Archive for the ‘The Color Pink’ Category

Happiness, Consciousness, and Original Essence: Guidance for the Soul

Saturday, February 20th, 2010
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Brother Michael Mackintosh

Dear Pinkies, please welcome the newest Pink God to join the Posse, Brother Michael Mackintosh. Michael is here to introduce himself and tell us about some of what he has to offer Pinkdom. Enjoy his profound wisdom and thought-provoking words … as you’ll see, Brother Michael is a Pinkie through and through, and will be an extraordinary asset to our group as we deepen our work and fine-tune our magic. Welcome, Brother Michael, and thank you for bringing your shining Pink light into our community!

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Aloha wonderful Pinkies!

Much love and many blessings from the Garden Island of Kauai, Hawaii.

My name is Michael Mackintosh, also lovingly known by many as Brother Michael. I’ve been invited to share my thoughts and experiences with all of you wonderful beings here on the posse to help provide guidance to live YOUR most beautiful, happy and fulfilling life.

My Journey Into the Pink Posse

Since profound spiritual experiences at age 18, while in England, my life has been dedicated to empowering people to tap into their own highest potential, seeing life in new ways and dissolving whatever is no longer serving their highest good. After traveling extensively, I have spent the last 2.5 glorious years here on Kauai, running retreats, courses, seminars, and webinars to help thousands of people worldwide. Whilst enjoying life, destiny brought me to the posse in the form of Tricia Barrett, who appeared by ‘chance’ to participate in one of our exclusive ‘Gentle Warrior’ retreats.

My now very dear friend, Tricia Barrett, originally came to Hawaii for panchakarma (Ayurvedic cleansing) – however destiny had it for her to take the plunge into new levels of being and experience our 14 day Gentle Warrior Retreat with Nick Good and myself.

I am amazed at the powerful transformation she went through during those magical Hawaiian summer days and Tricia and I have been in contact ever since. Recently, she encouraged me to check out the Pink Posse and see if I could contribute. I am now honored to be part of the Mojo Mentors as your Pink Soul Adviser, offering you loving guidance on how to live in alignment with your soul purpose and to be fully connected to your soul power, self love, and have the Best Day– every day.

I’d like to share so much love to Lissa for welcoming me so warmly and gracefully and doing all of the wonderful work she is doing. Go sister! And much love to all of you for being here, sharing your hearts and making this community what it is – thank you.

Embracing Pink God-ness

As an aside, I’d just like to mention briefly- because it’s amusing, that I actually DO love the color pink. Many men feel that pink is a ‘girly’ color and it should be left to the women to own; ‘Pink is for girls, blue is for boys’. I, however, do fully OWN PINK and so it was wonderful to come across this pink posse. More pink all around.

If anything, I feel my role is to help people dissolve any old, harmful, redundant conditioning about life – so they can relax, let go, and live their highest destiny. So for all the guys out there, if you’re feeling it – go and get yourself a pink shirt – you’ll feel great! You deserve it!

The potential of human life

Having traveled extensively, especially spending significant time in India with some of the world’s greatest spiritual masters, it has become very clear to me that each and every one of us is beautiful, wonderful and magical – no matter what they may think or feel about themselves right now.

One day, something magical happens to all of us. Sooner or later, we all wake up to realize that we are eternal beings of pure consciousness having a human experience.

From this awareness, life is just a wonderful game. It is here to be enjoyed and deeply cherished.

When this happens…everything changes. The anxiety that is present in nearly everyone’s solar plexus (feel yours now) – is gone and there is an inner happiness and presence of peace that penetrates the mind, body and soul, and flows into the world around us, absorbing all life into this peace.

In this state, we become fully aware that ‘I am safe, I am secure, and I am complete’. Life is truly supportive and all is well exactly as it is right now. We can see the perfection in every detail.

One of the most profound shifts I have ever seen or experienced is the knowing and feeling that “I am safe, valuable and ‘good’. I am worthy, I am valuable, I am lovable.”

We are all made of love already. We don’t need to DO anything. Truly, love is omnipresent – it is our original essence. Feeling the love we are is one of the foundations of human life and we all need to come back to that – no matter what.

You have probably heard this simple statement before:

“I am consciousness,” “I am a spiritual being” – however it seems many people do not experience the feelings that come with this statement – it often becomes a dry theoretical understanding devoid of the meaning and juiciness it contains.

After consulting and listening to thousands of the people over the years I often hear or observe the complaint “I am not good enough, I am unworthy – I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with my life … I don’t FEEL the love that I know is there somewhere, how do I tap into it? – I feel empty and depressed,” etc.

We may ask, if love and happiness are our natural inner state, why are there not more happy people around? Why is the whole world not paradise right now?

Why?

Because of years and years and years and years of negative programming has covered over the original and eternal wellspring of love and inner joy.

