Your Creative Intentions: The Monday Post ~ September 17, 2012
“Have goals and faithfully serve them in a way that honors the process.”
~Eric Maisel
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 
It feels good to be getting back into a rhythm both as a family and on a personal level. The no wheat/cheese/chocolate/sugar helped a ton, not only making me feel good during the day but also sleeping well at night. Early a.m. yoga practice sets such a lovely tone for the whole day.
– Write at least one blog post on my lonely, neglected blog [YES]
– Continue learning how to use my new camera [YES]
– Yoga 3X (practice from 6-7:30 am, Su-Tu-Th) [4X, plus run 1X]
– Do intro lesson in Organic Parenting ecourse [YES]
– Finish weeding garden and planting fall greens [YES]
– Read book about soil fertility [YES]
And next week:
– Write two blog posts
– Yoga 3X
– Run 1X
– Do first lesson in Organic Parenting ecourse
– Weed perennial gardens
– Read book about soil fertility
– Read backlog of herbal newsletters
– Make echinacea and elderberry syrups
– Continue learning how to use my new camera
wrote a poem, did some of the organization i talked about and a little manuscript editing.
this week: more organization, incrementally, decided to start blogging a poem at least a couple of times a week. poetry being the first love. so much for accomplishing that this am, as #2’s school nurse just called me for a pickup. will try to block 2 sessions for the manuscript. at library this week while #3 is at preschool.
Limping along in week three without my car — surviving only by the generosity of dear friends with spare vehicles.
I didn’t get through much of my list last week. But I made the most important things happen: daily writing practice and morning centering practice. My morning time is magic. I’m not sure how I survived so many years of motherhood without this practice. The words are piling up, and new stories are taking shape. Characters are haunting me, which is always an excellent sign 🙂
This week my focus is on preparing for a new session of my 5-week Writers’ Workshop, which starts on Wednesday. I’m adding some new material into my outline. Also this week, I’m preparing for the Open Studio booth at Grotonfest, our little town’s annual shindig. (And unrelated to our Open Studio booth, Ellen and I are both performing onstage in a yoga demo for Buddha Nest Yoga. And we’re the opening act. Zoinks!)
Last week’s creative/well-being intentions:
* Daily morning centering practice w/Morning Pages and intention journaling [yes]
* Daily writing practice [yes]
* Complete installment of short story for “5PM Friday” weekly accountability group [yes]
* Begin refreshing Writers’ Workshop outline for new 5-week session that starts next week [no]
* Blog post [no]
* Open Studio Groton marketing and development projects [yes]
* Yoga/walk/run x3 [only x2]
* Reading [yes]
* Finish cleaning up art room [no]
* Begin Project Life catch-up [not even close]
This week’s creative/well-being intentions:
* Daily morning centering practice w/Morning Pages and intention journaling
* Daily writing practice
* Complete installment of short story for “5PM Friday” weekly accountability group
* Refreshing Writers’ Workshop outline for new 5-week session that starts Wednesday [M/TW]
* Blog post [T/W]
* Open Studio Groton marketing and development projects [T/W/Th]
* Yoga/walk/run x2
* Reading
Last week:
This week I will:
1. Make a gelatin plate (already done!) YES
2. make some prints with it using yoga stencils YES- 2
3. figure out what size frames I need, which mat board to order etc… to start framing the work I already have. Begin with work for the house and a gift for a friend. NOT SO MUCH
4. decide whether or not to rent space in the print studio at ArtSpace Maynard WAFFLING
5. Continue to work on studio clean-up and organization STARTED
6. make prints on Monday and Wednesday, start a collage of the yoga series. MONDAY YES WED NO COLLAGE NO
7. blog post about the work from Provincetown YES
8. begin concept for a blog for a studio art critique group. Needs a name! Figure out if I can make a blog that other members can post images on. Perhaps it could be a facebook group? Not sure yet. NO
This week:
1. make a new gelatin plate and print 3 hours on wednesday and friday
2. work on framing project, get it started at least
3. waiting on renting print studio time, gelatin printing for now until that runs dry
4. Studio organization- it’s just too big, so I need to break it down into a smaller piece. This week I will organize my matting/ framing supplies.
5. Rough draft of critique group concept
6. had an idea to write about an exhibit, either Denise Driscoll at Lesley or Jayne Schwartz at the DeCordova for the 5PM writer’s group. Hmm… if I could just get to one of those shows and take notes it would be a start…but that’s a big chunk of time there with the commute so I’m not sure on this one.
I found it to be VERY true that the tasks I intend to do “when I can fit them in” never get done. I am a scheduled person and with that I’ve learned the value in scheduling in even personal or routine tasks to be sure I make time for them each week. One example is writing my weekly blog. If I don’t make specific time to do this, I’m always frazzled and doing it late Sunday night.
Last week:
– Write two blog posts [ONE]
– Yoga 3X [YES]
– Run 1X [2X]
– Do first lesson in Organic Parenting ecourse [YES]
– Weed perennial gardens [NO]
– Read book about soil fertility [TINY BIT]
– Read backlog of herbal newsletters [NO]
– Make echinacea and elderberry syrups [NO]
– Continue learning how to use my new camera [YES]
Next week will be a repeat, since I didn’t get through everything….plus:
– Make salve (comfrey or cold & flu)
– Plant lettuce
It’s clear that I need to schedule some dedicated writing time if I’m going to produce anything of substance. I am officially putting myself on the clock for engaging with the internet (aka checking email, facebook throughout the day) so I minimize that time and put it toward more substantial stuff. I’m thinking that 15 min in the a.m. and 15 min at night is PLENTY.