There is a reason Rock Stars can get away with drugs, casual sex and all-night benders that would take the heart of us.
They’re doing exactly, what they’re here for.
—
As you may or may not know, I am a writer.
The “I am” can also come before a lot of professions, such as: I am a yoga teacher. I am an entrepreneur. I am a mentor. And all would be true.
But there are two reasons why “I am a writer” will always be more true than others.
One is because I will always write. It is unimaginable that I would stop it. Or it IS imaginable! In theory it would be wise, desirable, practical and very, very welcome, if only it were possible, to stop writing… Because I can’t, even if my life depended on it. Which it might, because writing is causing a terrible strain. I know it is by far my most unhealthy habit. Which is why for me it is important to keep the rest of my life (as far as there is a rest!) as stress-free as I can, and do all within my might to get my lifestyle as healthy as possible. I’m 51 and I’m still struggling, yet I know that if I don’t succeed, if I don’t find a way to somehow moderate and regulate my writing habits, it will cost me two decades of my life if not more.
Yet still, I cannot stop.
The second reason “I am a writer” holds more truth, is that even if I’m sick, sleep-deprived, broken-hearted, or all of the above, not only can I still write; It actually gets better.
What’s the thing you will do until your dying breath?
~Suzanne
Good news and bad news;
Your no-brainer, have-to work, is The One.
— What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today goes out every two days. Subscribe to receive them in your Inbox. The subscribe button should be somewhere on this page, probably on the top right.
THE ROCK STAR
.
THE ROCK STAR, is Catacombe’s signature 3 hour session, for those who are ruled by whatever it is they do, and wouldn’t be able to stop it, without taking down the entire purpose of their existence.
THE ROCK STAR is a one-time investment, and our conversation is confidential.
Once we know we are a good fit, my price is accepted by you and you choose to make a booking; We move.
It is possible the above story has already given you an outline of what you want to discuss.
If you think you would benefit from a broader approach, my suggestion will be to sort your story into:
1. the earthly plane Your possessions, worldly matters, income streams, worries and responsibilities you fear you can’t meet.
A helpful term could be how do things look from the perspective of financial freedom, or worldly freedom.
2. your purpose What is the work you love doing, what are the moments big or small, that you know you are aligned. Has God told you, what you’re here for?
This is about creative freedom, or even karmic freedom.
Are you free to do the work, that is yours?
3. your Rock Star expansion What is the fullest expression you are here to bring? And what are the areas you’re playing small, as if cut off from your powers?
We investigate if in those areas, the rules you play by are yours, or society’s.
“3” is related to sexual freedom.
Like anything, it is up to you if that is part of our conversation or not.
Because all three points are just a suggestion, they offer a good framework providing one hour for every topic, to go deeper looking for answers.
But the setlist is not fixed.
I have merely built the stage for us, and we have three hours.
You left the realm where you provided a service a long time ago. And in all probability, you were never there in the first place.
Just that it seemed that way, because other people’s hands were going through the same motions.
—
One of the biggest misconception of all, and a tragedy in my opinion, is that the ones who have become one with their profession, with their area of expertise;
The ones who are known for what it is they do;
That they are in any way, still of the same plane, of what it is they do.
They are not.
If you would insist on putting them in a box, the skill this person does really well; You’d find they combine plural areas of expertise.
That there is no One Thing, that made them into the face, benchmark or Rock Star of “their” industry. There are several.
They weave skill, with meaning, with thinking; They talk through their work louder, clearer and with a confidence not present in their everyday life. A life they in all likeliness feel naked in, cannot wait to get away from, in order to bury themselves in what others think is their “work”.
By them, I mean you.
Stop apologizing for your art. That’s why you keep coming back. That’s why you love it more, than anything else in the world.
That’s why you’re better at it, than anyone else.
Yes, yes! I know! In ALL of its messiness and incomprehensible f* up ness…. All of its “why can’t I pick just one thing”-ness.
Stop, apologizing.
It’s the feature, not the bug.
.
~Suzanne
Ready to see, accept and step into the fullness of, the fact that you’re an artist, and not a whatever the world thinks it is you do? -> https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/
New offers for 2024 just dropped, and I look forward to welcoming you.
