Hello, and welcome to our official 2023 Creepy Cat Calendar 'Secret Page'! You can use the form at the bottom of this page to contact me (Anastasia) at any time. I am genuinely thrilled to be able to share the next 12 months with all of you through our very special Calendar Club.
Please know that I am so glad you are here. You are loved, friends!
SEPTEMBER 2023 Video:
Dearest Creepy Cat Calendar folks - how are you? HAPPY September! I hope that you had a beautiful August and that you are beginning to feel a sense of the changing seasons. I know that it's been cooler on my morning walks and that I've loved feeling the crisp morning air. This past month has felt a bit overwhelming to me, if I'm being completely honest. I think that I described running a business as, "having your arm cut off... your heart ripped out... being hugged... being smacked with a cookie sheet... and then watching the most beautiful rainbow you've ever seen all at the same time." I'm sure that probably describes a lot of things in life, if I'm being honest.
Kula is growing - we are trying to move into a small fulfillment center, and some days it feels like I am unsuccessfully juggling way too many balls all at once. But you know what? In the midst of it all - there is dancing. There is a lot of laughter. And I couldn't imagine doing anything else.
Things I've been really loving lately: NUT BUTTER, as always. I've been eating a lot of Nerdy Nuts, Oat Haus and I just purchased some edible cookie dough based on a recommendation from a member of my Kula Diaries Substack group.
LIGHTHOUSES: My husband and I are on a quest to visit Lighthouses so that we can get stamps on a map that was given to us by Captain Joe, the volunteer that runs the Point Robinson Lighthouse on Vashon Island. Last weekend we visited the New Dungeness Lighthouse near Sequim, and this weekend we are planning to take our motorcycles to Kingston so that we can take a trip to the Point No Point Lighthouse. I can't wait! It's been a really fun way to connect with each other and see new places.
MIXING UP MY MORNINGS: my motorcycle got a flat tire, which meant that we had to spend a weekend driving to the motorcycle place to get it fixed (it was patched, so I was able to drive it to the shop). We ended up spending the morning in a coffee shop doing crossword and it was SUCH a nice change, rather than diving into my usual 'work routine'. If you have the ability to change EVEN ONE THING about your morning - do it! You will be shocked at the difference that new energy makes in your life.
I hope you enjoy the video this month and the story about my cat Esa. As always, please never hesitate to reach out to me. I hope that you know how much you are loved and how grateful I am that you are here and a part of our lovely Kula community.
Have a beautiful, beautiful month and I will 'see' all of you in October!
Love,
Anastasia
AUGUST 2023 Video:
Hello Creepy Cat aficionados!
Welcome to our AUGUST video - can you believe it's been 8 months of videos so far? Thank you so much for being here and for watching them every month - it means a lot to me!
I didn't write much in July - well... that's not entire true... I wrote a LOT in July, but I've been writing most of it on my new Substack which has been a lot of fun for me. As most of you know, I 'quit' social media a few months ago ... and by that, I mean that I while I still actively post and have a presence on social media... I broke my own, unhealthy habit of mindless scrolling and 'checking' in on things. I realized that I was spending more time staring at the virtual world in the palm of my hand than paying attention to the real world around me - it was a not-very-pretty realization for me... but letting go of that addiction has been life-changing, and in its place has come a renewed sense of calm, creativity and presence.
Over the past few months I've been enjoying things like:
Riding my motorcycle and making custom Kulas to give away at coffee shops.
Designing t-shirts - this has become a fun little side project for me!
Working on starting my new motorcycle company and getting a patent application in for a neck gaiter I invented.
Spending time with my husband.
This coming month I'll be going on a backpacking trip with my mom.
I'm trying to focus more on doing one thing at a time (that's what I spend a lot of time talking about in this month's video)
Eating burritos and making chocolate chip cookies.
Spending time lying on the ground.
Being OK with doing 'nothing'.
Not holding myself to arbitrary deadlines and imposing 'urgency' on myself.
