What Inspires Me

Weekly inspiration

Each week I share the links I have found most inspiring. Feel free to share what has inspired you this week in the comments below.

nature

As someone who is deliberately trying to slow down my life, this post about busyness really spoke to me

What do you ache for?

Love this gorgeous light journal by Hope

A great journal prompt about where you are directing your energy

I LOVE this video which discusses something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately – the difference between art journaling and visual journaling

Have an inspired week!

Creativity

Art journal Wednesday

Each week I share a page from my art journal. I love to peek into the art journals of others, and hope to inspire someone else by sharing my own work.

I’m a little late to the party this week (it’s Thursday night here in New Zealand!) but I figured better late than never.

This is a page I did while relaxing in bed, watching a movie. I’ve been feeling super tired lately, but I’m still really wanting to create.

Because I have a lovely white bed spread I was worried about ruining, I didn’t take my paints with me. I chose to use the Neocolors water colour crayons, pens, my stamps, and some oil pastels. I didn’t want to have water, so I used baby wipes to activate the water colour crayons, which worked really well and created an interesting effect.

It was a good chance for me to play in new ways, by limiting my supplies.

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What Inspires Me

Weekly inspiration

Each week I share the links that I’ve found most inspiring. Feel free to share anything that has inspired you this week in the comments below.

journal cushion

Loved this post by Liz about imperfect self care

How to create through the rough times

These 15 questions to discover your personal mission would make great journaling prompts

I am flattered to be included in Erica’s journaling links at The Nerd Journals along with lots of other awesome links (and check out Erica’s blog where she shares reviews, journal flip-throughs and other journal goodness!)

This makes me want to create my own sacred outdoor space to journal

Have an inspired week!

Creativity

Creativity: Why I’m going it alone

If you’ve been following this blog for some time, you will have noticed the changes around here.

It started out as just me, a blogging newbie and journaling enthusiast, then Kelly came on board, and if you’ve been paying attention, you’ve noticed that it’s back to little old me – still a journaling enthusiast, but with a little more blogging experience under my belt.

So what’s been going on? Why all the changes?

It’s been about a year since I first waded into the world of creativity in earnest. It started with an innocent journaling course, then I found myself falling headfirst in love with everything to do with journaling, art journaling and any and all aspects of creativity.

I found that these things perfectly complemented my training in life coaching, psychology and teaching.

I’d always wanted to blog, and had attempted it several times, but this time it stuck. Why?

Because I finally found a topic I’m so in love with that
I just all you need is love and journalingcan’t help but talk to everyone about it.

My bestie Kelly was also in love with the same things, and she also wrote a blog, so we started to plan ways we could share our passion. It made sense to write a blog together, to create a community online around the things we both love.

So she came on board here with me. We both started blogging about the things we loved: creativity, self-love, self-care and journaling.

But things started to change, for both of us. Instead of being inspired by each other, we started to feel stuck. We couldn’t figure out why, so we just kept going.

I started wondering where the magic had gone.

What happened to that feeling of wanting to share any and everything I love about journaling and creativity? Why was I suddenly feeling uninspired and stuck?

It turns out, our creative dreams can be a very personal thing.

Despite the fact that we both loved journaling and blogging, what we didn’t love was sharing one online space together. We felt as though we were cramping each other’s style – unknowingly, and unintentionally, putting creative limits on one another.

I missed the freedom to just be myself, to follow my own creative whims and share my strange imperfections.

I realized that if I am to evolve creatively and truly follow my own deeply personal creative path, I need to go it alone.

This can be scary, and there was something so reassuring about having Kel right by my side. She was there to bounce ideas off, to brainstorm with, to laugh over endless cups of tea as we dreamed big creative dreams together.

Since we’ve gone our separate creative ways, I really miss those moments.

I believeBut even more rewarding is the sense of building something all by myself: fueling my own creative fire and lighting my own path.

I think we certainly need others out on the creative path – people to reassure us when times are tough, to tell us that they too struggle, to share ideas and inspiration, to cheer us on when we doubt ourselves.

Ultimately though, I think creativity is a solo expedition: an excavation of our own inner selves – our fears, our dreams, our lives.

While support from others is certainly valuable and I would say even necessary, ultimately it’s up to you to venture within.

So, Journal Wild is back to just me. What started as Journaling Dangerously, an experiment in journaling more often, has become Journal Wild, a full-blown commitment to a creatively nourishing life.

I’ve got my inner creative fire to light the path ahead and I’m going it alone.

What Inspires Me

Weekly inspiration

Each week I share the posts and links I have found most inspiring. Feel free to share anything that has inspired you this week in the comments below.

water and trees

Loving these free printable brush script messages from Polka Dot Creative – I’ve put this one above my desk

I really enjoyed this article about meditating without meditating

If you’re anything like me, you sign up for every journaling course you can find. Cody has a great way of keeping track of all the prompts

This video by Andrea sums up why I LOVE creative journaling

Have you seen the latest Heart to Art video by Samie? If you’ve missed her free series, be sure to check out the first two as well!

I like this idea of a random journal prompt generator over at The Journal CEO

Have an inspired week!

What Inspires Me

Weekly inspiration

Each week I share the posts or blogs that I’ve loved. Feel free to share anything that has inspired you this week in the comments below.

rain out west

If you’re looking for some gorgeous art journal or visual journal inspiration, check out Leigh Ann’s flicker page or her Pinterest page

This lovely post from Naomi about how to use self compassion when pursuing goals

Using writing dates to help you create a writing practice

How did I miss this awesome January journaling series?

An interesting read about how Carolyn overcame the critical inner voice to play with her art

Have you seen The Art Journaler Card club? Check out the second installment for a free download (I can’t wait to use this!)

Have an inspired week!

What Inspires Me

Weekly inspiration

Each week I share the blog posts and other bits and pieces that have most inspired me. Feel free to share anything that has inspired you this week in the comments below.

creating a magical life

Jamie Ridler has some great advice for when you feel overwhelmed (something I’m all too familiar with!)

Akiyo at Journaling Sage is posting daily journal prompts – a great way to get into a regular journaling practice

Loving these ideas of how to be alone with your writing and how not to be too alone with your writing – great for striking a balance in your writing life

Totally crushing on Susana’s art right now

Andy shares some great ways for introverts to recharge when feeling drained of social energy

Have you got your free copy of the Journal Wild Self Love Kit yet?

Have an inspired week!