7 Days to Awaken Your Creative Spirit

7 Days to Awaken Your Creative Spirit – Day 7: CREATE A TALISMAN

A talisman is anything whose presence exercises a remarkable or powerful influence on human feelings or actions.

A talisman can be used to summon your creative spirit to come out and play. Imagine having the ability to sit down and trigger inspiration, a talisman can help you do that!

 

Create a creative spirit talisman

 

It could be a rock, a feather, or maybe tiny canvas and easel that sits on your desk in your creative space. A small item that fits in a drawer, on your desk or in the palm of your hand are ideal.

 

If you believe in magic, you might say that you’re infusing the talisman with your creative energy. A more scientific explanation would be that you’re training your mind to associate the object with creativity, so whenever you engage the talisman, that creative energy is triggered.

Find a little rock and using paint markers or a black sharpie doodle a design. It could be a mandala like this one shown or you can simply a doodle a shape like a heart or flowers.

To make a mandala, start with a circle in the center. Create a few circle rings round the center, similar to a target. Then fill in the circle rings with repeating patterns of dots, lines, triangles, anything goes.

Did you find a feather on one of your wander & explore adventures? Wash it in soapy water, let it dry and then have fun painting it! Most craft and hobby stores have feathers available for purchase as well. You can use inexpensive acrylic craft paint and brushes. Choose colors that inspire you and simply paint lines, polka dots or maybe blend two or three colors together.

One last idea is to make yourself some talisman jewelry! I love beading and painting and in this video tutorial I share both! Learn tips and ideas for painting a wooden laser cut pendant from Allegory Gallery and stringing a two strand necklace with beads, beading wire and tools from Soft Flex Company. We may have chatted about rabbit symbolism too! You can use symbols or the healing properties of gemstone beads to personalize your jewelry talisman.

Look at, hold or wear your talisman whenever you’re feeling stuck and need to call in your creative spirit energy for inspiration!

7 Days to Awaken Your Creative Spirit / Art Workshops 10 Jan 2021 / 0 comments

7 Days to Awaken Your Creative Spirit – Day 6: SOUL SCRIBBLES

Creativity is extremely important to me because it let’s me bring my truth into the world. 

IT’S WHERE I GO TO FIND MYSELF.

It gives me a chance to heal and inspire others. It brings out ideas I can use in my business and life. And when I’m creative, I am a fulfilled and happier human which improves my relationships. Being creative is an act of self-love and acceptance. 


Why is creativity important to you?

Find your answers to remind you why you want to make time to create. With a daily creative practice you will find your life is filled with more JOY and more of YOU. We all worry that we are not “good enough” to exercise our creativity.  But the truth is, we are all born creative, you may have just lost your way. Let’s take back that truth.

A soul scribble is like looking for pictures in the clouds.

This is a really fun quick exercise any one can do! I have been amazed at the messages that show up. If you are feeling stuck this is a quick way to get out of your own way and get ideas flowing again.

Create a soul scribble

All you do is a quick 3 second “scribble/swoosh” with your pen, pencil or marker, and then see what comes to mind.

Put your maker on the paper, close your eyes, and 1-2-3,

LIFT your pen or pencil up.

Open your eyes. What do you see?

Turn your paper 90 degrees and then again until you see something. Then fill in that picture a bit more clearly. You can add more lines and details to finish it.

Write down the first THREE to FIVE words that come to mind. Allow those five words to start a train of thought, your musings, that you capture in your journal. What does it all make you think of? Write that!

If you saw something specific like an animal or symbol, search online and see what meaning that brings you. Write down the meanings that speak to you.

I created these two soul scribbles close to one another, do you see how “patience” showed up as a meaning of each of these two very different symbols that arrived? They were sending me a message that things come in their own time and at their own pace.

 

What messages do your soul scribbles have for you?!

7 Days to Awaken Your Creative Spirit / Art Workshops 09 Jan 2021 / 0 comments

7 Days to Awaken Your Creative Spirit – Day 5: INTUITIVE FLOW COLLAGE

Intuition is a way of knowing without thinking.

It comes from a much deeper place than the thoughts that we all use most of the time. When we connect with intuition and choose to be guided by it, our life enters a process of change from suffering to joy. It is a way to heal and a way to grow at the same time.

Cut and paste an intuitive dream collage.

You will need a few magazines, glue and a piece of cardboard, paper or journal to create your collage on. If you have a cereal box or similar item in your pantry you can use that as the backing.

 

Flip through the magazine pages and cut out anything that catches your eye. If you are drawn to an image, a word, a saying, a color, anything – cut it out. Do not analyze it or make any judgement about it. Just flip and cut. Do this for until you feel you have enough material to work with for your background.

 

Now, lay out all the cuttings and give them a good look over and seek out any common threads and begin to arrange them, trim up the images and start gluing them into your cardboard, paper or journal. STEP BY STEP you create the change and strengthen your right brain’s intuitive power!

Here are two small intuitive dream collages in my journal. On the left, I saw my desires for share transformative art making with others and on the right I found common threads of balancing life and accepting how I look at a time when I was feeling pretty down about my appearance.

I created this intuitive dream collage at a time when I was I stuck in a deep lack mindset and struggling financially. The images that arrived showed me that I yearned for security, to figure out the puzzle of money in life and to LOVE money in a way I never did before. It brought me to the realization that my feeling around money were very far from love and that I may have been inadvertently pushing it away all this time.

After creating this collage I flipped to the back and wrote this message to remind me of all that I have, give thanks and invite more money into my life. It was a powerful shift in how I thought about my money matters and how much I needed to heal this part of me.

