by susrene@gmail.com | Dec 26, 2018 | artists, arts, inspiration, inspirational, Uncategorized
Disclaimer: This blog post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission to fund my coffee drinking habit if you use these links to make a purchase. You will not be charged extra, and you’ll keep me supplied in caffeine. It’s a win for everyone, really.
There are a few things that people think about as they head into a new year. Usually health and fitness, their life path and career success. Let’s talk about what it is to be a success. Does it mean money, prestige, a corner office or to be be successful requires us to do more and be more of ourselves in order to bring success into our lives? What are the secrets to success?
On www.myemma.com I came across an article on the “10 Secrets to Success” from the worlds top marketers. Bringing the reader quotes and ideas from people at the top of their field. My Emma is a plethora of resources for marketing and learning to bring your skills to your audience.
What does this have to do with creativity? a creative person, our marketing is in our work. The same rules apply on another level and by bringing in these skills we can create personal and possibly professional success to our creative paths. Creatives often focus so much on their creative work they can forget the marketing aspect of their careers. A creative persons work deserves to be seen and recognized by an audience, even if it is an audience of ten or a thousand.
The first rule: Be human. Remember we are all human.
“Marketing is all about creativity, humanity, and authenticity.”
Jay Baer Convince & Convert
We all have basic needs and desires that drive us. Try to be reachable, accessible and understandable. That doesn’t mean changing your work, it means be you in what you are doing and no one else. Bring all of who you are, and your humanity into the creative work that you bring into the world and you will find the right audience for your work. You need to be authentic in your creative work.
Another piece of advice: Narrow your audience, don’t expand it. You will never appeal to everyone and the great news…YOU DON’T HAVE TO!
“GO NARROW, NOT BROAD: WE HAVE A TENDENCY TO THINK ‘IF I GO BROAD, I’LL CAPTURE MORE PEOPLE.’ BUT THE MORE TIGHTLY YOU DEFINE YOURSELF, THE EASIER IT IS FOR YOUR PEOPLE TO FIND YOU.”
TAMSEN WEBSTER
Those who relate to your work will find you and become your biggest fans. Look at Amanda Palmer as a great example of success and unusual expression. Her fan base found her and our some of the most loyal fans I have witnessed. Her success is based on her style. She marketed to the people that would love her work the way that it was. She did not try to reach everyone. You don’t either. Create what you want to create with all your heart and your people will find you. Those are two big secrets of success.
If you want the other Eight secrets, head over to My Emma and check out this eye opening article and their other resources as well that can help you on your way to becoming a marketing success with your own creative works. So often, creatives overlook this aspect of their work and wonder why they aren’t selling and why they aren’t getting their fans. You have to consider the marketing aspect of the creative side of work, the business side to really get yourself out there into the world. You success is in finding your people and creating a loyal fan base. Money, prestige and even the corner office can be nice, but if it isn’t what you are aiming for, then it isn’t real success.
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by susrene@gmail.com | Aug 20, 2018 | artists, arts, creativity, inspiration, inspirational, writers, writing
I talk a lot about creative activities and things that you can do to improve your creative self but I want to talk to you about creating a daily creative practice. I advocate a lot that your creative time spent does not need to be more than ten minutes in a day. But how does one create a daily practice? Here are the steps to developing a ten minute daily creative practice.
- Set a specific time that you can be creative each day. It works best if it can be at the same time every day, however, I know life comes up so make an effort to put the time in your calendar each day so that you know for those ten minutes you are occupied with being creative. Think of being creative as part of the work of your soul. Your being needs creativity to thrive. Otherwise, unused it festers into something else. Making time for it is of the first importance.
- Make room for it. When I began making pendants all I had was a tv tray in the living room where I would work on creative stuff while everyone around me was watching television or playing games. I didn’t have space to myself but I had a space that was mine. If you are lucky enough, and your kids are back in school or all grown up, then you get to have some space to yourself. But create some room for being creative. This is the second most important part because if you don’t have somewhere to be creative, you won’t do it.
