Creative Clarity

I'm on a clarity kick, trying to understand how I want to direct my energy in the next months of my life. My priorities are those activities, good deeds, responsibilities, people, disciplines, and whatever else seems most important and feels most meaningful to me, now.

Thursday is my day to open the door to creative thinking and doing, so today I'll take time to think about my path forward.

Agenda: 

1. Read "The Book of Doing and Being"

2. Creative visioning

3. Projects for the week

4. Functional creativity

1. Read "The Book of Doing and Being":

I'm reading from this book by Barnet Bain (2015), subtitled "Rediscovering Creativity in Life, Love, and Work". This is a book of creative perspective, to help jiggle me out of the straight line way I usually think into something new: Use the exercises with consistency in order to stay focused on my destination. Practice will ground me and allow my ambitions to take root and grow.

Chapter 7 is The Four Anesthetics, about roadblocks to creative flow, and this section is on Developing Creative Plasticity, "an imaginative malleability" that can be practiced with "focused expression of intention and attention". 

The second of four practices is interrupting habitual patterns of thought and feeling. Try this when I want to be more open and receptive, and shift my mood:

1. Take 3 slow breaths and imagine that I am slowing everything down - my brain waves, blood flow, heartbeat, and the whole world.
2. Imagine that everything has come to a total stop. Rest in the stillness. 

2. Creative visioning for priorities:

Today I'm thinking about my current priorities for daily action. When I hone down, as I have been, to the basics, I make time for: 

• Writing my blog and my book
• Gardening
• Family
• Self-care
• Basic house cleaning and order

The bits I regretfully neglect are service and art. Query: If I could do just one thing all summer in each of these areas, what would it be?

• Service: Perhaps fighting neonicotinoids?
• Art: Perhaps drawing and clay with the boys?

I want to become the Grandma Earth Teacher this summer - be the one who teaches my grandsons about art and the earth. Also, as Grandma Earth Teacher I am led to make things that are a gift to the Earth in some way, so perhaps an anti-neonicotinoids project of some kind? 

3. Creative Visualization:

Every month, at the waxing gibbous moon (my last push for action), I call on the practice of visualization to help me to see the next steps towards bringing my goals to fruition.

Today I shine a light on Grandma Earth Teacher; the goal is to embody the qualities of life (Needs) of inspiration, giving / receiving, and discovery.

Creative visualization is a technique that uses my imagination to create change. (Because of my visual and auditory sensitivity, this is the best process for knowing what I'm feeling.) It has these steps:

• First, set an intention: Say, "Today I call on the Spirit of Love to bring me clarity and open my eyes to a vision of me, as the Grandma Earth Teacher, calm and grounded, ready to inspire a depth of love for nature, and teach the skills to express that which springs from the heart." 

• Center and relax each part of my body: With each breath, allow my awareness to deepen and become softer. No stress. No rush. I walk or float in an imaginary void. Open a connection to Spirit. Feel a soft warmth begin to grow and spread through me, until I am radiating quiet energy.

• Create a clear, detailed picture in my mind, as though the objective has been reached. Paint a vivid mental image of meat Grandmother Earth Teacher, leading kids and adults in practices that celebrate nature. Put as much positive energy into the images as possible. 

• Lastly, affirm that this is what I want with a short positive phrase in the present tense: "Today I will take the next step towards embodying my Self."

• Give thanks and return: Saying thanks out loud is how I acknowledge the reality of the gift of my vision.

The thought-image is like a signal-flare that guides the physical thing or deed to manifest in my life (and it's a good way to keep my intentions in my mind). I will carry the vision of the completed goal with me, and focus on it often during the day, in a gentle manner.

4. Projects for the week:

My new goals for Grandma Earth Teacher and Dragonfly Studio. is 

to 

embody the qualities of inspiration, giving / receiving, and discovery:

• Th - F: Drawing with Aldo - catch a bug and draw it.
• Sat: Cut new sleeves for Earth Coat
• Sun: Sew Earth coat
• M: Sigel for Grandma Earth Teacher
• T: Collect rose petals, make sandwiches
• W: Draw birds.

Doing the smallest thing is a great way to make courageous creative work less frightening; also finding the "minimum effective dose", the amount of work that keeps me challenged and joyful, and if I keep at it will get me to the finish line on time.

5. Functional Creativity:

I've also got lots of projects that help us function better: Fixing broken things and maintaining the house. This week: 

• Futon drawers
• Paint tool board shapes