 

If you see a clear message arrive in your collage I encourage you to think about how you can craft a message of hope and healing for your dream and write that next to it or on the backside like I did here.

7 Days to Awaken Your Creative Spirit / Art Workshops 08 Jan 2021 / 0 comments

7 Days to Awaken Your Creative Spirit – Day 4: COLOR YOURSELF HAPPY

Color is powerful.

The colors you choose may effect your mood or evoke strong memories or feelings. The act of coloring relaxes a busy mind.

 

Coloring is meditation in action. Just like meditation, coloring also allows us to switch off our brains from other thoughts and focus only on the moment, helping to alleviate free-floating anxiety. Coloring offers that relief and mindfulness without the fear of the blank page. You just choose how to fill it in.

Slow down and enjoy coloring a page I created for you. Pick up some colored pencils, markers or crayons and get lost in the process.

7 Days to Awaken Your Creative Spirit / Art Workshops 07 Jan 2021 / 0 comments

7 Days to Awaken Your Creative Spirit – Day 3: MAKE TIME TO PLAY

The ability to play is a direct connection to your creative spirit.

Adulting is hard. All work and no play make for a very dull human. For me, it also makes for a very cranky one too. At the heart of my personal creative practice is play. Give yourself permission to play. Allow yourself to be a beginner. Being curious and trying new things is fun!

Create a Natural Mandala

Look for twigs, leaves, flowers around your yard. If you made a backyard bouquet yesterday you can use the petals or leaves from those flowers or find some items items around your house like some fruits and veggies.

 

Remove individual petals and leaves from the stems and separate each type into their own little pile. Start with a center flower and grow your mandala pattern from the center out.

Song “Be Yourself” by Peruquois

Turn up the music and dance or sing!

I love to turn up the music and sing when I’m in the car. Sometimes, when I am alone I can really belt it out. It doesn’t matter if you know all the words or how awful you may think you sound, singing with abandon can be so playful!

I love to dance too. It’s a sad story really how the opportunity to get out and dance as you grow older diminishes. I say, turn up the tunes and create your own dance party. It can be completely ridiculous and in fact, if it makes you laugh at yourself and your goofiness even better.

7 Days to Awaken Your Creative Spirit / Art Workshops 06 Jan 2021 / 0 comments

7 Days to Awaken Your Creative Spirit – Day 2: WANDER AND EXPLORE

Notice the beauty that surrounds.

Take a walk with fresh eyes.

Walk around your neighborhood, your backyard or a local farmers market. Bring a camera or a journal along. Pause, look and notice. Find things that make you smile, photograph them, draw them, use them in a story or simply delight in the reminder that you are part of a bigger whole.

What animals, sights and sounds caught your attention when you wandered and explored today?

 Could those things be holding a special message for you? Being present and open to the messages around you brings a sense of magic and wonder to your world!

LADYBUG SYMBOLISM

The appearance of a Ladybug heralds a time of luck in which our wishes begin to be fulfilled. Higher goals and new heights are now possible. Worries begin to dissipate. New happiness comes about. This insect also cautions not to try to hard or go to fast to fulfill our dreams. Let things flow at their natural pace. In the due course of time, our wishes will all come true. Alternatively she could be signalling that you can leave your worries behind and that new happiness is on its way. This species of beetle signals you to to not be scared to live your own truth. Protect your truth and know that it is yours to honor.

Create a "Backyard Bouquet"

If you have some flowers on your property or are someplace where you can pick a few flowers, do it! Look for fallen twigs and stems that you can bring home too. Then, create what I like to call a “Backyard Bouquet”. The bouquet below is made from flowers in my yard, nontraditional bouquet flowers, but still beautiful to enjoy!

7 Days to Awaken Your Creative Spirit / Art Workshops 05 Jan 2021 / 0 comments

7 Days to Awaken Your Creative Spirit – Day 1: MAKE SPACE

Creativity is extremely important to me because it let’s me bring my truth into the world. 

IT’S WHERE I GO TO FIND MYSELF.

It gives me a chance to heal and inspire others. It brings out ideas I can use in my business and life. And when I’m creative, I am a fulfilled and happier human which improves my relationships. Being creative is an act of self-love and acceptance. 


Why is creativity important to you?

Find your answers to remind you why you want to make time to create. With a daily creative practice you will find your life is filled with more JOY and more of YOU. We all worry that we are not “good enough” to exercise our creativity.  But the truth is, we are all born creative, you may have just lost your way. Let’s take back that truth.

The first step to awakening your creative spirit is to make space to invite it in.

Find an area in your home where you can carve out space to be creative. There is something powerful about having a physical place where your creative work is done. Clear it of clutter, close your laptop, put your phone on silent and and tell your family that you are going into creative mode. Let your creativity be the only thing happening there for those precious minutes.

Clear your physical energy and mental chatter with a simple art making ritual.

Light a candle, burn an herb stick, or apply an essential oil. Then, take a moment to feel into your body. Turn up the music and dance, turn down the music and stretch, or simply close your eyes and breathe deeply three times to ready yourself for creativity 

Breathe in, Breathe out everything that happened before this moment.

Breathe in, Breathe out expectations of what you are about to create.

Breathe in, Breathe out into this moment, right here, be here now.

The purpose of doing one (or more) of these simple art making rituals is to help you to clear away the junk from your day so, you don’t bring that into your creative process. Today, make space physically and intentionally to invite your creative spirit in!

7 Days to Awaken Your Creative Spirit / Art Workshops 04 Jan 2021 / 0 comments