Tag: Creativity

What Inspires Me

What’s inspired me this week

Jen Morris

Lots of inspirational findings online this week! It was hard to narrow it down to just a few…

If you have anything that’s inspired you this week, please share it in the comments below.

Creativity

Journal prompt: The ‘stop doing’ list

Jen Morris

I’ve started reading The Creative Entrepreneur by Lisa Sonora Beam, and I love it. I’m a very visual person and the thought of planning a business the ‘normal’ way bores me to tears. But this book is something else!

Anyway, I got this awesome idea from it: the ‘stop doing’ list.

We are so busy running around, dashing from one thing to the next, and running a mental checklist of all the things we have to do. I feel like I have a never-ending to-do list, and just when I think I’ve checked off something I find another five things to add to it.

The focus most days seems to be on adding to the list, rather than ticking things off.

As a highly sensitive person, it doesn’t take much for me to feel overwhelmed. On my busiest days, I sometimes find the simplest things to be too much.

While I find writing a to-do list to be helpful as it allows me to organise my thoughts, I really like the idea of a stop doing list. Rather than writing another list of things I have to do, things I’m cramming into an already full schedule, why not look for the things I can stop doing, the things that don’t really add any value to my life?

stop-doing-list

>>> Prompt:

Take a fresh page in your journal. You can complete this prompt in whatever way feels best for you: a list, a mindmap, visually, or just free writing whatever comes to mind. If you like to use a filofax or a planner, it might be nice to take one of your to-do pages and change the heading to ‘stop doing’!

Now, consider all the things that you do on a regular basis that don’t contribute anything to your life, or contribute very little. What can you take away so that you can allow more space for the good things to grow?

Here are a few of the things from my stop doing list – things that don’t add any value to my life:

  • Browsing Facebook and Instagram aimlessly
  • Online shopping for craft supplies (mostly – this is a tough one!)
  • Complaining about feeling tired
  • Watching TV shows/films I don’t absolutely love
  • Spending time with people who don’t support my dreams or don’t ‘get’ me
  • Going to bed late

Take one thing from your list and make a real effort to remove it from your life for the next week. See if it makes a difference! For the next seven days I really want to work on complaining about feeling tired – I really want to spend less of my energy thinking about that, and more energy focused on the good feelings.

I think it is essential that we take a good look at our lives from time to time to see what’s working and what’s not. It’s easy to fall into bad habits without realising.

If there are things you can take out of your life so there is more room for the good stuff – then do it!

Having more time and energy free to dream, journal, be creative, be positive and just move at a slower pace will contribute to a greater quality of life than keeping up with the Kardashians or catching up with friends you don’t really love to be with.

It’s your life and your time, so you get to choose how you spend it. I know we all have obligations (work, kids, partners, looking after family members, etc) but often we are spending our free time in ways that don’t actually add value to our lives. You have control over how you spend this time!

Stop doing the things that don’t add to your life.

What Inspires Me

What’s inspired me this week

Jen Morris

I think I will make Thursdays my regular day for sharing links and things that have inspired me during the week. That way if you need something to kill time at work as you watch the clock on Friday, there will be a few things here to distract you.

Otherwise, if you’re someone who actually works hard (good on you!) then you will have something to enjoy over the weekend.

Enjoy!

  • I’ve signed up for the 30 Day Journal Project – have you? It’s free and runs for the month of August. You get a journal prompt emailed to you each day for 30 days. Should provide extra inspiration!
  • I’m excited about the upcoming August Break – just take a photo every day for a month and share!

If you’ve read anything recently that inspires you, please share it in the comments below!

I’ll be back tomorrow with another journaling prompt.

Creativity

When you’re pulled to the page

Jen Morris

Some days I am more pulled to the page than others. Today was one of those days.

When I say pulled to the page, I mean I want to journal – not just when I sit down to do it, but all day. I think about journaling; I want to pick up my journal and just write. Usually I can’t because I’m at work.

For some reason today I kept wanting to sit down with a cup of coffee and my journal, even though I had journaled this morning.

I just wanted time alone with my pen and paper.

When you establish a regular journaling practice you come to rely on your journal to guide you and help you each day. I’ve come to learn that when I feel like I want to journal more than I normally do, there is usually a reason. It could be:

  • A sign that there is something missing from my life – e.g. not enough creativity or self-expression
  • A need for time alone without having to think of others
  • A need to process or work through something I am thinking about/feeling
  • A desire to check in if I feel a bit out of touch with myself
  • My heart calling out to be heard about something – e.g. a deep desire that has been ignored

It can be especially hard if I am feeling pulled to journal but I can’t. I feel a bit out of sorts, almost like I’m living two lives: my public life, where I go to work and am professional; and then my private life where I just want to turn inwards and listen to what my heart wants.

