We all get stuck sometimes. That painting won't come together, the next part of that story won't flow. We can't get anything new started. What should we do?!
Copy.
No, really. Copy something you like. Draw the Mona Lisa in crayon, rewrite "The Raven" using other words. Copy, but add a twist.
Why? Because it gets you moving, it stirs up your creativity. You connect with something creative that you like and you engage with it, and this helps your own creativity get up and moving. And it often happens that once you get the brush/ pen/guitar pick/camera moving, your own thoughts and ideas start coming through loud and clear again.
How do you do this so you don't end up just copying and never getting to your own work? First, I don't think that will happen. We're creatives, so eventually our own voices are going to make themselves heard. But to help avoid delaying the message, try this:
Use elements of the original in something brand new of your own (like a fan fiction story, for example).
Examine the original for things it would be easy to change--colors, genders, number of people in a story or objects in a painting, time period, location, etc.
Pick one thing from your list and start making that change. If you started your copy before thinking about changes, just start adding the changes from where you are. No need to start over.
Pick another thing from the list and start making that change.
Think about other works you like and see if you can incorporate elements of one or more of those into your copycat work. It doesn't have to be something in the same genre or even the same medium. A sketch of a favorite book character in the background of your Mona Lisa? Of course! "The Raven" flying off to a music store and playing a violin? Why not? Mix and match--it's a fun game and very freeing. Be as silly as you can!
Take your favorite elements from your play time and try them out in whatever you were feeling stuck on. (It's okay if you can't find anything that will work--just take a look to see if there's something there.)
Will this exercise always directly help your current work? No, not directly.  It will always help shake things up, change things around, get things moving. Sometimes you'll find something that helps move your current piece along. Sometimes you'll find that you just had a good time, and that's worth plenty all on its own.
I love a grand gesture, a giant cake, a huge display of lights at Christmas. I do! I love big, shiny things. But you know what I love even more? Tiny, sparkly little treasures. They gleam and glisten and entice you to draw closer, focus in, get still and attentive. They're mesmerizing and full of wonder.
So what does this have to do with creativity coaching or a creative life? So much! Small things are beautiful and powerful and full of everything we love. And Small Steps will get us to those dreams we love.
In Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching™ we're all about small things--Small Steps, Small Questions. We love them! Why? Because they do so much while being so easy to wrap your brain around. This also has to do with a creative life because being a creative doesn't happen in a vacuum. We live in a busy world. We have a lot going on. Things that fuel our creative dreams and fit into the rest of our lives are priceless! Small Steps are the way to get there without letting everything else fall away.
Convinced? It's okay if you're not sure. We've been taught to believe that we need to do big things, make huge changes, do something dramatic to change our lives. (Have you seen some of the things people do when they want to ask someone to marry them?!) So Small Steps may seem weird at first. That's okay. Try them out anyhow and see what you can do. Here's how:
First things first. Pick your dream. What's something you'd like to get started or make progress on? What creative dream would you like to come true? Write that down. Put the note someplace you'll see it often. There. That's a Small Step and it's a reminder of what you want to do.
Next, ask yourself a few questions. Write down the answers if you like (it's okay if you don't have answers right away or only have a few), but most importantly ask the questions.
Questions to ask yourself:
What could I do in just five minutes? Two minutes?
What would feel good to do right now?
What is the smallest thing I can do that is connected to my creative dream?
Now, pick one of those small steps and do it. Do it again tomorrow, or the next time you have five minutes (or two). Try this out for a week, maybe two. Then look back and see what you've done, one Small Step at a time. Give yourself a pat on the back! Then make a new list of things you can do and do one. And now you're on your way to your creative dream!
There's still time to sign up for the MuseCraft™ Explorers' Club (starts July 9). We'll talk small steps, we'll walk them together. We'll have fun and make our way toward those creative dreams together. Join me?
Okay, it's not really on my table, but it's what I was working on this past week (and some paintings, of course), so I thought I'd stick with the normal Monday routine a little and use my usual title.
Details from a few of my favorite painted pages--in squares, of course, because I'm loving squares right now.
So, about that blog tour...I was invited to join in on the tour by Theresa of Indigene Art Forms.  This blog tour has been going on for a while, and everyone who participates gets to invite others, so there are lots of links to follow back through the tour.  Give yourself a little gift and follow the link path--there's lots of great stuff to discover!
For the tour, I'm answering four questions about myself:
What am I working on?
Right now possibly the biggest thing is my 100 Paintings Project. I have always considered myself a writer who dabbles in art, but I am wanting to claim that title of "artist" for myself, and I'm starting with a big pile of paintings!
