Category Archives: Wellness

Turning Thoughts Into Action

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This morning I lit a candle and wrote in my journal for the first time in a long time. Felt good claiming sacred space for my inner process. Afterwards, an intuitive thought crashed into my awareness. Today became the day I cleared off my writing desk. I have two desks in my writer’s studio, one for the computer and one for writing longhand. My longhand desk has been covered with organized piles of good and important stuff for two years.

Bringing up a big, brown garbage bag I began to edit and toss. Rhythmic music, drumbeat and chimes accompanied my clear-out energy and I made time to follow-through on many of the items that needed tending. I feel like a yoke has been lifted from my shoulders. Oddly it’s connecting me to my artist self again.

I’m reminded of Twyla Tharp’s quote, “Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” I feel like I ran away today, clearing out actually immersed me in my art all day!

Creativity and wellness message for today: Turn your intuitive thought into action and see where it takes you.

The Power of Art

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I’ve loved Pablo Picasso’s art since I was in high school, and a reproduction of his painting of two hands clutching a bouquet of colorful flowers graced my wall. In college I studied him in art classes and hung a poster of his painting Guernica in my dorm room. His spunk, individuality, and creativity continue to inspire me. Recently, Irene, a former member of my Writing Critique Group shared this Picasso quote: Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.

Creativity and wellness message for today: Let art wash your soul.

Shuffling the Cards

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Today is cold and blustery, the autumn leaves danced and crackled around me on my before-work walk. Keeping up my pace I changed my normal route to allow for passing a mailbox. Like in playing cards when the dealer shuffles the deck, that is what this morning feels like. I am doing everything I usually do, from personal to professional responsibilities but the order of my day is slightly different. The mix has changed and I like it. A buoyancy of sustained energy is keeping me going. I had no intention of writing this blog today and yet while I walked it wrote itself.

Creativity and wellness message for today: Allow for a different arrangement to your day and see what creative spark ignites.

Sharpening the Senses

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In my last blog “New Thoughts on Self-Promotion” I used a metaphor of the great heron, who waits patiently for its meal to swim by. The stately white bird stands seemingly immobile at low tide, then at just the right moment snatches up breakfast. Have you wondered how it knows exactly when and where to strike?

As a bird living in the wild, the heron naturally is keenly aware. It uses its body to guide its actions, not necessarily its brain. I believe the heron uses all of its senses — sight, sound, smell, touch, taste as well as instinct. Many humans have lost their internal navigation system.

Like a baby, the heron uses its senses to explore, discover and master the world around it. Sadly it is our sensory perceptions that are systematically trained out of us by family, schooling and society, as we mature.

To reclaim this power for yourself, take a moment, right now to sharpen your senses. Close your eyes, breathe deeply, then:

1. Be fully aware of how your body feels, notice the temperature of the air on your skin.

2. If the air had a taste, what would it taste like?

3. Feel your breathing, is it shallow or deep? No judgement, just observation. Is your heart fluttering or calm?

4. What do you hear? Can you stretch your hearing to receive the farthest most sound?

5. Smell the odors around you, an animal’s sense of smell can save its life.

6. What do you feel like doing at this very minute? Will you give yourself permission to do it?

7. Over the next week, invite yourself to simply observe a situation in your life, with all your senses. Then let your observations help you intrinsically know when to act (or not). Let your body, not your mind, direct you.

Creativity and wellness message for today: Learn how to be body smart, reconnect with your senses. Then just like the heron, trust your instincts.

New Thoughts on Self-Promotion

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Today I’m thinking about the regal white heron. If you live near the water you have witnessed the majestic and stately grace of the heron waiting patiently at low tide, watching in the stillness for its breakfast to swim by. No ripple appears around the heron’s legs, it seems immobile. When the right fish ventures too close the heron rapidly thrusts its beak into the shallow water without hesitation and immediately snatches up its meal.

In today’s world of power marketing and social media we are bombarded with what I call the “all about me” mentality. I’m shifting my focus and learning from the great white heron. It draws no attention to itself, as it stands, stock still keenly observing. Its sustenance comes to it, not the other way around.

As an artist and writer I am guilty of the “See Me!” method of promoting my work for the return of dinner on my family’s table. Currently I heed the great white heron’s wise counsel. I am standing still.

Creativity and wellness message for today: Be patient, silently observe, then strike with precision at just the right moment.

A Different View

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I headed out for my walk this morning wearing a pale yellow sweatshirt, frayed and loose around the neck, with one shoulder partially exposed, Flashdance style. My skin was cool and the air was quiet when I left my house. I felt footloose and fancy free. Taking a route different from my normal routine, I trekked up one hill then down another to reach the water. As I approached Long Island Sound the wind whipped up and I saw tiny white caps.

My morning of life/work balance was already pleasantly euphoric. My sneakers beat a steady rhythm on the asphalt and I thought back to art school. A college professor taught all the students in my Design class to turn every artwork around, to view it from all sides. This way the artist can see and change the composition from every angle. What I learned is that when I changed something from one perspective, it changed the whole piece. The finished artwork was completed by drawing a line or changing a shape that I never would have considered if I had not viewed it upside down or backwards.

Today, the surprise of seeing white caps on a day that started out calm and simultaneously feeling exhilarated by the increasing winds put me in a place of deeper gratitude.

Creativity and wellness message for today: Look at your moment from a different view, break out of your routine and be delighted at how the change affects the whole.