Archive for ‘Creativity’

April 3rd, 2013

The Power of Creativity

{Queen Anne Lace Settee from Joss and Main via Pinterest}

{Baxton Studio chairs from Amazon.com}

 

{Boja pendant lamp from Ikea}

I’ve been in the process of buying our first home so forgive me if this platform has been sparse lately. But don’t forgive me for neglecting creativity.

Creativity is the undercurrent of this blog. It is the root of anything worth its beauty and within its process contains the very essence of life itself. It doesn’t matter if you’re uber creative and masterfully write, paint, or craft for a living. It matters only that you try.

Every person is creative. The need to make something out of nothing stems from a sacred place. We were all “created.” Anyone who has temporarily put down a paintbrush and taken up their computer instead has nostalgia for the first time they created something.

For you who sit and work and live and tend to your children, but do not tend to your own creative garden, this post is for you.

If you are harboring fear, anger, resentment, jealousy, discontent, boredom, lack of meaning in your life, you may be neglecting your creative self.

There have been many people I’ve met who are creatives at heart. They are dramatic and over-the-top, fun to be with, energetic, passionate. But the energy that could be spent on their creativity gets transformed into obsessively worrying, overworking, or an unhealthy focus/obsession on others.

Why would we miss the chance to paint or draw or be out in nature? We deem it unimportant. The older we are, the more we lose the voice that tells us this is important too.

I love what author and speaker Dr. Brené Brown says about creativity on her website and in her book The Gifts of Imperfection:

 “I’m not very creative” doesn’t work. There’s no such thing as creative people and non-creative people. There are only people who use their creativity and people who don’t. Unused creativity doesn’t just disappear. It lives within us until it’s expressed, neglected to death, or suffocated by resentment and fear.

What have you given up as a result of neglecting your creativity?

Is it your life, your freedom, your sense of meaning, your self?

I’ve learned that when I choose to watch TV or internet surf instead of create, my personal and professional life takes a hit. The only way I can continue to grow, to feel purposeful, to feel grounded despite the chaos of daily life, is to partake in an act of creativity.

I vow to take up a creative task daily.

What will you start to create today?

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March 26th, 2013

The Importance of Play in Inspiration

{Etsy art by spunkyfluff}

{Etsy art by spunkyfluff}

Many people get caught up with words like, “progress,” “certainty,” and “maturity.” They worry when they don’t know what they want to be when they grow up. They beat themselves up when two steps forward leads to one step back. They are self-critical and ashamed when they are “acting immature.”

But it’s all part of the process. According to Care of the Soul author Thomas Moore, it’s neglecting the complexities of our inner child (the part of us that is playful, creative and spontaneous) that hurts us most. He says progress and growth are prioritized in our society, but they are not always necessary or relevant. Sometimes in order to grow or heal we need to take a step back. Sometimes in order to know what we want, we need to honor the child. To go forward, it’s imperative that we look back. He believes that taking care of your soul requires that you accept, nurture and pay attention to all aspects of yourself. And in fact, ignoring or attempting to deny your childhood desires, your inner joy, spontaneity, and your creativity can cause significant suffering.

Who you are right at this moment is a conglomeration of who you were, who you are and who you are about to become. To neglect any part of your soul in disgust, distaste or disdain will work against you. It’s like a critical and demanding parent who controls you into being the person they want you to be. You will never know your true purpose or calling if you continue on that path. The only way to awaken the part of you that asks the following:

Who am I?

What do I really want in life?

What do I want to be when I grow up?

…is to listen.

This means prioritizing play in your life. Respect the time you devote to reading, playing, creating and protect it as well as you protect time spent working. Embrace your inner child’s wants without judgment, criticism and reprimand. You’ve had enough of that in your life and that’s the reason why you are where you are in this moment. I’m afraid the only way you can free yourself from the hold of a stifling past is to release your fears and finally respond to the part of you that you’ve been hiding for so long.

It’s a frightening, but worthy cause.

For today, let yourself be immature,

open your eyes to life as if you’ve never explored it before,

and be okay, just for this moment, with not knowing what’s through that unopened door…

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October 16th, 2012

Why You Should Never Give Up

{Random abstract watercolor painting I drew up with watercolor pencils and a paintbrush.}

We often hold back from our true potential out of fear. There is a small, but demanding voice that screeches at us and says, “No one cares about what you do. You’ll never be good enough. ” Like a mosquito, it buzzes in our ears, annoying even the most confident and successful amongst us.

