The Muse is IN Blog

So What, Sketch it Anyway

Ever feel intimidated by other writers, artists, musicians, or dancers to a degree of despair or paralysis? Me too.

I ventured into travel journaling on my trip to Scotland a few weeks ago. I did this despite fears of messing up the pages of my newly acquired Field Artist 6.5 in. x 6.5 in. Square Watercolor Journal, Hardbound with 80 pgs. 200 GSM, Cold Press Paper.

Those fears came partially from looking at other people's travel journals and KNOWING mine wasn't going to look like theirs.   

Well duh. 

1. Most of those people have been sketching on trips for years. 
2. Why would I want my art to look like everyone else's?
3. I teach about how to avoid the toxicity of comparison, but I'm only immune when I realize it's insidious nature has snuck past the guards standing at the entry way to my mind. I caught it JUST IN TIME not to be thwarted. I have tools. Comparison has been neutralized. Stay calm.

AND I DID mess up a few pages. Turns out I was okay with that. Tolerance to imminent blunders was the ticket to moving pass avoiding the whole experience of venturing into the scary waters of trying to render buildings, events, people [yikes!] and me sleeping on the plane right there in the exalted moment, bringing that moment more alive than is possible when snapping a photo - and practicing (because I'm not perfect at it) loving myself despite not flowing in my usual area of adequacy.

 

That's another reason people avoid these life-deepening episodes that could turn them on to an endeavor that makes their life more juicy: They fear inadequacy, but common sense tells us we must go through inadequacy before we find sporadic quality. Only a handful of people have a hall pass for instant talent and those people STILL need to practice. 

  

One of the most popular fears in the creative process is: "I won't be good enough." 

So, here's a thought. Don't be good enough. Use that illustrious imagination you have and give yourself permission to make your first journal part of an installation in a modern art museum.  Call it Floundering Sketcher With Her "Interesting*" Travel Journal

That's what I did and it worked. I even had myself a peanut butter s'more during one of my sessions. Let's put all our first sketchbooks in that exhibit and celebrate that WE DID SKETCHED DESPITE OUR FEARS. (And drew a blind contour Americano which made it fun.) 

If you have permission to show-up no matter what... you WILL get better. It's a mathematical reality.

*my mom used to called my art "interesting" as a way of being nice because she didn't get it. Not everyone is our audience and that's okay too.

Here's one of my favorite replies to fear's claim,
"You're not going to be good enough:

 

"So?"

[In my best snotty adolescent voice, fear hates that]

 

Vincent van Gogh knew:

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,'

then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."

 

1. I actually liked my sketches more than I thought I would, placing me in that, “I’m-glad-I-did this-cuz-I-almost-chickened-out-and-now-I have-cool-mementos-of-my-trip-that-I-would'nt-have-had-and-I-want-to-do-this-again mode:
   
2. Many of them didn't suck.
3. But I love the ones that suck anyway....because it's good practice for the inevitable ones that will suck in the future and the writing that won't be that good and the ukelele playing - well, that's never very good... among the sporadic masterpieces.

 

 .

 

Sketch Guru and prolific author, Danny Gregory describes how wonderful it is to sketch when you travel:

“When you sit and draw something, all of your senses are on. Study Notre Dame for half an hour and you will never forget it,.  Draw the plaza outside St Paul and it will be seared into your brain cells. Not just the sights but the smells, the sounds, the temperature, all of it.  While I draw, I am experienced life in super high definition.”

I will be speaking about:

1. These and other tools,
2. Experiences in exalted creativity 
   
3. More sketches, blunders, tangents, Bermuda Triangles, castles, and epiphanies at Sketchkon in Pasadena in November.
4. Join Danny Gregory, Austin Kleon, Jane LaFazio and a whole slue of other amazing artists and inspirational souls.

 What about you? How do you show up when you're intimidated?

