Mary Oliver, And My Birthday

"Instructions for living a life. 

Pay attention. 

Be astonished. 

Tell about it." 

-Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver's birthday is today.  Mine is tomorrow.  (Somehow, this makes me feel cool.) I am following her advice today by sharing some astonishment with you, and inviting you to be astonished with me.  

Few things are more astonishing to me than the feeling of wholeness I have after teaching and experiencing a Qoya class.  Qoya is the movement class I teach every Tuesday. Qoya was created by my good pal Rochelle Schieck. It is a movement class based on the idea that if it feels good, you are doing it right. There are no rules, no simon-says instruction.  It's not about getting your body to look like what mine is doing, or what the person next to you is doing. What I love the most about Qoya is the way it offers a woman reclamation of doing things HER way.  

Qoya is about remembering that as women, we are all inherently wise, wild and free. I believe that this connection to body is the cutting edge for women's empowerment. When a woman chooses to source her truth from within her very bones, rather than looking to a set of rules outside of herself, she is truly wise. When she can stand up and speak a truth that is boiling up inside her no matter how big a risk it is to speak it, she is claiming her wild soul, perfect and untamed.  When 5,000 years of conditioning is telling her that her way is wrong, but she decides right then and there that her way is right, and in fact, always has been, she is finally free. 

For my birthday this year, my biggest wish is celebrate my life by empowering other women. Tuesday September 11th, I will be having a by-donation Qoya class where all proceeds go to benefit Women for Women International.  This organization provides education and training for women victims of war all over the world.  The women who take this training often go on to start their own businesses, becoming financially independent.  The most important thing the classes offer is giving women education about their RIGHTS.  The more we are educated about our rights, the more we are able to give ourselves permission to access that which is wise, wild and free within us.  

On my birthday, this Tuesday September 11th, please join me in celebrating this year's twirl around the sun with Qoya and Women for Women.  Class will be held at Chelsea Studios in NYC, 151 West 26th Street, from 7-8pm. 

"We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once."

 - Friedrich Nietzsche

Photo by Jodi Jones

Quiz - Are you a True Seductress?

Photo by Powerful Goddess Photography

In honor of Seduction Is A Spiritual Practice being right around the corner, I've put together a little quiz to help you determine where you fall in the Seduction spectrum. I would love to hear how you score, leave me a comment!

1. You go out on a date with a person you really like.  It’s been 12 hours, and you have yet to receive a text that says “I had a great time with you, let’s do it again sometime”. You:

a) Check your phone every 15 minutes in complete agony of whether or not you will hear from this person again. You’ve gone from walking on air to feeling like you are living at the bottom of a well, and hearing from them is the only thing that will pull you out.
b) Call your girlfriends to tell them what a fabulous date you had, and that you are freaking out that you haven’t heard anything.
c) You enjoy the excitement of the date to its fullest by writing a letter of gratitude in your journal, and do something really fun to keep yourself feeling fabulous. Then, you ask your intuition which would be more fun, to continue feeling the anticipation of hearing back, or to feel the thrill of sending the first text, and then the mystery of what will ensue next.

2. You get offered a promotion and a $10,000 raise at work. It means you will be working about 10 hours more per week. You:

a) Say yes immediately without hesitation. Even though it means going from 50 hours to 60 hours per week, sacrifice is just what it takes to get ahead.
b) Make a pro’s and con’s list, and evaluate if you want to take on this extra work.
c) Create a new proposal reduces your work week to 45 hours and negotiate for $5,000 more, as well as working a day from home so that you can take meetings from the bubble bath, where you are so much more efficient.  

3. You’ve eaten a beautiful meal at a fancy restaurant for your birthday, and the house sends over free dessert.  You are absolutely stuffed, and feel like you can’t eat another bite.  You:

a) Eat the whole dessert because you wouldn’t want to be rude, and it was free.  You can never turn down something that’s free, even if you don’t want it.  
b) Take a few bites even though it doesn’t even taste good.
c) Thank them profusely and say “oh, my meal was so delicious I couldn’t possibly eat another bite!” You ask them to wrap it up and the next day, you eat it on fine china after lunch, and find that at the last bite you are full again, so you save that last bite for later.

4. You are listening to your I Pod on the subway and at your favorite part of the song,  an attractive someone walks over and asks what you are listening to. You:

a) pretend not to hear them because you are so intimidated by people you find attractive that you freeze up completely.
b) blush and take out your ear buds to tell them the name of the song, even though you really wanted to hear that part you love!
c) place one of the ear buds it in their ear, and begin waltzing around the subway car as you sing along to the song, testing to see if they know the lyrics too.

5. Your best friend calls you to cancel your dinner date after you’ve already arrived at the restaurant.  You:

a) say “It’s ok!” then storm out of the restaurant in a rage, go home and make mac n’ cheese from a box and eat the whole thing plus a pint of ice cream because you deserve it after what she did to you.
b) say “Dude, I’m already here! A little more notice next time please?” She apologizes profusely and you forgive her, then you call a few more friends to see if they are up for coming out.
c) say “ok darling! whatever you need to do!” and decide to sit at the bar and treat yourself to dinner alone, trusting that the cancellation was actually a gift, and there is something even more magical about to unfold for you this night

Mostly a’s - You are in a seduction sinkhole and in need of dire help! You think seduction is stupid and useless, or that it is something that could never be accessible to you, you’re just not that kind of girl.
Mostly b’s - you have a practical approach to life but secretly long for more confidence to so you can take risks and get the things you really want
Mostly c’s - you are a Sacred Seductress through and through, dancing through life as you attract the things you want the most and happily refuse the things you don't

Regardless of where you fall in this quiz, all of us could use an adjustment when it comes to how we use the art of seduction in our day to day life. Why? None of us have been taught how to use seduction as a way to make our way through life with more pleasure and success. When we hear about seduction our minds instantly go to manipulation and sex.  But seduction is not just something that occurs between lovers.  True seduction is a way of making life itself your lover, and committing to the truest, most everlasting marriage you will ever have - the Divine as it expresses itself in you.

When you allow yourself to do the things that truly seduce you into surrender, you are allowing the Divine to use you to create art with every breath you take.   When you practice seducing the things you want, using magnetism rather than force, you are relinquishing the ego’s need for control and surrendering to the perfect mystery of the unexpected.  When you remove from your life anything that has not fully seduced you (people, objects, behaviors) you are eliminating the blocks that keep you from living your highest destiny.  When you can take equal pleasure from the things you have in your life, as you can from knowing that what you do not have simply has yet to fully seduce you, it is then that you are living Seduction as a Spiritual Practice.  

Nothing brings me more joy than teaching women this way of enjoying life.  On September 14th and 15th I will be teaching my signature workshop - Seduction Is A Spiritual Practice.  The transformations women are having after taking this class are incredible.  

There are only three spots remaining for the September session.  I would love to have you join us as we redefine and resurrect the ancient, holy, powerful secrets of the Sacred Seductress.
 

What’s included in this class: 

• A full day and 1/2 with Kitty Cavalier as she teaches you ancient secrets of the great Seductress, and how to use these secrets to increase your magnetism, use the power of seduction for the highest good of all, and bring more fun, joy and  pleasure into your life.
• The Seduction Is a Spiritual Practice Workbook
• A 30 day subscription to "Kitnip", a daily email with an inspiring quote from a Seductress in history
• Email coaching with Kitty following the class
• A follow up Tele-Class with Kitty and  your fellow Seductresses, where the most important secret of seduction will be revealed.

ENROLL NOW!