Why I’m OK Teaching a Creativity Workshop

If I had a dime for every time I heard, “Oh Shalagh you are so creative”, I’d at least have five bucks. This became one of those phrases that made me twitch perhaps because I didn’t think of myself as having any kind of creative superpowers which was obvious to them but not to me, until it finally was. I think perhaps what they meant was they wished they knew the secret creative permission spell too.

Fast forward to the past several years when I intentionally indulged myself in creative challenges to gain creative confidence. I followed many of my creative curiosities until I finally owned that I was an Uber-creative. And I am beginning to understand that I believe in creative living aka Creativism as a way of life, one that is at odds with the consume and destroy mode of existence I see all too much of.

So if there is a purpose to my life, one of the facets seems to be sharing my creativity with others so that they too have permission to create.  To this end, I am offering a creativity workshop locally this Fall because I believe that everyone can benefit, and perhaps heal, from increased creativity in their lives.

Each of us looks to understand ourselves based on our interaction with the world. The advertising propaganda would have us believe conformity and possession would be our best safe bet to easy existence. But in fact, we crave to understand our uniqueness through our interactions. We long to be carefree, to be unique and yet connected to our community at the same time. We want self-confidence that comes from owning our own uniqueness and perspective. Not only are these human needs, they are only a few of the many benefits of creativity.

Somehow, as we become older, we conform to the idea that creativity will get us outcast from the tribe. That we need to focus only on the earning of money and security for our family. My hope is that by opening up a conversation with people, and consequently they with themselves, the tantalizing benefits will begin to tickle people slightly out of their fear zones so that they may try creativity in small bursts in their lives. A little creativity in one’s life is better than none. And the money people can save by ceasing to try to find themselves by spending rather than creating will make it an even more enticing proposition.

My final realization is that I don’t have to be a “professional” artist to legitimize my knowledge and experience around creativity. I can be a small “a” artist. I only need to acknowledge that I am creative and share what I feel and know to be my truth around this process as it relates to my growth and development as a more rounded human being. I can honestly say that the permission I have given myself to create has created a better happier more confident me. And that is a completely good thing.

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your email box. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest  too. I am always practicing Intentional In-touchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.

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Intentional Creative Soul Living

Life can become a little slow, boring, and mundane. Caught up in what I’m supposed to do, I can forget that the mood I’m in while I’m doing even the most boring and mundane tasks is shaded by my thoughts. And as my husband says, if I’m not having fun, I’m not doing it right. Creative Soul Living is doing it right.

I believe that our creativity can be applied to everything in our lives if we allow it. We can put play in places that we usually don’t. And we can make our lives way more magical and interesting if we are open to trying out new ways and new angles. To seeing ourselves in new colors or taking different paths to the same places. And especially by infusing our days and musts with little devotional rituals.

Perhaps it’s putting on salsa music while you take a shower. Or lighting a smelly candle when you meditate. Maybe stick a pin in a map to see where you can go get lost and discover something. Or maybe it’s putting your best outfit on to go grocery shopping.

Creative soul living is a concept I came up with nearly two years ago and I can see how even I have not embraced it fully. Won’t you join me in taking a different route through our lives and seeing where we may be able to infuse a little more fun into our every days. To live and allow a few moments that are unjudged for their productivity. And thus inspire ourselves to create more daily joy for our inner children. Create magic right where you are right now just for you. I dare you.

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.

Life as an Uber Creative

Is that there’s too many things you’d like to devote your creative attention to?

When I was younger, I considered acting. I considered music. I thought about art for a long time before I finally allowed myself to practice it. And I have now indulged my writer enough that she feels calm. But other parts of me loiter around like groupies waiting for a break. My photographer is resigned to get her chance in my retirement years.

 I finally adopted my new self definition as uber creative three years ago in 2015 and wrote this funny piece about my busy-brained eagerness to create it all. And since then I have also discovered that I am an over-worker. This stress and fear coping mechanism is otherwise known as Industrial Over-Focused. I can see how I combined my fear coping mechanism and my creative drive and added a little fear of visibility,perfectionism and have made my uber-creativity into a bad combination affliction.

I believe that you can never have too much creativity in your life and that if you actually allow your intuition to make more choices for only you in your life, you’d be way more stress free. But combining a need to please and get it right with the need to create can ruin the joy of creativity for anyone.

