My prediction: 2017 will bring out more powerful art than ever. At the suggestion of a friend, I made a set of cards for the suit of cups in Tarot.
Tarot is a card game that is often used for divination. The cups suit pertains to the water realm, ruling the emotions. My cups suit depicts the emotional journey of creating. Cards one through ten lead us through the creative process and the Royal cards serve as guides.
I’ve been using tarot for many years to guide me. Making this set of cards was fun and I hope you enjoy.Let’s start with one. One – The singular clarity of a new idea strikes like a bell. This feeling of creative inspiration gives us great joy and exuberance. 2017 is a 1 year, a time to initiate and act.
What will you make this year?
The singular clarity of a new idea strikes like a bell. This feeling of creative inspiration gives us great joy and exuberance.
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Celebrate your creativity this holiday season
The holidays are often stressful, with too many social obligations, too many presents to buy and too many conflicting things vying for our attention. We often come to the end of the year and feel disappointment for all the things that didn’t happen.
But what if we reframed it? What if this time of year were the chance to get really clear on what’s important to us? That’s the theme of holiday classic movies like It’s A Wonderful Life. What if we didn’t need a crisis or a holiday to live every day as our wonderful life?
For creative people, this can be a great time to assess our creative vitality. What did we put energy into? How did our actions fuel our creative work?
Take a look at your daily activities. Check out:
• what you ate
• what you read
• what you listened to
• who you hung out with
• what activities you did in your town.
Do these things align with what you care about and what you want to create? This isn’t meant to be an opportunity for your inner critic to bring you down; instead, an opportunity to recommit to doing what you can to craft an environment that serves your creative vitality.
When I did this through my annual review process, I saw a lot of things that contributed to my life as a creative adventure. And there were some things that detracted from my satisfaction with my life and work. It’s a chance to commit to new things next year that feed my soul and art.
Do you take good care of your creative self? If so, make this holiday season a chance to honor your creative exuberance. Whatever you did this year to write, make art, and make yourself the best version you can be, celebrate that.
I celebrate you and your creativity wholeheartedly. I’m raising a toast to you from Denver!
Escape the cul de sac of creative doubt
You’re riding the wave of creative fulfillment with a project, getting it done and feeling great about it. Then you turn a corner and find yourself in a dark cul de sac of doubt. Your joy is replaced with questions:
- Will anyone care about this?
- Is this any good?
- Wouldn’t it be better to just drop it and relax a bit?
If you’re like me, this happens on almost every project, and especially on the ones that feel particularly vulnerable or meaningful.
I have been circling in the cul de sac of doubt with my latest project, my annual review. I’ve been working on it steadily for the last few weeks and am approaching the final 20% of the writing.
This last part of any creative process is always plagued with these doubts. We’re faced with our limitations and fears and it seems like such a better idea to just ditch the thing like a bad cold.
Even though I have been here many times, the fears seem as potent as always. Even though I know better than to abandon something this close to the finish line, it’s oh so tempting.
Here’s what I am doing to cope with the cul de sac of doubt:
- I move between working on the writing and working on gathering the visual images
- I take myself to various cafés to work on the writing helps me stay focused on the project
- I ask myself what could improve the writing, challenging myself to make an even better product.
And finally, I recommitted to finishing the project. When we want to ditch something, it’s offering us a chance to re-center ourselves on why we are doing it. I decided that I was going to finish the annual review to the best of my ability and put it out there in mid-December as planned.
The fears and doubts will still be there, stronger than ever as I approach the publication date. I know that. But I will not let my inner critic and fears decide what I do and what I create. I hope you don’t, either. Keep going until the joyful end.
Happy Thanksgiving, sip by sip!
Giving thanks with each sip, every day. I’m so grateful for my life and my art and the people in my life who love me and contribute to me. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Photo taken at: Denver, Colorado
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Keep On Creating
I’m leading a coaching group, Write On, and last week many of the members found themselves waylaid from their writing goals. This is normal – a big shift or surprise can put us into shock mode. In this state of intense emotion, it’s hard to focus.
Massive upheaval can also bring our inner critic out into the light. I know I faced doubts about the annual review I am writing. Isn’t this selfish? Shouldn’t I be doing more important things? How privileged of me to be writing about my year.
These doubts made me want to abandon my work.
And yet I know that hiding is not my true path. My path is to share what I know about the creative process so that others are emboldened to do their creative work.
Even in times of uncertainty, fear and upheaval, we MUST keep creating. Yes, there is a time to process what we are feeling and thinking, but what better way to do that than through our art and our writing?
If you need a few pointers on how to stay focused on your work, here are some thoughts.
• Limit your consumption of media and others’ opinions.
• Begin your day with your own work, not others’.
• Let your body lead – listen to its needs and honor them.
• Watch out for self-sabotage tendencies – binging on food, drink or media will not serve you.
• Connect with loved ones.
• Access nature and other things that nurture you.
• Do your creative work.
There will be days when you cannot think, focus, sit still or create. Those are the days where you can do small bits of your project. Remind yourself of your original impulse for this project. Lay out the outline of your book in index cards. Look up links for things you want to share. Tidy up and clean the studio space. Do something, no matter how small, to stay connected to your creating.
It’s never been more clear that we must keep making. We cannot let anything – either external forces or internal fears – stop us from what is inside us and what must be expressed. Each of us has a voice and a role to play, and there is no longer any time to believe that we don’t matter.
Please, do not let your inner critic or your fears win the day. Do not let a day pass without feeding your creative fire. Write. Make. Speak. Inspire.
We need you.