Try Out the New You
I have no illusions that after one month of thinking about what it would mean to be able to create freely and another of trying to understand the pain that may be holding you back that you’ll suddenly find yourself sharpening your back-to-school pencil and getting ready to show up …
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Act on What Matters Most
We went deep this month on the Creative Play blog (especially for the end of summer!), talking about creating from pain and using our exploration of pain to uncover what matters most to us. My hope is that something emerged for you this month and that you have some creative …
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Create From Your Pain
In the last post, we explored some questions about pain and loss and considered what’s important to us. My answer was “joy.” It’s what I feel that I need to bring into being and it’s driving what I am creating this week. How about you? What do you need to …
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Explore What Matters
This month, we’re exploring the links between pain and creativity, both how your creativity can help you work through your pain, but also how that pain can be a driver for transformational creative work. Today, as you explore these ideas more, ask yourself the following questions (which come from Bittersweet: …
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Imagine Your Backpack
When I think about the idea of emotional baggage, I imagine a backpack – a heavy backpack that pulls on my shoulders and has me bent over from the weight. One of the most useful activities that I have done during my creativity journey was to close my eyes, imagine …
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Freedom from Pain
“Whatever pain you can’t get rid of, make it your creative offering.” That’s a quote from Leonard Cohen that opens Chapter 3 in Bittersweet by Susan Cain Her question for the chapter is “Is creativity associated with sorrow, longing – and transcendence?” The answer is yes, but the book is …
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Be Free
This week’s Action Item: Schedule free time. Huh? It’s counterintuitive, I know, but schedule in some down time to your week. Book a 15 to 30 minute time slot to do some free creating, to poke around, to daydream, to explore. I promise that it will be time well-spent.
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Create Freely
Let your Imagine and Explore exercises lead the way to creating freely. As you explored what creative freedom meant to you, did inspiration strike? Go back to what you free wrote. Is there something there that’s germinating an idea? It doesn’t have to be fully formed. Sit and sketch for …
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Explore Freedom
Today, do some free writing on what freedom means to you. Open up a blank notes page or even better, grab a piece of paper and a pen, and just write what comes to mind as you explore the idea of “freedom.” Is there some “stuff” that comes up for …
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Imagine Creative Freedom
Close your eyes, sit still, and imagine what it would be like to be creatively free. Can you feel it?
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