I'm also working on a really fun coaching circle (MuseCraft™ Explorers' Circle) that will be starting in July--I'm really excited about this--it's going to be a creative adventure! What could be better than that? Info and sign-ups are almost ready to fly out into the world--I'll keep you posted.
What else am I working on? (Because I'm always doing bunches of things, it's just in my nature.) Working on a new blog posting schedule and a couple of cool ideas for blog challenges for late summer and fall. Working on some downloadables that I think are going to be great fun. And working on, or at least thinking about, restarting my newsletter.
Things are going to be really exciting around here starting in the next couple of weeks, and I am thrilled that some of my ideas are going to get out into the world to share with everyone!
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I'm still in the fairly early stages of my visual art work, but I think that some of my creativity coaching experience and my writing experience are making their way into my art and helping to put my own personal stamp on it. In coaching I work with making small changes a lot, and I find that I approach my paintings that way, adding a few dots here or lines there and then letting it be until the next idea comes. And from my writing I seem to have brought the idea of leaving some things to the viewer's imagination--I'm finding that I really like a small amount of detail and a lot of hints of things. I may branch out and do things like more shaded and detailed faces, etc., but right now I'm really enjoying what I'm doing.
Why do I write/create what I do?
My writing and painting tends to be about mysterious things--fairies and magic and secret things that are hard to see. I like to explore the ideas of hidden realms and magic in our own world in my writing, and this is starting to emerge in my painting as well. I don't have an explanation for why I love these things, though. I always have (my mother will tell you that by the age of two I had to watch every monster movie that came on, and I never missed a showing of Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz.)
I think we are born with a pull toward certain things. We often learn to cover it up, ignore it, pretend it isn't there, but our hearts have things they gravitate toward, and mine loves all things strange and weird and inexplicable. And I think it's very important to listen to what pulls your heart, and if you can't hear it or feel it any more, I think it's incredibly important to excavate for it. As Rumi said, “Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.â€
How does your writing/creating process work?
It works best in small bursts. I am rarely the sort who sits down to work and stays there for six hours. I lay down a layer of paint then wander off to do other things while it dries, then I come back and do the next bit--sometimes that means painting for ten minutes, other times I might be there an hour depending on what I'm doing. But bits and pieces and spurts work best for me. For writing, too--I write best when I set a time for ten or fifteen minutes and then sit back for a minute or two (or five if I need more coffee or tea), and then do it again. I guess I'm a sprinter rather than a marathoner.
So there's a little bit about me. Now the super-exciting part of the tour!  I get to introduce you to some great fellow creatives who agreed to join in on this journey.  Go visit their blogs and see what they're up to, and make sure to check in next Monday (June 9) for their blog tour posts.
Adriane Giberson
Adriane is a creative human living in BC, who has on occasion been called a Renaissance Woman. Ever delving into the mysteries of the life of art and the art of living & sharing the journey via the interwebz.
I confess--I used to kind of hate affirmations.  I wanted to do them and be all enlightened and zen, but they didn't click for me.  They felt silly and fake and I felt silly and fake saying them.  I'd try them out, but instead of feeling buoyed up or motivated, I would feel annoyed.  "That's not true!" I'd think.  Then I'd go off and do something else, often the very thing I was trying to affirm myself out of. Then I started my Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching ™ training, and I learned how to actually use affirmations (thank you to my wonderful mentor coach Lisa Dieken for helping me with this!).  Admittedly I don't use them that much still (by now, not using them is a habit), but I like them now and feel like I understand them much better.  I have learned how to help my clients find good, useful affirmations, and I'm enjoying honing my skills in creating them. If you'd like to try working with affirmations, here are some tips to help make them more effective:
Create your own affirmations rather than using ones written by someone else; use words you would actually say in conversation
If you do want to use an affirmation written by someone else, change the wording so it sounds like something you would actually say
Put reminders around to help you remember to use your affirmations so you give them a real chance to work for you
If an affirmation isn't feeling right for you, change it or use another rather than try to use one that doesn't feel like you
Once you have the wording down, work with an affirmation for at least two weeks before you decide whether or not it's working for you
You might also want to browse through a few of the millions of online pages and articles for more in-depth info on affirmations and how to use them. Â And keep an open mind. Â You never know what might happen with the right words and attitude!
Extra Questions:Â Â Do you work with affirmations? Â What has been your experience with them?
EDIT:Â I forgot one of the most important points! Â But I'm correcting that.
