Monday, January 26, 2009

3rd Secret: Following Your Fascinations

Before I started this weeks blog post I went back and read all the previous comments you have written to me. I first want to say thank you for your thoughts and ideas. I cannot tell you how much they mean to me. Namaste!

In this weeks chapter we are challenged to take risks, review our past risks and define what we need to move forward. I would call myself a planned risk taker as I only make moves I can predict which by definition is not a real risk.

The risks I have made in my career seem small now compared to the risk I made to change where I live. In my previous careers it was calculated, there was a measure of risk but I still had control. But when my husband and I quit our jobs, sold our home and moved to the country with no jobs to go to, that was a risk. I am still deciding if it has paid off.

Maybe because all my previous risks have been calculated, I don't really know what risks are. How to decide one worth taking versus not. I feel like I have risked my comfort and my security, and still waiting for the pay off. Or is that my problem?

I would not call myself in touch with myself right now. But at least I listened this week. On Friday I decided I was going to do something 'crafty'. I had a project I had been wanting to do for some time but could never find the time. I made the time. And I lost myself in it. Giving myself permission to create was key, I need to do that more often. As usual I need to get off my back and just be.

The limited thinking that holds me back is not about looking foolish but thinking I should be doing something productive. Whatever that means. There is a quote of the movie Bed of Roses that is screaming in my head "contributing to the Gross National Product". I feel like if I am not producing to increase the bottom line (for who I don't know) than my time is wasted. Not sure where I picked this one up but any suggestions on new perspectives would be appreciated.

Monday, January 19, 2009

2nd Secret to Highly Creative Women

In our search thur The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women by Gail mcMeekin we are focusing this week on the 2nd secret "Honoring Your Inspirations".

I am actually finding this process more difficult than expected. I guess it is showing me just how out of touch I am with my creative side. My homework this week is to listen. The chapter talks about discovering what inspires us and creating structures to faciliate it. Such as building a sanctuary. My home and where I live is my sanctuary every window I look out I see nature and it inspires me. After a fresh snow fall there is nothing more peaceful than watching the winter wonderland around me. It always reminds me of The Chronicles of Narnia.

Questions for defining our creative style:
1. When did your creative awakening or reawakening occur? I believe it is in process. I am appreciating everything around me so much more.

2. what Talents do you have, naturally? I see colour and colour combinations that are representative of my clients. I am a problem solver and a good listener.

3. Which elements draw you toward them? I am attracted to all elements depending on my mood and pace that that time. But I am most drawn to water (live on lake) and wood. I have a deep connection to the Gaint Sequoias.

4. where and when do you create? whenever and where ever it hits me. I have no one spot.

5. what activates your creative energy, and what drains it? Being in nature fuels me and being around people who focus on the 'drama' drains me. I love to read and lose myself in the story.

6. do you use creative rituals? I currently don't have any, but maybe I could use some, any ideas?

7. does nature influence your creativity? YES. I can lose myself in the details of the trees, the waves on the water, the sound of the birds, no birds or the wind.

8. what has been your greatest creative hurdle so far? Rediscovering who I am during shift in my life and where I thought I was going.

9. What time of day are you most receptive to inspirations? If I am writing first thing in the morning for any other projects, when it hits.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

The First Secret of Highly Creative Women

Today is the start of a book blogging group that I’ve signed up for, hosted by the sparkling Jamie Ridler. The book we’ll all be reading and writing about in the next 12 weeks is 'The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women by Gail McMeekin. Each week we will be diving deeper into the words on the page. This week focusing on acknowledging our creative selves.

I guess I have always been creative but I have never thought so. Growing up I could always be found drawing in front of the TV or playing the instrument I was learning. In those years I learned to play the piano, Saxophone and viola. I have only recently started acknowledging how important my creative side really is.

I can really relate to 'competing in the corporate world' and 'an imbalance of masculine and femine energies'. Through out my corporate life I had to push myself into the 'boys clubs'. I was always the only woman surrounded by men doing a job that was traditionally done by men. So the consent need to prove myself was ever present.

I saw I was being treated differently and my male counterparts were getting away with everything leaving me to pick up the slack. which only made me want to fight harder and change the system!

Having spent a number of years in the rat race and having to always push and fight my way through. I got tired of fighting. My husband and I packed up our stuff and moved to the country. Not knowing what we were moving too.

We would spend time every summer at our cottage by the lake and I would feel refreshed and the creative ideas would flow once I was outside city limits.

Having changed my career path 6 times to date I use to think of myself as a failure but someone suggested my changes were due to my being creative. My new label stuck!