Archive for the ‘Coaxing Creativity Conversations’ Category

Let Freedom Ring

July is all about freedom. From the obvious celebrating our country’s independence with 4^th of July festivities to the obscure Social Wellness observance and including the borderline ridiculous National Drive-Thru Day. It’s all about recognizing the beauty of our glorious options and opportunities to change. The freedom to stop and stick our toes in a stream, river, ocean, or under a sprinkler attached to the garden hose. The freedom to smile at our reflection in the mirror (which is all about Social Wellness) and to know we have the gumption to follow our dreams. The freedom to choose our Authentic Selves.

July comes smack dab in the middle of everything. The middle of the year and the middle of the summer. We’re at a tipping point for all sorts of options. Is it time to re-evaluate or goals? On the other hand, is it time to celebrate being alive and seize the opportunity to play when it presents itself.  

When the calendar page turns to July for children, if they bother to notice the calendar at all, it may mean summer camp, trips to the beach/lake/mountains, or days filled with sweet unstructured hours. As adults, July may mean mid-year reviews/quarterly reports to be completed before a long anticipated family vacation. The freedom to be a family united in their quest to navigate a new hiking trail and tell the best ghost story around the campfire.

Our family vacations were more like Sunday afternoon outings because farmers with animals always have morning and evening chores. We were fortunate enough to have a boat and live in the Midwest where there is lots of water for the boat. My childhood summer memories are full of fried chicken picnics, feeling the mud squishing between my toes, splashing in the shallow water, fighting with my brothers about whose turn it was with the inner tube, feeling the wind in my hair when Daddy “opened her up” and drove the boat fast when we went around the lake. I also remember the smell of Noxzema and suffering with red arms, backs, and legs after many of those outings.

If your July plans keep you close to home, there’s still plenty of creative ways you can claim the freedom to choose to be your Authentic Self. Take a tall glass of your favorite ice-cold summer drink and a blanket out to the back yard. Lie down and do some serious cloud watching. Your whole body is allowed the freedom to down shift and relax as you observe the white wisps consolidate into dogs, bunnies, flowers, faces, even dinosaurs. Now that you’re in the back yard, are you thinking about the garden you meant to plant? You can still go to the garden center and pick up all the elements necessary to plant a beautiful flowerpot in no time at all! Want to get away from it all for an afternoon? Escape into a movie with lavish landscapes and gorgeous costumes, or visit an exotic art exhibit. Try your hand at pottery painting at a do-it-yourself pottery shop. Discover the soaring experience of flying with an introductory flying lesson. Take a bike ride and feel like you are 10 years old again. Watch the sun go down and wait for the fireflies to come out. Pick up a brand new notebook, some magic markers, or colored pencils, find a shady spot and write about your favorite summer vacation. It doesn’t matter if it’s a vacation you’ve already experienced, or one you plan to someday. Write about it right now. Relive the experience, or anticipate the adventure. Let freedom ring…

Rebuild Your Life This Month

Rebuild your life? June is Rebuild Your Life Month. Depending on your point of view, that could be a very odd phrase, or an exciting challenge. In some ways, we rebuild our life getting out of bed every morning. Each small decision builds upon the next, until you’ve chosen what to wear, what to eat, where to live, which career to pursue and who you want to spend time with. Sometimes those decisions are the direct result of random events in your lives.

After my first breast cancer experience, I bounced back into my old routine so fast I think I left tire marks in the hospital parking lot. Well, no. But, while my physical self regained normalcy, emotionally I was in a state of shock. Pretending it had never happened made it quite easy to get on with my life. My family was also anxious that I return to “normalcy” as soon as possible too. That way they could feel nothing had really changed in their world. After all, I looked the same, so it was a couple of days of bed rest and back to the usual routine. Putting the whole diagnosis, out-patient surgery and recovery into the recesses of my memory seemed to work quite well – for a time. It worked until I was diagnosed with D.C.I.S. again in the same breast 3½ years later.

