The Muse is IN Blog

Invitation to Creative Courage

 

"Creativity takes courage." ~Henri Matisse

 

You won't see me skiing or sky-diving, or ... even skating. I've never wanted to do those things, (the one time I skied, I cried all the way down the bunny slope).

 

Physical acts of adrenaline are not how I roll because rolling down hills is not how I ... roll.

 

I prefer the adrenaline of getting up in front of audiences large and small, to peddle creative freedom, perform poetry, or share stories of my broken past, glued together with humor, irreverence, and redeeming perspective .

 

I share the art I make.  My poet friend, david brydges calls my art, "wickedly whimsical poetry painted with passionate imprecision."  I relish that description. If I had to be perfect or make my art look like that of  any other artist, I wouldn't do it at all.   That painting of my breakfast at the top was done mostly with my eyes closed - it's not for everyone. But I love the free and reckless nature of it so it's for me...

 

These things require courage and are accomplished with the help of the sixth Modern Day Muse, Audacity, the Muse of Courage. She urges us to ask this question for awhile, "How would it feel to be more courageous?"  and then take small steps. 

 

Pause for a moment and think of all the creative things you don't do because it scares you. Think of all the reward, exhilaration, connection that might happen if you did them. Fear is a natural part of creativity, so persisting with your passion despite nervousness or terror, builds courage and courage is freedom; freedom to share, push limits, wade out of the comfort zone and swim into a sea of cresting possibility. 

 

Art as a Solution for Reality: Sunday, October 6 at 10 am pacific/1 Eastern 
I will be speaking and giving an inperson workshop in San Diego, doing my preferred version of adrenaline - standing in front of people sharing poetry, story, creativity, and inspirational humor in a talk called,    4780 Mission Gorge Place, Suite H San Diego, CA 92120 and streaming on Youtube. Watch here or on my website for details.

 

A Public Service Announcement about sharing your work:

Two minutes and 33 seconds

 

 

 

 

Share your work with me, or join a safe supportive space, and share it there.

 

 

Dispatching Muses,

Jill Badonsky
and Audacity, The Muse of Courage and Uninhibited Expression

www.themuseisn.com

 

 

 

 

 

Creative Thought Card Workshop

Sept 11, 2024 11 am pacific/ 2pm eastern

If you purchased Creative Thought Cards from me, this is the date for the workshop that is included.We will talk about applications of the cards and dip into some low pressured, activities that make creativity easy- you can partake in or view surreptitiously off- screen.  Recording sent to all who register.

 

TwoCreative Thought Cards on today's Audacity Theme.

 

 

 

 

San Diego

October 6 Vision Church and Streaming on Youtube

Talk and Workshop: Art As A Solution for Reality - 10a  pacific/1p eastern

Optional Art as a Solution for workshop to follow: 
 and hear a song from singer/songwriter Mark Montijo.
4780 Mission Gorge Place, Suite H San Diego, CA 92120

 

Creativity Retreat in Taos, New Mexico

The Muse in Winter retreat and the Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Certification Training is filling up. Five spaces left. Don't miss an immersive experience of creativity, community, and darn good food at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House. My 14th year. More information - Taos 

 

What if You're Not Your Own Audience? -Repurposed Storytelling

In the gaggle of Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard), there is a Muse that hails imperfection. Here’s one of the reasons why.

I had a cellular shift around my art several years ago when I painted prolifically with my partner. We ventured out to the everywhere of landscapes, coffee shops, and unsuspecting people to sketch then paint in watercolor and outline in ink. We brought home copious amounts of half-done works, a lot of mistakes, and maybe an accidental masterpiece.

I liked very few of the paintings we did. He liked them all.

I would put my painting-mishaps in a portfolio sometimes using the other side for another painting or ripping them up to make collages. My partner would frame all of his paintings with glass and black electrical tape! and hang them in cafes and hair salons around town. I his style, but I was in awe of his courage.  He had this unspoken acceptance that all of his paintings were worth framing.

