EPISODE 205: with Tiffany Josephs

Amanda Testa: What might shift in your life when you remember how to celebrate your feminine power? If you're looking to ignite your creative spark, your feminine magic, then you are gonna love this week’s episode. Today, I am talking with my dear friend and magic maker, Tiffany Josephs on how to use your creativity to ignite your feminine fire. I just love Tiffany so much. Let me just just explain.

Picture this. Picture it’s a gray scene. Everything’s gray. Everything's meh, maybe boring, maybe meh, and then all of a sudden, this magical creature walks in, and with every wave of her hand the colors start appearing and things start coming to life. It’s like opening the door into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. That is what I feel about Tiffany and her presence. She’s so amazing. I just love you, Tiffany. Thank you for being here.

Tiffany Josephs: [Laughs] [Singing] I LOVE YOU, TOO.

Amanda Testa: [Laughs]

Tiffany Josephs: I am dancing over here. As you were speaking, I was moving. I’m like who is she talking about? Oh! She’s talking about me!

0:01:07

Amanda Testa: Yes!

Tiffany Josephs: Oh, this is why we have friends because they mirror.

Amanda Testa: Mm.

Tiffany Josephs: I love your mirror.

Amanda Testa: [Laughs] Thank you. I love yours too. Just a little bit more about Tiffany, if you're not familiar. She’s been on the podcast numerous times. She’s the creator of Magic Carpet Life, a high-flying life design experience for women to connect to their own unique essence and create a life that feels like a magic carpet ride, and that she does with amazing, amazing results. With a love affair for collaging, cooking, self-discovery, candy-colored textiles in the imaginary realm, Tiffany elevates the act of personal growth to a mountain-top experience of ultimate self-expression and a celebration of life. Ah, I love it. Thank you so much, Tiff.

As we dive in today, Tiffany, I’d love to know, when it comes to creativity and igniting your feminine fire, I’m curious, what are some of the first things that come to mind for you?

0:02:05

Tiffany Josephs: Oh, my god, well, the first thing that I think about upon the question being asked is that I’m always adding things to my love affair list. The whole spiel you just gave about who I am, what I’m doing, how I show up in the world, I am always adding things to that list. I realized cooking, I think, that was the most recent -- or collaging! Collaging, cooking, this, that, and just giving myself the -- people might say, permission -- for me, the pleasure of adding things to that list, knowing that one piece does not define me, that it’s more about delight. You know, who cares about definitions anymore.

Amanda Testa: Yes.

Tiffany Josephs: I’m so done with definitions. Let’s talk about what delights us.

0:03:01

Amanda Testa: [Laughs] Yes! Oh, my gosh, I love that so much.

Tiffany Josephs: Going from defining to delighting. That was a huge -- I mean, I’m sort of being playful with that, but the truth is, that was a huge shift and continues to be a huge shift for me in my life right now. Because we want to be able to package, we want to be able to contain, and we need to contain in many ways, of course. I’m a very earth gal, I get containers, but being able to say that which used to define me doesn't define me today, and I’m gonna be something different today or I might be something different for this month or I might be something entirely different with my business or something different in my living room and rearrange it. I think it’s the loose association with anything getting too fixed or rigid in our life, that’s the art of the feminine. 

0:04:03

I’m preaching to myself right now. You know, I’m constantly in that domain and thinking, everyday upon waking up, how can I feel more of that, create more of that energy instead of the fixed? But I think that’s a huge, huge magic that I’m exploring right now. It’s really big for me. Because I wear a lot of hats. I’m a mom, I’m a lover, I’m a -- oh, god, do we get into the list? I do it all! I do so many things. I’m very analytical and technical in many ways, and in my craft that comes out. I also am colorfully creative, and so, I play with this range all the time, and you could even think of that range as being linear and spherical or masculine and feminine. 

0:05:04

I’m always in that, but I think the more kind that I can be with myself in the process of exploring that range, that’s what I’m here for.