  

Edinburgh, Jazz Bar August 30 

Rumi will Gently Lead You to Your Creative Passion

When I was a miniature muse, I was a wild child -- rarely disciplined by my parents to be or do anything in a certain way. Perhaps, they were afraid of me because my real mom was Ruler of the Amazons and dad was Zeus… Oh wait, that’s not me, that’s some wondrous bracelet-wearing woman. But I was an imaginative and willful imp who liked to do things my way, which is not rare in the land of creative kids. Maybe you were a wild child too and that’s why we get along so well.
 
My parents kinda gave up.
 

The good news is because of the no-discipline-thing no-supervision thing, wolves raised me. Dang, that wasn’t me either, that kid hung-out with a bear. I wish! Back to the good news: I didn’t experience the limitations that came from parental discipline.
 
In fact, I had to figure out myself how life worked which, although a little lonely, made me ruggedly independent, boldly confident, and comfortable with owning many of my imperfections – which is a form of freedom I’m grateful for and encourage you to try if you’re trying to defend being perfect. It came from experiencing frequent errors involved in the trial and error of trying to figure out how to maneuver through life; either you learn acceptance or live under a bed (dust bunnies don't like that).
 
The bad news is, with no opportunity to develop internalized discipline, the shoulds, have-tos, or directives from myself to show-up were (and still are), met with rebelliousness because as a wild creative child I had the words, YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, stamped on my forehead. That means I was the one I was rebelling against most of the time, I was my own worse enemy and it was a struggle to get to my creative passions. It’s not anymore because I don’t tell myself what to do anymore.
 
Despite lack of discipline, I did stuff I’m really proud of like designing three trainings, writing and illustrating four books; having a body of art work; writing and performing a full length one woman show; writing creative speeches; helping a myriad of people use an original approach to creativity coaching, and playing two and half songs on the ukulele.
 
It’s not about being perfect, because some days I rebel against having to do anything, and I know that’s okay because acceptance is freedom
 

Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.

~Rumi

 Rumi:
 I let myself be silently drawn to the things I love. Rumi, of course, is right. Being drawn to what I love IS a stronger, more enticing and therefore more effective than pressuring myself do things. Instead of discipline and following the often rigid directions that many claim to be the only way to succeed, I find that focusing on what I love about what I do makes showing up effortless.  What we focus on becomes our world.
 
Focus on your procrastination, resistance, and inability to show-up, focus on what others are doing and you’re NOT doing, focus on not feeling good enough, that becomes your world too. And if that’s been your usual focus, it’s going to take a little ruthless practice to shift.  Love is often the answer, and it is in this circumstance too. “Only love can truly save the world.” ~ Wonder Woman said that and here’s how I want to translate that for you – love will save your creativity. Practice loving your creative call, before, during and after answering it. Make love toward what you do as much of a skill as the sport of writing, art, and living.
 

• What do you love about your creative passion? Ask that, close your eyes, and see how many things you can conjure up. 
• How can you show up for yourself with love?
• How does your creative call love you? (suspend logic all you literal thinkers).

Ask those questions without needing an immediate answer and watch what happens.
When we show-up with love not only is the process sweeter, we are likely stay longer and perseverance is in the top three qualities of successful (and content) creative people.

 

Parallel Universe Time Mondays! FREE
An hour every Monday at 8 am pacific/11am eastern to get to your creative work or anything you've been putting off. This is a sacred, grounding time where we hold the space for each other to focus. It's been happening for nine years now. No charge. All are welcome  Save this link and show-up whenever you like:

Join from your computer or tablet: https://zoom.us/j/632116972 (cameras are off)
Or iPhone one-tap :
US: +16465588656,,632116972# or +16699006833,,632116972#
Or Telephone:
Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
US: +1 646 558 8656 or +1 669 900 6833
Meeting ID: 632 116 972
International numbers available: https://zoom.us/u/cQ40oRm5e

Peace of Mindfulness and Car Alarms

 

“Peace comes from within.  Do not seek it without.” ― Gautama Buddha
 
 “The desire for more positive experience is itself a negative experience. And, paradoxically, the acceptance of one’s negative experience is itself a positive experience.”  

