Katya Sivak

Yesterday I sent a year to my future self! And I am looking forward to receiving it a year from now. Once in a while I go through my own intake form. It helps shine light on some shadows and clarifies what I want in life and guides me. Recently I was introduced to an awesome website https://www.futureme.org where you can send a letter to your future self and it will get delivered into your mailbox 1 year, 3 years, 5 years or 10 years from now. What an interesting experience...! Feels much better then filling out an intake form! If this is something that excites you here is a list of prompts from my intake form that may be helpful in writing a letter into the future! WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU & WHAT IS WORKING? What are your favorite hobbies/curiosities in life? Who are YOUR people? Who are the people whose opinion’s matter? Who are you spending a lot of time with? Where in your life are you THRIVING? (Again, think relationships, career, health, creativity, spirituality, emotional wellbeing, cognitive wellbeing, finances, sexuality) What inspires you? What are you proud of? What makes you feel alive? Where in your life do you feel connected? What makes you feel strong? Where in your life do you feel flow, playfulness, abundance, pleasure? WHAT IS NOT WORKING? Where in your life are you WITHERING AWAY? (think relationships, career, health, creativity, spirituality, emotional wellbeing, cognitive wellbeing, finances, sexuality) Do you have any unhelpful or non-positive patterns that reoccur in your life? What drains your energy? WHAT DO YOU WANT? What are you curious about? What calls you? What do you want to learn & experience? Write about your longings? Your very secret longings? What are your very secret desires? Maybe things you have never shared with anyone before. What to you want less in your life? What do you want more of? What do you want to change in your life? Who inspires you? Who is your muse? WHAT BLOCKS YOU? What do you want to change but not ready yet? Name your blocks & limiting beliefs. Name your fears. Where do you want to be more brave? Where do you need to learn a new skill? Where do you need help, guidance, & support? LOOK INTO THE FUTURE A month/year/3 years/5 years from now where do you see yourself? What is one word that would summarize the feeling that you want experience in your life.

As more victims of domestic violence are trapped at home with abusive partners during the coronavirus pandemic, some online communities are suggesting code word...s and hand signals that victims can use to seek help. Canadian Women’s Foundation started a new campaign called Signal For Help, which establishes a tucked-thumb, closed-fist hand gesture that people can use on video calls to seek help. Video of a woman using the sign: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cqYBRQCvpoo

Life is a myriad of transitions beginning with birth where we transition from the womb, through the birth chanel into the world and ending with death where we transition from the world to the other side. There are universal developmental transitions like from infant to toddler, toddler to child, child to teenager, adolescent to adult. These transitions include biological, cognitive, and psychological changes.... Some transitions we choose to go through like marriage, change of careers, beginning or ending of a relationships. Other transitions like death of a loved one, we have no control over. When we encounter transitions in our lives we can either SURVIVE the transition or we can LIVE through them. Most of us only know how to survive. But what I have learned in the last few years is that there is a way to LIVE & PLAY through transitions, no matter how difficult they are. Not only that, but we are all allowed to PLAY through transitions & PLAY through life, instead of surviving through them. When we know about universal themes in the transition process we know the rules of the game and instead of fearing change we can play the game of transitions that is our life. Many of us fear transitions while some wise souls know how to move through them in a playful way. We can learn to recognize when life is taking us into a magical vortex of transition. We can sense when something is ending and know how to hold space to let things go. We can recognize the time to rest, be patient and gather our energy. We know when to ask for help. We can feel when it’s time to act, create, or take a step forward. We trust our inner rythms. Feeling into our inner rythms and moving through transitions consciously can help us move out of dark places like depression, make difficult decisions, and move our life in a direction of our longing. Transition can take our life force away & drain us or they can empower us. What are your beliefs about transitions you are going through right now? Are they daunting, terrifying and draining? Or perhaps there is a sense of curiosity, aliveness, playfulness and courage even through very dark times? See more

