Janice Valdez

I just took an intensive with the Executive Success Program and I’ve learned so many things that I didn’t even know would be useful to rediscover.  But then, of course when one thinks of it logically, how could you know something you don’t know?  What makes you want to be a better person?  Why does it seem that the Self-help section in libraries and bookstores keep getting larger and larger?  What are we all searching for? 

I just re-read my last posting “Freedom Writers” and I can see something so clearly now that I hadn’t before; and that is, I had limiting beliefs about who I am and who I can be.  For people who are wondering about how they can expand their contribution to humanity, to their community, to their families, and to what they leave behind in this world, ESP may be of interest. 

I’ve had comments submitted to previous postings about my interest in ESP, claiming that it’s a cult.  Well much of our society operates on cult-like behaviour - doing without questioning why we believe or why we do what we choose.  Often, our rationals for why we choose to belief things are based on lies and false beliefs that we learn as children and perpetuate them as truths in adulthood.  

If we each got really honest and connected with ourselves about what we value in this world and who we really are, many of our problems would be solved.  I’m really grateful for the questions ESP brought to my attention about my beliefs and general societal beliefs.  It’s not for everyone but I found it interesting.

Janice Down the Rabbit Hole

It took me over 6 hours to get from my apartment in Vancouver to my house in Victoria using the ferry and bc transit on both sides.  Both homes are pretty easily accessible by bus to the major transportation sights, too.  It takes 30 minutes and about $80 more to fly between the two city’s downtown harbours.  Now if a person makes at least $15 an hour it would be a more efficient use of time simply to fly using the harbour planes.  Seriously, I could have flown to New York City in that time!  What a joke is BC public transit.  Sheesh!

Janice Down the Rabbit Hole

Based on true events of a highschool teacher and her students, this movie moved me.  It brought me back to my time with the “at risk” teens in New York City when I worked at The Door.  My position was of Senior Counselor for the S.O.S program, the Second Opportunity School for students who were to serve 1 year Board of Education suspensions in the new program.  I was among four counselors who developed and implemented counselling sessions that would support the development of the youth along side their special classrooms.  None of them wanted to be there at first and I didn’t blame them. 

Watching Freedom Writers got me wondering about the students I had developed relationships with almost 5 years ago.  I wonder if any of them graduated and what they went on to doing afterwards.  It’s an amazing honour to be a guide in a child’s life and an equally enourmous responsibility. 

Yesterday, I was scheduled to attend an general audition for a theatre company.  I had about 2.5 weeks to prepare for it and as the days went by, I acknowledged that I should be choosing monologues and memorizing but when it came to the actions I chose, I chose to put my energy towards other things.  I chose to spend time designing clothes, I chose to read and write, I chose to put time into “Learning out of Bounds”, and I thought more about how I can develop my work as a facilitator of learning and growth.  And I look at the number of entries on my blog under performing arts (3) and compare that to the number of entries under ‘teaching & facilitating’ (12) and I can’t help but feel that I seem to be more drawn towards education than I am to acting. 

I have for many years felt anxious about having to choose between being a teacher or being an artist.  I don’t feel so much angst anymore because I know that each one is part of the other in a very integral way.  Right now, I’m feeling pretty motivated to get into a classroom.  And this time it isn’t about what is practical or safe or convenient.  Many people think that those who can’t do, teach.  Actually, I think the conventional school system is a very scary place to be both for teachers and students, and I don’t think public education is practical.  To take up a teacher’s job structure is not as convenient as the flexibility of a freelance consultant.  Perhaps for the first time, I’m acknowledging that I do have a passion for education and for the arts.  When I choose to perform it is because I believe in giving voice to the story that will be told, and when I choose to teach it is an answer to a calling that I think I’ve had for a long time.  I think I’m getting prepared to listen now.

I hope I there will be opportunity for me to practice drama therapy in a way that is fun and fulfilling.  I hope I can do for myself what it is I try to do for others.  I hope I can keep up.

Janice Performing Arts, Teaching & Facilitating

Today, I was filled with and surrounded by food; and when I wasn’t eating of making it, I was thinking about it.  I love food.  The food network is always the first I check if I don’t have a particular program in mind. 

This morning, I made an omlette with Indian spices topped with peach yogurt.  Mmmm, the spicey and the sweet combo were delicious.  Me and Kiran lazed around a bit and left for Kitsilano beach to sit in the sun and watch the people with their dogs and babies.  We had a very satisfying lunch on a log consisting of burger, fries and a spritzer.  Then we walked to Capers ( I could spend thousands of dollars in the store!) and had a tea and bought some groceries.  Then we came back to Main St. and bought more groceries for the vegetarian chilly and cupcakes we spent the evening making. 

