Shape-shifting - The Story of my Changing Career

“Hello, Joe?” I said, quietly into the phone.
“Yes?”
“It’s Sarah Sloboda. I think I need to come in for a follow-up session.”
“Sure, Sarah. What’s going on?”
“I quit my job.”
“Come in tomorrow,” Joe said.

Joe Monkman {http://earthspiritworks.com/} is a spiritual healer trained in the shamanic traditions of Peru. Two weeks before this dialogue, I had met Joe for the first time – feeling sullen, depressed, disempowered in my workplace, and suffering from a stress-related stomach ulcer. Although drawn to his work through a book I read on shamanism called, Soul Retrieval, I was extremely reluctant to believe that his drumming and waving his feather around my body was going to change anything for me, or my career.

Miraculously, my disbelief was suspended after my first session with Joe.

“Breathe in your nose, and out your mouth,” Joe instructed me, as I lay on the massage table in his Manhattan office.

Quite frankly, I didn’t do much else. I closed my eyes tightly, and listened while Joe drummed methodically, creating a feeling in the room that was deeply soothing, yet unfamiliar to me at a time when rushing to meetings from coast to coast with little to no sleep was a rhythm to which I had grown quite miserably accustomed. According to what I’ve read on the subject, Joe was interacting with a non-visible part of reality on my behalf, to balance the energy I was carrying in my body.

I told Joe about the struggles of my life, emotionally tied to the path my career had taken, and how I felt strong pangs of discontent, despite having achieved what I had said I had been wanting for years – a job in the prestigious world of television. My life had been turned upside down after a perspective-changing car accident, and although I had tried to pursue the path that film school had sent me upon, some part of me was no longer present, and neither my medical doctors nor my shrink had been able to help me locate it.

For Joe, however, this was common, everyday work. A shaman’s purpose in ancient tribes was to help restore a person’s essence, in order to keep them whole, despite the traumas of everyday life. Joe’s intention with me was to help create a space where the real me could shine through.

When I walked out of his office, I found myself making eye contact with strangers on the street. I felt open. I was seeing through my own eyes for the first time in a long time. Within two weeks, I could no longer tolerate my job. I felt pangs of anguish, knowing that there were other ambitious souls who would love to hold my position, while I was resenting it, and longing for a place to express my creative voice.

I sat in a bathroom stall, struggling to gain control of my emotions for 20 minutes before walking into my boss’s office and giving notice. Part of me was just beginning to gain enough strength to represent myself honestly, although I don’t know how I spoke to my boss at that time without fainting.

I called Joe, and told him what had happened. I had no plan. Just a general knowing that my creative sense, and my experience as a visual artist and photographer was enough to take me forward. With Joe’s encouragement, I was able to begin to make my life reflect what was more authentically me, and I began to see my entire life take on a new shape.

Within two months, I had booked my first big job as a full-time photographer – a wedding in Malibu – and had arranged with the bride who was a graphic designer to brand and launch my new photography company {http://www.sarahsloboda.com}. My photography business thrived the very first year of its existence, and garnered worldwide acclaim for the work I did with children and weddings.

Now operating from a place of near-constant evolution, I have re-branded as Sarah Sloboda: Photographer, Optimist. It is my personal mission to provide millions of people with photographic evidence of their lives working beautifully. I am also a consultant - working creatively to inspire and motivate other artists and business owners who are blocked, stuck, or otherwise need a brainstorm boost.

Following the path to authenticity that Joe helped me to open, my career now has one clear premise – to make sure that the trajectory of my personal growth is reflected in the work I am doing in the world, so that others can benefit from my experience.

(Keep up with this trajectory here, at University of Sarah: the Art School of Optimism - http://universityofsarah.blogspot.com. Click here to subscribe to the mailing list, and to receive a free copy of the 7 Points of Optimism!)

7 Points of Optimism

A brilliant woman who coaches me on my business, Coco Fossland - self-titled Success Alchemist, was chatting with me in her living room one afternoon this past fall about my endeavor to bridge my artistic sense as a photographer with my desire to inspire millions of people with optimism. She said, "You know what you need? You need the 7 Points of Optimism."

She meant it as an example - a metaphor for some kind of methodology or set of principles that would serve as the guideposts for myself, and for those upon whom I wanted to shed this light. But as it turned out, 7 Points were exactly the right number and way to sum up my thinking.

Many people are interested in the power of positive thinking - particularly with increasing understanding of the Law of Attraction, and the way our thoughts create our life experience. However, I don't know a whole lot of people who would actually identify themselves as an optimist.

I'm not sure how I became an optimist - I reckon I was born this way, although perhaps this will become fodder for future blogging down the line. But for now, I have identified the way that I manage to think about things in a positive way, and the steps are simple enough for anyone to try at any level of neutrality, or even pessimism, about how the world works.

The day after Coco planted the seed in my head, I awoke in the morning and the 7 Points of Optimism essentially wrote themselves into my journal. Each one of them has its own value in the moment, but they can also be used as a 7-step creative process, which could be applied to any artistic endeavor, to conjure a creative business solution, or even when one needs a new take on a personal, emotional issue.