I share this simple tip with people who are fascinated with dreams & would like to deepen their dream work and move away from dream dictionaries, which are often not helpful. I learned this simple, yet potent technique of interpreting dreams from two different sources: an Adlerian workshop & Clarissa Pincola Estes. So not sure what the original source is. THE FIRST STEP is to write out your dream in the present tense, as if it is happening right now.... SECOND STEP is to circle all the nouns. THIRD STEP is to write an association for each noun. This is very personal and specific to you. Although sometimes when I’m stuck I will google the association and when reading something will jump out at me and feel just right! FOURTH step is to rewrite the dream replacing the nouns with association. FIFTH & FINAL STEP is to read the rewritten version. You might rewrite the sentence a bit as if you are translating a sentence from another language. Ponder on what the dream is saying. It may be showing you where you want to go, where you are ready to transform, or the change that is already happening. Here is an example of a very short dream: A dog is running towards me. I want to run away. But I am brave and let the dog come to me. I am surprised that I am not scared anymore and it’s kind of fun playing together. NOUN ASSOCIATION Dog - responsibility REWRITTEN DREAM A RESPONSIBILITY is running towards me. I want to run away. But I am brave and let the RESPONSIBILITY come to me. I am surprised that I am not scared anymore and it’s kind of fun playing together. You can get a sense of wha the dream is trying to communicate about the fear of responsibility and the message that it’s actually going to be ok. Here you can be curious about responsibility in your life and pose a question where in my life I am afraid of responsibility? Now, a friend of mine would never associate DOG with RESPONSIBILITY! For them DOG is associated with COMPANIONSHIP! And the dream will have a completely different meaning! But it is their meaning. And this is a good example why dean dictionaries are not always helpful when working with dreams. See more

Free Masterclass by leading trauma expert and attachment therapist, Dr. Diane Poole Heller. Here is your link, so you don’t miss out on this essential and timely information. Her Masterclass, Resilience in Times of Trauma, focuses on how to stay connected, feel supported, support others, and manage the uncertainty and stress that the pandemic has caused. ... https://www.therapymastermindcircle.com/nurturing-resilie/ See more

A great article on aftermath of emotional abuse. https://themighty.com//07/childhood-emotional-abuse-adult/

Curious about ? ? . . & ? Come follow me on my public profile Katya Sivak or Instagram (katyasivak.ca) ... This page has a stale energy about it that has been bugging me for a while so I am going to archive it for now. Instagram link: Instagram https://www.instagram.com/katyasivak.ca/?hl=en

A wise grandmother taught me when in doubt go to the forest and ask for signs pointing in the best direction for your life. Then look for signs. When you see one trust your first interpretation of the message. And if still in doubt repeat the process. Don’t worry that you don’t trust your intuition at first, the lessons that your life requires will never stop appearing. Ask for signs Look for signs Trust the signs... #intuition

I am getting to a time that marks 7 years in private practice. And reflecting on what is working and what is not I am noticing a pattern here. When I began I loved sitting down at a coffee shop working on my website. I experienced pleasure every time I would nestle with my laptop and a favourite drink! I woke up in the morning looking forward to the time I carved for this work, but really it felt more like a PLAY! At some point this became a chore and I am still not really... interested in doing any updates on the website. But having a website that I created allowed for people to connect potential clients to me in the next stage of the journey. The website became a portal where someone would point out to the people In their circle if they needed what I was offering. At one point I was drawn to people and went to many networking events, one of them was a year long weekly commitment that required me to get up at 5 am on weekly basis and deliver a speech about who I am and what I offer to a room of entrepreneurs. Being an introvert that was extremely challenging but in a way that lit me up It was something that was terrifying but I really wanted to do! It was like a video game where I was gaining new skills and resources. I learned so much from that experience and nurtured beautiful professional relationships! Then one day I noticed how that became a chore and was not inspiring me anymore. I stopped and moved on. I focused on creating a magical office space that would be a place of safety, beauty, and transformation. As I breathed life into this magical space it was breathing life into me. I was excited to wake up in the morning and go to my office. That space was sanctuary for so many. With the world going through a transformation my focus is changing as well. Today I’m reflecting on what lights me up in my work. Looking back at what lit me up and how it has impacted the people I work with and the flow of abundance in my life I believe in this simple theory: When we lean into and create space for things that light us up the most we allow the magic of the universe to work with us and through us. The things that light us up the most allow us to have the biggest impact on the world and our lives. The universe works in a mysterious ways. What lights you up? And what used to do that but no longer breathes life into you? Is it time to shift?