 “But a true and accurate measurement of one’s self-worth is how people feel about the negative aspects of themselves.”
― Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
 
  
 
Hi Creative Friends,
 
 
Yesterday, blissfully positioned in pigeon pose, (my favorite yoga asana), a car alarm went off in my neighborhood.
 

BLEeeHK! BLEeeHK! BLEeeHK!

 
It kept going ON AND ON so I decided to try the practice of Tonglen. Here’s an explanation from the great reference guru, Wikipedia:
 
Tonglen is Tibetan for 'giving and taking' (or sending and receiving), and refers to a meditation ... In the practice, one visualizes taking in the suffering of oneself and of others on the in-breath, and on the out-breath giving recognition, compassion, and succor to all sentient beings.
 
So I breathed in the car alarm: the annoyance, intrusion, and the suffering of sound pollution, and breathed out peace and serenity to all living things.
 

And you know what?
It didn’t work a bit. Not tong bit.

 
So I went into a practice I’ve adopted and modified according to my own quirky  needs: Mindfulness with a Creative Twist.   Basically, there are times we can’t reframe, find the silver lining, or accept things with grace in their annoying, troubling form. It’s unrealistic and uses up a lot of energy we could be using for our creativity, plus, thinking we can overcome certain annoyances in life often creates indigestion and gas unless you’re an enlightened one, which you very well may be. I’m not. Do you have indigestion and gas? Read on.
 
If I've done all that I can to make a change toward the annoyance, the pain, regret, ineptness, or  gas then I gracefully accept that I don’t like disturbing noises and that's okay. Life is always pleasing and as a recovering perfectionist I sometimes still think it should be until I remember I can’t fix everything to rainbows and unicorns, it’s unavailable as an option in this life. That’s where my mindfulness frees me, it's kind of a Buddhist thing.
 
Here’s how it looks:
I have high sensitivity to noise (and a whole host of other things as many of you creative people do too). I’m unable to realistically tune-out or accept the noise of car alarms, dogs barking, inconsiderate people talking loudly on cell phone, and leaf blowers. When I accept that they annoy me, I have more peace. It's the salve of common sense. 
 
At first my mind can’t even wrap around this idea because I had the habit of going into radical annoyance, chronic crankiness, and “why is the world so unfair?” As I practiced accepting that I don’t have to like these things  it began to neutralize the experience. Now after a few years of practice, I actually smile because it feels like a triumph to have found a solution. (Notice it doesn't work overnight, like anything creative it takes perseverance and practice ... and it doesn't have to be perfect).
 
I also apply it to things that break like favorite ceramics, illusions, and my heart; people who don’t like me, when I'm wrong, losing constantly at Words with Friends to Linda Mushka, the way the world can be so cruel, and any other problem that tries to steal my joy. I share it here in case it might work for you too. We need our energy for our creative passions.

Creativity Out There in the Cyberland:


Draw something soothing: 

Tap your keyboard and make music

Seeing Eyed Dogs for Love Blindness

Dog caught in the wake of a wish on a dandelion

Hi Creative Friends,

"I believe when you stand in the middle of the driveway and wish upon a star for a handsome prince, you get bit by a mosquito and your mom tells you to come in and get a sweater." ~Me at 10 years old

I just recently had my heart broken. All the red flags were there, but ... you know ... love being blind and all. I needed two Seeing Eye Dogs for Love Blindness like the ones below. (They are blind memory drawings because I love how it looks when I draw without looking, it frees me from having to be perfect like I was expected to be in that relationship).

 

I need to look closer before I give my heart but when I take a risk and it doesn't work out, it's fodder for my first love - creativity. Out of the broken heart emerged these seeing eye dogs for blind love ^, (I drew big noses on them so they could sniff out the imposters including myself), this funny speech, a blues song I quite fancy (lyrics available upon request), and a renaissance of creativity as I returned to my own authenticity -- which, despite my tenure as a self-help author, I compromised.

