Managing Creative Blocks Creatively!

Do you ever find yourself challenged by the blank piece of paper in front of you? Not sure where to get started when asked to create something? just feeling blocked or like you just aren’t creative in any way?

When faced with a bit of a creative block recently I did what we all should do when we feel blocked in any sense of our lives and I turned to the amazing resources I have at hand for a little inspiration

The first thing that I came across is a fabulous book I have by SARK entitled “SARK’s New Creative Companion, Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit”. I randomly opened the pages and found the following message;

“What do you do with creative blocks? Build a creative castle!”

So why not consider building your own creative castle and get started by asking yourself a couple of questions;

• What are the many creative resources you have in your resource bag?
• What sort of things do you define as creative that you currently do and
• What else would you like to add to a new block to help you build your creative castle?

Here’s what you will need;

• A large piece of paper suitable for drawing / painting on
• Smaller sheets of the same type of paper as your large piece for creating your blocks
• Coloured pencils, oil pastels, markers and other things you can draw and write with
• Paints, brushes and water container if you would like to paint
• Glue
• Scissors

Here’s what to do;

1. Brainstorm and think about your creative resources
2. Drawing some blocks in different shapes and sizes and then cut them out
3. Add words to each block to describe one of your creative resources and then decorate your blocks any way you wish – you might paint them, colour them in, draw images or symbols on them as reminders of your resources or simply be creative with how you write your resources to each block
4. When you have a stack of blocks get another sheet of paper
5. Arrange your blocks onto the paper and build your own creative castle
6. You might find that there is space for new creative blocks so add some of those in so you can add new creative resources to your castle in the future. Be warned, once you get those creative ideas flowing you may find your castle needs a new room or a new wing!

Now you have an amazing reminder of all the wonderful creative things you can do or want to try! You can refer to this any time you feel blocked and not sure what creative direction to take

Until next time… happy building and I look forward to creating with you soon

The Power of the Mind – Embrace Thoughts of Love

“The universe supports the reality of your beliefs absolutely.
When you believe you must struggle for abundance,
then it will bring about situations that are conducive to struggle;
when you believe you cannot experience love without pain,
the universe will give you exactly that – love with pain;
when you believe it takes time for an illness to heal – then so it will.
There is not a single force opposing you, there is only ONE force supporting you absolutely.
It is called LOVE, the force that birthed you, that created you in its own image.
This love is so magnanimous it will give you exactly and absolutely whatever it is that your reality entails.
Change your beliefs and you change your reality.”
~ Author Unknown ~

I came across this poem while researching information on the power of positive thinking. It got me thinking about the power of the mind in relation to us being able to create things in our lives for ourselves

In the last 2 art-e-Blog posts I talked through the process of creating POSSIBLE affirmations and then described how combining creativity with affirmations makes them so much stronger and creates the potential for far greater power (and therefore, I believe, a more concrete and beautiful outcome). In each of these previous posts I highlighted the importance of positive thinking and positive intent and how we could turn our thoughts into positive affirmations – statements of intent to live our lives by

Well this post is, in many ways, an extension of those previous posts as I am being reminded time and time again of the power of the mind and the thoughts that we create. Therefore we need to think about the creative power of the creative mind and exactly how powerful that can be in terms of us manifesting what we need, want and desire in our lives. You may have heard the saying; “Be careful what you wish for” or you may have personal experience in placing a lot of energy into something you didn’t want to happen by thinking about it all the time only for it to come true – I have also heard this called a ‘self fulfilling prophecy’

If we really believe that the universe supports the reality of our beliefs absolutely (which I do) then we really do need to be aware of our thoughts and the power they hold in the reality they create

Can we change our reality by changing our beliefs? We certainly can! If we use the advice from this poem and embrace love, or if you can, self love, then the thoughts that you create and that influence your life are more supportive, nurturing, gentle, encouraging and grounded in positive energy. What a beautiful place that is to create the thoughts that you have every minute of every day

And one last bit of advice from the last line of the poem – “Change your thoughts and change your reality!”

Next time you stop to consider what you are thinking and find that your thoughts are not based in love I hope you think about this post and hold awareness of what you do think from that point forward…. and think from that place of love

Creativity and Affirmations

Understand how to combine affirmations with creativity to achieve more powerful results

Positive thoughts and positive actions create positive outcomes in our lives
As you learnt in my last art-e-Blog one of the key ways that we create in our lives is through our thoughts, beliefs and intentions. I discussed how important it is to add a positive spin to your thoughts and provided you with some tips on creating affirmations to help you to achieve the positive state of mind you want to create

Remember that when we put a positive spin on our thoughts, beliefs and intentions we find that our lives tend to reflect (just like a mirror shining from the inside out) our inner ‘talk’ and on the outside we radiate with greater optimism – that is our brilliant creative goddess (or godly) magic is allowed to shine. We start to feel better about ourselves and our lives and find that it is more natural for us to feel positive and optimistic about more aspects of our every day than we may have been able to previously

