Weekly Writing Ideas with Suzanne Murray

Greetings Wacco Community,

Hi, I’m Suzanne Murray and I'll be drawing on my thirty years of writing experience and eighteen years of teaching the creative writing process to offer inspiration, insights, tips and exercises to help stimulate your writing. I’ll post new information and exercises every couple of week as an ongoing thread under the title “Twice Monthly Writing Ideas with Suzanne Murray”. Just scroll down to the bottom for the most recent post.

A little about my overall philosophy: Brenda Ueland in her book “If You Want to Write -A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit”, (published in 1938 and still in print) said “Everybody is original, talented and has something important to say”. It is probably my favorite book on writing because it contains a great deal of passion and wisdom as well as an understanding that encouragement is the best nourishment for the creative soul. I believe that when we are creative, we tap into a greater sense of our Self, so my main intention for sharing ideas on writing is to offer encouragement, (the word courage derived from the old French word “cuer” which means heart) and inspiration. Since I also work with people individually as a writing and creativity coach, I will provide some tips on what I have found most helpful in assisting you to “show up” to write.

TIP AND EXERCISE: To start I want to introduce the idea of “freewriting” which has been popularized by Natalie Goldberg in her book “Writing Down the Bones”. All you do is, start writing for a set period of time, say ten minutes, and don’t stop for anything. If you can’t think of what to say you write “keep the hand moving” until you break through into a new idea. The purpose of this technique is that in writing a tad faster than you can think without stopping or censoring you are able out run the inner critic and strategic/analytical mind and more quickly access the creative imagination. Try it. You can start with a word , a phrase, something you see out the window, or an object in the room. Try starting with the word “rain”. Have fun. Then feel free to post what you come up with.

Anyone interested in finding out more about me and the writing and creativity classes and coaching I offer in Sonoma and Marin Counties as well as writing journeys to Ireland and Yosemite can check out my webpage at www.creativitygoeswild.com or email me at [email protected].

I didn't see it listed. How much $$$ is the course?

This is my first time trying to post, and I find myself lost in this box space with no idea what will eventually be framed in the reply spot. I thank you Susanne, for your writing ideas and your support of writers. I have shared your column with my writers group and we have tried one suggestion this week. In appreciation, Deborah T-F

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WRITING EXERCISE: Pick a line from a favorite poem as a prompt and really try letting go and letting the words lead you. Don’t be afraid to make quantum leaps. Often a piece falls flat because the reader is bored. Don’t worry about skipping to another scene, another angle, another character, another time, a memory. Trust the instinct to jump around. The best connections are the ones that reveal themselves to us after we’ve written them. If a jump occurs to you, take it, the connection will be clear later.

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OK Folks, who wants to take a stab at this?? Just give it a whirl and see what happens and please share it with us! We will only give your supportive feedback! (That means you too, Lulu!)

This looks like an advertisement for your workshops and classes. I like Larry's poem at the end of the page every day. That you come in with your "ideas" which are good, and also repeat your catalogue of opportunities to pay you for classes is offensive to me. Do that in the area that is specified for that content. Poetry/prose section to me is the aahhh place and a ritual of relaxing with the words of others meant to stimulate me in the ways creative writing does.

Advertising is not in that catagory. Keep these separate. I would like to see some of your writing, or just leave it to those who want to share freely. Laura

Twice-Monthly Writing Ideas and Exercises with Suzanne Murray for the week of 3/15


Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights but you can make the whole trip that way. - E.L. Doctorow


SHORT ASSIGNMENTS

If when you sit down to write you think to yourself, “I’m going to write a book” you will likely freak yourself out because that feels like too big a task to take on. But it you think I’m going to write a sentence or a paragraph or I’m going to work on a chapter, which ever feels manageable and realizable to you, then it’s easier to get started and stay in the chair. You don’t have to know what the story or poem or book is about beforehand. You will “figure that out” as you work on your short assignments and they build into the bigger picture of what the work is really about. When you sit down to write on a work in progress just work on one image or scene or description to add to the work. Then celebrate that you are making progress step by small step.


WRITING EXERCISE: Put the first word that pops into your head down on the page then the second word and the third and so on for ten minutes. You are not thinking about this. You are just allowing the words to flow and you are open to how they take shape. It’s a good way to warm up and loosen up. Have fun with it.


Suzanne Murray teaches writing classes and workshops in both Sonoma and Marin Counties. For more information visit www.creativitygoeswild.com

Suzanne, I just started writing poetry these last few months and what you say about getting started is on the mark. It really only takes the hint of an idea or a word and the rest just comes out of the great pool of creativity that everyone is tapped into.

Thanks for the good thoughts

Richard


Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights but you can make the whole trip that way. - E.L. Doctorow


SHORT ASSIGNMENTS

If when you sit down to write you think to yourself, “I’m going to write a book” you will likely freak yourself out because that feels like too big a task to take on. But it you think I’m going to write a sentence or a paragraph or I’m going to work on a chapter, which ever feels manageable and realizable to you, then it’s easier to get started and stay in the chair. You don’t have to know what the story or poem or book is about beforehand. You will “figure that out” as you work on your short assignments and they build into the bigger picture of what the work is really about. When you sit down to write on a work in progress just work on one image or scene or description to add to the work. Then celebrate that you are making progress step by small step.


WRITING EXERCISE: Put the first word that pops into your head down on the page then the second word and the third and so on for ten minutes. You are not thinking about this. You are just allowing the words to flow and you are open to how they take shape. It’s a good way to warm up and loosen up. Have fun with it.


Suzanne Murray teaches writing classes and workshops in both Sonoma and Marin Counties. For more information visit www.creativitygoeswild.com[/QUOTE]

Bi-Monthly Writing Ideas & Exercises with Suzanne Murray 4/15

. . . writing is the slow, cumulative way of accepting your life as valid, of accepting yourself over a lifetime, of realizing that your life is important. And it is. It’s all you’ve got. All you ever had for sure. – Richard Hugo


WRITING FOR HEALING, SELF DISCOVERY & MAKING MEANING

I first started keeping a journal in college and have maintained that practice for over thirty five years. Expanding doing creative writing followed as a natural progression of this practice of putting pen to paper along with a deep love of books and working with words. Besides the experience of deep satisfaction that comes from engaging the creative process, writing has also served my personal growth in profound ways.

Journaling differs from creative writing in that it is more a conversation with yourself. It provides a way of making sense of your life experiences and becomes a form of self analysis. Creative writing allows you to more deeply access the unconscious and the insights of your Self. The benefits of engaging the writing process on these different levels are many.

In his book, Opening Up, James W Pennebaker, PhD, documents his years of research into the healing effects of writing. He found, what many people who have kept a journal often discover on their own, “that if we can create a cohesive personal narrative of our lives and if we can link up our emotions with specific events, then we have the power to take control of how those emotions and events affect our lives.” As Isak Dinesan, the author of Out of Africa, said “All suffering is bearable if it is seen as part of a story."

Poet May Sarton said that “… the only way through pain … is to go through it, to absorb, probe, understand exactly what it is and what it means …. Nothing that happens to us, even the most terrible shock, is unusable, and everything has somehow to be built into the fabric of the personality ….” Through writing, we can find order and meaning in everything that has happened to us. Whichever form our writing takes: journaling, morning pages, poetry, memoir, fiction, or essays; it has the power to heal us and to help us grow.

WRITING EXERCISE: There are lots of different ways to use writing for healing and self discovery. You can start by writing about a specific event or situation or relationship you. You could begin by writing a letter (that does not get sent) to a person you are having a conflict with in order to more deeply understand what you are really feeling about the situation. Or try writing a dialogue with a pain in your body and ask it what it needs from you as way to tapping the body’s natural ability to heal.

