“Suspending self-judgement doesn’t just mean blowing off the ‘You suck’ voice in our heads. It also means liberating ourselves from conventional expectations — from what we think our work ‘ought’ to be or ‘should’ look like. Stay stupid. Follow your unconventional, crazy heart.”
— Steven Pressfield
This is the moment to deepen, or commit to, your regular creativity practice. Regularity — a daily practice, if at all possible — is key.
So what are your plans for creative practice this week? Given the specifics of your schedule, decide on a realistic intention, goal, or a milestone to reach for — and plan that time in your calendar. An intention as simple as “I will be creative for 10 minutes every day” or “I will gesso three canvases on Wednesday” 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.
“Everyone who’s ever taken a shower has had an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.”
— Nolan Bushnell
This is the moment to deepen, or commit to, your regular creativity practice. Regularity — a daily practice, if at all possible — is key.
So what are your plans for creative practice this week? Given the specifics of your schedule, decide on a realistic intention, goal, or a milestone to reach for — and plan that time in your calendar. An intention as simple as “I will be creative for 10 minutes every day” or “I will gesso three canvases on Wednesday” 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.
“Resistance is directly proportional to love. If you’re feeling massive Resistance, the good news is, it means there’s tremendous love there too. If you didn’t love the project that is terrifying you, you wouldn’t feel anything. The opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s indifference. The more Resistance you experience, the more important your unmanifested art/ project/ enterprise is to you — and the more gratification you will feel when you finally do it.”
~Steven Pressfield
This is the moment to deepen, or commit to, your regular creativity practice. Regularity — a daily practice, if at all possible — is key.
So what are your plans for creative practice this week? Given the specifics of your schedule, decide on a realistic intention, goal, or a milestone to reach for — and plan that time in your calendar. An intention as simple as “I will be creative for 10 minutes every day” or “I will gesso three canvases on Wednesday” 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.
I’d love for you to join me for Transformational Tuesday, a free tele-call hosted by the Creativity Coaching Association on Tuesday, May 8 at 11:00 am eastern.
This live call is a conversation between Bev Down, CEO of the Creativity Coaching Association, and me, with Q&A from the audience (you, I hope!) on a topic I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: Living in the moment while working toward the future. Here’s the gist:
Goals are an essential part of turning dreams into reality. In order to avoid the pitfall of “Aim at nothing, and you’ll hit it every time,” we’re advised to get clear on what we want and visualize the ideal outcome. SMART goals (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Based) help us develop our passions and accomplish what feels important. But we also know that living in the moment — being present and surrendering to right now — is key to reducing stress and finding peace. Sometimes our plans for reaching our goals seem incompatible with what shows up in the present. How do we navigate this apparent conflict?
While I’m preparing my thoughts for this tele-call, I’d love to hear about your experience navigating this issue. Do you feel caught between wanting to be where you are — and wanting to arrive at a future point? As a creative mother, you’re continually faced with putting your own goals on hold in the name of taking care of someone else. Are you able to stay in the moment and go with the flow even when obstacles seem to pile up, and the distance between you and your goal seems to widen? Whether this is something you grapple with or something you don’t, I’d love to work your experience into my program. Please comment on this blog post to share your perspective in advance.
May 8, 2012 @ 11:00 AM, Eastern Time Dial-in Number: 1-218-936-4141
Participant Access Code: 8673879#
“The richest source of creation is feeling,
followed by a vision of its meaning.”
~Anaïs Nin
This is the moment to deepen, or commit to, your regular creativity practice. Regularity — a daily practice, if at all possible — is key.
So what are your plans for creative practice this week? Given the specifics of your schedule, decide on a realistic intention, goal, or a milestone to reach for — and plan that time in your calendar. An intention as simple as “I will be creative for 10 minutes every day” or “I will gesso three canvases on Wednesday” 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.
What is Reiki? And why would you want a spot in my new e-course?
Where do I begin?
Reiki is an ancient spiritual way of channeling healing energy. It is safe, gentle, and can be learned by anyone. It can best be described as a holistic way to balance, heal, and harmonize your mind, body, and spirit. It is, for me, a way of life. It can be for you also.
Once you are attuned to Reiki you will experience a greater sense of inner peace and well-being. You will feel a sense of connection to the Universe and to those around you like never before. You will also become a healer.
Spirited Reiki Level I also has a twist on it! I am a Holistic Health Practitioner and a Certified Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach. What this means is that I have created a way of learning traditional Usui Reiki and exploring your inner creative spirit — all at the same time! I have been enjoying Reiki for close to 10 years now and if I’ve learned anything, it’s that Reiki starts inside us. If we are at our best, then the Reiki flows at its best!
Spirited Reiki I teaches you the history and theory of Reiki while you paint, write poetry, take a hike, or eat a cupcake! You will also be invited to join my private Facebook group where we will share and experience Reiki together for 30 days.
If you are feeling butterflies in your stomach because you know that this is something you’d like to do, please enter to win a spot — the FB group opens April 23 and attunements will begin shortly after.
One lucky recipient will receive:
*A long distance Level I attunement in traditional Usui Reiki*
*A 79-page printable manual*
*Within this manual is a “30 Days to Self-Healing Journal” that is full of inspiring messages, art and journalling prompts, healthy recipes, affirmations, photography prompts, and so much more!*
*Access to the Spirited Reiki Private Facebook group where you will connect with your fellow Reiki students and where we will further discuss the Principles of Reiki, hand positions, resources, the use of crystals, your creativity and so much more!*
*FB group will open April 23rd so that we can all connect before the attunements begin! Your invitation to the group will arrive on the 22nd (if you’ve already registered) or within 24 hours if after that.