Noticing when I'm focused on something I don't want - and gently redirecting my attention to something that feels slightly better.
Spending time with my cats.
Not needing to be anywhere else, other than exactly where I am right now.
I hope that August is a month of presence for all of you friends - I hope that you are able to truly savor each moment of your life exactly as it is. Our lives are truly a miracle and it is such a gift to be able to share some goodness with each of you every single month. I am so grateful for your kindness and support - and I look forward to 'seeing' you in September.
Love,
Anastasia
July 2023 Video:
Hello dearest Creepy Cat friends! I hope that all of you are having a beautiful start to your month - HAPPY JULY!!!
I started my month with some dancing... and I hope to spend as much time as possible this month riding my motorcycle, eating burritos and enjoying the present moment as much as humanly possible.
Things that I've been excited about lately: I started a Substack! This is something I had wanted to do for awhile, but kept talking myself out of doing. I'm using this as the new platform to host the Kula Power Hour and Book Club - plus a bonus evening dance party every single month. It's been really fun for me, and I am going to be publishing my 5th weekly post tomorrow - woot! I've had a lot of fun reflecting on the past few years and reconnecting with ideas that I love sharing with others. There is nothing that excites me more than watching other people begin to discover the process of finding peace and fulfillment in their life - and if I can somehow be a tiny trail blaze in that process - well, that's pretty wonderful.
Yesterday, I rode almost 300 miles on my motorcycle - our longest ride yet! My husband and I rode to Rainy Pass in the North Cascades to resupply a PCT hiker... and then we took a bonus trip down to Mazama to fill up with gas and to stop at the infamous Mazama Store - where I dropped off some free Kulas, grabbed a cold drink... and then headed home. You know what? Nobody ever told me HOW EXHAUSTING it was to ride a motorcycle. I mean... I am MORE EXHAUSTED after riding a motorcycle than I am after hiking 20 miles - no joke, it is a serious effort. Now...granted, I don't have a cruiser... so I'm sitting in a crouched position for hours... but still... it is so tiring!
Otherwise - I've really been using the past month to get back to basics (which I will talk about in this month's video). I've been very committed to my daily meditations... my walk... dancing and really doing the things that bring me joy. I truly believe that what we focus on is what we find - and it's so easy to focus on the things that we don't want... while forgetting to look at and give attention to the things that we do want.
I hope that over the next month, you will be able to find a sense of peace and calm in your life and that you will be able to find joy in the little things and reconnect with yourself in a meaningful way. It's so easy NOT to take the 4 minutes to just focus on your breathing. It's easy to trick ourselves into believing that we don't have time for that. It's easy to trick ourselves OUT of the present moment - but what happens when we actually do stop the endless stream of thinking? What happens when we allow ourselves to sit in the space between? That's a question I love to ask myself - and I hope you will ask yourself that question too.
I am looking forward to 'seeing' you all in August - as always, I hope you have an amazing month and please never hesitate to reach out for any reason at all. I am so grateful for all of you!
Love,
Anastasia
AUGUST 2023 Video:June 2023 Video:Hello Calendar Club Folks - here is our June 2023 video!! Sending you all a lot of love today! Love, Anastasia
May 2023 Video and Message:
Hello Creepy Cat Calendar Folks, and welcome to MAY!
I hope that all of you are having a beautiful start to your month of May! It's a cloudy/misty day here in the PNW as I'm writing this message to all of you... and I'm feeling really excited about just being where I am right now. Do you ever just have the feeling that good things are happening? Even if you have no proof of their existence? Well, that's how I feel. I once told somebody that it was my goal to live my life on, 'the edge of my seat' ... always anticipating the next good thing. For a lot of my life I think I lived it the opposite way - always expecting the next 'bad thing' to happen... and that's a stressful, difficult place to be. It's taken me years to change my mindset 'default' to a place of joy and peace, but it is truly amazing to move past the 'autopilot' fear-based existence that I used to find myself paralyzed by on a regular basis.