— What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today goes out every two days. Subscribe to receive them in your Inbox. The subscribe button should be somewhere on this page, probably on the top right.
THE ROCK STAR
.
THE ROCK STAR, is Catacombe’s signature 3 hour session, for those who know it takes more than doing something really well- if that is even relevant at all -in order to let the work speak, sing and vibrate a deeper truth that will touch the hearts of many. Know the unnamed magic of bringing it to life, with a power that is not yours.
THE ROCK STAR is a one-time investment, and our conversation is confidential.
Once we know we are a good fit, my price is accepted by you and you choose to make a booking; We move.
It is possible the above story has already given you an outline of what you want to discuss.
If you think you would benefit from a broader approach, my suggestion will be to sort your story into:
1. the earthly plane Your possessions, worldly matters, income streams, worries and responsibilities you fear you can’t meet.
A helpful term could be how do things look from the perspective of financial freedom, or worldly freedom.
2. your purpose What is the work you love doing, what are the moments big or small, that you know you are aligned. Has God told you, what you’re here for?
This is about creative freedom, or even karmic freedom.
Are you free to do the work, that is yours?
3. your Rock Star expansion What is the fullest expression you are here to bring? And what are the areas you’re playing small, as if cut off from your powers?
We investigate if in those areas, the rules you play by are yours, or society’s.
“3” is related to sexual freedom.
Like anything, it is up to you if that is part of our conversation or not.
Because all three points are just a suggestion, they offer a good framework providing one hour for every topic, to go deeper looking for answers.
But the setlist is not fixed.
I have merely built the stage for us, and we have three hours.
speak the message in the exact same language it was given to you
Regardless of how profound somebody else’s system is, how inspiring or how deep its roots, making your words pale in comparison; Say it anyway.
You are not here to judge your own work, nor someone else’s.
—- Every craft, every profession, and every community comes with its own culture, its own symbolism, values and dictionary.
Because of the simple fact that we are part of a set of those, there is an urge to express our work through the channels and in ways that are familiar not just to us, but to those around us.
A fearful, uneasy feeling to make it comply to the rules we grew up with, or rules that were imposed upon us.
In silence, usually no one takes responsibility, when crossing the line to abuse of power or stifling the voices of the next generation.
When I was drawn to yoga, the message had come to me in the form of Madonna (the Queen of pop, not the mother of Jesus) doing yoga.
I had been in contact with yoga from a very early age.
My mother did yoga, we had yoga books in the house, and I had gone to yoga as an early teen, for about a year.
It was either that or physical therapy, trading it for yoga was a no brainer.
But of course it did make me hate yoga.
When in 1998 a radiant Madonna showed the world her firstborn, her new album and rock hard yoga body, the first two were fantastic, but the last was life changing, and I became a yoga teacher.
But nothing that came after, came even close to the power of that initial message! Which never had words either. It just was, expressed by Madonna’s body.
Yoga.
Your pure, unabridged, unfiltered, message, exactly as it is now; Is someone’s Madonna yoga.
New offers for 2024 just dropped, and I look forward to welcoming you.
— What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today goes out every two days. Subscribe to receive them in your Inbox. The subscribe button should be somewhere on this page, probably on the top right.
THE ROCK STAR
.
THE ROCK STAR, is Catacombe’s signature 3 hour session, for those who speak their truth because they know this is the way-
there is no alternative. Even if it wouldn’t “result” into anything, and the only gratification would be the work itself.
And a knowing you spent your life what you were called to do.
THE ROCK STAR is a one-time investment, and our conversation is confidential.
Once we know we are a good fit, my price is accepted by you and you choose to make a booking; We move.
It is possible the above story has already given you an outline of what you want to discuss.
If you think you would benefit from a broader approach, my suggestion will be to sort your story into:
1. the earthly plane Your possessions, worldly matters, income streams, worries and responsibilities you fear you can’t meet.
A helpful term could be how do things look from the perspective of financial freedom, or worldly freedom.
2. your purpose What is the work you love doing, what are the moments big or small, that you know you are aligned. Has God told you, what you’re here for?
This is about creative freedom, or even karmic freedom.
Are you free to do the work, that is yours?
3. your Rock Star expansion What is the fullest expression you are here to bring? And what are the areas you’re playing small, as if cut off from your powers?