Amanda Testa: I love it so much, and I love how you’re talking about creating the domains of delight in all the ways, and I think one of the things I really appreciate you sharing, too, about moving from defining to delighting, ‘cause I feel like a lot of times I see this too being an entrepreneur, being in the business world, it can be so easy to get so fixated on one aspect of your life, right? It can be so easy to get fixated on the work, and who am I, and who am I professionally, and what am I giving to the world. Especially with social media and all of that, there’s a lot of feeling like you have to maybe be some way that, maybe, is not authentically you but just however way you think that you're supposed to be, right?

0:06:00

I’ve fallen victim to that too because when I first started my business I was like yes, I know a lot about business. I was in corporate sales and marketing for ten plus years, and I went to business school. I know a lot, and I’d never run an online business so I was so hungry to learn and just really feeling like it was very much about defining who am I, in that sense. But, really, when it comes to, I feel like, truly activating your feminine fire or truly your life force energy is finding ways that delight you on all levels. When it comes to sexuality and enjoying life, sex is just one aspect of that, and the more that you can open your periphery, open all the channels to delight and joy and pleasure, of course, the more you're gonna enjoy the sexual part too, right? So it’s all very connected, and I feel like that creative power, when you can tap into ways to allow that creativity to flourish, it really does activate more of your life force energy, right?

0:06:58

Tiffany Josephs: Yeah, oh, my god, yes. I think we can all fall prey to this notion thought out there that there’s a secret formula. A lot of us have spent a lot of money on that secret formula that people have sold us. I am so grateful for the teachers in my life, and for all of the things that I have absorbed and learned. I’m really in this revel stage right now where I’m like no more defining and also making my own way, making my own secret formula.

Amanda Testa: Yes.

Tiffany Josephs: And then changing it again the next day. I think that if I were to say a secret formula, a magic potion, it is so much about receiving. It is so much about receiving, and I have been thinking about this a lot in my life because I work from home. My husband is here in the home a lot, a lot. 

0:08:06

My husband is my partner and my lover, and there’s so much that I want to explore with him, and there’s so much that I want to be with him. I want to be alive with him. I want to be open with him. I want to be this sort of goddess that I imagine in my mind and that I know that I am, and yet, on a very real, earth-time, domesticated situation, I am none of those things [Laughs] on a Tuesday morning -- which is the day we’re recording this. On a Tuesday morning at 8:30 A.M. I am none of those things, and yet, all of them at the same time.

Amanda Testa: Exactly.

Tiffany Josephs: The magic formula, to me, is I’m gonna receive. I’m going to not make this list that I have just created, which I love lists. I love lists so much. I’m gonna marry my lists. I love them. 

0:09:05

I’m gonna put this list down, and I’m gonna just gaze at this man who -- if only I could be in a man’s head, you know? The things my husband is thinking when he is looking at me, it would be hilarious to just enter in for a moment. He is always so gooey. I have a very gooey partner who just adores me. We’ve been married 20 years. I had to think about that for a minute. We have teenagers now, but he still looks at me completely in love and like I’m the goddess in his world, and I want to be that for him. I want to be that for myself, and so, putting away all of those things and just receiving -- receiving him, receiving the smell of the room, receiving the sounds, all of it, and being that present with what is available to me. 

0:10:09

Because I focus so much on the outcome with this world and my world, of late, it’s been a very focus, focus, hocus focus thing.

My intention right now, especially as we’re coming into springtime, is to be in that receiving mode in higher quantities -- higher quality in higher quantity.

Amanda Testa: Yes, I think that is such a powerful thing to note on receiving, and I can’t tell you how many times I talk to clients and women who struggle to receive.

Tiffany Josephs: Yeah.

Amanda Testa: I mean, there’s a lot that happens, too, with a lot of people of all genders, but especially I feel like for women -- as Emily Nagoski says the human givers -- we often, do a lot, and it’s very easy to give and to serve and to love and to offer and to tend, yet when it comes to putting our self into that equation, it can be very hard for a lot of women. Being able to receive is a skill that you have to hone, right?