Things that I said I'd do in April, that I didn't do:
Well, there are some things that I said I'd do in April, but I didn't end up doing them... and I'll tell you why. I had planned to spend more time on the Geneva app that I started for Kula... but I had a huge realization over the past 6 weeks that gave me a bit of pause on the idea of diving into yet another digital platform... let me explain...
Defragmenting/Decluttering my mind:
If you read our Kula Newsletter, you will know that I shared a little bit in our last newsletter about breaking my addiction to my phone and social media. I didn't go into great depth with this (and I do spend most of the time talking about it in this month's video as well btw) in the newsletter - but I thought it might be worth sharing here, since it has really changed my life in so many positive ways. As somebody who runs an online business, I spend a lot of time looking at a screen - and as a person who uses social media quite frequently, I honestly had NO idea that I was completely and utterly addicted to it.
Over the past few months, I've been actively working on visualizing my future self... focusing on intentionally creating/cultivating the energy of who I am and what I want to create in this world... and I had a very sudden knowing that the best version of myself did NOT spend her entire day scrolling her phone or looking at social media or sharing EVERY STINKIN' LITTLE THING that I did. So, I kinda went 'cold turkey' on my phone. I made a hard rule for myself that I wasn't allowed to open any social media apps on Sat/Sunday/Monday and that other than intentional posting, I was not allowed to 'story' things throughout my day and/or spend any significant amount of time scrolling the app. In additional to social media, I also realized that there was a seemingly direct connection between a thought in my brain and an instantaneous need to 'look something up' on my phone. For example, this morning I thought about a type of running shorts that I like to wear - and I literally felt an almost instantaneous physical compulsion to open up the running company's website on my phone and look at their latest options for shorts. Really? At 4:20 am on my walk? Do I need to be filling my blank-slate consciousness with shopping for running shorts? Or could I simply be enjoying the fresh morning air... the three deer that I see eating grass in the dark... or listening to the birds as I hike by?
The first weekend was ROUGH. I felt this strange sense of disconnection with everything - until I realized that it was a fake world that I was feeling the disconnection from... and that I was RECONNECTING to the real world - the one that I live in. Namely, my life at home with my husband... my business... the food I eat... the walks I go on... the time that I spend doing the things that I love. Gradually, the need to share everything started to fade, and I was filled with a sense of freedom and peace. Time literally seemed to SLOW DOWN because I was no longer filling every second of my waking hours with some sort of content. I was allowing myself to just BE HERE.
Over the past few weeks, I've enjoyed the most pleasant sense of peace, joy and connectedness. I no longer feel any strong pull to spend time on my phone - and while I am still on social media, I am only on it for reasonable amounts of time to do the things that I really enjoy - creating funny content for Kula, telling stories, and dancing. The parts that I've 'given up' are the parts that nobody sees anyway - the compulsive 'checking in' and randomly spending too much time looking at things that simply do not pertain to what is going on right in front of me, right now.
So, all of this to say - I opted out of monitoring another digital platform over the last month, because it was very important for me to completely invest myself in breaking this habit. If you are even remotely considering something like this and/or if you also struggle from a similar compulsive phone habit - I want you to know that you definitely aren't alone in that, and that it was 100% worth it to let that pattern go.
Ok.... now onto the really fun stuff that I'm sure you are all most excited about.... HA!
My latest favorite playlist:
So, we danced to this playlist TODAY for our Day 1 of the Dance Experiment May session... and it was just the best. Is there anything like a song about dancing to get you totally jazzed up for dancing?!?! Seriously - spend the 27 minutes dancing to this and let me know how you feel afterward. It's pretty invigorating:
Things I'm cooking:
Does anybody else find something that they like to cook and then just cook that recipe on repeat for weeks at a time? This was a recipe just like that for me - and it's SO SO SO simple. You can sub tofu for the chicken to make it vegan. Using tahini as the sauce? I was skeptical - but OH MY WORD. It was the creamiest, most delicious meal that I've had in AGES. I made it with parsnip, butternut squash, green beans, asparagus, rutabaga, and carrots and it was absolutely incredible. I hope you love it as much as I do:
Ok, so I am on a mission to become a nut-butter influencer. Pee cloth influencer? Nope, too predictable. But nut butter influencer?! Now we're talking. My latest find is a company called NERDY NUTS, and they are based in South Dakota and they make some 'artisanal' small batch peanut butters that are absolutely decadent. I've tried the Confetti Cake (my favorite), Birthday Cake, Snickers, and PB Dream - all of them are so good and the 'spoonable spreads' are definitely my favorite texture (the 'indulgence' butters are a bit thicker). I'm not paid or sponsored by these folks, fyi - just a true lover of good, interesting peanut butters - ha!