Audacity* was an inspiring trait of this man, having boundaries was not. One day I walked into a café and saw a unfinished painting of mine that I despised, and it was framed and hanging. There was my blunder on display for everyone to see. I had given no permission for him to do this. I was horrified, angry, and I’m pretty sure overly dramatic.

When I went to retrieve my painting, it had sold. Huh? Someone bought and hung what I considered my bad art in their living room, and it wasn’t even finished. I met the buyer I sheepishly asked her what she liked about it.  She said, “Well, everything ... especially the unfinished look.” Really?

That’s when a cellular happened.. the epiphany was greater than the sum of the painting. How is it that I couldn’t see the beauty someone else could see in my work? Was I doing good work and not even knowing it? Am I not even my own audience?  I was sad, excited, confused, and inspired to paint more. I had no idea that my standards for what was considered “good” might be suspect until I realized my standards weren’t for me, they were for someone else. 

 

T.S. Eliot said, "Between the idea and the reality ... falls the shadow." How we think our art and writing should look and what actually happens is often out of our control. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be something as good or better than we planned. If we are attached to the vision of what it MUST look like, we are robbing ourselves of the pleasure that can come from going with the flow and looking for what the work itself wants to become, and then accepting it as the wonder it is.

When I started looking through the eyes of the people who appreciate it, the deep-rooted illusion that my art sucked began to dissolve. I realized that when I stopped trying to paint the way I thought you’re supposed to, I saw a quirky, purposefully imperfect, whimsical voice and gave realized I did like my art the way it is, it was messy and imperfect, like me.      

Share your half-finished works with the world. Frame them with boldness and defiance. If you make enough mistakes, it becomes your style.

This week I will share with you some wisdom from Spills, the Muse of Practice, Process and Imperfection.  

*Audacity is an upcoming Modern Day Muse

Dispatching Muses,

Jill Badonsky

Find out more about Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching or become a coach

Reminder to Begin Again

 

Beginning again is the path of a resilient creative practice  ... not to mention life in general.
It’s the step by which we can surmount every disappointment, embarrassment, and indignity..

We are free to live this next moment as though it were new, because it is.
However we failed or didn’t succeed or lost the plot, we can begin again in the next moment, or the next day rather than
be dragged down into ruminations born of our negativity.

Or we can just take a break and reboot and trust we will begin again refreshed, reinvigorated,  or re-inspired once the idea has incubated.
.
If you have not been as disciplined as you like,
If you’ve been spinning your wheels , stuck in creative chaos
or distracted when you wanted to be focused.
If are resistant to starting at all… lower the pressure
And begin again.

You've heard this before from me.
It's something I constantly need to remind myself,
so I thought it might be good timing for you too.

Dispatching Muses,

Jill Badonsky
and Muse Song, The Muse of Encouragement

www.themuseisn.com

Become a creativity mentor.
There are a few spaces left in the August
Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Certification Training.

Email me with your background, your creative passion, and why KMCC is a good fit for you.
www.kaizenmuse.com

The Rebellious Poet and the Frustrated Muse

Dear Rebellious Readers, Writers, and Artists,

Here’s what happens when someone tries to tell a poet what to write.
And the four minute podcast with some music and sound effects is at this link.

The Muse has large flowing green feather wings…
and is fluttering dangerously close to the chandelier.
She is holding a BIG red and black neon sign that says,
“WRITE SOMETHING.”
The poet sees the sign, …..sighs and writes nothing

The Muse waves the sign dramatically,
With teeth pressed together in a large, forced smile.
The poet sighs and shrugs. Still nothing.

The Muse kicks a few clever adjectives onto
the poet’s blank sheet of paper:
TENDER, TURQUOISE, TELLTALE.
The poet swats them with a fly swatter
and places them in the garbage with the trout
and pilaf leftovers from dinner last night.

The Muse, perturbed, pulls out her secret stash of nouns:
CONCOCTION, SKYSCRAPER, BUICK
But the poet is reading the back of the Rice Krispies BOX
that was left on the TABLE from breakfast … then checks Facebook.

The Muse drops a few of her best verbs on the poet’s blank paper.
The poet PUSHES the verbs around with her pen,
and then COLLECTS them in a Mason Jar,
PUCNHES holes in the lid,  
and PLACES the jar next to the cinnamon that expired in ‘09.