You need to write freely without censoring or worrying about punctuation, spelling or grammar or even how it sounds. Write for ten to twenty minutes without stopping. Don’t edit what you are writing. Simply write and see what comes out. By allowing what wants to be written without trying to consciously control the flow, you tap into the wisdom of the unconscious and open yourself to the healing power within.


Suzanne teaches writing classes in Sonoma and Marin Counties where she also now offers Writing to Heal Yourself Workshops. For more information visit her web site at www.creativitygoeswild.com. For more ideas about writing, creativity coaching and more check out her Blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog

Writing Ideas & Exercises with Suzanne Murray


Try a ten minute freewrite using the prompt: "I am from . . ." Really play with it and let your mind run and let yourself be surprised by what pops out.


Suzanne teaches writing classes in Sonoma and Marin Counties as well as offering writing coaching online and will soon be offering teleclasses. She leads Writing Journeys to Ireland and Yosemite. For more information visit her web site at www.creativitygoeswild.com. For more ideas about writing, creativity coaching and more check out her Blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog

Writing Ideas & Exercises with Suzanne Murray

Years ago I took a workshop from William Kittredge who taught creative writing at the University of Montana for thirty years. He said when he first started out teaching he was concerned with providing his students with information and techniques for writing. As time progressed he found that the most important thing he could do for his students was to help them answer the question of why they wanted to write. I give this assignment now to my student: Do a ten minute freewrite starting with the prompt Why I write. . . Try it, let your mind run, this can help you tap the energy behind the desire to write.


Suzanne teaches writing classes in Sonoma and offer individual writing coaching online or by phone. She has just begun to offer a couple of different Teleclasses for writing. She also leads Weekend Writing Retreats to Yosemite. For more information visit her web site at www.creativitygoeswild.com. For more ideas about writing, creativity coaching and more check out her Blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog

Writing Ideas & Exercises with Suzanne Murray

Good writing is full of moment by moment sensual detail that puts the reader into the experience. Try this. This week do five ten minutes free writes: one for each your senses. Really soak up the sensory experience before your sit down to write then really let go and see what your pen or keyboard has to say about it.

Suzanne teaches writing classes in Sonoma and Marin and offers individual writing coaching online or by phone. She has just begun to offer a couple of different Teleclasses for writing. She also leads Weekend Writing Retreats to Yosemite. For more information visit her web site at www.creativitygoeswild.com. For more ideas about writing, creativity coaching and more check out her Blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog[/quote]

Here are some of my favorite quotes on writing. I'm always inspired by how other writers experience the process.

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible. ~Vladimir Nabakov

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. ~Mark Twain

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. ~Anton Chekhov

Easy reading is damn hard writing. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it. ~Jules Renard, "Diary," February 1895


Suzanne teaches writing classes in Sonoma County and offers individual writing coaching online or by phone as well as offering The Heart of Writing as a Teleclass. She also leads Weekend Writing Retreats to Yosemite. For more information visit her web site at www.creativitygoeswild.com. For more ideas about writing, creativity coaching and more check out her Blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog

Hi Everyone,

I just wrote this article for the monthly newsletter I send out to my mailing list and I am so excited to share this information on the neuroscience of what happens when we write or are creative in any way. I thought you all would enjoy it.


Writing and Brain Wave States

I’ve been reading an interesting book, titled Writing Down Your Soul: How to Activate and Listen to the Extraordinary Voice Within by Janet Conner. It focuses on how writing can help you access your inner wisdom and deeper ways of knowing. Anyone who establishes a writing practice, whether for creative expression or self discovery, begins to realize they can tap expanded ways of knowing and gain insights beyond the reach of their everyday state of awareness. I found the ideas and wisdom found in the book are very much applicable to creative writing.

In the book the author interviewed creativity consultants Michelle and Robert Colt who have studied what goes on in the brain when we write. They first describe the four types of brain waves, “Beta, the fastest is associated with stress, work and concentration.” Most of us spend the bulk of our waking time here. Alpha waves are a bit slower and are “associated with creativity, calmness, and insight.” This is the brain state of “being in the zone” where your work feels effortless. Theta waves are the next slowest. We experience this state when we first wake up or have an ah..ha moment where you have a really creative idea or the solution to a problem pops into your mind. People who meditate slip into theta quickly and remain there through the period of meditation.. Delta waves, that we experience in deep sleep are the slowest.

When we write we start out in beta, but very quickly move into alpha and eventually theta. The Colts explain that , “any moment of intense creativity is a theta burst. And when you engage in deep dialogue with divine mind, you are having mystical theta bursts” In the state of mystical theta bursts you are surprised by what comes out of your pen (or keyboard). I remember when I had my first experience of this state. I stopped writing to look around the room to see where the words were coming from because they didn’t feel like they were coming from me. It sounds strange but it actually feels delightful and it’s really were the best writing comes from.

I was really excited to read about the brain states because it explained what I have been teaching intuitively for years. I tell my students to never wait for inspiration before sitting down to write because if you do you will likely be waiting a long time. I explain that you often have to write a half a page or a page where not much is happening, where you will feel sluggish and resistant before you start to feel a sense of the creative flow. I now realize that you are actually writing your way out of beta down into the brain states that give you access to the more creative states. It’s why establishing writing as a habit or practice is so important because you never really feel like writing until you slip into the more creative brain states and the best way to get there is to sit down and start writing.

The information about brain states also explains why we have hard time coming up with creative solutions to life’s and the world’s problems when we are in our everyday (beta) mind. This reminds me of what Einstein meant when he said, Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them. Reading about the brain states makes me aware of how important it is when I am faced with a problem to slow down and calm down knowing this will help me tap the more expanded brain states and allow creative solutions and new ideas to surface.


Suzanne teaches writing classes in Sonoma County and offers individual writing coaching online or by phone as well as offering The Heart of Writing as a Teleclass. She also leads Weekend Writing Retreats to Yosemite. For more information visit her web site at www.creativitygoeswild.com. For more ideas about writing, creativity coaching and more check out her Blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog

Very often the effort men put into activities that seem completely useless turns out to be extremely important in ways no one could foresee. Play has always been the mainspring of culture. -Italo Calvino

PLAY

Make a single sentence from the following words, without adding any extra. Just put them together in a way that feels pleasing to you: banana, dresser, hummingbird, potato, revive, uneven, assess, wonder. Then use the sentence as a prompt for a ten minute freewrite. Be willing to really let go of the need for it to make sense to the rational mind. Think of a child coloring outside the lines, or painting the sky orange and the trees purple. Have fun.


Suzanne teaches Writing Teleclasses as well as in person classes in Sonoma County. She also offers individual writing coaching online or by phone and Weekend Writing Retreats in Yosemite. For more information visit her web site at www.creativitygoeswild.com. For more ideas about writing, creativity coaching and more check out her Blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog[/QUOTE]

THE SOUL OF POETRY

I always think of poetry as written by the soul of the writer for the soul of the reader so when I read poems I let them wash over me and feel into them as I read. Favorite poems remind me of what is really important to me. Here are some that speak to my soul. I will often read a poem or a piece of stream of consciousness writing before I start writing to make my mind more receptive to the creative flow.


Weathering


My face catches the wind
from the snow line
and flushes with a flush
that will never wholly settle.
Well, that was a metropolitan vanity,
wanting to look young forever, to pass.
I was never a pre-Raphaelite beauty
and only pretty enough to be seen
with a man who wants to be seen
with a passable woman.


But now that I am in love
with a place that doesn't care
how I look or if I am happy,
happy is how I look and that all.
My hair will grow gray in any case,
,my nails chip and flake,
my waist thicken, and the years
work all the usual changes.


