very personal adsPersonal ads! They’re … personal! Very.

So my itty bitty personal ads made me realize that it’s time to make a regular practice of trying to feel okay asking for stuff.

Even when the asking thing feels weird and conflicted.

Ever since I posted the first one asking my perfect house to find me, which united me with Hoppy House, I have been a fan of the madness that is personal ads.

And now it’s my Sunday ritual. Yay, ritual!

Let’s do this thing.

Thing 1: Tax-related ease.

Here’s what I want:

This past week was full of sleep-related hard that made concentrating on horribleness especially difficult.

But this week I’d like to go over the numbers for last year and handle whatever leftover bits and pieces aren’t done yet.

Here’s how I want this to work:

A meeting with the Gentleman Friend.

Time for the meeting with the Gentleman Friend.

I want to check in with myself and do this work in a really grounded way, and not in a fainting on the divan kind of way.

I want harmony and ease and things to just work. And I want to get better at Lindy Hop. So if I absolutely have to procrastinate on this, can it at least improve my dancing?

My commitment.

To remember that I really want to make this a priority.

To dance. To laugh. To cry. To breathe. To meet the fear and give it room to exist.

To remind myself why this is important to me. And to give myself time to bitch about all the crappy things that happened last year.

Thing 2: A miracle.

Here’s what I want:

There is an opening in my Destuckification Retreat because someone isn’t going to be able to make it.

The opening is for a woman. Because it’s a shared room and the other person will also be a woman (and awesome).

It is extremely short notice. It is in Monterey, California at one of the most gorgeous places in the world.

And it is an entire week of having everything in your life change for the better, so yeah, kind of terrifying. But also really relaxing.

Because we’ll be doing Old Turkish Lady Yoga and deep recovery from things-in-real-life-that-are-hard.

And even though the early bird period is long over, anyone taking this spot would still totally get the early bird rate.

The course description is here but since the program is officially full, you’d have to email Marissa and ask to be considered.

Ways this could work:

Someone who had originally thought this might be the loveliest thing in the world could sense what might happen (or the power of what might happen) if it could actually work.

Someone new to the whole world of Fluent Self-ified wackiness who has fallen in love with the stuff we do here could feel safe and welcome to try more weirdness with me and Selma.

Or something completely different that I can’t even imagine. Open to surprises here.

My commitment.

To love and welcome and support my people who are interested. To treat them in the most fair and respectful way possible.

To try and make the application process even more non-intimidating.

To be present with the program and the people in it, and what needs to happen for this to bring fabulousness in their lives.

To listen.

To madly appreciate everyone in my world — my clients and students, my readers, my Kitcheners and of course my Beloved Lurkers.

Thing 3: To treat the study like a study.

Here’s what I want:

There’s a room in Hoppy House that’s in transition.

We call it the study but it is not a study.

Ways this could work:

I don’t know.

Magic? Intention?

I am going to be taking Lisa’s Love That Room class (though I honestly can’t decide which room needs my love the most), so that might help.

And I will do some Dance of Shiva on it, since the mini-epiphanies this week have been kind of hard-core. So maybe I’ll get something there.

My commitment.

To hang up the damn curtains already.

To go and visit that desk chair that I am currently lusting after and promise it that one day I will come for it and we will finally be together.

To do wacky rituals. To ask it for love. To give it love.

To spend some time hanging out with the soul of the house, who (or so I’m told) is extremely down-to-earth and has quite a good attitude.

To be patient. To give things time. To notice what I’m feeling when.

Progress report on past Very Personal Ads.

Just to update you on what’s happened since last time. Oh, let’s see.

I asked for recovery time from the hectic.

And definitely got some. There was The Big Day Off. And a ridiculous amount of sleeping in.

Lots of yoga. Lots of Shiva Nata. Lots of bouncing on the trampoline. I’m actually amazed at how much recovery time there was, given that things were still pretty busy.

I asked for new Shivanauts to play with and ohmygod. Lots of fascinating responses to Briana’s guest post and to my long, complicated ruminations on throwing out epiphanies in favor of mini … uh, shiva-gasms?

Feeling great about this one.

And I asked for clarity on a thing that was stuckified, and it has started clearing up.

So wow. Win. I can’t remember a time when all of my asks resulted in this much progress. That’s actually kind of scary inspiring. Rock on, Very Personal Ads. Neat!

Comments. Since I’m already asking …

I am adding to my practice of asking for stuff by being more specific about what I would like to receive in the comments.

Here’s what I want (just leave them in the comments):

  • Your own personal ads, small or large. Things you’ve asked for. Or are asking for. Or would like to ask for. Or updates on last time!

What I would rather not have:

  • Reality theories.
  • Shoulds. As in, “You should be doing it like this” or “That’s not the right way to ask for things — instead it should be like x, y and z”
  • To be judged or psychoanalyzed.
  • Advice. Seriously.

My commitment.

I am committing to getting better at asking for things even when asking feels weird.

Thanks for doing this with me!

The Fluent Self