0:11:22

Tiffany Josephs: It’s such a skill. It is like a level three blackbelt skill. I know this to be true, the happiest people are the biggest receivers. They know how.

Amanda Testa: Yes, so you are a beautiful example of receiving. So I’m wondering what would be some pearls you may offer?

Tiffany Josephs: [Laughs]

Amanda Testa: [Laughs]

Tiffany Josephs: You know what, I am hard on myself. You’re right. I think the first thing is to love to receive.

Amanda Testa: Yeah!

Tiffany Josephs: You have to really enjoy it and feel the joy in it. 

0:12:01

It’s momentum, right? You start to kind of sink in and take in a little more. Receiving is about sipping. receiving is not like a fire hose; it’s sipping and savoring and smaller amounts and oh, gosh, let me feel into that. Sometimes it’s like poetry, the way that I feel the words. Even receiving thoughts can be that way as I’m trying to construct words from those thoughts. Receiving is like sipping slowly because you know there is far more than you can take in. So it’s the most delicious juice from a fresh-picked berry. 

0:13:00

I don't know. I’m thinking of my berry bush right now that, when I was a girl, we used to pick the berries. You always knew exactly which ones to pick, right? The juiciest berries were always the brightest berries. So you’d pick the berries, and then you’d squish the berries, and you’d kind of squeeze them out through the sieve or whatever the thing is called, and then when you drink it, you don't drink it fast ‘cause you want to take it all in.

Amanda Testa: Yeah.

Tiffany Josephs: I think there’s so much in our environment that, for me, as a sensitive creature, there’s so much that I don't want to take in. I get overwhelmed by all that there is to take in, and so, it’s a learning how to modulate and how to discern, and how to know okay, I’m not gonna take in the smell of my trash right now; instead, I’m gonna take in blue eyes of this beautiful person in front of me. 

0:14:01

So it is a bit of discernment in that. I think that’s the mastery. As we’re receiving we learn to just put the other stuff to the side and choose the higher expression of what’s in front of us.

Amanda Testa: I love that. I love how easy and doable that is. A key part of allowing in more good is building your capacity to receive in doable ways, right? Because, like you say, you can't just all of a sudden go to a fire hose or your nervous system would be like, “What! Can’t take it! Shutting down!” Like anything that’s too much, too fast, and too soon, even if it’s something good, we can’t do that so I love how you talk about the sipping and the savoring and discernment. As you scan your environment right now, even, I’m wondering how that might feel to just look around and discern. What is delightful in my space? What is bringing me pleasure?

0:15:00

Tiffany Josephs: Yes, yes. It’s just taking a timeout. So, for me, right now, my puppy likes to lie on my feet, and I’m always bare feet -- well, I’m usually bare feet in my house, but my ankles are bare, so my puppy lies on my bare ankles, and that feels so yummy and just so lovely. the warmth of this creature that I love so much, and the soft lighting that I have in the room and how warm it is, and even though it’s cold outside, it’s so warm in here. It does begin to sort of -- it’s like we create our own universe when we’re able to be choosey like that, when we’re able to say, “No, I’m gonna receive this. I’m gonna enjoy this in my space right now.” We sort of create our own universe, and that’s when the good stuff comes in. That’s when the ideas begin to flow and we’re in that place of open.

0:16:02

Amanda Testa: Yes, you know, it’s interesting. When you were saying that, it was making me think of creating your own universe. One thing my husband says sometimes is protect your confidence. Which, in some ways, is don't take in everything around you all the time. That’s a big part of creativity that I think is so beautiful because when you are creating, you're in the moment. You're present, you’re not on social media. You're not trying to worry about what everybody else is doing. You're not comparing yourself or all the things that people tend to do. It’s really creating that container that supports your own magic to really blossom, right?

Tiffany Josephs: Oh, my god, completely, and believing that it’s there in infinite surplus, in infinite supply. I am restarting my painting practice, and I used to paint everyday, and I just absolutely love not having a direction, so to speak. 