We investigate if in those areas, the rules you play by are yours, or society’s.
“3” is related to sexual freedom.
Like anything, it is up to you if that is part of our conversation or not.
Because all three points are just a suggestion, they offer a good framework providing one hour for every topic, to go deeper looking for answers.
But the setlist is not fixed.
I have merely built the stage for us, and we have three hours.
Also known as action-to-take, vision, One Thing, and Identity-in-motion.
You were never fed, inspired or driven by the result, let alone by totally-soul-sucking ways to get there; You were called by the daily grind of BEING it —– Yesterday I taught my first night-time yoga class since letting go of my yoga space, in the first year of the pandemic.
Within my new yoga company de Club these group classes are not my core business, and the reason I offer them at this stage already, is because I got an opportunity to rent such a great space, and on Monday night; It really was now or never!
However, what I was not prepared for, was how being back teaching yoga at night time made me feel…. At home.
I felt grateful, and I was at peace, more than I have been in years.
And I realized this is not just me, this is all who think and know what it takes to succeed in a worldly sense, and as an entrepreneur or artist.
We forget we never came here for the result.
We came here to be a living and breathing *insert your profession*; Who ARE their profession every step of the way.
It was the lifestyle of being a working yoga teacher, that fueled me.
And I bet my yoga mat it is the LIFESTYLE of whatever profession it is you think you “do”, where your unexplored potential and your happiness lies.
AND we’re in the unique position that my amazing offer for businesses and independents is also still up! 🤩 Which is about the LIFESTYLE of being in business!
“Specify. Sell. Repeat.
In particular when your tech goes down, your industry collapses, and you just lost money.”
This offer would originally expire 30 November 2023; but I am extending it, to December 11, the one year anniversary of this website!
THE ROCK STAR
.
THE ROCK STAR, is Catacombe’s signature 3 hour session, for those being called to the LIFESTYLE of being a Rock Star.
Of playing on top of your game, and finding your way through chaos and disorder, relying on yourself and at the same time trusting, that the path will be revealed.
By living the life you were born for, in the way it was given to you, either all will be well;
Or not, but it would make no difference because you chose this life.
Or it chose you.
THE ROCK STAR is a one-time investment, and our conversation is confidential.
Once we know we are a good fit, my price is accepted by you and you choose to make a booking; We move.
It is possible the above story has already given you an outline of what you want to discuss.
If you think you would benefit from a broader approach, my suggestion will be to sort your story into:
1. the earthly plane Your possessions, worldly matters, income streams, worries and responsibilities you fear you can’t meet.
A helpful term could be how do things look from the perspective of financial freedom, or worldly freedom.
2. your purpose What is the work you love doing, what are the moments big or small, that you know you are aligned. Has God told you, what you’re here for?
This is about creative freedom, or even karmic freedom.
Are you free to do the work, that is yours?
3. your Rock Star expansion What is the fullest expression you are here to bring? And what are the areas you’re playing small, as if cut off from your powers?
We investigate if in those areas, the rules you play by are yours, or society’s.
“3” is related to sexual freedom.
Like anything, it is up to you if that is part of our conversation or not.
Because all three points are just a suggestion, they offer a good framework providing one hour for every topic, to go deeper looking for answers.
But the setlist is not fixed.
I have merely built the stage for us, and we have three hours.
Your mission, your work, your history and your purpose;
They have built your strength, they have robbed you of your peace of mind and they have galvanized you into the person you are today.
Your destiny has carved itself into your bones and burned itself into your flesh.
There is no, nor will there ever be,
rest for the wicked.
—
Look at the very fabric of your day, at the moving parts and pieces of your life. The ones that seem to effortlessly flow out of you, and for which there is always time regardless of how busy your life is.
The ones that come like breathing.
Look honestly at the recurring thoughts and the inconvenient, maddening, knowing of Truth, you carry with you.
You know which one I’m talking about.
The one that doesn’t budge regardless of how hard you try to rationalize yourself out of it.
These things reveal the code with which you came, or the one that was printed upon you when you were ready to receive her. When you were strong enough to carry the responsibility and the intensity of it would no longer harm you. Oh no, it would excite you!
Or at least; That was the plan. The plan before you started downplaying, avoiding, covering up and disguising your deepest truth as something that was no longer repulsive and obscene in its brutal honesty. No longer so violently blowing us away, shake us to our core, and divide our lives into before and after.
