Perspective

Me and my bunny love, Kombucha, snuggling on the couch while we shelter in.

(this is one of my latest instagram posts that has had much interest through shares and comments - March 30, 2020)

One of the things we are all prone to forget at times, and for some it’s always - depending on the level of awareness - is that our understanding of the world is based on our perspective. And our perspective is formed by our personal life experiences. Which is absolutely of value, but is of no more or less value than someone else’s.

There is still very much an overarching & unconscious belief that some know better than others, and this is based on messaging - subtle & overt, level of education, religion, or simply ego. Without awareness we can move through life, conversing with people from this singular perspective, instead of coming to the conversation or public forum with the knowledge that what we have to share is based on the accumulation of our personal life experiences, but that doesn’t mean our ideas or understanding is ‘the right way or the only way’.

Heart Prompt:

When you converse with someone, are you asking them questions about their life experience or thoughts about what’s happening now? Or are you telling them how it is and what you believe the answer is? How much time do you dedicate in a conversation to ask questions about the other person? And actually listen?

While in solitude we can reflect on this, and practice asking more questions, especially if we reflect and realise we haven’t learnt much about someone we’ve just spoken with, about what their life is like right now.

There is a romantic notion that we are all in the same boat at this time. But we are not - we are in very different boats on the same incoming tide, and some are in no boats at all but swimming like mad in the open ocean with no life raft. It’s not to say that by having a safe boat we should feel shame or guilt over it, but it means that when we are aware that we are not all in the same boat we develop empathy, and we begin to change our mindset into not just serving ourselves but how, if we have the means, can we serve others - and not in a way that satiates our egos, but satiates our hearts.

If you’re experiencing boredom at this time, this is the space you need to open the door to your heart. It’s a very different way of living & now is a great time to explore it.

With Love,

Pia

Find more on the Wandering Heats Collective.

Creative Women in Conversation, February 29, 2020

…turned out the beautiful Mistress of Ceremonies Cynthia and I were wearing the exact same colour combination, even with loop earrings and high bun! Nothing like sweet synchronicity to know you’ve met a kindred spirit. X

Last Saturday, I was honoured to be one of the guest speakers at this year’s Creative Women In Conversation event held at the fabulous North Sydney Community Centre. I’d heard so many wonderful things about it from past speakers and audience members, and it certainly lived up to its reputation, I had a fabulous time! I felt so completely nurtured while up on stage, and I’m so grateful to everyone for sharing their enthusiasm for all I had to share, and for the incredible feedback I received throughout the day. This was Shona Smith and my first official live event together which we eagerly announced on our podcast at the end of last year, and we had such a great time. Having been in dialogue for a year now on It’s All Up From Here, we were ready to try our hand at opening the dialogue with a live audience, it was such a treat…

snapshots with thanks to Cynthia Sciberras

We talked about what it means to live a creative life; how ideas form; what some of the most common creative blocks are and what mine have been; how to manage being a multi-passionate creative; the importance of mentoring and using our intuition; and how global events affect the creative flow. We had so many great questions from the audience, each one sparked new ideas and topics that we’d love to extend on in future podcasts and live, intimate events.

I absolutely loved listening to the other speakers, learning more about their work and how they manage their own creative blocks and life experiences while still engaging their creative passions. Sharing this day with them was a wonderful experience.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to Joanna Goodwin, the centre’s director, for inviting me to participate this year, she truly is incredible at connecting people and bringing creativity into the everyday, not just through this fabulous yearly event in celebration of International Women’s Day, but also through the centre’s workshops, hosted by incredible artists.

The talks were recorded for the North Sydney Centre podcast, and Shona and I will be adding our talk as a special episode of It’s All Up From Here too, so you can listen then, I’ll let you know on social media when it’s live.

Thank you again to everyone who bought books on the day, and those who expressed interest in mentoring, you can check out the mentoring packages here, or send me an email.

xx

Welcome to Amiyo, this beautiful life...