0:17:10

I love just taking the paint to my brush to the canvas and just being in this space of flow and getting in the zone to tune out whatever else, the tyranny of the urgent, as they say, and just tap into and enjoy my own creative life force.

So I was really into that for a while, and then I got out of it. I’m stepping back into it, and I feel very -- I was telling my husband last night as I was falling asleep, I said, “It just feels raw.” It feels raw to be going back into something and feeling like I’m so new again, and the doubt that comes in, and wondering wow, is this gonna be good or who am I in this new -- I’m a different person now and what’s gonna come through? 

0:18:07

So there’s some vulnerability, some feelings of raw emotion with that. So what I’ve decided to do, in the spirit of receiving, is to rent a little studio on Friday just to devote -- so, again, creating a space, setting myself up to succeed knowing that my environment can trip me up and it is hard to tune out my dogs and my kids and my dishes and everything. So I’m gonna rent a little studio this Friday this week, and I’m bringing just milk crates full of my art supplies, and I’m going to find myself in that space. I feel kind of virginal about it. I feel like okay, we’re just gonna see what happens, you know? That’s a space I’m in in my life right now of being like the blank blank. 

0:19:05

It’s blank right now, and let’s see what comes through. Let’s see who comes though. Let’s see how the new me, as I experience myself and my inner world, comes through on the canvas in this outer container, you know, this outer modality.

Amanda Testa: Wow.

Tiffany Josephs: So we’ll see!

Amanda Testa: Finding yourself in that space, that is a very beautiful quote, and I think permission to explore that, right? I’m gonna just set the space, I’m gonna give myself what I need and trust whatever comes out, I’ll find myself in that space. Are you familiar with Peter H. Reynolds?

Tiffany Josephs: No, tell me.

Amanda Testa: Okay, so I love Peter H. Reynolds. He is a children’s book author, and he wrote this book called The Dot, and it’s about art. I just love Peter H. Reynolds ‘cause, first of all, he’s a beautiful artist, and I love his children’s books, and I think he’s a generous human. Anyways, so the story goes: this girl doesn't want to draw, thinks she has no talent, just super mad, takes her pen and slams it down on the page and just draws one little dot. Her teacher’s like, “Beautiful, now sign it.” 

0:20:17

Tiffany Josephs: I love those teachers.

Amanda Testa: Right? Ugh, I just…

Tiffany Josephs: That melts me. 

Amanda Testa: I think that’s so beautiful. I love finding yourself in that space. Maybe it’s a dot, and that’s what you do, and trusting that. Maybe it is a masterpiece, and that is a masterpiece, right? It can be whatever comes out of you.

Tiffany Josephs: You know, there are days that are dots.

Amanda Testa: Yeah.

Tiffany Josephs: There are weeks that are dots, and it’s still art. It’s still a dot. It’s still me putting my pen to my life. I’m still here. I’m breathing. My heart is beating. My mind is dreaming. I’m still here, and I want to let go of this obsession with outcomes, that it has to lead somewhere, that it has to be into a matrix of some sort, and to just focus on the beauty of my dot.

0:21:16

Amanda Testa: Ah, I can't even tell you how much that does relate to all the things, right? It relates to every single thing. It is letting go of the outcome and being in the moment with what is.

Tiffany Josephs: Mm.

Amanda Testa: I love… yeah, go ahead.

Tiffany Josephs: What if that outcome, if I were to imagine it on a scale, what’s on the other end of that scale if I focused instead or -- let’s not beat up on the outcome. The outcome’s lovely. It’s cool to have a goal. It’s cool to look at it. It’s so fun to look ahead, but what if I did both, and I looked at, also, the income? Income’s when we’re looking at money, but I’m speaking of just me on Friday with all my supplies out, looking at my blank canvas, having everything there on the table, and just getting really hungry and excited and eager about what’s incoming, you know? 