You can find their website here: https://nerdynuts.com/collections/all-flavors
Finding a home for Kula Cloth:
Another thing I'm excited about is finding a home for Kula Cloth! Well, we haven't found the home YET - but I know that it's out there and I'm excited to watch all of the pieces assemble.
As most of you know, I'm a pretty non-traditional person when it comes to creating my own reality. There is 'THE WAY' to do things - which takes a lot of time and is very stressful. And then there is the way that I prefer - which is more like:
visualizing, feeling the feeling of something before it happens, creating future memories, cultivating ideas, feeling abundant, loving where I am, daydreaming, having fun, letting ideas flow, being in a place of joy and happiness, dancing, focusing on gratitude and appreciation and being grateful for where I am, not needing anything to happen in order to feel more whole, giving generously to others
Seems easier, right? It's a lot more fun - and bonus... no stress hormones!
So, a few days ago while I was making breakfast, I had this very non traditional idea to make a 'WANTED' poster (like the old fashioned Western type) for the Creepy Cat Home ... that I could go hang up in various places around Granite Falls and also put in a spot on my wesbite. I'm also going to make a video to accompany the website describing the vision for our new Kula Home - without needing to know how all of this is going to happen.
I'm sharing this, because hopefully it's fun for some of you to watch the process of creation before the physical thing (in this case, a building) has actually manifested itself into the Kula world. You can be a part of the witnessing process of something 'coming together'. For me, the most important parts of this process are: not being impatient, feeling excited about it, not needing to know HOW it will happen, being open to the infinite ways in which it can happen, and doing whatever feels good and fun to me each day - particularly those things that are completely unrelated to 'finding' a building.
You can find that 'secret' page on our website here:
https://kulacloth.com/pages/creepycathome
And I will be sure to keep the Calendar Club updated as the vision for our Kula Home continues to unfold in magical and mysterious ways!
Finally - questions for YOU!
Ok, I'll end with this - and you can use the contact form below if you want to write back to me... or you can just answer the questions on your own!
- How are YOU doing and what are YOU excited about?
- What do you want to create in your life and what is the FEELING of that thing?
- Can you allow yourself to feel the feeling of it, without need to know HOW it will arrive, just trusting that the feeling will guide the way?
- What is something that you can do NOW in your life that will help you to cultivate the feeling of what it is you want to create?
- What is something you are really grateful for?
- And finally, spend a few minutes writing a letter to somebody who has made a difference in your life - and be sure to let them know and really feel a feeling of gratitude for this other human.
I'm so grateful for all of YOU!!! I am grateful that you are a part of our community here at Kula. I do not take it for granted that you make a conscious choice to be here and that you include us as a part of your life. I want you to know that there is nothing more important to me than using Kula as a vehicle to bring more good, love, peace, acceptance, friendship and community into this world. Each day, I ask myself, "What good can I do this day?" (I even have a little sign in my house that says this!) ... And I hope you will also do the same. As we all focus together on the goodness in the world, we become a part of of the SOLUTION and our energy ripples out into the world - impacting lives, everywhere we go.
Sending you all so much love and I will look forward to re-connecting with all of you in our June video and message. As always, feel free to contact me using the form at the bottom of this page or at anastasia@kulacloth.com
Happy May, Kula People! Love, Anastasia
April 2023 Video:
March 2023 Video and Message:
Hello Creepy Cat Calendar Club! I hope you're having an AMAZING start to March.