- If you don’t know where to start, start anywhere. Unsure if you want to paint or write or uncertain what you like creatively? Look at what you are drawn to. If there are several things, try one thing at a time. Maybe one day your journal for ten minutes, then you try a poem the next day but the day after you watercolor paint or play with clay. Eventually you will find what it is that calls you. If you don’t like it, then you have only spent ten minutes and you can try again the next day. Think of it a a sort of spiritual playtime to connect with your creative self.
- Begin. Make a commitment to start your practice on a certain day and commit to say seven days in a row. Then commit to two weeks in a row and so on. The new research shows that it takes an average of sixty-six days to form a new habit. Build it a couple of weeks at a time and by the time three months have gone by, you have created your new daily practice.
- Continue committing and recommitting. I have learned this through my new exercise routines as life comes up and trips and other events get in the way. Don’t beat yourself up over it, just recommit to starting over and keep going. It isn’t the end of the world. Life isn’t going to always stop for us plus we need vacations and outings with friends or have family dinners. Do the best you can to make the time sacred and commit to it but allow yourself to be flexible and not rigid. There have been times where I skipped my creative practice for meeting with a friend and was more inspired through that meeting that I came home and did creative work anyways.
- Try new things. The problem some people have is that they get bored doing the same thing every day…some people thrive on the routine. Don’t change the commitment. Change the activity. Scour Pinterest for new ideas. Read craft blogs or DIY blogs or writing blogs for other ideas. Even here I list prompts every Thursday as well as ten minute projects on Tuesdays. You don’t have to do the same thing every day.
- Just do it! That’s it. Show up every day and be creative. Allow yourself at least ten minutes. You might find yourself expanding to fifteen or thirty over time depending on what you are working on. Ten minutes to just to open that window and let some light in on the creative soul. It doesn’t mean you have to stay there. Grow from it. It will feel great to move into your creative self more often. Your soul needs it.
There you have seven steps to creating a daily creative practice. Do you already have a daily practice? What does it look like? If you don’t, what would you like it to look like? Feel free to answer in the comments or on the Facebook page. Happy creating!
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by susrene@gmail.com | May 8, 2018 | artists, arts, creativity, inspiration, inspirational
In a world that often moves too fast and is too busy, it is easy to lose sight of our creativity. Our lives get overloaded. Kids, maybe parents, jobs, housework can swarm around us and take up most of our waking moments until we fall, exhausted into our beds. It is easy to see how creative expression can be sidelined. However, I want to tell you that the act of creativity does not have to happen in huge, planned out moments of time. It is possible to dedicate just five or ten minutes to a creative project or exercise. Everything from coloring pages to drawing mandalas, from painting to making jewelry or even five minutes of journal time, all count towards your creative spirit’s health.
I do this often. I recently created a prayer flag mobile for someone who just had a baby. Over all, it was quite the process from painting the fabric to stamping the designs, and then because it was for an infant, I laminated the flags so no paint was exposed. I attached it to a small wreath that I also decorated with ivy and flowers. I broke the tasks into small ten to fifteen minute increments that I could work on between other projects, kids, etc. The project took about a week to finish but it got done. I could have easily said, “Nope,. It’s just too much work,” but in doing it in small pieces, I had the creative satisfaction of completing a project that was important to me and fulfilled my creativity needs.
Your creativity needs to be taken care of in the same way you would attend to your mental or physical health. It is part of your part of your health. Creativity helps physical, mental and spiritual aspects of our selves. It is why it is such an important practice to attempt daily, just as you might meditation, or jogging. In fact, these practices done together, help one another. The act of being creative brings our mind to life.
I am encouraging you to seek out small daily acts of creativity. Sneak the time in during soccer practice with a journal in your bag. Or maybe give yourself ten minutes before you go to bed to draw or write or begin a painting. No one says it has to be a completed project, just take the time to invest your creative self.
There have been a few days where I have come to the end of the day and I feel like I am missing something and it is because I have not done any creative work. I make an effort, sometimes just making simple artist trading style cards or I journal. Some days, I paint or draw mandalas. I want to encourage to find a practice that suits your desires and needs. Are you a needle pointer, a knitter, maybe a wood-burning person ( like my friend). If you need to, try scheduling it into your day, the same way you would schedule your workout or plan a menu.