The first thing I did when I got home was pull out the washi tape and stamps, decorate a journal page and write.

It made me feel so much better. Now I just need to listen to the little voice inside and see where it guides me.

Do you ever have days where you feel like you just want time alone to journal?

Self Empowerment

Be gentle with yourself

Jen Morris

Today I really don’t feel like being creative.

I’m tired. I started a new job this week and have to get up very early to get there before the traffic starts in order to avoid a long commute. It was pitch black when I left for work this morning.

I already get up early to journal, so an earlier start with the new job is tough. It will take me a while to adapt to this.

So tonight when I got home, I had a hot shower, made myself a hot water bottle (it’s winter here!) and climbed into bed.

As much as I love being creative and using my time after work to do pages in my art journal, or create found poetry, or do any number of the ‘productive’ things that bring me joy – today I’m just too tired.

And that’s ok, too.

I think to myself, what would I say to a friend who told me that she was tired from starting a new job? I would say:

Just rest. Be gentle with yourself. Treat yourself kindly.

Often I think we pride ourselves on keeping busy – people rant about all the things they have to do as if to show how important they are because they are so busy. We associate busyness with importance, with meaning.

And we have come to associate rest, quiet and slowness with a sign that something is wrong.

But I think there is as much joy to be found in being gentle with ourselves, in resting, as there is with being productive.

It is in the quiet time, the time between the rushing and the doing, that we nurture ourselves. By choosing a book and a cup of tea curled up in bed instead of my art journal and paints tonight, I am listening to my body and giving it what it needs. I am refilling the well of creativity inside, so that I can be productive and creative another time.

It’s all about balance: you need to receive rest and nourishment so that you can create and share your gifts with the world.

Take time out to rest and nurture yourself this week.

Creativity

Journal prompt: The perfect now

Jen Morris

In 1949 at age seventeen, Sylvia Plath wrote in her diary:

Somehow I have to keep and hold the rapture of being seventeen. Every day is so precious I feel infinitely sad at the thought of all this time melting farther and farther away from me as I grow older. Now, now is the perfect time of my life.

So often we are focused on what we want in the future, dreamwhat we hope to gain or achieve: a promotion, losing weight, getting a new car, house or spouse…

But what about right now?

I once described to a friend how things were going well for me at that point in my life. I said, ‘it’s all working out perfectly’, to which she replied, ‘how could it be anything but?’ She was suggesting that there is a perfection to the universe and the way things are in each moment, even if they are not as we intend them.

Sometimes we get so focused on what we want in the future (or what we miss from the past) that we forget to notice the perfection in our life right now, as it is.

There’s this line in the last episode of The Office where Andy says, ‘I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days, before you’ve actually left them.’ Even if where you are right now is not exactly where you want to be, there will most likely come a time when you look back fondly on something that you have right now.

>>> Prompt:

In your journal, note down all the wonderful things about your life right now. Regardless of what you hope to achieve in the future (and those are, of course, still good things to hope for!), try to really hone in on what it is that you like about your life now. It doesn’t matter how small or insignificant it may be, whatever you can think of about your life right now that makes you smile.

You could write this in list format, as a mind map, or just stream-of-consciousness. Use different coloured pens if that takes your fancy.

If you are visually inclined you may wish to create a page in an art journal or a collage of photographs, or words/images from magazines.

Here’s a few of the things I came up with – What I love about my life right now:

  • My washi tape collection
  • Spending time with my puppy
  • Journaling every day
  • Playing in my art journal
  • Getting a regular paycheque
  • Spending time with my partner
  • Watching The Office (obsessed much?)
  • Nurturing myself creatively every day

Happy journaling!

What Inspires Me

Found poem: The Artist

Jen Morris

I’d like to start sharing found poetry.

Mostly I ‘find’ my poetry within the pages of books I’ve loved (and bought extra copies of from second-hand bookstores just so I can cut the lovely words out). At the moment the two I’m most using are The Artist’s Way and Eat Pray Love.

 

I’m quite new to this and am just finding my way, but it’s lots of fun.

The Artist

When people feel

the light

of art,

it brings healing.

The artist may feel

mysterious vulnerability.

They call it

invisible achievement.

Creativity

A (very small) blogging milestone and what’s to come

Jen Morris

This is the first time I have ever blogged every day for over a week. And this is my first time completing a blog series.