If my face is to be weatherbeaten as well,
it's little enough lost
for a year among lakes and vales
where simply to look out my window
at the high pass
makes me indifferent to mirrors
and to what my soul may wear
over its new complexion.


-Fleur Adock




Ripening Barberries


Already the ripening barberries are red
and the old asters hardly breathe in their beds.
the man who is not rich now that summer goes
will wait and wait and never be himself.


The man who cannot quietly close his eyes
certain that there is vision after vision inside,
simply waiting for nighttime
to rise all around him in darkness -
it's all over for him, he's like an old man.


Nothing else will come: no more doors will open
and everything that does have will cheat him
even You, my God. And You are like a stone
that draws him daily deeper into the depths.


- Rainer Maria Rilke




A Spiritual Journey

And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles,
no matter how long,
but only by a spiritual journey,
a journey of one inch,
very arduous and humbling and joyful,
by which we arrive at the ground at our feet,
and learn to be at home.


- Wendell Berry






Landscape


Isn't it plain that the sheets of moss, except that
they have no tongues, could lecture
all day if they want


about spiritual patience? Isn't it clear
the black oaks along the path are standing
as though they were the most fragile of flowers?


Every morning I walk like this around
the pond, thinking: if the doors to my heart
ever close, I am as good as dead.


Every morning so far I'm alive. And now
the crows break off from the rest of the darkness
and burst up into the sky – as though


all night they have thought of what they would like
their lives to be, and imagined
their strong, thick wings.


- Mary Oliver


Suzanne teaches Writing Teleclasses as well as in person classes in Sonoma County. She also offers individual writing coaching online or by phone and Weekend Writing Retreats in Yosemite. For more information visit her web site at www.creativitygoeswild.com. For more ideas about writing, creativity coaching and more check out her Blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog

THE HEALING POWER OF WRITING POETRY


Some years ago I did a workshop with John Fox, author of Finding What You Didn't Lose and Poetic Medicine, who works with poetry for the purpose of healing. In his groups the focus is on drawing inspiration from poetry and writing poems of self expression and healing without worrying about needing to master the form. In our changing times I have more and more been thinking about the wisdom and healing power contained in poems. Recently someone I know was getting ready to sell the home and land where she had lived and loved for thirty years. I had suggested that she write about it as a way to express her feelings and come to a sense of peace with the decision. She wrote a beautiful tribute and love poem to the land and gardens she had so carefully tended. I then had the urge to send her Mary Oliver's In Blackwater Woods which carries in it a powerful message on what it means to let go.

At that point I had the sense that finding the right poem that speaks to what we are going through can hold us in a place of comfort, healing and deeper understanding of a challenge or difficulty in our life. It can be like writing a prescription for yourself knowing that words can heal.

If you are new to poetry and not accustomed to reading it then start with the highly accessible poets like the Sufi mystic poets like Rumi or Hafiz or best selling contemporary poets like Mary Oliver or Billy Collins. Below are a couple of ones that are a good place to begin. Or try writing your own poem. Be willing to relax and play with it.


Introduction to Poetry


I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means

-Billy Collins


In Blackwater Woods

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,


the long tapers
of cattail
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

- Mary Oliver


Suzanne teaches Writing Teleclasses as well as in person classes in Sonoma County. She also offers individual writing coaching online or by phone and Weekend Writing Retreats in Yosemite. For more information visit her web site at www.creativitygoeswild.com. For more ideas about writing, creativity coaching and more check out her Blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog

Here's a deeply moving poem by Irish poet and philosopher John O'Donohue (1956 -2008) from his book To Bless the Space Between Us. After you read it try writing your own "morning offering" in whatever form whether poetry or prose that calls to you.

A Morning Offering

I bless the night that nourished my heart
To set the ghosts of longing free
Into the flow and figure of dream
That went to harvest from the dark
Bread for the hunger no one sees.

All that is eternal in me
Welcome the wonder of this day,
The field of brightness it creates
Offering time for each thing
To arise and illuminate.

I place on the altar of dawn:
The quiet loyalty of breath,
The tent of thought where I shelter,
Wave of desire I am shore to
And all beauty drawn to the eye.

May my mind come alive today
To the invisible geography
That invites me to new frontiers,
To break the dead shell of yesterdays,
To risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.

~ John O'Donohue ~

Suzanne teaches Writing Teleclasses as well as in person workshops in Sonoma and Marin Counties. She also offers individual writing coaching online or by phone and Weekend Writing Retreats in Yosemite. For more information visit her web site at www.creativitygoeswild.com. For more ideas about writing, creativity coaching and more check out her Blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog

Here's one of my favorite poems for the holiday season. You could write your own poem or story of celebration.

Wishing you Peace and Joy,
Suzanne

Amazing Peace

Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes
And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses.
Flood waters await us in our avenues.

Snow falls upon snow, falls upon snow to
avalanche
Over unprotected villages.
The sky slips low and grey and threatening.

We question ourselves.
What have we done
to so affront nature?
We worry God.
Are you there? Are you there really?
Does the covenant you made with us still hold?

Into this climate of fear and apprehension,
Christmas enters,
Streaming lights of joy, ringing bells of hope
And singing carols of forgiveness
high up in the bright air.
The world is encouraged to come away from rancor,
Come the way of friendship.

It is the Glad Season.
Thunder ebbs to silence
and lightning sleeps quietly in the corner.
Flood waters recede into memory.
Snow becomes a yielding cushion to aid us
As we make our way to higher ground.

Hope is born again in the faces of children
It rides on the shoulders of our aged
as they walk into their sunsets.
Hope spreads around the earth,
brightening all things,
Even hate which crouches,
breeding in dark corridors.

In our joy, we think we hear a whisper.
At first it is too soft.
Then only half heard.
We listen carefully as it gathers strength.
We hear a sweetness.
The word is Peace.
It is loud now.
It is louder.
Louder than the explosion of bombs.

We tremble at the sound.
We are thrilled by its presence.
It is what we have hungered for.
Not just the absence of war.
But true Peace.
A harmony of spirit, a comfort of courtesies.
Security for our beloveds and their beloveds.

We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.
Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.
We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,
Implore you to stay a while with us.
So we may learn by your shimmering light
How to look beyond complexion and see community.

It is Christmas time, a halting of hate time.

On this platform of peace, we can create a language
To translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.

At this Holy Instant, we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ
Into the great religions of the world.
We jubilate the precious advent of trust.
We shout with glorious tongues at the coming of hope.
All the earth's tribes loosen their voices
To celebrate the promise of Peace.

We, Angels and Mortals, Believers and Non-Believers,
Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at our world and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at each other, then into ourselves
And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation.


Peace, My Brother.
Peace, My Sister.
Peace, My Soul.

- Maya Angelou


Suzanne teaches Writing Teleclasses as well as in person workshops in Sonoma and Marin Counties. She also offers individual writing coaching online or by phone and Weekend Writing Retreats in Yosemite and Writing Journeys to Ireland. For more information visit her web site at www.creativitygoeswild.com. For more ideas about writing, creativity coaching and more check out her Blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog

WRITING FOR WISDOM & CLARITY IN THE NEW YEAR

Talking to paper is talking to the divine. It is talking to an ear that will understand even the most difficult things. Paper is infinitely patient. - Burghild Nina Holzer

Each new year's day feels like a chance to begin anew. This year I think we can all feel the call to live more authentically from our deeper yearnings and desires and bring our gifts into the world. I wanted to offer you a tool for gaining clarity and insights from our heart's deeper way of knowing that is the surest and fastest way I know. It's faster than meditating, going for a walk to think things through or talking to a friend. It involves using writing as a hotline to your truest knowing.

