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creativity

Gems #10 On creativity

October 17, 2010

Some recent gems shining a little light on creativity…

I am doing the wonderful Unravelling e-course currently with Susannah Conway and a whole raft of incredibly creative people. It’s very inspiring to see the creativity of others in images and words and also to feel your own tendrils of creativity stretching into new directions.

Here are some recent gems about creativity, resistance, getting moving and what can help and hinder its expression:

Stop Resisting and Start Creating

What’s ROBBing you of your creativity?

How to stop thinking, worrying and analysing and just start creating

That’s all for now, as off to create 🙂

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blogging creativity transcending

Power out, power up

September 5, 2010

Wild weather and the power’s out here in town this morning. The lack of being able to do anything – make coffee, cook breakfast, wash clothes – reflects how I feel here in ‘Transcending’ at the moment.

I know the lights will go on again and the charge will surge through, but all is strangely flat and without spark after what felt like a strong start in a new space here. So, to regroup.

I wrote about ‘The Value of Howling into the Wind’ early on and the value of writing and getting out there and moving, even if it seemed no-one was watching or reading. My last post was about getting to back to basics on ‘Transcending’, the word, the concept and what it means to me.

‘Transcending’ defines the connection of so much and is my modus operandi: my work life, my personal life, my creative life and the need to cut through, strategise, climb across and rise above.

The tools for me:

writing, poetry

family history

strategy, planning and goal-setting

creative connection and reading

music and the right song at the right time

the words of songs

a perfect image that sings with how I feel

symbols, associations, metaphors

story, narrative

time alone

a walk on the beach

connecting fully with another

the synergy of good conversation

twitter and reading and connecting via blogs

What’s not working for me:

difficulty in finding time to write

no time to myself

no time to plan next steps here

The ‘no time’ business is not something I normally say; I know no-one will give me any more time. I am with Chris Guillebeau when he says in a recent post: 

My strategic plan is: say yes to everything.  The tactic is: get up early and stay up late.

I said to myself a while ago ‘no more either/or’ after reading Danielle LaPorte’s great post on the suck factor of life balance. No more waiting till you get time for writing; no more thinking about waiting till you retire or get some leave, write now.  But it is a fact that my time is squeezed at present and the special time for recharge is what is scarce.

So a resettling now of finding this precious time to recharge, to climb across and transcend, to find the power source. Being an introvert who spends all day with people, it will be powering up through this room, this space, this candle, that cafe, that beach, that song and this white page I can find a space in to shine through.

Send some encouraging thoughts and tell me what you need to do to power up. It might help spark some quiet action here…and maybe elsewhere.

Image, Candle by Nick Merzetti from flickr and used under a Creative Commons license with thanks

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creativity transcending work life

Thinking about transcending

August 29, 2010

  

Back to base. Thinking about ‘transcending’, the word, what it means, what it means to me.

Checking out the Merriam Webster online  on ‘Transcending’ yields up:

‘transcend

transitive verb:

1 a: to rise above or go beyond the limits of  b: to triumph over the negative or restrictive aspects of: OVERCOME
2: to outstrip or outdo in some attribute, quality or power
intransitive verb: to rise above or extend notably beyond ordinary limits

Examples of transcend:

1 music that transcends cultural boundaries
2 She was able to transcend her own suffering and help others
3 Her concerns transcended local issues

Origin of transcend:

Middle English: from Latin, transcendere – to climb across; transcend, from trans, and scandere, to climb
First known use: 14th Century
 
Related to transcend:
Synonyms: beat, better, eclipse, exceed, excel, outclass, outdistance, outgun, outmatch, outshine, outstrip, overtop, top, tower (over), surpass’

The words that resonate with me: to rise above, go beyond the limits of, triumph over the negative or restrictive aspects of, extend beyond ordinary limits, to climb across, eclipse, exceed, surpass and outgun. They suggest a strength of spirit, resilience, creativity and ability to find a source of power to go that extra dimension.

