soon feet!),
Karen

Fall . . . and the possibility of new beginnings!

I love fall. For me fall ~ rather than January ~ is always the beginning of a new year. And I always see the coming year as full of endless possibilities, like a specially wrapped gift waiting to be opened.

And the kid in me can't wait to see what's inside. After all, we all love presents, right?

And what's waiting to be opened is YOU and YOUR NEW LIFE ~ more authentic, more vibrant, more YOU than ever before.

And once we get a glimpse of who we are and what's possible, how can we possibly put ourselves back in our too-small box of a life? As Thoreau so beautifully wrote, "lead(ing) lives of quiet desperation."

Makes me want to cry!

And there are so many joyous and beautiful possibilities around us. The following are a bunch of things that have recently brought me joy . . .

• 3 Inspirational Movies ~ The Help (fabulous, fabulous!), Midnight in Paris (unchangingly lovely), and The Happy Movie (what more can i say?)

• 3 Amazing books ~ Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth and Everyday Magic by Martha Beck (the best book about spiritual awakening I've ever read!), Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink (I could not put this down ~ it'll make you question everything), and I Shall Have Some Peace There: Trading in the Fast Lane for My Own Dirt Road by Margaret Roach (leaving Manhattan and the job as Martha Stewart's editorial director and settling in a fixer-upper in upstate New York ~ funny, real and amazing!).

• Hiking in nature-filled spaces always fill me with awe and a wider belief in what's possible ~ both for me and for the world.

And, of course, check out the upcoming possibilities through A Woman’s Way and watch for the 2012 schedule to be posted SOON ~ www.awomansway.com. Until then . . .

Warm wishes . . . from my heart to yours,
Karen

Hope and Inspiration

In this high place
When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb
tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing:
the world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.

~ David White, Sweet Darkness

Are you in need of a daily infusion of hope and inspiration?

As many of you know -- or might guess -- I'm a big collector and believer in the power of inspirational quotes.

I use them to keep my mind focused on what I know to be true. I print them out and place them around my home ~ their energy beautifully infuses my space. I use them as a muse in my journals ~ expanding on their wisdom and envisioning how I might grow by incorporating their truths into my own life.

I invite you to find inspiration and hope through 21 of my favorite inspirational quotes -- one sent each day from Monday, August 1 through Sunday, August 21. The perfect gift for you or for a woman you love.

Just e-mail me at info@awomansway.com and you’ll be added to my Hope and Inspiration daily e-mailings ~ AND THEY'RE FREE! My small gift to you.

Warmest inspirational wishes,
Karen

In the flow . . . to dream again . . .

I’m reading a wonderful book, Drive, by Daniel Pink. It’s a book about what motivates us and I’ve been really energized by his revelations. He talks about the importance of flow in life . . . those optimal moments when we’re in a heightened sense of focus and joy. “In flow, people lived so deeply in the moment, and felt so utterly in control, that their sense of time, place, and even self melted away.” And he describes scientific evidence that as little as 48 hours without flow in our lives can lead to states of deep anxiety, loss of sleep, depression, headaches, and irritability. And, even more surprising, these findings show that we’re most likely to reach states of flow at work.

“Small children automatically careen from one flow moment to another, animated by a sense of joy, equipped with a mindset of possibility. Left to their own devices, children seek out flow with the inevitability of a natural law. So should we all.”

Do you have enough flow in your life? I encourage you to take a week and record activities each day that you undertook not out of obligation or to achieve a particular objective, but just because you enjoyed them. It might be an enlightening exercise and possibly life changing.

I am a woman finding my self . . .

Somewhere between childhood and middle age (not that any of us are that old!), we lose our self.

We spend so many years being everything to everyone else that we wake up one day and wonder . . . if I'm not someone's wife, someone's daughter, someone's mother, or a teacher/doctor/accountant . . . than who am I?

I reached that point at 40 years old. I peeked my head out of the hole I'd been living in (and it was a lovely hole!) and realized that I had no idea who I was or what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

At that time, the only women I knew who were stepping outside of the accepted roles were writers. So I avidly read every book I could find by a woman who had set out on a journey of self-discovery . . . and found her self along the way.