I first started keeping a journal in college and have maintained that practice for over thirty five years. Later as I became interested in creative writing I learned a technique called freewiting from a book by Peter Elbow called Writing Without Teacher. It involves writing without thinking for a set amount of time where you let the writing take you where it wants to go. This differs from journaling in that it involves an act of surrender and letting go of needing to figure it out with your conscious mind. In allowing words to flow onto paper as they emerge from your inner being in a spontaneous and heartfelt way you access a profound clarity and wisdom.

All you do is simply force yourself to write without stopping for ten minutes. If you get stuck you keep writing “Keep the pen moving” until you break free. To tap your inner knowing you can address your Higher Self or the source of the highest wisdom you can access with a question like "what do I need to know right now?" or "what is my deepest heart's desire" and then just let the pen take over. If you are really fast on the keyboard you can try it on the computer. When you are finished read it over as if it is a letter you have gotten in the mail. Pretend someone other than you wrote it. Be open and curious. You may also want to put it away for a couple of days and read it again. This allows you to be much more objective.

Wishing you a joyous, prosperous and wonderful New Year. - Suzanne


Suzanne teaches Writing Workshops & Teleclasses. She also offers individual writing coaching online or by phone and Weekend Writing Retreats in Yosemite and Writing Journeys to Ireland. For more information visit her web site at www.creativitygoeswild.com For more ideas about writing, creativity coaching and more check out her Blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog

KEEPING A JOURNAL CAN HELP YOUR WRITING

It’s easy to start. Get a bound blank book (you can even start with an inexpensive spiral notebook) and date your entries. Begin describing your surroundings, the current status of your life as well as your hopes, dreams, desires or questions. Write uncensored for at least ten minutes a day. Think of it as a conversation with yourself. Journaling has a meditative quality allowing you to slow down and really listen to your inner self. Keeping a journal can also help you to develop the habit of showing up for your creative work. As John Steinbeck said,“habit seems to be a much stronger force than either willpower or inspiration.” This is especially true for writers since journaling offers a more relaxed approach to facing the existential questions that arise when we face a blank page making easier to begin putting the words down. I’ve kept a journal for thirty years and usually begin my writing day with my journal as a warm up and a way of clearing away the preoccupations and concerns that may distract me from really engaging the creative process. Leonardo da Vinci carried a journal with him everywhere and was always writing down ideas and insights as they came to him.


JOURNALING/WRITING EXERCISE: This exercise can help you uncover your material. Take ten minutes to do “nothing”. Stare out of the window, lie down on the grass, or sit in a chair with your eyes closed. Breathe all the way down to the bottom of your lungs. As you continue breathing feel your creative juices rising to the surface from deep within your being. Then start writing to the prompt “I really want to write about. . .”


Suzanne teaches Writing Workshops & Teleclasses. She also offers individual writing coaching online or by phone and Weekend Writing Retreats in Yosemite and Writing Journeys to Ireland. For more information visit her web site at www.creativitygoeswild.com For more ideas about writing, creativity coaching and more check out her Blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog

POETIC HEALING

Several years ago I attended a week long retreat in a canyon on Navajoland in Arizona with poetry therapist John Fox, author of Poetic Medicine and Finding What You Didn't Lose. The trip was part of a longer personal journey to connect more deeply with the yearnings of my soul and to live and write from a deeper more authentic place. The combination of camping in the desert mixed with gathering in the safe and sacred space of a group using poetry, not in the traditional literary sense, but as a vehicle for healing had a profound effect. Grief I had been holding for decades from the loss of my mother when I was a teenager came to the surface to be healed. The deepest healing came as I wrote the following poem:

Mothered

At sixteen I bought my first bird book,
a small green hardback, whose binding I broke
turning countless times its pages of color,
striking orange and black of oriole,
the azure sea shade of bluebird, red ember
iridescence of hummingbird’s throat,
fluttering in my hands for nearly forty years.

The year birds entered my life was
the same year my mother left it.
The woman who carried my brother and me
deep into Nature. Camping under the sun
drizzled scent of redwoods, wandering
wave tossed tidepools at ocean’s edge.

She’d pack the blue 54 Ford station wagon
every summer, to journey into wildness,
the expanses of the American West
to take in its beauty, as if through skin.
Laying our young and tender bodies
on the land, connecting us thread
by invisible thread to the earth’s intricate web.

So when her heart suddenly stopped
that summer, I was away at biology camp
discovering birds, and she slipped from the world
long before I wanted to let her go. I remained
tethered to the Earth, cradled by the great mother,
and birds became messengers
dropping from the heavens
to lift my spirits on a thousand wings,
embracing me with their songs.

- Suzanne Murray

The first few drafts of the poem I wrote through tears and beyond helping to clear the archival grief I was carrying there was a great healing from being able to honor my mother for the gift she gave me in connecting me to Nature. Everyone on the trip whether they were skilled in the craft of poetry or not had a similar healing as we gathered together to witness each others words and experiences and share poems, both our own and the work of poets like Mary Oliver, Joy Harjo, Wendell Berry, Rumi, Hafiz, Naomi Shihab Nye and William Stafford who touch the human heart.

Like other forms of sacred writings, poetry is the language of the soul interfacing with a greater source of inspiration so that a good poem can stir us in ways our conscious mind may not always be aware of. We can feel the poem in our own body and soul and sense the power of the words taking us deeper into what really matters. Reading and writing poems certainly helps to anchor me in these changing times and it can inspired other forms of creativity as well.


Suzanne teaches Writing and Creativity Coaching Teleclasses and Individual Coaching. and Weekend Writing Retreats in Yosemite and Journeys to the West of Ireland. For more information visit her web site at www.creativitygoeswild.com For more ideas about writing, creativity coaching and more check out her Blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog

DANCING WITH YOUR IMAGINATION

Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge”. In my writing classes, I say “your imagination is smarter than you are.” Imagination is the way we access our deeper mind; the 95% or so that we don’t use in our ordinary lives. It is the place where you shed your ego, where sparks fly and time stands still. It requires a bit of solitude and idleness. It asks that you slow down and sit still with your mind clear and expectant.

WRITING EXERCISE: Sit quietly for five minutes following the flow of your breath and calming your mind. Then be open to what your imagination has to say to you. Do a ten minute freewrite as if you were taking dictation from your imagination. Or you could ask what it wants from you and then answer the question yourself in a freewrite where you let your mind run. The more you play with your imagination the easier it is to access it.


Suzanne offers Writing and Creativity Coaching, EFT for Creativity, Weekend Writing Retreats in Yosemite and Journeys to the West of Ireland. For more information visit her web site at www.creativitygoeswild.com For more ideas about writing, creativity coaching and more check out her Blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog

You don’t need to leave your room.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
Don’t even listen, simply wait.
Don’t even wait.
Be quite still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you.
To be unmasked, it has no choice.
It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

- Franz Kafka

ACCESSING CREATIVE INSPIRATION

When we stop the chattering of our minds, which is usually busy rehashing the past or worrying about the future, and relax into the silence of the moment we can begin to hear the soft voice of Spirit, the source of our creativity and inspiration. Picasso said that when he entered his studio to paint he "took off his ego the same way the Muslim takes off his shoes before entering a Mosque". He understood that in order to create, he needed to get his personality out of the way and let his Higher Self or Spirit work through him. This is true not only the more obvious forms of creativity, like writing, dance, or music, but for the whole of our lives. We have access through our intuition and our internal knowing to information that can help us to make the best decisions for ourselves and living a more fulfilling life.

Matthew Fox, the former Catholic Priest who was censured for espousing the doctrine of original sin, has written a beautiful book titled, Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet, where he suggests that when we are creative we become co-creators with creation. I clearly remember the first time in my writing when I got on a roll and knew I was writing something good. I paused and looked around the room, wondering "where is this coming from" because I knew it wasn't coming from "me". After a while I began to understand that I was tapping into an expanded state that I could access on a regular basis when I stopped thinking and let what wanted to come through me flow into the work.

