I have made no secret of how much I love a good TEDTalk. I find them educational and inspiring. The most recent inspirational talk I have heard was from this year, 2017 TED Conference. It was by Anne Lamott, well known in writing circles for her book Bird by Bird. In this particular talk, Ms. Lamott discusses the twelve things that she knows to be true, written just before her 61st birthday. It is a mildly humorous and thoughtful way to look at the lessons we learn from life.
Inspired by Ms. Lamott’s talk, I decided to write my own list of things I know to be true at 43. Here is my list below:
We are each traveling on our own journey through this thing called life. However, occasionally, we bump into other people on their journey, and we decide to take some of it together. This makes the voyage not seem as lonely or as difficult.
A good piece of chocolate will calm most nerves. And the smell of fresh vanilla makes most people smile.
Writing out what you want to say, especially when upset or angry, can be as cathartic as it is helpful to know what you want to say.
If it doesn’t work, do not bang on it. Suck it up and contact customer service, just make sure you allow plenty of time for waiting.
When you fall down, you will rise. You may take your time. You may need some help and some dusting off, even recovery from injuries, but you will rise again.
Dress for your Joy. Nothing else matters. If people are going to judge you, they were going to do so anyway, so be happy and comfortable in what you are wearing.
Creativity belongs to everyone. There isn’t a single person alive that does not have creativity within them. It looks different in every person but that is what makes it cool not absent.
Time alone is good for the soul and the mind. The world can be loud and overwhelming, learn to disconnect.
Be Grateful. Say thank you for any good that comes into your life. It changes how your mind sees the world. You begin looking for the good that there is.
Be Kind. Nothing replaces kindness. We have a chance to be kind or to be cruel; to make someone’s day or to tear them down. Be Kind.
We all have at least one in our head. One critic that doesn’t shut up. He or She is the critic in the stands that Brene’ Brown often refers too. They aren’t supposed to matter because they do not get down in the arena with you. They don’t wrestle with the world and come up dirty. This critic tries to stay above it all. Always criticizing but never trying. Since this is National Letter Writing month let’s write a letter to this critic, Tell this critic what you think of them. See who they are clearly in your mind. Man or woman? Insolent child? Think of this letter as standing up and addressing them directly. If they are a critic that is not willing to get down in the mire with you, do you fire them? Send them on vacation for a while? What do you want to say? I once wrote a letter to this critic firing them. He was a cranky old man in my head. One who was never happy with anything at all. It didn’t matter how good something was, HE did not like it. So I fired him. Now, I will warn you, since firing him, he does not come around as often, though a couple of new ones took his place. But everyone once in a while the cranky old man slips past my defenses and into my head once again like an employee who never gets the hint that he is doing terrible at his job. So I have to fire him again. Here is my letter to the critic in my head and how I fired him.
Dear Critic in the Stands,
I’m letting you go.
I’m saying good-bye to your harsh tones and your sandpaper words
that scrape away
the soft parts of my heart.
I’m turning away from you,
and
Leaving you standing with your arms crossed and
frown lines on your face
while tapping your foot.
This relationship is not working for me.
I do not enjoy having you shred my skin away,
expose the broken bones beneath
while you are up in the stands, keeping your hands clean
and your bones safe.
I have made my list of the ones who matter,
tucked it in my pocket… the loved ones who get down in the mud with me.
So, I will tell you again.
I’m letting you go.
I’m saying good-bye.
Please leave the arena now,
you are fired.
Sincerely,
Susan
Being creative is its own form of self-care. However even creative people need to take some time out and refuel their souls. Self-care is the new trend in today’s need to tend to our body and souls that are sometimes starving from lack of attention. Creativity is one of the recommendations for self-care. If you are a working creative, who spends every day head deep in being creative, even you need some vital self-care. Here are fourteen of my favorite tips on taking care of a creative persons spirit.
My first inclination when I need to take some time out is to go for a long walk somewhere where it is green and pretty. I long to be out in nature. Sometimes I take my headphones but most of the time, I simply listen to the sounds of the world around me. If I can get away, I like to take hikes, not long hikes right now, but somewhere in the forest, usually among the redwoods, is my favorite place to go. There are times when all I can do is go to the walking trail around the park near my house. Then I walk around it a couple times, maybe take my shoes off and walk barefoot in the grass. There is something calming about walking in the grass with my bare feet. It is as though I’m being grounded to the earth again.
