I’m happy to announce that my new Creativity eBook, 21 Days to Creativity: How to Develop a Creative Practice, is now available on Amazon.com.

This book will be FREE for two days only: Wednesday, May 18th and Thursday, May 19th so please be sure to grab a copy during this time by clicking here.

Click here for book

Please note that you do not need to have a Kindle to read the book. There is a free Kindle app that can be downloaded to any device (your computer, laptop, phone, tablet etc.) You can find this app on the Amazon page right underneath the cover picture.

Please be sure to leave a review of the book on the Amazon page – and thanks so much!

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Have you been craving a life that feels more creative and filled with intention, meaning, and joy?

Maybe you’ve tried to fit a regular creative practice into your life but you’re having trouble sticking with it or just getting started?

Whether you consider yourself to be a beginner or experienced creative, this comprehensive twenty-one day program will give you plenty of techniques, tools, and inspirations for a more fulfilling, creative life.

Each of these activities is designed to take no more than twenty minutes a day so that they are accessible, reasonable, and can fit into the busiest of schedules.

Since it takes twenty-one days to form a new habit, by the end of the book you will be well on your way to making creativity a regular and daily part of your life.

And a life filled with creativity is a life filled with passion, magic, and purpose.

This book will include: 

Getting Prepared: How to find the right space and time for creating.

Getting Started: Techniques for transitioning from our busy day-to-day lives to our creative work – or for getting unstuck – that include journaling, walking, ritual, meditation, and others.

Getting Inspired: Learning how to Identify what inspires you and how you can tap into that at any time.

Getting Focused: How to go from initial inspiration to actual completed project through planning, goal setting, and scheduling.

Getting Productive: How to stay with your creative work by holding yourself accountable, finding the right supports, and tracking your progress.

Carrying It Forward: How to take what you have learned from this program and apply it to your future creative work.

What you will learn: 

– How to make creativity a daily part of your life
– How to sample various creative practices and techniques to determine what works best for you
– How to pick the one creative project that is most meaningful to you at this time
– How to set goals for your project so that you can see it through to completion
– How to make a long-term and short-term plan for your creative work
– Lots of creative ideas and inspiration
– A deeper understanding of your creative rhythms and habits
– How to get started with your creative work
– A discovery of what inspires you and how to tap into that anytime
– How to find the right creative support for yourself and hold yourself accountable
– How to get unstuck from a creative project
– How to commit to yourself and your creative work
– And much more!

This book was inspired by the online course of the same name. If you would like to follow along with the video course, you will find a free coupon inside the book. However, please note that this book is designed to stand-alone as well.

Just click here to get your copy – and please be sure to leave a review, thanks so much!

https://www.amazon.com/21-Days-Creativity-Creative-Practice-ebook/dp/B01FT16M06/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1463588486&sr=8-7&keywords=lauren+lapointe

SHARJAH & DEPENDENCIES – CIRCA 1972 : A stamp printed in Shiarjah & Dependencies shows Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853-1890), circa 1972

Ever notice how many of the most creative types have suffered great pain or faced tremendous challenges? Van Gogh could not have been in a happy state of mind when he cut off his ear. Picasso’s Blue Period is one of his most moving. I don’t even want to know what swirls through the mind of David Lynch, but I sure love his movies.

Creativity as a tool 

Creativity can be an invaluable tool for overcoming trauma. It provides a “safe” outlet for painful memories and feelings, giving your mind and body the opportunity to process and heal. It can also provide a “safe” medium through which others can share your feelings, creating a healing sense of community.

When you experience a trauma, often the aftereffects can be lifelong. One of the reasons for this is that your so-called lizard brain, that primitive part of your brain responsible for much of your emotional experience, gets stuck in the trauma, making you relive it in all kinds of strange ways at an emotional, unconscious level. This is particularly likely to happen if the trauma occurred during an especially vulnerable period in your life, such when you were a child or when you were ill, injured, or otherwise unable to defend yourself. Your intellectual brain knows that the trauma is over, the danger has passed, but your lizard brain is stuck in “fight or flight” mode. This is a common underpinning of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

You know what doesn’t work for trauma and PTSD? Denial. You can tell yourself as much as you like that the trauma is past, that you are safe, but your lizard brain just isn’t listening. In fact, it can’t even hear you. It’s not particularly well-connected to your frontal cortex, the part of your brain responsible for reasoning, so you can’t reason with it. Try telling yourself that the wolf spider crawling over your shoulder is far more afraid of you than you are of it. Feel better? I didn’t think so.

Unprocessed trauma manifests itself in all kinds of ways. Your body might continuously pump out stress hormones, making you excessively sensitive or jittery, anxious, and tired. You may have panic attacks out of the blue. Many people find they

unconsciously re-create former trauma. For instance, people who were abused as children may choose abusive romantic partners or may, in turn, abuse their own children.

GUINEA – CIRCA 1973: A stamp printed in GUINEA shows a picture of the old guitarist, Pablo Picasso, circa 1973

Talking to the lizard brain 

Since it won’t listen to reason, communicating with your lizard brain can be tricky, but it can definitely be done. You just need to find a back door. That’s where creativity comes in. Our creative side taps into something deep within us, something emotional, something vulnerable, something primitive.

Ever listen to a song, look at a painting, or read a poem and find tears streaming down your face? Sometimes it’s clear why you’re responding this way, but other times it’s a real mystery. Why is a poem about someone’s lost dog making you weep till you your chest heaves? You don’t even like dogs. But the author expressed their own trauma through that poem, or it triggered your own trauma, and your lizard brain is responding to it. That’s the power of the collective unconscious.

Take me, for example. My trauma stemmed from a pretty heinous injury when I was 12. I broke my hip skiing, and that made it mad. Really mad. So mad it ate my cartilage and replaced it with glue. It hurt so much just sitting on my bed made me scream in pain.