And I know that with a world filled with real physical violence this is, in particular now, not an easy role to play.
But you are not a bringer of physical violence, not of inequality, not of judgement, and not even of redemption.
What you, Rock Star, need to hear today is that your task was never brutal and violent to begin with.
So there is no reason to be ashamed.
We want you to wake us up with what you have been shown.
And we need it in its original form, without the social veneer, exactly as it was shown to you.
You are not “just” the messenger;
You are the messenger.
~Suzanne
THE ROCK STAR, is Catacombe’s signature 3 hour session. We meet each other on all levels of Life, but focus on the ones where we are not met by society.
The ones we have to claim as ours, knowing they are our responsibility.
Where we start from knowing the ship of not showing up for our lives sailed long ago!
That the option is no longer on the table.
That the choice was made for us, and that it is our job to act accordingly.
THE ROCK STAR is a one-time investment, and our conversation is confidential.
Once we know we are a good fit, my price is accepted by you and you choose to make a booking; We move.
It is possible the above story has already given you an outline of what you want to discuss.
If you think you would benefit from a broader approach, my suggestion will be to sort your story into:
1. the earthly plane Your possessions, worldly matters, income streams, worries and responsibilities you fear you can’t meet.
A helpful term could be how do things look from the perspective of financial freedom, or worldly freedom.
2. your purpose What is the work you love doing, what are the moments big or small, that you know you are aligned. Has God told you, what you’re here for?
This is about creative freedom, or even karmic freedom.
Are you free to do the work, that is yours?
3. your Rock Star expansion What is the fullest expression you are here to bring? And what are the areas you’re playing small, as if cut off from your powers?
We investigate if in those areas, the rules you play by are yours, or society’s.
“3” is related to sexual freedom.
Like anything, it is up to you if that is part of our conversation or not.
Because all three points are just a suggestion, they offer a good framework providing one hour for every topic, to go deeper looking for answers.
But the setlist is not fixed.
I have merely built the stage for us, and we have three hours.
And there is something about not being lazy in there too, but for now I’m just gonna go with the assumption that like your average prolific, poorly understood Rock Star, your art has the potential to devour you if left unexpressed.
That for you, the option of developing a Netflix addiction is not on the table.
Nor under the table, or within a five mile radius of it.
I’m going to label it a case of eating or being eaten, but between you and your art.
So in a very metaphorical, close to biblical Hero-journey kind of way, where every time The Call comes you roll your eyes thinking: “Oh no! Not again! Please tell me, this one is not for me. I haven’t even gotten my head around the last one!”
But what if you would release any idea of you having to actually do, shape or manage it? That even your skill and experience are not meant to be what you are relying on right now. That it wants you in your purest, most receptive state. Not like a vessel, but like a doorway. A gate from the world of ideas into reality.
In the four years I took my training as a yoga teacher, and a couple of years after when I was still very much living in the yoga world, the world of Ayurveda and of the Bhagavad Gita where the quote is from; I encountered a strange but beautiful story, multiple times, every time from a different source, about the souls of unborn children. That they pick you, before you are pregnant.
And that the Wise, who are initiated in this knowledge, can see the soul in your presence before you are pregnant. They know that you will soon be.
So welcome every new idea, but do not name it yet nor get attached to its presence. There is still a long way to go before it is manifested in a recognizable form and even longer before it grows into maturity.
But just like children, our ideas need us as facilitators and as stewards, using skills on the fly we didn’t even know we had.
They need us to be a strong gateway or lay the path for them into the world.
Whether it’s a business idea, a creative idea, an abstract concept;
Whether it’s an activity you’d like to pick up, a country you’re curious about, or an event you think should be organized; Let the idea come through, and guide it into this world.
We do not know if this is their moment to be manifested in true form, nor do we know how long they will stay on this earth.
And it is not our job to know, either.
..
~Suzanne
THE ROCK STAR, is Catacombe’s signature 3 hour session. We discuss what it is to be under command of the things coming through;
Not in command.
Even if you think: “But Suzanne doesn’t understand! It’s A LOT! I have no idea what I’m doing or which side is up!” I know.
Bring all of it, this is the right place.