That’s it.  The Muse is frustrated, done with this poet, and flies out the window
to inspire the songwriter who is strumming a guitar behind
the morning glories on the porch swing next door.

The poet smiles and writes this poem.

;)

I’m on a writing retreat and will be back next week to continue with the Modern Day Muses series. I’ve been cooperative with my Muse while here… but only when she doesn’t tell me what to do. (And being on a retreat motivates me to get value from the money I spent, I procrastinate at home for free). We all have our own ways of approaching our creativity.

What works for you to get you started on what you love to do?

Leave a comment

Dispatching Muses,

Jill Badonsky

Creativity is an Act of Rebellion: Muse #3

 

 

“You can’t tell a creative person what to do.” < That’s the first thing Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching students learn in the KMCC training. 

When it comes to nurturing creativity, even well-intentioned, seemingly perfect advice can backfire. The moment you tell a creative person what to do, you risk stripping away the fun and sense of autonomy they derive from steering the creative process themselves. There may be initial compliance, but then resistance, resentment, and swear words are eminent.   I know this from experience

When I started writing my Nine Modern Day Muses book, I was procrastinating, resistant, and overwhelmed. I decided to enlist a life coach.

She told me what to do to get the book written according to her own ideas. The suggestions weren’t suited for me, they just overwhelmed me even more. Nothing sounded fun.  I needed help with getting beyond resistance, not how to write a book - that would come with my natural instincts.

I tried to comply to her to-do list, but I had this subterranean urge to say, “ F^#! this” so I did. I don’t want to be told what to do.  I want questions. Questions open me up to explore possibilities from my own resources, experiences, and connections to an inner creative landscape which is wacky not conventional.  I needed someone familiar with the sensitivities of the creative person.

One of the attractions of being a creator, whether it’s writing a book or painting a weird thing with three hearts is acting on some curious and irresistible impulse delivered from the depths of our mysterious selves, and then playing with it inside the unique laboratory of who we are until it validates our brilliance, or at the very least, gives us a joyride. It’s not always easy to answer a creative call but worth moving beyond the complexities, inner demons, and endless distractions to be true to ourselves.

When its flowing, creativity gives us a sense of control in a world where we often feel helpless, it is driven by the fiery passion of being in charge of our own adventure.

Feedback, suggestions, and constructive criticism from others is helpful and smart to elicit; they give perspectives we don’t always see ourselves  When someone offers kindling, I check in with my intuition, then make a choice. I’m still in control; that is what’s different from being told what to do… the respect that comes withobvious choice.  

Instead of an edict, there is a “what if ..” question.  What if I made this process fun? What if I let the Muses tell me about themselves? What I you focused on what I love about writing? What if I called a muse, Bea Silly. We do better asking ourselves these questions because oppressively telling ourselves what to do, also results in resistance.

I finally wrote The Nine Modern Day Muses and a Bodyguard by finding a fun structure and tapping into my love of writing, but I wasn’t confident it would sell to a publisher. I met with a book coach who told me the name was impractical and elusive, I should call it Ten Creativity Principles or something dry like that, so people knew what it was about. She also said a publisher wouldn’t look at it with the way I used the whimsical fonts and format. Poo!

I stomped home and had some rocky road ice cream. My first thought was she must be right, she has published books out there. My childlike self was cranky, pouting, and crashing from the ice cream until an intuitively defiant, creative wonder woman aha moment kicked in and I realized I didn’t have to follow this person’s advice.   It was a clear feeling that it wasn’t right for my work.

Creativity is an act of rebellion and a world we do best to pioneer ourselves.

 “So what, I’ll do it anyway, I’d rather publish it myself than make those changes,” were the words that floated above my curly hair in a cartoon thought bubble.

I sent it out into the universe as is. Two weeks later an agent grabbed it sold it to Penguin Putnam who published it … with the same title, the fonts, format, and silliness. Poignant lesson.

Intuition and defiance can be a dynamic duo when figuring out our own path in a world of people trying to tell us what to do and with so much out there to compare ourselves.   