My next suggestion is to pick up a good book. Honestly, I recommend two books: one for just for fun and the second something I want to learn more about. When I am doing this kind of self-care, I am giving myself permission to step away from the tasks of writing or doing crafts and spend some time filling my mind with words. I love reading and can often devour a book or two in a weekend. Sometimes though, I savor them and they will last me at least a week. The last few books I have read that were for learning for by Brene’ Brown and Elizabeth Gilbert. Brene’ Brown’s book, The Gifts of Imperfection, actually made me break my rule of not writing in books. I highlighted so much because I wanted to hold on to all that I could and surprisingly I did. I consider all her books life-changing. The other book, Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert was also incredible and such an inspiration for a creative person. If you are creative, I highly recommend reading this and filling your soul with its stories.
Slow down. Find some place to sit in the cool of the evening and watch the sun set. When I was much younger my friend and I would drive out on the country roads listening to music. Then we found the perfect spot to park on the side of the road, sit on the car hood with sandwiches and watch the sunset nearly every weekend. It had such a profound effect that I can still see the sun sets in my mind nearly 20 years later.
Let’s color. There are so many adult coloring books out there right now. You can pick them up anywhere from the department stores to the craft stores and I’ve even seen them in the drugstores and once at a gas station. Coloring has been proven recently to release stress and tension and allows the mind to relax.
On Pinterest once, I saw someone set up a inflatable pool in their backyard filled with pillows and blankets in order to watch the stars. I recommend this. Though it’s getting harder with more light pollution in my neighborhood, I still sometimes like to sit on the porch with a blanket in the evening and watch the stars overhead. Or better yet, my friend and I sometimes like to walk late at night so we can see the stars while we walk. My recommendation is maybe you can get an air mattress laid out on the lawn in the backyard with pillows and blankets lay down and watch the stars; maybe watch them with someone you love.
Journaling. I cannot say enough about journaling. There are more ways to Journal than I can possibly mention here: there is brain dump journaling, art journaling, bullet journaling, journaling with prompts, journaling about your past, and the list can go on. There are as many ways to Journal as there are people. But there’s something to be said for writing down your thoughts, clearing them out of our heads to make way for new thoughts and new ideas. My favorite form is the brain dump. I usually do this at night before bed. I pour everything that’s been in my brain on the paper. Some of it is good and some of it’s bad, sometimes a review of the day, and other times it’s just reflective. It’s basically anything. I think that’s why it works for me. I also like some kinds of art journaling where I am journaling on a theme or an idea but I haven’t worked with that as much.
Meditation is a word that is being thrown around a lot these days. I know many people have this image of someone sitting perfectly still for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour and fully focused and not moving. But meditation can be simple. It can be sitting with your mind quiet for five minutes. Or you can try guided meditations by using YouTube or audio recordings. I have found I like to read a reflection and meditate on that for about five minutes. I like to have something I can focus on when I meditate. Though, if I’m sitting in nature, like at the beach, I listen to the sound of the ocean waves and slowly go into a deep meditative state where I can sit for an hour or more.
Try an art activity with friends. I talked about this briefly in Taking Your Artist Date in a New Direction. Pick a friend or two and go do something together: a painting place or a ceramic shop or take a class like a dance class or a cooking class. The point is that sometimes it’s all about just having a little fun and having it with our friends. Our friends are a great source of reminding ourselves that we need to take care of our souls.
Making intentions list. I did this at the beginning of the year instead of writing out goals ever out intentions things that I am mindful about creating in my life rather than setting a goal to master. This made more sense to me and is easier for me to accomplish. When I get lost I can easily go back to my intentions list and get myself back on the right shirt direction again. I also try to keep my intentions in different categories so that I’m a little more balanced and different aspects of my life. Here’s the sheet. New Year Five &Five List
Visit any water location near you. Water is cleansing and grounding and can make us reconnect with her and ourselves whether it is the ocean a river a favorite lake it doesn’t matter. Water has amazing soothing capacity.
Move your body stretch it out. I know we all can’t afford to do yoga classes and sometimes we think we can’t even do yoga. Personally, I have not yet tried yoga. I’m afraid to. But I have watched videos on stretching on YouTube and on a couple of health websites. Your body needs to stretch. It needs to feel the full length of its muscles and be in tune with itself for it to function fully. Stretching does get our minds back in touch with our bodies and our body in touch with our mind and is essential for centering ourselves.
