January 27th, 2012

Creative Friday: Dreaming of Summer

We’re still heavy into winter. {If my house socks and all day robe wearing are any indication.} But while I wrap myself in multiple layers, I spend moments dreaming of summer.

My latest painted calendars help with that greatly.

The right one was inspired by a Paper-Source design and the left one was inspired by yet another CB2 catalog. Hope they realize imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I’ve been in the crafty mood lately. Guess all that time spent indoors inspires my inner muse. Anyone else feel that way?

January 23rd, 2012

Overcoming Sucky Days

{found on pinterest. from shirt.woot.com}

by: guest blogger

Today was just one of those days!

You probably know the kind I’m talking about. The ones that just drain all the energy from you.

You get home from work with a million things that need doing; but somehow, you just don’t seem to have any energy to do them. Instead, you end up on the couch, suddenly startled to see that it’s 11 p.m.

Where did the evening go? The TV was on, but you can’t really remember what you watched (or why).  The kids were in and out, fed and put to bed, but you were on auto pilot.

 

We’ve all been there, right?

I call these days the “suckies” cuz they just suck!  They suck the energy from you and they suck because they’re just rotten!

It seems like the suckies pop up in my life–like a lawn full of dandelions–when I’m most determined to make dramatic change.

The more determined I am to spend some serious time writing or creating, there they are. The suckies just won’t leave me alone!

I trudge in the door, fix some dinner, tell myself I need to sit down in the office and get some things done.  Somehow, I never seem to make it to the computer.

Ugh!  Another day down the drain, I think, frustrated.

 

How to Break Free of the Suckies

1. Ready? Set. CLEAR!

Have you ever seen a movie or TV show where someone is using a defibrillator? Think of yourself as the patient.

You have suffered an emotional and energetic heart attack.  You need to administer a jolt to your psyche. Get yourself re-calibrated.

How? (So glad you asked)

Break up your routine.

If you normally come home and get into something more comfortable and make yourself a hearty dinner…don’t.

Instead, come home, take off the tie or jacket and stay in your “work” clothes.  Grab a healthy snack–a granola bar or some fruit/veggies.  Then get directly to work. In an hour or two, you can take a break to eat something more substantial if you need.

By that time, you’ll feel re-energized because you’ll be engaged in work that is important to you and which energizes you.

If you normally come in and try to go right to work, change it up.  Take time making yourself a delicious dinner.  Enjoy your dinner.  Then get busy with your “important” work.

The vital thing is to change it up.  Don’t let yourself settle into the normal routine.  You deserve better.  You are better than that.

2. Create a List…Or Don’t

Make a short list of the things you want to accomplish.  Stay focused.  (Or don’t)  I’m a free spirit and can be distracted easily.  I sometimes need a list.

If your life is governed by lists and you’re super-efficient, then do the opposite.  Set aside your lists and spend time reconnecting to the tasks which expand your bliss and sense of joy.

Spend some energy just enjoying the wonderful process of engagement with the work about which you are passionate.  Experience what it feels like to just be present in the creative moment and creative space. (It’s exhilarating)

3.  K.I.S.S.

We’ve all heard the maxim: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

When it comes to overcoming the “suckies,” I recommend doing something simple.  Sometimes all it takes is one small, simple action to draw us out of the suckies and help us to reconnect to our passionate work.

But I would like to modify the K.I.S.S. maxim to remind us to Keep It Small and Simple.  Don’t try to take on the whole debilitating and demoralizing project.

Just do one small and simple part.  Then do the next (and the next).  Soon, you’ll find that you have completed it.

***KISS= Keep It Small and Simple***

The Power Punch

The takeaway is to do what it takes to break yourself from your unconscious habit state and reawaken your awareness in order to engage with the power of your innate creative mind. The strength lies within you.  It simply requires a simple remembering and a small refocusing on what is important.

Now it is your turn.  What are your tips for overcoming the “suckies” in your own life? Have you used the techniques I have listed above?  How have they worked for you?