0:22:25

What is this experience, and then just putting my brush to the paper, and it’s like income, income, income, and being in joy with what is pouring in, what’s pouring through, noticing what’s pouring through. How many times do I cook a meal and I have no idea what I even just did. I’m like, “Here’s the food. Everybody come to the table.” But when I cook, and I turn on music, and I pour some good wine, and I smell the ingredients, that’s a whole different experience.

0:23:03

Amanda Testa: Oh, yeah.

Tiffany Josephs: That’s where that dot gets bigger. 

Amanda Testa: Mm-hmm, and that’s the sensuality of it, right?

Tiffany Josephs: Yes. Yes, it is.

Amanda Testa: Mm-hmm. I think that’s something -- just for listeners who are curious, what does creativity have to do with sensuality, and everything -- it has everything to do with it. [Laughs] So I love how you say even taking that pause to notice what’s pouring through as you're cooking, as whatever you're doing, really dropping into the experience of it.

Tiffany Josephs: Yeah, I like having conversations with inanimate objects and living objects.

Amanda Testa: [Laughs] Yeah.

Tiffany Josephs: You know, like vegetables that I’m cooking with. I always say hello to trees because they are just the magicians on this planet. I’m obsessed with trees. That’s like a whole other podcast, but always saying hello to trees, always saying hello to the bees and to the blades of grass that are poking through right now in this frozen Colorado tundra. Even the things that aren’t what we might consider alive, you know? 

0:24:09

“Hello wall. Oh, hello door. Thank you for being open. It’s so cool that you're open. I like that inspiration. Thank you.” Or just going through and conversing, connecting, engaging with these things that are of the physical space but are they of the physical space? Do you want to go quantum physics here, you know? Who’s to say that this door isn't there ‘cause I believe it’s there, you know? What if all this stuff is malleable, and we can just put our own energy on it?

Amanda Testa: Oh, my gosh, I love that. So I know that you’ve got some cool things upcoming, but one of the things that I am curious of, because I know, among many things, you also are a Creatively Fit Coach, and I’m curious if it feels okay to talk about. Creatively Fit, what does that mean to you? I love that term. What does that mean to you? I’m curious.

0:25:06

Tiffany Josephs: Yeah, so imagine me in a rainbow-colored leotard (think 1984 aerobics outfit), and there’s glitter in my hair, and my sweatbands are made of some cool holographic-looking thing. I mean, that’s me in my life dancing around exercising creativity. This is what I’m saying, I had a painting practice where I was doing this all the time, and then my life shifted, and I moved into other things. I really owned that I was being creative in other ways, right? My cooking was creative, and, certainly, oh, my god, my mothering and my loving, and my designing and decorating and throwing parties and all these things that I love. So I’m getting back into that modality, that special kind of spell making that painting.

0:26:12

That’s really what the Creatively Fit Coaching Community is about. It’s women that are bright and open and alive and are coming alive more and more through their painting practice. Now, these are not women who’ve gone to art school (some of us have, for sure), but these are women like nurses and teachers and mamas, and all of the above who are committed to bringing more of themselves in self-discovery, really, through the canvas. So it’s a brilliant community, and it’s led by just this dynamo goddess named Whitney Freya. 

0:27:03

I met Whitney too long ago. I don't like to say how long ago. I mean, I embrace that I’m getting older, but I still am like oh, my god, was it really that long ago? I met Whitney a while ago, and she was just so alive and so passionate about this work. I quickly joined in, and that community has just progressed and moved and morphed into many, many different shades and colors. And so, the most recent ride that we’re taking is coming up. It’s actually this month, and this is [Singing] WOMEN’S MONTH, the month of March as we are recording this.

Amanda Testa: Today is actually, yeah, International Women’s Day as you speak that -- March 8th.

Tiffany Josephs: Yes! 

Amanda Testa: Yes, continue.

Tiffany Josephs: It is, and so, it’s a very -- I just love the collective energy around this day. There’s so much coming together and so many things to celebrate. 