But kids don’t break their hips, so no one was expecting complications. And doctors are really good at denial. Instead of listening to me, my surgeon wrote “give this girl the whip” in red marker across my physiotherapy request form. They did. The story goes downhill from there.

My creative outlet has always been writing. Both my need to manage my trauma and my need to deny it were perfectly reflected by my chosen profession: medical writer. Sometimes I even write about orthopedics. It makes me a little nauseous.

But there is no ego in my professional writing. Typically, I’m handed a topic and told to write it up in a specific, formulaic way for a particular audience. I can practically do that in my sleep. There is no creativity in this kind of writing, no trauma, no “me”.

Personal writing, like this very essay, is different. And when denial of my trauma only triggered crippling anxiety and panic attacks, I use I began to use writing as my creative outlet.

USA – CIRCA 2001: a stamp printed in the USA shows Frida Kahlo, Mexican Painter, circa 2001

Trauma as a tool 

Trauma is a wonderful muse. Just ask anyone who has written a painful but moving personal memoir. Painters like Frida Kahlo, Picasso, and Van Gogh clearly expressed their trauma through their work. And what could The Scream be depicting if it’s not some sort of trauma?

But don’t get caught up in thinking that you must have a history of suffering to be creative. First of all, everyone has suffered. Even watching someone you love suffer is a form of suffering. Secondly, your lizard brain is definitely there and most certainly has something to say, even if it’s about suffering that doesn’t affect you directly, like the Holocaust. You don’t need to think about it; it may not even be conscious. You just need to trust your instincts and leap. If you put yourself into your creative work, people will respond (not always the way you want them to, but they will respond nonetheless).

The knife cuts both ways. Trauma can be an excellent impetus toward creative endeavors. But creativity is an excellent tool for recovering from trauma. Don’t hide from your trauma. It is, and always will be, part of who you are. Use it in your creative work, and the world will know you a little better and respond.

About Alison Palkhivala:

Alison Palkhivala is an award-winning freelance writer and journalist specializing in lifestyle, health, and medicine. She has provided content for some of the online health world’s most high-profile players, including WebMD, Medscape, and MedPage Today.

While Alison has written about virtually everything health-related, her main passion is helping people better understand mental illness. In that light, she has written extensively about anxiety and depression and is developing books about palliative care and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Alison’s non-professional time is largely taken up with family life. She lives in Montreal, Canada with her husband and two children. You can find more information about her on her website as well as on Facebook and Twitter. You can also check out her blog about health, wellness, and medicine.

Today, as a special treat, we have GUEST BLOGGER Denise Mozilo Frasca. Please enjoy her wonderful blog post and be sure to leave a comment with your thoughts.

“…play is a catalyst…just a little true play can spread through our lives, actually making us more productive and happier in everything we do.” – Dr. Stuart Brown, author of Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul

The inspiration for this writing came from a week of babysitting for my 3 (“and ¾” I can hear him say) year old grandson. He is an especially imaginative child and insists that all grown-ups participate. At the end of the first day, I realized that my mindset had gone from serious to silly and my mood from somber to joyous. By the end of the week we had baked banana bread, pretended to be human race cars, created a train community, dressed up as robots using my pots and pans, and made pretend maps which we followed to find secret treasure (usually some mommy-restricted food in my pantry!) We also read many, many picture books.

Seeing the world through his imaginative play brought to light how important play is to an adult’s creativity as well as child’s. When you play, there are no set rules, there is no self- criticism and all your efforts are rewarded, because you are the creator of that world. Play naturally leads us to think of things as they might be, rather than as they really are. When playing it is easy for anyone to imagine a world in they can fly, or be transported to the age of the dinosaurs. Imaginative play gives you permission to explore areas you may otherwise feel inept at. My grandson is one of the few humans who has ever heard me play the guitar when we pretended to be a rock band!

As an adult, play provides an opportunity to expand your creativity beyond the constraints of societal expectations. If you are “just playing”- there is no need to explain or excuse your behavior. The state of mind you are in during play is about the here and now. This has been referred to as Flow, in Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book by the same name. He contends that when you are fully immersed in an activity where you have energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity, then you have the optimal capacity for creativity and happiness. This state of flow is exactly the state you are in when you are playing. A playful attitude empowers the mind to remain open to explore and imagine a broader range of possibilities when looking for answers to new experiences. When you transfer that playful outlook to work and home life, you increase your ability to creative problem solve!

The benefits of play enhancing creativity are neurologically based as well. Best-selling author Steven Kotler writes about consciousness through flow states, in his book, The Rise of Superman. He speaks of how the prefrontal cortex calculates time. When playing, we lose the ability to assess past, present, and future. Kotler explains, “we’re plunged into what researchers call the deep now.” According to Kenneth Heilman, a neurologist at the University of Florida and the author of Creativity and the Brain, creativity not only involves coming up with something new, but also with shutting down the brain’s habitual response, or letting go of conventional solutions. Rex Jung, a well-respected neuroscientist sees creativity as a slower meandering in the brain using the frontal lobe in a more transient way (transient hypofrontality). When you play, you are using several areas of your brain in a way they are not normally used.

Businesses have long recognized the benefits of play, which is why they have retreats and team-building exercises. Encouraging employees to play with each other builds trust and boosts cooperation.  According to Dr. Stuart Brown, author and founder of the National Institute of Play, “There is good evidence that if you allow employees to engage in something they want to do, (which) is playful, there are better outcomes in terms of productivity and motivation.”

What is play for one person, can be work for another – so it is important for you to find joy in your play. For me, doing a crossword puzzle with a friend is play, for my husband it is chopping wood and building a holz hausen with the neighbor. For some it is pretend teatime with their child, and others it’s taking an oil painting class. The important thing is that your play should be interactive, non-stressful and stimulate your creative side. So the next time you have writer’s block, or are unable to solve a pressing problem, or are attempting to learn a complicated subject, grab a friend, or a grandchild, and go play…you’ll be surprised how the creative juices will begin to flow.