This for me relates to managing grief, pain and difficulty; finding solutions in the workplace; taking a creative approach instead of an old one; finding a fresh perspective;  being able to find ways of managing and climbing across obstruction or restriction; ways such as:

  • writing: poetry especially, but any writing that helps you understand and cut through – letters, emails, journals, blog posts, essays, long cathartic dumps of free-writing, submissions that clarify and come up with a strategy and creative solution to a problem
  • reading the right book: whatever it is – fiction to escape, non-fiction to understand, learn how to or make sense of; either form to learn about life, yourself, writing and another’s world
  •  listening to the perfect music for the moment, again whatever it is and thank goodness for ipods and other portable music sources that enable us to find the right song for the moment and play it now.
  • images and photography: creating an image that captures where you are, seeing an image that another has captured that echoes the world for you just now, wishing you had a camera for that image you have to capture in your mind’s eye to carry with you as the cameo of your current state of being
  • family and family history: past, present and future, those you have loved and lost and cherish, those you can see and hold and hang onto and connect with, those you have never met that mean so much to you somehow through your lineage because they are part of you
  • friends: people you chime with that become part of you through some serendipity or synchronicity of meeting – in the workplace, online, through your family, through your various interests in the world.
  • blogging to find a way through and beyond, to communicate and share this vision, to appreciate the unique visions of others and how this might inform and shape your own.

Hence my themes, categories and tags here in this special space.

The words that don’t resonate with me are the ones mostly about out-doing somebody else. ‘Transcending’  for me is not a comparison or a competition; it’s a personal journey of finding the extraordinary, the extra-special, the extra-creative way of managing and living positively and the difference this can make.

It’s become an intuitive personal mantra, my theme and centre, honed from experience but always developing into the future. I welcome you to join in the journey of exploring more about transcending, how the ‘ climbing across’ might be negotiated and the difference it could make. I welcome your thoughts here. 

‘The brighter the light, the darker the shadow.
Some things can’t be changed; they’re part of the show.’
Stephen Cummings – ‘The Brighter the Light’
Good Bones (Liberation Blues Acoustic Series)
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creativity introversion

Gems #7 On Creativity and Solitude

August 21, 2010

Some gems on creativity and solitude…

Leo Babauta opens a great piece on creativity and solitude with this quote: “In order to be open to creativity, one must have the capacity for constructive use of solitude. One must overcome the fear of being alone.” ~Rollo May

Like Leo, I am endlessly fascinated with creativity. When I worked assiduously through the wondrous ‘Style Statement‘ book by Carrie McCarthy and Danielle LaPorte, I ended up with ‘Sacred Creative’ as the two key words for where my essence meets my expression. I love reading biographies of writers, looking at their workspaces and engaging with how they created their work.

Leo’s article, The No 1 Habit of Highly Creative People, comes up with solitude as the No 1 habit for creativity and reflects on the ways solitude fuels and supports creativity. He includes some thoughts around solitude as a source of strength from current creative people as well as some famous creative people from the past . His article, linked to this one, The Little But Useful Guide to Creativity, is a further reminder of ways of being grounded in a creative mindset. The ones that ring true for me: long walks on the beach, shutting out the outside world, getting things down and working in small steps.

I love May Sarton’s ‘Journal of a Solitude’  for capturing what it’s like sometimes when solitude and creativity come together and the raw, vulnerable feelings that come up when you do manage to get that space and time:

‘The ambience here is order and beauty. This is what frightens me when I am first alone again. I feel inadequate. I have made an open place, a place for meditation. What if I cannot find myself inside it?

I think of these pages as a way of doing that. For a long time now, every meeting with another human being has been a collision. I feel too much, sense too much, am exhausted by the reverberations after even the simplest conversation. But the deep collision is and has been with my unregenerate, tormenting and tormented self. I have written every poem, every novel for the same purpose – to find out what I think, to know where I stand. I am unable to become what I see. I feel like an inadequate machine, a machine that breaks down at crucial moments, grinds to a dreadful halt, “won’t go,” or, even worse, explodes in some innocent person’s face.” (p12)

And I love these words from the end of the No 1 Habits piece for helping to still that maelstrom of vulnerability:

‘Lastly, being creative means living a creative life.  Expect yourself to have one.  Believe you are creative. Know that you are. Make that the most important habit of all.’

A recent Creative Penn podcast interview ‘Authenticity And Creative Expression With Robert Rabbin’ provides some excellent tips for moving through these barriers and into the authentic and creative directions of your plans and dreams. The interview provides practical advice on how to conquer your fear of being authentic. Being playful and having fun are part of the solution. There is some really great advice to think about for moving on with creative adventures like a writing life.