There is a very heavy weight sitting on top of our treasure chest of joy. Remove the weight and you will explode with light and bliss! You will experience a happiness that penetrates the bones and gushes out into the far corners of the universe.

I had a profound, extremely vivid, powerful vision of this state one time when I was in India – a state of so much love and happiness it was hard to even stand up…When you have seen the potential of human life… nothing is ever the same again. I’ll share more on that another time if you’d like ; )

I hope this has given some idea of who I am and where I am coming from. I’m here in service to each of you. Will share more soon.

What does your soul need to feel loved? How can you tap into the inner essence? What do you need, Pinkies? Let us all be here for each other.

Much love from Hawaii,

Your brother Michael

Owning Love on Valentine’s Day

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

The Many Colors of Valentines Day

Dearest Pinkies, it seems only fitting to have Owning Pink’s Lovemuffin Extraordinaire and Think Pink founder Megan Monique Harner write today’s Valentine’s Day post. So without further adieu, I give you LOVE. Take it away MeganMuffin!

Love

Love a word that has endless definitions. It can be taken out of context, too far into context and is a common emotion that humans share across the world at least one time in their lives. For those of us who are lucky enough to acknowledge it, it is an everyday sensation.

Valentines Day

Love in terms of Valentines Day takes on a whole new meaning. I have encountered some who enjoy the spirit of Valentines Day whether or not they have a special cuddle buddy. Others are less enthusiastic about the holiday because they feel it only exists to exploit the saps that get a kick out of receiving gifts of chocolate, over priced jewelry and roses. No matter your stance on this gaudy day o’ love, I want to offer you a different meaning for it all.

Orange

Where Do You Stand with Love?

Love is an emotion that is not easy to come by for everyone. You might feel as though you have a lack of love that surrounds you, or maybe your don’t know how to share your own love. Perhaps, it is even true that you did not have love in your life as a child and it has transferred over to today. No matter the reasons of your past, you can still start today anew, live a life full of love- cuddle buddy, or not. And to those of you who are swimming in love daily, this invitation still stands for you as well.

Green

What Valentines Day Means to Me

For as long as I can remember, Valentine’s Day has been my favorite holiday (aside from the 4th of July!) I have been lucky enough to have love in my life everyday that I can remember. I think a large part of it being there is that I choose to acknowledge its existence. To me, Valentine’s Day is celebration of the Love that exists EVERYWHERE. Not just in intimate relationships, but the love I have for my family, friends, and above all- myself. I take this Holiday of Love and use it to get excited about this feeling that is FREE to EVERYONE. I love to my fullest on this day; strangers, cab drivers, movie theater attendants, waiters, boyfriends, girlfriends, moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, cousins, friends, ex-boyfriends, E V E R Y O N E. Especially you Pinkies.

Pink

What’s In It for You?

Pinkies, imagine what it would be like, if for a moment you stepped out of your mind frame that Valentine’s Day was something to either preen over because some lover adores you or curse because you don’t? What if you started celebrating LOVE for its own sake instead. Where would that leave you? Would you be honoring yourself with a bubble bath, pink roses and chocolates (heck, maybe even a massage?) Or perhaps you will gather with your friends and a good chick flick while you basque in each others awesome-ness. Whatever it is you choose to do, do it with a large amount of love in your heart and see how much further it gets you. Valentine’s Day is something to take advantage of. Personally, I think it is incredible that we have a National Day O’ Love- how lucky are we?!

What about you Pinkies? What are you doing to celebrate today? Tell us your stories- all of them. If you’re whooping it up in roses and chocolate land because you’ve found the love of your life, share your joy and let us celebrate with you (I’m serious.  Let’s share of happy days as well as our struggles. Those of us who haven’t found that will relish your joy on this special day.) If you’re annoyed by this Hallmark holiday, share that too. If you’ve found love here at Owning Pink and it’s changed you, tell us how you feel. We want to know all the facets of how V-day affects you. As always, we just want to be real. What’s real for you?

Loving YOU (and me,)

Megan Monique

A special Valentine’s Day message from Owning Pink’s founder Dr. Lissa Rankin:

Pinkettes….daw-lings…I am sending each and every one of you extra special love, healing juju, and virtual rose petals raining down upon you while I wrap you in my arms and tell you how much I care. Really. Do you feel it? Happy Valentine’s Day. Let’s truly, collectively make this a day of Love. Please make an extra special effort to use your Magical Eyes, don your LOVE BUBBLE, and put your love out into the world today.  Reach out to someone who might be lonely and need a hug. Buy flowers for the girl behind you at the checkout counter in the grocery store with the tan line where her wedding ring used to be.  Give a hug to a widow at church who might need one. Call your single girlfriends and plan an impromptu LOVE FEST potluck party.