We also learnt that affirmations are statements of intent – when we use positive affirmations the intent is therefore also positive

When we combine affirmations with creative expression we allow our affirmations to come to life in a visual way. This then offers us a new opportunity to look at things in a different way

Having a picture / image / painting / collage or so on, that you have created to represent a personal affirmation you wrote can be so much more powerful than just using and focusing on the words that make up the affirmation. Our minds work on the image in a different way to how it works on words and the result is a greater opportunity to actually ‘see’ what it is we are trying to create

There have been many studies that investigate how this happens and to explain why visual stimulation, or the use of imagery, is so much more powerful when used with other forms of expression such as the written word. I am certainly not going to begin to offer my own explanation. What I can tell you is that I see this work every single time I work with a client in this way. When we add visual images, or imagery to words and thoughts, the connection that is made creates a beautiful space for the mind to explore and create which then allows the personal goal or intention to be fulfilled in a much greater and more long lasting and fulfilling way

The key to imagery is your imagination! Imagination, I believe, is also the key to your creativity and creative expression. Imagery and your imagination are aspects of your mind and I am sure that you can remember some experience in your lifetime when you have been aware of the power of your mind and what it can create given the right support and intention? (Unfortunately this also works in reverse and our minds can create not so great things for us also but in this article we are focusing on the positive!)

So how do you combine creative expression with the affirmations you created using the POSSIBLE method I shared with you in the last article? Like creating your affirmations, adding imagery to them is not difficult. Here are 3 ways to extend the benefits you receive from using affirmations by including imagery or creative expression in your process

1. ‘Visualise’ your affirmation as though it has already come true – it is like playing a movie of you living your life and the outcome you want to achieve has already happened

2. ‘Write’ a list of 5 words to describe how you feel when you use your mind to ‘imagine’ the outcome from step 1

3. Create a image to capture what your life looks like (step 1) and feels like (step 2)

The important thing really is to focus on creating this image and it really doesn’t matter how you create it. You could draw or paint a picture of your outcome, get a load of old magazines, photographs or other pictures and make a collage or take a photograph of a scene that captures your achieved outcome as you would see it. If you can, write your affirmation onto your image or art work and then as well as saying your affirmation out loud everyday you also have the picture of what it looks like when you achieve it to reflect on and emerge yourself in. I am certain with a little practice and some gentle, loving effort on your part you will find your thoughts and beliefs do begin to change you your affirmation has come true!

Creating Possible Affirmations Using My 7 Step Method!

One of the key ways that we create in our lives is through our thoughts, beliefs and intentions. When these thoughts have a negative or not so good slant to them it is difficult to believe in our worth and our value. We don’t believe in ourselves when we think with these influences

When we put a positive spin on our thoughts, beliefs and intentions we find that our lives tend to reflect our inner ‘talk’ and on the outside we radiate with greater optimism – that is our brilliant creative goddess (or godly) magic is allowed to shine. We attract other positive people into our lives and in turn we feel better about ourselves. Positive thoughts and positive actions create positive outcomes in our lives

Make sure your intentions are clear and focused on only positive outcomes. This is also called being optimistic! A great way to practice this step is to use positive affirmations

Writing affirmations is not difficult. There are a few simple steps to follow to help ensure you get the most out of your affirmation experience and to maximize the benefit you can receive from using your affirmations once you have created them. There are many many books and articles out there that will provide you with examples of affirmations and that can be very helpful if you are not sure where to start. I personally believe that the greatest benefit comes when you actually write your own affirmation

So what is an affirmation? Basically it is a statement of intent – it is a statement to affirm something and affirm means to confirm, state, allow or establish. In this case the something is a new or different thought or belief about a particular aspect of your life or way of being that is relevant to you. When you add a positive spin to the affirmation you create then the intent of that affirmation is also positive

A key to the affirmation actually being an affirmative statement is start with words that reflect you having achieved your intended outcome like;

- “I have….”
- “I am….”
- “I create….”

rather than

- “I would like….”
- “I want to….”
- “If only I could…”

Can you see the difference in starting off your affirmations this way? The statements are more direct, action and outcome focused

When you use affirmations to reflect your positive intentions you allow yourself the chance to start to believe that what you want to achieve has already come true and with time and dedication to actively speaking and working with your affirmations daily (if possible!) you will find that your life starts to reflect the statements you created! I describe this as being like a mirror. Your actual outcome starts to reflect your intended outcome!

I don’t want to make this sound simple but it certainly doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it for ourselves. Using affirmations is an easy way to get the inside and outside starting to reflect that brilliant creative goddess (or godly) magic of yours!

So to clarify here are seven key steps that I use to help you to create what I call POSSIBLE affirmation/s. The word possible means “that may or can be, exist, happen, be done, be used”! so if you use the POSSIBLE formula you can create opportunities and outcomes – the same things as I see as the corner stone of what I create with ‘Creative Possibility’!;

1. Positive – Start your affirmation with a positive outcome focused “I am / have / create” statement that always starts with yourself – the ‘I’ in your affirmation is critical!