THE ROCK STAR is a one-time investment, and our conversation is confidential.
Once we know we are a good fit, my price is accepted by you and you choose to make a booking; We move.
My suggestion will be to sort your story into: 1. the earthly plane Your possessions, worldly matters, income streams, worries and responsibilities you fear you can’t meet.
A helpful term could be how do things look from the perspective of financial freedom, or worldly freedom.
2. your purpose What is the work you love doing, what are the moments big or small, that you know you are aligned. Has God told you, what you’re here for?
This is about creative freedom, or even karmic freedom.
Are you free to do the work, that is yours?
3. your Rock Star expansion What is the fullest expression you are here to bring? And what are the areas you’re playing small, as if cut off from your powers?
We investigate if in those areas, the rules you play by are yours, or society’s.
“3” is related to sexual freedom.
Like anything, it is up to you if that is part of our conversation or not.
Because all three points are just a suggestion, they are a good framework providing one hour for every topic, to go deeper looking for answers.
But the setlist is not fixed.
I have merely built the stage for us, and we have three hours.
You were given the size you were meant to have, to bring what you came here to bring.
To cut, limit, to apologize for who you are and even to soften rough edges;
It is to risk your entire legacy.
—
A mouse is small, an elephant big and a whale is even bigger. All beings have exactly the size they are meant to have. And we humans too are all born having certain talents and a personality, all of them developing over time. Until some of us reach a stage where Normal is no longer covering it.
When you are beginning to stand out like a dormouse between the house mice; An African elephant between Asian ones; Or a blue whale between the humpbacks.
And regardless if you are sensitive to this animal analogy or not, your job will be to accept this as an unchangeable reality, that will express itself at various moments throughout your life. And almost exclusively;
In the most inconvenient and unfavorable of ways!
But your being different, your inability to commit to the simplest of tasks, to show up for the smallest things or your sensitivity to the horrendous mundaneness of the daily grind?
Well?
Could it be because perhaps you were born for bigger and bolder things?
That maybe, your expansion lies somewhere else, where all the little things will fall away, or in place, or maybe they go nowhere at all, yet they will lose their relevance.
Move into full expansion of your Blue whale-ness, your African elephant-ness, your dormouse-ness and your Rock Star-ness.
That, is YOUR commitment!
..
~Suzanne
THE ROCK STAR, is Catacombe’s signature 3 hour session. We discuss what it is to be different, and how to come to terms with what is inevitably, shockingly and brilliantly;
YOU.
Even when that person is right now someone doubting themselves in some key areas; Someone still flirting with succumbing and someone a mystery even to yourself. Bring them, they are most welcome.
THE ROCK STAR is a one-time investment, and our conversation is confidential.
Once we know we are a good fit, my price is accepted by you and you choose to make a booking; We move.
My suggestion will be to sort your story into: 1. the earthly plane Your possessions, worldly matters, income streams, worries and responsibilities you fear you can’t meet.
A helpful term could be how do things look from the perspective of financial freedom, or worldly freedom.
2. your purpose What is the work you love doing, what are the moments big or small, that you know you are aligned. Has God told you, what you’re here for?
This is about creative freedom, or even karmic freedom.
Are you free to do the work, that is yours?
3. your Rock Star expansion What is the fullest expression you are here to bring? And what are the areas you’re playing small, as if cut off from your powers?
We investigate if in those areas, the rules you play by are yours, or society’s.
“3” is related to sexual freedom.
Like anything, it is up to you if that is part of our conversation or not.
Because all three points are just a suggestion, they are a good framework providing one hour for every topic, to go deeper looking for answers.
But the setlist is not fixed.
I have merely built the stage for us, and we have three hours.
If you can do something else, and find it joyful and fulfilling; You are not.
Let me rephrase: If you can do something else. —
“Write like you’re a goddamn death row inmate and the governor is out of the country and there’s no chance for a pardon. Write like you’re clinging to the edge of a cliff, white knuckles, on your last breath, and you’ve got just one last thing to say” Alan W. Watts
There is more than one writer who holds the belief that writing should have a sense of urgency to it.
That there is no point in doing it, because you want to BECOME, a writer.
You either are or you aren’t.
