Tag: Creativity

What Inspires Me

Weekly inspiration

Jen Morris

Every week I share a series of inspiring links. Feel free to share anything that has inspired you in the comments below!

 

This is why it’s important to create a routine around your creative pursuits (including journaling!) – if you get out of the habit it can be really hard to get back into it (but it’s worth getting back into it).

As I have been sick for a week I enjoyed this post by Courtney, where she gives us permission to leave a few things off our to-do list if we’re not up to it.

I love journaling (duh) and inspirational quotes – so this post really spoke to me!

This post is a great summary of the tiny house movement. My partner and I will be meeting with the trailer company next week to discuss our build, so excited!

I could spend hours looking at the crafty creations on this gorgeous blog. I WISH I had talent like this!

Creativity

Journal prompt: Your perfect day

Jen Morris

I’m at the beginning of a journey to overhaul my life.

There are many things I want to change, and I’m using journaling as a tool to keep me honestly asking myself what I want my life to look like, and to help me find the courage I need each step of the way.

I also use my journal as a place to dream what my new life will look like.

We often do this for the big picture stuff – what job we want, where we want to live, what kind of partner we are looking for.

I think it can be easy to overlook the simple day-to-day moments that make up a good life. A while ago I asked you to dream big by thinking about what you want for your life in your journal. Now, I want you to dream smaller: think about your perfect day. This journal prompt should help you to do just that.

perfect-day

Sandy Grason (author of Journalution) says:

In your journals you can collect visions of how you would like your days to unfold. Reflect on them often. Meditating on these visions and imagining that you are living them will help attract the circumstances to create them. As you get clearer and clearer about your life and your dreams, paths will appear.

>>> Prompt:

Write, in great detail, about your perfect day. Start in the morning. Consider where you wake up – what kind of bed it is, who is there with you, what time of day it is. What can you see around you? What view is out the window? What do you do – do you get up and make coffee, do you stretch before the sunrise, or do you sleep until midday? What do you eat for breakfast? Who do you spend your time with, and what do you do? Give all the details. Continue in much the same amount of detail for the rest of the day.

details

Here’s the fun part – you don’t have to limit yourself to one day. Perhaps you could do one ‘outrageous’ perfect day (you know – the one where you wake up and Johnny Depp is next to you, wanting to take you shopping and then rub your tired feet) and one more ‘likely’ perfect day.

My perfect day involves waking up when I felt rested, listening to my body rather than an alarm clock.

It means having the time and freedom to play in my art journal, write and walk my pup with my partner. Time out in nature, time to rest, delicious food. This is certainly achievable for me, in my long-term plans, and having regular days like this will really help to fill me up.

These are the kinds of perfect days I will incorporate more and more into my life as I create a life more in line with my values.

My ‘outrageous’ perfect day involves waking up in Rome and wandering down the cobbled streets eating pastry before flying to Manhattan to party into the night with the cast of The Office. Not exactly something I would want for my everyday life (or very likely to happen!), but certainly an amazing day!

What is your perfect day?

Self Empowerment

Take all the time you need

Jen Morris

The universe has a way of slowing us down if we are going too fast. So often we feel reluctant to stop and rest when we can be busy and productive.

Our society prizes busy-ness over rest.

Today I had a hard time just resting, just doing nothing. But, my body was screaming at me to stop, so I curled up on the couch with a blanket, my laptop, some lemon tea and watched Friends re-runs (I would have chosen The Office but I watched that not long ago).

It was great. I will probably have to do the same thing tomorrow.

I felt myself wanting to go to my desk, to paint or play with my new stamp-carving supplies (yay!) or do a load of laundry (not so yay, but still has to be done!), but I forced myself to stay under the covers. I even had to cancel dinner with friends, which I had been looking forward to all week.

I talk a lot about rest. I don’t think it can be overemphasized in today’s world.

As a highly sensitive person (HSP) I tend to feel more easily overwhelmed, tired and just plain run-down than the average person. Add to that a stressful teaching job, and I’m basically constantly tired. Approximately 15-20% of the population is HSP (see here).

I do my best to stay as productive as the next person – I do my creative projects, spend time with family and friends, walk the dog, work on my creative business – but sometimes life just steps in and says ‘Enough for now! Time to rest!’

The key is being able to notice the signs, then having the courage to say no – to cancel appointments, to turn down invitations, to risk letting people down.

I’m sick with a cold at the moment, but you don’t need to have an illness to need time to rest. Sometimes it’s just feeling tired, overwhelmed, tearful, crabby or like you just want everyone to leave you alone.