Relevant links:

http://www.ted.com/talks/stuart_brown_says_play_is_more_than_fun_it_s_vital

https://soundcloud.com/onbeing/creativity-and-the-everyday-1

http://www.deepfun.com/othergames/

http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/stacking-wood-zmaz86ndzgoe.aspx

Guest blogger Denise Mozilo Frasca

Denise Mozilo Frasca is a writer, educator, wife, mother, and grandmother (not necessarily in that order). She has received the James Nicholson Political Poetry Award for her poem “Memorial Day,” and was a selected poet for Poets and Writers on War and Peace. Her poems have been published in Mother/ Daughter Duets, a collection of essays and poems about adult daughter/mother relationships, The Westchester Review, and The Manhattanville Review. She has been a guest blogger for Hillside Productions (http://hillsidehouseproductions.com/not-just-a-lullaby-denise-frasca-guest-blogger/) as well as an editor for countless colleagues. She is most happy when playing. Follow Denise on Twitter at @DeniseMFrasca.

Jefferson Ross

Welcome to the newest installment of the Creative Spotlight Series – a series of interviews with inspiring and creative people who share insights into their creative process and work.

I am thrilled to introduce Jefferson Ross, a Southern folk artist who is a songwriter, singer, guitar slinger and painter weaving stories for the ears and the eyes. Based in The Peach State, Jefferson travels throughout the U.S. and Europe performing his original music and displays his art at festivals and galleries across the South.

For years, Jefferson lived in Nashville playing for a number of recording artists including Canada’s Entertainer of the Decade, Terri Clark, and shared the stage with Country Music greats such as George Strait, Toby Keith, Reba and Vince Gill.  He worked as a staff writer for a number of publishers on Music Row including Curb Music, one of the top music publishers in the world.

In 2010 he returned to live in Georgia with his wife and daughter and maintains a home and office in Nashville as well. You can find our more about Jefferson at his website www.jeffersonross.com.

Q: When and how did you discover you were creative? 

Original art by Jefferson Ross

A: I drew ALL the time when I was a kid and people would praise these little scribblings so I continued along with that then started to write stories and later songs.  It was always easy to be creative. I was encouraged.

Q: What are your creative outlets/projects?

A: I write a lot of songs and, every couple of years, make them into recorded projects.  I actually released two last year; one was a Christmas album that Thomm Jutz and I made as a duo.  Also, I paint a lot of folk art depicting old blues and country singers.

Q: Can you describe your creative process for us? 

A: Composting.  Reading, traveling, mowing the lawn, thinking, piddling, loafing..then letting all of that rest….compost  Then, I decide to go to work. Make some art.

Original art by Jefferson Ross

Q: Where do you get your ideas?

A: I don’t know. How do I make my heart beat? How I make my lungs work?  Ideas are just flashes in one’s brain.  The trick isn’t getting an idea.  The trick is to write down the ideas and to form them into something that is interesting and moving. Something that is personal and won’t bore an audience to tears.  I wouldn’t worry about trying to get ideas.  Just write, write, write, paint, paint, paint, play, play, play…whatever.  Working will produce the ideas…not the other way around.

Q: How do you get inspired?

A: By not trying to “get inspired”.  That whole idea of getting inspired suggests that you require something outside of yourself to make art.  Turn on the faucet.  The water can’t flow until you do.  Activity breeds on activity and not waiting on some outside force to sweep you along to greatness. Humble opinion.

Photo by Don Teuton

Q: What do you do when you’re not feeling creative? 

A: Make art anyway.

Q: Do you have a schedule or routine for creating?

A: I used to be much more structured.  I once wrote for publishing companies in Nashville and therefore co-wrote a great deal which, if nothing else, is a good thing because it forces you to create schedules.  It’s pretty amazing the body of work one can amass if two or three hours of scheduled creative time can be set aside each day.

Q: Do you consider yourself to be a night person, morning person, or something else?

A: I’m sort of a lunch person.

Q: Do you have any creative tips for others?

A: Give yourself permission to suck.  Write wildly. Paint sloppily.  Then, come back in and edit with a detached perspective.  Kill your darlings, as Stephen King has advised.

Q: What artists/creative people inspire you?

A: The ones who seem to be entertaining themselves. Who aren’t afraid to appear foolish.  A few would be John Prine, Shel Silverstein, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Thomas Wolfe…the list goes on and on.

Original Art by Jefferson Ross

Q: What is your next creative project?

A: Working on a book of southern haiku and photographs.

Q: How do you juggle multiple creative projects?

A: By dropping the ball a lot.

Q: Where can we find out more about you and your work?

A: jeffersonross.com

Q: Is there anything else that you’d like to mention – about you, your work, or on the topic of creativity?  

A: “Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.”- Wolfgang Mozart.  Love what you do!

“Jefferson Ross music is flannel-warm in the chilled autumn. It is a calling to decency, to chuckling open-mindedness. It is an invitation to art and sound, to words and ideas. It is the world’s greatest dinner party, set somewhere in the dusk of soft Georgia summer, with bootleg preacher Will D. Campbell, impressionist painter Paul Cezanne, and prophet of kindness Martin Luther King, Jr. in smiling attendance. It’s a little bluegrass-y, but it’s not bluegrass. I just like it, that’s all.” – Peter Cooper, Nashville, TN

“Jefferson Ross stands in a small elite circle of songwriters who can take you in and make you a part of the song. Some of his subjects are simple truths, some complex, but all are amazingly insightful and entertaining.“- Ernie Hopseker, Ocean Beach Radio

4 1/2 stars ”Lyrically, Jefferson Ross is a genius but ultimately I think the best quality of his records is that as a singer-songwriter he never forgets about the importance of a decent tune and there are plenty of them on this quality release.“-Duncan Warwick, Country Music People Magazine, UK

Lavrisa’s most recent release

I am thrilled to introduce Lois Lavrisa, a personal friend and a talented and successful author. Lois has just released “Homicide by Hamlet,” the third book in her Chubby Chicks Club series of cozy mysteries. You can order your copy at http://amzn.com/B019IVCPVI and find out more about Lois at her website http://www.loislavrisa.com.

