Eric Maisel, PhD: The Van Gogh Blues
Meaningful Life, Meaningful Work, Meaningful Days
In order for you to live an authentic, meaningful life, which is the principal remedy for the depression creative people experience, you must feel that 1) the plan of your life is meaningful, 2) the work you do is meaningful, and 3) the way your spend your time is meaningful. These are three separate but related tasks, each with its own logic, demands, and obstacles.

Creativity Interviews
Penny Redshaw, Creator of Motivating Giraffe
Giraffes are such fascinating creatures to me. Not only do they carry themselves with poise and grace in the African savanna, but their leopard-patterned fur complements every striped zebra and tusked elephant in an adventurous safari. With their unusual presence, giraffes also fill me with amusement. If a giraffe were a piece of furniture, it would be a tall yellow and red coffee house stool with a six-foot back rest — and beautiful eyelashes, too!

Words & Images
Sightings
Through a second story window I see branches, branches of the oak arching over my house and branches of trees across the street. Yesterday those trees and the flowers below were encased in ice. Today temperatures are warmer. The ice slowly melts. Droplets have formed. The trees are now draped in diamonds.

SARK and Dr John Waddell: Succulent Wild Love
Your Inner Critic Care System
You have a constant stream of thoughts running through your mind, and we use the term “inner critics” to describe the thoughts that criticize you or tell you that you should be ashamed or feel guilty if you do what you want to do.

Body Blissmas
We All Could Use an Imaginary Friend
Ally McBeal had background singers, Jimmy Stewart's character had a six foot rabbit named Harvey, countless characters have angels and well… those of us who write have all the characters in our novels, screenplays, poems, plays and songs. Who do you have?

Print Write-Brain Workbook Pages
Bonnie Neubauer's 'Onomatopoeia' and Other Creative Writing Fun
Join us in this extravaganza of creative writing fun! In celebration of Bonnie Neubauer's new, revised and expanded Write-Brain Workbook we bring you a sampling array of challenging writing prompts, colorful exercises, and printable activities straight from the pages of this enormous resource that will liberate your writing.

Jill Badonsky: Creativity and Wellness
Body Blissmas and a Happy New Rear!
There is no question that a nourished, exercised body makes using the mind for creative thinking easier. When I was writing my second book I noticed something very interesting. I started taking better care of myself. I had to in order for my brain to work creatively.

Sara Avant Stover: Your Heroine's Journey
Dancing with the Dark Goddess
In my late teens and early twenties I found solace in odd places — with the great dames of literature who lingered dangerously on the dark side. I read Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar three times and maniacally scoured her poetry and journals. I adapted Virginia Woolf’s adage that every woman needs a room of her own.

Stories from the Creative Front
100 Inspiring Creativity Interviews
Throughout the years, Creativity Portal has attracted countless muses, authors, artists, writers, teachers, coaches, and other creative professionals willing to share their stories, insights, trials, and triumphs with our readers. All have one things in common: they are brilliant and passionate about what they do.

Robert Moss: Sidewalk Oracles
12 Rules of Kairomancy
If you are going to bring something new into your world, find the field you will marry, as the poet marries language, as the artist marries color and texture, as the chef marries taste and aroma, as the swimmer marries the water. Let’s say that you have a notion that your creative act may involve writing. Maybe you even think you have a book, or a story or screenplay, in you. For you, marrying the field will require you to marry words and be their constant lover.

Michael Michalko on Creativity
12 Things Not Taught in School About Creative Thinking
We learn about great ideas and we learn the names of the creative geniuses who created them, but we are seldom taught about how they got the ideas. My teachers focused on their discoveries rather than on the mental processes, attitudes, work habits, behavior and beliefs that enabled creative geniuses to be capable of looking at the same things as the rest of us and seeing something different.

Nurturing Young Imaginations
6 Ways Music and Movement Activities Help Children Learn and Grow
Scientists have found that music activates the cerebellum, which is also involved in the coordination and timing of movement. This is a connection but not a causal relationship. Possibly, we want to move to music because the beat seems to demand a rhythmic response.

Plus: The Crunchy Munchy Salad Activity for Teachers

your creative impulse
Forget What They Say!
“Oh, you’re a writer, what have you published?” is the question often asked because the expectation is so pervasive and infers that its two things instead of one. But being a writer has nothing to do with being published or making money off of what you create.

Muses to Inspire You
The Elements: Air
Let the Muses of Air inspire you to soar with the swans — even if you feel like an ugly duckling today. When I researched muses and goddesses; deities from all over the world, I found that there were air goddesses or air muses in nearly every culture, in every region of the globe from the icy reaches of the Arctic wastelands to right here in the American Southwest.