Creative Stream-of-Consciousness Drawings
Do you ever wonder if doodling helps us in our learning process or if it's just a mindless diversion? You may be surprised at the answer. According to recent studies on doodling, experts say that "Doodling can boost your mind's ability to notice and remember mundane information by nearly 30 percent, according to research from the University of Plymouth. The theory is that the act of drawing makes use of visuospacial processes in the brain that might otherwise be used for daydreaming, thereby preventing your mind from wandering."
Artist Spotlight
Experience Living Out Loud with Canadian artist Violette through this engaging series of visual journaling, art, and writing projects based on her workshops and book Journal Bliss: Creative Prompts to Unleash Your Inner Eccentric. Engage creatively in journal writing, doodling, collage, painting, altered art, and mask making 'to release the creative spirit within' while enjoying a wealth of wisdom and affirming creativity tips weaved throughout the process.
Violette Interview | Symbolic Stories | Doodling | Visual Journaling | Mask Making | Altered Journal | Creative Spirit Doll | Collage Play Cards | Altered Purse | Collage Globe | Painted Namaste Sign
Writing Spotlight
Cheryl Pallant is the author of Writing and the Body in Motion: Awakening Voice through Somatic Practice and other books in nonfiction, memoir, and poetry. An award-winning writer who focuses on writing, embodiment, consciousness, and dance, she is also a somatic and writing coach, energy healer, dancer, and teacher. She inspires writers and creatives through her popular Writing From the Body workshops and offers insights through a Q&A and wisdom in this engaging series based on Writing and the Body in Motion: Moving Into Writing and Sensate Awareness, Resonant Writing as Somatic Path, and Synergetic Awareness in Somatic Writing.
Author Interviews
By New World Library
For more than 25 years I've been looking at the realities of the creative life and the make-up of the creative person in books like Fearless Creating, Creativity for Life, Coaching the Artist Within, and lots of others. A certain theme or idea began to emerge: that creative people are people who stand in relation to life in a certain way — they see themselves as active meaning-makers rather than as passive folks with no stake in the world and no inner potential to realize. This orientation makes meaning a certain kind of problem for them — if, in their own estimation, they aren't making sufficient meaning, they get down. I began to see that this "simple" dynamic helped explain why so many creative people — I would say all of us at one time or another time — get the blues.
Learning from Great Masters
By Chris Dunmire
Thank goodness for Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931). This passionate man — credited with having a hand (some might say 'hand-lifted') in creating useful, life-changing inventions: the phonograph, light bulb, and telephone, along with having multiple electrical, mechanical, and chemical patents behind his name — left us with an incredible insight about genius and the cross-generational collaboration we particate in.
Guided Imagery
By Molly Childers & Chris Dunmire
What is your definition of courage? What does courage symbolize to you? For this meditation, ponder this, as you close your eyes. Is courage a trait you possess — or one you wish to find more of in your heart?
The Nine Modern Day Muses
By Jill Badonsky, MEd
I would like to acquaint you with a creative concept in the persona of a Muse. The concept is paying attention and the Muse is Aha-phrodite. What does paying attention mean to you in the creative process? If you are so inclined to engage your brain actively in this moment (always a good exercise for strengthening creative muscles), make a list of all the ways your creative process could benefit from paying attention. Go.
Creativity & Inspiration
By Tom Evans
Many people ask me how they can be more inspirational or can experience more inspirations. The answer is perhaps surprising as it doesn't lie being more intelligent or studying. It involves doing something we all do every day, without thinking about it, and that's to breathe. Of course, this is quite handy as we all breathe anyway to stay alive. What brought me to this realisation was some research I did around the actual word, inspiration. Our words and our sayings give away much about their true semantics.
Artful Project Prompts
By Violette
This is a fun project if you want to resurrect an old purse and exercise your creative juices! You can put almost anything onto your purse as long as you use the proper adhesive and numerous coats of Mod Podge and varnish. Bonus project: How to create a Warm and Fuzzy Box to remind yourself of how your creativity has touched others.
Playfully Manifest a Meaningful Life
As you're happily Skipping along, you will surely encounter challenges: both everyday frustrations and challenges that shake you to your very core. These challenges threaten to stop you mid-Skip and bring your momentum to a halt. Think how often you have heard someone — perhaps even yourself — say, "Everything was going great until xyz happened, and then nothing else happened for years." Now, I know that xyz must feel downright apocalyptic — why else would it be at the end of the alphabet? But you can use play, even in the midst of alphabetic tragedy.