Q: Where are you from and where do you live now?

A: I am from the rough and tumble, low middle class, Southside of Chicago. Right after our wedding honeymoon, my husband Tom and I moved to Sweden and lived there for two years, after that we moved to Atlanta. For the past 22 years I have lived in beautiful warm Savannah, Georgia with my hubby and four children.

 Q: Can you tell us a bit about your background and about your life?

A: How long do you have? I’ll try to give you the condensed version.

Growing up on the south-side of Chicago provided me with an abundance of story ideas. Throughout high school and college, I waitressed to support myself and paid my own way through college. Earning both my Master and Bachelor of Science degrees in Journalism and Communication with minor in Public Relations-provided ample opportunity for a lot of writing. After completing my Masters degree, I had many jobs including writing training programs for a Fortune 500 Company and teaching many years as an adjunct professor. My fifteen minutes of “fame” came when I was a professional cheerleader for the NBA Chicago Bulls. I’ve been married to my aerospace husband Tom for 25 years and we have four children- two sons and two daughters (and two cats who think they are my kids.)

Q: When and how did you discover you were creative?

A: I do believe that everyone is creative. Perhaps not in the outward way of creating a sculpture, painting or drawing a picture, writing songs or other artistic expressions. Each and every one of us every day has to be creative, as least in the Merriam Webster definition of creative: the ability to make or think of new things. Don’t we all have to? As simple as finding another route to work after you see delays due to construction. Perhaps discovering you are out of your usual breakfast so you use what is on hand to whip up a new meal. See? Everyday in many ways we all are creative according to the definition “the ability to make or think of new things.” You could probably think of hundreds of more ways too.

Book Two of the Chubby Chick Series

Q: What are your creative outlets/projects?

A: Many. I’ve painted, did ceramics, made my own organic natural lotions and other creative projects. But my main outlet is telling stories. Making up stuff. After all, writing fiction is what I do for a living.

Q: Can you describe your creative process for us? Where do you get your ideas?

A: My creative process is usually inspired and driven by what story idea is calling my name, tugging at my thoughts, filling my dreams. It could be a character or a plotline. It could be something that I read or heard then I thought “what if?” and ideas start percolating. Maybe I overhear a conversation (I promise I am not a stalker, but it’s not hard to eavesdrop everywhere you go) and I begin to formulate more ideas.

I do a lot of self editing which means deleting, rewriting, changing and so on. Actually, the first manuscript I completed, well over 300 pages, I “shelved.” It was an incredible learning experience and that journey taught me that, yes, I could write a book. If you count that shelved book, I have completed five books, four that are published. I’ve been a freelance writer for newspapers and magazines. My favorite form of creativity though is writing full-length stories.

Q: What do you do when you’re not feeling creative?

A: Phone a friend or meet up with one for coffee or lunch. Seriously. All of my friends are creative, and just being around their energy and being with them sparks my joy too. Their enthusiasm either by just being themselves, or by them supporting and encouraging me has been a creativity life saver.

Q: Do you have any creative tips for others?

A: Trust yourself, trust your journey. It is so easy to get caught up in following what works for some one else. And trust me, I used to do that, but their journey is not yours. Listen to your gut, your instincts. It will not lead you astray. Even if you do make mistakes, re-group, understand what happened, and move forward. Forward momentum is so important. Do not stagnate. Whatever creative outlet you have, do it or think about it every day. I’m a believer the more you do something (as long as you learn along the way) the better you get.

The first book in the Chubby Chick Series

Q: What artists/creative people inspire you?

A: Wow there are so many I love. But I will try to name some. As far as painters, Rembrandt, Claude Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh, Mary Cassatt, Picasso, Mary Stevenson Cassatt, Georgia Totto O’Keeffe. Music, wow I can go from classical to rock to country to jazz – way too many to name. Writers? Agatha Christie, Stephen King, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemmingway, JK Rowling, Sue Monk Kidd, and many many more.

Q: What is your next creative project?

A: My next and fifth book, KILLING WITH KINGS, which is the fourth in my cozy mystery series. There will be a total of five books in the Chubby Chicks Club cozy mystery series set in Savannah Georgia. They are centered around a group of four friends who get thrown into solving a murder. They are fun, fast paced mysteries full of southern charm.

Q: How do you juggle multiple creative projects?

Lavrisa’s first release

A: Truth be told, I don’t. Although I constantly take notes and ideas about many stories/projects, I only work on one manuscript at a time. With four children, one hubby, many friends and a lot of commitments – that is all I have time for. Bottom line, I love what I do for a living, and I feel honored beyond compare that this is my career

Q: Where can we find out more about you and your work?

A: You are always welcome to visit my website where you could also sign up for my newsletter too, www.loislavrisa.com, my author Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/authorloislavrisa/ or twitter @loislavrisa. I am also on Instagram @loislavrisa and pinterest at Lois Lavrisa.

ORDER HER BOOKS HERE:

Homicide by Hamlet http://amzn.com/B019IVCPVI

Murderous Muffins http://amzn.com/B00MT79E0Y

Dying for Dinner Rolls http://amzn.com/B00EXZQAHK

Liquid Lies http://amzn.com/B007GQ10WS

I began practicing yoga around the same time that I discovered music. As I pursued a career as a singer/songwriter, my yoga practice also grew and I eventually became certified to teach. These two loves have supported and sustained each other over the years. Now, as a Creativity Coach, I frequently draw on yoga and meditation concepts and practices to help support people in their creative work and offer “Yoga and Creativity” workshops.