In order to access our creativity and higher guidance we need to quiet our minds and learn listen to the more subtle messages of our body, heart and knowing that speak to us through intuition, our gut, our hunches that may not make any sense to our minds. As Matthew Fox said, "Creativity and imagination are not frosting on the cake: They are integral to our sustainability. They are survival mechanisms. They are the essence of who we are. They constitute our deepest empowerment."


Suzanne offers Writing, Creativity and Abundant Life Coaching, EFT for Creativity, and Journeys to the West of Ireland. For more information visit her web site at www.creativitygoeswild.com For more ideas about writing, creativity coaching and more check out her Blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog

I know many people are feeling a sense of overwhelm in the face of world events from the situation in Japan, the revolutions in the Middle East and all the Earth changes that seem to be speeding up. As the crises unfold we can feel stressed, anxious and fearful. In a recent interview on Blog Talk Radio I shared tools and strategies that can help us to adapt to the changes and move forward with grace focusing our attention on being more creative and building a positive future for our ourselves, our families, our communities and the larger world. I wanted to share this with the wacco community.


FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD

Accessing Divine Inspiration Interview with Suzanne Murray on Blog Talk Radio Show
The Voice of Change with Sharon Ann Wikoff

Knowing how to connect to your inner wisdom, guidance and higher sources of inspiration is profoundly important in these changing times. On this call we covered simple, powerful, practical techniques to help you tap in and access the expanded awareness of your heart, imagination and the higher guidance that is available to us all. Working with higher guidance can help us access our creative self, step forward into our gifts in service to the world that allow us to lead richer more fulfilling lives.

download link:
https://cdn5.blogtalkradio.com/show/...ow_1853701.mp3


Suzanne Murray is a Writing, Creativity and Abundant Life Coach, EFT Practitioner and Intuitive Healer offering individual coaching and online support. For more information visit her web site at www.creativitygoeswild.com For more ideas about writing, creativity coaching and more check out her Blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog

“. . .like the human child I am, I rush to imitate” - Mary Oliver


FINDING WRITERS WHOSE WORK YOU ADMIRE

I doubt that Herman Melville or Charles Dickens or Emily Dickinson ever took a writing workshop or read a book on how to write. They learned to write by reading the works of those who came before them. Pulitzer Prize winning poet Mary Oliver in her The Poetry Handbook advises that if you have to choose between reading and taking a workshop to pick reading. She suggests that you read widely and deeply. So do I. Read across the genres. Even if you don’t plan to write poetry, reading it can teach you a great deal about the power of individual words and the effective use of rhythm and cadence which can serve you in other forms.

EXERCISE: Go to the library or bookstore and find the section (fiction, poetry, essay, memoir) that most calls to you. Then read the first paragraph or stanza of fifty books. Then out of those fifty pick the three you like the best and read those books all the way through. Then out of the three pick the author whose work you get lost in and read everything they have ever written.

Suzanne Murray is a Writing, Creativity and Abundant Life Coach, EFT Practitioner and Intuitive Healer offering individual writing and creativity coaching and online support. For more information visit her web site at www.creativitygoeswild.com For more ideas about writing, creativity coaching and more check out her Blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog

The imagination is not interested in two-dimensional reductionism or naively pitting one side against another, dark against light. It is interested in the place where the two sides meet, and what they give birth to when they cross-fertilize each other. That is the heart of creativity. - John O’Donohue

What is imagination but a reflection of our yearning to belong to eternity as well as to time. - Stanley Kunitz


DANCING WITH YOUR IMAGINATION

Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge”. In my writing classes, I say “your imagination is smarter than you are.” Imagination is the way we access our deeper mind; the 95% or so that we don’t use in our ordinary lives. It is the place where you shed your ego, where sparks fly and time stands still. It requires a bit of solitude and idleness. It asks that you slow down and sit still with your mind clear and expectant.

WRITING EXERCISE: Sit quietly for five minutes following the flow of your breath and calming your mind. Then be open to what your imagination has to say to you. Do a ten minute freewrite as if you were taking dictation from your imagination. Or you could ask what it wants from you and then answer the question yourself in a freewrite where you let your mind run. The more you play with your imagination the easier it is to access it.

Suzanne Murray is a writing and creativity coaching with more that twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative essence. She offers individual coaching sessions and online support. Visit her website and blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain

Living Your Creative Potential
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What if your life where a blank piece of paper or a bare canvas? What new story would you write for yourself, what picture would you paint? What if each small step you take toward what you really desire is like a brush stroke on the canvas where you are creating that life? What life do you want to create for your self? What creation do you want to live into?

Questions can really open us up to all that is possible. Questions like: what else is possible, what would it take to change this situation, or if I had a magic wand I would. . . act as an invitation to the bigger part of our mind or perhaps even to universal intelligence.

I recently heard that your eyes/brain process 10 million bits of information a second and our conscious mind is aware of only 40 of those bits. This fits with the research that shows that our subconscious mind represents about 95% of our mind and our conscious mind making up the remaining 5%. I think being creative in any way is really about learning to work with our bigger, more powerful mind and higher inspiration that is able to draw on all the knowledge and knowing that our subconscious/unconscious mind.

As someone who has worked with various forms of creativity for most of my life I am quite accustomed to giving the seed of an idea over to my subconscious or divine inspiration and letting that part of me that I don't really understand come up with fresh connections and perspectives. That's how I am writing even this newsletter. I work on it for a bit then leave it alone while I work on something else and I have a vague sense that my bigger mind is weaving the threads of different ideas and images into a coherent whole. Even before I start writing a newsletter, I ask the question, What's the subject for this month and see what comes to me as I go about my day. I rely on higher inspiration for everything and questions are my point of access.

The key to working with questions is to ask and then let them go knowing that the answer will show up. Don't try to figure out it in your head but rather start paying attention to, the bright idea that just pops into your head , the sign, the hunch, the intuition, the sense of what to do that often shows up in a way that surprises us. I know you have all had the experience of trying to solve a problem with your conscious mind and after a few unsuccessful hours, you get up from your desk, get into your car, drive home and as you are pulling up to your house the solution just comes to you as an ah...ha moment. That's your bigger mind at work on the problem you asked it to solve and in letting in go on the drive home you gave your subconscious mind the space to deliver the answer.

Often we are so caught up in the busyness of our daily lives that we don't take the time to imagine what actually might be possible for us. Questions are wonderful tool for expanding your world and helping you to access more of your creative potential in every area of your life. The more you play with asking questions and looking out for the answers the more you strengthen your ability receive and trust what shows up. Play with it, be curious, have fun. In this changing world we all need to living and working from an expanded sense of who we are. Questions can help.

WRITING EXERCISE: What questions can you ask about your writing whether it's about the actual practice like "what needs to change in order for me to show up more for my writing?" or about the craft like "what do I need to know to be a better poet?" or "how can I write better dialogue?". Then relax and see what shows up. It could be a book, a class as well as a bright idea.