Treat yourself to a movie night. Pick a favorite movie, pop some popcorn, cuddle up with your favorite blanket and just chill. Or is there new movie how you want to see? Take yourself to the movie theater. Treat yourself to a movie. You can go alone or with friends it doesn’t matter. For me going to the movies as a treat especially with the cost and having three kids. So most of the time I wait for the DVDs. But when I do get a movie I really want to see is an exceptional treat and I thoroughly enjoy it. I get to be in the moment with the movie.
Take yourself a little day trip. Hop over to the next city or town over or someplace you haven’t been before. Play tourist. Go do touristy things: looking all the little shops, have a little snack, take some pictures. Just enjoy the area that is new to you.
Create a positive morning or evening routine. I often start out my mornings by reading a reflection or sometimes two. It helps to center and focus myself to start the day. I also start off with a cup of coffee and my routine of watching a little bit of morning news with just me and my dog while the kids sleep. This is my little time to myself. When it gets disrupted, I can feel it in my whole day. Having a consistent routine is good for our self-care for our body likes to predict what is happening next and is comforted by that knowledge.
There you have it. Fourteen tips on taking care of yourself. Our creativity depends on our ability to know when and how to implement some self-care. It is not an act of selfishness; it is necessary. We are not little bunnies running on batteries. We are human beings and are very complicated. When we take care of ourselves, our bodies and our minds, it makes it so much easier to take care of the rest of our life and our family and friends.
There are habits that we can develop that allow us to be more creative in our daily lives. These are practices that are incorporated to allow creativity to be present. I talked to some of my favorite creative people, as well as reading Twyla Tharp’s book, The Creative Habit, Julia Cameron’s, The Artists Way, Natalie Goldberg’s,Writing Down the Bones,and Anne Lamott’s,Bird by Bird. I read creativity books for their inspiration and helpful ideas to be a better writer, artist and creative human being.
1)Show up.
Regularly. Daily if possible; find a schedule that works for you and try to stick it to it. But be there ready to write, draw, take pictures, cook… Whatever it is that you want to do, show up!
2)Be Present.
Laura Probert said to me, when I asked about her creative habits, have than “on- purpose attitude”. Don’t just sit down and attempt to be creative. Be in the moment. Stay in the moment. Purposefully attend to your creative task at hand.
3)Show Gratitude.
This is for life in general as well. Happy people are grateful people. Showing and sharing gratitude daily reminds us we all have something to be thankful for and allows us to create from a space of abundance rather than scarcity.
Allow your mind to play crazy what if games for example she says, “If I was an alien, and encountering this strange earthling concept for the first time, what would I see? What here is potential instead of impossible?” Doing this helps us gain new perspective and see things from another side. It expands our own perception around whatever it is we are working on.
5)Meditate. Be still. Make time for silence and quiet reflection. Allow thoughts to flow freely in and out without reacting to them. Allow yourself to notice the sounds around you, allowing you again in the present moment.
6)Read.
Educate yourself. check out new books new blogs new magazine or other media articles. Each time we allow ourselves learn something new we expand our creative base knowledge. No matter what we read I have been inspired by fiction as much as a moving blog post.
7)Journaling.
Whether you simply write in one before you bed like I do are you for art journaling orbital bullet journaling, journaling is the best way to get all your thoughts that run around loose in your head. Journaling can also be a source of inspiration when you go back and read it. I have often found poetry in all journal writings without realizing it when I wrote it at the time.
8)Stop comparing.
Ditch negative thinking. There is no one like you and you offer a unique view into the world. So there is no one to compare you to. And if you fall into comparison, remember we are often comparing our insights to another person’s outsides and that is not a fair comparison. Comparison leads to negative thinking such as I am not worthy or I don’t have anything valuable to offer. These are negative derailments and have you have to fight them basically though sometimes it is easier said than done tell those negative thoughts to STFU!
9)Play.
Doodle. Do something you liked as a kid. Play is the doorway to creativity. We, as a society, do not engage in play enough. We have an undermining attitude that one must earn play but the opposite is true. Play makes us happier more productive people so go play.
