by susrene@gmail.com | Apr 18, 2017 | Ten Minute Tuesday, writers, writing
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
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by susrene@gmail.com | Dec 15, 2016 | creativity, inspiration, inspirational
There’s a storm raging outside my window. The wind is howling, the rain is pouring and all I want to do is curl up with coffee, a good book and a blanket, maybe take a nap. Instead, I know I promised I would write myself a post today. On my schedule I was supposed to write a post about “awe”. I had read an 
article recently published in Parade magazine inspired me to think about all the ordinary ways that we have awe in our lives. But I find myself looking at my favorite spot in my office area that’s crammed into a corner of the dining room. There are stars and moons hanging on the wall, hand-painted, glittered, and cut out by my and my friends hands. They are from a blanket fort party nearly 2 years ago. After investing so much time into cutting them out, tracing and painting them, I couldn’t bear to let them go. They are the whimsy of my space. I realized as I was sitting here, contemplating what I should write this morning that my stars and moons are a very simple form of awe. They remind me of fairytales and daydreams and moments of possibilities. When they hung in the blanket fort along with white Christmas lights, they filled the room with magic. When I see them, I am reminded of their magic.
In the article I read on awe, it was compared to seeing an amazing Vista or what astronauts experience when they look at Earth from space or how we feel we see a newborn baby. Until recently, awe was ignored. It was thought to be an elite emotion available to some but not all. But researchers are finding that that is not true. We are all able to experience just as we are able to experience happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust and surprise. Awe is now being considered a basic part of the human condition, an emotion we all need. I have experienced when I climbed the side of a mountain instead above a waterfall and watched it from its source. I have climbed rocky cliffs sides near the ocean and sat perched high above where the gulls fly. In fact, almost anytime I stand by the ocean I feel awe. But these experiences are not always available nor are they always advisable.
Sometimes awe borders on the edge of feeling great and feeling afraid. Sometimes we look into those vast big experiences, we we feel not just the beauty but also the fear of being in a precarious position. Instead we can look for awe in the small things like the delight of the baby giggle or the full moon on a clear night, or the way raindrops shimmer on plants or how stars and moons hang in the corner of an otherwise plain office. What can awe do for you? According to the Parade article, written by Paula Spencer Scott, awe benefits us because it binds us together, can help us see things in new ways, it can make us nicer and happier, it actually often alters our bodies because it is such a strong positive emotion. Scott also has a brief page on “7 Ways to Experience Awe in Everyday Life.” I didn’t see the list originally, so I came up with my own. Here are 10 ways to bring awe into your everyday life.
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by susrene@gmail.com | Nov 17, 2016 | creativity, inspirational
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.
4)Amanda Wolf Hara says, “Indulge in the ridiculous.”
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.
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by susrene@gmail.com | Aug 25, 2016 | inspiration, inspirational
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?
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by The Creating Room | Jul 21, 2016 | artists, arts, creativity, inspiration
Many creative people have their creative toolbox that they keep on hand. They pull stuff, and tips and tricks right out of it. It’s like having a magicians magic hat. The key to a Great Toolbox is to include in it the things that will keep your creative soul going even in those times where you feel stuck or are feeling blah and uncreative.
Let’s start with what I keep in mine.
For inspiration, I have many Artful Blogger, Artful Journalling, and Where Women Create magazines, all produced by the Stampington Company. I love flipping the pages and seeing the beautiful pictures and sharing in others creative adventures. It is my hope one day to be in one of those magazines myself. It inspires and motivates me when I feel stuck or lost on what to do.
My favorite creative tool is my laptop. It is a MacBook Pro that is nearly four years old. Since I am first and foremost a writer, I find it essential for working on fiction, moving my poems from the written page to being saved and edited, and where I create my affirmation cards. I also use it for collecting my photos. I will give you a secret, I have about 22,000 pictures. NOT KIDDING. I always find reasons to use ones I thought I would never use especially in designing mini stories and affirmation cards. It is also where I create my stationary, my cards, and anything else that strikes me.
Pick your favorite tool! What is it? Keep it in good condition. If it’s something that gets used often, like a sketch book or journal, do you keep a back up so you always have one. My daughter keeps two or three around the house so she can just grab one.
Now onto some more practical, hands on stuff. Even writers need a little something out of scope of traditional writing to feed the creative soul. Here is what I highly recommend and what I keep for creative tools.
- Watercolor Paints: you can go to the dollar store and get the watercolor kits or you can go to Joanns and for ten bucks get the watercolor tubes. I use them for creating backgrounds, just playing when my mind has been so full of words, I need something that doesn’t require too much language processing.
- Pens, markers, pencils: I will admit to being an office supply junkie. I am fully addicted to new pens and pencils. I love makers, gel pens, colored pencils, Papermate Flair pens, and my fave are Pentel RSVP pens in purple. They just make writing, drawing, doodling so much more fun and interesting. Sometimes, it helps me to brainstorm in different colors to see patterns.
- Paper or Card Stock: A writer needs paper, whether hand writing or printing from a computer. If you want to make little notes or cards with writing or doodles, it helps to have sturdier card stock around and a good pair of scissors.
- Another thing that the paper is good for is making Word tiles. Inspired by Susan Wooldridge’s poem crazy. She creates word tiles and has her students draw out so many words and they have to create a poem. But I have also used them to inspire photos, or doodling or messages to friends. I think of word tiles as a great way to get out of stuckness because you have to work within the confines of the words you picked, it brings out the creative self.
- Tactile: A great toolbox as something wth texture that you can play with, touch in between or during projects. There is something about the switching of the cerebral writing, organizing to something that is just about touch. It changes our posture, calls on different parts of the brain, creates flow through other avenues. especially when stressed or up against a deadline, having some tactile object like play-dough or clay or even different types of fabric can re-direct us.
- TIME! Make sure that you give yourself time to use the tools in your toolbox. Our creative expression is of great importance. Even if you have a job and work forty hours a week, it is essential to our health that we take time for creative expression. I have said before, Brene’ Brown, a well know mental health writer, says that “UNUSED creative expression is NOT benign.” It will manifest itself in agitation, frustration, anger, guilt. A host of negative feelings that eat away at our self-esteem. So being creative helps you be a better you.
- Miscellaneous: 1) Music: I know for me when I am working on certain projects I have specific music that I listen to that creates the mood and environment that I want, especially if I am writing and I want to tune out the noise. 2) Add some acrylic paint as well. The colors are brighter and you get different results by blending. It is just a different than watercolors but fun. 3) Ribbons and stickers. These are just bits of whimsy to add to your toolbox. Maybe you only use them once in a while. I love using my own stickers to decorate packages when I send out orders. 4) Glue. All kinds but at least a good glue stick and a reliable craft glue, like Aleene’s tacky Glue. 5) A Journal. Whether you are a writer or an artist, a photographer or florist, keep a journal. They are great in offering us a chance to reflect. Maybe you just have a project journal. That’s ok. Its just another handy dandy tool for your box.
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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... 