And please do me an extra special favor and make this a special day of expressing love to your fellow Pinkies on the Pink Posse forum. Send them messages of love. Reach out to those who live near you and meet for a cup of tea.  Pay extra attention to those who are posting on the Posse blog and make sure everyone feels nurtured. Hell- write on the Posse blog and let us nurture YOU.  Let’s make this day about US- ourselves and those we love. Let’s truly celebrate love the way it was meant to be celebrated (with big PINK balloons and banshee dancing and rock and roll and moments of stillness in which we remember who we are.) Okay? You in?

Holding you in both arms and squeezing extra special tight today,

Lissa & the rest of the Owning Pink team

Owning Pink: Embracing Our Girlytude

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

neon-pink-tutu

Hiya Pinkies,

Lissa here with some reflections on the concept upon which Owning Pink was originally conceived. Remember back when this was all about just owning our girlytude? Though our community has evolved into something far, far greater – a place where we are free to be precisely who we are and hold space for others to do the same – it all started as an invitation to OWN the parts of ourselves that make us uniquely female (and, as such, powerful beyond imagine).

Frankly, I revel in the fact that I was born a woman.  As a baby girl, I got to wear frilly tutu confections and pink head frosting.  As a toddler, I wrapped baby dolls in blankets and held them tight to my chest so they could nurse from my breasts, just like my mother did with my baby brother.  As a young girl, I pranced like a princess, pirouetted on tippie toe, and painted rainbows and unicorns in pastel purples, teal green, sunshine yellow, and carnation pink. I donned tiaras and twirled batons and collected china dolls with porcelain faces and rosebud lips. I curled my hair with pin curls, took hula dancing lessons, and wore panties with ruffles.

Growing into my teen years, I toned down my prissyness a wee bit, just to be cool- but I doubt I fooled anyone.  Princess costumes made way for pointe shoes, singing at the top of my lungs in high school musicals, and wrist corsages adorning hoop skirt prom dresses.  As I got older, my unique femininity evolved.  Cancan dancing with my girlfriends to the tunes of Grease trained me well for sashaying my hips to salsa music while wearing a white silk bridal gown and delicate veil.  Sitting around campfire circles with my karmic sisters led to giggles and grins and glorious tales of girlness.

Later, when my body flourished with the ultimate face of femininity, round and curvy with a baby moving inside of me, I came to experience the female experience as something even deeper than tutus and pastels and prom dresses. As a soon-to-be-mother, you learn to appreciate your body for the vessel that it is, the pleuripotential creator of all life.  Then, as the mother of a daughter, the whole cycle begins anew, and I revel in the girlytude of my little one, who spins and twirls and wants me to curl her hair and paint her toenails. It’s enough to make me deeply appreciate the divine feminine within me and within all women. I find myself bowing deeply to the sacred Goddess I know I am, deep in the heart of me.

So when I find myself cursing my vagina, complaining about menstrual blood, bitching about stretch marks, or otherwise dissing my gender, I remind myself that it’s all part of the female package, that you can’t cherry pick what it means to be a woman. You have to take the whole kit and kaboodle. And that’s just the beginning.

When I teach workshops about Owning Sexuality, we often talk about what it means to truly own your body and your sexual self.  One woman, who is married with three kids, said she realized that she needed to take responsibility for her sexuality, rather than expecting her partner to read her mind and meet all of her needs. Rather than lashing out at her husband because he wasn’t making her feel loved and nurtured enough, she needed to love and nurture herself first.  Another woman said that she has spent her whole life hating her femininity, bad-mouthing her yoni, and wishing she had been born male. Then she wondered why her sense of self suffered.  By learning to reclaim her feminine self, she was able to step more fully into the beautiful being she is.

If you’re one of those women who has work to do in order to appreciate being feminine, let us all hold out our arms in Pink sisterhood and invite you to open yourself to the blooming flower that you are.  Only when we embrace all aspects of ourselves can we be truly whole.

Own it, sister!

Yours in Pink love,

Lissa

Author Phil Bolsta Interviews Owning Pink Founder Dr. Lissa Rankin About Life, Mojo, Health, Pink & Surrender

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

lissagurusmallHiya Pinkies! Yesterday, I was interviewed by Phil Bolsta, the author of Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything, a collection of 45 inspiring, life-changing stories from prominent people he interviewed, including Joan Borysenko, Deepak Chopra, geneticist Dr. Francis Collins, acclaimed sportswriter Frank Deford, Dr. Larry Dossey, Wayne Dyer, Dan Millman, Caroline Myss, Dr. Christiane Northrup, Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, Dr. Bernie Siegel, James Van Praagh, singer Billy Vera, Doreen Virtue, Neale Donald Walsch, and bassist Victor Wooten.