Make sure your affirmation is something believable. Â For example, if you don't have enough money for the bus right now, saying "I am rich" is probably not something your subconscious is going to believe no matter how you phrase it. Â If you are aiming for something very far from where you are, build up to it in increments. Â Start with something like "I can pay all my bills," or my favorite money-related affirmation, "I have plenty of money." Â Something like "plenty" is good because it can be interpreted many ways and so can be easier to believe but is still a strong word. Â If you use an affirmation that you absolutely can't believe in, it won't take you anywhere, so if you aren't finding any belief in you for your affirmation rewrite it and try again.
Which way should you go? Â What should you do with your life, your self, your dreams? Â Where's that darned map?
How about a road sign?
There is no right way. Â You probably already knew that, though. Â We would really like there to be a right way, and we'd like to know how to find it, though, because if we could just find that one right way then maybe things would be a tad easier.
The good news is that while there is no one right way, there are many good ways to get where we want to go. Â Some will be better for you than others, so there might be some trial and error involved, but that can be fun if you let it. (There are wrong ways, too, and you'll feel that in your bones, in your heart, in the back of your mind. Â Listen, and step away from those. Find a different route to try out. Â Just don't keep searching for the one right way--that takes up too much of your time. Â You could be out having fun instead!
But if there's no right way to get where you want to be, how do you know what you should do? Â How do you decide which path to follow, which course to take, which idea to run with? A lot of that answer is subjective and depends entirely on you. Â Lots of journaling and soul-searching will help. Â But here are a few other things that will help.
Decide on what it is you want. Â If you want something that's multifaceted (you want to be a writer-painter-dancer-computer programmer, for instance), try to prioritize the different parts of the dream and decide what you most want to work on right now
Make a list of possible ways to get where you want to be. Â Find ways that feel good to you and really appeal to you and seem like they could be right and seem like you would enjoy going that route. Â Don't pick classes, books, paths to follow because lots of other people have liked them, recommended them, said they're a sure way to make a million dollars. Pick what calls to your heart.
Go over your list and read each possible plan. Â Eliminate any that feel iffy or don't quite feel right.
If you still have multiple items on your list and none of them are calling to you more strongly than the others, just pick one. Â I know! Â It sounds random and risky. What if it's not the right one? Â See above. Â Then just pick one. Â Draw straws or flip a coin if you need to. Â The important part is to pick just one thing that you're going to do to move you forward in your dreams.
Once you've decided on a path to follow, promise yourself to give it a real go. Â Don't second guess yourself and keep looking at other courses or methods or groups that might be better. Â They, or something much like them, will be there later if you want them. For now, run with your choice. Â Give it time and attention and love and affection and energy and everything you can. Â Give it everything you've got and see where you can go once you pick a direction.
Good luck! Â Have fun! Â Drop me a note on your journey and tell me how your dream is coming along.
Do you ever read articles or books on productivity? Â They talk about time wasters--surfing the internet, checking Facebook and Twitter, playing computer games--and tell you to get rid of them. Â There are even apps and software that will block you from the internet or certain websites, things like that, all in the name of getting more done.
Gotta keep your eye on the clock
Have you ever tried any of the productivity techniques and apps and suggestions? Â I have, and I noticed something odd. Â I didn't start creating more. Â I think I might have even started creating less. Â And I felt stressed and pressured. Â Overall I didn't feel like it was a good experiment.
 I think trying to corral myself that way and keep to a schedule and get things done all the time was stifling me and my creativity.  I think creative people (maybe all people, because we're all creative, after all) need more space--mentally, temporally, sometimes physically.  We need time to stare at the wall or off into space, doodle and hum to ourselves and let our daydreams run wild.  And I'm not the only one who thinks we need time for dreaming.  This article by Jonah Lehrer has excellent information on why daydreaming is important.  This one by Susanne Gargiulo is also very good.
Is this license to sit in our pajamas scrolling through Facebook all day? Â No. Â At least not every day. Â We don't want to box ourselves in and smother our creativity with over-productivity, but we also don't actually want to just do nothing. Â So what do we do to find a good balance between those?
That's where my creative time wasters come in. Â Creative time wasters are things that help me free my thoughts, help me get in some daydreaming down time and feed my creativity at the same time. Â They help me get to that mindless state that lets my creativity get going, and they also help stir up new creative ideas. Â Here are my favorites:'
Coloring. Â I especially love Dover's Creative Haven coloring books which are made for grown-ups
Dancing. Â I do this a lot in the kitchen with headphones in singing at the top of my lungs. Â Very freeing, and very stirring, and it really clears the mind.
