Bursts of Brilliance

Posted on November 22, 2019 by Baja Rock Pat

By Teresa R. Funke

For most of my life, I fell into the trap of letting my mind lead my body, and my body lead my spirit. As someone who has been a deep and incessant thinker since a very young age, it’s always been easy to let my mind be the boss. I thought it was important to be smart. I thought it was important to able to think your way through a problem. I thought the more I learned, the better off I’d be. I never believed for a minute I could learn to meditate, because everyone told me meditation required you to turn off your thoughts, and I believed that would be impossible for me.

Five and a half years ago, I started writing a blog called, Bursts of Brilliance for a Creative Life. I did so because I had three kids in college or going off to college, so I was working nights and days and weekends to save up money. There was no longer time to write my novels (I’d written and published six at that point, each based on true stories from World War II) so the blog became my weekly creative outlet. Because I was so busy, I gave myself permission to write about whatever I felt like writing, not what I thought I should write. Not what I thought people wanted to read. Not what I thought might be trendy. Just what I felt like writing. And because time was lacking, and I considered the blog my escape, I never rewrote or questioned any of the posts I put out there (although I did edit them, of course).

Then something interesting happened. People started reading the blog, and not just artists, who were my intended audience, but teachers and health care professionals and businesspeople. It seemed that everyone could relate to my musings on finding time to create, battling my inner critic, wondering if my work mattered, and learning to trust my intuition. People started sending me e-mails to tell me how much they liked a particular post and how much it touched them. Why? Because it tapped into their feelings too. So, I kept writing one new post every week, with no self-censorship. In putting my feelings on the page, I also came to some stunning realizations about myself, about the importance of art, about how this blog was helping me tap into my Higher Self.

The blog gave me permission to just feel my journey, rather than trying to explain it. The words came effortlessly once I stopped trying to “think” about how to say things just right. And when I decided to edit the blog into a book, I knew that through the expression of my own doubts, insecurities, and fears, but also passions, revelations, and triumphs, I would find like-hearted souls who could relate.

My new book, also called Bursts of Brilliance for a Creative Life, is an edited compilation of the best blog posts from the first five years. My biggest lesson in creating this book has been that when we let our hearts lead, when we lean into our passion and trust the guidance of our Higher Selves, we will make real connections. We will raise the vibration of this worried and wonderful world. We will see ourselves in others and see new parts of ourselves.

If you haven’t given yourself permission to create lately, please do. We need your creative energy to lift us all up. Try a new recipe, plant something different in your garden, assemble the perfect outfit, or pick up your pencil, paintbrush, or instrument again. Tell your mind to take a break. Tell it that for the time it takes to make your creation, your soul is now the boss!

PS–I finally did learn to meditate, once I accepted that you can’t shut off your thoughts, but you can choose not to focus on them.

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Bio: Teresa Funke believes there’s an artist in everyone. Her newest book, Bursts of Brilliance for a Creative Life, helps readers ignite their creative spirit and rediscover their passion, their purpose, and their power. Today’s chaotic world requires an army of innovative thinkers—and you are one of them!

Teresa is the embodiment of the modern artist/entrepreneur. She’s the owner of Teresa Funke & Company and Bursts of Brilliance™ and has authored seven award-winning novels for adults and children set in World War II, including Dancing in Combat Boots and War on a Sunday Morning. She is a sought-after instructional and motivational speaker, a writing consultant, and a community catalyst. She created the Self-Publishing Blueprint, the only tool you’ll need to self-publish successfully.

Visit www.teresafunke.com to access writing resources or learn more about Teresa’s books or visit www.burstsofbrilliance.com to find evolving ways to boost your artistic energy and increase your fun factor!

Teresa’s grace, intelligence, writing, coaching, and publishing expertise, along with her soft spoken-manner and fiery spirit is sure to inspire you as much as is it has me and many others. I highly recommend checking out her blog and her books for yourself. You won’t regret it. –Baja Rock Pat

Hope Opens Doors

Posted on September 23, 2015 by Baja Rock Pat

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

I’ve never suffered from depression, but very recently, I found myself teetering on the edge and I wanted to share this story because lots of people suffer from depression. You see, two years ago, I had surgery on my ankle to repair a shredded posterior tibialis tendon (the tendon that goes under your arch and up the inside of your leg). It was a traumatic experience and the recovery has been long and painful.