Here are just a few of the ways that yoga can help support our creativity:

Yoga helps us to be more present

In order to create, we have to be truly present with whatever we are creating. Yoga teaches us to focus on the breath which in turn helps us to be more present with our creative work and our lives in general.

Yoga helps us to let go of resistance or blocks

Everyone has heard of “writer’s block” and this can hold true for any form of creativity. By overcoming resistance in our yoga practice, we learn how to overcome resistance and blocks in our creative work as well.

Yoga helps us to open our hearts and minds

In addition to learning how to open up our bodies on the mat, we are also learning how to open up our hearts and our minds. This translates to our creative work and we can find ourselves creating with more openness and freedom.

Yoga helps us create with more authenticity

One aspect of our yoga practice is that it can help us discover who we really are. The more we practice the more we shed external layers that reveal our true nature. Yoga helps us to tune into our instincts which can lead to greater authenticity in our creative work.

Yoga helps us get more comfortable with the uncomfortable parts of ourselves

In particular, practices such as Yin yoga and meditation can help us to truly examine ourselves and make friends with the dark and uncomfortable sides of our nature (we all have them!) Since our creative work can also involve a similar exploration, these two practices support each other immensely.

Yoga teaches us to go outside of our comfort zone

We learn how to challenge ourselves appropriately on our yoga mats – to test our edges and notice where we have drawn lines to keep ourselves in our boxes. As we begin to test these lines and edges, this can spill over to our creative work and we may notice that we begin creating outside the box as well.

Yoga helps us develop discipline, routine, and structure

While words like “routine” and “structure” may not sound very creative, it can certainly help with our creative output if we have a regular and dedicated creativity practice. If we show up for our yoga practice regularly, this can affect other areas of our lives, including our creativity. Many creative people struggle with a regular routine – and a yoga practice can help us become more focused and disciplined in general.

Yoga makes us braver

It takes a certain amount of courage to get on the mat and explore new and challenging poses. The more we get comfortable with taking these risks the braver we can be in our creative work.

Here are some specific ways that you can support your creative work through your yoga practice:

• Practice regularly.
• Practice different styles of yoga – have a routine, but also be open to trying new classes and styles. It’s okay if you don’t connect with all of them – just trying them is enough!
• Come to the mat with an idea or question about your creative work.
• OR the opposite…just let go completely of whatever you are working on and you might be surprised by what arises when you create that space!
• Keep a pen and paper by your mat and jot down ideas as they come up.

This is a cross-post with the wonderful local blog Sayogavannah.wordpress.com, a blog for yogis in my beautiful and creative Southern city of Savannah, Georgia created by Mary Crouse and Stacey Sedory. Please be sure to check it out and support their work as well!

Are you interested in hosting a workshop in Yoga and Creativity…or would you like individual Creativity Coaching that can draw on yoga and meditation techniques? Please contact me at Creativity@LaurenL.com – I’d love to talk to you!

Namaste and Happy Creating!

Do you think that you need vast quantities of unlimited and unstructured time in order to be creative?

Do you wish that you had this kind of time to follow a dream or passion?

The reality is that most people these days are incredibly busy and have multiple demands on their time. Does this mean that we can’t be creative?

Not at all!

A helpful practice is to find just twenty minutes a day to dedicate solely to your creative work.

It can be at any time of day that works for you. Many find that first thing in the morning works well. Why? Because as our days progress we run out of time and energy. It can be challenging to feel fresh and creative at the end of the day when often we just want to rest.

That being said, some people are night creatures who feel most creative in the middle of the night when the world is still. Whatever time of day works best for you is the best time to try this practice.

Here are some simple steps to add twenty minutes of creativity to your day:

1. Find a place where you can work.This can be anywhere where you feel comfortable creating and where, ideally, you will not be interrupted.

2. Set a timer for twenty minutes. Your smart phone should have a timer and an inexpensive egg timer works just as well.

3. Commit to doing ONLY your creative work during this twenty minutes. This is key! Do not check your phone, Facebook, get up and make a cup of coffee, play with your cat etc. Sit in your chair (unless your project requires standing or some kind of movement) for the allotted twenty minutes and focus solely on your creative project. Give it all of your attention – and intention – during this time.

4. Do it consistently. If you have a project that you’re working on i.e. a novel, a CD, a work of art etc. try to do this every day, if possible, or at least five times a week. Every skipped day means that you get further away from your project and it gets harder to return to it. Also, the more consistently you do this, the more your creative work will open itself up to you. It’s like a muscle that needs to be exercised.

5. Enjoy the rest of your busy day and life knowing that you made some much-needed time for yourself and for important, meaningful, soul work. You will see how good it feels and it will spill over to your more mundane tasks and chores. Everyone will notice that you’re happier – including yourself!

Can you find twenty minutes in your day?

Has anyone tried this practice? What are your thoughts? Is anyone curious enough to give it a try? I’d love to hear how it works for you!

This blog post was brought to you by a timer that was set to – you guessed it – twenty minutes!

Sunflower photo by Danny Dennis

Tara Leaver

Welcome to the second installment of the “Creative Spotlight Series” – a series of interviews with inspiring and creative people who share insights into their creative process and work.

I’m thrilled to introduce Tara Leaver from Brighton, UK, a talented artist, writer, and teacher. She has many interesting things to share about creativity!

Q: Where are you from and where do you live now? Can you tell us a bit about your background?

A: Originally I’m from London {England}, but I moved down to the south coast about six years ago to be closer to the sea, to start fresh and move away from a lifestyle that wasn’t good for me.

Q: When and how did you discover you were creative?