And yet I am still a hopeless romantic, I still believe in princes, I'm still nine years old in my heart. I never want to lose the innocence and imagination that goes into wishing but at this age I know that if those wishes don't come true, or if the idea doesn't translate, if the result of sharing my work does live up to my wish, if I don't get the writing residency in Taos... I'll be okay. I'll wake up and create again. I'll love again. I'll laugh.

I'll write and even dance.

In the creative process we create more than the writing and the art. We create ourselves as more powerful beings. I've built my tolerance muscle in the creative process for Things Not Turning Out As I Wish - and that muscle now applies to life and saves me from sinking in a quick sand of despair. I don't pretend to be happy when things don't work out, but I can accept that I don't have to always like it when that happens, life is full of loss and pain. And grace and joy.

I shall go to Scotland in August and visit the castles ....

“Love is a circular emotion that surrounds you, like a hug. Or a noose.” ― Jarod Kintz

“My love is meatloaf flavored. I just wish my meatloaf was also meatloaf flavored.” ― Dora J. Arod

“I run like I have cirrus clouds for legs and rainbow knees. What is life, if not a marathon of love?
” ― Jarod Kintz  

It's Monday: Thought You Could Use a Hummingbird

When you are convinced that all the exits are blocked,
either you take to believing in miracles or you stand still like the hummingbird.
The miracle is that the honey is always there, right under your nose,
only you were too busy searching elsewhere to realize it.
The worst is not death but being blind,
blind to the fact that everything about life
is in the nature of the miraculous.
~Henry Miller, Miraculous kind of an enlightened writer guy

 

Concerning that quote up there^ by Henry Miller? If you want it right under your nose, it's in the front of my book, The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard).

I found it important enough to put there because reading it shifts my entire existence ... sort of like a miracle does ... kind of like imagination can ... certainly how inspired thinking will when I remember to apply it to my life.

When I forget about the creative powers we have, I am convinced the exits are blocked:

The exits from heartache, the endless inner-loop of the blathering high-pressured commands, or irritable anxiety about the current destabilization of our country. The exits from growing old, from all the mistakes I made, from the constant inner taunting of "I'm not enough" are blocked... But they're not.

There's a door that opens the same time our mind does. EXACTLY. Time it.

When I pay attention to all I have and all I am right now, I can to choose to do what I love, instead of feeling forced to do anything in any way... period. I can defy the trance of never feeling enough and experience the bliss of enough.

When I pay attention to the flight of the hummingbird, the purr of the new kitten, the way the soundtrack in a movie transports me to a mood, the way a mood moves me to a poem, the way a poem heals my pain, and the way caramelized onions taste so much better than the grilled ones, I am in concert with the little miracles of being alive which is much better than staring at the graffiti on the doors I've perceived closed.

The creative mind gifts us with defining miracles however our we choose and in doing so, being in constant wonder instead of chronic crankiness. Creativity is a miraculous antidote to the craziness in the world.

And all it takes is a question: What's one small step I can take next in my passion and can I do it without putting a lot of pressure on myself because it's the pressure that leads to resistance)? Okay, that was two questions and some parentheses.

Or have a five minute tryst with your creativity's passion - see where it leads.

Albert Einstein said, "There are only two ways to live your life: as though nothing is a miracle, or as though everything is a miracle."

What would it feel like to believe just 5% more in the miracle?

Some interesting links:

The Miracle of Paying Attention

The Magic of Perseverance Elephant-style

 Workshops and Trainings

 

It's Monday, Do You Know Where Your Strange Jewels Are?

 

Hi Creative Friends, 

Elizabeth Gilbert writes:

“The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.”  
 So this, I believe, is the central question upon which all creative living hinges: Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you?”   
 

When I sit with that quote for a moment, maybe even close my eyes and imagine strange jewels waiting to be found, I become eager to take a step in my writing. I know I have the courage, but I get stuck with all the mental games my blocks rally around so that step needs to be tiny or like a defiant child, I won't take it.