This time, rebuilding my life meant taking part in my healing process and choosing to not jump back into old habits as if programmed, or just because it was expected. Instead, I followed my own path to exploring creativity and all the benefits of hands-on activities. I wrote in my journal about everything I was thinking and feeling. I gave myself time and space to explore what my body, mind and spirit needed. I’d always been drawn to many forms of crafts such as sewing, beading, collage, decoupage, and stamping. But never thought of myself as an artist. Artists had paintings and sculptures in museums; I liked to make distinctive beaded jewelry. I made dance and ice skating costumes, slipcovers and window treatments, and embellished journals with whimsical collages.

In the process of rebuilding my life, I have reinvented myself. I now claim the mantle of Artist of the Everyday because my works-of-art are to be used and enjoyed in day-to-day life. As a self-proclaimed Creativity Mentor, I encourage everyone I meet to claim your creativity to rebuild your life in whatever method, means or sector beckons you.

Is it Spring Cleaning or Clearing time?

Many of us grew up with the annual ritual of scrubbing down walls, opening windows to air out the house after a long winter of closed up rooms, and removing winter’s remnants to make way for a fresh start. It wasn’t uncommon for us to leave for school in the morning with the boring tan front hall walls being “prepped” for painting and come home to a brand entryway of sunny yellow. Wallpaper was very big then and my mother asked a team of local ladies to help her with updating our living room. I was amazed at their agility climbing up and down the short ladders, it was almost like a dance the way one woman would lavish paste on the subdued floral panels and pass it to her co-worker perched on the ladder. Finally, another member of the team would smooth out the air bubbles with a dry brush. A few rolls of wallpaper and a couple of coats of paint made the whole house feel brand new.

In observance of May as Women’s Health Care Month, I’d like to talk about how we could approach this season as a time of renewal for ourselves. We’re at the mid-point of 2010. How are you doing on your goals for this year? I know I’ve been pretty good about working on my business, and not so good about overcoming habits in the “personal growth” area. There was a time when I was really established with an exercise routine, however, I have not been in that groove for some time. I had a Yoga teacher I loved and very proud of the fact I could keep up with the step class choreography. Life intervened…my 80-year-old Yoga teacher moved away to live closer to her daughter, and the step class was cancelled. Although I felt terrific when I was exercising on a regular basis, I haven’t gotten back into that routine again. Does this story sound familiar? Whether you made January resolutions or not, let’s start right now with a clean slate. Take inventory of where you’d like to air out old ideas, rearrange sluggish attitudes, reclaim enthusiasm for a prior activity, or adjust a timeline to allow for a more flexible learning curve. Want to start a journal? Establish a yoga practice? Learn to meditate? Become a brilliant cook? Progress from a gentle jog to running a marathon? Speak French? Sail? Fly Fish? Or, just spend 15 minutes watching the tide?

Taking care of ourselves in body-mind-and-spirit by tapping into our creativity gives us a whole new perspective on being in the present moment. Each season has unique gifts to offer us. I can’t wait to see what this season brings.

Are you stressed?

Think this is a trick question? Well, yes and no. April is National Stress Awareness Month. As busy wives, mothers, business owners, employees, caregivers and everything else, we know stress. We struggle to balance day-to-day responsibilities to others while juggling to find time for ourselves. Stress is a good thing because of the powerful fight-or-flight hormones our bodies produce when we’re confronted with the unexpected. Our body responds with our heart beating faster, sharpened senses, blood glucose surging to invigorate us and we leap into action.

Moderate stress, resulting in a sudden burst of hormones, can help us more efficiently perform tasks and even improve our memory. However, when the hormones flood your body longer than 24 hours (long-term, chronic stress), bad things start to happen and the body gives off unhealthy signals. An overwhelmed immune system may show up as mental fogginess, frequent colds, or increased sensitivity to aches and pains. Guess that’s why my over taxed my immune system responded with a nagging cough and sore throat three times this winter. .

Stress was also the diagnosis when I experienced two vertigo episodes the day before and the day after my second breast cancer surgery. My world, literally and physically, was spinning out of control. For those who have never experienced vertigo, just imagine being stuck on a carnival ride going round and round non-stop. All that whirling and tilting causes a loss of balance and you desperately want the spinning to stop.

While we are not able to turn off harmful stress hormones, we can direct our energies into productive actions instead of feeling out of control. Tap into your creativity to find ways to de-stress.

