The Becoming You Project

Tarot, Reiki & Doodling: How Creative Rituals Guide Us Through the Unknown

• Jess Callahan • Episode 16

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Tarot reader, reiki practitioner, and artist Laura Metcalfe (The Barley Moon) shares how a season of heartbreak led her back to creativity -- and into a blended practice of tarot, Reiki, and mindful doodling that helps people navigate uncertainty. We talk about turning micro-moments into meditation, using creative repetition to calm the nervous system, and why “a little structure” can make inner work feel doable for even the busiest among us. Laura also opens up about early paranormal experiences, consciousness as a field we can all tap into, and her signature Clarity Compass—a four-week rhythm of readings, Reiki, and creative prompts designed to restore clarity and self-trust.

In this episode, we cover:

  • Laura’s origin story: from marital rupture to creative reclamation
  • Why mindful doodling settles an overwhelmed mind
  • How pairing affirmations + doodling becomes a micro-meditation
  • Tarot as guidance and choosing decks intuitively
  • Reiki at a distance: noticing chakra patterns (e.g., throat/voice work)
  • The Clarity Compass framework: weekly cadence that meets real life
  • Permission for busy seasons: healing in micro-moments (kettle’s boiling? doodle.)
  • Openness, the “field of consciousness,” and making space for the inexplicable

The Clarity Compass — Laura’s signature offer
A four-week journey blending tarot readings, midweek oracle check-ins, distance Reiki, and mindful doodling with affirmations and journal prompts. Designed to anchor you through transitions or “just feeling lost,” in small, doable steps.

Why this matters:
If you’ve ever wanted someone to “just tell you what to do,” this gives you gentle structure and inner listening—so guidance turns into change you can actually feel.

More About Laura: 

Laura is an artist, tarot reader, and Reiki practitioner who blends mindful doodling with spiritual practices to help people move through uncertainty. What began as a personal lifeline during a painful season became her mission: making creativity accessible for relaxation, self-discovery, and inner peace.

Learn more / work with Laura:

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Let's get in touch! Find me online at www.jesscallahan.com, follow me on Instagram at @jesscallahan_ or Substack becomingyouproject.substac.com. 

Speaker 1:

Hey guys, welcome back. I'm really excited to share this interview with you today. Today, I connect with Lara Metcalfe, and we talk about how tarot and creative doodling helped her overcome a really dark point in her own life, and how she's like alchemized that learning, and today has like combined her love for tarot and her Reiki practice and this like meditative practice that she found in creative doodling and how she helps people navigate difficult transition points in their own lives and periods of uncertainty by blending these elements. And I think the best part is that like this can be used for anyone, especially like the busiest of us. Um I love there's a point in here where she shares some insights in some um paranormal experiences that she's had. And it was just, it was a really fun conversation, and I'm so excited to share with you. So let's dive in. All right, Laura, thank you so much for being here with me today. I'm so excited to learn about your story. I think my listeners are gonna be really excited to hear about what you're doing. I think it's super unique and engaging. And so I want to just start by turning it over to you. If you will just give us, like, give us an introduction, you know, who you are and how you got to be where you are today.

Speaker:

Okay, thanks for having me on as well, Jess. Um, I am Laura Metcalf and I am a tower reader, Reiki healer, artist, primary school teacher, and mother to um six children. Well, uh three are mine and uh three stepchildren as well. So yeah.

Speaker 1:

I love that as we're talking, the our listeners won't be able to see it, but you've got your littlest one with you, and um, so he gets to just be part of our conversation today, which I love. So okay, so he's just three months up, he's an itty baby. I love that. It's like you just want to like squeeze him and then give him little baby kisses, the baby smell, and yeah, okay. So my my youngest, as I told you, is is four, and so she's long past that, you know, like cute little baby face, and so yeah, yeah, like uh, just so cute. So, okay, so tarot reading, Reiki, you're an artist. Um, how do you well, yeah, how do you blend all of those three together in the work that you do today?

