Following Your Truth (& Registration for IGNITE Is Open!)

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When I first started Dirty Footprints Studio online in 2008 I had this big dream that the work I do would one day touch millions of people.

Millions.

Actually, it wasn’t even a dream.  It was a plan I had.  And when I have a plan, you can bet your bottom dollar (as my Grandfather would say) that that plan is going to happen.  Maybe it’s infused in my DNA, but when I want something, I work hard and figure out ways to make it happen.

Things such as going to art school, back-packing through Italy,  starting my own business, traveling, and even hosting art retreats in beautiful places — these are all things I was determined to do one day and have done.

Though I want to tell you something else about Dirty Footprints Studio, that you might not know. 

In 2010 I quit my full time art teacher job with benefits, retirement, and paid vacation to make Dirty Footprints Studio my full time gig.  At the time I only had $700 in savings, no business plan (what’s that?), and this ridiculous, deep knowing that this is what I had to do.

Seriously, I had no plan to just quit my job cold turkey.  I actually had signed a contract to teach part time instead of full that August.

But that summer before starting back to teaching public school, I started to physically become ill to the thought of having to return.   I couldn’t sleep.  I couldn’t eat.  And my body would become inflamed with pain whenever I received an email from my new principal asking when I planned to come in and start prepping my new room.

Then on July 6, 2010 (Frida Kahlo’s birthday) I woke up and decided to listen to what my body and heart were telling me to do.  I decided that  I needed to quit my job and follow my Truth.  That pouring my heart and Soul into Dirty Footprints Studio would not be about creating a business per se — but rather a commitment to listening to the deeper wisdom within me.

I spoke to all the people I needed to speak to, signed all the papers I had to sign, and shook a few hands. I officially quit my job and danced my way back to my car while the Summer wind twisted itself in celebration around me.

I could now finally start working whole heartedly on that plan I had to make my work touch millions of people.  I was determined. I now had time. I was ready.  I was ripe.

Except this is the thing I really wanted to tell you about.

About two months later, my husband came home from work one day complaining that his back had become completely engrossed in pain.  A pain that never seemed to go away.  A pain that mysteriously moved throughout his entire body and was starting to cause havoc on life as we knew it.

All of a sudden I found myself in countless doctor’s offices and spending many, many, many sleepless nights trying to help ease his pain.  And nobody could help us.  And nothing seemed to work.  And day by day my husband became less and less of himself and I had to take on more and more.

That same year I signed up for a year long Yoga Teacher Training.  My main mission was not to become a yoga teacher — but to learn as much as I possibly could about the body and healing so I could help Hansel.

The following year, I learned that I was pregnant, and that’s when Hansel’s health took a nose dive for the worst.  That was also the year that I first offered myIGNITE Online Intensive program, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
You see, what I really want to tell you is that it’s true.  That I did quit my full time job to follow my Truth.  And that Truth lead me into some of the deepest, darkest, hardest years of my life.  That Truth broke me open and shattered all my dreams I had of touching millions of people.  Because suddenly, the only thing I wanted more in life was to see my beloved husband well again.  That’s it.
Now yes, I am so grateful to say that this year we finally found a doctor that discovered what has been ailing him all this time.  This year, Hansel is finally living his life with less pain and our lives have been beautifully coming into balance.
Though, as happy as this makes me, this is not what I want to tell you either.

I want to tell you what a gift this journey was for me — because of it, I learned intimately about suffering.  I nestled up against it night after night.  I held it.  I swallowed it many times.  I became it for quite a long time as well — and because of it, I hurt others in the process, which I still am learning to forgive myself for.

And most of all, I became stronger, wiser, and more of my true self.

I’m telling you this because today registration for my IGNITE Online Intensive is open.  This program has been with me throughout this entire journey I have been on of following my Truth.

This year long program is the nectar of my work — it’s based on everything I’ve learned about being a thriving artist and teacher for the past 20+ years — I share everything I know about creativity, holding sacred space, teaching, business, and most of all supporting transformation.  But at the core of this program is YOU.

ignite_online_intensive-largeAs artists, especially those who are on a heart guided path, the typical business jargon and templates fall flat for us.  The cookie cutter approach to teaching art is totally out of alignment with our values and reasons why we believe art is so healing.  So in IGNITE I don’t teach you to be or do anything like me.  Instead my focus is on you — on your gifts, your strengths, you creative fire. 

Every year since 2012 IGNITE has sold out and the women that go through this program leave transformed in ways they could never have expected and there is one reason why this happens again and again and again.

And that reason is because they finally decide it’s time to follow their Truth — even when they are not quite sure what that “Truth” is!

Today I felt the need to share my Truth with you.  I wanted you to know that life is not always perfect — but we must keep moving forward with love and compassion.

Personally I am blessed with great success as an artist, but my success is not defined by numbers — but rather by the quality of relationships I have, the depth I can venture creatively, and how much I can truly make a difference in this world.

This is the type of success I help women foster in my IGNITE Online Intensive program.  Registration is now open and limited to 16 artists that are ready to follow their Truth. 

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