0:28:03

One of the things that this community of Creatively Fit Coaches are celebrating is something called The Festival of Feminine Power and Artistry. So that’s 21 of us in this community -- 21 teachers, there’s many more in this community. Twenty one teachers and however many more women who are coming together in this space of creative acts. So Creatively Fit is all about the right brain, right? We can be physically fit, and then getting creatively fit is exercising our artistic muscles and being fearless in our expression of who we are, and that gets translated on the canvas.

So the festival is happening. We’re going in, and we’re painting, and we’re sharing our journey through painting. I am actually going to be -- I was inspired to create because of my tree obsession, I’m gonna be making a willow tree painting and really working with the energy, the magic of the willow tree which is so many things to me, but I think I’m going to get some infusion -- well, I know I’m gonna get some more infusion through this painting process, connecting to some ancestors and connecting to some wishes. 

0:29:34

So who knows what we’ll discover, but that’s my particular subject, I’ll say, that I’m gonna be working on through the festival: the divine feminine archetype as expressed through the willow tree.

It’s things like this. Certainly goddesses will come through. A lot of women are working on different archetypes and different symbols of the feminine, so it should be a lot, lot of fun. No painting experience required. In fact, it’s better when you don't have it because this process is very intuitive. It’s very much about putting who you are on the canvas and not just technique, right?

0:30:26

Amanda Testa: Yes, I love that, because I am no artiste, but I am an artist. 

Tiffany Josephs: Yeah!

Amanda Testa: Right? I am not classically trained in any way, shape, or form, but I do love art. The more I realize when I allow myself the whim of what it is I want to create -- and I do it a lot through music or singing or other kind of drawings or just coloring with my daughter, whatever it is, but also noticing when I do engage in that, yes, it’s a mindfulness practice, yes, it connects me to my life force, yes, it brings a different aliveness, and I do feel like that is such an important thing. For the listeners, you might be wondering why I’m talking a lot in these last few episodes about expression and creativity is because I do feel so connected to our feminine fire. I love how you were talking about kind of the right brain versus the left brain, and I kind of like that, too, when you think about feminine and masculine, ‘cause, obviously, there’s many genders, there’s many ways to go about thinking about it, but when you feel into that right brain of intuition and rhythm and art and imagination and feelings, it’s so good to access that part of ourselves. 

0:31:40

So often, we are in a world, in a culture that prioritizes linear thinking, logic, facts, getting things done, doing, doing, doing, and being in that receptive place, being in that right brain place, that yin place, that feminine place is such a key to receive.

Tiffany Josephs: Yeah, and it’s time. The time is always now, okay? I’m a big believer in that. When people get too wrapped up in the time is now, it’s like yes, the time is always now, but it’s true though. There is such a woosh of collective light right now.

0:32:25

Amanda Testa: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Josephs: We are being wooshed. We are being poured upon, perhaps, without even consciously realizing it. There are these streams of light and soft and love, higher vibrational lightstreams pouring down upon the planet right now, and that’s not from some magical place; it’s just ‘cause we’ve been wishing for it, we’ve been wanting it, we’ve been ready for it as a human being. As a race of humans, we are wanting this, and it’s here because more and more people have said yes to it. More and more people are realizing you're not gonna find us on the news, you're not gonna find us mainstream. Some news is reporting this phenomenon of the change that is here, and I think those of us that have felt it, you know, we’re seeking, we’re finding more and more of it. 

0:33:26

I think this is the new magic. This is the new way. It’s through the feminine. Period. Exclamation point. It’s not even like a return to the old ancient. No, it’s the brand new feminine that’s here. 

Amanda Testa: Right, it’s an invitation of creating anew. I think, like anything, there’s a lot happening in the world that is devastating and horrible, and -- there’s always that “both and” as we talked about on my podcast last week with Kimberly Ann Johnson -- it’s very much that there is a dichotomy. There’s always gonna be the negative, the horrible things, the devastating things, and there’s also ways to find goodness and pleasure and move forward in a way that you can serve by connecting to what’s good and using that as fuel to do the changes that need to happen, right?

Tiffany Josephs: Yes.