Speaker:

So this is what's taken me a long time to kind of finally get to the point where I was able to marry them all together. Um and I suppose I've kind of come round full circle to where I was back in 2020 when all of this kind of began. Um and I ended up in a situation, um, my old marriage broke down because I found out he'd been having an affair. And I was absolutely devastated, wasn't obviously what I'd imagined. And two my two boys that I had at the time were very small. So um I was in like a very kind of dark place, really, I'd say. And um I found myself just naturally coming back to my art, and it was so healing. Um, and it started to develop into these like affirmation doodles that I've been resharing on Substack. And um from that then I ended up in going to see a clairvoyant, and she had tarot cards, and I'd never really considered using tarot before. I'd always been intrigued by it, but I never had I hadn't really thought about you know trying it myself. But the cards were so beautiful, the artwork on them. They weren't like card, like tarot cards, like you know, the standard right ride away ones, um, that I was like, oh my god, I have to like it, like you know, look it look into this. So I got myself a deck and I started messing around with it and just absolutely fell in love with tarot and then realized I had like a gift for it. So yeah, so then it was like the two, the the R and the Tarot, like really got me through like such a dark kind of time, and I started to come out the other side, and it was just so transformative that now I have my own business, that's what I want to bring to other people, like to help them come through like difficult life transitions, or if you're just feeling a little bit lost, um, to use these practices that I kind of use myself to help them come through that as well. So that that's where this has all come from, really. So I finally managed to find a way to bring them all together. Um, so I'm quite excited about that to share that as well within this podcast.

Speaker 1:

So wow, wow, that's um I think that it's really inspiring when you hear these stories of, you know, there's so many women, I think especially who find they they come to a point in their lives where there's adversity of some level, right? And when we tune inward to something, it like just becomes this guide that when you can like be quiet enough, when you can quiet your mind enough, you can really like listen to it and it it shows you the path, right? Like it's like it's just right there, but you have to you have to learn how to trust yourself. So okay, creativity's I'm so excited about this conversation because well, for a lot of reasons, but I creativity has been a guide for me on my journey too. So um my story is mostly just that like I ended up in a huge burnout spiral with like a fibromyalgia diagnosis, and I had built this whole life that just like wasn't it was not aligned with purpose, but also the work itself wasn't meant to like, it just wasn't the right work for me, right? So I had a significant healing journey to like come out of that chronic pain um cycle. And creativity has been such a big point on my journey. Like I find, I call them creative meditations now. Like if I'm home with my kids and they're just like, if I'm, you know, it's just like chaos and I need to be grounded. I s I pull out one of my like, you know, whatever they I like, um, I like to work with any kind of like fabric or fiber, or I like to work with gemstones and jewelry. But um, how have you found that like creativity has sort of like it's sort of like anchored you in like the healing journey?

Speaker:

You know, I've always loved art and I had lost touch with my art, like artistic side, um, because I was like a primary school teacher as well, but I I've since left my full-time primary school job. But like at the time I was working in a really big school in Dublin, and because I mean I'm in Ireland, and it was just so like stressful, and teaching isn't really like it was when I'd first started, and I wasn't getting to be creative anymore. So firstly, it was that connecting back in with that like arty side of me, but then I just found like because I was just doodling like spirals, or like you know, like you would if you're like on a phone call with someone and you're just kind of like scribbling down notes, or like you start like drawing in the corner, it was that kind of thing. I just noticed myself like really starting to relax. Um, and so and because of the affirmation as well, I found that I was like reading the affirmation over and over again, like even subconsciously. So it was the combination of the two, and I was like, okay, I think I might start doing this every day because I just noticed like such a difference when I did it this one time. I was like, I actually just feel like so much karma, I feel like my head is just a little bit less like because everything was just with so much going on in my head. Um, and it just really helped like just settle it all down. So that's why I started doing it every day. And then I I just ended up feeling like, oh my god, this actually is helping me. And then I started an Instagram account, not because I want to necessarily like gain followers, it was just like, oh, I'll make myself accountable if I have this set thing I have to do every day, and I'll upload it every day to like follow my like so I can see myself like I'm doing it each day. Um, and they're the ones I'm resharing on Substack at the moment, but yeah, it just it was just a combination, I think, of like just it really like grounded me basically, like just having that affirmation to read, and then like just doing like little spirals or stars or whatever I felt like doing around the edge.

Speaker 1:

It makes so much sense because it is like a meditation, especially when you're just letting the creativity sort of like flow through you, right? So it's like it's meditative, but then you're also adding that layer of focusing on an affirmation specifically. So it's like the repetitive, like the repetition of it and whatever that pulls up for you. Interesting. So do you okay, so related, but with the tarot cards, like with the tarot work and Reiki? Um you mentioned with tarot that you discovered that you had a gift. Do you think that you always had like did you always have knowings that you had some sort of like spiritual gifts? Or do you think that when you were finally able to like quiet your mind doing the doodling, it sort of like opened up enough space for that realize realization to like come in?

