Pain au chocolat has nothing to do with pain and everything to do with pleasure. It’s like croissant pastry – flaky and light – with strips of chocolate baked inside.
Join me while I indulge in one as soon as I arrive in Paris.
Juju Infusion 8: Yoga for Travel
Welcome to Juju Infusion – travel, productivity, yoga – fun juju all around for creative people.
Quick links for things mentioned in the show:
Welcome to episode eight of Juju Infusion! Yes, it's already been two months since I launched the show. It is so fun to produce these shows. I hope you have fun watching them!
In this episode:
Travel Yoga – Jet Lag!
Getting over fear – two weird ways I conquer fear
and more!
Please do leave a comment. Next week I'll draw from your comments a name and that lucky person will receive a pack of my Journey Blessings.
After that, I'll be in Paris and I'll be gathering goodies and giving them away to commenters! So stay tuned for the Paris juju coming our way!
To your juju infusion,
Cynthia
The Emotional Labor of Creating: Can You Bear It?
I was thrilled to read the term ‘emotional labor’ in Seth Godin’s book, Linchpin. Finally, a phrase to capture what I consider to be at least half the work of creating anything.
The emotional labor that goes into building a business or developing an art or writing career is enormous. It’s why I have a job as a coach. If it were simply a matter of executing tasks, any monkey could create. It’s the emotional labor that separates those who can succeed and those who give up on their creative dreams.
So what is this emotional labor? Because emotions aren’t visible, and because we’re often besieged by several unpleasant ones at once, we often don’t recognize the work we’re putting in.
Doing my own emotional labor and facilitating that work for my clients, I’ve gained a sense of what it takes emotionally. When my clients learn to acknowledge and value their emotional efforts, they’re empowered. They know they can overcome fear and resistance. They know that they will be able to manage future conflicts more easily.
Kinds of emotional labor
The following list contains qualities, rather than emotions. Being able to feel, practice and live these qualities is good, hard emotional labor.
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Juju Infusion 6: An Extraordinary Yoga Feat
Episode Six of Juju Infusion – inspiration, fun, yoga and productivity hacks for creative kooks from coach Cynthia Morris.
Quick links for things mentioned in the show:
Cynthia Morris’s Secrets of Empowered Creativity – Free Course
Creative Fortunes
Muji
Manduka Yoga Mats
Andrew Locke – “Help My Business Sucks!”
Le Thé des Écrivains
Welcome to episode six of Juju Infusion. Thanks for all the comments and support you’ve shared with me. It makes it that much more fun.
Enjoy this wee pause to inject an infusion of Juju – good, zesty creative energy – into your day.
In this episode:
- A Creative Fortune for you
- Vital Yoga Challenge – and my extraordinary yoga feat!
- Q&A: How did you get started making videos, Cynthia?
- Journal Juju – Last week’s winner of the journal juju giveaway* was Jaime Lyerly. Who is it this week? Watch to find out!
Please share your thoughts and questions in a comment below. You may end up on the show!
*Winners of the journal juju giveaway must contact me with your address so I can mail your journal. Without that, I can’t send your journal!
To your juju infusion,
Cynthia
(There are no paid endorsements in this episode. Other than my own. Original Impulse Inc. pays me to do this silly show.)
Celebration Is Vital to Creative Success
When you’ve hauled yourself over the line of your deadline, when you’ve gotten the news that your story has been accepted, when a gallery finally sees your brilliance and puts your work on the walls, there’s only one thing to do: celebrate.
Of course. This may seem obvious but we often forgo celebrating, forging ahead to the next goal or project. And when we do, we’re missing out on something that’s vital to the creative process.
Celebrating sends the message to yourself that the time and effort you put toward creating is acknowledged and rewarded. It’s a message of respect and of joy. Celebrating makes you stop and reflect upon what you did to arrive at your goal.
Yet most of us blow past this vital and loving part of the creative cycle. Almost every one of my clients and students needs nudging toward making celebrating part of the creative life. To make it easier for you to bring celebration into your life, here’s a baker’s dozen of simple, inexpensive and fun ways to celebrate your successes.
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Juju Infusion 5: Take a Stand
Another dose of creative juju in my weekly web TV show, Juju Infusion!
Quick links for things mentioned in the show:
Rhiannon Connelly of Starry Blue Sky
Article about Carl in the Boulder Daily Camera
Wild Heart Dancing by Eliot Sobel
Welcome to episode five of Juju Infusion. Thanks for all the comments and support you’ve shared with me. It makes it that much more fun.