If you aren’t sure what you want to do creatively, start with something small, like picking up some pens and colored pencils with a coloring book or a small palette of water color paints and paper. Pick up a journal and write for five to ten minutes. Play with play dough. The point is to start doing something to be creative.
If you are stuck creatively, maybe you need a little guidance or coaching along the way. Maybe you just need a boost through out your week that you need to be creative. I offer two coaching packages that are just for these occasions.
The first package is the Encouraging E-mail Coach. This is a subscription designed to prompt you during the week to reach your creative goals and hold you accountable to them. It is a simple coaching program designed to jump start your creative endeavors. Three encouraging e-mails will go out over a 7 day period to cheerlead you on your creative project. At the end of seven days, send me an e-mail and tell me how you did and where you left off, and we will keep going from there.
The second package, The Creative Play E-mail Coaching, is a more intense email package. It is more interactive with us working together toward your creative goals that include homework assignments to get you there. There will be up to five e-mails a week from me, and you can feel free to e-mail me anytime with questions and epiphanies. This package can be done in 30, 60, or 90 day increments, depending on what you want to accomplish.
My goal here at The Creating Room is to feed and encourage the creative soul. I believe that we all have within us the ability to be creative and that it arrives in us in different ways. Sometimes we might not have yet discovered what that is. That’s okay. I am inviting to come along on this journey to discover your creative self…to seek out the creative soul within you.
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by susrene@gmail.com | Feb 20, 2018 | creativity, inspiration, inspirational, lifestyle, Uncategorized
The phrase self- care is abuzz everywhere. Therapists are recommending it to clients, as are coaches and spiritual teachers, even in some places of business, the phrase is being used to make sure employees are taking care of themselves. What does self- care mean? The act of self- care is to attend to ones own mental, physical and *spiritual health. These are key components of human existence. When we don’t attend to our personal needs for whatever reason, we can slip into depression, become angry and bitter, disappear into isolation, or fall to unhealthy habits such as drinking heavily or using drugs to hide how we are feeling. Caring for ourselves is shown to improve mood, connectedness with the world, and improve our physical well-being.
What does self- care look like? It can look like many things. For example hiking in the woods, to yoga, meditation, or reading a good book. The possibilities are as many as there are people that make up the world. One of my favorite forms of self- care is curling up someplace with a book and reading until I lose track of time. (Rarely happens but when it does, it is a treat.) However, we don’t always have long periods of time to attend to our self-care. We may only have the amount of time that it allowed on a work break or in between classes, or between picking kids up from here and there. I have put together a list of ten minute self- care ideas that you can do on your own or with the help of a smart phone, or a couple of simple tools.
Meditation: This is one of the most obvious ones and the one I seem to hear that most people are afraid to try. They are afraid they will fall asleep or do it incorrectly. What I have learned is that there really is no wrong way to meditate. It is all about taking the time to find a way to reconnect with yourself and if you believe in one, you higher power. It can be as simple as focusing on your breath for as little as five minutes. Letting thoughts go as they pop up instead of keeping them around to interfere with your quiet reflection. Another great thing to use is your smart phone and download any number of Apps that will guide you through a meditation. I currently love the App Calm. It plays soothing ocean waves when you open it and you can select different meditations that last about twelve minutes. Or use your computer or phone and go to YouTube to find an abundance of guided meditations that last from five minutes to an hour. One of my favorites for when I am particularly cranky is one called, “F*** That”, a two and a half minute mediation that lightens my mood when I need to let go of something that is bothering me.
Mindset Work/Affirmations: I love writing affirmations. They got me through some really rough times. I love them so much I currently have three decks of cards with different positive affirmations on them for sale on Etsy. I still work on affirmations (almost) daily. I do forget to do my mindset practice and it throws me off a bit. But working with a practice in the morning, for me, helps set my day up to be more positive and invites into my life the things that I want. I am not talking about just material objects, but ideas such as experiencing more kindness or compassion. When I write down what I want, I tend to look for it in my day on a subconscious level. I can spend around thirty minutes on my practice, however, the simple act of reading or writing affirmations to start the day doesn’t have to take more than ten. Sometimes, I just pull a card or two and reflect on them in journal writing or in a meditation.
