July is Social Awareness Month, which has nothing to do with social media and everything to do with empathy, friendship, and compassion. Today, seek harmony in your environment beginning with yourself:  smile at your reflection in the mirror, reward yourself for completing a difficult task, soak up some sun on a park bench, or go to bed early. Be aware of what keeps you humming with harmony and pass the feeling on…

Ah the 4^th of July – this mid-summer celebration means parades, picnics, and popping eardrums! I remember parades, church picnics, and carnivals growing up. Our little Coastside town hosts an old-fashioned parade every year where practically the whole town turns out to march down Main Street, little kids decorate their bikes with red, white, and blue crepe paper streamers, and big kids shine up their hot rods. While some light a sparkler or two in the twilight, crowds wait impatiently for the fireworks guaranteed to light up the sky with dramatic displays of color along with the sonic boom explosions. Perhaps you will take a picnic to the beach, to a local park, or to your backyard. I hope you have a chance to spend the day with family/friends expressing gratitude to our ancestors for this Independence Day.

Enjoy ice cream today – Coaxing Creativity Tuesday Tip June 22, 2010

Eat ice cream today – Last week’s trip to the county fair got me thinking about the treats and since June is Dairy Month (since 1939) I’ll encourage you to indulge in a frozen goodie today. What’s your favorite? Chocolate? Vanilla? Rocky Road? Maybe it’s something you only let yourself have on special occasions. Yesterday was the Summer Solstice and the official beginning of summer. That’s pretty special. Or, create your own special occasion…Care to join me in celebrating?

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.

Do you remember the fun you had going to the County Fair? The excitement of wondering if there would be a new ride to thrill you on the Midway, anticipation of  discovering new treats to add to your favorites (mine were Tom Thumb doughnuts milkshakes at the Dairy Building), and the pride in participating in the 4H competitions. Attending a full-blown fair to see the cows, ducks, chickens, goats and pigs; climb aboard the magic carpets that spun, gyrated and rotated, and indulge at the concession stands offering various delectable delights on-a-stick is a way to relive your childhood. Or, perhaps you liked to listen to the “live” infomercials under the grandstand where the Veg-O-Matic and the Amazing Ricing/Dicing/Spliccing machine was being demonstrated (also a good source for free snacks). And if you didn’t get to do those things, keep your eyes and ears open because every summer weekend the newspaper or radio will advise you where to go to get in on the fun. Tonight, I’ll be speaking on Creativity 101 on the Literary Arts Stage at the San Mateo County Fair – so come on down to the Fiesta Bldg at if you’re in the area at 8 pm. We could share some cotton candy afterwards.

Have you ever received a note of encouragement in the mail at the exact moment you needed to hear good news? What better way to honor Effective Communications Month than to communicate with someone we are extremely close to, yet seldom acknowledge her strengths, talents, and passions. Who am I talking about? You, of course. Today take out a pen and some pretty paper, a note card, a post card,  (an index card in an envelope will do) and write a sentence or two in praise of YOU! Not sure what you want to say? OK, write down a favorite quote, or a line of poetry. Something that will inspire you, give you pause, or evoke a sigh of delight. I can’t wait to see what my mailbox will bring…

I am a farmer’s daughter. My thoughts today are layered with this fact and the way my life has always been impacted by Nature. The nurturance has taken place whether I accepted it, expected it, or tried to negate it. Yesterday was Memorial Day and I’m dedicating this post to all those brave men and women remembered with ceremonies and salutes as well as those who have been uncelebrated. Everyday heroes like my father, George H. Prescott, who left their farms to serve in WWII. He was part of the 4^th Cavalry Division. You can see from his picture that the “horse” he rode had horsepower, but no hooves. He was ruggedly handsome reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart’s good looks. He seldom talked about his Army life and settled back into small town life, raising a family. I’m the oldest of the four girls, born between the boys. Although I do not have a green thumb and routinely recycle my houseplants back into the earth, I think I appreciate the sweet beauty of Nature because of the spaciousness I experienced growing up on the farm. May you allow yourself the opportunity to be caressed by a breeze or seduced by a flower’s fragrance today and let nature nurture.

A massage is a wonderful way to observe May as National Women’s Health Care Month and access the wealth of creativity that lies below your conscious awareness. In our stressed culture, where stress-related disorders make up between 80-and-90 percent of the ailments that bring people to family-practice physicians, massage can help you both physically and mentally. Of course, stress is a part of the daily routine whether you are trying to hurry a dawdling toddler along in the morning rush, receiving a positive performance review, or dodging another speeding car while changing lanes on the freeway, our body reacts with a “fight or flight” mode. As a result, all our attention is focused on the incident at hand, and your body often needs help refocusing. Various hormones that get amped up during the “fight or flight” response works to shut down the communication between different parts of our brains. When stressed, your brain shuts down and tunnel thinking occurs. To be creative, you need to be relaxed. Fortunately, once you turn off the stress hormones, your body recovers quickly.

The healing touch of massage allows us to tap into our creativity by helping us temporarily turn off our conscious brains allowing information just below our awareness to come into focus. While we are in a relaxed state, we are able to let our thoughts drift in random patterns and suddenly answers to nagging questions will appear. It’s almost as if the answers were waiting for you to open a drawer, or find a hidden key. You never know what’s trying to get through until you nurture yourself with a massage and watch what appears.

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.

Once upon a time – every fairy tale seems to begin with, those words, but we’re not talking about fiction here – we’re talking about your story, your health story. May is Personal History Month. Do you know the connection between Grandpa’s heart trouble and why you need to be aware of eating healthy to avoid clogged arteries? Do you know Aunt Gertie’s hump back was really osteoporosis and something as simple as starting a low impact exercise routine now (walking around the block a couple of times) could go a long way to prevent that fate? Knowing our history can help us cope more easily, perhaps even avoid health challenges. Or, maybe we’ll discover creative ways to live with them. It’s wonderful when we share stories about how little Sally gets her red hair from her father’s side of the family. Unfortunately, red hair and stubbornness seem to go together, and knowing how to de-stress by getting lost in a sewing project has helped the young lady tremendously. Tapping into our creativity in a variety of ways can do a great deal to write a wonderful story for ourselves and live happily ever after.