I have so many things that I feel incredibly grateful for and excited about right now - and I hope you do too. And if not, that's ok too. You are exactly where you need to be.
And while I'm on that note... let's take a little step backwards, shall we? Let's travel to the not too distant past where I was working 10-12 hours per day as a railroad police officer. I was miserable, exposed to regular trauma, I hated my schedule, and I spent the majority of my time complaining about my problems completely unconsciously. Not realizing that the more I complained about everything that was 'wrong' with my life - I was literally hitting the REPEAT button on everything I didn't want.
This is a bitter pill to swallow, friends - but once you do... it changes your life, forever. I always pushed off peace... "I'll be happy once I have a different job, etc..." I didn't realize that in order to have peace in my life ... I had to create it, EXACTLY WHERE I WAS. One of my favorite sayings is... "Wherever you go, there you are."
The day I started a regular meditation practice was the day that my life began to change for the better. With even 1-2 minutes per day of simply sitting and finding peace in my heart (independent of what was going on in my life situation or in my chaotic mind), I watched as my entire life shifted to allow for more peace. One tiny little change led to another... which opened the door for new ideas... new opportunities... new inspiration... more peace... more happiness... and more love. It starts small, but it grows. Love and peace are like the most beautiful seeds - and when they are watered regularly, they WILL grow and bloom into the most beautiful things.
To this day, I know and believe in my heart that Kula Cloth was born because I decided to stop and turn inward for 1-2 minutes per day. Now, my morning routine is much longer and more involved and usually involves 15-30 minutes of meditation - but it is without a doubt, THE MOST important part of my day.
Ok, all of that to say - I love you DEARLY friends, and I truly hope that our small Calendar Club inspires you to look within yourself at all of the infinite beauty that lives there. It's beyond anything you can ever imagine, and you are totally capable of creating absolutely ANYTHING you can dream of!
Ok, now on to the fun stuff... here's what I'm LOVING in March so far.
BOOKS: Probably one of the best books I've read in AGES is this one...
My husband and I have been listening to the Audiobook each morning on our walks together - we are nearly through the entire book and we've also been doing the accompanying meditations. To say that this book is life changing is an understatement. It takes a lot of 'woo' concepts and breaks them down in a very scientific way - so this book is PERFECT for somebody who might not resonate with the 'woo' language. I've had so much more self-awareness around my own 'unconscious' thought patterns through reading this book - and I'm REALLY EXCITED about some of the things that I'm creating right now as a result of the visualizations that he recommends. His next book is called 'Becoming Supernatural', and I'm very excited to read that book too.
Food: My favorite recipe this month
This month, I made this Thai Peanut Zucchini Bowl from Paleomg and it's DELICIOUS. I did substitute rice noodles for the zucchini and I added a ton of veggies and pretty much doubled the sauce. You could also add in meat or tofu - or whatever you want! It's SO SO good, comforting and delicious. I also used PB2 power and/or real peanut butter (instead of sunflower seed butter), because it was what I had on hand.
Truffle of the month:
So, my assistant Sheraden bought me a silicone truffle mold and I've been making bon bons for the past few months. I recently 'invented' a new ganache that I'm REALLY loving. If you have a silicone mold for chocolate, just melt white chocolate (they make melting wafers that don't need to be tempered like normal chocolate) and fill your molds with a thin layer of the white chocolate and put in freezer to cool.
Then make the ganache:
Bring to a boil: a little bit of heavy cream or half and half, a splash of vanilla and a splash of maple syrup
Slowly the scalding liquid over a small bowl of butterscotch chips (enough to make the filling for as many bon bons as you have... but you can save the extras too).
Add some quick oats (I like picky oats trail mix flavor) and pecan dust (just crush the pecans to a dust). Pour as little as possible until the chips melt and you can stir into a relatively thick syrup. Put it in the fridge to let it cool. If it isn't thick, you'll need to add more chocolate and/or try microwaving it in 20 second increments to thicken it.
