Your Creative Intentions: The Monday Post ~ April 22, 2013
If you aren’t doing your creative work as often as you’d like, recommit to a regular creativity practice. Regularity — a daily practice, if 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. If appropriate, use time estimates to containerize your task. (Time estimates can make a daunting project feel more accessible.)
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 leverages the motivation of an accountability group. Join us!
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Studio Mothers: Life & Art 
It’s hard to put words to the experience of last week. I live in Massachusetts and used to live in Watertown. From Monday through Friday, I dwelled in the media maelstrom and am a little shell-shocked this week, although unlike many other people, none of my friends or family were physically impacted by the unimaginable events. My son is a student at Berklee and was out of school all week; several buildings within the campus are closed indefinitely due to the ongoing FBI investigation. But that’s insignificant in the context of what so many have suffered.
What feels important to me now is to re-center and re-focus on the people around me and the work at hand. My husband went on a vipassana meditation retreat over the weekend and his experience was inspiring. We’re both committed to making home time less plugged in. No electronics in the morning (including phone, reading news, whatever) and making sure that the evenings are intentional in terms of screen usage. Only doing one thing at a time. I know that creating strong boundaries around screen time works well for me — and it’s a relief to put them back in place.
After yoga class on Wednesday, I had to concede that the intense upper hamstring pain I’ve been having is not actually going to go away if I keep trying to “stretch through it.” Been doing that for almost a month now, and by Wednesday night, the pain was serious. No yoga until the pain is gone. Going to walk and do push-ups in an attempt to maintain my upper-body strength. It is what it is.
Daily writing practice streak: 131 days in a row of logging a minimum of 500 words daily in my WIP — with the exception of Saturday, when I spent three hours editing and working on macro structure, which I’m counting as continuing the streak (intention, showing up, major progress).
Last week was a failure on the “fun” front — I did watch Game of Thrones but didn’t get to Louis CK and my Saturday friend date didn’t pan out. Somehow last week didn’t seem like the right time for fun. I did attend to the second installment of a sculpture workshop yesterday, which was wonderful. In retrospect, I think I have to call that fun.
Last week’s creative/well-being intentions:
* Daily morning centering practice w/Morning Pages and intention journaling [yes — but not daily — had a couple of long sessions]
* Daily writing practice [yes]
* One editorial session [yes]
* Edit guest blog post [yes]
* Yoga/walk x3 [yes]
* Daily reading [not daily]
* Project Life [no]
This week’s creative/well-being intentions are a repeat:
* Daily morning centering practice w/Morning Pages and intention journaling
* Daily writing practice
* One editorial session [M/T/W?]
* Work on newsletter [W]
* Walk x3 [T/Th/Fri]
* Daily reading
* Project Life [afternoons w/kids — although highly unlikely]
This week’s FUN:
* Watch Game of Thrones [Sun]
* Watch the Louis CK special (recorded) [one evening w/husband]
* To Ithaca next weekend to visit my oldest son — much looking forward to that
I enjoyed your comments on unplugging. With the crazy world we live in, it is easy to loose focus on what is important and how to center our lives in the “real” of the day… family, friends, self, etc.
I love photography but had all of my equipment and electronic devices stolen over the weekend while attending a family wedding. It has given me serious pause to consider if we truly need the electronics to be creative. I’m beginning to lean back to my artisitic side of writing and drawing again. I enjoy your posts. They are always positive and uplifting. Thanks
Thanks for the post. I love the idea of being intentionally creative. I have three little ones and fitting creativity in usually becomes an after thought. I think I will join you in putting my intentions on paper. Thanks for the inspiration!
Reblogged this on Confused Caitlin and commented:
Empowering ~