A: I don’t remember ever not being creative. I always loved drawing and painting and making things. I took art at school up to A Level, and later did a one year foundation course which I loved, but I did lose my way a bit in my twenties and it went into hiding more often than not while I struggled with depression. That was partly what prompted the move; I needed to start again, and where I live now is a very creative city. It was a short time after I moved that I began to open up that side of myself again in earnest, and it’s just been expanding ever since!

“Sands” by Tara Leaver

Q: What are your creative outlets/projects?

A: Well ‘officially’, I paint, I write about art and creative living, and I create ecourses, all around helping people rediscover their own unique way of expressing themselves in the world, and those things are of course all very creative.

But I don’t really separate that from the rest of my life; everything is an opportunity to be creative if you’re open to it. It’s really just a way of looking at the world, and we all have it, it’s just that our culture tends not to encourage us to cultivate it. I take photographs, cook and bake, write poems, make things, decorate and arrange my home on an ongoing basis. It’s all the same to me; it’s all an opportunity to see how creative I can be. And the more I do it, the more ideas come to me! It’s a very abundant way to live.

Q: Can you describe your creative process for us?

A: In terms of my painting, the process tends to involve shorter, intense periods of painting followed by sometimes much longer periods of NOT painting. I always thought that was a problem, that it meant I wasn’t a ‘real artist’, but having embraced it as my natural way it’s freed me up to express myself in ALL the ways I’m creative.

In terms of general creative process, I’m always doing something creative, every single day. Removing the lines in the sand about what is and isn’t ‘creative’ means that I can approach everything with this curious and experimental mindset. So much more interesting and fun!

Tara Leaver’s studio in Brighton, UK

Q: Where do you get your ideas?

A: Everywhere! Seriously, it just seems to be how I work, although I also consciously cultivate that so it’s always evolving. I do find that interaction – rich conversations borne of meaningful connections with people I love and admire – and enormous quantities of solitude and quiet are probably my main idea breeding grounds.

Q: How do you get inspired?

A: I think the key to this is to open yourself up and be always alert to inspiration. When I’m actively hunting it down, I tend to look to other artists, my own past work and sketchbooks, and it’s a cliché really but going for a walk on the beach is a failsafe way to bring inspiration! What I’ve learned is that yes, inspiration can and does ‘just come to you’, but it comes a lot more frequently when you create a space and cultivate the conditions for it, and keep experimenting.

Q: What do you do when you’re not feeling creative?

A: I don’t know that I ever don’t feel creative, it’s more that it manifests in different ways at different times. It was a real game changer for me to see that just because I wasn’t making art, didn’t mean I’d ‘lost’ something or stopped being creative. This is what I mean about opening up to a greater range of creative possibility. Most of us have one or two ‘main’ things that we always love the most, but there are always many more to add to the mix.

“Lavender” by Tara Leaver

Q: Do you have a schedule or routine for creating?

A: No. I follow the energy of wherever I am in the cycle. For projects like creating courses I do plan, but it’s always flexible and flowy! In true Piscean style, I like to keep things fluid and open. Recently I’m learning that laying in a basic framework for a specific project actually yields both greater freedom and more satisfying results, so I’m having to recalibrate a bit to accommodate that! But for painting, that’s all done by feel.

Q: Do you consider yourself to be a night person, morning person, or something else?

A: It seems to depend! When I’m in the throes of an exciting project, I’m both a night and morning person and sleep becomes a mildly annoying interruption! During quieter periods I allow my body to sleep as long as it needs.

Q: Do you have any creative tips for others?

A: One thing I always want to encourage people to do is to really let yourself take on board that creativity is not a special gift for the chosen few. Even if you don’t think you’re creative, all it means is that you haven’t yet uncovered YOUR unique way of being creative in the world. Think of all the things you do daily that are creative; putting a meal together, planning a route, using words to describe things in conversation, doodling while on the phone, creating a spreadsheet. It’s all creative if you let it be. And when you do, your life opens up in the most extraordinary and unforeseen ways. That sounds dramatic, but I stand by it.

Q: What artists/creative people inspire you?

A: Artistically I go through phases, according to what’s most interesting to me at any given time. Again something of a cliché, but Matisse is a great inspiration to me, as is Schiele, for their colours and linework respectively. And there’s a whole host of contemporary painters who inspire me, in particular those who work in an abstract expressionist style. I currently particularly love Wolf Kahn’s intense colour forests, and Chris Gwaltney’s figurative paintings.

In a broader sense, I admire many creative entrepreneurs, like Susannah Conway and Artemis Russell of Junkaholique. Both live their work, so to speak, and are creative in many ways that weave through their lives. That’s how I live too, so I’m always inspired to see how others do it in their own ways.

“When I Was Twenty” by Tara Leaver

Q: What is your next creative project?

A: I’m currently creating my next painting course www.taraleaver.com/abstractify which is proving to be a very interesting and rich experience ~ creating courses always teaches me so much! That begins in March 2015. I also have several other projects either just started or soon to be; a photography project called the LiquidLight series, ideas for workshops, a new creative mentoring offering, writing articles, creating prints of my best paintings, and the Grand Ultimate ~ I’d love to create a membership site. That one is more of a background/longer term one! There’s a lot to learn and put in place for that.

Q: How do you juggle multiple creative projects?

A: I really had to think about this one! I think it’s a constant balancing of following inspiration and flow, and doing the tasks that need doing on any given day. I use Teux Deux and a wall calendar to keep track of what I’m doing and where I’m going, which are the result of many attempts to find the absolute simplest way to do that. But if I come to do something and the energy doesn’t feel quite aligned right then, I’ll look for what does and do that, and then I tend to find that I’m ready to do the other thing. It’s like you have to make sure all the parts of you are fed to keep everything running smoothly. I don’t force anything, and everything gets done.

Q: Where can we find out more about you and your work?