Speaker:

Yeah, maybe, because it's I still don't really know how I'm doing it. And then then sometimes I think, well, maybe the explanation is because I I do have a I do believe in the idea that um we're obviously all connected and it's like a field of consciousness. So is it that because I'm like I'm sort of slowing down and I'm tapping into this field of consciousness, that's how I'm connecting with the energy of the person that I'm reading for, in which case perhaps we we all could do it if we all did this work. Um I don't know, but also the other thing is that when I was a child, I did have like supernatural experiences and things like that. So I've always like and I've always seen the world in a different way. Like I I, you know, like my my um husband now is he's a physics teacher, he's very logical. He would not believe in the afterlife or anything like that at all. But I do, and I I will, I'm I I see the world so differently in that way because I've experienced experienced it, and often I wonder if he experienced something, would he see the world differently? And so I wonder as well, is it that too? Is it because I have like this open mind that maybe that's also why I was able to tap into it, and like I said, maybe it's something we we all could do, but just not everyone is open to doing it or like tuned into that frequency. But yeah, I've always been quite spiritual, like into you know, fairies and um kind of you know, as a child, like I said, like I had like supernatural experiences, I could see the world a bit differently to everyone else. So I think it was always there. It's just I hadn't really ever explored it before.

Speaker 1:

Are you willing to share what any of the like supernatural experiences were?

Speaker:

Yeah, it's okay if yeah, if it's yeah, no, I you'll talk about um I think the main the main ones um uh uh that I like to kind of share are when I was very small, we actually um lived in like on the border of Wales and England. So I lived in a county called Shropshire, and my parents had bought an old Victorian schoolhouse, um, obviously being converted, and that was where we were living. And I started talking about this old man, and I was quite I wasn't very um happy about being up in my bedroom on my own. And my parents also had some strange experiences in the house as well. Like my mum got pushed on the stairs, like she felt two hands push her, like it wasn't she didn't imagine it, she said definitely there was two hands like pushed her really hard. Um, so I would talk about him and I didn't like him, and I used to explain I didn't like him. And then there was this little girl that my dad saw, and I used to talk a lot about a little girl as well. So they my dad thinks I was seeing the same little girl. Um, I called her Mary, but he he had um this experience where he actually saw her when um our dog had like sadly got run over. So he was upstairs in the bedroom and he said he was like hysterically crying, he's really upset as his first dog, and he think he thinks maybe because he was so heightened with his emotions, it maybe is what kind of triggered it to kind of happen. But he started hearing this little like thumb sucking noise, and I was only one and a half at the time, so he he he was like, Is that Laura coming into the room? But then he knew that I I couldn't have possibly because I would have been downstairs with my mum and I wouldn't have been able to get up the stairs by myself. But he opened his eyes, and there was this little girl just sat on the bedside locker next to him, and he said she was like as real as you or I, and she was wearing a Victorian smock dress, and she just literally was sucking her thumb looking at him, and he said he closed his eyes, kept could still hear her open his eyes, she was still there. He did that four times until the last time he closed his eyes, he stopped hearing the thumb sucking, and he opened his eyes and she'd gone. But I used to talk about her a lot as well and say about Mary, and I was playing with Mary and all this kind of stuff. So that was the first experience, and then I've had other experiences as I've grown up. Um, I saw a man and a woman at the end of a bed in a hotel in Wicklow, an old hotel that were like in Victorian dress just staring at me. Um, and I had a weird experience in Bath in the UK in an old hotel where woke up in the night to hear the water water rushing. And I got up and went to the bathroom to because I thought maybe like my ex-husband had left the taps on. And when I walked in, the shower was turned on and it had been like cranked over to the cold, and like we hadn't left it over on the cold side, we'd had hot showers, and it was just like going on on its own. But I do remember like feeling like a real like sense of like there was something in the room and like it wasn't very nice, yeah. Um, so yeah, yeah, yeah. So this is just a pretty good experiences.

Speaker 1:

It's fascinating, and I think like I wonder, you know, I think about all this stuff all the time. I I wonder if just like, you know, some of us are more sensitive to to receiving this information, right? Like I do agree with you about like the idea of the collective unconscious and that we do all I think I agree, I think we all have the ability to tap into it, but I think there are some of us that are like I think you have to have the right openness and intention and balance of um, you know, like it, like if it happens through meditation, for example, you have to have a meditation practice and the ability to sort of like access those layers of consciousness. But I think when you have that openness, maybe you're born with it and you kept, you know, you've stayed open. Um you've just been like susceptible to these experiences, maybe. I don't know.