The response, “So What, I’ll do it anyway,” works in myriad ways.

Voice                                                                          The Rebellion

I’m too old…                                                              So what do it anyway.

I am not confident                                                   So what do it anyway.

I am resistant…                                                        So what… do it anyway.

People won’t get it:                                                  So what..

I’ll be exposed…                                                        So what..

I don’t know where to begin                                  Start anywhere for 30 seconds.

What else stops you? Say, so what and do it anyway.

This response to voices that can derail creativity is the gift of the Modern Day Muse, Bea Silly, the Muse of Childlike Play and it’s one of the tools that has freed people’s creativity for twenty years in Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching. It neutralizes or supersedes voices that are often operating in irrational or exaggerated fear. It frees us with defiance, rebelliousness, and satisfaction.  

There are many life coaches who are exceptions to the one mentioned in this story, they ask questions and respectfully guide the client’s own course of action. But I’m grateful for the dubious experience I had because it was responsible for the genesis of the Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching. I wondered how many people were being blocked by people who don’t understand the creative process.

The Modern Day Muse, Bea Silly will be back this week for a few short and sweet ways she can help unleash your creativity and creative living.

Come play in a Wild Abandon Zoom Workshop this coming Wednesday, July 10 at 4pm pacific/ 7pm eastern. $25 Hour and a half.

Dispatching Muses,

Jill

Find more Jill stuff here.

Taking applications for the August Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Training

 

A Reframe to Combat Creative Resistance

Albert, the Modern Day Muse of Thinking Differently is back.

He has something that may make a big difference in not just breaking through your resistance but which also aligns with one of the core principles of the Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Training: Enjoying your creative journey.

In his world of thinking differently, Albert reminds us of a tool called the Reframe. With it, we make revisions in what we say to ourselves to shift our motivation, stop resisting our next steps, and lower the pressure that paralyzes us when we want to engage creatively.

Reframing is a creative act in itself. It has us edit our internal dialogue and elevate the meaning of our thoughts, making it more likely that we'll answer our creative call. This process of modifying existing thoughts can transform our approach to creativity and boost our inspiration.

When I tell myself, "I have to write my newsletter," the energy of the phrase, "I have to" can trigger an army tank of negative emotions I call "dread-makers," fueled by high-pressure thoughts like "you should be productive," "you have to do more to be visible," and "you BETTER get it done or you won’t feel like you’re good enough.” These thoughts destructively roll over my intricate network of willingness, enthusiasm, and perseverance, often leading to avoidance and distraction.

When I reframe the phrase "I have to..." to "I get to write my newsletter," it's as if a bright marquee suddenly illuminates all the positive aspects of this endeavor. This simple reframe in what I say to myself, has profound effects:

• Lightness replaces heaviness: The burden of obligation lifts, replaced by a sense of privilege.

• Dread-makers vanish: The negative thoughts that once paralyzed me disappear, replaced by a surge of eagerness and enthusiasm.

• Gratitude emerges: I begin to appreciate the opportunity to write my newsletter.

• Childlike excitement awakens: My inner child comes alive, finding joy and anticipation in the task ahead.

My focus then shifts from fear-driven motivations to ones more in line with my values:

• I have ideas to share.

• I have technology with to share them.

• I get to make illustrations to accompany them.

• I crack myself up sometimes when I write my email.

• I remind myself of things I might have forgotten.

• I have an audience who sometimes reads what I write.

• Some of the audience benefits from my newsletters.

• I love writing.

• I am alive.

• I get to have a piece of pie to reward myself when I finish.

Suggestion: Make an “I get to …” list for the coming week and or month.. July is almost here. Notice how it feels.

For extra credit: If you really want to explore this device, start with an I HAVE TO… list then change it to I get to.. , and watch the energy shift.

Albert told me he needs another week with you. Arguing with Muses is never a good idea, so he’ll be back again. If you have any creative blocks you want to any of the Modern Day Muses to … muse over, leave them in the comment section.

Dispatching Muses,

Jill

Join the August-December Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Training: Email me a bit about your background and why it’s a good fit. Open to anyone with a passion for creativity and people skills.