Get Moving: Our bodies need to move. The more they stay at rest, the more they want to be at rest and over time, we end up feeling worse. Exercise/ Movement, even in small increments has shown to have positive results on our mood and our physical health. In this article by Forbes, a study is cited that shows that even a ten minute stationary cycling experience at a moderate level showed improved health benefits. When we physically feel better, our moods tend to be better as well. A peer counselor I knew in the mental health field used to say, “Take your a** and your mind will follow.” So throw on some music and dance your heart out for ten minutes, walk, or ride a bike. Make those ten minutes count for your physical and mental well-being.
Develop a Creative Practice: Acts of creativity are good for our minds and our souls. We are born to be creative people. It is part of who we are. We are inventive and innovative. A creative practice does not mean you have to sit down and devote hours to a painting, though you are welcome to. It means we set aside time to let our imaginations out to play. This can be done in any number of ways. The boom in the coloring book market for adults is born from the discovery that even the act of coloring an already drawn picture, is an act of creative work and causes us to engage our imaginations.You can doodle, take out watercolor paints, or even use play dough. Play dough can be kept in a desk drawer and taken out to use during a ten minute break. So can color pencils and a coloring book. Looking for something a little more challenging, a painting does not have to be done in one sitting. Break it up into smaller pieces of time that you can fit into your schedule. Creativity is an act of playing and we need that playfulness for our spiritual and mental well-being.
Eat Mindfully: This is a harder one but can have benefits to your physical and mental health. We often rush through meals, not really tasting what we are eating as we run off to the next thing on our to-do list. I know I used to do this regularly. However, I have begun taking the time time to taste my food. I take smaller bites, and therefor eat more slowly, setting my utensils down between bites. I realized I feel full sooner and am more satisfied because I actually tasted my food. I am not wanting for flavor because I was able to enjoy what was already before me. In slowing down and realizing I am full, then I stop eating. So often, we (in general) eat until we are stuffed and we can’t possibly eat another bite. By then we have consumed more calories than we needed and we, usually, feel like we can’t move because we are so full. Mindful eating keeps that from happening. I have more leftovers now, and I am ok with that. I am learning that I don’t have to eat my whole plate (an idea that was instilled in me as a child by my dad and step-mom.) It is a freeing way to eat. Paying attention, being mindful bleeds into other areas of our lives over time, and I am learning the art of slowing down and not rushing through everything.
These are five, fairly simple, and easy to implement activities to attend to your self- care. Only you can be responsible for your self- care. It is especially important if what you do during your day job is to attend to other people’s needs such as being nurse, a therapist, or a teacher. I am sure there are more out there. But we can only be our best self if we take care of our own needs as a person. I challenge you to pick one and try it today to see how it feels to take ten minutes and devote it to the care of you. Just you. Dance. Buy a coloring book. Listen to a meditation. Eat your lunch more mindfully. Take care of you.
(*Spiritual does not mean religious here).
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by susrene@gmail.com | Mar 16, 2017 | inspiration, inspirational
Being creative is its own form of self-care. However even creative people need to take some time out and refuel their souls. Self-care is the new trend in today’s need to tend to our body and souls that are sometimes starving from lack of attention. Creativity is one of the recommendations for self-care. If you are a working creative, who spends every day head deep in being creative, even you need some vital self-care. Here are fourteen of my favorite tips on taking care of a creative persons spirit.
- My first inclination when I need to take some time out is to go for a long walk somewhere where it is green and pretty. I long to be out in nature. Sometimes I take my headphones but most of the time, I simply listen to the sounds of the world around me. If I can get away, I like to take hikes, not long hikes right now, but somewhere in the forest, usually among the redwoods, is my favorite place to go. There are times when all I can do is go to the walking trail around the park near my house. Then I walk around it a couple times, maybe take my shoes off and walk barefoot in the grass. There is something calming about walking in the grass with my bare feet. It is as though I’m being grounded to the earth again.