Speaker:

Yeah, maybe because my parents are very open as well. And like I said, my dad has seen my dad has seen things like like he's he's he's seen things before, like in other houses. Like I know he saw I used to see an old woman in a rocking chair in a house him and my mom lived in when they first got married. Um, so I think as well growing up, because I knew like my parents would be so open about that kind of stuff, and they're very into like talking about it all. Maybe that's what also kept me quite open. Um so yeah, maybe that's why I'm a bit more tuned into that frequency. Whereas my husband is like completely like he just wouldn't believe it. He thinks I just hallucinated it all.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I yeah, I relate to that. I do. Um, I'm taking a course right now in um past life regression hypnosis, and so you know, deep dives into the soul journey and and how past lives influence like the karmic patterns of your life today. And um, yeah, my my husband's also not really like he doesn't, he's he's like, okay, just like you know, whatever you whatever you say, but um yeah, it's just it's just a totally different way to experience the world, right?

Speaker:

Yes, but I I quite like it. I I think it's kind of cool that he's he's he doesn't see it quite the way I do because I think it keeps us both balanced. Um because I said to him, like, perhaps if he was very much into all because I believe in past lives as well, but he he doesn't believe in that either. But say if we were both both exactly the same, I think we'd like be living up in the clouds. Like, do you know? I kind of need him to sometimes bring me back down to earth a little bit, and then sometimes I like I I've exposed him to a bit more of the magic, and he like because he I he does he manages to manifest stuff, like even though he doesn't believe in it, he does genuinely say, Oh, we need this, and then he'll like go down to the local like little and find it in the middle aisle. So we he's actually started saying things like, Oh, I'll manifest this now. And I'm like, Oh, yeah, he's in the like, yeah. So I've sort of like opened him up to a bit of magic, but he's so yeah, it's a good way to look at it.

Speaker 1:

We're the same way, it's like yeah, I think I need that grounding too because I do. I think I've probably said the same thing. Like, I I would literally just be living in the clouds, like yeah. So that's that's fun. I um that's fun that you have a similar experience. So, okay, so then you saw the tarot reader as you were um on your like healing journey. Like, how did you know that what you had was a gift? And what do you think like goes into having a gift to be able to like um guide someone through tarot?

Speaker:

Yeah, it it was, I think because I was reading for myself and it was just the way the cut the cards that were coming up were like really helping me to make sense of what was like currently happening at that time. And I was like, oh, this is so like apt, like every time like the cards that would come out, I'd be like, and then I and then I started doubting myself, going, like, am I influencing this in some way or am I reading too much into it? But then the meaning of the cards was was so making so much sense. So then I thought, well, maybe if I tried like reading for for friends and see what happens, and so I actually asked a few different friends, like some that were skeptical of it as well. And it was actually the ones that were skeptical that really made me realize, okay, I've obviously got I've tapped into something here because um I'd read for them and I was just sending them pictures of the cards over WhatsApp and like a voice note of like explaining what it meant. And there was a few friends that were like messaging back going, How the hell did you know that? Like, I hadn't told you that. That's something I hadn't shared with you, like a certain like thing that was happening in their life, but the cards picked up on it, and I was just like, I don't know. But it's like um, and it's so then like I just gained more confidence, and then I found um this community online called Biddy Tarot. Um, so I joined that, and the idea of that is you're kind of learning about the tarot cards and like the meanings and everything, and then um you give like free readings in exchange for free readings, you're like building up your expect um like kind of experience. Um, so I started doing them for strangers then through that way, and again, like I just get these like people messaging me back going, like, oh my god, like that was so accurate, like that really helped me. Like, you totally tapped into what's going on right now. And and I was like, Okay, this is mad because like I don't know these people. They had literally just asked me, like, to just ask the cards a general question, like, how could I like tapped into some things that you know, how would I know? And that's what got me kind of really interested in this idea of like us all being connected. I mean, I always kind of felt that, but I hadn't really like deeply thought about it. So then I started becoming a bit obsessed with that. So I've got kind of you know, I listened to a few podcasts that to do with that, like there's a guy does one called Chasing Consciousness, which is so so interesting to listen to. And um, yeah, because I was just like, I don't understand how I'm doing it, but it's like it helps, and like so many people then were like saying, Look, that's that's really helped me. Um, so yeah, like that's how it started, and I was like really, really enjoyed it. So yeah, and then my little like collection has grown quite considerably since then. I've got a lot of decks now.