Suzanne Murray is a writing and creativity coach with more that twenty years of experience in helping others to learn to write and access their creative essence. She offers individual coaching sessions and online support. Visit her website and blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com or check out her September special for writing coaching www.creativitygoeswild.com/writing-coaching

Well, you’re right in the work, you lose your sense of time, you’re completely enraptured, you’re completely caught up in what you’re doing, and you’re sort of swayed by the possibilities you see in this work. . . .The idea is to be. . .so saturated with it that there’s no future or past, it’s just an extended present in which you’re making meaning. - Mark Strand, poet

The thoughts that come to you are more valuable than the ones you seek. – Joubert

CREATIVITY: BEING PART OF CREATION

Some years ago I read a wonderful book by Matthew Fox, titled, Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet. In this book Fox, a former Catholic priest who had been censured by the Church for putting forth a doctrine of original blessing as opposed to original sin, suggests that when we are creative we become co-creators with creation. I had been involved in creativity for a long time by I read his book; first with dance and photography and then a couple of decades spent writing so I knew immediately the truth of what he was saying. I remember the first time I really got on a roll with my writing and I knew that something good was coming out of my pen, I actually stopped and looked around the room to see where it was coming from because I knew it wasn’t exactly coming from me. Since then I’ve come to the sense that it’s Spirit or my Higher Self working through me and I’ve been able to integrate working with these mysterious forces as I write.

In fact, the word Muse has its origins in being intiated into the mysteries. And its important to understand that this connection is available to everyone not just a select few who are somehow born with this special gift. It is also not restricted to the arts. The gift of creativity is woven deep into our being. Everytime we solve a problem we didn’t “think” we could solve we are drawing on this invisible resource. We experience it in cooking, gardening, decorating our homes, raising our children, healing, teaching and business when we get the inspiration to do something in a new and expanded way. When we tap into this ability it feels great, it feels divine. Regardless of where this creative inspiration comes from I’ve found that the more I show up to the practice of writing or anything else, the more I have a feel for working with this creative flow. It’s like a muscle that gets stronger with use.
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Joan King, a neuroscientist who has studied brain activity describes in her book Cellular Wisdom, “While such brainstorming [found in creative flow] is occurring, more and more neurons and neural pathways are being activated in the neural net. Consciousness acts like a spotlight, shining here and there, making connections, illuminating thought and memories, trying out possible solutions. As the process continues, more and more neurons are recruited, activating more of the great intermediate [neural] net.” The key here is to stop thinking with your linear mind and let the creative imagination really run. Our “small” linear mind has to get out of the way to let the “big” mind make its leaps and forge its connections.

Consider all the ways you are already being creative and what it feels like. Is there a sense of excitement and expansion when you exercise your creativity?. What would it takes for you to build more muscle in this area? I think the changes and challenges in the world today are actually calling forth this ability in each of us. They are asking us to embody our creativity in every area of our lives and in our contributions to the world. The beauty is that creation is waiting to help. We just need to show up, let go and step into the flow of being a co-creator. Our willingess is our invitation.

Suzanne Murray is a writing, creativity and life purpose coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to learn to write and access their creative essence. She offers individual coaching sessions and online support. Visit her website and blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com and check out her Winter specials for writing and creativity coaching.

The instant trivial as it is
is all we have, unless. . .unless
things the imagination feeds upon
the scent of a rose, startle us anew.

-William Carlos Williams

Coming to Your Senses

When I started to work on this piece I had originally intended that the title “Coming to Your Senses” would refer to how important actively using all our senses (sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste) is in engaging our creativity and imagination and accessing inspiration for our lives.

Then I flashed on the fact that the phrase is also an idiom that refers to someone who has been doing something that is clearly a mistake and finally realizes it and begins to act more in alignment with what is right for them. This has me wondering about the origins of the expression and the true value of really occupying our senses. Jean Houston, one of the founders of the human consciousness movement suggests, “that enhanced human capacities begin with what we generally think of as our most concrete reality, our own body.” And opening more fully to experience all our senses can help us inhabit our bodies and the knowing, wisdom and “gut instincts” that it holds for us.

People who are highly creative have a vivid sense memory. Memory of things we delight in can actually help us develop our senses. Remember biting into a ripe, juicy peach with the juices running sticky down your chin. You can do this for all your senses. This exercises your imagination as well.

For many the use of their senses has largely atrophied. Western culture especially values concepts and ideas over direct sensory experience. I was lucky enough to grow up within sight, sound and scent of the sea and throughout my childhood we often went camping so I developed a closeness to the natural world where opening your senses to fully experience the world is a delight.

So spending time in Nature, enjoying a good meal or taking a hot scented bath can really help you more fully embody your senses which in turn gives you access to your creative gifts and more of your full potential.

Here's a poem that came out of engaging my senses in an experience in the world.

Spiritual Practice

A flock of bluebirds flutter
across a fallow field,

their cheerful chirps
ring the air like a temple bell,

calling me out
of my thought-churned mind,

their azure-blue backs
burnt-orange bellies,

holding me,
in the moment.

- Suzanne Murray


Suzanne Murray is a writing, creativity and life purpose coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to learn to write and access their creative essence. She offers individual creativity and writing coaching sessions and online support that can really transform your relationship to your creativity. Visit her website and blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com and check out her Spring specials for writing and creativity coaching.

Be Here Now - Ram Dass

Boredom is a sign that you are not being present. - Eckhart Tolle

CREATING IN THE MOMENT

As we move more into 2012, I find myself really called on a deep level to live in the moment; letting go of all worry about the future or regret about the past and to trust. Mystics have long encouraged us to be present to each moment, each breath. And now quantum physics tells us that in the moment exists all of time: past, present and future. This explains why the moment or the Now is the only place we are able to create anything, a book, a painting, a solar panel, our life. This is where are are able to create a new world for ourselves on both a personal and global level. The more you practice being in the moment the easier it is to create. Our breath is a greatest tool since it calms our mind and relaxes our body which makes it easier to be present to what is. If we are worried about the future we can take a deep breath and ask is everything okay in the Now. The answer almost always is yes. When we calm our mind we have greater access to the guidance and wisdom of our own deeper knowing and inspiration can flow in.

My two greatest teacher for living in the moment have been creativity and Nature. What I have always loved about being creative is that it automatically makes you present to the moment and something greater than your everyday self. Whether I am dancing, doing photography, singing or writing there is a joy and satisfaction that arises out of showing up and being present to what wants to happen. When you hit the zone or the flow it feels so good. It feels Divine. I have a similar feeling in Nature where everything, rock, plant and animal is clearly in the Now being the essence of what they are meant to be. This helps me to just be.

Like many of you I've have done a lot of personal growth and healing work seeking to transform old patterns into new more satisfying and abundant ways of being with myself and the world. Recently I've felt a real shift in this and have come to the realization that there is nothing to fix. That nothing is wrong. If I embrace and accept everything in the moment free of judgment then things naturally shift and I am more open to new possibilities. Experiences that I deemed challenging are from the vantage point of the moment the experiences my soul needed in order to reach this point of understanding. When we live in the moment we have access to the wisdom and intuition that comes from our hearts.

A few days ago when my mind started to run away with me and the tools I usually use to calm the flame of worry didn't seem to be working I was guided to simply stop take a few deep breathes, drop into my heart, and claimed being in the moment. Peace immediately washed over me and clear sense of the next right action to take came to me.

We think we have to think through problems, that we have to figure everything out with our minds. Instead if we connect to our own inspiration and guidance in the moment we allow solutions to come intuitively and we experience synchronicities and miracles, little and big. In truth, the moment is the only place we can connect to higher wisdom and knowing. This is true for our creative projects as well as the course of our lives where we find ourselves living in the flow. This can help us be more actively creative on a daily basis.

Suzanne Murray is a writing, creativity and transformation coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to learn to write and access their creative essence. She offers individual creativity and writing coaching sessions and online support that can really transform your relationship to your creativity. Visit my website and blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com and check out mySpring specials for writing and creativity coaching.