A few weeks ago, I went back to see my doctor because I still have pain and swelling in my ankle. She told me that the surgery had obviously not accomplished what we had hoped, and asked how I felt about having more surgery, the procedure we should have done the first time, but because it was even more extensive with twice the recovery time, I opted for the less invasive one. It was now apparent that I had made the wrong choice.

Sitting there in the doctor’s office with my swollen, bare foot dangling off the edge of the table, the thought of having to undergo more surgery instantly plunged me into a suffocating darkness. I’ve had surgeries before, and my body does not take kindly to being cut on and stitched back together. It’s always a traumatic experience for me. Besides, there were no guarantees that the more extensive surgery would correct the problem either.

Returning home from my appointment, the crawling, bleeding, agonizing darkness sunk even deeper into me like thick black tar invading my soul. For days, I cried. I drank too much. I slept too much. I ate all the bad food I could get my hands on. I became lethargic. I couldn’t think. I felt very, very sorry for myself. I just knew that I was destined to be a cripple for the rest of my life. All I wanted to do was divorce myself from this rotten, messed-up body that keeps failing me. On the other hand, I had enough foresight to realize that if I didn’t watch it, I could slip into a bonafide clinical depression and I could see how easy it would be to go there, because the bad news was just one more addition to an already long list of negative and serious issues I’d been dealing with, so this new information didn’t just cause me to focus on foot surgery, it caused me to view my entire life through a lens of how terrible everything was. And I teach workshops on how to live the life of your dreams! How could I be an effective teacher if I was seeing nothing but the things that were wrong with me and my life?

But I was so down, I couldn’t see any way to pull myself out of the darkness, plus all those thoughts about not being an effective teacher only made me feel worse about myself. I needed to get my shit together somehow because I was sinking. Fast.

A friend then recommended a physical therapist in Boulder who specializes in foot and ankle issues as well as scoliosis. I knew I had scoliosis, and I wondered if perhaps that could be exacerbating my foot issues. My foot doctor concurred.

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

Yesterday I went to see the new PT. She looked at the x-rays of my spine—curved in two places—nice. She checked my flexibility and told me that my foot issues were likely caused by my scoliosis, and even if I were to have more surgery on my foot, it probably wouldn’t solve the problem. She said that we needed to treat the whole body–not just one area, and very likely the foot issues would resolve themselves in the process. Wait. Seriously? A small light went on inside my heart. Was she saying there was hope?

She told me that my tendon was good and strong, which was encouraging because my initial thoughts had been that the surgery had all been for nothing–a total waste of time, money and pain. But the surgery didn’t go so far as to determine the cause, which was now becoming obvious—scoliosis was causing me to put pressure on the arch of my foot, hence the pain and swelling. Ah ha! An explanation that made sense!

The PT gave me a few suggestions to try in dealing with my posture and they helped instantly. She told me that she was optimistic that their unique program for scoliosis patients could help me live a normal life again because it had helped lots of people from all over the world. It helped my friend.

I felt hope rise inside of me like a gentle kiss of summer rain—a kind of hope that had previously seemed unlikely at best. Suddenly, the world looked brighter and all my problems, not just my foot issues, but all my problems and fears seemed manageable. Tears ran from my eyes—tears of hope that I could be pain-free again. Oh my gosh! What pure joy that would be!

Hope. Opens. Doors. Hope gives us the tools to keep going when all seems lost.

I can’t remember when I haven’t had pain, and just to have hope that that day is coming, for real this time… I can’t even begin to tell you how much this means to me, especially when I saw myself spiraling down into the quicksand of depression and all because I didn’t realize there was another option besides more excruciating surgery.

Sure, it’s easy to think positive when things are going fairly well; it’s a lot harder when suddenly the ground gets pulled out from beneath you due to the unexpected death of a loved one, a serious health issue, or any number of other things. Hope moves mountains. It gives us the strength to take another step.