I looked up the concept of Uber Creative on the internet and found a very interesting article that has 14 ideas on how to be an Uber Creative here. Who doesn’t need outside inspiration at some point? Just as creating for others instead of yourself isn’t any fun, neither is creating in a vacuum.

So a Huzzah to everyone who wants to create and hello to my fellow Uber Creatives ! There’s no better balm for your soul than creativity. I encourage you to write your secret creative desires down out of earshot of your inner critical parent. And then trick the parent into signing a permission slip to indulge your inner child in a little playtime and see what happens.  Everyone is actually creative (capable of combining new ideas together essentially) and that once we embrace the meaning of creativity as a way of living and not a perfect product, the world will shift.

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter orPinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.

All the Things

She said she was going to get “ All the Things” done while she was kid free. And I knew exactly what she meant. And now I realize why it felt so familiar. Both with my to do lists and in my creative endeavors, I fear “All the Things” are beyond what anyone needs to try to do. And I am overwhelmed and in a constant state of lack for pursuing this lie of accomplishment happiness.

Seems this is very much a Creative’s curse. We are excited by all the possibilities and want to see how each thing will add to our lives. All the thoughts, ideas, tidbits, inspirations, projects, collaborations, and goals are truly awesome by themselves. But grouped together, they suddenly become a swirling stormy pool of chaos that I find so easily sucks me in and pulls me under. And if the word “Should” is attached to them, they are double doomed.

Everything has merit until it all becomes too much. Then none of it matters. Because you wouldn’t know where to start. This state of affairs has possessed my mail program, my desktop, my craft room, my attic, and my garden. And I am beginning to get the sneaky suspicion that I have unconsciously masterminded it all this way to keep myself from actually making progress.

Why, you ask, wouldn’t I want to be making progress? Because progress may mean more visibility than I am comfortable with. More work, more responsibility, and more more more. So I am just making sure I have less by having more? Yup, it’s a system that didn’t work for my creative predecessors and fellow creatives, and definitely isn’t working for me.

So what do I do? Begin again to clear out the clutter and the cobwebs mentally and physically so that I can feel the ease of creating without the confusion. I believe that new ideas will always find you. That inspiration is right behind you. And that we have limitless amounts of talent to deliver up our unique vision to the world.

Every day is a good day to start over again. Let’s begin again. Read my earlier post on my Empty Box Method to get an idea on how to move and sort through your chaos.

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter orPinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.

One Thought On Hoarding and Chaos

I’ve been done knowing I need to write a declaration/manifesto about my passions to share with the world on the subjects of Establishing Self-trust by Indulging Creativity and Creativity and Motherhood. Yesterday, I sat down and slogged out a 500 word piece only to find, when I put it in a file with some other Manifestos I’d already written, I’d pretty much written this piece out twice before. And did a better job both times. Again, I stumble on my mental chaos.

This chaos is most evident with all of my computer desktop’s documents and folders and by the multitude of scraps of paper in the miscellaneous folders stacked up around my work places. Reflections of my busy creative mind yes. But also an sign that my chaos keeps me off track.  I am very good at generating ideas but apparently not so good at systematizing them into action. And eventually the spark dies and they get buried inside folder upon folder.

So I stood here and decided that once and for all, I’d create one notebook that would keep and contain my current ongoing projects, goals, and thoughts. Why do I not have a system to contain all of this already? Because in keeping myself in chaos, I get to continue to stay invisible and risk free. Who can maintain a thought train and track goal tasks when there’s all of this going on? Brilliantly self-sabotaging. Thank you very little.

I have lived a life of giving up. When you have low self-esteem, you spend a lifetime of giving up. You continue to abandon yourself just as you felt you were abandoned as a child. And so the abandonment of all these sparks and starts and spurts is par for that course. Except, it feels like some sort of horrible nightmare from which I want to awaken. I no longer want to live in chaos, in my mind or in my house.

So today, I finally took a step. Again, I wrangled and considered what I have thought and sorted out new priorities from old. It feels transformative. It feels powerful to stop the cycle. To gather myself and show up for me. The clearing is a life pattern and I accept that it will have to happen many more times in my lifetime. But for now, Good Enough.

If you enjoyed what you read, please subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your email box. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional In-touchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.