And what better time to be reminded of that urgency you should feel before getting out there, than today? When in our modern world even the bakery around the corner uses social media to get their message out. And that’s a business we all support and feel the human(ity) behind it. It is certainly preferable to having our minds and wallets hacked by AI generated products and commercials.
In today’s landscape, it is so easy to feel shame around supporting your (your!) art and/or your heartfelt business by getting your message out. It sure as hell requires some balls to be visible as WHO you are and WHAT you are, without hiding behind whatever!
And yet, I am not here to help you to dip your toes in, nor to coach you through the treacherous waters of social media and into the safety of a Patreon account. I am here to say;
Then you are not called.
And wow, wouldn’t any of us called ones be very happy to trade places with you!
I know I would.
Oh! The wonderfully neutral yoga- or coaching business I could build.
The soft and gentle life, revolving about self-care and small adventures I could have!!
🤗
And I bet Alan Wilson Watts would love to trade places with a non-called one too:
“Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we’re not alone.
Write like you have a message from the king. Or don’t. Who knows, maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who doesn’t have to.”
― Alan Wilson Watts
So when you know, you know.
Either you have options to get your message out or you do not.
When your message tries to cut itself a way out of your heart every time you deny it, and your only choice is between letting it out – where fear of the external consequences to being visible is the least of your worries compared to the turmoil going on inside! –
or getting drugs strong enough to shut the shrieking inner voice down.
The good news is that if you are called, unlike others “in today’s world”;
You no doubt have what it takes to take that message where it belongs!
Out there.
On a stage.
The biggest one you can find without being thrown in jail.
And even then, you’ll at least consider it.
.
~Suzanne
THE ROCK STAR, is Catacombe’s signature 3 hour session. We discuss what it is to know you have a calling.
To have work to do, no one understands.
And I’m not even going to suggest that I do understand it, but I am comfortable in not-knowing, and in my own ignorance. So bring it all.
THE ROCK STAR is a one-time investment, and our conversation is confidential.
Once we know we are a good fit, and I have told you the price and you have made the booking final; We move.
My suggestion will be to sort your story into: 1. the earthly plane Your possessions, worldly matters, income streams, worries and responsibilities you fear you can’t meet.
A helpful term could be how do things look from the perspective of financial freedom, or worldly freedom.
2. your purpose What is the work you love doing, what are the moments big or small, that you know you are aligned. Has God told you, what you’re here for?
This is about creative freedom, or even karmic freedom.
Are you free to do the work, that is yours?
3. your Rock Star expansion What is the fullest expression you are here to bring? And what are the areas you’re playing small, as if cut off from your powers?
We investigate if in those areas, the rules you play by are yours, or society’s.
“3” is related to sexual freedom.
But like anything, it is up to you if that is part of our conversation or not.
Because all three points are just a suggestion, they can be a good framework. We would then have one hour for every topic, to go deeper looking for answers.
But following today’s death row letter analogy, and image of hanging by the cliff and your last words, I guess I could have made it shorter today!
Try not to yawn – if you do, this post is definitely for you! – but today I made my terms and conditions. After having been in business officially for a month, and unofficially for multiple months already, I finally sat my ass down and not only did it pan out okay;
It absolutely rocked.
My terms and conditions went from something I had sought legal advice and insurance advice over, and that had been on my to-do list pretty much ever since I knew I would start a business again, only to then have it holding me back like a ball and chain- to something I put my heart and soul in, the moment I decided to do it my way!
After months of not making any headway with them – and expensive months too because I did not grow my audience, and didn’t actively sell because not having my legal stuff in place made me insecure – my terms and conditions flowed out of me without any of the micromanagement and bitterness of small print; But with the urgency of a manifesto!
And it made me realize the importance of knowing you are an artist and the impact it has on your life, cannot be overstated.
You can never know too much about this, in particular because so little is common knowledge.
The artist is an archetype barely present and poorly understood, in our society today.
Athletes, scientists, doctors, entrepreneurs. We have role models in many areas, and we have ideas, experiences and have given thought to many of the roles that we play in our lives such as being a partner, a parent, an employee or a leader.
We have ideas, about what it means to be “good” at them.
Yet do we know what it means to be an artist?
No. Or at least I didn’t. Not until I discovered that similarly to with the Terms and Conditions, I simply block when I encounter an area of life where society has a lot of “shoulds” around.