BIO: Steve Rice is the owner of TrueSpiritualAwakening.  He is an author and entrepreneur committed to creating a well-lived life and helping others to do the same. You can follow him on Twitter or connect on Facebook.

January 20th, 2012

Creative Friday: More Peace Please

Anyone else reluctant to take down their Christmas decorations? I am. Especially since I worked so hard on them this year sans Christmas tree.

Yes, I still have them up. And will probably keep them up until the next holiday comes on by. {don’t judge me.}

Until then, I decided to redo one last holiday craft that can possibly be used year round especially in light of our recent Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. It’s my bowl of peace. Remember them?

Well I still had leftover styrofoam balls from my snowman project and floral wire so I decided to let peace go. And here’s what happened:

I used the same technique that helped me to create my snowman snow globe. All I did was thread floral wire between a letter ball and a foam ball. Then, I just placed them next to each other. Easy, peace-y.

What have you been working on lately?

January 16th, 2012

Be Shameless

{via pinterest originally from waveavenue.com}

There’s been something weird going on with me lately. Or maybe it’s been like this for awhile. I noticed that every time I create something, I have a tinge of something. Something that comes from a deep place, but difficult to put my finger on.

Then, I started getting signs of what it could be. I was watching The Rosie Show the other day where she devoted an entire segment to the show Shameless. The word carried so much meaning with it. It stayed with me and haunted my thoughts for awhile.

And then I was thumbing through Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and landed on page 67 on Shame. She says:

“Those of us who get bogged down by fear before action are usually being sabotaged by an older enemy, shame.”

While she says that art actually shines a light on shame, the wounds we carry from our childhood tends to gloss over that. Shame comes from our parents who wanted to keep us from coloring outside the lines. It comes from our friends who taunted us for being weird. It comes from those who wanted to keep us in the norm so that we couldn’t threaten them with our own innate power.

And as adults we keep slipping right on over it. Every time we create something, we are walking on that tight rope again. Will someone think our creation is less than? Will they think, “How dare she think she’s talented?” Or, “Who does she think she is for creating that?”

It’s a deep-rooted fear that haunts me whenever I write a post, send out a tweet, or share an update on Facebook. It’s the fear that someone will point me out and claim that I am a fake.

How to be Shameless

In the end, while feeling shame is common in creating, I realized that I don’t want to live this way anymore. Instead of repressing the hurt that comes from shame or telling yourself that it doesn’t matter, that your art doesn’t matter, why not embrace a life of shamelessness?

What does this mean?

It means telling your inner voice that:

1. you are courageous

2. that their negative review doesn’t sum up your life

3. that your art is simply an expression, not an extension of you

4. that your own way of creating is special and you don’t have to seek the approval of others to know this

5. that you are worthy just for the sake of being alive.

*The winner of this happiest book giveaway is Cory Clay. Congrats Cory! Let me know what you think of the book.

January 13th, 2012

Creative Friday the 13th: More Calendar Months

It’s Friday again. Yay! My favorite day of the week. On top of slowly writing my little short story, I’m also working on my calendar still. The more months I add to it, the more I think they’d be real pretty on a clothesline clipped with my crafty clothespins.  But for now, they’re hanging atop my wall.

Do you know how you know you’re lucky? When your significant other says, “Wow these are my favorites so far!” And he means it.

{Even with the smudges and imperfect pear shapes.} I guess that’s love. This set was inspired by my Target cup and my Crate and Barrel catalog.

Here they are hung up in my office.

What have you been up to lately?

*By the way, today’s the last day to enter to win a free copy of How to Be Happy No Matter What! by Sarah Nagel. You can still enter here.

January 9th, 2012

The Happiest Giveaway Ever on The Inspiring Bee

{via pinterest from acertainsortof.tumblr.com}

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. There’s nothing like a good book to lift me out of whatever deep dark well I’ve fallen in. As a child, books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and A Wrinkle in Time took me out of the doldrums of long public school days and lonely only child nights. I spent half of my childhood and adolescence at the library. And that’s the truth.