2. Outcome oriented – Ensure the remainder of your affirmation clearly states and is focused on the outcome you want to achieve

3. Short and Sweet – Consider the length of your affirmation – this is not always the case but shorter, to the point, affirmations, in my experience are more powerful and certainly easier to remember. And by making it positive it’s naturally sweet! (just think of a lovely yummy cupcake or whatever sweet treat that works for you and I bet it makes you smile… so should your affirmation!)

4. Imaginative – Use your imagination to create an image for yourself about how it will feel and how you might be existing when your affirmation has ‘come true’

5. Believable – While one of the intentions behind using affirmations is to change a belief you may have about something or someone, or maybe even yourself

6. Loving – Don’t ever use the word ‘but’ in your affirmation – using the term ‘but’ adds a condition to your affirmation and the affirmation should be unconditional – it should reflect a loving attitude for yourself. When writing loving statement the positivity is negated when you add a condition to your statement. For example consider the following statement – “I would like to wake up every day and feel happy but this is challenging for me” – not only is the statement a loving and supportive suggestion at what someone may like to achieve (the feeling of happiness), it has a condition attached by adding a ‘but’ statement. All the words from ‘but’ onwards detract from the feeling of happiness that’s identified as the ultimate outcome. If you change the statement to read “I wake up every day filled with happiness!” there are no conditions and your affirmation fulfils the first three steps easily and as a bonus it is a loving thing to say to yourself! Can you see the difference between the statements? If you can’t then try reading them out loud to yourself and see how different each one makes you feel. I bet the second one felt much more powerful and achievable didn’t it?

7. Exciting – Make sure that your affirmation actually has meaning for you. If it doesn’t it will be more difficult to work with and gain benefit when you use your affirmation. When something has meaning for you it generally generates a sense of excitement and enthusiasm when you think about how you will feel when you achieve your outcome

Here are a few examples to get my point across about writing your affirmations as if you have already achieved your intended outcome. Each one was written using the POSSIBLE formula I just outlined above!

Rather than saying to yourself;

* “I want to feel better about myself” a positive affirmation would be “I feel better about myself every moment of the day!” or
* “If only I could have a positive life” becomes “I live a positive life everyday!” or
* “I would like to create a life where I fulfill my dreams” becomes “I have the fulfilled life of my dreams!”

So have a go and create your own affirmations and stay tuned for the next art-e-Blog where I will share with you information on how to make your affirmations more powerful by combining them with creative expression

Have A Creative Go – Discover Being Creative Does Not Mean You Have to be Artisitc!

This art-e-Blog is inspired by the many many women I talk with who very early on in our conver­sation, having learnt that my professional qualification is as an Art Therapist, say to me something along the lines of “I’m not very creative” or “I can’t draw a straight line” or even “If I can only draw a stick figure is that ok?”…….

Creativity is not about being an artist—I truly believe it is all about ‘having a go’ at expression and that expression can be anything you can think of. As I say to the many women I work with, “you are your only limitation” so take that into consideration next time you think yourself to not be creative, or needing to be an ’artist’ to have a go at something you think of as creative and have a go anyway! If you do dare to have a go at something then that is brilliant! I really encourage you to think beyond the limitations you may have set for yourself and be bold and brave. Go forth and have a creative go today! And you never know what you might discover!

If you found this art-e-Blog interesting and you are not currently on the art-e-News mailing list then head back to the Welcome Home page of the Creative Possibility website www.creativepossibilityarttherapy.com.au (see the link in the green toolbar to the left) and sign up today and you will receive my Myth Buster Workbook that challenges 3 myths commonly held by women that could be stopping you from achieving the life you are seeking. One of these myths is related to the comments I mentioned at the beginning of this entry – the idea that you have to be an artist to be creative!!!

The 10 Commandments for a creative life! (that every woman should follow)

The 10 Commandments of a Creative Life Every Woman Should Follow!

Before every class or workshop I teach I cover off what I call ‘Creative Guidelines’ that provide a supportive outline for you when you are creating with my assistance. Using these guidelines I have created 10 Commandments of a Creative Life that provide a great structure for you on your creative journey in life. I hope you find them useful and are able to use them to guide your own creative practice! Enjoy

1. I shall believe I am creative (even if I am not sure I am)

2. I shall make friends with and learn to love myself

3. I shall learn to accept nurturance

4. I shall make peace with the limiting beliefs that rattle around my mind so they no longer hold limiting power

5. I shall not sabotage my creative efforts

6. I shall believe in my imagination as a reflection of my intuition and wisdom and use it for positive expression

7. I shall share my creativity with others

8. I shall use my creativity to solve whatever problems arise in my life

9. I shall not be afraid of a blank ‘canvas’ but rather see it as opportunity

10. I shall create daily!