 

If I berate myself for not showing up sooner or if the step is not broken down so small it's hard not to do it, chances are I'll resist, procrastinate, crumble into disappointment and eat a lot of cashews. This does not beget more diligence. I'll check Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, email and repeat - ad infinitum and then not respect myself for the time that will never be again.  I don't think to myself... "Ack, too much pressure, I think I'll swerve to the hollow reward of immediate gratification," I just do it because it's a habit and feels familiar.

 

I now have new habits that lead to more creative contentment and productivity.

 

I remember to show-up for with the small step of simply opening a document or setting up my space for art supplies.  Or I take a walk and daydream about what next step I could take. Those are my habits. Making it mechanical makes it enticing and easy. Trying to motivate myself with the thought, "I shall now create a masterpiece like no other" make it intimidating   The rest takes care of itself because I've started a very low pressure momentum and am so dazzled by the possible strange treasures to discover, that I stay and unearth them. 

 

What tiny mechanical step can you take to start a treasure bound momentum? 

Nurture your creativity. Here's a 45 minute workshop from Mother's Day.

Click here to download

Click here to listen on your computer

 

Creative Call + Deep Longing = Overcoming Resistance

 All sorts of subterranean dynamics ranging from messages we received in early childhood to our concentration hijacked habitually by fixations with media and the refrigerator are stealing our time and rendering us creatively pissed.  I either have to abide to my creative calling or be cranky. It's a law. 

Creative call + do something to answer it = content, generous, kind, energetic, cordial, witty, insightful (at times, grandiose)

Creative call + ignore/avoid/resist it = cranky

 Kahlil Gibran said: There is a space between man’s imagination and
mans attainment that may only be traversed by his longing.

• Evidently longing is important for traversing big spaces. 
• How's your longing doing?
• Does it need to be longer, deeper, more nourished? 
• Take a moment now, (I'll wait), and recall why you were drawn to the whatever endeavor you may not be getting to as much as you'd like. What was the allure in the first place?
• Write it down, obsess about it, think about it constantly. (For the next several decades)
• This question works in marriage counseling -- creativity is like a relationship:
  What drew you and your creativity together in the first place?
• Remember what it feels like when you're in that timeless, ageless flow with your creative passion. You can do this while showering, walking, feeding the cat, or shaving. 
• Or other activities work as well. 
• This exercise ramps up your longing.
• Evidently longing is important for traversing. 
• Simply ask: What would it feel like to render distractions useless by ramping up my longing?
• You may need to tweak your focus, your approach, your technique just a tad so it best matches up with what would spark a more passionate devotion. 
• Remember what has worked in the past- it has treasures, strength, and proven successes handy for application to the present.

  

Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching

How Tolerance is Essential to Perserverance

“Take the first step in faith.
You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
~Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”
~Confucius

 

On this day that honors Martin Luther King, Jr., a man who taught tolerance, I'd like to propose another kind of tolerance. One will make your creative life easier if you buy into it. If you don't, good luck.

 

When I decided creativity was going to be my life, I knew I had to either develop a "tolerance muscle" or be among the 85% that gives up on their dreams because they can't endure the obstacles that naturally emerge and don't fulfill the unrealistic expectations of accomplishing things quickly, easily, and the way the idea looks in their minds.

 

Creativity has another plan for us.  She says, "This isn't about getting your way immediately, it's about searching the depths of your soul to muster up devotion to a process who's rewards go far beyond your acrylic landscape or chapter four in your book."

 

Perhaps the world never showed any faith in you.... do you have the strength to show faith in yourself by showing-up for your creative call? Rather than show up for the product, can you show up for the process of being true to yourself? Showing-up perfectly isn't important.

 

To stay on the path of my passion I got to tolerate my ineptness, blunders, inadvertently published typos, and the fact that my painting and writing didn't look like other people stuff that I liked a lot. I got to tolerate projects taking three and four times as long as I planned, hitting walls, looking foolish and coming face to face with my ugly shadows. I got to tolerate my habits of procrastination and continually starting something new without completing anything. I got to tolerate people not liking me, thinking I'm strange, unsubscribing from my newsletter, not "getting" my art. I got to tolerate proposals getting rejected and once, I got to tolerate ripping up my favorite painting because I was looking at the wrong side. 