*My guidance and support for the entire 30 days*
*A Certificate of Completion mailed to your home*
***In order to enter, simply leave a comment on this blog post! The winner will be chosen at 8:00 pm eastern on Sunday, April 22, 2012!***
“Creativity belongs to the artist in each of us. To create means to relate. The root meaning of the word art is ‘to fit together’ and we all do this every day. Not all of us are painters but we are all artists. Each time we fit things together we are creating — whether it is to make a loaf of bread, a child, a day.” ~Corita Kent
This is the moment to deepen, or commit to, your regular creativity practice. Regularity — a daily practice, if at all possible — is key.
So what are your plans for creative practice this week? Given the specifics of your schedule, decide on a realistic intention, goal, or a milestone to reach for — and plan that time in your calendar. An intention as simple as “I will be creative for 10 minutes every day” or “I will gesso three canvases on Wednesday” 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.
“The pearl’s beauty is made as a result of insult, just as art is made as a response to something in our environment that fires us up, sparks us, causes us to think differently. The pearl, like art, must be catalyzed.” ~Julia Cameron
This is the moment to deepen, or commit to, your regular creativity practice. Regularity — a daily practice, if at all possible — is key.
So what are your plans for creative practice this week? Given the specifics of your schedule, decide on a realistic intention, goal, or a milestone to reach for — and plan that time in your calendar. An intention as simple as “I will be creative for 10 minutes every day” or “I will gesso three canvases on Wednesday” 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.
“Everything we say signifies; everything counts, that we put out into the world. It impacts on kids, it impacts on the zeitgeist of the time.”
~Meryl Streep
This is the moment to deepen, or commit to, your regular creativity practice. Regularity — a daily practice, if at all possible — is key.
So what are your plans for creative practice this week? Given the specifics of your schedule, decide on a realistic intention, goal, or a milestone to reach for — and plan that time in your calendar. An intention as simple as “I will be creative for 10 minutes every day” or “I will gesso three canvases on Wednesday” 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.
“Nobody whispers it in your ear. It is like something you memorized once and forgot. Now it comes back and rips away your breath. You find and finger a phrase at a time; you lay it down cautiously, as if with tongs, and wait suspended until the next one finds you.” ~Annie Dillard
This is the moment to deepen, or commit to, your regular creativity practice. Regularity — a daily practice, if at all possible — is key.
So what are your plans for creative practice this week? Given the specifics of your schedule, decide on a realistic intention, goal, or a milestone to reach for — and plan that time in your calendar. An intention as simple as “I will be creative for 10 minutes every day” or “I will gesso three canvases on Wednesday” 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.
It’s Monday evening, and I’m writing this post from Indian Hill Music in Littleton, Mass., where my sons take music lessons. I love it here.
I’ve settled into a deep leather couch in the lobby, a bright, wood-beamed room ringed by practice rooms. From one room on my right, I can faintly hear the piano pieces my son has been working on all week. On my left, someone plucks the low strings of a standing bass, and from other rooms piano scales and the reedy hum of a saxophone stream out, slightly muffled. I’m so happy in this space, soaking in a sound soup that’s a lot like the pleasant cacophony of an orchestra tuning up.
The woman in the voice lesson directly behind me is working on a short passage, and after 12, 13, 14 tries, she hits the high note. It’s no longer a strained squeak, but a warm brilliant color arcing through the air and into my heart. I want to applaud. Or cry. Or something.
Actually, I know exactly what that something is. I want to go home and play the piano.
Every time I go to Indian Hill, I feel the itch to make music. I want to take cello lessons and bang on a drumset and sing really loud.
I was a band dork as an adolescent. I played in the concert band, the stage band, the pit orchestra, and, yes, the marching band. I had neither the natural talent nor the discipline for excellence, but I loved making music, on my own in a tiny little practice room or within a wall of sound high-stepping across a football field. Music was a joyful part of my daily life.
And then it wasn’t. Grad school and work and raising a family and adult responsibilities took up time and space. The love of making music never went away. Just the making part.
There’s a piano at home, a piano I walk by many times each day, a piano I sit at 5 days a week with my son while he practices.
A piano I dust more often than play.
But when I go home tonight, before I fire up the grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner, before I open my laptop, maybe even before I take off my coat, I’m making a beeline for that piano. I’ve been chiseling away at Mozart’s Sonata in C major for 3 years now, and while I’m not quite at the point that Benjamin Zander of the Boston Philarmonic calls “one buttock playing” (oh, that video is a goody, embedded below, I think you should watch it!), playing the first, nearly mastered page of that piece gives me such joy.
Whenever I play, I walk away from the piano calmer, happier, more energized, thinking, “Why don’t I do that every single day?”
Is there a source of potential joy that you’re walking by every day? A set of paints? A box of yarn? Woodworking tools? Notebooks and pens? Clay? A cookbook and exotic spices? That guitar you haven’t touched in years? Your sewing machine? The Garage Band app on your new iPad?
Maybe tonight, before you start chopping onions, before you open the mail, you could play a little. Or play a lot.
“You finally do have to give something terribly intimate and secret of yourself to the world and not care, because you have to believe that what you have to say is important enough.” ~May Sarton
This is the moment to deepen, or commit to, your regular creativity practice. Regularity — a daily practice, if at all possible — is key.
So what are your plans for creative practice this week? Given the specifics of your schedule, decide on a realistic intention, goal, or a milestone to reach for — and plan that time in your calendar. An intention as simple as “I will be creative for 10 minutes every day” or “I will gesso three canvases on Wednesday” 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.
Great to see you! Studio Mothers is the blog community of Miranda Hersey Creativity Coaching. Writer? Artist? Musician? Performer? You’re in the right place. While we primarily focus on the issues that creative mothers encounter, all are welcome.
Studio Mothers: Life & Art 