Pinterest. I spend my time there looking at things that are related to whatever my current creative interest is. Â Art journaling. Writing quotes. Photography. Surfing. Â But spend some time browsing randomly, too, because you never know what will spark something in you.
Walking. Â Getting out, moving around, letting your body move gently and your mind wander while nature works her magic on you.
Reading. Â A good novel or two is an excellent way to relax your mind. It moves you away from your own creative projects and lets them percolate in the background while you have grand adventures.
Drawing. Â Sketching, doodling, Zentangles, anything like that will help your mind relax and your thoughts wander, plus it's creative all on its own.
What about you? Â What creative time wasters do you love? Â What helps you let your mind wander and get clear so there's room for inspiration to get in?
It's funny, every year as Thanksgiving and the winter holidays approach, I start feeling the pull to be healthier, eat better, get some exercise. Maybe because I realize somewhere deep down that it's really easy this time of year to get caught up in the busyness and let self-care slip away. And I know, even when I don't act on it, that caring for myself is the starting point to living my dream creative life.
What does it mean to really take care of yourself? It can mean many things and take many different forms. It won’t be the same for everyone. To find out how you might need to be taking better care of yourself, take a look at your life as it is. Where do you find yourself saying things like, “I wish I had time for X†or “I can’t seem to get things done,†or “I wanted to do such-and-such project, but I couldn’t find my materials, and by the time I gathered enough of them, I was too tired to make art.†Are there things you keep putting off, things you really want to be doing? Are you doing too many things every day that you really don’t want to be doing? These are signs that your self-care needs a boost.
Self-care might mean giving yourself time and space to follow your dreams. This often means we have to cut out some things in our lives, though, so be prepared. Even if they are things you want to toss out, there can be some stress and sadness and discomfort over the changes.
Self-care also means getting things done when they need to be done so you don’t stress yourself out with the pressure of waiting tasks hanging over your head. Stress and pressure crush creative dreams. Think about what “stress†and “pressure†mean, and you’ll know this is true—stress and pressure in the tectonic plates of the earth cause earthquakes!
Self-care means finding shortcuts to give yourself the time and space you need without compromising other things you need such as your health or the happiness of your family and friends. It can mean knowing when to just lie down and enjoy the sunshine or put your feet up and just rest. It is finding people and places and books and objects that help you achieve a sense of peace and pleasure.
So after reading this, maybe you’ve decided you want to make some changes and start taking care of yourself differently, more deeply. Good! As you get started, keep this in mind—don’t try to change everything at once. Learning to deeply care for yourself and nurture your Muse takes time. You cannot change every ingrained habit at once—the final result will be stressful rather than pleasant and will feel like a chore rather than feeling like a long, warm hug.
What are some concrete things you can do to start caring deeply for yourself and your Muse? I don’t have all the answers. I don’t even have many answers yet; I’m just starting out (re-starting) on this self-care journey myself. But I do have a few ideas.
One of my guiding words lately is "thrive." It's something we all need to focus on. Thriving. Taking real care of ourselves, not just the bare minimums. To help myself thrive, I'm starting out by focusing on eating, because one of the most important ways we can take care of ourselves physically and emotionally is by feeding ourselves good, nourishing, pleasing food (yes, pleasing--food should be a pleasure, but more on that another time). Of course, we don't want to spend hours every day cooking. So how do we thrive while still leaving time and energy and space for our creative pursuits?
I believe the issue of self-care and creativity is one I need to revisit often. I'm going to use this reworking of an old newsletter article I wrote as a jumping-off point to start giving regular attention to--ME! I believe that taking care of our physical selves (and this includes our environments) is a necessity because our physical selves directly effect our emotional, spiritual, and creative selves.
My first step on this path: starting a journal to talk to myself about self-care, how I'm feeling, how this is affecting my world, what I think I would like my self-care to look like.
What about you? Would you like to join me in examining our physical sides? What would you like to start with?
I've been hesitant to talk too much about my flaws and failures. What kind of coach falls prey to the same things she helps other people deal with? Oh yeah. A human one. A human one who needs to remember what she tells people all the time--we all need to connect with mentors and teachers and people who support and cheer us on our paths. We all need help. So, here's a little bit about me getting caught up in a downward spiral and my journey back out.
My Creative+Practice journal, created (and not quite completed) last year but not used because I kept meaning to get to the work but wasn't doing it. I see a pattern...