Take the silicone mold out of the freezer and fill with ganache. Put back in the freezer to let the ganache cool. Then pull out and paint the bottom of the chocolate molds with more white chocolate to 'enclose' your ganache in the white chocolate shell.
Freeze or put in fridge to cool. It's SO SO good!! I hope you love it as much as I do.
Music I'm loving right now:
This was our playlist for day 1 of the Dance Experiment, and it's a pretty special list of fun songs that I hope you love as much as I do!
A meditation that I am enjoying right now:
Lately, it's been all about the Solfeggio Tones for me! Solfeggio Tones are a very specific group of frequencies based on a 6-tone scale. You can read more about them here: https://www.mindvibrations.com/solfeggio-frequencies/
My personal practice is to listen to an album of Soleggio Tones and either focus on my breathing in a meditation and/or do a visualization of something that I am working on cultivating in my life while the solfeggio tones are playing in the background. I've found this really powerful and I've had some pretty beautiful experiences while doing this - so I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
This particular frequency is really nice, but there are many that you can try:
Finally - I did a TERRIBLE job at being on the Geneva app (scroll down to February's message if you don't know what I'm talking about) last month - HA! So my resolution for March is to get that up and running and to be more consistent with it - so watch for me to 'appear' there in a day or two. Otherwise - I've been having fun doing things like designing t-shirts, dancing, going to antique stores looking for miniature spoons, planning our next KAT events, running a business, spending time with my husband and really just trying to truly enjoy each and every moment. Life is such a gift and I want to live my life as a giant smile - because this day IS the gift. This is it!! There isn't any time in the future that will be more special - this IS the special time. It took me a lot of decades to realize that - but now that I have, I've made it my life's mission to share that with others. It seems so simple - and yet it eluded me for most of my life - and I feel so incredibly grateful to be here ... and to be able to share some of my own journey with you - and I'm looking forward to learning more about each of you and what matters to you in your life too.
Never hesitate to reach out and contact me - and please know how much you are loved - and I really do mean that. There is nothing more important to me than bringing kindness, care and compassion to others - so please know that my words are as heartfelt as anything I've ever said - including, 'I love Chocolate Chip Cookies' ... so you KNOW it's the truth.
Sending you all love and looking forward to seeing you in April!
Love,
Anastasia
February 2023 Video and Message:
Hello Kula friends, and WELCOME, WELCOME to our February Creepy Cat Calendar Club.
Ok - first thing's first... I started something new-ish and I want to see what you think... it's a website/app called Geneva, that will allow us to chat, discuss and, in general, connect with other Creepy Cat Calendar folks. There are a bunch of really cool humans out there who are a part of this club - and I thought it would be fun to bring us ALL together. Here is the link to join - I'm not super 'on it' with the app yet - so be patient with me, but let's test it out and you can get early access to it if it ends up being something that I want to incorporate into our Kula Community. Or, we can keep it a secret - ha!
Ok, so HOW did your month go and what are you excited about for February?!
Please feel free to use the 'contact' form below (or the Geneva app - I'm adding a forum post including my list below about February intentions!) to let me know what YOU are excited about!!
Here's my list:
I hope we get some good weather because I want to ride my motorcycle, but even if we don't get good weather - I'm excited to plan some little trips. My husband and I used to go on 'big' vacations every year, but recently we've both been feeling really content about staying home and planning small little adventures together. It's exciting to try new things!
I'm excited about a few new products that I'm designing. I LOVE LOVE LOVE being in the creative flow and having ideas and there is nothing that excites me more than watching something come to life. It is invigorating and thrilling for me - and I'm so excited to test prototypes and to get creative about things that feel fun to me.
I am excited to spend time being present and relaxing. I ran on 465789 cylinders for a long time and I was always 'BUSY' and always 'needing' to do something - even recreating was pretty much overboard for me. Lately, I have just enjoyed having quiet weekends and spending time with my husband. I love our little morning routines and I love making pizza on the weekends and baking cookies. The more and more I tune into the feeling of abundance in my life - the more and more I notice that I already have all of it.