Enjoy this wee pause to inject an infusion of Juju – good, zesty creative energy – into your day.
In this episode:
- Paris Juju Shrine
- The Carl Show! Carl breaks news in Boulder, does magic at the table and asks good questions.
- Things I Love: Two Balls in a Sock
- Q&A: What’s the biggest block creatives face and how can they get over it?
- Journal Juju – Last week’s winner of the journal juju giveaway* was Kathy Loh. Who is it this week? Watch to find out!
*Winners of the journal juju giveaway must contact me with your address so I can mail your journal. Without that, I can’t send your journal!
To your juju infusion,
Cynthia
(There are no paid endorsements in this episode. Other than my own. Original Impulse Inc. pays me to do this silly show.)
Juju Infusion 2: Dealing with Difficult
Creativity in unexpected places…join me for this week’s infusion of creativity – Juju Infusion!
Quick links for things mentioned in the show:
AWP Association of Writers and Writing Programs
Curious Amsterdam: June 13th – 19th – last chance to register this week.
Hello!
Welcome to episode two of Juju Infusion.Take a break to inject an infusion of Juju –
good, zesty creative energy – into your life.
In this episode:
- Falling in love at the AWP conference.
- Yoga Juju: Utkatasana! (Say it with me.)
- Journal Juju: Join me on my jaunt to Northern California
- Journal Juju – Last week’s winner of the journal juju giveaway was Janet Keen. Who is it this week? Watch to find out!
Plus more surprising juju in action.
Thanks for watching and please do let me know what you’d like to see in future episodes!
If you watch my show, please let me know by rating it or by leaving
a comment below. (You’ll want to leave a comment anyway, to be entered
in the Journal Juju giveaway next week!)
To your juju infusion,
Cynthia
Be More Successful by Getting Help
In my leadership training course, the exercise that brought the biggest insights (as well as the most frustration) was a maze-like ropes course. The purpose was to teach us that one wins by asking for help sooner rather than later.
Imagine it: twenty accomplished professionals wandering around in the woods for a looooooong time before asking for help. It’s laughable now, but I’m still amazed at how difficult it is, even after that illustrative exercise, to reach for assistance.
Calling for help is a sign of strength, not weakness. Anyone who has achieved any success will tell you that they did it with the support of others. I would not have written my books, built my business and traveled extensively had it not been for a lot of support.
Why we refuse to tap into help is a huge topic, and here I’ll share five ways to make getting help easier.
1. Be very clear about what you are trying to accomplish. Identify your ideal outcome for your book, project or business. Knowing what you are reaching for can illuminate weak spots.
2. Clarify what you need. Be specific about what support will best serve you and your goals. Do you need accountability, brainstorming, resource sharing?
This is the biggest stumbling block I see – people don’t know what they need. Make a list of what you need.
3. Identify sources of support – where can you get what you need? You may have people in mind, or you may still need to do your research to find the best person to help you. Go to the next step for tips on that.
4. Consult your tribe: “Who do you know who can help me…” fill in the blank with your answers from step two.
5. Interview people who can help you. Before you meet, make notes about your needs, your timeframe, your budget and your expectations. Communicating your desired outcome and specific needs will save time and prevent confusion.
Still dragging your feet getting help? You might be unclear on when it’s good to reach for support. Here are six scenarios where getting assistance can make life easier. Specific requests are easier to make and easier to agree to.
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Ten Creative Sinkholes and How to Paddle Past Them
I received a note from a former client the other day and asked her to frame it as a testimonial. She wrote this:
“Cynthia doesn’t just talk the talk when it comes to writing and creativity…she walks the walk.”
I like to think that whatever success I have is because I completely relate to the thrilling white water rapids ride my clients experience when they want to bring a book or blog or art or business to life.
When I coach my clients, I remind them that I am paddling alongside them. I constantly push my creative edge by riding the waves of new projects. E-books, blog posts, creative excursions and videos all provide me with my class IV rapids.
I navigate these thrills by being willing to learn, willing to ask for help, and willing to go beyond perfection in order to complete and launch initiatives. I know the sinkholes in the creative process and I know how to paddle past them.
But I confess that while I do walk the talk, I’m not telling all. I’ve been operating under the premise that I need to have everything figured out before I present it to you. And that my own creative paddling isn’t interesting to anyone but myself.