 

If you're a warrior, you've tolerated many of these things too.  And changing the language from "I had to" ..." to "I got to tolerate ..." makes it clear that it was an honor to do that for myself. 

 

Self-compassion is required to stay the course and in that compassion  
an unmatched contentment and courage is possible.   

 

Creativity reassures you that when you passionately persevere through the tumult of detractors, the reward is far beyond the painting and the piece of writing.  The awards are strength, self-respect, and confidence that applies to every area of your life, breaking limitations, presenting a new perception that widens your existence beyond what you formerly knew what was possible. There's a faith that you can get through anything so you can share with the world and inspire others, at the very least, your courage, and at the most, your brilliance.

 

 

 

 

Download Permission to SLIP Up

Creativity, Politics, and Digestive Problems

I have digestive problems. I’m one of those creative people some call an empath, others consider highly sensitive, and my family deemed, “Oh, why do you have to be so sensitive?”

Nevertheless my creativity runs on sensitivity so despite its inconvenience, despite it being a pain in the ass when my feelings get easily hurt and I get irritable from the noise other people tolerate, I’m grateful for my sensitivity.

Sensitivity not only gives me profound spiritual experiences in nature, helps me design creative work for my audience, it also feeds the intuition that wakes up when it senses an overheard conversation could be the first line of a poem or when an image wants to be painted in my whimsical style.

The highly sensitive nature of being creative finds that clouds are more than dry air mixed with water drops. Joni Mitchell recalls that they are angel air and ice cream castles, Paul Simon’s thoughts are cloudy -- “They echo and they swell from Tolstoy to Tinker Bell”, and they’re in Carly Simon’s coffee.

So why do I have digestive problems? One of my theories is that what is happening in the world, our country – our sweet land of liberty – is disturbing and hard to digest. It’s worse than a bad burrito.

When you’re a sensitive creative person you may find yourself experiencing metaphors literally. You may have a hard time digesting the news therefore your turkey club sandwich just sits in your belly and fatigues you. You may have a leaky gut because you have a hard time setting boundaries with yourself and the world's consternation.

Creativity is also my go-to for almost all my maladies because I’ve immersed myself in writing and art for many years and the resourcefulness, tenacity, and flexibility required to endure the ebb and flow of the creative process are also available for confronting what life throws at me. It throws a lot.

On Facebook today I posted one of those feel-good posts about our need to love everyone not just the people that love us. A friend asked this:

"Nice sentiment. How do you love the neighbors and countrymen who elected Donald Trump for their leader and the congress who is dismantling every progressive, cultural, financial, gender based, environmental, and educational achievements we've made in the last few decades? I’m trying but it’s hard to keep an open heart. Pointers appreciated from anyone out there. It hurts to be a hater."

Excellent question.

As a recovering perfectionist, I know I can’t go from disgust to love. But I know now that unlike a perfectionist’s thinking, the world is not either black or white. It’s not either disgust or love. There are others ways to process love. Being in disgust all the time is not loving myself, it gave me have an allergy to rice, night shades and waffles.

Expectations can psych us out. We simply avoid, dismiss, or give-up when expecting ourselves to love a president we feel is destroying our country. I will probably never love President Trump and those who refuse to save us from his infantile bullying and narcissism. I have some empathy for the lost and discouraged who believe in him, but not the government officials who know he’s not good for our country and do nothing. But if I continually condemn him in my mind because I can’t fathom how he got in office or why he is still there, I’m in a world of condemnation and can’t eat anything but a blended spinach, blueberry, and collagen powder shake. 

Everything we think and say affects the way we feel. If you’re highly sensitive, how you feel affects your health. We are wandering around in disgust and getting sick. Curiosity not only feels better, it also opens our centers of creativity for EVERYTHING.

Questions move me from toxic thoughts and feelings to curious ones. Creative thoughts and feelings not only are healing, they are either neutral or enjoyable. The questions don’t even need answers. The simple asking of them shift your internal landscape.