The Problem with Comparisons

So, is it possible to live without comparison of any kind, never translating yourself in terms of comparison with another or with some idea or with some hero or with some example? Because when you are comparing, when you are measuring yourself with 'what should be' or 'what has been,' you are not seeing what is. - J. Krishnamurti

Comparisons are odious. - Oscar Wilde

Most of us learned from an early age to compare ourselves to others. Competition and comparison are everywhere, in our schools and colleges, in our neighborhoods, in business and the workplace, in the media, in advertising and even among friends and family. Irish philosopher John O'Donohue called advertising “schooling in false desire”. We start to develop an identity based on outer influences and we feel compelled to gauge ourselves against another.

I see it in the writing and creativity coaching workshops I do. It's quite common in a writing workshop for people to compare their own work to others and they always feel that their work inferior. Then they share a piece that we all enjoy. Our creativity is the unique expression of ourselves and that will always touch others.

As Martha Graham, the mother of modern dance, said, "There is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost.” Have you considered how unique you are? What gifts, talents and abilities lead you to the unique expression of you? If you tap into the knowing of your heart, you can reacquaint yourself with your uniqueness. Our heart is the seat of our unique expression or gifts that we can offer to this world. Rather than comparison our heart can help us celebrate our uniqueness.

Suzanne Murray is a writing, creativity and transformation coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to learn to write and access their creative essence. She offers individual creativity and writing coaching sessions that can really transform your relationship to your creativity. Visit my website and blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com and check out my The Heart of Writing Teleclass with online coaching support at https://creativitygoeswild.com/teleclasses/

If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play. - John Cleese

Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning. - Diane Ackerman

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct. - Carl Jung

THE POWER OF PLAY

Recently in working with both creativity and writing coaching clients I've found that the key element in getting them out of the doldrums or a sense of being stuck or not being sure where to go with their work is play. Play gets us out of the mind's need for doing and it's focus on product and puts us in the place of being and enjoying the process. Since creativity comes out of the alchemy of subconscious working in union with the mysteries, play is essential in accessing expanded states of awareness and putting us back into the flow.

This is true not just for art and creative expression but innovation and discoveries in science and technology. I always really enjoyed the books written for popular audiences by Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynman that illuminated the way he thought and made his remarkable discoveries. One of the founders of theory of quantum physics. Feynman had an IQ of around 123 which is above average but not close to the genius he was considered to be. He described his process that lead to his astonishing discoveries as "noodling around", his term for play. He was passionate about the subject and he would just play with different ideas and vantage points and let his mind run with the possibilities.

Ultimately when we engage in creative play in any endeavor it feels good.. Bright ideas, insights and inspiration stream in, time slows down so that hours feels like minutes and we are infused with a feeling of well being. On top of that play encourages variation and doing things in new ways actually builds new neural pathways in the brain which expands our ability to be creative.

Exercise: So ask yourself, what can I do to add more play to my life and see what ideas pop into your mind as you go about your day. You can also do this as a writing exercise where you ask that naturally playful part of yourself this question and then use freewriting for ten minutes (where you write a tad faster than you think) to let an answer come through the pen on to the page. And then have fun!

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative essence. She offers individual creativity and writing coaching packages https://creativitygoeswild.com/writing-coaching/ as well as Weekend Retreats in Yosemite https://creativitygoeswild.com/yosemite-retreats/

The Value of Writing Practice

The act of showing up to writing as a daily practice has enrich my life in countless ways. As Annie Lamott says in the introduction to her book bird by bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, “Writing has so much to give, so much to reach so many surprises. That thing you have to force yourself to do – the actual act of writing – turns out to be the best part.” I agree completely. Through my writing practice I understand more about how I think and how I see of the world; I more readily see the value and meaning of my life as I gain deeper insight to the stories and ideas that are important to me; and I strengthen my ability to tap the inspiration, intuition and imagination of the creative spirit not only in my writing but the rest of my life. This awareness and approach has allowed me to fall in love with the process which after three decades remains fresh and in my willingness to play with the process I have been able to finely hone the craft of writing as well.

Try this: Here's a fun prompt to play with. The solution was rain, the problem was ___________.
Really let your creative mind run wherever it wants to go.


Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative essence. She offers individual creativity and writing coaching packages https://creativitygoeswild.com/writing-coaching/ as well as Weekend Retreats in Yosemite using writing to connect to Nature and Our Inner Wisdom https://creativitygoeswild.com/yosemite-retreats

I don't know exactly what a prayer is but I do know how to pay attention. - Mary Oliver

THE WONDER OF PAYING ATTENTION

I have been spending time in the village of Doolin, County Clare, Ireland. The area is rich in beauty. The pale gray limestone rock slabs of the unique biological area called the Burren comes down into Doolin as a slender finger that runs right along the sea; a wild shore exposed to the full force of the Atlantic. Just to the south the rock turns to dark gray shale and slate that form the Cliffs of Moher, one of Ireland's scenic wonders. I have been here many times as I have to the spectacular Sonoma Coast near to where I live in California. I am struck by the way these amazingly beautiful places can become so familiar that we loose our sense of wonder for their magnificence. This happens too with the people we love and the world around us.

My first trip to this part of Ireland I gasped as the beauty. It literally took my breath. Now I walked here countless times I find I have to be quite mindful of appreciating where I am and focusing on really looking and seeing it fresh each time rather than letting myself self into the fog of the familiar.

Recently I was walking down the lane on my way to visit a friend who lives here. He saw me approaching with my head down and shouted out to me, "look up, look out to the horizon, it will help you stay in the Now. You look down and that mind of yours takes over taking you out of the moment for sure." I laughed as he cajoled me into the moment and appreciated the wisdom of the advice. So I started practicing looking ahead and really seeing the beauty anew each time I walk out. The glimmer of light slipping through the clouds sparkling the water, the astonishing green of the hills, the cows so full of curiosity. My friend's comment reminded me of Aldous Huxley's futuristic novel Island where parrots flew from tree to tree crying out "Here now, pay attention." to call the people back into the moment.

Part of the gift of being creative is that it becomes a practice of being present to what is and seeing the world and our creations more fully in the moment and celebrating the world around us. What ways can you find to pay attention and see your everyday world around you as if for the first time and express that creatively?


Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative essence. She offers individual creativity and writing coaching packages https://creativitygoeswild.com/writing-coaching/ as well as Weekend Retreats in Yosemite using writing to connect to Nature and Our Inner Wisdom https://creativitygoeswild.com/yosemite-retreats

Creating in the Middle of Things

I had the privilege of taking a workshop from noted American poet William Stafford not long before he died. Stafford wrote a poem a day for most of his adult life. He would rise at four in the morning, make his tea and toast, then sit on the sofa in the living room and write a poem. By the time his wife and children were up he felt as if he had done his day’s work. He would then go off to his job of teaching writing to at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. He would give his students the assignment to write a poem a day. When they began to whine and moan that that was too difficult, he would respond “lower your standards”. By lowering his standards he was awarded the National Book Award; appointed U.S. Poet Laureate and Poet Laureate of Oregon; received a Guggenheim Fellowship; and was a beloved teacher and workshop leader. He kept a daily journal for 50 years, and composed nearly 22,000 poems, of which roughly 3,000 were published. Of his work he once said in an interview: “I keep following this sort of hidden river of my life, you know, whatever the topic or impulse which comes, I follow it along trustingly. And I don’t have any sense of its coming to a kind of crescendo, or of its petering out either. It is just going steadily along.”