A: You can find me at taraleaver.com, which is where my blog, gallery, shop and ecourses are. I am also to be found on my artist page on Facebook www.facebook.com/aquamarineart and www.pinterest.com/taraleaver. I love Instagram, so am always happy to connect there at www.instagram.com/taraleaver; it’s kind of my ‘unofficial’ place, where I share a lot of behind the scenes of my life, mostly beach and paintings in progress!

“Incognita” by Tara Leaver

Q: Is there anything else that you’d like to mention – about you, your work, or on the topic of creativity?

A: I could talk about this all day, so probably best not to encourage me. The one thing I always hope to foster is the understanding that every single one of us has gifts to share, and not believing that doesn’t make it any less true. My work this lifetime is to do the best I can to help people find out the truth of that for themselves, so I always encourage feedback and questions; that helps me bring forth more of what I can do that’s valuable to those who might benefit from it. So I guess what I’m saying is, don’t be afraid to always ask questions and seek support for your creative journey. And don’t separate your life from your creativity!

It might be your drama…or the drama of someone you know?

But the next thing you know you are completely immersed in it and everything else has fallen to the background. This is urgent. This requires your immediate attention and energy. All of it. After all, this is drama! And we love drama.

Part of it is just life. This happens.

However, as creative people we tend to be drawn to it. Drama can feel creative. It can also fuel and inspire our creative works.

It can also be a distraction from our real work.

I’ve discovered that when I notice myself completely immersed in drama (and often it is someone else’s stuff that I’ve chosen to get swept up into) I stop and ask myself if A) it’s really necessary and serving any purpose, and B) what am I avoiding in my own life?

Often it’s my creative work.

There are many reasons for this…our creative work is scary, for example, and so we seek a means of avoiding it yet satisfying our creative impulses at the same time.

Drama can feel like a creative outlet.

It can, ironically, be a mask for our real creative work.

The challenge is that we must learn to channel that drama back into our work.

When I am steadily working away on my creative project, it can be pretty amazing to notice that much of the drama that seemed so urgent and important at the time has fallen away.

It’s like the universe has noticed that I am productively occupied and moves on to the next soul waiting to be distracted.

This, of course, does not refer to life’s catastrophes and crisis and things out of our control that do require our attention, energy, and emotions.

Here, I’m defining drama as elective catastrophes. The ones that we choose to get drawn into – and the ones that we really don’t need to be involved with and where we’re serving no real purpose other than adding fuel to a flame.

And yes, it can be fun. It can be a bonding experience with other people. I don’t think we can or even should eliminate it altogether.

This shouldn’t be yet another opportunity to beat ourselves up for not doing our creative work. Let’s just start to notice and cultivate awareness that this can happen.

It’s about finding balance. And making sure we get our creative work done amidst life’s ups and downs.

So the next time we find ourselves completely immersed in our friend’s crisis or whatever has taken our attention…maybe check-in to make sure we’re not just neglecting that project that needs our attention. We can still be there for our friends, but we must tend to our own work first.

The good news is that our creative work can reap the benefits of our dramatic natures.

When we pour all of that drama into our creative work it can truly become a force of nature.

And that’s really cool. And so much more satisfying.

Roberta Schultz

Welcome to the first installment of the “Creative Spotlight Series” – a series of interviews with inspiring and creative people who share insights into their creative process and work.

I’m thrilled to introduce Roberta Schultz of the folk harmony trio, Raison D’Etre. I first met Roberta at a music conference (SERFA, or the Southeast Regional Folk Alliance) where I heard her perform with her fabulous trio, Raison D’Etre, from Kentucky. She recently released a solo CD “One Small Step” and a poetry chapbook “Outposts on the Border of Longing.”

Q: When and how did you discover you were creative?

A: I have to credit my kindergarten teacher, Donna Mader, for encouraging me to create. She believed that all human beings were naturally creative, so she had us bring in one of our fathers’ shirts to wear backwards as an artist smock while we finger painted and even set up easels for us to simulate the artist experience. We played rhythm instruments in a band, and sang along to our efforts. I never wanted to leave kindergarten. 

Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

A: I have always performed in some kind of ensemble involving harmony singing. When my dad bought my sister Violet and I guitars for Christmas when I was 12 and she was 9, we started learning how to sing and play together–which we have never really stopped doing. She and I are in Raison D’Etre together with her college roommate and best friend, Vickie.

In college, I trained to teach English, which I did for many years on the high school and college levels.  All the while, I kept playing music, and even minored in voice so that I could study some theory and sing with the concert choir at my university.

Roberta Schultz’s solo CD “One Small Step”

Q: What are your creative outlets/projects?

A: I sing, play guitar and 6-string mandolin for Raison D’Etre. I help arrange our three-part harmonies, although we all have a hand in that.  I also write some of our original songs and research any of the period music we play.

Raison D’Etre started out as a three-part vocal trio devoted to country folk like the music Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt recorded as Trio. But since Vickie was doing some part-time first-person interpreter work at Cincinnati Museum Center, we were asked to learn Shaker music, pioneer music, Swing era music, and Civil War tunes for various exhibits at the Museum.  So, over out 25 years together we have developed our specialty shows for historic venues and general audience shows that combine our originals with selections from our historic covers and folk songs.

Besides Raison D’Etre, I am a Teaching Artist for the Kentucky Arts Council, sometimes teaching songwriting at schools. But I probably spend more time working with senior groups on HealthRhythms wellness drumming. HealthRhythms is an empowerment drumming protocol developed by neurologist, Dr. Barry Bittman, that can be adapted for troubled youth, drug rehab, wounded warriors, seniors, dementia patients, church groups, and even for general recreational drumming. I drum with a rural senior center every other week and I also demonstrate this drumming at arts festivals and wellness fairs.

Another project has been reviewing books for a public radio station in Cincinnati. I post my reviews on my blog at braverself.blogspot.com and try to post about my individual creative life there when I get the time.

