Drawing on meditation

Drawing is the discipline by which I constantly discover the world. (Frederick Franck)

tangled garden beauty by bvw

Imagine your life…now live what you’ve imagined.

 

Helen reading by bvw

 

Act as if.

It is very effective.

I have had and do have times when I can’t seem to get my imagination to go past what I already do in my current “real” life. I am trying to change my direction, but it just doesn’t happen . I guess you could say I am in a rut. At this point, I know I have to free myself to fulfill the potential of my vast imagination. The only way to do that is to let go of my self taught or life taught parameters and choose to go beyond them.

Suddenly, everything is possible. And it really is!

It is all about what you believe is possible. Allowing yourself to “image” or” make a picture in your mind” of what you would like to accomplish is one of the  thinking tools of creativity as defined by Robert and Michele Root- Bernstein in their book “Sparks of Genius”. Their research outlines 13 thinking tools that they have discovered are used by the world’s most creative people.  use the ideas in this book to remind myself of ways to sharpen my creative tools. I will be occasionally referencing them as I explore ways to increase creativity in your life.

To simplify, to get out of a rut of thinking the same thoughts and doing things the same way. Here are 5 concrete steps:

1. Set aside at least 30 minutes of uninterrupted time. Sometimes, just doing this takes imagination!      Some suggestions I have found to be helpful are:    Get up a half hour earlier; sit in your car at lunch time; put dinner up and sit in the kitchen while the meal warms up; go to your room; take a walk with the dog; go to the beach or a park nearby; have a cup of tea or coffee where nobody knows you so there is no extended conversation; go to the library and look busy. (You really are!)
2. Now make pictures in your mind of how your life “is” when you are living the life you imagine. This is the most important step!
3. Describe this in a journal. A journal to write, draw or collage in is a great place to automatically put down your thoughts. It also saves time AND your thoughts because you never actually lose the previous ideas. The journal is always there for reference.
4. Act as if you are already doing this! If you want to be a successful writer, you need to write as if you already are. What would a writer’s day look like? What would be the priorities in his/her life?
5. How would you define success in accomplishing your newly imagined goal? Defining exactly what you want is important because each person can have a totally different idea of what achieving “success” in that area is.
6. Make a list of things to do that would accomplish this. Start with a simple item that you can accomplish today and determine when, today,  you will do it. Set up another goal for the next day.
7. Focus on this goal and how to continue to advance, expand and change it on a regular basis. Continue to use your journal and your reserved time. Adjust the time more or less, depending n your schedule and the time needs of your chosen path.

Let me know how you are creatively re-imagining your life. It is always astounding to see how concentrated imaging makes a path for transformation in life! Take a look at some other people who have transformed their lives and documented it on their blogs! Zen Habits has a detailed of how he makes changes and an interview with Colin Wright in Far Beyond the Stars.

Yoga-think your life into balance

Sometimes it is just overwhelming to even think about one more thing to juggle, even if it is balancing out your life. Believe me, I know how it feels. So that is the time to stop thinking. And start consciously moving…into yoga!

• Move mindfully.
• Walk with intention.
• Breathe slowly and deeply, into your abdomen.

I find that one of the most important parts of doing yoga, is making the space and intention to do it. Once  I am in the studio, I know I will not leave until after shavasana. That is the part where you lie down and totally relax for 10 minutes. It is my favorite part! So I tend to be in the now moment for the entire practice, because I know I cannot leave for that hour.. Even if the going gets tough, I’m there. Shavasana and feeling balanced is my reward.

Oh dear, you are probably wondering what that has to do with life balance.

When you physically create a practice, when you practice breathing and moving mindfully, it begins to crossover to your creative, intellectual and spiritual habits. I find myself resorting to yoga breathing when I am in a stressful situation. For that I use the long deep in and out through the nose breathing. It is very calming. I find that I am more likely to do things mindfully and calmly.

What if you want to accomplish something, like writing, but are working two jobs and just can’t find the time?

• Be in the now moment.
• Breathe in and out slowly.
• Ask yourself to give yourself a half hour, 2 days a week.
• Treat yourself afterwards; perhaps a nap? a cup of tea?
• If you aren’t inspired, write anyway.
• Don’t judge yourself.
• Be regular and without pressure.

It is the intent and regular practice in yoga that takes you where you want to go. Many times in yoga, your ability to do a posture will change from day to day. You listen to your body.

As Madeleine L’Engle said in her book called “Walking on Water”,

To work on a book is for me very much the sane thing as to pray. Both involve discipline. If the artist works only when he feels like it, he’s not apt to build up much of a body of work. Inspiration far more often comes during the work than before it. because the largest part of the job of the artist is to listen to the work, and to go where it tells him to go…To pray is to listen also.

How do you ge ytourself gently back on track?