This whole year, plagued by illness, injury, car troubles, and the accompanying money woes that go with all of that, I have been trying to make plans, jump into things, busy my anxiety and depression away. Coupled with a leaning toward self-sabotage and procrastination, I've just been setting myself up for failure and a reinforcement of my "I never do what I should, never do anything right" feelings.
This week, though, a few things happened to push me into acknowledging that I've just been plunging into plans to try to shake myself out of my doldrums.
First, Lisa's class started up again, and I realized that it's an invitation. It's an invitation to slowly build up to something lasting, something that can keep me afloat during dark and stressful times.
Then Thursday Jill did a call about self-sabotage and not showing up for yourself. It was like someone shined a spotlight on my behavior. It became so clear that I was making sure that I don't move ahead with my dreams.
At first I found myself starting to make all sorts of new plans to "get myself going" and things like that. Then I stopped myself. I asked one question: "What do I need?" Not what do I want to be doing (writing, coaching, teaching), or what do I think I should be doing (cleaning and organizing, making better plans for my life). What do I need?
I need breathing space, calm, peace-of-mind
I need a support structure, regular practices that help me sort my thoughts and get that calm space I need
I need to care for myself
A huge problem of mine is impatience. I want all of this right now. My plan (oh, I just can't help myself--I love to make plans!) is to take things day-by-day. I'm going to finish out this round and begin the next one with the goal of making one daily step, connecting with people here, on Twitter, on Facebook to have some accountability.
So what does this mean for ROW80 and JuNoWriMo? Writing is in my soul, I can't stop thinking about writing and stories, so I'm not going to stop doing either of these. I'm just going to really dial back my goals. For the rest of this round, and for the rest of June, I am going to set the goal of writing at least two sentences every weekday. Small steps, one of my favorite tools from my Kaizen-Muse™ training. And they work when I remember to do them (have you ever noticed how hard it can be to follow your own advice?)
I've been rambling. I hope you're still with me. I hope you'll remember that even when you're not practicing your creativity, even when things are dark, this is normal, and you are not alone. And if you want to talk about it, I would love to connect so we can help each other along.
It was 1992. Â I was back in school getting a post-grad teaching certification and taking my first steps from being a storyteller and occasional poet to being a writer. Â I started taking some workshops. Â And I bought some books. Â And one of those books is still with me. Â It's right here next to me as I type because I think it's time for a re-read.
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
Re-reading this (and probably Wild Mind after) seems like the perfect accompaniment to this round of ROW80. Â Taking my goals back to the basics, simplifying, just focusing on the process of writing practice is what these books are all about. These books are where I first learned this stuff! Â It feels really good to be returning to this starting point.
I've been doing some very short journaling, mostly on the back of my collage cards, and it feels good to be connecting to my world with my words again. Â I know I'm on the right track for me, and I think that's a pretty good check-in for right now.
I wish to believe in magic. Â In fairies and miracles and bright, shining amazement floating in glittery bubbles of fairy dust. Â I wish to believe that there are secrets to the Universe, things I can catch glimpses of if I open myself up and look in the right directions. Â I wish to believe that I have magic inside me that I can bring out and share with the world if I keep trying. Â I wish to believe that there are ghosts and aliens and Bigfoot and wild, unknown things out there and that maybe I can see some of it while I'm here. Â I'm like Fox Mulder on the X-Files--I want to believe.
In my last post, I mentioned how my delightful friend Jo of Tanglefrost sent me a beautiful necklace, and I was making her something in return. I was so excited to be doing this because I love my necklace so much, and Jo has been a lovely presence in my online life this past year, and I was also rather thrilled to be sending something to England as I've never sent anything off the continent before.
I started a mixed media painting. I wanted it to be oh-so-special so she would know how much I love my necklace and how much I love this real world connection idea. I started another painting. I gessoed over that one. I put my things aside and played online. I took out my canvas. I looked at it and walked away. I don't think I hit a wall. I think the wall hit me.
I spent several days worrying about taking so long with my painting, about it not coming out right, about my gift not being good enough. And then Sunday evening it hit me. I was being a goofball! This wasn't at all about making something perfect or out of the ordinary or anything like that. It was about making one of the paintings I love to play with and create and then sending that little piece of my happiness and enjoyment to a dear person to share the fun.
So now the painting is almost ready. I think two more layers will have all the pieces on it I want, and I've been having lots of fun playing with colors and patterns and papers. And I think that will show in the final product. And this will be exactly what it was supposed to be all along--fun and happy and friendly!
So take note--don't try too hard. Do what you love. The joy will show through, and those who experience what you've made will know that they are in touch with a little bit of your heart, and it will be a good thing all the way around.