Speaker 1:

Um, but it's really interesting, I think, just to like probably know like which you know which deck to pull for a certain person and which deck's gonna have like I mean I know tarot has um all like the same cards, right? But the interpretations with the visuals are different on each of the cards.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah, that's what I find. Like, um, so I have like yeah, I've a few different like styles of artwork, and then you know, I might if I'm doing a reading for someone, I might just sort of intuitively feel I feel like that's the deck I need to use for them. Or sometimes I I say like which deck I've send them a photo of the the different options, which one do you feel drawn to either? Um, and then I have this uh thing I do called the Clarity Compass, which I tend to use certain decks for certain parts of it. Um, but yeah, it's it they do all like it's actually is quite fascinating when you kind of look at the cards, like what you know, the imagery the certain person who's developed it has put into it. It's like it just gives it another layer of meaning. So I do like to use a few decks as well when I'm doing deeper readings.

Speaker 1:

Well, so okay, will you tell me a little bit about then the Clarity Compass? That's um what does what does that look like? Like why does somebody what are some of the reasons that people come to you for readings and then specifically like with the Clarity Compass? Is there a you know a specific thing you're working with someone on?

Speaker:

Yeah, so the Clarity Compass kind of came about um it sort of had been brewing for a long time. Like I said, I was struggling, I had been struggling with how to marry together my art. Then I obviously brought in Reiki, I've trained in Reiki and the tarot, and I wanted to do something that involved all three because for the last few years, um, since I left my full-time teaching job, I've been trying to get my business off the ground. So everything I do is under the umbrella of the barley moon. Um I felt like I was sort of like pulling myself in different directions because one minute I'd be talking about Reiki, the next minute I'd be doing some tarot, and then I'd be doing my mindful doodling as I was calling it. Um, but nothing really was working because it was like it wasn't really kind of coming together as one thing. And I had lots of different people kind of contacting me for different reasons, and it, you know, some people wouldn't be anywhere near interested in tarot, but I kind of, you know, wanted to be a bit, I wanted to do a bit more with the tarot. So I just felt like okay, I just need to like start for a second, stop trying to be everything at once and just kind of go right, what is it that like actually helped me? Because that's the whole point, every it keeps coming back to the fact that I want to help people in the way it helped me. Um, because I obviously came through something that in the end I realized like it was for the best, like what happened was so for the best because I'm so much happier now. Um, and I want to bring people through that journey too, because I could have got so lost where I was when everything like broke down as I saw it, um, and not actually seeing that I was going to be able to build everything back up again, but much better. So I um sort of I think it was earlier this year where I was like, I know there's this thing forming in my head, and I've just not been able to articulate it. And I sat in sort of like not in like a yeah, kind of a meditation, because I was kind of sat there just really, like, really kind of trying to think how can I bring it all together? And I realized that um what I've loved to do is like I've read the tarot, and then like sometimes I do like um a little journal on whatever's come up for myself, like this is just for me, reading for myself, and then like I do like a little doodly affirmation, like what kind of affirmation would maybe come with it, or maybe sometimes like the guidebook would give you like a little affirmation, and I'd end up like doodling with that, and then it'd just be like a lovely little ritual, and I was like, that's what I need to bring all together, and then adding the Reiki is there's that extra layer of healing. Um, I developed this idea of the clarity compass, so it's like sort of navigating you through, like that's where the compass idea comes from of like, you know, if you're in like a live transition that's really difficult and you're struggling, like just even to feel like you can't you can't really see where you want to go. And it might even be that like, you know, maybe you just feel a little bit lost. It's maybe not that something like big's going on in your life, it's just you feel a bit lost. So the idea is that this kind of helps you to kind of see more clearly about what like potentials you've got, you know, coming like you know, on the path that you're currently on. So I um developed this thing where you do um four weeks with me and I um do tarot readings. Um so that like the week would start with a tarot reading, and then they'd have a session of distance Reiki as well, and I'd kind of tune into that. And with a distance Reiki, um, if I picked up say there was like a maybe some blockage of the throat chakra or something, I've got like these different um worksheets that have like um just something you can kind of doodle into and you can listen to a lovely piece of like throat chakra music and you can doodle into the image, and it's again it's helping you to just focus on that part um while you're kind of get getting creative as well, and also it's accessible to people that don't feel like they're arty in any way because it if you wanted to, you could just colour it in if you wanted, but I kind of encourage people to do like little like swirls or even as they're just doing dots or something. Um, and then the other part of it is then there's journal prompts and affirmations, and I kind of encourage with the affirmation to do that doodling around it to really like get it into your your mind and like you're you're you're kind of reading it while you're doodling. So that all together you do this like for four weeks, and then at the end, then I've had like the feedback was people were just like, yeah, that's really, really helped me, like literally kind of helped them to kind of see more clearly about what the what was happening in their life. Like, okay, that's actually helped me make sense of something, or I totally didn't like I didn't realise that that's you know something I had I had I had to kind of like focus on, and then suddenly everything made sense or clicked into place, and I started doing that all from this like kind of journey that I was taking them on and the cut what was coming up with the cards. So it was just working really, really well. But I was doing this before Arthur came along, um, so I had to stop it there because obviously I was about to have a baby, but I've just kind of come back to kind of feeling like I'm ready to start again with it. Um so yeah, I'm I I've realized that this is the thing, this is like my signature kind of thing that I I should focus on because this is what it is all about, and this is where I started, and it's what got me through. Um, and I'm just realizing that this is what I I want to focus on and want to kind of put out to the world to help people with, but I hadn't had that realization until like, you know, you know, I really sat with it and like thought, okay, well, how can I bring everything together? So sorry, I'm probably gonna absolutely like ramble.

