Regular Practice with Self-Care
Experiencing a deep and expanding relationship with your creativity.
By Jill Badonsky | Posted 11/7/12 | Updated 4/24/21
Exclusive Leak:
Our cunningly stealth-like reporters absconded several excerpts from The Muse is IN: An Owner’s Manual to Your Creativity by Jill Badonsky. The book reportedly is THE key to teaching ANYONE to operate creativity in a way not before experienced.
The words “colossal,” “stupendous” and “a triumph” are not exaggerations (depending on what it is you’re referring to). But since we are talking about Badonsky’s third book, let’s assume we mean it. Hyperbole also comes to mind.
The suspension of logic is occasionally required for:
- the cultivation of imaginative possibilities, and
- for stoking the kindling of childlike anticipation.
Both are their own reward.
This time we gained possession of not one but TWO pages from the Care and Maintenance section of The Manual.
One of the tricks to experiencing a deep and expanding relationship with your creativity is regular practice.
The mantra, “I am not creative,” or “I don’t have a creative bone in my body,” is heard mostly from people who have not gone through the creativity’s prerequisites of TRYING, failing, persisting, practicing, letting it go, returning, embracing the process, PERSEVERING, practicing, practicing, practicing, and triumphing. (Repeat as needed.) Having unrealistic expectations of being immediately brilliant and creatively gifted also play a part with those who quickly deny any ability to be creative.
Engaging in short little exercises regularly, even for five minutes three times a week, can open up whole new worlds of resourcefulness for the willing. Simply reading and pondering small questions can spark creative wonder and ideas. This works better than long blocks of time that you never get to because they trigger procrastination, avoidance, and overwhelm.
But some people don’t know where to begin. In The Owner’s Manual there is a practice prompt for everyday of the year, embellished with whimsical illustrations and occasional, irreverent comments. This makes it easier to practice, practice, practice.
The illustration above is an example of a page from the book from the month of November, and here are some additional prompts for you to test drive:
November 1:
B-day of Carl Sagan who said, "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
Step one: Close your eyes and just feel the essence of what that thought means without requiring yourself to do anything else about it.
Step two: Imagine that the incredible thing waiting to be known is specifically for you.
Step three: Trust that this is true.
November 2:
B-day of writer Rae Warde who uses the phrase, "Small and crappy" to lower her expectations to a place where she feels excited about starting her writing instead of immobilized by perfectionism.
Try it, choose something creative and start by striving for "small and crappy."
Notice if it liberates you. If it doesn't, pretend like it does, and practice cooperating with yourself.
November 3:
B-day of writer Dawn Kotzer who gives these creative remedies:
Quick fix for a sore throat: Freeze a tablespoon of honey. Then suck slowly on the frozen honey and listen to the stories your throat tells you as it is soothed by this polar sweetness.
Quick fix for a sore head: Stop reading, lay still again and see if you can feel the stillest part of your interior body. 'Draw' a circle around it, and slip through it into oblivion.
Write a list of imaginatively wonderful remedies for anything from the snifles to existential angst. Don't be afraid of being silly — it's a remedy for being too grown-up.
November 4:
B-day of humorist, Will Rogers who said, “There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by readin’. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”
Write a list of times you peed on the fence, so to speak, and found out the hard way. Congratulate yourself for the wisdom you gleaned and chose a few of the stories, and translate them into poetry with short haiku or three line poems of any number of syllables.
November 5:
Write a poem or a short prose piece about yourself in second person perspective and if you like, beginning with this: “You are almost…”
November 6:
B-day of novelist, Michael Cunningham who wrote “The secret of flight is this: you have to do it immediately, before your body realizes it is defying the laws.”
Same with the creative process.
Sometimes you have to jump in without hesitation, before your inner critic realizes what you’re doing. Put the book down and go do something creative quickly. I’m not kidding.
Okay, we gotta run. We is outlaws and don’t want our butts kicked ‘cuz we need to see ya next time. Embellish gratitude as often as possible. Thanks for staying true to your creativity one little step at a time.
©2012 Jill Badonsky. All rights reserved.