Sun, good company, and good food.  Mmmm, that’s a good Sunday.

Janice Food, Uncategorized

Learning Out of Bounds now has an official website.  We are still looking for someone with skills to put up more information; right now it’s just one page of our flyer. 

I really admire Darcy’s energy and calm leadership in assembling all of us together for this day.  For my own table, I would like to share it with other independent consultants who are trained in the methods of Expressive Arts therapies.  The expressive arts are incredibly empowering processes to engage in for children and adults and I’m looking forward to connecting and creating a community of people committed to actualizing and expanding human potential.

Learning Out of Bounds is looking for sponsorship to cover venue and promotional costs, and we are also keen to enlist a few helping hands for the event day.  Volunteering can be done for any portion of the event, including preparation or closing.

What is exciting about this for me are the possibilities that it presents for creating awareness for applying creative arts in schools, community centres, healthcare and businesses. 

Janice Teaching & Facilitating

I spent most of today organizing the contents of my kitchen cupboards.  It started with filling up the new spice containers that attach to the magnetic spice rack we got.  My flatmate is Indian and has all the glorious spices to prove it, and we both like a stocked kitchen for cooking and baking, so there were a lot of packages to sort through.  It was a delight and a kind of meditative art to label fresh new spice tins and get rid of plastic bags.  Ugh, plastic! 

Many people would consider it a chore to go through every cupboard to rearrange things, find containers, move pots and dishes, clean out glass jars and so on, but I really really enjoy it.  It’s my Monic Geller factor, I guess.  In fact, my organizing frenzy got so involved that I left the apartment building only twice: once to get change for the laundry and once to take out the recycling just out front.  It was such a beautiful sunny day, perfect for organizing food and kitchenware so I could enjoy the sun setting through the patio doors right into the kitchen. 

Tomorrow, I get to start organizing my bedroom.

Janice Down the Rabbit Hole, Uncategorized

Last night, after packing and loading the car, Christina and I watched Running with Scissors.  What an extraordinary story, and even more so that it was lived by the man who wrote the book upon which the screenplay was written.  The performances are stunning by a stellar cast that includes Annette Benning, Diane Keaton, Gwyneth Paltrow and the gorgeous Joseph Fiennes.  The young actor who played Augusten was also very impressive. 

It was disturbing and hilarious.  My favourite absurd part is when Dr. Burroughs comes out of the washroom shouting, “It’s a miracle, It’s a miracle.” and he takes his entire family to see the configuration of his poo in the toilet which he takes as a sign from God that their luck is about to change.  A fascinating and humourous look at human psychology and how we survive it.  This story is the ultimate statement of ‘who needs fiction when real life is already so strange and funny?’

Janice Books, Uncategorized

I’m in Victoria all by my lonesome.  I’ll be glad when the move is finally over.  Christina drove over with me yesterday afternoon and returned this morning with a trunk full of my stuff.  It’s great to have friends who are so generous with their time.  Last week, my friend John took over some stuff and dropped it off at my apartment.  He was on his way to an audition for an FBI agent role and so he was dressed in a suit and tie with sunglasses as he took my suitcase and rubbermaid container into my building.  It has been the most drawn out move but most eventful and interesting that I’ve ever done.  While I’m here over the next day or two, I hope to organize more of my things for moving later in the month.  My knee is still unstable so lifting heavy things is to be avoided. 

I’m looking forward to tomorrow when I get to rehearse an applied theatre simulation for a gig with Focus Management Group Ltd.  Getting paid to act on meaningful projects that facilitate growth and change is so satisfying.  And I always enjoy working with John Emmet Tracy and Peter Gardner-Harding. 

And then after that, Alia Tracy (John’s wife) and I are going to go over design ideas for women’s clothing.  FUN!

It’s overcast in Victoria and this house is bare.  A bit depressing that I plan to do tax preparation on Easter Sunday.  Maybe a walk and a tea with a friend to reward myself later today.

And another reward just before I leave to go back to Vancouver; a visit with my physiotherapist. 

Janice Down the Rabbit Hole

Traditionally, a solemn day to give thanks for the sacrifice made by Jesus when he died on the cross to “save” us.  When I was young we were taught to also sacrifice something on this day and spend some time giving thanks and meditating on our blessings.  Now that I’m not surrounded by Catholic influences but it had crossed my mind to go to a church and just sit there and smell the incense and marvel at the pretty stained glass windows and towering architecture. 