As an adult, biographies, self-help and a few fiction books such as Still Alice inspires me. It returns the childhood magic that I lost along the way with Santa Claus, tooth fairies and possibility. I thrive in the powerful words of a good book. And am thoroughly grateful when a book like this one falls into my lap*.

Happiness from a Book

How to Be Happy No Matter What! published by Blue Mountain Arts and edited by Sarah Nagel (who guest blogged for me here) is a compilation of hopeful quotes, antidotes and words of wisdom from people like Montel Williams, Gretchen Rubin, William Blake and Queen Latifah. While scanning through the list of contributing celebrities, I was both impressed and fascinated by the inspiration that came from them. What an amazing conversation they would have and would I love to be a fly on that wall!

This 60-page book is sweetly designed and is what you would expect from the company who creates beautiful, thoughtful, handmade looking calendars, books, and greeting cards. But there’s something deeper than one an old college friend of mine would call “fluffy” or “flowery” work. In sections like, “Savor the Present Moment, ” “Practice Gratitude,” and “Slow Down and Relax,” there are mini lessons not just on how to be happy, but how to live a more meaningful life. These themes hit home for me since they discuss the topics that I’m most passionate about and that I try to share on this blog.

I think if you’re the type of person who is trying to live your life with more meaning or you’re trying to be more positive, if you’re looking for ways to inspire yourself, this will feel like the supportive friend you need. While you’re getting over the disappointments over the holidays, the fatigue you feel from the chaos, the emotional drain you feel from too much drama, you’ll feel comforted in encouraging words like these:

“Don’t ever lose sight of the gift that is you. Remember what you’re made of. Remember what’s flowing in your veins. Remember what you were given, and remember what you went out and created on your own. Like any great masterpiece, you’re not done yet. Inside you is the best of everyone who has come before you – and the best of everyone yet to be. You can forget some of what life hands you, but never, ever forget who you are…You are a gift to the world!” – Rachel Snyder

A Gift for You

Doesn’t that feel like coming home? To me, it feels like the gift that everyone deserves to hear. It will be the book I read when I’m faced with another writer rejection, when I’m confused about which direction to go, when I’m feeling uninspired and need inspiration.

It excites me just to share this book with you, but Sarah generously sent an additional book to giveaway too. This book is filled with the kind of optimism, hope and motivation that I believe are vital to your journey to follow your dreams. It’s a great fit for The Inspiring Bee readers. If you would like to enter to win this book, just leave a comment below with who or what inspires you or tweet this post. I’ll be randomizing everyone who enters until the contest ends on Friday 1/13. Good luck!

*I received two free copies of this book in exchange for an honest review and a happy book giveaway.

January 9th, 2012

Where Inspiration Comes From

Yes, sometimes inspiration comes in beautiful things-in waterfalls, quiet carpets of green sprawling grass, in the smile of a child.

But most often the most profound moments come to us in grief, when we’ve fallen down, broken in, cracked on the the inside and have nothing left to give.

It’s during these times that we have a rare glimpse into our true selves. It’s in these moments that we’re asked:

“Can I make it? Will I survive this? Do I have what it takes to move forward stronger than I was before?”

It can come in tragic experiences or in small tests-tests that ask us if we’re willing to accept who we are and the life we’ve been born to live.

If I know anything, it’s this. We were not made to be born the same. We were given our own individual minds and a fingerprint unique to each individual soul. Although society and your friends and family would like you to fit the mold and keep you there for their own safety, you were meant to break it.

On one of Oprah’s Lifeclass she says:

“Your life doesn’t have to be what everybody else thinks it should be.”

And when you can mourn that loss, when you can grieve their expectations that you will never and should never fulfill for them, you will then pick yourself up from that tear fallen floor and rise above it all.

It takes heart, courage, sheer will and a reminder that shedding that skin no matter how painful, is what being human is. It is not to walk the same path as your neighbor. It is not to make a million dollars a year. It is not to exceed your competitor. It is only to be. Exactly the way you are. Exactly the way you were meant to be.

Breathe that in dear friends. You already are more than enough.


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