#2 Albert, The Modern Day Muse of Thinking Differently

Last week you met Aha-phrodite, the Modern Day Muse of Paying Attention. The second Modern Day Muse was named after Albert Einstein. Read on this week to find out why.

Albert Einstein said, “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.”
I think there is hope for the following encounter.

 

Anais Nin, a French-born American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories once said,  “He does not need opium. He has the gift of reverie.”   

So I am smoking reverie with Anais Nin.

Her full name is Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell..

She tells me to just call her Anais.

My full name is Jill Ann Baldwin Badonsky Brisebois

But she calls me the “writer.”

This strain of reverie we’re smoking is very good.

With it we ponder, deliberate, ruminate, reckon, believe, retrieve, recall, reckon, and suppose …

The high starts at the crack of surmise,    
We land in a golden afterthought,   
And in the space between the worlds,   
We drift along a train of creativity …

Characters, storylines, poetry, images, and tunes emerge
-- and take us high  
Above the dribble, the news, the bills on the kitchen table
A high we wouldn’t have … if we weren’t smoking reverie.

Anais writes erotica.
I write things like this.

Anais begins tell me of her “bicoastal trapeze.”
That’s what she calls being married to two men at the same time.
One in LA one in NY

“That’s absurd, Anais,” I say

“That’s the point, writer.
You’re absurd too,” she says,

“Why do you say so?” I ask.

“You’re talking to someone, who has been dead for over 40 years.” she says.

Talking is right. It makes the the stub of my daydream go out. The reverie vanishes in a puff of smoke.

I was just curious.

• What if I could smoke “reverie”?

• What if I wrote as if I were talking to Anais Nin.

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”
~Albert Einstein

 The question, “What if …?” is starter fluid of curiosity in the creative process.

It is a gateway to imagination, ideas, and inventions, even absurd ones. It is a precursor for intuition. And “what if …” can be asked anywhere: In a shower, on a walk, while scrolling, between commercials and cups of tea. It can be asked in the same amount of time it takes for a butterfly to light on a flower and move on to the next so it even works for short attention spans.

To ask it, is to feed your creativity. The creative subconscious loves questions.
To play with absurdity is to have run with it.

We will be exploring this week how you can use the words, “What if …” to unleash more of your creativity.  
 

Albert Einstein operated outside of the fray, broke rules, and was passionately curious…  important principles of creativity.   Albert, the Modern DayMuse, is a dispatcher of those principles.

Dispatching Muses,

Jill

The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard) is in its fourth edition

The Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Certification Training is based on this book.

Jill is often found these places.

Aha-phrodite Wrap-up with Georgia O'Keeffe

 

We wrap up this week with the Modern Day Muse, Aha-phrodite with a quote from Georgia O’Keeffe and the script and episode from A Muse’s Daydream.

The World Inside of a Flower < the recording

“Georgia O’Keefe said, “When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for a moment.”

So I took that to hear,  I’m currently broadcasting from inside a flower, it’s a hibiscus, it’s my world for a moment … It’s Hibiscus. On the way in, I got pollen all over my new white dress, which is a nice change from cat hair and mustard. Pollen is everywhere . I snort a bit to see if it has any kind of mind-altering effects like seeing butterflies or hummingbirds.  (a snort and lots of sneezing here).

Sneezing can be cathartic. Ever sneeze and feel a little lighter because of it? Like you just got rid of some stress, anger, or something in your nose you didn’t know was there but now can breathe easier and feel relieved other people can’t see what’s in your nose? I feel very VERY light because of the sneezing and am actually floating upwards because of it

 I’m floating above the high-biscus… and am high. It’s a Creative high– the only side effects are poems, sketches of coffee cups drawn with eyes closed, and clutter on my dining room table.

 

When I’m in the flow, time is gone, stress evaporates, the clutter on my dining room table doesn’t matter. I return to myself. I return to a love affair with art and writing.

A bee is headed right toward me due to this pollen situation so I have lowered back down into the flower again, and again it is my world for this moment.