The basis is noticing and being willing to own one's own experience as such - that is, if you are willing to acknowledge your thoughts and feelings as your own, and not something being forced upon you, you are ready to experience things more optimistically, if you so choose. All that is required is a desire to change your perspective, and a knowledge that you can.

You can read the 7 Points below, and I am including them here for easy reference, both for myself and anyone who reads my blog. I would also invite you to download them for free - all you have to do is CLICK HERE, and enter your email address where prompted, and you will receive a printable PDF of the 7 Points of Optimism featuring 3 of my photos.

In sharing these words, I want them to become even more real in my life. I would love to hear from you about any attempts to apply them to your experiences, and about any thoughts you may have.

Sarah Sloboda’s SEVEN POINTS OF OPTIMISM:

1) Appreciating things as they Are.
Recognizing that nothing needs to change for me to be happy in this moment.

2) Finding the "Awe."
Once I see how things are, I can find ONE thing wonderful in this moment, exactly as it is.

3) Experiential Immersion.
Allow myself to bask in the "awe" feeling I have discovered in the now. To feel fully, all through my body, the wonder of this moment I am experiencing.

4) Relishing.
Jotting down the thought, calling a friend and sharing, taking a picture. Making the awe of this moment somehow go beyond this moment. (This creates expansion of the "awe.")

5) Self-discovery.
Recognizing my role in this experience - that the reason this moment could be relished was because I took the time to engage in it.

6) Honoring my Value.
Appreciating the role I have played, and thanking myself for allowing the true wonder of this experience to flow through me. In relishing it, I have expanded it for myself and others.

7) Make space for Creativity.
My call to interpret the moment beautifully is innate. All I had to do was make the space for it, and it appeared.

Dumbo's Magic Feather

"Use the magic feather," Timothy the mouse guides Dumbo, who is afraid to open his ears and fly. He puts the feather in Dumbo's trunk and says with absolute conviction, if you hold this, you will have the power to fly; just open your "wings."

Many people have offered us "magic feathers" throughout our lives. Very well-intentioned parents, teachers, and elders have said, "work hard, and you'll be rewarded."

But what happens when the magic feather slips through Dumbo's grasp? He believes all his power to fly was in that feather, and without it he is paralyzed with fear.

When we lose a job, an opportunity, or anything else that felt like the roadway to our desire, we seem to act like we have lost our magic feather. "Without [fill-in-the-blank], I will never be a writer or a famous performer, or I won't reach the financial goal I set, or I won't get that apartment I wanted." And this is the way we use our disappointments to block our future success and keep ourselves small - by making certain circumstances into magic feathers, without which we cannot function.

Once we have identified our "magic feather," we put all of our stock in that. Essentially, we give our power away to it.

Then, suddenly, we find ourselves high up on a platform with hundreds or thousands of people watching, a little mouse in our hat yelling, "Fly! Fly!" A gust of wind has swept the magic feather from our grip. Frantic and terrified, paralyzed by the loss of that feather that slipped away just as easily as it had come, we stand there, frozen. Everyone is going to be disappointed in us. Maybe the circus master will hurt us or leave us without sustenance. Or, if we risk the leap, quite literally, we fear instantaneous death.

But the truth is this: "The magic feather was just a gag - you can fly!" Timothy shouts this desperately, trying to get Dumbo to simply stop clenching and open his ears.

As we let go and trust, we see it is our own strength, our own essence that allows us to fly. It is not that lost job that would have brought us to the feeling of wealth and abundance we seek. As soon as we release the job as the magic feather, there is room for wealth and abundance to come in the best, easiest way possible. Through our natural gifts - no matter how freakish they may appear on the surface - we naturally take off. Because it wasn't Dumbo's magic feather, but the giant ears he had so fearfully tried to hide, that let him fly.

Spontaneous Clarity

It seems to me that sometimes after months and months of meandering aimlessly in one's own thoughts, suddenly clarity comes as if spontaneously out of nowhere. And one might think, "Whoa, where did that come from?" But upon further reflection, it had obviously been building up very carefully through obsessive, relentless self-inquiry.

Tonight, speaking with a dear friend, I had an epiphany.

I have decided to become a consultant - working creatively to inspire and motivate other artists and business owners who are blocked, stuck, or otherwise need a brainstorm boost. If you are a screenwriter, and a friend of mine, you have probably worked with me in this capacity before. Or, if you run a business, and I've ever sat down with you to talk about it, you might have noticed it is natural for me to throw out ideas, and to want to help people bridge the gap between their desires and their accomplishments. I have been doing so for years, almost by accident. Now I can see with absolute certainty that it is time to take this gift more seriously.

I know that when I launched my photography business full-time in 2005, I was undertaking a wide array of challenges that would make me a better photographer. I am completely enamored with image-making and recording. It helps me make sense of the world, and focusing on it as a business enabled me to take it further than ever before - it helped me focus on making my work more articulate, more honest, more engaging.