It is that lost woman that I was at 40 that forms the center of A Woman's Way's vision and mission. If you're at that point in your life and would dearly love to join other women yearning for the same sense of self, then join us at one of the upcoming workshops or sign-up for my one-on-one mentoring program.

It's never too late to discover that you're already the amazing, extraordinary woman you're aspiring to become.

"I didn't know how amazing I was until
I came to your workshop and discovered
that I had a chance still to make something of myself.
I just had to get out of my own way."
~ Jeri, NM

Click here to see a list of upcoming programs and click here to see information on my mentoring program.

Happiest of summer wanderings . . .
Karen

Summer wanderings . . .

I know summer doesn't start officially for a few weeks but for me Memorial Day is the harbinger of this most delicious time of year . . . the warm, hazy days of summer.

Summer takes me more quickly back to my childhood than any other time of year . . . I remember carefree days of building forts, lemonade stands, cookouts, chasing fireflies in the evenings, laying in the grass watching the clouds move overhead, family trips to the beach . . . and they seemed endless . . . what are your memories?

And because few things thrill me as much as the lure of the open road . . . especially because summer gets very hot in Sedona . . . I'll be heading out of town for much of this summer and into the fall. I'll be roaming from Italy to France to Oregon to Utah and then back to Sedona in October. I hope you'll be able to join me at one of my stops.

EUROPEAN TRAVEL ~ I'm fortunate (and extremely grateful) to be able to spend a month in Europe this summer ~ offering retreats in both Tuscany and France ~ and playing in between. I'll be sharing photos and adventure stories on Facebook so click here to join the conversation.

OREGON ~ When I return, I'll be heading to the Northwest ~ what could be more yummy in the hot and sticky month of August? ~ to do a workshop for my friend Terri Gregory in Monmouth, Oregon. She has the most fabulous B & B there ~ MaMeres ~ and is opening up her inn for a group of lucky ladies who would like to join us for a weekend of dreaming ~ click on For Women Who Dare to Dream if you'd like for information.

UTAH ~ Bluff, Utah is one of my favorite places on earth (actually all of Southern Utah is)! It's a small, arty, funky, rafting town on the San Juan River. For the third time, I'll be returning to facilitate a women's spiritual raft trip down the sweet San Juan. Talk about lazy, hazy days of summer . . . it really doesn't get any better than floating with a group of like-minded women through the ancient and gorgeous canyonlands of Southern Utah. It's truly an other-worldly experience. Click on Singing Waters~Dancing Hearts if you'd like more information.

HOME TO SEDONA ~ And if you're "of a certain age," you'll want to join me in Sedona in October to look at Rediscovering Your Self in the Second Half of Life.

Most delicious summer wishes,
Karen

Finding peace and clarity in a frenzied world . . .

Cultivating peace and clarity doesn't necessarily require hours of meditation or days spent alone in spiritual contemplation. It can take only moments a day - just a small step back from the hectic pace of your daily life and the frenzied world around you. During these moments - these mini-retreats - you can savor joy, express gratitude, and experience wonder. In doing so, you gently open space for magic and possibilities to grow.

Since 2008, Karen Ely's inspiring weekly e-mails have been inviting women to take min-retreats into the oases of their own souls. Now collected into a single volume, her messages provide weekly inspiration and exercises to help busy women slow down and find peace and clarity in the noise and bustle of everyday life.

"Your mini-retreats feel like a friend reaching out to pull me up."
Nancy W. (NY)

"Your mini-retreats deeply touch my heart and spirit."
Heather C. (CA)

"Thanks for being there for women who need other women."
Verna F. (NC)

"Your mini-retreats awakened my tired soul."
Sarah M. (CT)

Karen Ely is the founder and director of A Woman's Way, the country's premier women's retreat and workshop program located in Sedona, Arizona. Karen is the author of: Daring to Dream: Reflections on the Year I Found Myself published in 2006, which chronicles the end of her 32-year marriage, A Retreat of My Own, a women's personal retreat guide published in 2008, and Breathing Space: Mini-Retreats for the Heart & Soul published in 2011. Karen is an experienced facilitator with a commitment to assisting women in creating and living authentic lives of passion and joy.