Whenever I encounter a situation where there is a lot of built-in expectations, mandatory requirements, and a distinctive smell of unfreeness?
I know exactly, what it means to be an artist.
Because being an artist means way more than just the areas that are your craft, skill or profession. It means that EVERYTHING, needs to be done with the same surrender as what is officially your art or work. Everything bears the same significance, as what it is you are known for.
And maybe you do not totally block, like I did.
Maybe you don’t waste months, underachieving and coasting in your business.
But even then; You know where you are investing, and giving and losing way more than you receive or get back.
And more than you logically should.
Finance, relationships, legal shit, more relationships, complaints from people, housekeeping, taking care of your loved ones (I know that’s a risky one to put out!), taking care of yourself (better?); The list of things that feel pointless and frustrating and the enormous pull they have, swallowing your whole life into quicksand, that list?
Is endless.
And the reason this is, is that – I would say “unfortunately”- we have no other choice than to figure them out top to bottom, all by ourselves. Take them apart and rebuild them, so that they stop standing out like a sore fake thumb, and become a lived-through thing, that is in integrity with who we are.
That, is what being an artist means. Because an artist is not just a creator, but it is a creator with a message. And as long as there are aspects of our lives that still convey the message of others, or of society at large; We. Will. Suffer. You, will suffer.
Me, being slowed down by the ball and chain of how to properly set up my Terms & Conditions, waiting for the magical moment I would finally make myself copy, paste, and mimic, what others had done in that area? Oh, I was planning for a horrific, inauthentic, wouldn’t-be-found-dead-with-it move, in what was supposed to be my dream business.
So that is the bad news: If you are an artist, you will need to take apart aspects of Life others can just borrow, copy and paste.
Good news is of course, the satisfaction and almost post-sex glow on your face once you do, and rocked it! Once you have personally designed an area in your life everybody says you cannot do yourself, and you have to do it like this and that, and then you create something new entirely? Oh, the sweet smell of artistic success!
But sure, I would agree with you that it would be nice to, for a chance, be able to use other people’s work and just go with the flow. Just that every time I try this tempting short-cut, I end up losing time, money, or blowing the whole thing up because I just don’t want anything to do with it anymore.
So there is all that, about being an artist. You have a message, and it wants to express itself.
And that message, that authenticity, is part of a bigger artistic “divine assignment” a.k.a. A Calling. Something is coming through you, work only you can do. And the catch is, only you know what this is.
And perhaps not even that; You don’t know WHAT the highest work is, but you only know these weird projects, these effortless curiosities, that you follow. You know when you are deeply involved in activities that give you so much joy, yet you have no idea where it will lead to.
Bingo.
“Highest work”.
Keep doing that thing that fills your heart with joy. And for God’s sake, stop doing the things that suck the life right out of you.
But even with as little as we ourselves know about what our highest work is, we still know more than others who view us from outside.
I could have used normal Terms and Conditions, and no one would have noticed.
But I would have noticed.
And from that moment on, it would have been a countdown to the moment I had burned my company down to the ground.
Every time I attached that diabolical document to an email, a nail to the coffin.
Only you know when something is “off”.
And only you know, what you’re here to do.
And even when you don’t know, you still know better than others!
. This is my definition of an Artist:
To be an artist is to be in an active and committed relationship with a craft, a calling, a message or a vision, as it is coming through.
This relationship takes shape in following curiosity, passions, hunches.
In following your Heart.
An artist is not responsible for expressing their highest work; But for keeping the pathways clear, so their highest work can express through them.
Suzanne Beenackers
My curiosities are being offline and living in a fictional past. No idea how this is ever to amount to any official “art”, but I know it is what I have to do.
My passion is writing, I have 10.000 blogs, give or take 😉 I write with the same visceral need others suck their thumb. Although I also suck my thumb.
And my purpose is to live a Rock Star life, and to advocate the message of freedom.
Every time I do something that contradicts or denies those things, I don’t just work against my own nature, my own purpose;
But against the integrity of our time together, at this company Catacombe.
Every time I stray and end up being some kind of sterile, dried up, proper-business version of me, it violates the Rock Star quality, the juiciness, the sex, the luscious unpredictability and rebel nature of our rule-breaking work together.