0:34:31

Amanda Testa: I know that’s part of your event too is that three’s a lot of the donations going to an organization that helps women escape from FGM which I love -- Female Genital Mutilation, if you're not familiar with that. I think that’s so important. Really, the whole event itself around creativity and your feminine power through art and really empowering one another and supporting one another. I think now, more than ever, we need community and finding ways of connecting and creating together is so delicious and yummy.

0:35:10

Tiffany Josephs: Yep. I am so glad you brought that piece in because on this day that has been deemed International Women’s Day, with the festival -- which we’ll put the link in the notes so that you can find out if it’s something you're into right now -- but with this festival of feminine power and artistry, through this painting program that is being collaborated with right now, they will be donating a minimum of 70% of the net proceeds to FGM, the Female Genital Mutilation. That was a big vision that Whitney had when this came through, for her, as a divine project she wanted to create was that it would be something that would bring people together, inspire women to paint (which is her whole platform), and also to donate to and be able to give tremendously to The FGM. Yeah.

0:36:14

Amanda Testa: Yeah.

Tiffany Josephs: I mean, my gosh, we probably should explore that a little bit, because I think a lot of people listening and a lot of people that I talk to, hear from in conversation right now, that’s the question: how can I be in my pleasure, feel alive and celebrate and be this butterfly fluttering around my life and the planet when there’s such heartache and devastation happening right now, you know? With something like FGM, Female Genital Mutilation, and with the Ukraine, and with da, da-da, da-da, da-da. I have my own personal stories as well, things that are happening on a smaller front in my own family, and it’s like how can I? How do we? I think the answer to that is our pleasure is the solution. 

0:37:21

It’s the medicine. It’s not just the medicine, but it is the solution. When we can find ways, when we can choose -- my greatest power, my greatest form of power is to choose how I choose my thoughts. It’s to choose where my thoughts get directed. Not that I turn my head, I turn my face away, but it’s how I choose to look at those things because there’s always an underlying vibration to the chaos.

Amanda Testa: Yeah.

Tiffany Josephs: There’s always something underneath it and over it and through it and living and pulsing within it, and that is beauty and love.

Amanda Testa: Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Josephs: Even in devastation.

0:38:14

Amanda Testa: Right, and I think, too, looking for those stabilizing forces of pleasure and connection, right? I think that’s so key. People might say they’re mundane comforts, but they're magical things, right? Your practice of creativity, your practice of connecting to yourself, your practice of loving on your people and your family and cooking, all those kinds of things. Also, that discernment, right? Being discerning of what you let it and what you consume, right? Are you just looking at all the negative things on the news all day or are you also finding ways to pick out what is feeling stable, feeling good, feeling joyful, doing the practices that support you in those ways. I think that’s so important.

0:39:00

Tiffany Josephs: Yes, absolutely. That, what you just said, I think that that part of this new magic that’s all around us for those who have eyes to see it and ears to hear it, it’s about knowing, choosing, discerning what we’re taking in, how we’re consuming. Consuming is part of receiving too. If I have the news on 24/7, it’s gonna be a different kind of consuming than if I’m in my kitchen smelling the asparagus.

Amanda Testa: Right, yes, and it’s definitely not bypassing the truth of what’s happening in the world, but also, when you are tapped into what’s good, you're more able to help and do things that are supportive for causes you care about and things you want to see change.

Tiffany Josephs: Yes, yes, yes.

Amanda Testa: Because when you are depressed or shut down or miserable -- and we all have those times, and that’s okay too, but just knowing that you can always get help and find ways to move through the challenging times, even if it’s just something as simple as picking up an art practice or a way to connect to some kind of creative outlet could be a solution too.

Tiffany Josephs: Yeah.

Amanda Testa: Yeah.