For more great ideas about focusing creative energy, absolutely visit the blog Write to Done. Also try Unwrap your Mind for another dynamic yet gentle approach to finding your way to reach your potential.

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Why being creative is the next best thing!

home by bvw

Creativity is becoming increasingly important in the world theses days. As we struggle to find solutions to the problems an issues that are currently preoccupying us, vast knowledge is not enough! Daniel Pink writes in his book “A Whole New Mind”,

“Today, the defining skills of the previous era_ the “left brain: capabilities are no longer sufficient. And the capabilities we once disdained or thought frivolous- the “right brain” qualities of inventiveness, empathy, joyfulness and meaning- increasingly will determine who flourishes and who flounders. For individuals, families, and organizations, professional success and personal fulfillment now require a whole new mind.”

How can you incorporate more creativity in your own life?

Change your perception.

Yes, that’s right. Change how you look at things. When I was in high school, in Latin class, my teacher taught me that if the world was overwhelming us take a walk to an imaginary mountain nearby, and climb to the top. Then look at the troubling situation from a different perspective. I never forgot that gem of a suggestion. It changed my life.

Changing your viewpoint opens up all sorts of options that you never noticed before!

Try it and let me know how it changes your life.

Recognizing beauty is explored by Patrick in  Unwrap your Mind . I love the way he analyzes and explores in his inspiring blog.

Also , check out my guest post today about “Art & Soul” on The Religion Network .

 

Words to inspire your journey.

bvw

“Take more time,

cover less ground.”

Thomas Merton

Dancing In The Waters of Life

from gratefullness.org

How will you find a balance?

Content © 2009 Getty Images All rights reserved

There must be a hundred things I want to accomplish and at my vulnerable  points of the day I start to cave in and think of them all at once. As I am beginning to waffle  mid job- I remember my mind map. A feeling of calm comes over me and I know I can get it all done

I put this life juggler together over a period of time from many different sources. I want to always have an awareness of my ultimate life goals in front of me, so I don’t get off track.  However, I don’t like to be scheduled because I feel like I am locked in.

I’d like to share with you what I came up with. I actually find it to be fun and colorful and totally responsive to my needs. You  can adapt it to any organizational system.

It’s actually simple and fast!

• Meditate. Pretend this is the first day of the rest of your life! Guess what?  It is.This is the inward thinking part. Put your name in the middle of a page with a circle around it.  I used a pencil and crayons in my journal. Make 5 -7 lines radiating form the center where your name is. Think of 5-7 areas of your life to which you want to pay attention.

My 7 areas are:     art, spiritual, physical, intellectual, relationships, enviro nment, riches. What are yours?

I chose words that would spell another word, an acrostic, so that I would easily remember them all. Mine spells “aspirer”. It’s not exactly a word, but I like the idea of aspiring.

I also changed some words to make them more palatable. I like the idea of  taking care of the environment, but am not too excited about cleaning and  laundry all the time. But when I couch it in the true fact that cleaning improves the environment of home, it gets done easily.

Now choose a color for each area.

Armed with this little drawing and your custom  created categories, make up your calendar, using the colors to identify which category envelopes the individual job. For instance, cleaning is environment and it is green.  You can continue to use the crayons or colored pencils in your handwritten organizer or use the colors on your computer calendar.

When you notice you are chronically missing a color on your spectrum, pay attention. You need to fit some in soon!

Come to think of it, I believe I have some ironing to do. It will help save the environment and riches by avoiding the dry cleaners! Any action that covers two areas at once is a great motivator! Here are some posts to give you some ideas about reaching goals: A Boundless World and Zen Habits. Each approach is very  different, but then so are we all.

Keep me posted as to your own personal approach to deciding on and achieving your goals. What helped the most to inspire you?

How to kick start your eyes to actively look

  I want to share with you a way of keeping your thinking skills in top form. Just like the rest of your body, your eye/ brain connection needs regular exercise to work at optimum performance.

The best thing, is that you can do this anywhere with anything, just bring along your perception and focus. This is the first of 13 creative thinking tools as defined by Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein in their book “Sparks of Genius”.

1. Choose an object or a place that you are interested in learning more about.
2. Discern as much as you can about how it looks, color, shape, form, texture, size, line.
3. Even take notes, a photo. Make a sketch.
4. Also identify other sensations that you notice, such as particular sounds like in the space, , smells, what it feels like to be in the space. Identify what it reminds you of. re there any memories associated with it? Are there historical connections? Document all observations.
5. A journal is a good place to put tis information in case you should want to reference it in the future.

You have just done a little exercise that does not involve a specific time, place or fee. You are exploring something that is interesting to you. In the process you are  exercising your creativity, memory, intellectual capacity to make connections. This will help you to become more confident in your own observations.

These skills are essential for artists, musicians, scientists, writer, historians, teachers, students and doctors.