Please know that no matter how terrible or dark things may seem, there’s always another option, and that’s the reason I wanted to share my story. Because although it may not always be apparent, if we keep looking and don’t give up, we will find the perfect solution, maybe something even better than we ever could have imagined and perhaps in a place we never thought to look.

There’s hope for everyone. There’s love for everyone. There are good things for everyone because there’s enough for all of us; the Universe (and our minds) are only limited by our thoughts. Please don’t ever give up.

I’m Through Apologizing

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Baja Rock Pat

All my life, I never thought I was “enough”–not good enough, pretty enough, smart enough, tough enough, cool enough, whatever-the-latest-something-is enough. And because of that, I always found myself apologizing. I think a lot of us do that–apologize incessantly. I know I did it (and still do) because, God forbid, I disobey the rules or either accidentally or on purpose, (gasp) break the rules!

As some of you know, I wrote a memoir called “Dance of the Electric Hummingbird,” and in it, I bared my soul. It was perhaps one of the toughest things I’ve ever done–reveal to complete strangers personal details about my life, what I think, how I feel, and what I’ve done. Whenever one publishes something for the public, one opens one’s self to ridicule and judgment, and I don’t know about you, but the last thing I needed was someone else judging me when I already did a fine job of it on myself.

Before my book came out, my publisher had a hard time classifying which category it fell into. Was it best presented as New Age? Self Help? Spirituality? Music? Memoir?

All of these. Because, you see, I do not fit into any one category. (And neither do you.) I was under the impression that most spiritual books were written by authors who were so clean and nice that sugar could melt in their mouths. Well, that’s not me. I cuss sometimes. I have tattoos. I have my share of bad days where no matter what I do, nothing seems to go right.

In other words, I am human.

I thought that I should have to be like those other authors who were perfect all the time—and that I should never, ever have a bad day, and if I did, I surely would never let the public know about it. I wrote a book and got it published; that was a big accomplishment and people looked up to me. I had to set a good example; I had to put forth a positive image all the time and always do the right thing. Bullshit! That takes too much energy; and the older I get, the more I value having energy because tomorrow something mental or physical might hurt too much to warrant my even getting out of bed!

I have since learned to accept and embrace who I am—imperfectly perfect, or perfectly imperfect, however you want to look at it. And I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to be pure and saintly and positive 100% of the time to be a spiritual person, or to find self-realization or self-fulfillment or to make a positive contribution to the world. You are already perfect just the way you are. Uh huh, I said it.

Since I’ve already shared so much about myself, I figured why not share some more? Because by sharing parts of ourselves with the world, it lets others know that they are not alone and that, right there, is empowering. And since it’s my goal to help others discover their personal paths to self-realization, all I can do is point the way to “The Way,” then it’s up to them to find their own truths.

There’s a Zen saying that goes:

The way to enlightenment is like a finger pointing at the moon. If you focus on the finger, you won’t see the moon.

So here goes. I’m done apologizing:

for going out in public wearing sandals without painting my toenails (“Suck it, Trebek!”)

for wearing jeans and T-shirts and sometimes too-short shorts

for having tattoos and piercings

for no longer subscribing to all the tenets of the religion in which I was raised and for picking and choosing bits and pieces of other religions and philosophies to put together my personal spiritual belief system.

for saying “bad” words and laughing at dirty jokes

for not buying into your political stance or religion—and by the way—I don’t judge you; you’re entitled to your own opinion, just as I am

for believing that dreams really do come true

for being naive and unworldly sometimes

for being open-minded to a fault sometimes

for my shoes not matching my purse (or sometimes not even matching each other! Yeah, it’s happened.)

for practicing (and loving) the “unladylike” martial art of taekwondo

for liking kim-chee, merlot, good tequila, strong coffee, any sort of potatoes and milk chocolate (white chocolate is NOT chocolate in my opinion!)