This is totally random, but my husband and I decided to buy a metal detector to try metal detecting. Have you ever done it? We never have and it sounded fun - so we bought one and we are really excited to try it out - stay tuned because I will let you know how it goes.
Other fun stuff for February:
A few other things that I want to share with you - lately I have become totally obsessed (in a good way) with a musical ensemble called Beautiful Chorus. They are COMPLETELY INCREDIBLE and their songs are short and more like mantras that you can sing along with. I listen to their album 'Now' on repeat - and I sing along with it while I'm doing my morning walks at 4am. I'm going to include that album below for you to listen to - but ALL of their music is absolutely incredible. I hope you love it as much as I do.
Food that I'm having fun making:
Most of you probably know that I have a little it of a chocolate obsession - and lately I've been experimenting with making my own truffles and bon bons. My favorite recipes are these Snickerdoodle Truffles and these Oatmeal Raisin Truffles. They are SO GOOD and easy to make. I've even modified them and made my own lemon poppyseed truffles with white chocolate filling and peanut butter and white chocolate chip truffles. If you try them - let me know!
Books I'm reading:
I'm reading Return to Love for the 2nd time with our Kula Book Club - and it's even better the second time around. It's a pretty deep book that talks about deep things and really encourages us to practice forgiveness for our own sense of peace and wellbeing. One of my favorite quotes from the book in the 'Work' chapter:
"I don't want to do it because I can't make a living doing it," is a very weak beam to send into the universe.... Some things you do for no other reason than because they're the right thing to do. "I'll do this because it serves, even if I'm not paid," is a very high beam. It says to the universe that you must be very serious. And when you get serious about the universe, the universe gets serious about you."
I also just got another book that was recommended to me by my friend Rose called, "Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself" by Joe Dispenza. Have any of you read it? It seems really interesting - but I haven't even started it - so stay tuned and I will have to update all of you on how it goes.
And that's all folks...
Thank you all SO MUCH for being a part of our Creepy Cat Calendar Club. I am SO TRULY grateful for all of you. A few of you have written messages to me telling me how much you enjoy the creepy cat club - and I've even heard that a few of you are joining along to my 'mini dance breaks' - so I really hope you are enjoying it as much as I do. I'm already planning my March video and I think it's going to be a fun one. As always, please reach out anytime - have a beautiful February and be well. You are loved, friends!
Love,
Anastasia
January 2023 Video and Message:
Hello to my dearest Calendar Club members! This is Anastasia here - I'm the founder of Kula Cloth and I am *really* looking forward to hosting this Calendar Club for the next 12 months with all of you. As somebody who is always working on living in the present moment, it isn't lost on me that a calendar club seems like a conundrum... but bear with me. Within the framework of the year - we are going to actively find ways to practice being more present - so that we can really discover a deeper connection with ourselves and find more peace, abundance, stillness and joy in our lives.
I want you to know that there is nothing wrong with you. Resolutions are not bad - but there is absolutely nothing about you that needs to be fixed. You are the way you are ... you've done the things you've done... because it was how you needed to be and what you needed to do in order to do your best. And that's what you are doing - your best. You are whole and perfect - and if you are feeling 'stuck' in your life right now, I want you to know that's ok too. Wherever you are - no matter what that looks like - just know that there is no right or wrong way to be. You don't need to have any of this all figured out (I don't). You don't need to know what you want to do with the next year - you don't even need to have specific goals.
Do I have any 'goals' for 2023? Honestly, my goal is and always will be this, "I am open to the infinite possibilities in every moment." And that's it. I don't want to say that specific results will make me more successful or better than I am now - because that pushes off my wholeness to a later date when things are 'better' than they are now.
Eckhart Tolle says that the foundation for all abundance is gratitude for exactly where you are right now - so it is my greatest hope that we can all use this calendar and our little calendar club to cultivate gratitude NOW and trust and know that as we cultivate the powerful feeling of gratitude NOW, we are ultimately attracting MORE things that match that frequency into our lives. Another one of my favorite speakers, Abraham Hicks says, "The better it gets, the better it gets."
