creativity

There’s plenty I love about this time of year – coloured leaves, camping in the crisp air – but I’m not a big fan of the descent into cold and dark in the Northern hemisphere. It was a whole lot easier to live in the tropics with days that never got all that short and temperatures that never got all that low (even there I pulled out my winter coat). But most of what’s important to me is up here in the Brrrrr zone.

We’ve all got things in our lives that we don’t like. Some of them are problems we can solve. Some of them are the definition of losing battles. So what do we do?

Of course there’s the big fix: attitude adjustment. Not lying to ourselves about our emotional response to whatever we’re dealing with. Not making Stepford Wives our role models. Recognizing that there’s something to be gained in every situation.

Most of my teachers agreed that everything and everyone needed to be blessed. There followed all sorts of questions about how to bless the worst of the worst. One of my favourites came from the reminder that plant life just loves to suck up carbon dioxide. And even the most creepy horrible difficult to deal with humans exhale carbon dioxide. So the blessing became all about feeding the trees when they breathe. I love plant life, and they were helping sustain it.

There’s another way to deal. Slide right down the slippery slope to the very bottom. Make use of the negatives to support something basic and positive.

For me, I’m addressing chronic sleep deprivation by making use of the dark. One day a week I’m getting into the cozy, warm bed as close to sundown as possible and not getting up again until after daylight shows up again. Do the math: that gives me a big bonus, more than 12 hours worth of lie down time.

So where’s your exhaling carbon dioxide, dive into the darkness opportunity? How do you get something you need from the situation you’re not in love with? Draw on all that creativity you discovered and put into practice earlier in the year.

Oh, and . . . on your way out . . . could you turn out the light?

Of course I can give you a hand with finding your own “light in the darkness” solutions.  You know where to find me.

Over the last couple of months you’ve identified opportunities for creativity and you’ve explored how to honour even the most unlikely of dreams.

Now what?

If you’ve only poked your head in the door, we want to get the rest of you dancing through to stay.  And if you’re already through, we want to keep you there.

Once we’re through our looking glass, how do we keep Alice’s free form sense of adventure without losing sight of our goal?

A cue to serve as a daily reminder can keep you on track.  For most of us something visual will do it – a brief note or picture.  For others, a song or piece of music works.  If you know you’ll be triggered by a fragrance, hey, go for it!

I’ve been taking waaaay too long to finish a sound healing course to sharpen my skills and add to my credentials.  My cue is a musical note in an open mouth with a little note “the hills are alive NOW” taped to the mirror in the bathroom where I brush my teeth and on the refrigerator (a place I know I’ll visit regularly).  That reminds me what I want to make time for and has a subtle hint that I’ve only got this one life to get it done (we can have the reincarnation talk another time).

So what’ll it be for a touchstone to keep you on your adventure in creativity?

All that’s left is to Make It So.

As always, give a holler if you need a hand through the glass.

Last month you found where your doorways to creativity are.  Let’s look at which ones you get through.

Some of your doorways may look more like little baby windows way up high on the wall.

Those ones are where your dreams are about being an astronaut and, at age 47, you’ve got a background in retail.  Chances are, NASA’s not your best bet for getting to the other side of the wall.

But let’s not ditch the dream so quickly.  If it’s what really lights your fire, we want to honour it somehow.

So, here’s where you can ask a bunch of questions.  When’s the last time you went to the planetarium?  Do any of the NASA big shots have blogs you can read?  Is there an anti-gravity experience available to you?

To up the ante even more, who are the private companies exploring space travel?  Who can you find to teach you some of the math & science you’d need if you were going to compete with the kids coming up for astronaut jobs?

I’m not saying, “ditch your day job to put everything in the astronaut basket”.  But, really, what does it hurt if you take realistic, exciting, fulfilling steps to an “impossible” dream?

At worst, you’ve taken the important step of honouring yourself.  At best, the universe “matches” your investment and you find you’ve created something extraordinary.

Do you see how you can plug your personal creative impulse into our example?  (If not, you know where to find me.)

Next month we’ll look at how we can make the dance through the door irresistible.

How creative are you?

Do you define your creativity by your artistry?  (Or total failure in Glue Plus Paper 101?)

Does it surprise you to hear that accountants can be creative?  (Yes, legally!!)  Or grocery clerks?  Yes, while they’re accounting or clerking.

We’ve got clues to our creativity all over our lives.  That mean girl gossip session?  Clues there.  That big moment of frustration at your kids?  There, too.

Any moments when we’re not satisfied provide opportunities for creative exploration.  What would make you more comfortable?  How would you do things differently?  What’s bursting to come out of you?

Careful now, you’re having a creative idea.  That’s the dangerous stuff that changes worlds.

Notice how many doorways to creativity you see before you this month.  Next month we’ll explore how to cross the threshold.