And I have reduced the Rock Star tagline of this company to just some fuckin’ marketing gimmick.
In the same way you too, know what your highest work is.
It’s the work that comes with great ease, with great joy. It’s the work that makes you feel alive, on purpose, happy, in your power. The work that makes you feel sexy, in love, creative, a bringer of Life here on this earth.
The work you, Artist, are here to do, is the work that awakens the Rock Star within you.
Because the Rock Star within you, was given to you for a reason. They are not just there residing inside of you, to bring out whenever the circumstances are right and you think you are welcomed.
They’re not a party trick.
You were given this strength and this power, for a reason;
To bring your work and your message, into the world.
And rock them all.
.
~Suzanne become the Rock Star you were born to be
Let God do their frickin’ work, Rock Star! | 2023 03 22 Top offers 2: “The Artist”
is the eighth Catacombe Rock Star post
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There was a moment that you knew.
You knew this thing had your name on it.
You knew it was yours.
You didn’t know details, or hows, or whys, but you knew what you knew!
This was what you wanted.
Yet you waited a while, didn’t you?
No worries.
But I think you waited because you couldn’t believe this one was meant for you.
Not just why it landed in your lap, but also why others didn’t fight you over it.
They barely showed interest in it.
Maybe they mocked it, but that was focused at you. Maybe they were jealous of the attention you would be giving this thing, and that’s why they gave you a hard time over it.
But it is not because they envied you for having it.
Or for discovering it.
Your craft. Your passion. Your art. Or an area of expertise that already bore the contours of the professional work you’d be known for, in this lifetime.
And if that was you, I see two options;
Either you stuck with your vision, followed the path, and are now rocking whatever it was you were shown.
Or, like me, you made too many mistakes, and you lost the dream.
Like I did with my vision to become a yoga practitioner and then later a yoga teacher.
In hindsight, I really did not make that many mistakes.
Just one.
I did not understand what I was shown.
And to make matters worse? Even now, I would not be able to tell you what it is, I was shown.
But I do know one thing though;
It wasn’t “yoga”.
Just like you, if you had that experience of seeing that one thing with your name on it; That experience of that thing landing in your lap and you seeing your future; Just like you, were not shown that thing either.
You were not shown; Your profession. Your passion. Your area of expertise.
Not the way you parent, the way you govern, the way you do business, the way you create; Not the way you love, not the way you move, not the way you ARE. You were not shown a way at all.
You were shown a VISION. When you, and I, thought we were shown A WAY.
I thought my way was yoga, so I started practicing yoga and took classes, yoga teacher trainings and started teaching. And the further along down the path I went, the further I moved away from my vision.
So hail to you, if you are rocking whatever it is you were shown. You did not lose your dream along the way, not by luck, but because you stuck with the vision. Not the way. Not the HOW.
You were not swayed by what others said were the right ways and the proper hows, to go with your vision.
And we, the ones that failed, did.
We were never shown a how, nor a path; We were shown a vision. You can’t follow a ten step formula, not a four year education, not a parenting course, not the protocol of how things are done in whatever industry or area of life you think your vision belongs. That’s not how you bring a vision to life.
That’s how you kill it.
So go back. Go back to when you knew. Go back to the beginning of the beginning when that thing landed in your lap and you looked around if no one else came to claim this beautiful, meaningful, exciting thing… if it was really meant for you.
And pick it up from there.
Because do you know why no one fought you over it? Why no one bothered to go after what you would have given anything in the world for?
Because they saw something else entirely. They saw only the worldly, material, recognizable aspects of it.
It is not just that others cannot see, what you have always understood was yours; But also that they aren’t meant to.
It was your vision. Let it be reborn today.
And commit not to the recognizable worldly aspects, but to its wholeness.
Or even;
Its holiness.
.
~Suzanne become the Rock Star you were born to be
Let YOUR work be reborn. The Rock Star way. | 2022 12 25 Christmas
is the second Catacombe Rock Star post
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under chaos and mayhem your work gets better
stop apologizing for your art
speak the message in the exact same language it was given to you
If you want to step into easy, no-tech required, selling of whatever it is you sell as an independent or small business?
the point of no return is far behind you
it was never under your command
give yourself full expansion
there is no mistaking if you are called
Catacombe 