So, with that in mind - I am going to share a few things that I really love that I'm excited about. The absolutely MOST IMPORTANT THING that I prioritize every single day is the energy that I create within myself - that's it. It is far more important than any 'business decision' I will ever make. Keep in mind that wherever you are right now is fine - and that is where you will start. The process of shifting yourself into a place of gratitude must be gentle - it doesn't happen overnight because our beautiful brains have been trained and programmed for so long to look at what ISN'T right. Believe me - I was there. I saw a very different world for the first 30+ years of my life.
So, here are a few fun things that I want to tell you about as we move into 2023 and things that I'm excited about. These might seem random, but I hope you love them and that they bring you joy in some way. If you have anything you want to share with ME in return, please use the contact form below to do so - I promise I will respond to every message!
Things that I love to eat:
Ok, so this recipe was given to me by my mom (and she inherited it from a neighbor) - this is literally the photograph of the original recipe that she's been using for most of my life. It is a sweet potato souffle unlike any other that you will ever try. It is NOT the sickening sweet potato dish with marshmallows. It is grown up sweet potato delight that will knock your socks off. Note: I use about 1/2 of the amount of sugar recommended in the recipe and I use all purpose flour if I don't have self-rising flour and it works just fine! It does not need to be a holiday to make this - just try it and let me know what you think - you may never recover.
Music I'm listening to right now:
I'm going to share with all of you my never-before-shared DANCE EXPERIMENT STORAGE playlist! This is the playlist where I stockpile every song that I randomly find that I want to dance to in our Kula Dance Experiment. Some of them will eventually make it into a virtual dance party, but others just sit on the playlist - waiting to be remembered. It's a pretty lengthy playlist that I've been slowly compiling over the past year, and I hope it gives you new inspiration to get up and DANCE!
A meditation that I really love right now:
I've discovered a meditation teacher named Tramaine Cato that I really love. This meditation by Tramaine is a BEAUTIFUL Loving Kindness meditation that I've repeated many times. It really cultivates a sense of true compassion for ourselves and for others. You can find the mediation here:
Other random things that I'm really excited about right now:
Recently, I started a personal project of taking photographs of sunrises and then painting them and writing poems to go along with the paintings - I'm really excited about that little project. It's cathartic to sit down and paint as often as I am able to do so.
Another thing that I'm really excited about is taking small trips with my husband on our motorcycles. I used to LIVE for vacations - I was always planning the next big trip to 'get away' somewhere - and it's been a really strange experience for me, but the past two years have been very different... that sense of needing to 'get away' really isn't there anymore. I love being home, I really love my 'job' and I love spending time with my husband and our 3 cats. While my brain wants to tell me that I need to be constantly 'doing stuff' - my heart has really wanted me to focus more on 'being' and more on enjoying exactly where I am. Big, elaborate vacations haven't felt as necessary anymore - but my husband and I both recently got motorcycles and we are really excited to take little trips on our motorcycles in Washington. We have a plan to ride the Cascade Loop and to circumnavigate the Olympic Peninsula.
Me, on my motorcycle (and yes, I always have a Kula on my backpack... I have to pin it down with safety pins so that it doesn't flap all over the place while I'm riding - ha!).
Tell me what YOU are excited about!
You can write down the things you are excited about in the 'Dream Portal' of your calendar... or you can send me a message and tell me about them - I would love to hear about the things that bring you joy.
Please know that I am truly looking forward to spending this entire year sharing videos and love with all of you. I will be posting a new video to this page every single month - and if there is a specific topic that you want to see, just let me know - I'm happy to answer questions or share any resources or personal experiences that will help you out on your own journey. We are ALL truly in this together - and we are all so connected. Please know that you are loved very much and that I am so grateful for your presence here and I'm grateful every day for your support of Kula - it means more than I could EVER possibly describe.