It’s not that some people are just more talented, hard working or lucky. It is true that there are people who fall into those categories. But that’s not what got them where they are.

What gave them the ability to surpass the doubts and hurdles that overcome all of us is the belief they will eventually get there.

Even if their prose is so bad that it causes loved ones to swallow criticism in fear of hurting their feelings.

Even if their hours of work is not only monotonous, but heartbreakingly unproductive.

Even if you are not where you want to be.

Even if all signs seem to point to failure.

If you still are passionate about what you do, do not give up!

I realized after five years of writing professionally that there is a natural ebb and flow that comes with the territory. There will be moments when my ego believes, “This is it! I finally made it.” As if a single project could validate my existence. And there are equally moments when the jobs start to dry up that I begin to question my purpose.

None of that is important. These are mere external circumstances required to change as we do. If anything, they are there as lessons-inevitable opportunities to practice patience, faith and the type of unrelenting persistence required to accomplish big feats like finishing a marathon or that story you have tucked away in a drawer.

It took me a long time to realize that it’s not about proving myself. It took me years to realize that there’s no magic fairy dust that graces the head’s of only certain individuals. The way you make luck for yourself in life is to keep trying.

This means that I will pick myself up after every inevitable fall. It means that just because my rough draft sucks doesn’t mean it won’t sing after a dozen or more revisions.

What it means it that I don’t equate my bad days with the good of my soul.

It takes courage to meet our fears. But it’s the only way we’ll get there. And dear friends, we will get there, as long as we keep on going.

CategoryCreativity, Following Your Dreams, Inspired Life | CommentNo Comments »

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August 31st, 2012

Courtesy of Ballard Designs

Seeing the HGTV 2012 Green Dream Home in Serenbe, Georgia was pretty sweet. But getting to see a home designed by Ballard Designs creative director Jill Sharp Brinson was pure delight. On the heels of a friendly group of women who asked Brinson if they could venture in, we snuck our way through. Gratefully, the women let us be a part of their crew for the day.

As someone who melts in the presence of good design, I was enamored. I even managed to pick myself off the floor in order to snap a few shots. They hardly do justice to the home though.

{photo by The Inspiring Bee} The home that gave the 2012 HGTV green house a run for its money.

So much beauty reflected in this mirror.

Love the contrasting prints in a similar hue .

Love the idea of adding storage where there is none especially doing it in an elegant and simple way like this.

Couldn’t you just see yourself here sipping tea, idling the day away?

That’s it for now. Hope you have a great long weekend! We all need a break don’t we?

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July 26th, 2012

When Creativity Stops

{by The Inspiring Bee}

You might have experienced a flow of creativity in the past. Ideas were popping. Creativity was flowing. And then zilch. Just like that the river’s run dry. Does this mean you pack your bags and fly toward a new career?

Nope. Not quite.

Like anything else, creativity has its ups and downs. Just because you’re soaring on creativity Cloud Nine doesn’t mean you won’t end up in a valley somewhere. Similarly if you’re stuck in a creative rut, don’t give up just yet. You’ll eventually get back to the mountains.

The thing is we only ever hear about the triumph, the success stories, the grand accomplishments. We rarely hear about the failure, the surmounting challenges, being in the midst of defeat.

Most people want to glorify the former and forget about the latter. Either that or like labor, we forget about the pain it took to birth that beautiful baby.

In Jonah Lehrer’s new book Imagine: How Creativity Works he magically says the following. Yes I said magically. More on that later.

“Every creative journey begins with a problem. It starts with a feeling of frustration, the dull ache of not being able to find the answer. We have worked hard, but we’ve hit the wall…”

It’s a normal part of the journey. But as Lehrer points out. Here’s where the magic comes in.

“When we tell one another stories about creativity, we tend to leave out this phase of the creative process. We neglect to mention those days when we wanted to quit, when we believed that our problems were impossible to solve. Because such failures contradict the romantic version of events-there is nothing triumphant about a false start-we forget about them…Instead, we skip straight to the breakthroughs.”

The magical part is two-fold: 1) He reveals the truth no one likes to talk about-that all creative success involves failure. 2) It’s a natural step in the course of creativity.

The answer lies not in doing more work, forcing yourself to become creative or even giving up completely.

