The Muse's Daydream is back. I've been spending time working on a card of decks... no wait, a deck of cards. I explain about them, read two of them, and invite you to buy a deck in case you want creativity to be easier for you. Also a Zoom workshop is included as part of the purchase.

You can buy a deck here.

Upcoming trainings:
The Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Training : June- October

The Muse Facilitator Training June- August

Upcoming art and creativity programs www.themuseisin.com

This episode is a momentary departure from the usual frivolity for reverie of the inspiration, relaxation, and the possibility of creativity.
Script and Poster of the poem is available to purchase at this link.
"Don't let the future hold your happiness hostage." ~Sam Harris

Workshop: Blessing of the New Year
Join me in a complimentary workshop called Blessing of the New Year, on December 27th, 12pm pacific time/ 3pm eastern.

Welcome 2024 by creating a simple blessing with inspiration from poet, David Whyte and your own intuition. For writers and non-writers alike. Included in this workshop is a new year guided meditation to spark a creative relationship with yourself to last throughout the year.

I'll also talk about one of my biggest concern and frequently seen challenges... not enjoying what you're doing or feeling enough.

There’s a lot of areas where I could use improve: organization, a balanced social life, politeness to name a few. But the moment is mine to believe it’s perfect as is AND I can make small improvements without needing to be perfect.

Despite irritability, bad hair, and a non-linear journey to get here, my current existence is crackerjack. I’ll share the five practices to which I credit this most wonderful phenomenon. Register here
Other:
Let's Talk About Creativity

Saturday, January 13 9:30 am pac,10:30mtn, 11:30 cen 12pm eastern

The Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Training was recognized by Life Coaching Magazine as the best creativity coaching available. Now the tools and approaches that won it that honor are shared monthly, starting in January in a Zoom Session called Let's Talk About Creativity. We will talk about ways to get through procrastination and talk about what we love about what we do. Free to members of The Underground.

Wild Abandon Writing Workshop on Zoom

4 weeks starting January 10 3-4:30 pacific time
You know all those prompts in my books? We will be doing some of those and other wacky prompts. We start with raw materials in the form or words and phrases and collage them together

Writing workshop info here

Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Training:

17-week training on Zoom beginning Monday, January 21

Whether you want to help others or understand the power of your own creativity when mindfulness, compassion, intuition, and small steps is in the mix, come find out why this training was recognized by Life Coaching Magazine as the best creativity coaching training. Filling fast. More info here.

Art and Creativity Walk in Italy - I'm so excited about this.. We will be using mindfulness and creativity through art, smart photography, and writing to add to the enchantment and appreciation of the Italian Riviera. October 2024

Hope you can join me... it's half full .

Upcoming art and creativity programs www.themuseisin.com

I’ve spent a career teaching how self-judgment works against us in the creative process.

I’ve spent a lifetime dealing with my own harsh self-judgment, so I have the requisite compassion to understand its costs.

Once we’ve made it to a place of near completion, there is time is to be discerning, but the process requires license to start out crappy, make mistakes, and tolerate not being able to bring into reality the exact thing we envisioned. We need that freedom for the enjoyment that leads to the best end products.

The inner critic comes with being human, but it is vital to our success and enjoyment as creative people to persist in spite of it. In this regard, the creative process is an opportunity to create a better, more resilient self as we learn to be there for ourselves with compassion.

Listening to Amanda Knox in her series called Resilience on Sam Harris’s podcast, Waking Up, is the first time I heard the following logic reached as she contemplated the self-judgment she was feeling while being incarcerated four years for a murder she did not commit:

“Berating yourself for being stupid does not make you smarter.”

Along the same lines, berating yourself for:

• not feeling good enough at your passion
• not being the same as other artists or writers you see on social media
• procrastination
• resistance
• hesitance
• anything else you're struggling with

... does not improve the quality of your work or to get you to show up for creative pursuits..

It’s what we naturally do because that’s how evolution wired us, but it’s why we need to be ready to shift our thinking when we notice we are ineffectively judging ourselves again.

Van Gogh had such a strategy. Here’s the script to my 2021 episode of A Muse’s Moment to go along as you listen to the narration and music.

“If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” Vincent Van Gogh said that. In less than 10 years, he painted almost 900 paintings – the voice that told him he couldn’t paint… didn’t have a chance.

Now picture yourself fueled by this sentiment.
Think this: There’s something I want to do but I’m not feeling that good at it, or, I feel others are better than I am, or that it’s not something I can ever do, or I’m too old, I don’t know where to start .. but by all means I’m going to do it …. paint, write, dance, speak, build my business, and head toward that creative north star that is calling my name anyway.

I don’t need to be perfect, but I do need to find enjoyment along the way … with patience and curiosity.. because the more I allow for the process to be enjoyable, the more I will, by all means doggedly stay with the process until the doubting voices pull up a chair beside me and start giving me ideas instead of discouragement. Or maybe they could write a critique for tuna casserole.

If you hear a voice within you say you cannot be creative in any way say: Thanks for sharing…I’m doing it anyway.
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The Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Training was recognized by Life Coaching Magazine as the best creativity coaching available. Now the tools and approaches that won it that honor are shared monthly, starting in January in a Zoom Session called Let's Talk About Creativity. Free to members of The Underground

Upcoming art and creativity programs www.themuseisin.com