I’m so thrilled to finally share with you something incredible I’ve been working on for one of my beautiful clients. It’s been an amazing intuitive journey together, from beginning as mentoring sessions in 2017 through to bringing her latest collection into the world and sharing it through its very own online space…

Susie Duggin is an incredible artist, jewellery designer, and maker based in Bangalow, near Byron Bay here on the east coast of Australia. We met back in 2017 when Susie flew down to Sydney for our first mentoring session together. She has such a beautiful and distinctive aesthetic, and was in the midst of creating the most stunning debut jewellery collection The Native Gold Series, where each piece is art in miniature.

The name Amiyo came into Susie’s life while she was creating the collection and for her she describes this as an ancient word that portrays “this beautiful life, enriched by our dreams and visions, made to be a touchstone to remind us of our inherent magic.”

Each piece features native gold in quartz stones that are sourced locally, and carries its own story which is reflected in the names of each piece: “Landscape of the Soul” , “The Beloved One”, and “In The Sky, On The Ground (and in the Sea)” , just to name a few.

Together over the past few months we’ve been designing and styling her new website, and it was an absolutely pleasure to create the visual storytelling, capturing the magic in this collection. Susie came and stayed at my studio and we spent the weekend photographing the pieces in the studio and down by the waters edge too.

After a wonderfully successful, private launch last weekend, it’s my absolute pleasure to be the first to share with you her collection online. So please take the time to visit her world, read her journal, learn more about her and share her work with people you know will love it…

Congratulations beautiful Susie! It’s been such a pleasure mentoring and collaborating with you on this creative endeavour. The intuitive journey is a jungle path for sure and worth every step when you see what you’ve created led by your heart all the way. This is real magic in the palm of your hands, and you’ve shared it with us, there is nothing more special than this.

With love,

Pia xx

Website design & styling by Pia Jane Bijkerk and Susie Duggin

Production and visual storytelling by Pia Jane Bijkerk

Logo Design by Rick Shearman

Jewellery photography by Michelle Eabry

When I was nineteen...

When I was 19, I thought of myself as a worldly feminist. It was 1997. I was halfway through my university degree in Sydney, and already by that age I had travelled the world and lived in more countries than most people visit in a lifetime. Between the ages of 13-15 I lived in a village in northern Italy and was appalled by the sexism that ran rampant in the culture…why did that old man just pinch my bum? Why is it ok that those boys are whistling at me as I eat ice cream with my parents? And why does that newsreader on TV have her body squeezed into that tiny dress and her breasts pushed up to her chin? When she speaks, why is she trying to seduce her viewers? What I saw and experienced felt very strange to me. I struggled to integrate. And it was this reaction that defined me as a feminist.

As I grew into this label, it made me feel different to the other girls around me, like I must be less naïve, less vulnerable than them. After all, I was worldly, and I was apparently a feminist because I believed women deserved the same rights as men. It made me feel strong.

On top of being worldly and a feminist, I was also experiencing deep love with another human, my boyfriend. And although we had our ups & downs as young lovers do, fumbling our way along the paths that others had paved for us to walk, I knew what it was to be in love, and this made me feel not just worldly, but also, mature. So here I was at age 19: a worldly, mature feminist. In the cocoon of this understanding of myself, I felt safe.

Then something happened that shattered my world…

……………………………………………..

This is an extract from a very personal piece I wrote on Monday, August 12 & Tuesday, August 13, which, as it turned out, was the beginning of the full moon phase. I have never had the words to express what happened at this time in my life, and in the early hours of Monday morning, I had a beautiful dream. During the dream, the words formed. Although the nature of the event is traumatic, I followed my intuition and took the time on Tuesday to write it all out. It is incredibly personal, and after writing it I realised my website is not the place to publish it. I may, in time, consider publishing this piece in a publication as I know it is powerful and needs to be read by as many young women as possible, in the hope they may understand how to listen to their intuition. For now, it is available to read in full in my patreon collective. And I’ve also made it available on my new password protected journal, for those who are on my mailing list.

“Does your family have secrets? Or maybe you have a secret from your own life experience that you have never shared with anyone? Today Pia and Shona talk about the undeniable link between secrets and shame and how this can stop us from being truly ourselves and also from becoming the strong, powerful women we were meant to be.”

Secrets & Shame is the latest podcast episode on It’s All Up From Here! Click here to listen xx