The Muse is IN Blog

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

Imaginary Friends: Then and Now

When I was nine years old, my imaginary friends convinced me I could herd cats in my backyard; it was a fulfilling but fabled endeavor.  They also appointed me daughter of secret agent, Illia Kuryakin; I was successful in foiling evil villains from destroying the world on my Schwinn. And it was their idea for me to wear a towel on my head so I could have the long hair I … longed for. They saved me from a troubled childhood just as art and writing saves me from harsh realities now.

When I was fortyish, I wrote a book with ten imaginary friends I called the nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard) who ironically helped me write the damn book.  I was procrastinating, doubting my idea, and questioning my ability. Given this creative call, I had no idea how to fulfill it. But I did write it and much to my surprise, it sold to Penguin Putnam. Who knew? Evidently the Muses did. Insight, resources, and common sense surfaced when I imagined my inner voices as helpful Muses rather than inner critics, doubters, and the piped pipers of distraction.

These wise inner voices said things like:

1. 1. Pay attention to what energizes you not what depletes you.

   2. Think differently from the obvious and what’s already out there.   

   3. Have fun with your idea, play with it without being so serious.

   4. Be kind to yourself -it will result in more work than harsh pressure.

   5. Practice without expecting perfection, love the process.

   6. Act as if you have courage even if you’re scared.

   7. Take a break once in a while to refill inspiration and take note of your progress.

   8. Have compassion for your faults to free up energy for your strengths.

   9. Just take really small steps  – they create an unpressured momentum that will keep you going.

   10. Protect your time, your intention, and your belief in yourself.

I gave the bearers of these messages names and they became the voices of and the book called The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard): Ten Guides to Creative Inspiration.

In its fourth edition and twentieth year, the Modern Day Muses (and the Bodyguard) remain whimsical, wise-crackers with surly attitudes and good advice. They continue to offer profound and applicable ways to make creativity easier so our visions and voices can be brought into existence despite everything working against them.  The Muses’ principles are part of the Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Certification Training curriculum.

To continue with the theme of I Make Art so I Don’t Die of Reality, I’d like to share with you how to stay creative, how to be more creative, and how to get through all the detractors to the creative process so you too can use the creative process as sanctuary from the harshness out there in reality, and in fact alchemize some of reality’s truths into inspiration for art and writing.

In the next ten articles, I’ll share with you short, painless snippets about each of the Modern Day Muses (and the Bodyguard). Aha-phrodite will be first.

If you listen closely, you’ll hear your own Muses guiding you to answer your creative call. BUT YOU HAVE TO LISTEN.

Onward,

Jill Badonsky

 

Taking Application for the Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Certification Training
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The Underground Highway to Creative Results
Keep creativity in your world with easy, unconventional weekly writing and art prompts, two Wild Abandon monthly creativity workshops, and a community of supportive and noncompetitive kindred spirits. No pressure, just fun and a love affair with creativity. More Here

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