I’m pretty pleased with myself, to be honest!

I’ve still got 91 days of journaling and blogging to go before the 100 Days Project is up. I started this project by diving straight into a series of posts – that way I knew I wouldn’t run out of material. It took a bit of pressure off because I didn’t need to come up with something new every day – I always knew where the series was going.This was safe, but a little limiting.

Now that I’ve finished the series, it’s wide open. I can blog about whatever I want. Anything. Except…

I’m getting a little bit of stage fright here. Over the past week I’ve managed to gain a few followers (hello and welcome!) and now I have a wee audience. It’s both scary and exciting.

I want to push myself to explore different ways of journaling and blogging. When I sit down to write a blog post, I try to make sure I have a point to make, some sort of insight to offer. And while that can certainly be good, I don’t think each post needs to reveal some deep mystery about life.

My goal is to offer both insight and inspiration, in equal doses.

creating-makes-me-happy

So I want to explore different blogging styles by including lists, poetry, more photography as well as journaling prompts and techniques. Things that can inspire people to take action and be creative, as well as posts that encourage reflection.

I’m doing (another) Susannah Conway course at the moment (because, trust me, she’s that awesome). She says, about blogging:

You don’t always have to be wise.

I like that. I can’t offer all the answers, but I can share what I do and what inspires me in the hopes that it will help or inspire someone else.

So while the journaling series was interesting and helpful as a way for me to ease into my blogging marathon, it’s time for me to take away the safety net and explore being more spontaneous and sharing more of myself on my blog.

What you can expect over the next 91 days:

  • Some short and some long posts
  • Poetry
  • Journaling techniques, tips and prompts
  • Some of my art journaling experiences
  • Maybe another series!
  • Reflections on creativity and journaling
  • More photos
  • Things that inspire me, including other blogs, quotes, lyrics etc
  • … And anything else that takes my fancy!

I look forward to getting to know you better as I move into the next leg of my blogging journey!

Creativity

The morning pages

Jen Morris

 

write write write

The morning pages are what Julia Cameron describes as ‘a pivotal tool in creative recovery’ in her book The Artist’s Way. She explains the morning pages as ‘three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream-of-consciousness’ and also as a ‘brain dump’. I prefer the definition ‘brain dump’.

She notes that they are not supposed to sound smart, or have any particular purpose or direction except to empty your mind of all the chatter and nonsense in there. Just basically write down whatever comes to mind and keep your hand moving.

I do a sort of version of the morning pages. I say a sort of version because I don’t strictly follow the rule of keeping your hand moving at all times. I often pause to think or reflect, ponder, reconsider, then keep writing. Some days I write two pages, some days six. This is what works best for me.

I write about whatever is on my mind.

Often I am repetitive, complaining about something for days on end, or I’m listing the things I’m grateful for, or why I’m happy. It can be as simple as moaning about the things I have to do that day that I would rather avoid, or as profound as stumbling upon some sudden insight about myself. Sometimes I reflect on dreams I’ve had, or on what the day may have in store. Sometimes I start talking about one thing and end up somewhere else altogether.

Regardless, I show up each morning, first thing (after making a cup of coffee, of course) and write whatever is on my mind, for an allotted amount of time (30-45 minutes) rather than three pages.

You should write for whatever amount of time works for you – you might find that 10 minutes is enough, or that you need an hour. It may be different from day to day. Be flexible as you need. I think it’s important to respect how we are feeling at the time, rather than striving for some arbitrary time/page goal.

Some days I struggle to say much. Other days I feel like I could keep writing for hours. It doesn’t matter – the important thing is to just sit down and write whatever is on my mind.

There are a few tricks you can use if you are struggling to get started, if you feel the words just aren’t flowing:

  • Describe your physical surroundings – e.g. the room, the chair you’re sitting on, what you can smell, how your body feels, and so on
  • Write a list of what you are most grateful for at that moment
  • Describe the day before
  • Describe what you hope for in the day to come
  • Sit still and pay attention to your mind. You might find that you are worrying about something, distracted by preparing breakfast for the kids, or the fact that the car needs repairing, or that you didn’t pay a bill that’s overdue – once you notice what is going on in your mind, write it down
  • Sometimes we are overwhelmed by all the things we want to say at once, so just writing a list of key words and sentences rather than big lengthy paragraphs can be helpful
  • Start with sentences such as: I feel… I’m worried about… I’m thinking about…My body feels… I wish… and so on

Hopefully that gives you a little something to get started! I would love to hear from anyone who has tried morning pages before. Now, get writing!