- My next suggestion is to pick up a good book. Honestly, I recommend two books: one for just for fun and the second something I want to learn more about. When I am doing this kind of self-care, I am giving myself permission to step away from the tasks of writing or doing crafts and spend some time filling my mind with words. I love reading and can often devour a book or two in a weekend. Sometimes though, I savor them and they will last me at least a week. The last few books I have read that were for learning for by Brene’ Brown and Elizabeth Gilbert. Brene’ Brown’s book, The Gifts of Imperfection, actually made me break my rule of not writing in books. I highlighted so much because I wanted to hold on to all that I could and surprisingly I did. I consider all her books life-changing. The other book, Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert was also incredible and such an inspiration for a creative person. If you are creative, I highly recommend reading this and filling your soul with its stories.
- Slow down. Find some place to sit in the cool of the evening and watch the sun set. When I was much younger my friend and I would drive out on the country roads listening to music. Then we found the perfect spot to park on the side of the road, sit on the car hood with sandwiches and watch the sunset nearly every weekend. It had such a profound effect that I can still see the sun sets in my mind nearly 20 years later.
- Let’s color. There are so many adult coloring books out there right now. You can pick them up anywhere from the department stores to the craft stores and I’ve even seen them in the drugstores and once at a gas station. Coloring has been proven recently to release stress and tension and allows the mind to relax.
- On Pinterest once, I saw someone set up a inflatable pool in their backyard filled with pillows and blankets in order to watch the stars. I recommend this. Though it’s getting harder with more light pollution in my neighborhood, I still sometimes like to sit on the porch with a blanket in the evening and watch the stars overhead. Or better yet, my friend and I sometimes like to walk late at night so we can see the stars while we walk. My recommendation is maybe you can get an air mattress laid out on the lawn in the backyard with pillows and blankets lay down and watch the stars; maybe watch them with someone you love.
- Journaling. I cannot say enough about journaling. There are more ways to Journal than I can possibly mention here: there is brain dump journaling, art journaling, bullet journaling, journaling with prompts, journaling about your past, and the list can go on. There are as many ways to Journal as there are people. But there’s something to be said for writing down your thoughts, clearing them out of our heads to make way for new thoughts and new ideas. My favorite form is the brain dump. I usually do this at night before bed. I pour everything that’s been in my brain on the paper. Some of it is good and some of it’s bad, sometimes a review of the day, and other times it’s just reflective. It’s basically anything. I think that’s why it works for me. I also like some kinds of art journaling where I am journaling on a theme or an idea but I haven’t worked with that as much.
- Meditation is a word that is being thrown around a lot these days. I know many people have this image of someone sitting perfectly still for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour and fully focused and not moving. But meditation can be simple. It can be sitting with your mind quiet for five minutes. Or you can try guided meditations by using YouTube or audio recordings. I have found I like to read a reflection and meditate on that for about five minutes. I like to have something I can focus on when I meditate. Though, if I’m sitting in nature, like at the beach, I listen to the sound of the ocean waves and slowly go into a deep meditative state where I can sit for an hour or more.
- Try an art activity with friends. I talked about this briefly in Taking Your Artist Date in a New Direction. Pick a friend or two and go do something together: a painting place or a ceramic shop or take a class like a dance class or a cooking class. The point is that sometimes it’s all about just having a little fun and having it with our friends. Our friends are a great source of reminding ourselves that we need to take care of our souls.
- Making intentions list. I did this at the beginning of the year instead of writing out goals ever out intentions things that I am mindful about creating in my life rather than setting a goal to master. This made more sense to me and is easier for me to accomplish. When I get lost I can easily go back to my intentions list and get myself back on the right shirt direction again. I also try to keep my intentions in different categories so that I’m a little more balanced and different aspects of my life. Here’s the sheet. New Year Five &Five List
- Visit any water location near you. Water is cleansing and grounding and can make us reconnect with her and ourselves whether it is the ocean a river a favorite lake it doesn’t matter. Water has amazing soothing capacity.
- Move your body stretch it out. I know we all can’t afford to do yoga classes and sometimes we think we can’t even do yoga. Personally, I have not yet tried yoga. I’m afraid to. But I have watched videos on stretching on YouTube and on a couple of health websites. Your body needs to stretch. It needs to feel the full length of its muscles and be in tune with itself for it to function fully. Stretching does get our minds back in touch with our bodies and our body in touch with our mind and is essential for centering ourselves.