0:40:16

Tiffany Josephs: That’s the beauty of the practice. That’s why we practice because it’s all about the ripple, and it’s like the more that I do this, the more present that I am in the acts of love throughout my day, all of it. Let’s consider everything that I do as an act of love throughout my day, to some degree. The more that I’m aware of that, I really am growing more in the faith of its effect, and I think that’s part of the feminine, too, is like well, what good does that do? How does that affect change halfway across the planet? But it does because everything is energy. Everything is vibration, so if I’m in love with these chocolate chip pancakes right now, if I’m in the receiving mode and I’m in love with this magenta paint that I’ve just put down on the paper (‘cause I love me some magenta paint), if I’m in love with those things, if I’m open to receiving the higher expression, whatever, of those things, it’s creating ripples, and those ripples are moving through my family, they're moving through time, space. That’s this new kind of thing that we’re talking about, and that’s what the feminine knows.

0:41:38

Amanda Testa: Mm-hmm. Ah, I just love talking to you, Tiffany. I am so grateful for you and all the beautiful love you bring to everything you touch, including me. I’m grateful. Thank you.

Tiffany Josephs: I’m so appreciative for friendship and for talking about these things. If it sounds crazy, like, these things we’re talking about are way too out there, just try them and imagine -- I mean, you're already doing these things. I’m not saying  you're not, but really savor and drop in and take in the fullness of what is in your space, and see if you can feel those ripples, if you can even imagine seeing those ripples and how they're affecting those in your immediate space and in the space as you move through your day, through your life.

0:42:32

Amanda Testa: Yes. Ah, thank you so much. I’d love to -- if you want to share any other ways that people might connect with you or this event or maybe if there’s any last words you’d like to share?

Tiffany Josephs: Ooh, yeah. I’m looking at it right now ‘cause I wrote it down this morning. So this is the mantra that came through for me as I was tuning into what I wanted to paint in this festival and my contribution to feminine inspiration. When the willow tree came in, this was what I heard, and so, this is the mantra that I’ll invite you to feel as you hear it. “Let it be soft. Let it be easy. Let it be playful. Let it be, and then let it happen.”

Amanda Testa: Mm.

0:43:37

Tiffany Josephs: Then let it happen. I have those three words (let it happen) on one of my favorite vision boards I did a few years ago, and I look at it every day. I just feel like these words bring a new dimension to it when I think of the whole thing we were just talking about, with outcome and the obsession with goals or the obsession with how it needs to be and look and feel and who needs to come into it and all of that. It’s like okay, no, let me focus on the feeling -- soft easy playful, and then let that happen. So it’s really this bold face in a feminine magnetic energy, right? It’s this bold face in the law of attraction that says, “I’m gonna stand, and I’m gonna be these things, and then I’m gonna let them just do what they do.”

0:44:32

So there’s your mantra, and that’s what I’m gonna be working with in this painting. So you are all invited to join this month. You can follow me on social. As I go through the painting process, I’ll be dropping bits and pieces. Then, April first, the festival launches, and that’s, of course, the class itself, the curriculum festival experience is gonna be through the Teachable platform, so it’s super easy to tap into, and you’ll have a wealth of gorgeous luminaries involved in this project. I am so honored to get to be one of them, ‘cause it’s bringing me back into my practice, and it’s allowing me to have some new juju with some willow tree stuff coming through.

0:45:24

Amanda Testa: Well, it’s also very affordable which is amazing, so I love that too. It’s very accessible for people, and a beautiful way, like you say, to invite a new way of being with yourself, with your creating. So, Tiffany, where can people follow you? Where’ the best place to learn more?

Tiffany Josephs: You know what, I love being really quiet these days.

Amanda Testa: I know. I know.

Tiffany Josephs: I’m in the camp of people that are like, “To social, or not to social?” But, with this festival, I’m really intentional on Instagram so that’s my preferred platform for now. So you can follow me @thetiffanychannel until further notice, until I decide, “Hey, I want a new name.” The Tiffany Channel for now. I’ll have links and everything so you can check out the website to learn more about The Festival of Feminine Power and Artistry.

0:46:24

Amanda Testa: Mm. Thank you so much, dear Tiffany, and thank you all for listening. Again, I will add all this goodness in the show notes and wishing you all a beautiful week ahead.

Tiffany Josephs: Yay! Love!