From Karen Ely
“Breathing Space has been a joyful experience for me since its inception as weekly mini-retreat e-mails in 2008. From the beginning, the women who received the e-mails have shared how these mini-retreats have infused their lives with inspiration, hope, and guidance.

This book is a compilation of my favorite Breathing Space mini-retreats, one for every week of the year. It's my sincere hope that they assist you in creating some breathing space in the middle of your frenzied world and provide you with an awakening to your heart and soul I share them with you in the hope that they enrich your life as they have mine.”

CLICK HERE to read the book’s table of contents and 2 sample mini-retreats.

ORDER NOW (on SALE for only $12.95) and begin to cultivate peace and clarity in your life today.

Breathing Space: Mini-Retreats for the Heart and Soul

Since 2008, I’ve been sending Breathing Space e-mails inviting women to take min-retreats into the oases of their own souls. I collected my favorites into a single beautiful book that will be available next week and I can’t wait to share it with you!

The following is the introduction to Breathing Space: Mini-Retreats for the Heart and Soul:

I woke up in 1992. It was a shock to discover that I’d been sleepwalking through the first forty-six years of my life.

And even more shocking, once I’d awakened, I realized that I had no idea who I was, what to do, or where to turn. Or even what to ask.

Coming home to myself—my imperfect, beautiful, enlivened, authentic, passionate self—has been a bumpy ride, one filled with surprises and lessons and often requiring more courage than I knew I had. I still continue to learn, sometimes the same lesson over and over (and I really hate that!). Sometimes I am still foolish enough to think I know where my life is taking me —and that’s when I know I’m the most lost.

A Woman’s Way and the books I’ve written have been my way of giving back, of providing other women with a safe space to find themselves, of providing other women with some guidance and tools for awakening to an authentic, meaningful, and passionate life.

Breathing Space has been a joyful experience for me since its inception as weekly mini-retreat e-mails in 2008. From the beginning, the women who received the e-mails have shared how these mini-retreats have infused their lives with inspiration, hope, and guidance.

This book is a compilation of my favorite Breathing Space mini-retreats, one for every week of the year. It’s my sincere hope that they assist you in creating some breathing space in the middle of your frenzied world and provide you with an awakening to your heart and soul.

I share them with you in the hope that they enrich your life as they have mine.

Peace and focus and aliveness

As most of you know, there's little that brings me more joy than hiking through beautiful nature-filled places happily snapping wildflower photos (the poppies above were shot on a hike near my home last weekend).

I love wildflowers. But even more importantly, I love the peace and focus and aliveness that nature and creativity bring to my life.

I encourage you to find some breathing space in your life this week by spending time in nature. Take some time to see, feel, smell and savor everything about your surroundings. And if you can combine that with a creative activity, even better. So, take along your journal, camera, sketch pad, easel . . . whatever brings you peace and aliveness.

Of Awe and Possibilities

I took this photo of 4 beautiful backlit Indian Paintbrushes on a hike with a friend this morning. This hike is just a few blocks from my home and always provides me with moments of awe and peace and a sense of endless possibilities.

Finding daily time for quiet, for reflection, for listening to our own heart's whispers is vital to living from an authentic place of center. Because without that center, we find ourselves buffeted around like a piece of paper in the wind.

So, give yourself some breathing space this week to sit in awe of nature's majesty and to quietly listen to the yearnings of your own heart.

CLICK HERE if you'd like to see the latest additions to upcoming A Woman's Way programs. I hope you enjoy the following possibilities as much as I've enjoyed creating them . . . nothing is quite like joining with a group of like-minded women in a safe and nurturing space and stepping back quietly into your self. I hope you'll be able to join us!