The story of how Phil and I met is filled with crazy synchronicities (more Signs From the Universe). He posted about the nutty synchronicities that lead him to me on his blog Triumph of the Spirit. In this interview, Phil and I discuss mojo, Owning Pink, holistic wellness, The Woman Inside Project, surrender, synchronicity, breast cancer, love, and a lot more.

If you’re curious, I’ve posted the interview here. Since YouTube won’t let you post more than 10 minutes, the interview is broken into 4 YouTube clips… Thank you Phil for finding me and taking the time to interview me. Thank you Pinkies, for watching and making all of this possible.  And thank you Universe, for bringing all of us together!

Lissa Rankin Interview Part 1

Lissa Rankin Interview Part 2

Lissa Rankin Interview Part 3

Lissa Rankin Part 4

Five Quick Pink Ways to Get Your Giggle On

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

Joy Mazzola, Christa Scalies, and Lissa Rankin, getting our Giggle On!

Joy Mazzola, Christa Scalies, and Lissa Rankin, getting our Giggle On!

Hey Pinkies,

Introducing Pink Giggle Coach (or Purple, since she hates the color pink though she Owns it in a major way) Christa Scalies, founder of www.giggleon.com, a site to aid us in reclaiming our joy, particularly in the face of hard times. Christa is a wonderful friend, Pinkie, Mojo Mentor and fellow laughter yoga instructor who will have you giggling all the way to mojo in no time.  Thanks and big love to this Pinkalicious, gigglicious goddess of good time goofiness.

Rolling on the floor,
Lissa & Joy

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Having a bad day? Stressed? Need some comic relief?

Here are some easy, free and simply solutions to incorporate silliness into your day:

uomh1. The Underwear Solution

Take a CLEAN pair of your panties (thongs, bikinis, granny panties – whatever you’ve got) or a pair of boxers (the underwear, not the dog), briefs or jock strap (who still wears these?) and place them on your head, backwards. Check yourself out in the mirror while doing the “Underwear on Your Head dance”.

Feels silly, don’t it? Look stupid, don’t you? I bet you smiled!

2. Invent New Words

I love making up new words and talking jibberish. It’s an easy and cheap laugh.

Make up your own words and include them in daily conversation with your kin (family) and peeps (friends).

For example, you might want to tell your girlfriend she looks “fabulicious”. Smash fabulous and delicious together (or smash any other words together) and speak to her using a Spanish of French accent. Bad French accents are my favorite. Flail your arms and hands about wildly.

If she laughs, she’s a keeper. If she understands that “fabulicious” is a compliment – she’s incredibly intelligent and witty. If by chance she looks at you like you’re insane – dump her immediately.

(Note: see the Pinktionary for more fantabulous pinkalicious vocab)

3. The Ahhhhhhhhh Factor

Take a sip of your favorite beverage. After the sip, smack your lips together (make the smacking sound) and let out a nice long “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh” from your mouth. Make the sound every time you drink. The “Ahhhh” noise should last for at least 3 seconds for maximum effectiveness. Making noise, any kind of noise, after drinking, is just silly. This is great silliness if done alone, or, in a group setting. Tip:  Drinking soda or any carbonated beverage will facilitate a greater “ahhhhhhhhhhh”.

4. Stick Your Bum Out

This is perfect for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you have a big bum, or a flat bum. Any size bum will do.

Stand up straight, arch your lower back and stick your bum behind you.

Pretend like you’re trying to hold a cup of coffee on your ass (not in your ass – BIG difference, the latter may get you arrested). To maximize the giggle, do this exercise in a public place where the likelihood of someone seeing you is very high. Aside from being silly, it’s a great opportunity to embarrass your friends. If you walk with your bum out and incorporate option #2, “Inventing New Words”, you get automatic double giggle opportunity. This gift of silliness keeps giving. Trust me on that!

5. Impersonate Ethel Merman

ehtelmermanM-a-n-y moons ago, I used to impersonate the great Ethel Merman and would often enjoy singing the Phil Collins tune, “In the Air Tonight” using my Ethel voice. “I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lawd”. This was always good for a laugh, often times, the laugh would be so hearty that I’d have to run to the bathroom out of fear of peeing my pants.

There may be some of you who don’t know Ethel Merman (damn young kids) but if you’ve ever heard the original version of “There’s No Business Like Show Business”, you’ve probably heard Ethel’s voice. It’s distinctive.

Ethel’s voice applies nicely to songs by the Stone Temple Pilots, the Sex Pistols and even acts like Rhianna and Amy Winehouse.

Go on, try singing Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” like Ethel but make sure the bathroom is close by, just in case! Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

christalaughingTickled Pink,

Christa

What about you, Pinkies? What antics do you have up your sleeve that help you do to get your giggle on? Let us know!