Posts Tagged ‘restore creativity’

Restore and Nurture Your Creativity

Monday, August 15th, 2011

How’s your creativity faring? Have you been restoring and replenishing it? Just like our bodies, our creativity needs to be constantly nourished.

Earlier this month, I had the chance to drive up the Oregon Coast and bask in the raw beauty of its rugged cliffs, crashing surf, towering dunes and windswept beaches. At each turn in the road, I caught myself gasping at yet another marvelous view.

Most days, sunshine brought out the ocean’s palette of blue hues and showcased the landscape’s texture. Some mornings, fog blanketed the shore, softening edges, muting details, and awakening me to shapes and forms that go unnoticed on sunny days. I could feel my creativity savoring every morsel of inspiration. I came home replenished.

If you have the opportunity to get away on a vacation, a day trip or even for a few hours, I hope you do! If you can’t, then find other ways to nourish your creativity. Leaf through a book of photos of a dream destination. Or create something outside your primary creative expression. For example, if writing is your primary creative outlet, prepare a fun dessert, work in a garden or arrange a colorful bouquet.

What are you doing to restore and replenish YOUR creativity?

Reflections on Be-ing

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

Several readers sent me descriptions of how they practice be-ing and revive their creativity. Here are some for you to read. You may find something new here to tap into the power of be-ing:

Betty from British Columbia shared:

  • going to gratitude—stopping to note what I have, where I am in life and who is in my world-emphasis on the pause part
  • window shopping at fresh grocery markets and unique shops
  • people like you who refresh my perspectives and pause me to consider new directions
  • women relationships that are deep and connected
  • always nature as you suggested.

Alex from Missouri said:

“Thank you for that wonderful, refreshing reminder to BE. I love sitting out on our back patio and watching the cows graze.  A peace comes over me and I feel renewed.  I take time to BE frequently and it feels so good.”

Susan from Switzerland related how she experienced be-ing on a recent vacation in Mallorca, a mountainous island off the coast of Spain.

“Our cottage was up the mountain, in the middle of a citrus grove. We drank fresh-squeezed orange juice, grapefruit juice and lemonade. Kurt would sometimes go off in the morning on day-long hikes up in the mountains and I would stay at the cottage alone.

On those days I would sit outside by the swimming pool and listen to the bleating of the goats and sheep in the hills and the singing of the birds. Sometimes I would sketch the mountains or read my book. Sometimes I just sat and breathed. Other days I would go hiking with Kurt through the olive groves and the rocky paths along the mountains facing the dark blue Mediterranean. But the days I was alone with myself were my favorite. Just being. I came back from vacation re-energized and ready to face life with a new vitality.”

What do you do to tap into the restorative power of be-ing?

The Restorative Power of Be-ing

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Sometimes creativity needs a break from its usual means of expression, whether that’s gardening, painting, designing, woodworking or, in my case, writing. It needs time to simply be.

In our action-focused society, taking the time To Be can be more challenging than a multi-page To Do list. So we continue doing while our creativity yearns to be infused with fresh energy.

Recently, I set aside my writing endeavors during a two-week road trip from southern California to Oregon and let myself simply be. Side trips to majestic Sequoia, King’s Canyon and Yosemite national parks reawakened me to nature’s restorative powers. Walking under towering, 2,000-year-old giant sequoias quickly put my life in awe-filled perspective!

Roaring waterfalls, blossoming wildflowers, and soft, pine-scented breezes fed my senses and re-energized my creative soul. I observed. I admired. I absorbed the natural beauty of it all.

I let myself simply be. And now I can feel my creativity pulsating with fresh energy!

The key is to remember to give my creativity the opportunity to simply be amid the demands of my daily life. All it may take is intentionally setting aside a few hours, better yet a day, to set my creativity free to be.

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