Question Medicine:

Which one of these questions are you willing to use to replace your disgust?

• What would it feel like to be kinder to my body right now by choosing kinder thoughts?
• What would it feel like to love people who do things I don't like?

You don't have to love them, just wonder about the question.

At the very least asking these questions feel better and do more for my health than the things my smaller mind obsesses about when I'm not able to digest the weirdness happening.

If if that doesn't work, I seek the healing sphere of painting clouds in bowls or writing words about imaginary worlds. 

Lunch break.

Join me in a Journey of Creative Spirituality this January 2018.
Finding Uber Bliss: A Wildly Creative Journey to the Present Moment 

 

Don't Fall in the Fountain

 

 

“Unlike a fountain that circulates the same water in an enclosed, perpetually
recycling system, a human being circulates thoughts in an unlimited
reservoir of self. Don't limit yourself to being a mere fountain when you contain an ocean.”
~Vera Nazarian

 

Don't fall in the fountain. 

 

Originally developed by Abraham Maslow in 1964, "peak experiences" are described as
"rare, exciting, oceanic, <(really?!), deeply moving, exhilarating, elevating experiences that generate an advanced form of perceiving reality, and are even mystic and magical in their effect upon the experimenter."

 

I've been swimming a mile at La Jolla cove at sunrise a couple times a week for the past couple of years. I'm accompanied by sea lions, Garibaldi fish, pelicans, occasionally my friend Reba, and sometimes, off in the distance, I can see dolphins and whales romping . One day, Jonathan Livingston seagull floated by and said "Baaach!" I think he meant Richard Bach.

 

The activity feels like a peak experience; Maslow is nodding. In fact I actually say to myself, THIS is a peak experience as I watch the sun emerge from the clouds, feel the waves' perpetual cycling and relish the water suspending me. I'm not sure if announcing that to myself counts but despite the current way of the world and the daily dribble of my life, when I'm swimming at dawn, there's nothing there but the ocean and a space for creative ideas to float by my consciousness. Bliss.

 

 

I'm present with this sea because my focus on the creative process has prepared me for it. Focusing on the creative process is practice with being present with every aspect of being alive, not just my art and writing. And in a world where focus is constantly hijacked by the myriad of shiny and chocolate covered things, that's a blessing.

 

Creativity requires a love affair with the present moment –it is the pinnacle of mindfulness because in the creative process we are lost IN the moment. And it is here where our spirit is alive with expression and we are experiencing a freedom like nothing else.

What if we were so present with THIS moment, the one we're in right NOW, that we would be able to write about it two months from now? You don't have to do that, but what if you played with the possibility? What feelings, sensations, visuals, realizations are in this moment for you? What do you notice about your mind when you do that? Is there more space? Let's go for oceanic.

 

What love affair is all about being present for you?

 

Quotes like the one with the mermaid at the top are inspiring … but how do you put it into

operation?  How indeed, do you begin to experience yourself as an ocean of consciousness versus a fountain circulating the same thoughts over and over?

Habits drive us, are familiar and comfortable, and when life isn’t as comfortable as we’d like, they take over more than ever.

 

Finding the Ocean :

1. Remind myself that there may be more possibilities than what’s currently circulating. I ask small questions: What tiny way can I look at my world differently? How can I  approach my creativity differently? Withe curious expectation? Childlike fascination? Mischievous irreverence? Chocolate coated? What new thinking can I expand into? Just asking is enough but if you do this, be ready to write things down should they bubble up from the depths of your uniqueness.
   
   
2. Expose myself to something inspiring and ask the small question: How does this inspire my own version of creativity?
   
   
3. Set the stage for expansion. When I’m feeling resistant toward starting, sometimes simply doing something mechanical to get me out of my habitual zombie avoidant strategies makes it easier for the creative work to happen. Opening a file, reading a passage, listening to a podcast, going for a walk or a drive, reading a quote. None of those bring up resistance, all of them set the stage for the next small expansive step.

I have to remember to routinely reset my thinking settings from "fountain" to "OCEAN."  Less pigeons that way.