It’s in taking a break from finding out what’s next. It’s the unknown that holds your answer.

So the next time you feel frustrated and catch yourself in the midst of a difficult problem, don’t sweat it. The answers will come. Creativity will flow again.

Your biggest enemy toward your creativity isn’t outside yourself. It’s your own negative, critical thoughts and fears that hold you back.

When creativity stops, rest. And rest assure, the floodgates will eventually open again.

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July 13th, 2012

Creative Friday: Framed Butterflies

I’ve been enthusiastic about pulling together this DIY project since I caught wind of it at an antique shop in San Francisco.

A framed set of real butterflies were beautiful and elegant and oh so vintage. I almost bought it. That is, until I saw the just as impressive price tag. At over $100 per frame, I was flabbergasted. Then, I said those famous words that always gets me in trouble: “I think I can do it myself.”

A trip to Paper-Source and Michael’s later and I had all the materials needed to get this project started.

Here are the materials:

  • One Butterfly Magnet Set from Paper-Source at $13.95.
  • Two white 6×8 in shadow box frames from Michael’s at $4.19 each. They were 25% off each so I paid about $6.28 for both.
  • Scraps of leftover craft paper = $0.00
  • Double-sided tape = $0.00
  • Scissors = $0.00

Total cost: About $20.23 for two framed butterflies.

Not bad.

How I did it:

I took these two shadow boxes.

And unwrapped them from their cellophane blankets.

I was pleasantly surprised when I opened it and saw this. The soft velvety background came with two sticky tapes and a velcro middle.

Great for sticking craft paper to as an anchor so I could easily cut around it. Another thing that made this craft easy is that you don’t have to be good at cutting for this project. Anyone else feel inadequate in the cutting straight area?

In this case, since the frame hides most of the paper, if your cutting is crooked or if you made a mistake and cut a little too much around the borders it’s okay. In fact, the more paper you cut, the better. That’s because the paper needs to fit inside of the frame. Any extras and your paper will get scrunched when you close the back of the frame.

Next, I grabbed two-sided tape. I pulled just enough tape so that it would cover most of the paper vertically. Then, I stuck the tape lengthwise in the middle of the paper.

After, I took the tower of magnetic butterflies already stuck to its own vertical metal stick and placed it onto the double-sided tape. I had to cut about an inch off the top of the metal skewers and a few off from the butterfly antennas so that it would fit inside of the frame. But that’s it! So easy, it’s ridiculous!

Here’s one of them.

And the other…

What have you been crafting lately?

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June 7th, 2012

Why It’s Great to Be Imperfect

{flickr photo}

“Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.”
~ Harriet Braiker

It could be hilarious that I’m the one to write this post. After all, I’ve been known to discard drawings and crumple up grade school art projects because it wasn’t good enough.

But I also may be one of the best people to talk about it because I continually grapple with perfectionism and have found ways to release its hold on my life.

It’s easy to get stuck on a broken record of perfectionism. Because we never get there, it can lead to eventual burnout and depression.

How do we get ourselves off of this insidious path?

Walk right into your fear. You say you’re afraid of making a mistake, screwing up, letting people find out how flawed you really are? I dare you to do something that will force you to face that fear. Infamous The Artist’s Way author Julia Cameron says:

“Sometimes I will write badly, draw badly, paint badly, perform badly. I have a right to do that to get to the other side. Creativity is its own reward.”

Isn’t that quote so freeing?

It allows you the permission to be bad, to unleash your rebellious side, to quell the inner micro-manager that says everything must be perfect in order for you to create it. Not only that, but as Cameron says, it’s your right to do so. There is nothing shameful about being imperfect. There is nothing wrong about being flawed.

Here’s a secret: we’re all born that way. Why not embrace it?

A few times a month I release my inner bad boy and create just for the sake of it. Sometimes what comes out is beautiful, other times I need to try again. But exercising my imperfection muscle is always worth it. It reminds me not to take myself so seriously. And to remember that feeling scared, uncertain and being a beginner are the keys to self-growth and to being human.

If you have been feeling bored, discouraged or depressed lately, check in with yourself. Are you on a hamster wheel of perfectionism? Have you allowed yourself the time and space for error? When was the last time you tried something new or did something without adding a disclaimer such as, “I’m really not good at this,” or “I can’t do it?”

If you want to free yourself from perfectionism…

{Click here to find out how to reinvigorate your life sans perfectionism…}

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