So carry your little journal with you and give your creative mind a workout. You will be surprised at how much more you notice about life! And don’t forget to let me know how it works for you. What did you learn?

Creative, clean living in 3 easy steps.

folding laundry in the light bvw

Do you start a boring job that has to be done around the house,  and plod through it?

I have begun many a task like that, and somewhere between the necessity of gettting it done and the annoyance of wasting my time with upkeep, I have discovered how to make it fun and creative.

First, I have to change my perception to take in the gestalt of laundry in my life. No research, just what it represents in my life. So I reflect upon  what laundry means  to me. Cleansing, layering renewing are concepts that come to mind.

Then  I observe laundry  as a way of exploring shadows and light. See how it looks in different lights. Look at it straight from the dryer crumpled in the basket and then folded crisp and clean.

Then I respond to the visual beauty that I have discovered in my ordinary day. What a blessing!

Because I draw and paint, I will document my experience that way. Other ways to articulate your laundry experience could to write about it , photograph it or tell stories about it. You could also begin to notice subtle variations in colors, trying colors next to each other that you never tried before.

I can’t say that this will get those chores done faster. In fact, I may take a little longer, especially once I get started on a painting.  But I have a real feeling of satisfaction when I complete the task , As I touch the laundry with my hands, transforming the deep clefts of shadows and mountains of light into folded patterns of crisp geometric shapes I am lead to understand the necessity for renewal, order and balance in my life.

What ordinary household or work tasks could you transform creatively?

How to think outside the box by putting things into the box.

shadows box by bvw

To” think outside the box” means to think outside of the expected.

Nice idea. Very creative.

But how do you get yourself to relax enough to do that? Twyla Tharp has come up with a very concrete way of collecting ideas. I have mentioned her and her book, “The Creative Habit” before. It is well worth taking a look at.

Interestingly enough, Twyla Tharp’s method involves a box. A box for each tiny little idea you have. Then as you come across photos, writing, music, objects you put them in the box. After a while, as it gets full, you look through it. Suddenly, there are so many ways to investigate and expand that tiny little idea you had in the beginning.

• Choose some idea you want to explore.
• Be on the alert for anything that seems to be connected in any way.
• Eventually, the contents of the box will provide fertile ground for developing ideas.
• The labelled box gives the idea the respect it deserves.
• It makes a place for an abstract idea.
• Nothing has a schedule or has to be put in order.
• You may start several boxes at once, without a problem.
• It is there waiting for you when you need it.
• The physical box reminds you that you are looking for ideas.

I have used a box for doing idea research. I tend to use different  color notebooks. I also use the computer for additional information and links to add to either the real box or the notebook. I refer to my art journals as my own personal visual encyclopedia. And I do write a lot in my art journals and make lots of literary connections.So books are very much a part of my collection of ideas.

Have you come up with another  system for collecting ideas? What works for you?

If you can’t change your life, change your perception.

Making pattens in a corner with found objects.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all you have to get done?

Even the enclave of your home has let you down.

After a a great vacation full of sunshine, reading and sketching, I needed to perceive some  of that same order and beauty in my home.

I looked through a magazine to get some ideas for quickly refreshing my surroundings. Doing this always has the effect of transforming my way of looking at things. Sometimes, though, drastic renovation is not momentarily feasible.

Fortunately, I found a refreshing editorial by Sophie Donelson in HC & G. She addresses the real issue of the “debris of living”  that we never see in homes in glossy publications. Offering timely alternatives to gutting and renovating, she makes practical and reasonable suggestions that will quickly provide renewed focus and simplicity to your home.

• While acclaimed photographer, Michael Moran removes a window screen to get a crystal clear view for his photo shoots , she suggests cleaning your windows to add light and clarity to your own daily landscape just outside the window.
• Stylist Elizabeth Mayhew has a philosophy of bringing things you love into the  decorating. Don’t just organize, bring things out that you love, but carefully and with discretion.  Check the link above for a complete list of her suggestions. She has also written a book on the topic.
• Sophie suggests removing everything from a room and then bringing back in only what really inspires you.
• Look through your home to find new uses for old and forgotten items: for instance I’ve use an old galvanized pail for a vase; old mugs for storing paintbrushes.
• If you have a multiples of  the same item, use them to display in patterns. For example I place generous cubes of savon de Marseille for washing hands next to all of my sinks. I place them on beautiful plates that have no more partners.

Inspired, I took the dried lavender I had purchased out on the east end of Long Island and after splitting each bouquet into four bunches I hung them from my wooden fold up clothes dryer in an unused corner with paperclips. The bunches create a patterns across the horizontal wooden bars with subtle shadows and the heady lavender fragrance perfumes the air when I pass by.

Next, I’m going to clean the windows to take that grey cast away. After that, I clean my office area.I will share the visuals and processes on a later post.

How would you transform one small part of your house to highlight the beauty and your inner vision?