So take the time to rest. Take all the time you need.

Self Empowerment

On sickness and blogging

Jen Morris

I am sick at the moment. Sore throat. Runny nose. Headache. Just general crapness.

I have attempted to write an amazing blog post three times now. It’s not happening. Time to face the fact: today’s post is going to be pretty average.

But I guess by honouring where I am right now and being authentic, there may be something worth saying.

That’s one of the really hard things about doing this every day. And I guess this would apply to doing anything every day. Some days it just won’t work, for whatever reason. Maybe you run out of time. Maybe you have to take care of your kids or your partner or someone else, and there’s no room left for you at the end of it. Maybe you’re unwell *cough*.

I think it’s good to commit to doing something regularly.

I’ve seen dramatic changes in my life from journaling and blogging regularly. And it’s been really good to be pushed to do it every day. Mostly. Most of the time, I just need a wee nudge to get on with it and then I’m glad I did. Having the commitment encourages me to challenge myself.

And, occasionally, I don’t want to do it. And that’s also ok. Taking a break from doing something can also be rewarding and can help you to move towards your goal faster, without burning out.

So while I am still posting today because that’s the commitment I’ve made and I want to show up, I’m also going easy on myself. This isn’t brilliant writing. But I think it’s good to show that.

It’s good to let the world see me on my crap days too.

To see that I’m trying, that I’m willing to push forward – to see me as I am, now.

Because otherwise, how can we truly be vulnerable? How can we truly progress, if we can’t admit when we aren’t feeling good, when we need a little help, when things aren’t going to plan? How can we grow without accepting where we are?

What Inspires Me

Weekly inspiration

Jen Morris

Each week I share a series of the blogs/posts that have most inspired me. Feel free to share anything that has inspired you in the comments below!

 

Artist Nichole Rae has finally released her art journaling book. Yay! I am so excited about this and can’t wait for my copy to arrive.

Leonie tells us why burnout is normal and how to manage it. I love this woman’s approach to life and business. An inspiration!

After discussing how I define success, I was very interested to read Barry’s definition of success.

I recently missed a day of blogging in my 100 days, and I can SO totally relate to this post about starting and stopping and starting again!

I can’t get enough of my Neat and Tangled stamps that I bought from Butterfly Reflections Ink! I use them to add images and colour to my journal pages. Vanessa at Butterfly Reflections Ink is so lovely, totally recommend her store!

Creativity

Journal prompt: Define success

Jen Morris

I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting lately after coming across my old journals from high school. I posted earlier this week about allowing ourselves to dream big – as we do when we are younger.

Today as I was journaling, and thinking about the things the younger me wanted but didn’t have, I realised something. I am unsure of what success looks like – or at least, what it looks like to me. I don’t know how to define success in my own life.

I must say, I was a little shocked. As much as I know what I want to achieve in my life (and a lot of that has changed from when I was younger!) I wasn’t able to clearly articulate what my life would look like if I were ‘successful’.

Success obviously means different things to different people – for some it is the more obvious signs of success such as a nice house or car, getting married, earning a certain amount of money. For others it is simply to wake up each day with a smile, or to spend their time as they would like.

values

Somehow I had managed to avoid answering this question for myself, despite the fact that I spend a lot of time thinking about what I want more of in my life.The more I journaled about this, the clearer I got.

For me, success is:

  • being able  to support myself (and my family-to-be) financially
  • being able to travel regularly
  • making a living using my creativity and being myself
  • the freedom to choose how I spend my time and how much I work
  • completing creative projects such as writing and art
  • building my own house with my own hands – and not owing money on it
  • helping others to live satisfying and fulfilling lives

A few of these things I was unaware of. The first one was a bit of a surprise – I had always assumed I would be happy for my partner to be the breadwinner while I took care of the family. But actually, I have realised that it is important to me to contribute financially and even support our family so my partner can follow his creative dreams.

What does success mean to you? You might think you know, but try answering the following prompts. It’s good to have a clear idea because otherwise it’s difficult to know how you feel about your life and what you want to achieve.

>>> Prompts:

First of all, identify what it is you value. What is most important to you in life?

Growing up, what did it mean to you to be successful as an adult? Who did you admire for their success – what did they have/do? (For example, I wanted nothing more than to be Mariah Carey because of her amazing voice and huge international success – now I’m not so sure I’d want that at all!)

Do you still admire these people, or are there new people you admire? What is it about them that you admire?

If you were to meet someone who you felt was successful, what would their life look like? Is it different from how society tends to define success? How? How does it tie into your values?