For several years, I have attended a regular women’s Practice of Poetry group that emphasizes poetry as spiritual practice.  This year, I decided to submit some of the poems I had been workshopping in group to a publisher. The result is my first chapbook of poetry, OUTPOSTS ON THE BORDER OF LONGING which is largely about my childhood in Grant’s Lick, KY and how that place affected my growth as a person.

Roberta Schultz’s poetry chapbook “Outposts on the Border of Longing”

Q: Can you describe your creative process for us?

A: When arranging other’s work for a historic venue, I strive to make the song sound like Raison D’Etre. Like it would fit right into our set list. So sometimes that would entail making Stephen Foster’s “Beautiful Dreamer” sound like a Roy Orbison song.

I write both songs and poems from prompts and love having that stimulation. So, being part of a retreat group or a poetry circle is important for my process.

I let whatever else I am doing feed my creativity in other areas. When I am leading a drum circle, there are steps in the protocol that could use a song. So, I go home and write a new song for the  “Shaker Share” step so that we won’t always have to use existing songs for the step.

For poetry, I start out with a free write or journal piece, and then try to carve a poem from the mass of words using what poet Cathy Smith Bowers calls “the abiding image.” That’s an idea that seems to hang around the subconscious, waiting to be expressed. For years, I wrote piece after piece about my Grandma Babe until I finally wrote some poems and songs from those free writes and journal pieces.

Q: Where do you get your ideas?

A: Certainly, I get many song ideas from prompts. I have been attending a songwriter’s retreat in NC called SoLaTiDo for many years where we come to the mountain and do this:

1. Get a prompt at 9 am
2. Go write until 11:30 am
3. Share our songs-in-progress in circle at 11:30 am
4. Eat lunch
5. Spend the rest of the day arranging parts, consulting on the song, getting it down.

Repeat for two days.  Then record the songs with our arranger/consultant.

Perform the songs for the writers who also have a workshop on the mountain that week.

I never fail to come home with three new songs.

I also get many ideas while driving. Today the words “old wood” kept popping into my head in relation to my creaky joints. While running errands, I received the hook to my new “old time” song about string bands. I came home and wrote down some words. Still working on it, but I love when that happens. When a song is a “bolt from the blue.” A gift for paying attention to the abiding images we hold.

Q: How do you get inspired?

A: I am always inspired by listening to and viewing the creativity of others. I read a lot of poetry, listen to all styles of music, enjoy visual images. It is also very inspiring just to be in the company of folks who create. Even my daily scroll through Facebook offers a tapestry of thought and image I would not experience otherwise.

Q: What do you do when you’re not feeling creative?

A: I do chores like laundry, walk around the lake, take care of seeing projects through their less glamorous details–I just live. Writers of fiction always say that they are still working when they are talking to you or socializing because something you say may trigger a character’s action or dialogue.  I kind of feel that way about poetry and songwriting. Everything I do has potential, so no task is not relevant to me. I once wrote a poem about how seductive my rental car was. I had to spend long hours on the road in that baby before the poem percolated up in my consciousness.

Q: Do you have a schedule or routine for creating?

A: When I am not in a poetry group, my routine is less structured. Our group takes a break from December through March, so right now, my writing is not as routine.

For Raison D’Etre, we rehearse every Wednesday night, so I tend to prepare things for them with that in mind. I guess I treat my creative life more like homework. When is it due? When is that submission deadline? When do I have to have a poem for craft group?

I do try to get mornings to myself whenever possible. Then, I know I will do something. And I keep one guitar by my desk for when I am working on an idea.

Q: Do you consider yourself to be a night person, morning person, or something else?

A: I am not a true morning person, but I know that I write better melodies in the morning. I know this because of my songwriting retreat. One morning at circle I brought in a song that one of my friends in the circle loved. By afternoon, I had forgotten the original melody and tried to play the song for her again.  “That’s almost it,” she said. “But now, it is too normal-sounding.” The next morning, I remembered the stranger, better melody. So for creating, I think mornings are better for me as my right brain access is better then. By afternoons, I am way into editing mode.  I noticed this over my teaching career as well. Grading was how I spent afternoons. Planning was always better in the morning.

Q: Do you have any creative tips for others?

A: I once heard a woman give a talk at NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) about allowing yourself the time to create. Not to think of it as luxury, but as the rich experience of being present to life.  I’m not sure what her actual words were, but after all this time, I know I feel more alive and present because of music, song, and poetry. I think we must make room for that, being present in our lives.

Q: What artists/creative people inspire you?

A: There are many famous folk I could name, but I am inspired more by those who create something for the joy of it. Because they must, because they can, because they improve the lives of others.

Q: What is your next creative project?

A: Yesterday, I would’ve told you that I was “on break” since I had some role in shepherding a 9th Raison D’Etre recording, “So Dear,” my own solo recording “One Small Step,” and a chapbook of poems all in one year. Plus, I researched the music, learned the music with Violet, and performed the music and sound cues for Falcon Theatre’s production of “Twain by the Tale” from December-January. But since I wrote the first draft of a song this morning, I guess that’s not true anymore.

This year I want to put some energy into celebrating Raison D’Etre’s 25th year.  I want to put some planning into making that an event or project of some kind.  And I will continue to submit poetry to journals. Plus work on my solo performance skills.

Q: How do you juggle multiple creative projects?

A: I keep a big calendar nearby for that so that all aspects of my projects are scheduled and planned as much as possible. I guess it hearkens back to my teacher plan book.

Q: Where can we find out more about you and your work?

A: I’m pretty active on Facebook on my personal page, facebook.com/robertaschultz1, and I administrate the Raison D’Etre page at facebook.com/raison3. But you can read about my solo work at raison3.com/roberta and on my blog, braverself.blogspot.com.

Q: Is there anything else that you’d like to mention – about you, your work, or on the topic of creativity?

A: It’s never too late to get published!