Image, Gold enamelled gem-set pendantby kotomigd from flickr and used under a Creative Commons license with thanks

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blogging creativity transcending writing

Gems #6 Encouragement, kindness and resilience

August 9, 2010

Some recent gems shining a whole lot of light…

If you haven’t read The Manifesto of Encouragement on Danielle LaPorte’s White Hot Truth, rush over for the best injection of inspiration and encouragement you will have felt for a long time. Danielle’s initial post is pure light and genius. Then hundreds of people have added their words from their precious angle. It’s a string of pearls you can wear around your heart to protect you and make you shine. It also opens you up to what you might be missing around you or what you might aspire to. I hope one day it becomes a book I can carry with me every day.

Recently, I wrote a post about twitter and my positive experiences connecting up with like-minded people and the kindness and reciprocity I had found. I had just finished writing and posting, to then find Jean Sarauer’s post on Virgin Blogger Notes on a related theme: How to grow your blog with kindness. Jean provides a personal story and some excellent examples of how kindess and adding value in blogging and twitter can enhance the experience and outcome for all. Jean encourages us to ‘practice shifting your focus from what you want to get to what you can give’.  This post helps you appreciate how you can contribute and how ‘As the analytics of your heart show upticks in kindness, encouragement, and support, the analytics of your blog will also improve.’  The ‘Manifesto of Encouragement’ is a great example of this.

I only caught up this week with the July 11 ‘Creative Penn’ podcast interview by Joanna Penn: ‘Inspiration For Authors On Resilience, Accepting Criticism And Being An Introvert With Clare Edwards’.  It was excellent – one of the best of Joanna’s interviews I’ve listened to – probably because it chimed in around some personal keywords: resilience, introversion and writing. I loved the way Joanna opened up in this interview about her own experiences as an introvert with doing interviews and developing a speaking career. I related so much, being at the far end of the introversion spectrum and interacting with people all day, every day, in my work role, often standing up and speaking to many people. I have learnt to manage this but this interview provided more insightful tools for balancing between the inner and outer worlds. There is also a strong focus also in the interview on tips for resilience and staying present in the moment.

Three overwhelmingly positive gems to take us all forward with encouragement, kindness and resilience!

Image, Mother of Pearl by Westcoastrobin from flickr and used under a Creative Commons license with thanks

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blogging creativity love, loss & longing music & images

Beauty and creativity

June 22, 2010

     

Further to the post of May 19 on my ‘seven stars’ – the blogging writers who have inspired me – I want to celebrate these stars further as I move forward. I acknowledged and celebrated them in that summary post but each deserves a bright and sparkling place of their own here in between other musings and jottings. I wish to acknowledge what they have given me, the windows they open, what is inspiring and what they offer to others. I am already sprinkling this through my posts in various ways, but they deserve more considering what they have given me.    

To celebrate beauty, healing and creativity, I encourage you to visit Susannah Conway’s sites:    

 http://www.susannahconway.com/ In her own words: ‘This is the online home of Susannah Conway, a photographer, writer and creator of the Unravelling e-courses. A self-confessed Polaroid fanatic, she shares insights on her blog while exploring the world through her camera lens.’    

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/inkonmyfingers/sets/ Susannah’s photographs on flickr    

You can also see Susannah talking about her creativity in a video interview, ‘Burning questions with Susannah Conway: beauty that heals’ at Danielle LaPorte’s White Hot Truth.    

What Susannah gives me:    

Clear open heart, beauty, creativity, something special to take away every time I read and visit, vulnerability, courage, a model for being open and creative and what that can do for other people, someone else talking like I feel about moving through grief, pain and healing, how that happens, what it feels like, creative ways to do this, reflections on light and shadow.    

And anyone who  takes the  most beautiful photographs of her piles of moleskine journals, a box full of old penguin paperbacks she has just found at a garage sale, all the gorgeously titled books in her library sorted by colour and her  poloraid camera collection is so very cool in my books and I just swoon with pleasure at the sights.    

One of my most treasured posts is ‘Five years’ , a reflection on grief that has travelled now through five years. I connect through music with those I have loved and lost, and this post ends with an invitation to play a Kings of Leon song for Susannah’s partner whom she loved and lost. The song ends up being played loud all around the world by readers, including by me here in Sydney, with many tears shed all over in layers of connection.    

Visit and be sometimes delighted, sometimes saddened, always touched in some special way and always inspired.    

 Moleskine and penguin pics by Susannah Conway and used with her kind permission.  

 

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