Speaker 1:

That I mean, that was really beautiful. That it was um, I love that for so many reasons. I think like I think talking to just like the practicality of it unfolding, I think sometimes you have to live into it and like follow your journey until like it becomes clear, right? You have to have the experiences, you have to live into it, you have to like, but I think meeting people where they're at is really important too. I know on my own journey, I do a lot of the reflective work, I do a lot of the like tapping into my own intuition, and you know, I see my intuition as a way that I can receive my own messages from like the collective unconscious, right? Whether it's through like pings in the body or looking for signs or synchronicities. But sometimes it's really exhausting. And I've said to you know, friends, I'm like, I just want someone to like tell me what to do, you know, like I just need, I just need the guidance. And like, you know, where you said um that the the readings that you did, like it just gives you a little bit of like hope or clarity, or like it's just like the extra little like, you know, hand on your back saying, like, you got this, like you, there's good stuff ahead, like you, you know, you have this. But I think um yeah, and I know like that's I'll get to that point. And I'm like, okay, I need like I'm not I can't, I'm just I can't do this on my own anymore. I need like I just need someone to just like remind me, you know, that like it's gonna be fine. But I love how you blend it because especially if somebody's not already doing the journaling or the affirmations or like some of the inner work, they're You know, like it's it's one thing to meet with a tarot reader, to have a reading and for them to s to give you insights on your path ahead, but without that other layer of like doing the work, you're creating a true experience. You know, not especially at the point in life that you know you're guiding people through. They really need both sides of that. They need somebody to help them really figure there's so many things that you can do to do the inner work. It's it's overwhelming, I think, sometimes, right? Like the journaling and the affirmations and the meditation and the but just talking about like your um with the Reiki, you tuning in and seeing that maybe they have some throat chakra work that they need to do, like yeah, which is you know associated for anyone listening with like you know, maybe like finding your voice, speaking up. Um, that's so that like that alone is so much guidance to just be like tune everything else out right now, and let's focus on like finding your voice. So let's, you know, here's the affirmation that goes with that. Anything like that, but like you're you're you're helping them focus because otherwise a healing journey is really overwhelming. And so you're giving them the insight, intuitive insight through the tarot reading, but then you're layering it with like, here's the inner work that you should do, and I'm gonna literally prescribe it, like just follow this. And you're like tuning into their energy field with the Reiki, which that's it's beautiful.

Speaker:

I think that that's an incredible tool for people who are really just needing that like extra, yeah, I don't like like warmth of you know, warm guidance on their yeah, it's like um it is like that, it's like this supportive kind of I don't know, like it's almost like yeah, it's like maybe being wrapped up in a nice warm blanket and just kind of like being told like being kind of guided into being able to actually connect back in with yourself. Um, because sometimes I think when we know that's something we need to do and we're trying to do it by ourselves, and we're like trying to like find all the things that we should be trying to do, like we should be meditating, we should be journaling, we should be doing affirmations, and then it can become way out way too overwhelming. And so it's like, yes, I'm kind of like prescribing like a few different things that are kind of you know, you do have to take some time out to do, and maybe some people, you know, people feel like I'm very busy and I can't do that. But there are things that the the especially the doodling, it's like things you can just do with like a few minutes a day, just literally just while you're waiting for the kettle to boil, just literally start, just get that chakra doodle thing that I've sent you out, and just you know, if it's the if it's the throat chakra, get your blue pens and just like doodle little swirls into it and just like do that for three minutes and it'll help ground you and it'll and it'll be you will be focusing on where you need to work on. And so that that has been the idea.

Speaker 1:

It's amazing how powerful that can be, and that it can be done in micro moments, right? That it really can be, you know. I think sometimes people like fear going inward because of what it will take out of them, and sure, it can, you know, like journaling can, you know, you you be ready for the journey, right? Um, but you can also just take small, you know, moments in your day to to doodle, to journal, to do some of the throat chakra work, and it makes a really big difference over time.