At the end of your life if you were to look back on what you have done, what would your life look like if you had been successful? Or, if you were to read your own obituary, what would you like it to say?

Creativity

A peek into my vision journals

Jen Morris

Today I just wanted to share a few images from my vision journals.

One of these is my creative dream journal, which is a berry coloured A5 planner from Kikki K (very similar to a Filofax).

creative-dream-journal

The other journal is part of a business and blogging journal that I’m working on at the moment with The Right Brain Business Plan and The Creative Entrepreneur, as well as including anything else for my business planning that inspires me.

blog-and-business-journalI love to use magazine images and words to help me in these journals. I love magazines that have images of creative things – art, writing, desks – as well as homes, gardens and other similar images. These are the images that resonate the most with me.

I tend to have one big session where I go through a stack of magazines and cut out anything I find appealing. Then another time I will put on a movie, or music, or an audio book, and just spend a couple of hours arranging the images and words. Sometimes I will add my own words, and washi tape if I feel like it.

The thing I have noticed is that it is important to work quickly and not get too hung up on getting it perfect. Try to work from your intuition rather than logic. The idea is to create images and words that make you feel inspired – it’s like creating a vision board in a journal. It’s images designed to generate the positive feelings of whatever it is you hope to draw closer to you.

The two things I am most working on at the moment are building my creative business and finding a wonderful place to live.

vision-1

vision-5

vision-4

vision-3

Creativity, Self Empowerment

Perfectionism: be gentle with yourself

Jen Morris

Well, it finally happened: I missed a day of blogging in my 100 days.

Not even for a good reason – mostly just poor organisation. I was tempted to beat myself up about this ‘failure’, but then I reminded myself of one of my intentions for the 100 Days Project: overcome perfectionism.

If anything, this is a good learning opportunity. I missed a day in my (so far) perfect 36 day blogging streak. In the past, I would have probably given up at this point because I’ve ‘messed it up’ (thank you years of dieting for this kind of thinking).

Actually, let’s be honest: in the past I probably wouldn’t have made it this far. I’ve mentioned before that it’s hard to blog every day. I actually think if I didn’t have followers I probably would have given up weeks ago. But I’ve managed to keep going.

And instead of using this missed day as an opportunity to berate myself for once again failing to do something right, I’m going to take the chance to congratulate myself for doing something well, and for getting straight back into it. I’m not going to let my perfectionism trip me up again.

I read an interesting quote about perfectionism:

At its root, perfectionism isn’t really about a deep love of being meticulous. It’s about fear. Fear of making a mistake. Fear of disappointing others. Fear of failure. Fear of success – Michael Law

Did I miss a day in my 100 days? Yes. Does that mean I’ve failed the project? Only if I stop here.

Life is not black and white, failure or success. It is not doing it right or not doing it at all.

Life is making mistakes, getting messy, quitting, then starting again, then taking a step back, then making headway, then hitting a wall, then trying again. It is never linear, it is never straightforward, it is never without error.

Celebrate what is going well, and be gentle when you make mistakes.

Speak to yourself as you would to your best friend, or a small child: you wouldn’t tell them they are a loser who you always knew would fail. You wouldn’t tell them to just give up now because they will never succeed. No: you would speak to them gently, you would remind them of what they’ve done well, you would encourage them to keep going.

Try to be aware of how you speak to yourself when you make mistakes or ‘fail’. How can you be more gentle with yourself?

What Inspires Me

Found poem: Finding certainty

Jen Morris

Her certainty in her own strength.
Maybe.
But who lives without question for what’s
to be?

What do I believe
and where can I imagine,
living a life without my favourite destination?

I accept bliss
and, of course,
the complete self.

Something about my recent joy has made me certain
that I must love in stupid excess.
I have to.

So I write.

I asked for guidance on my journey.
I’m entering life again.
It will happen.

The simple I need,
to have blessings.
My hands sign with love.

What Inspires Me

Weekly inspiration

Jen Morris

Each week I publish a series of links to websites and blogs that have inspired me. If you have anything that has inspired you this week, please share it in the comments below!

> I enjoyed reading this excerpt from Sassoon’s diary

> I stumbled upon this page and now I’m going to spend the next month soaking in the images and inspiration!

> My friend and business partner has started a new series documenting our creative business planning journey

> I really want a Midori Traveler’s Notebook, but they aren’t cheap! So I’m taking my inspiration from here to to make a fauxdori

> This week I’ve been playing in my art journal and so anything art-journal related really inspires me. This is cool!