Visual Journaling Prompts
By Violette
Who doesn't love to doodle? How many times have you sat at your desk or kitchen table during a long phone call, pen in hand, and wound up with some pretty phantasmagorical doodles? Now don't tell me you can't draw or doodle — of course you can! Your doodles can be windows to your soul. When you doodle absentmindedly, you relinquish control of your left brain and allow your right brain to take over. That's when the magic happens. Doodling while you are sitting in a classroom or meeting, talking on the telephone or waiting in a waiting room is a good start.
Autumn Writing Prompts
By Chris Dunmire
Going back to school. Harvest time. Colorful falling leaves. Corn mazes, acorns, pumpkins, scarecrows, Halloween and Thanksgiving. In the Midwest, Autumn is the time of the year when cooler temperatures sweep in over summer's waning heat and the growing season comes to full fruition before winding down to dormancy. Fall officially begins in September and runs through October, November, and into December, when the seasonal change next morphs into winter. Inject some seasonal inspiration into your creative writing with these fall-themed writing prompts, photos, and printable projects and reflect on the meaning of the season to capture the transforming magic in the air for this colorful, transitioning space in the year.
The Enlightened Way to Clear Writer's Block
By Tom Evans
I am sure you have read articles or books where you got the impression that the writer is intent on showing you how clever they are. Every sentence is perhaps littered with a word that makes you reach for the dictionary. On the other hand, we have all read a book that we couldn't put down? We just had to read the next chapter even though we should really have gone to sleep with a busy day ahead. In the same way that rampant emotions can interrupt our creative flow at the level of the unconscious mind, the ego can wreak creative havoc at a conscious mind level if it engages while you are writing.
Premiums and Printables
By Chris Dunmire
With fake fun printable 'Cashius monetarius' seed packet! As featured in Money: Everything You Never Knew About Your Favorite Thing to Find, Save, Spend, and Covet by Sandra and Harry Chonron, this unique origami money plant makes a delightful gift to create, but hard to give away! Learn how to make this truly memorable craft with my with easy-to-follow instructions in a fully-illustrated, step-by-step 23-page project book.
Art Perspectives
By Whitney Freya
The principles of design are not the result of a panel of art academics who felt the need to create more rules. The principles of design are the language of our mind's eye, how we visually analyze everything we see. They have been used by artists for centuries to create paintings that successfully communicate their heart's desire, the natural beauty of a landscape, the spirit of a portrait, or the innate element of objects in a still life. Now you are going to learn how to use them. The principles of design are interwoven throughout our lives because we process so much of our world and our life visually.
Inner Voices of Creativity
By Anne Marie Bennett
Is there a part of you who is ready to let go of something old and step out in trust on a new path? It may be something as big as seeking a new job or relationship. Or it might be something smaller, but no less significant. Give this part of your inner world some power and strength by simply recognizing it and bowing to it. You can dialogue with it, or make a SoulCollage® card of your own to honor it. Name all of the support systems that are already in place for you as you begin this new part of your journey. Visualize yourself like the little girl on my card... walking across the entire thin pole. Imagine yourself falling, too, and notice how it feels as those four strong, loving arms catch you and hold you away from harm.
Fostering Creativity
By Abby Connors
Nurturing young children's creativity is a big job, and we can't do it alone. Fortunately, we have cleverly written stories with gorgeous illustrations, recordings of beautiful and exciting music, and all kinds of props and costumes to help us stir children's imaginations. And for me, the most powerful partners in promoting creative thinking are my fabulous, tireless puppet friends.
Juicy Journal & Wild Words
By Molly J. Anderson-Childers
Want to take your writing on the road? To create your own travel journal, you need the right tools. May I suggest a portable spiral bound book, sturdy enough to withstand being shoved into a suitcase? A hard cover is a good idea; this will prevent everything from getting squished and ruined. To make your own travel collage, collect keys, postcards, stickers, stamps, business cards, and photos of your trip in an envelope. When you get home, get out the glue sticks and glitter and go wild!
Dreaming the Soul Back Home
By Robert Moss
You are about to enter a place where all fields of knowledge, including deeper knowledge of your soul's purpose and connections, can open to you. The best will be revealed only as you seek it; you'll know it when it lets you find it, not before. So you start by setting an intention, but you remain ready to let the journey take you beyond it. In the secret library, you can find information and inspiration in any area that rouses your active curiosity and your creative spirit. Anything that stirs the creative spirit in you is a matter of soul, whether it is golf or alchemy, cooking or astronomy, landscape gardening or writing.