Novelist, philosopher Iris Murdoch said, “People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.” I can get mad-with-joy upon seeing the variety of flowers in my neighborhood, Indian paint brush, primrose, poppies, periwinkle, black eyed susans… I counted once and there were 963 varieties of flowers. (Okay, I didn’t count, that was an estimation.)”

Next week we will have a visit from the Modern Day Muse, Albert, The Muse of Thinking Differently.

Have a daydream on me.

Jill

HEY, look where you are RIGHT NOW.

 

 

 

 

“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself” 
― Henry Miller

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hiked the Cotswold Way in England with my husband a few weeks ago. It was by far the most beautiful hike I’ve ever encountered in my life, nothing else is close. Each buttercup, old brick wall, and church steeple was “indescribably magnificent.” I was an artist and writer narrating to myself the art I saw before me with rapt attention.

I found myself walking far in front than my fellow hikers because amidst this unfathomable beauty, some of my fellow walkers were talking about their financial portfolios, places they’ve been in the past, where they are going next.  

HEY, look where you are RIGHT NOW.

Even with the best intentions, if we’ve been shimming the beauty in our world by quickly moving on instead of savoring it or being preoccupied with conversation while viewing it most of our lives, we can’t realistically adopt the type of attention Henry Miller is talking about in that quote above, without incremental practice.  

Incremental practice looks like this for me: When I notice an aspect of nature I enjoy: a tree, the breeze, clouds, a hibiscus, the view on a walk in the countryside in England, I make a point of adding five seconds more of undivided attention than usual. Doing this breaks the habit of having momentary enjoyment soon hijacked by the next distracting thought -one not as pleasant as what’s in the moment. Being present is charged with inspiration, bliss, and healing.

Doing this over time, I notice an improved ability to pay attention and enjoy my art and writing, being more fully present to ideas, associations, and connections in the creative process – essential to manifestation.   

This is the Modern Day Muse, Aha-phrodite combining mindfulness and creativity in the realm of paying attention;  both are a balm for the harshness of the world.

Aha-hrodite: The Muse for Lovers of Paying Attention

“Receiving unexpected ‪poetry means someone is paying attention.”

~April Mae Monterrosa

 

 

Two finches are performing for an audience member that would like to eat them. The birds peck at sunflower seeds in a transparent acrylic bird-feeder suction-cupped to the other side of my window so the cats can watch (and no birds are harmed). Sunshine, the Siamese is motionless, preparing for another futile ambush. Her instinct makes her do it.

 

Max, my other cat, lies in between my legs. He notices the finches, but unlike the Siamese he relaxes and purrs like a muffled outboard motor engine. Max’s breed has different wiring. He’d rather be comfortable and cuddled than in ambush.

 

My instinct is to write. It’s a passion of mine. Sometimes I succeed in ambushing it when I’m paying attention and mostly to amuse myself.  It’s a passion of mine.

 

Aha-phrodite, the Muse of Paying Attention and Passion, tells us creativity is not possible without paying attention. In the creative process, attention paying is the scaffolding for:  

• Ideas triggered by visuals, random thoughts, memories, and what’s right in front of us and making sure we capture them by taking notes. (Aha!)
• When and what makes us feel most creative.
• What we love about the process Associations, memories, word and image connections that trigger ideas.
• Which idea or step from our list energizes us the most.
• What’s working for us now and, when stumped, revisiting what worked in the past.
• Remembering anything a mentor or fan of ours has said about our creativity that might fuel our confidence, inspiration, and persistence.

Paying attention to these things is essential for creative progress.  This is what I teach in the Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Certification training along with the principles from the other eight Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard).

 

Start “write “now. Pay attention to and narrate out loud, what’s in front of you by filling in the sentence: I notice … over and over. Then follow your instincts as to where the writing takes you next. If you’re an artist, take one minute and sketch one thing you see.

 

The Reason A podcast I did almost a year ago, about paying attention and the reason I got married in my sixties.

Stay tuned for Pay Attention fuel this week and meeting Albert, The Muse of Thinking Differently next week.

 

 

 

More workshops and retreats including Taos, NM and Omega Institute of Holistic Sciences

Dispatching Muses for your Creative Pleasure,

Jill