10) Do something different If you write, try photography or painting. If you work in nonverbal media, try writing or cooking. Experiment with other art forms. Or follow Julia Cameron’s invite advice and take yourself out on artist date to the creative places around you. Follow my blog with Bloglovin
We all need a creative soul boost once in a while. It’s normal to feel that you are in a rut and are struggling to be creative. There is hope though. At those times when we can’t create, we can indulge our creative soul with bringing creativity to us. Here are Seven Ideas for Sparking Your Creative Soul.
Pictures. Photographs. Take them. Anything that you find interesting. Do not pass judgment of good or bad. Just take them. Not in the mood to take pictures, go to a page like Flickr and browse through anything that catches your eye. Take the time to fill your visual senses with things you find interesting, beautiful, or even ugly.
READ. Go to the bookstore or the library. Peruse the magazines. Read the international ones about other countries. Cooking, personal growth, or home decor. Maybe pick up one on cars or entrepreneurship. Find a favorite book section and read the back covers of new books. Explore what’s new in the book world.
Take yourself on what Julia Cameron calls an “Artist Date.” Visit a local museum. It doesn’t have to be an art museum. History buff go to the history museum, science, trains…whatever excites you and will help fill up your creative soul. You can try to opposite and go to a museum that you might not normally visit, or even a local gallery where art is for sale and see who is up and coming in your community.
Does your town have an “old town” area? Is there a town nearby that has an the “old town” vibe? Sometimes wandering and meandering through old buildings and gift shops lets down the guard we usually carry around with up as we take in the surroundings. Allow your guard to be down. Wander into new places. Touch stuff on the shelves (if you can). Notice the smells. Listen to the sounds. In Old Sacramento, I love listening to the sound of the old wood board walkways. In summer, there is the sound of the old train that the train museum runs that is in the background.
Read Art Blogs. I love Kathryn Costa of 100Mandalas. I also follow Kelly Rae Roberts , SARK, Leonie Dawson, and Jani Franck. I find others on Facebook. I follow other blogs that inspire me like Bipolar Speaks, a blog combining her love for advocating for mental illness with her creative spirit. Find inspiring blogs to follow. Read them. Fill yourself up on their words and ideas.
Wander. Wander. Wander. I love to wander the aisles of Michaels or Joann’s just to see what’s new. I love looking at the seasonal sections to discover what treasures there are. Sometimes I get some of my DIY ideas from projects that Joann’s is selling already made. I could just as easily say play on Pinterest. But there is something about the physical act of wandering through the store aisles that also allows that mind to wander and play. We are three dimensional beings and we need to interact with a three dimensional world. If you are someone like me who does a lot of their creative work on paper or on the computer, the act of physically touching and looking takes you to a different place than scrolling through Pinterest.
Another “Artist Date.” Take yourself on a day trip someplace away from where you are. Sometimes I complain about living in Sacramento. It’s in a valley and summer gets WAY too hot for me. There is stuff to do but it doesn’t quite have the same energy as a place like San Francisco or Los Angeles. BUT it is about 2 hours from EVERYTHING. Two hours to the mountains. Two hours to Redwoods. Two hours to San Fran. Two hours to the beach. Two hours to the Nevada dessert (maybe just over). The point is I can and have just taken little day trips to the ocean to fill my soul with salty sea air and to put my feet in soft sand. My family has made many a day trip to San Fran and Calaveras Big Trees (Giant Redwoods). Where can you venture for a day trip?
Our creative soul needs these little diversions to fill up on. We cannot create on an empty spirit. What will you do to spark you Creative Soul today?
Hello Everyone! I’m Susan: a Writer, Speaker, Coach and Creator.
Creativity and I have been friends since I was a kid. I was always involved in a creative project…from putting together neighborhood skits and plays, writing stories, dance, theater. I loved to play with my creative side from painting, photography, to writing... more
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Educate yourself. check out new books new blogs new magazine or other media articles. Each time we allow ourselves learn something new we expand our creative base knowledge. No matter what we read I have been inspired by fiction as much as a moving blog post.
Doodle. Do something you liked as a kid. Play is the doorway to creativity. We, as a society, do not engage in play enough. We have an undermining attitude that one must earn play but the opposite is true. Play makes us happier more productive people so go play.
Hello Everyone! I’m Susan: a Writer, Speaker, Coach and Creator.
Creativity and I have been friends since I was a kid. I was always involved in a creative project…from putting together neighborhood skits and plays, writing stories, dance, theater. I loved to play with my creative side from painting, photography, to writing... 