Monday Post ~ July 9, 2012
“Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.”
— Rumi
This is the moment to deepen, or commit to, your regular creativity practice. Regularity — a daily practice, if at all possible — is one of the best ways to stay in touch with how you make meaning.
What are your plans for creative practice this week? Given the specifics of your schedule, decide on a realistic intention or practice plan — and ink that time in your calendar. The scheduling part is important, because as you know, if you try to “fit it in” around the edges, it generally won’t happen. An intention as simple as “I will write for 20 minutes every morning after breakfast” or “I will sketch a new still life on Wednesday evening” is what it’s all about.
Share your intentions or goals as a comment to this post, and let us know how things went with your creative plans for last week, if you posted to last week’s Monday Post. We use a broad brush in defining creativity, so don’t be shy. We also often include well-being practices that support creativity, such as exercise and journaling.
Putting your intentions on “paper” helps you get clear on what you want to do — and sharing those intentions with this community is a great way to leverage the motivation of an accountability group. Join us!
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Studio Mothers: Life & Art 
i am teaching five days of journaling and drawing at an inner city camp this week …. after five classes each day, i’ll probably go for the melt into the couch afternoon…..
Wow! Good luck, Elizabeth!
last week: i blogged more last week, and made two edit sessions. wed was out because of fourth festivities that went off my radar as i posted here last week.. i redrafted the first chapter almost completely, and that will make the rest of the minor edits so much easier. 6 chapters down…about 30 to go…
this week: grandma decided to take a vacation, which i wholeheartedly said she absolutely should do, so childcare for this week is out, but if it’s just toots and me, and a tv full of netflix and pbs, i should be able to give myself a couple of hours a day relatively uninterrupted.
I’m thinking of the same child-care arrangement for the last two weeks of August 🙂
thanks for assuaging my parent guilt a bit! 🙂 she has started using the sofas and chairs as an obstacle course already today, so i guess that tactic’s usefulness has run its course. lol
Last week was a banner week — so happy to complete and launch my e-book, with a bunch of family fun to boot. This week, both of my little boys are in camp 5 days a week, so it’s Productivity City over here. About to go run some intervals with my oldest and then start cracking on a backlog of editorial work. And beautiful weather on deck all week, which means that I’ll be enjoying my patio office in full for client work and writing practice.
Last week’s creative/well-being intentions:
* Daily morning centering practice w/journaling [yes]
* Writing practice: Complete installment of nonfiction project for “5PM Friday” accountability group [no]
* Complete remaining tasks for e-book launch [yes]
* Prepare for new session of Writers’ Group & read students’ work [yes]
* Yoga/walk/run x3 [yes–x4]
* Reading
This week’s creative/well-being intentions:
* Daily morning centering practice w/journaling
* Writing practice: Complete installment of nonfiction project for “5PM Friday” accountability group [W/F]
* Prepare for Writers’ Group & read students’ work [T/W]
* Yoga/walk/run x3
* Reading
With all my kids at summer camp this week, I plan to have at least 2 hours of studio time each day. I haven’t made anything since May so I am overjoyed to finally get in the studio again!
Awesome, Claudine! Come back and let us know how it goes…
How’s it going, Claudine? Are your kids back in school yet?
Last week got away on me and I spent very little time attending to my creative endeavours. It’s time to refocus… This week, four blog posts. (Perhaps a little less pressure on myself for them to be perfect blog posts!) Thank you for this!
Great, Sally! Feel free to share your blog here….
Is it Monday again already? Being on vacation completely derailed my creative plans last week. Even though I packed and brought my writing notebook, journal, lexicon book, reading material, & style book. They all sat in a neat little pile beside my suitcase in the cabin.
This week will be an hour-long session on my short story every day. Hopefully I will (FINALLY) have a first draft of this story by the end of the week. Hey, a girl can dream, can’t she?
Dreaming is good! But so is having a chance to delve into that delicious stack of supplies….good luck this week 🙂
Hey there, Kiya — how’s it going?? 😀
This week I planned a purse makeover. Started it this evening and about halfway thru painting it! Its looking amazing and I’m getting really excited to use it this weekend! As soon as I am done, expect a blog post! I am going to finish painting my director’s chair which I finished sewing the canvas parts last week. Then I plan to have all the first draft’s of my cousin’s wedding invitations, etc finished and emailed for her approval. And perhaps I will continue to work on the wine charms for my cousin’s bridal shower!
How cool! Would love to see the result, Christina!
Last week I finished up the essay and details for the current exhibit at the Groton Library. Yesterday I managed to get in some time in the studio.
Goals this week:
daily drawing
begin compiling a list of supplies for the week in Provincetown
clean out Sam’s room in preparation for painting it, ? white with a red stripe and a chalkboard rocket?
1 blog post for the art blog
1 blog post for the yoga blog
edit the new piece I wrote yesterday for the 5PM writing group
Awesome, Deb! How’s your draw-by-the-pool working out?
I’m finishing editing a book this week!
Lately, I’m finding that mind maps are helping me record all my intentions. It’s refreshing not to have to think in a linear way!
How did that book editing turn out, League? On to other exciting projects at this point?
This week I will write every day, I will make more paper for my friend’s birthday, I will paint…something, and I will finish sewing pockets on my PJs because it annoys me to have no pockets when I’m wandering around the house and need a place to stash things.
How goes it, Metaphor? Thinking of creative you in your pocketed jammies….