I started the A Muse’s Daydream podcast during the pandemic for sanity reasons. I’m a rather stoic individual so I try to focus on what I can control and let go of the rest. Writing funny, mindfulness stories, recording, and engineering the episodes was what I could do from my quarantined pillow-fort to keep me from eating entire pizzas. I had no idea I’d be doing it for three and a half years.
As part of the continued celebration of 20 years teaching Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching, I just finished the Creative Thought card deck. I illustrated it, added some quirkiness, but most importantly provided some helpful tips from what I teach to keep our creativity going deeper. I made many cards, but I limited the deck to 50. (Card decks available for purchase soon, subscribe for updates).
Doing the Creative Thought cards freed me from a little prison called Resistance. After I took a break from the podcast, I was a little lost as to what was next perhaps from the trauma of the pandemic. I have three books wanting to be written but I wasn’t excited enough about them to foil the block.
One of the hallmarks of KMCC is low pressure and small steps, which ironically get people further than high pressure that comes from insisting on an amount of time, words, and/or desired productivity. Our creative processes work best and are most enjoyable when they are irresistible, intuitive, and intrinsic, not based on extrinsic motivation or high pressure goals that work for someone who’s been doing it for years.
I keep hearing advice to work EVERY DAY, even if it’s just TWENTY MINUTES, and make sure you do a CERTAIN AMOUNT of work. That’s pressure, that creates resistance. If you miss a day, you have a feeling of failure. Twenty minutes is too long for the resistant. If you do fifteen five days a week, you’ve failed. Margaret Atwood admits that she tells people to work every day… but she doesn’t. Oppression works for a very small part of the population.
I break out of my resistance by asking myself to do 30 seconds of anything creative that energizes me before I resort to social media rabbit holes and dopamine addictions. THIRTY SECONDS… I do it dailyish because I’m human.
But how did I get three books, 70 podcast episodes, fifteen years of articles, a play, six art shows, twenty retreats, and a coaching curriculum completed with 30 seconds at a time? After 30 seconds there is a momentum that is automatic, it’s irresistible, and run by intuition. The child inside me is engaged and can’t be stopped because its having fun not following an oppressive protocol. The “shoulds” are no longer necessary. I keep coming back. I want soul-inspired fun.
It's a better brand of dopamine.
Another Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Training is scheduled June 13-October 11, 2024. Now taking applications. More here