ABC’s of stress management:

• Ask for help and stop the juggling act
• Be optimistic -  view the as glass half-full
• Call a halt to multi-tasking
• Deepen your inner core – Meditate
• Exercise – just move, it doesn’t matter what you do
• Free up time for fun
• Give yourself Permission to Play

Did you know 75-90% of all visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related complaints or disorders? Write your own prescription to de-stress today by tapping into your creativity!

March is a marvelous combination of endings and beginnings. We experience the last cold blast of winter and glimpse of tender green shoots of the promise of spring. Growing up in the Midwest, we eagerly looked forward to the first snowfall. That meant days missed from school and time to play. By March, the snow and rain made roads full of deep, muddy ruts, and us longing for warm, sunny days. I remember how March meant freedom from being bundled up in heavy coats and having to wear ugly rubber boots. We could breathe fresh air from open windows instead of the smell of damp mittens on hissing radiators. Our spirits felt lighter. The promise of blossoms on the lilac bushes could not be far behind. We have opportunities to shed past attitudes, which have frozen our hearts and create a new destiny; a new dream wrapped in love and full of good fortune.

March offers us opportunities to recognize our triumphs in celebrating National Women’s History Month and Small Press Month; our creativity in celebrating International Ideas Month and National Craft Month; our tendencies to indulge in a caffeine habit observing National Caffeine Awareness Month; and the prospect of opening new channels of communication during International Listening Awareness Month.

Listen Up! That is my challenge to all of us in acknowledging March as Listening Awareness Month. I would like us to take this opportunity to listen, I mean really listen, and to what is not said and how the communications are arriving. Listen to the stress messages from our bodies, minds, and spirits. Learn simple, affective ways to cope with that stress. List a plan of action to help us follow through on the new behaviors we have discovered.

I saw tiny shoots on the lilac bush in my front yard today and listened to birds singing for me. Whether you observe Listening Awareness Month by sitting in the backyard hearing the wind in the trees, walking in the neighborhood with the strains of lawn mowers, or absorbing comments during a conversation, my wish is that you do it with a new sense of wonder and understanding.

They say February is for lovers. So focus your love close to home. February is Boost Your Self-Esteem Month. Boost your self-esteem with demonstrations of self-love because you are most deserving of your own attention for affection. Consider observing boosting your self-esteem; not just as a temporary indulgence on Valentine’s Day, but as a way of life. Don’t wait for a special occasion to wear your favorite pair of earrings. Put on make-up in the morning even if your reflection in the mirror is the only face you’ll see all day. Give yourself permission to indulge in a special chocolate treat, splurge on a favorite meal, soak in the tub with lots of scented bubbles and a new paperback, or eat popcorn for dinner and watch a movie on a weeknight (no, don’t fold laundry and empty the dishwasher – sit down and watch the whole thing without multi-tasking).

Writing a journal entry about a specific accomplishment or milestone is a major self-esteem booster. I’ll share one that has been seven years in the making. I have volunteered for several years for The San Francisco Writers Conference (www.SFWriters.org), a prestigious 3-day conference and the brainchild of legendary agents Elizabeth Pomada and Michael Larsen. It features blockbuster keynote speakers, award winning workshop presenters, and attendees in the hundreds from all over the world. The first year my comfort level only allowed me to babysit the purses in the Volunteer lounge. This year, I was invited to chair the “Book Doctor Panel.”

Mary counseling a writer at SFWC

This is a conference-long marathon event where attendees spend five minutes one-on-one with Independent Editors. I am no longer content to relegate myself to the shadows. As the Book Doctor Coordinator, I claimed my position as a professional sharing my expertise with eager attendees, and as a peer with other writers awash in the wealth of knowledge shared at the conference.

Successful writers confident in their literary skills intimidate me. Many speakers and workshop presenters over the weekend impressed me. I made up my mind to show up in my life and go after my dreams rather than stay in safe situations. This year, instead of  wishing I were brave enough to be like the speakers and presenters, I sat up front, engaged with them during their talks, gave them positive feedback, and asked for advice. Do you know what they did? They gave me advice and thanked me for showing up!

Let’s all keep showing up!