But instead, I checked my facebook page, my blog comments, my email, I watched the Food Challenge where culinary/pastry artists made huge sculptures out of rice puffed cereal to compete for 10,000.  Then I decided, upon seeing the winner’s check for 10,000 that I deserve to get a cheque of $10,000 made out to me too.  So I’m just going to stay on that vision and I’ve gone on to enter contests from the newspaper.  So far, I’m entered to win tickets to the ballet, to Il Divo, and I entered my brother Jonas in a contest for a golf getaway for 4 which includes a BMW rental.  I’m not an avid golfer but I felt like entering for a chance to feel like a winner so I put his name down.

Now it’s almost 2:00pm and I’m still in my nightie on the laptop at our dining table facing the tv that is showing the food network.  The woman on 30 minute meals is saying ‘worstershire’ in a really annoying way.  I prefer Jamie Oliver and his show on school dinners.  I think it’s really important work he is doing, changing the school meals served in public schools in England.  It was devastatingly tragic to see the children recognize and name corporate fast food symbols more easily than a celery.  It was astounding when one boy in elementary school, after eating freshly cooked chicken and a green salad said, “It’s my first time eating salad.”  It made me wonder about children here in Canada.  Jamie went to a home of one family who were challenged with children who had hyperactive and aggressive behaviour.  Jamie guided their diet with recipes and a grocery list that eliminated fast food, refined and heavily processed food.  The mother looked at the list and she said, “Basil.  I don’t know what that looks like.”  What?!!  The amazing thing is the immediate result on the children’s behaviour. Only 30 minutes into being off the sugar and refined processed food, and the children were noticeably calmer. 

In recent years there seems to be a rise of diagnoses of ADD and ADHD (attention deficit / hyperactivity disorders).  There must be a connection to what we are feeding our children.  And it’s not just what parents are keeping in the fridge, but what the corporations are permitted to market to sell to children.  In my mind, that’s about being socially responsible for the health of children which, in the long run, will result in far more abundance of wealth than the conventionally narrow definition of “profit”.

So on this Good Friday, I’m not doing so well on the sacrificing of food.  I love food.  So I’m into the practice of loving.  But next week, after eating some cake this weekend, I’ll do a cleanse; wherein, I’ll only be able to eat fruits and vegetables and whole grains and only organic meats - so salt, so sugar, no flour, no dairy….which means, do ice cream.  boo.  But I know my body will love me for it later.  I did my first cleanse last May and I told myself that I’ll aim to do a cleanse every 4 months, with the change of the seasons, because it felt so refreshing.

Janice Down the Rabbit Hole, Food

1. Money comes easily and frequently

2. It’s not that I can’t afford it, I’m simply choosing to keep my money (which comes easily and frequently), for something else.

Today I had an uplifting conversation with my friend Yumi, a fellow actor and philosopher.  In it we affirmed the message in “The Secret” that if we consistently view the world and approach decisions from a place of feeling that we don’t have enough, we are simply going to create more of that way of being.  But if we place our mind in a state of abundance and choice, then everything becomes possible in our minds.  And as one who is well versed in role-play, once your imagination goes towards abundance and possibilities, your feelings and then actions soon follow with greater ease.  Because of your energy and attitude of abundance, the actual reality of abundance in whatever you ask for begins to manifest in your life. 

It was a much appreciated twist of attitude that I was able to make in the conversation today.  And it really does work.  I looked in my fridge and I first thought, ‘I don’t have any food in the fridge.  I should probably go out and buy some groceries for dinner.’  Then I got distracted because my next thoughts went to money and how much more I’d like of it.  Because I’m not sure where money will be coming from, I’ve been scrimping on buying things, even food.  Then I just thought, ‘no I have enough money, I’m just being lazy about getting out of the house to buy groceries and the excuse that I don’t have money is just to create a story.’  This was before my conversation with Yumi.  I was going to leave and then she called.  And while I was on the phone with her and she was saying, “Janice, the money is going to come to you.  You will have no problem getting what you need,” my flatmate rings up and says, “What are you doing for dinner?”  I reply, “Nothing, I haven’t thought about it.”  “Turkey tacos?” she says.  “Okay!”  “Okay, I’ll pick up the stuff from the store.”  Little things like that let me know that even when I’m stubborn and I don’t like to ask for help, the Universe is always conspiring to deliver.  To believe and be open to receive the abundance of its possibilities is my work.  The how’s belong to the mystery of life…the secret.

Janice Books