for believing that gays and lesbians deserve the same rights as everyone else

for believing that women should be allowed to be priests and that priests should be allowed to marry and have families

for not wanting to eat or drink from anything made of plastic

for believing that there are good people and not-so-good people of every race, color and creed

for believing in magic and miracles

for playing my music too loud

for having a special place in my heart for bikers (the kind who ride motorcycles, have tattoos, and wear leather and do-rags)

for not always wearing the right clothes for the right occasion, i.e. overdressed for a casual event or underdressed for a special event—clothes just aren’t that important to me

for loving, loving, LOVING heavy metal music (the raunchier the better) and rock, hip hop, blues, and classical

for NOT loving the music of Celine Dion

for dancing or singing when I feel like it—so what if I’m no good? Don’t watch!

for focusing all my love on my family and friends—they come first

for your misunderstanding of what I said

for not needing a gazillion dollars to make me happy

for loving the smell, the feel, the sounds, and the sight of everything having to do with horses

for celebrating Christmas, Halloween, Easter and the Fourth of July

for abhorring sitcoms wherein is piped that insipid canned laughter. Ugh!

for believing in God, angels, saints, spirits and ghosts, and my Higher Self

for not presenting home-cooked meals in an artful manner—as long as it tastes good, who cares if it’s on a pretty plate? Serve yourself out of the saucepan. There’s less cleanup that way

or if you stay overnight at my house, your towels and bedding may not be color-coordinated, but I’ll give you the best I’ve got and they will be fresh and clean and super-comfortable!

for being nostalgic and romantic

for being able to relate to Eastern philosophies so much more than to most Western philosophies

for my house being messy if you drop over unexpectedly—I have a little plaque in my kitchen that reads “I cleaned my house yesterday. Wish you could have seen it!”

for spending too much time writing

for loving philosophy and deep conversations

for needing to feel appreciated

for spending countless hours just watching my babies sleep when they were newborns

for loving babies of any kind—human, canine, feline, equine, you name it

for thinking too much—mulling things over and over and over in my mind until I make myself nauseous (and believe me, that can take a looooooong time)

for being overly sensitive

for believing that people are innately good

for getting older

for wearing clothes that are “too young” for me. I love distressed jeans.

for enjoying reading about sex, writing about sex, talking about sex and engaging in sex

for hugging you full on, and with my entire being. It’s not sexual—I really do love you that much.

for telling you how good-looking, smart, or wonderful you are. It’s not a ploy; I sincerely mean it.

for believing that no one has the right to hurt another person or animal

for believing in the power of prayer

for using meditation and other methods of tapping into my mind and spirit

for believing that elderly people deserve respect

for knowing that “you” do not end with the death of your physical body

for being patriotic and loving my country

for believing that God is both male and female at the same time

for mourning my dear parents who have passed on

for teaching my kids to have manners

for having respect for those in my life, not just because they’re in a position of authority or because they’re famous, but because in my opinion, they earned it

for believing that every woman has the right to choose what happens to her body

for being needy for no apparent reason

for being kinky for no apparent reason

for being silly for no apparent reason

for needing to hear you say that you love me

for spending too much money on my kids and grandkids and spoiling them rotten. Isn’t that what kids and grandkids are for?

for drinking too much tequila sometimes (although not for a long time)

for loving you first, before I even know you, and giving you the benefit of the doubt until I am convinced that you don’t deserve it (and it takes a LOT for me to determine that you don’t deserve it)

for loving you too much. I don’t believe there is such a thing as loving too much

for trying to please/feed/clothe/house/protect you too much

for not wanting to be in the company of those who put others down

for not being phony. Yeah, I’d like breast implants, a butt lift, botox and a tummy tuck, but I’ll deal with what I’ve got. (However, I might be able to be persuaded on a few of those things…)

for not laughing at your racial jokes

for wearing my heart on my sleeve

for not holding down a regular 9 to 5 job—I’m a writer

for being a stay-at-home mom when my kids were growing up

for being friends with people you don’t approve of

for asking too many questions

for buying too many books (There’s no such thing as “too many” books.)

for anything I’ve said here that may seem contradictory

for anything I’ve said here that may offend you

Now—your turn. It’s a new year. What are you through apologizing for?