Speaker:

Especially like if you're like a busy mom or like you know, like it's it's hard, like it's hard, but you need to find that time for yourself too, because we have to put our own oxygen masks on first. Otherwise, you know, we're not gonna be any use to our children. So that's you know, that's another cohort of people that I because I've been a mom myself. I'm like, that's who also I want to like help to find that time because who I don't have an hour every morning to go and sit in deep meditation. That that isn't gonna happen. So I have to meditate.

Speaker 1:

You have to find a way to do it, right? Like, I know I know I need meditation time too, but it's like it's capturing moments when you can, right? So, like it like for me, like the shower is like a no podcast, no to-do list, no like anything. It's like I know that if I can just like release all thinking that that's like a moment that I'll get clarity on certain things, you know, and of course, like it's a little inconvenient because I can't just like write down if I get an insight, but uh, you know, it's just like finding the moments where you feel the most connected or it's like the easiest to quiet your mind. It's like, yeah, wild. I remember when, so okay, when my four-year-old was born, I was on I my water broke really early. I was hospitalized for a couple weeks before she was born. And somebody gave me a book of affirmation doodles. It was just like a coloring book. And there's definitely something to be said for like, you know, when it's like nicely done in there, but it was a book and it worked, but it had affirmations like um like they were the ones that had like swear words, you know, like you've got this with like f bombs. But I was like kind of, you know, I was like sort of just like in this place of feeling sort of like shocked where I was and what was going on. And I it really helped me to just like it's the only thing I could do in the hospital. And like seeing the like, you know, even for me, like the you know, bad language in it, I was like, yeah, you know, it was like it just helped. It really helped to like meditate on the words while coloring. And so, okay, so you are so you offer ideally like this the clarity compass is an amazing journey for people who need that level of guidance. You also have an Etsy store where people can get some of these like doodles and stuff, right?

Speaker:

Yeah, so my Etsy store, I've only just like launched that. Um, I'd sort of been planning it for I knew like I spent a lot of time feeding after. So I was like, that's something I can do while I feed and like I can work on my iPad and like do my digital drawings. So yeah, I have um on there at the moment, and I have so many plans and so many ideas. So that there is gonna be more added to it as I get time to do it. I have um specifically activity books for children which um involve doodling as well, that are up there at the moment. So just like a lovely one for like you know, busy mums as well, to like print off and like get the kids kind of doing something creative, like to take like just to kind of get them away from the screens as well, like some just like really kind of good, kind of wholesome um back it back in the day, kind of you know, it was weak me in the 80s, I would have been doing a lot of like colouring in and stuff. So, but it brings in a bit of doodling because I wanted to kind of bring that in. Um, and then um my plan is as well to upload some things for um grownups as well. I actually do have a book called The Mindful Doodler that I have up on Amazon, but I'm thinking of taking it off there and just putting it on my Etsy shop so people can print out the pages as and when they need. So that one is ideal for busy parents, especially, but really for anyone, not just parents, but it's just ideal for busy people because it's like you can do either um a little affirmation doodle. So you can do one of those pages one morning, it'll take you like two minutes. Like I said, you could do it while the kettle's boiling and waiting for your cup of tea, and you can kind of just spend those few minutes just like doing a little bit of it. You can maybe work on one over a week if you wanted. Then it's got um mindful doodling, um, just like kind of go with the flow, kind of just see what comes up and just do something yourself. And then when I can morning doodle, I've called it. And then the other one is a doodle journal page. So I've got lots of options of like um just whatever prompt you feel drawn to, and you can doodle around the page to decorate it. Because the idea is while you're doing that, you're really kind of thinking on about what you want, what you're kind of feeling, what you're wanting to like bring up, thinking on the prompt, and then you can just start writing in the middle of the page. So I'm gonna um yeah, because like I said, I've got it up on Amazon, but I think I'm gonna take it off there and have it on Etsy, and then you can like print off whatever pages you want, um, rather than having the whole book, you know, in one go. Um, and then I also have because I'm obsessed with the moon, I have like a moon planner as well. So you can that one's on dated, so you can print it out and use it year on year, and kind of like, you know, it's got all this like the um for each phase of the moon, you've got like, you know, different like kind of prompts and pages and things to work with. So it's like that's a really lovely one as well. So yeah, there's a few things on there, but I haven't like got loads up yet. And I've got a lot of wall art because I've got like all of my drawings that I like to do as well. So it's a bit of everything.