I feel it’s wrong to give the illusion that I have everything figured out. Being able to live with an imperfect process is essential to making anything. So I’ll share a peek into what I am working on to share how I paddle past common sinkholes in my creative ride.
My hope is to show you how I get a big idea and paddle past the common inner and outer sinkholes to launch. Hopefully my process will illuminate something about your own creative path so you can ride the creative wave and launch more easily.
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Writers and Artists: Pay Yourself First
You might not be used to depositing checks earned by the sweat of your pen or paintbrush (yet). That doesn’t mean you can’t start becoming financially savvy with your art. One of the top tips for becoming financially empowered is to pay yourself first.
How can you do that without incoming cash? Set your intention, and take a little action. Here are eight fun steps to make money a part of your creative life, even before you get paid from others.
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Travel Like An Artist and Enhance Your Trips
This week I featured Elizabeth Briel , an artist who also travels a lot. I asked her how travel affects her art, and after she answered, I thought about how traveling as an artist is different than traveling for work or tourism.
Whatever your purpose for travel, you can borrow from artists to enhance your experience.
Artists will often take time while traveling to reflect on their experiences, rather than rushing from one thing to another. Take time after a museum visit or a shopping or exploring spree to reflect on your experience.
What did you notice or see that surprised you? What do you want to remember? Sketch or take notes of the inspiration you’ve gathered.
This is where your travel journal is your great companion. Bring an easy-to-carry journal with you and spend time with it. I’ve shared ideas on how to make time for your journal while traveling elsewhere.
Here are ten additional ways to tap into a place and experience it as a traveling artist does.
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Your Journal Can Help You Stay Sane at Work
If you’re like me, you use notebooks as a way to order your to-do list, process your inner world, and develop your creative projects.
You may be missing an opportunity to use your journal to help you deal with challenges at work. An illustrated journal can be just the ally you need to help cope with workplace issues.
I asked a friend to share the things that bother her at work. For each of her challenges, I’ve offered ways that both travel and journal keeping can help you respond more powerfully.
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Free Writing Will Revolutionize Your Writing
In the writing workshops I lead, students rave about the power of the free writing method. I use free writing for everything I write, including my novel, all my e-books and every blog post you read here.
How can such a simple method revolutionize your writing? In a free write, all you do is put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and write without stop for a set period of time, say 10 minutes.
What comes out is part of the mystery of writing – unpredictable, fresh and timely. Free writing is a way to explore your mind and to see how words coalesce from your brain.
If you haven’t tried free writing, you are making any writing project way more difficult than it needs to be. Students and clients have reported that both personal and professional writing are much more enjoyable using the free write method.
I believe it’s the number one key to writing well, and that taking up the practice will revolutionize your writing. Here’s how.
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Why Bother? 10 Benefits of Expressing Your Creativity
As a child, you may have yearned to play the piano at Carnegie Hall, to perform on Broadway, or to write a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Perhaps you mentioned your aspirations to someone and were met with mocking laughter or the assurance that there was no money in it.
You swallowed your creative dreams and satisfied yourself with listening to music on the radio, to reading books or watching movies.
How often have our creative selves been swept to the side, making us an observer rather than a producer of creative projects? We internalize the belief that we don’t have what it takes to make it big, and of course we don’t make it because we have hardly tried.
I say it’s time to go for it. There have never been more opportunities to express yourself and be heard. There is no proof that you will get rich, famous, or even produce anything worthwhile. What you do know is that your creative impulses aren’t going away.
You sense that there is something behind this creative urge, that expressing yourself creatively may be the missing piece to a fulfilled life.
I believe that creative expression, whether through daily creativity or through making art, is worth the effort. During years of coaching clients to bring their creative expression to light, I’ve tracked a number of benefits that people experience when regularly engaging in creative play. Added up, they contribute to a richer life.
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Earning Your A
Writers and other creative types are often notoriously hard on ourselves. Yes, I got published, but they didn’t pay much, you’ll hear. Or, sure I got a show, but it isn’t a solo show. Dissatisfaction is the bane of the creative’s existence.
It could be said that dissatisfaction drives the creative type to keep creating. If we were perfectly content with the world, we wouldn’t have to make anything new, would we?
Yet, this cranky perspective can also keep us from really enjoying the process of producing art. In The Art of Possibility, Benjamin Zander shares this exercise for banishing the ‘not good enough’ demons that haunt us. It’s called Earning Your A.
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