Now, as I fully embrace the love I have for helping others to step into their dreams, complete unfinished projects, and polish blossoming works, I know that building a business around it will naturally enhance my focus and my ability to inspire and encourage people. In the process, I am owning the latter part of my tagline, "Sarah Sloboda: Photographer, Optimist." I didn't know all that I would learn about imagery by running a photography business, just as I now don't know all there is to know about helping others. But, if my experience in photography is any indication, I feel certain that following my deepest desire - to help people discover and relish their happiness - will lead me to insights that take my work in this arena to a new level as well.

This news was so big, I just had to share it. As of now, there is no business structure, website, or point-of-reference. Just an unmistakable feeling of clarity that this is my path. I would love to field any questions or thoughts, as I know doing so will help me to formulate this new endeavor even more rapidly, so feel free to email me at sarah[at]sarahsloboda.com.

The revelation came as the kind of clarity that whispers to you, at first, as if to let you in on a secret. And you can ignore it if you want, but you know it will keep tickling your ear. And soon you'll have to scratch it or you'll inadvertently start twitching and freaking people out on the subway.

Or, you can just say, "Yes, little whisper. I hear you. I don't know where we're going, but I hear you."

New Year's Intentions

The term "New Year's Resolutions," has been used for a long time, and recently, I have noticed that people are shying away from it. I told my friends I was setting "New Year's Intentions" this year, and they liked that better than "resolutions." That made me wonder a little bit...

Because resolution - coming from the word resolve - seems to carry more weight, actually. If you resolve to do something, nothing will stop you from doing it. You will do whatever it takes. So, if we really want to reach our goal, why the repulsion to the word resolution? Is it that we feel we have failed in the past to do what we supposedly resolved to do? Or, have we learned that even though we may think we know exactly what to do, sometimes life surprises us by making it more difficult than we imagined - or even, impossible to achieve it the way we originally thought?

Maybe enough of us are starting to see that in life, you can't always force things. By making the statement gentler, and simply intending to do something, it feels more like leaning in the direction of the desired outcome, and leaving room for it to manifest at its own pace, and in its own way.

It also leaves room for the unknown, for magic, for serendipity, for cosmic orchestration. It makes life seem bigger and more vast - it helps us tap into a grander sense of existence. It leaves room for a random phone call from a person you never would have expected, for things to fall into place more easily than you even dared to hope.

It opens us up to what we probably already know - that we really don't do anything on our own. All kinds of situations and people and pre-existing conditions help funnel the life we want to us. And if we're smart, we'll set our intentions to leverage the power of these other forces to work collectively with our own efforts - rather than creating a resolution to do something our own way no matter what.

I have set some ambitious financial intentions this year, and I know it's going to stretch me beyond what I now know about myself in order to be able to achieve them. I know if I simply "resolved" to accomplish them from where I am now, I may not have the will, the knowledge, or the endurance to persevere when I inevitably come up against areas of challenge for me. So, I am intending to reach these financial goals - knowing that I don't know everything about how I'll reach them - and so gently forcing myself to be open to new information, and help from places as magical as my own psyche, as dull as a textbook, from obvious things, and esoteric things - simply knowing that being open to receiving from wherever it comes, will be the only way to be sure not to miss my real lesson.

Because, quite frankly, who knows what that will turn out to be. All I really want, deep in my heart, is to grow.

Flashback - Top of the Rock Field Trip

Recently, tucked safely within my Voigtlander, I came upon a roll of undeveloped film from an excursion I took with my parents to the top of Rockefeller Center back in September. I have been to the Top of Rock on a couple of occasions, and it never ceases to thrill me - it certainly provides the best view of the Empire State building from within the city - and something about the giant towering antennae hovering overhead and projecting television signals up to satellites that broadcast to millions, always makes me feel like I'm really at the heart of something.

I wanted to share a few of the shots I took this time around - trying to see the Top of the Rock from a slightly different perspective. There is something uniquely fun about developing a forgotten roll of film, and suddenly recalling what one was thinking about and experiencing at the time that one shot it.


I recommend this spot to all of my out of town guests. And, it's no joke - you really must try one of those binocular devices - you can see so many cool things all over the city for just 75 cents! (That's so cheap, they don't even put cent symbols on keyboards any more!)

Of course, you will have to pay to get up there first. But the rollar-coaster-like elevator ride is entirely worth it, in and of itself.

View a shot from my last trip to the Top of the Rock by following this link to my blog entry from last December.

Holiday Card Designs

This year, I decided to offer my clients original holiday card designs - in adherence with the trend of sending cute photos of one's kids for family and friends nationwide to post on refrigerators.


I created a couple of little graphics with the help of my friend Neil. Neil is beyond genius at design - check out his blog, The 25-Hour Day - so this was clearly a simple endeavor compared to most of what he does. I had "painted" the images with oil pastels and then scanned them. Neil helped me to make those into files shaped like the images - in other words, cut-out shapes with no background color. Then the images could be used like clip art.


I wanted the designs to be cute and festive, but fairly simple, so as to offer my clients an alternative to some of the cheesy and/or run-of-the-mill photo card options. I came up with these two designs, and posted them to a separate webpage, so that I could easily link to it here: http://www.sarahsloboda.com/holiday_cards.html.