Speaker 1:

I saw, yeah, I saw the moon planner on there. I was like, this looks amazing. Yeah, I think um whatever you add is great, but there it looked like there was just like a lot of fun stuff to browse through. And so, okay, if for the clarity compass, the woman that you or the person that you work with on for the Clarity Compass, can you sort of just um, I guess just like wrap up as we end, tell us a little bit about who she might be or how like who who would benefit most from your work and what's like one message that you might share with that person on their journey?

Speaker:

Okay. Um, well, I've sort of the moment I'm di running um a kind of a veto group of a new version of the Clarity Compass because I've obviously had to um reimagine it a bit with them with in mind the fact I now have um a three month old and he's obviously taking up a lot of my time. So I've kind of changed how I run it. Um but it's it's perfect for somebody who um is kind of really busy and and not necessarily my kids, just like could be like in a really like intense corporate job and travel a lot and like just feel like they never ever get a chance just to slow down, and it gives them the excuse to kind of go, okay, I'm gonna take a few minutes here to do you know, this little like doodle or um this little journal prompt or whatever, or just listen to the the reading I've I've had for the week, um, and kind of come tune in with themselves. So really like anyone from does just that is just finding that they just want to have something to help them anchor back in, or it could be someone going through something like I did a few years ago, um, where you just feel completely lost because your whole world has just been off-ended and you don't know, like you're kind of frightened of the unknown in a way. I was worried about where I was gonna end up with my two boys. Um, and so it was to help I needed that kind of guidance to kind of go, you everything's gonna be okay, like trust the process, basically, is what I had to learn. So um, you know, and like the the women that came to me, and and men can come to me too, it's not just women, but like um the women that came to me previously on the previous version of it, you know, some of them just had like so much stuff going on in their lives, like you know, might be like a parent that was ill, um, but then there was like some like demands going on with like the children, or like just felt like there was so much, and they weren't able to find that space to kind of tune into like what am I actually feeling here? What am I, you know, what do I want to do here? And so the Clarity Compass helped them to find that moment to be able to do that, and that was like transformative for them. So yeah.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and then if you have just like one parting word for that person who's thinking of finding you but isn't sure, you know, the benefits of the process, or you know, what what would you share with that person?

Speaker:

Um, well, it's hard to like I I suppose I would say if I could even just go back to myself then, so any other woman that's in the situation I was in back then, where your whole world, you feel like your whole world has ended, I would say that just like just trust in like the the process, the the kind of what's kind of unfolding, because it's not actually like I thought it was the end of my world, but it wasn't. It was actually just the beginning of like an even better life that I'm now leading. And so because I found the tarot and the artwork and I and I and I took that time to slow down and like to actually connect in with myself, it gave me that time to kind of sit and like process what I was going through, not just like mask it and bury it, like actually to sit in it and realize it gave me the epiphany moment of I have a choice here. Either I'm going to completely let it like ruin my life, and like I end up completely like just you know, stopping and getting stuck, or I see it as a catalyst to move forward. But I only had that revelation because I'd spent that time slowing down and connecting in with myself, and so I would say to someone that maybe is thinking about, or would I, you know, that kind of sounds like something I could do, but like I'm not sure. I would say do it because it will help you to like connect in with yourself and start to realize what it is that you actually can do with this learning experience. Like it's not it's not the end of the world like you think it is. It's it's actually the start of a new point that's gonna you know go forward, but you need to be able to go forward with it. You can't just keep yourself stuck, so you've got to be able to see that way forward. It's really hard to explain, but that's that's that's how I kind of view what I'm doing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, I I think it it's like a message of like self-trust and knowing that like and being okay sitting in that messy unknown of like just trusting that that the path will unfold if you trust yourself and go inward.

Speaker:

Yeah, otherwise, yeah, I can see how people can get very lost at sea with something big, you know, in life that's sort of they weren't expecting this kind of it's like a little buoyancy age, you know. Like it's like kind of being in the middle of the sea, but you you've got you've got something to like help you like float towards like the shore. It's that kind of thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love that. Well, thank you so much for being with me today. I will, I'm gonna include all the links in the show notes, but what's your preferred way? If people want to find you, follow you, or get in touch with you, like what do you prefer?

Speaker:

Um, I'm very, very active on Instagram. So Instagram is the best place to find me. So it's at the barley moon. Um and I also like I'm really enjoying Substack, but like haven't quite figured it out yet, but I am enjoying it. So I'm on there as mindfulness and magic. Yeah. But I think if you type in the barley moon on there, that's how you can find me on there as well. Okay.

Speaker 1:

All right, we'll include all those links. And um, I I hope we get to talk again soon. This was a lot of fun, and I just I'm really looking forward to connecting again.