- Treat yourself to a movie night. Pick a favorite movie, pop some popcorn, cuddle up with your favorite blanket and just chill. Or is there new movie how you want to see? Take yourself to the movie theater. Treat yourself to a movie. You can go alone or with friends it doesn’t matter. For me going to the movies as a treat especially with the cost and having three kids. So most of the time I wait for the DVDs. But when I do get a movie I really want to see is an exceptional treat and I thoroughly enjoy it. I get to be in the moment with the movie.
- Take yourself a little day trip. Hop over to the next city or town over or someplace you haven’t been before. Play tourist. Go do touristy things: looking all the little shops, have a little snack, take some pictures. Just enjoy the area that is new to you.
- Create a positive morning or evening routine. I often start out my mornings by reading a reflection or sometimes two. It helps to center and focus myself to start the day. I also start off with a cup of coffee and my routine of watching a little bit of morning news with just me and my dog while the kids sleep. This is my little time to myself. When it gets disrupted, I can feel it in my whole day. Having a consistent routine is good for our self-care for our body likes to predict what is happening next and is comforted by that knowledge.
There you have it. Fourteen tips on taking care of yourself. Our creativity depends on our ability to know when and how to implement some self-care. It is not an act of selfishness; it is necessary. We are not little bunnies running on batteries. We are human beings and are very complicated. When we take care of ourselves, our bodies and our minds, it makes it so much easier to take care of the rest of our life and our family and friends.
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by susrene@gmail.com | Dec 15, 2016 | creativity, inspiration, inspirational
There’s a storm raging outside my window. The wind is howling, the rain is pouring and all I want to do is curl up with coffee, a good book and a blanket, maybe take a nap. Instead, I know I promised I would write myself a post today. On my schedule I was supposed to write a post about “awe”. I had read an 
article recently published in Parade magazine inspired me to think about all the ordinary ways that we have awe in our lives. But I find myself looking at my favorite spot in my office area that’s crammed into a corner of the dining room. There are stars and moons hanging on the wall, hand-painted, glittered, and cut out by my and my friends hands. They are from a blanket fort party nearly 2 years ago. After investing so much time into cutting them out, tracing and painting them, I couldn’t bear to let them go. They are the whimsy of my space. I realized as I was sitting here, contemplating what I should write this morning that my stars and moons are a very simple form of awe. They remind me of fairytales and daydreams and moments of possibilities. When they hung in the blanket fort along with white Christmas lights, they filled the room with magic. When I see them, I am reminded of their magic.
In the article I read on awe, it was compared to seeing an amazing Vista or what astronauts experience when they look at Earth from space or how we feel we see a newborn baby. Until recently, awe was ignored. It was thought to be an elite emotion available to some but not all. But researchers are finding that that is not true. We are all able to experience just as we are able to experience happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust and surprise. Awe is now being considered a basic part of the human condition, an emotion we all need. I have experienced when I climbed the side of a mountain instead above a waterfall and watched it from its source. I have climbed rocky cliffs sides near the ocean and sat perched high above where the gulls fly. In fact, almost anytime I stand by the ocean I feel awe. But these experiences are not always available nor are they always advisable.
Sometimes awe borders on the edge of feeling great and feeling afraid. Sometimes we look into those vast big experiences, we we feel not just the beauty but also the fear of being in a precarious position. Instead we can look for awe in the small things like the delight of the baby giggle or the full moon on a clear night, or the way raindrops shimmer on plants or how stars and moons hang in the corner of an otherwise plain office. What can awe do for you? According to the Parade article, written by Paula Spencer Scott, awe benefits us because it binds us together, can help us see things in new ways, it can make us nicer and happier, it actually often alters our bodies because it is such a strong positive emotion. Scott also has a brief page on “7 Ways to Experience Awe in Everyday Life.” I didn’t see the list originally, so I came up with my own. Here are 10 ways to bring awe into your everyday life.
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Hello Everyone! I’m Susan: a Writer, Speaker, Coach and Creator.
Creativity and I have been friends since I was a kid. I was always involved in a creative project…from putting together neighborhood skits and plays, writing stories, dance, theater. I loved to play with my creative side from painting, photography, to writing... 