In order to show up for our creativity or the work of our life I think it helps to lower our standards on what we can accomplish on a daily basis while still keeping our focus on what we ultimately desire or want to achieve. Develop the practice of showing up everyday and taking some action, however small, toward your goal. If you are a writer be happy that you have drafted a poem or a page. You can start by showing up for 15 minutes rather than thinking you have to find two hours of free time before you begin. If you are moving toward a new career or expanding your work be happy that you have made one phone call to connect with someone you might be able to help you. By taking one small step a day you can cover a lot of ground and it has the added advantage of allowing you to sneak in under the radar of the part of you that is resistant to change. Carve moments out of your day for doing what brings you heart and meaning or gives you a sense of momentum. I carry copies of the poems or essays I am working on revising with me wherever I go and pull them out while I’m waiting to have my car’s oil changed or early for an appointment. By learning to do our creative work in the middle of things we infuse our daily life with the meaning and satisfaction that comes from nourishing our soul.

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative essence. She offers individual creativity and writing coaching packages https://creativitygoeswild.com/writing-coaching/ as well as Weekend Retreats in Yosemite Traveling by Train using writing to connect to Nature and Our Inner Wisdom. Find fall trips dates and details at https://creativitygoeswild.com/yosemite-retreats

Good News on Creative Frustration

I've been reading a really interesting book titled Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehner. The book explores the neuroscience behind creativity and affirms what I have long insisted that creativity is capacity we are all born with. It is part of the natural workings of our brains, though it is something we have to learn to use, exercise and work at.

Lehner tells the fascinating story of Bob Dylan, who in 1965, already a folk music icon with songs like Blowing in the Wind and The Times They Are A Changing to his name, decides after a grueling four month tour that he is done with singing and songwriting. He is sick of his music and the expectations that being in the spotlight have placed on him. He told his manager he was done and meant it. He rode his motorcycle to his cabin in Woodstock, New York and didn't even bring his guitar.

The book goes on to consider what can happen in the brain when we are faced with creative frustration. We tend to fail to recognize that the frustration that pushes us to stop, let go and feel hopeless can be part of the creative process, can lead to revelation and rebirth. When we are stumped and let go a part of us can be quietly rummaging through the creative part of our mind, our right hemisphere, looking to give birth to something new.

After a few days alone in his cabin, relieved to the need to write another song, thinking he was going to start work on a novel, Dylan felt as Lehner describes it "the tickle of lyrics that needed to written down", something that needed to be said. Once he began he wrote a song twenty pages long unlike anything he had ever done and he had the awareness that this is what he needed to being doing. The lyrics didn't make sense. Dylan said it felt like they were being written by a "ghost" and all he needed to do was get out of the way.

Lehner suggests that "the ghost" was the right hemisphere of Dylan's brain pulling together the threads connecting the diversity and richness of all of Dylan's many influences and weaving them into something new. The song begun in Woodstock and recorded July 15, 1965 was Like A Rolling Stone. It revolutionized rock and roll.

Like A Rolling Stone has always been one of my favorite songs and it moves me still to listen to it, so I was especially intrigued and amazed by Dylan's story which serves as a fantastic reminder that frustration, hitting the wall and letting go can be an important part of the creative process. It creates an awareness of the importance of listening to the "ticklings" of our heart and soul and right hemisphere of brain after we have let go. It inspires me knowing I can have a new relationship with the times I feel in my own creativity that I am not going anywhere. And I like to think that creativity includes everything including the way we live and create our lives so that I can look at frustration in a whole new way.

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative essence. She offers individual creativity and writing coaching packages https://creativitygoeswild.com/writing-coaching/ as well as Weekend Retreats in Yosemite Traveling by Train using writing to connect to Nature and Our Inner Wisdom. Find spring trips dates and details at https://creativitygoeswild.com/yosemite-retreats

Shaking Things Up with Your Creativity

One of the things I suggest to all my creativity coaching clients is to shake things up. Break out of the routine. I tell them to eat new foods, drive to work a different way, put their clothes on in the morning in a different order and go somewhere they have never been before.

Our thoughts, our linear mind, are tied to the familiar, to what we already know. Yet our brain has the capacity to entertain infinite possibilities. Part of being creative is learning to use more of our brain and access our ability to make connections in new ways.

Yet when we do everything the same way day after day we create habit patterns that build neural ruts in our brains, so those become our default way of being, acting and doing things in the world. We become numb to the possibility of the new and find it difficult to change our ways even when we think we really want to.

One thing that can really open us up is travel, a change of scene. The experience of another culture or even a different region of our own country or state helps us open our minds and create an awareness that there is more than one way of being or doing things, which in turn can open us to a fresh perspective from which we can create something new. Researchers at the Kellogg School of Management have found that students who lived abroad for an extended period of time were much more likely to solve a difficult creative problem than student who have never been out of their home country.

When we get home from a trip, whether it’s a vacation out of the country or just somewhere different for the weekend, home may still be the same but something within us has shifted leaving us open to new ways of seeing and doing things.

You can also shake things up creatively by working with a new form. If you’re a writer, get a box of crayons and just play with colors and shape. If you’re a painter, read some poetry. If you’re a dance visit an art museum. The more we open to the world of expanded possibilities, the more we awaken to our creative potential.


Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative essence. She offers individual creativity and writing coaching packages https://creativitygoeswild.com/writing-coaching/ as well as Weekend Retreats in Yosemite Traveling by Train using writing to connect to Nature and Our Inner Wisdom. Find fall 2013 trips dates and details at https://creativitygoeswild.com/yosemite-retreats

Are You Feeling Resistance to Expressing Your Creativity?

Note: With the New Year approaching I wanted to offer this to the community in support of embracing our creative selves in 2014:waccosun::heart:

Recently I got a note from one of my writing students saying that she was really enjoying writing when she managed to find the time. The three top reasons that people give for not being able to fully show up, move forward or change some area of their life are, “I don’t have enough time, I don’t have enough money or My health isn’t good enough.” On the surface these excuses appear valid and hard to argue with. In truth they always cover up some deeper resistance. When we really want to do something and commit to it we can always manage to find the time, the resources and a way to work around any physical limitations.

Robert Olen Butler who won the Pulitzer Prize for his collection of short stories A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain worked full time and had a difficult home life so he wrote everyday on the train computing into New York City. J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, was a single mother struggling on state aid in Edinburgh Scotland where she sat everyday in a local cafe writing the first book in the series that would turn her into a multi-millionaire. These stories point to the reality that you don’t have to have everything together or know exactly what you are doing or how you are going to make something work to begin whatever it is you want to create. Beginning opens you up to new possibilities.

With my writing coaching clients I start them out with a commitment to write a minimum of ten minutes a day. It would seem like everyone could find ten minutes, but if there are some unconscious beliefs and fears around expressing yourself or being creative then you will put it off until the end of the day and then say you are too tired. This is what resistance looks like.

If you are having trouble showing up to your writing, painting, music or exploring your creativity in some way, stop and get quiet. Take some deep breaths. Ask your deeper or higher self what’s in the way. Then just see what comes to you. It may be a memory of your third grade teacher humiliating you in front of the class by criticizing a drawing you did or your father’s refusal to let you take the dance class you so much wanted.

Such events really can impact the tender, vulnerable, innocent part of us that is our creative self and years later have us not wanting to risk being creative. If something comes up for you honor your feelings around it. If you feel sad or angry feel those feelings as a way of allowing them to shift and release their hold on you. Then send love to that part of you. Becoming aware of what’s in the way of your desire to create and being mindful and patience and kind with your self will help you cross new thresholds into being creative and finding time to show up.


Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative essence. She offers individual creativity and writing coaching packages and creativity retreats in Yosemite and Ireland. For all offering check out https://creativitygoeswild.com as well as her extensive blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog

Create, Create, Create!:waccosun::heart:

When I asked my inner knowing and wisdom for guidance on moving forward in the new year all she keeps saying to me was create, create, create. I got the image of confetti being thrown into the air in celebration of the creative potential of us all. I got it's time to leave behind the beliefs that limit us and embrace the creative beings we truly are in whatever form that calls to us.

So I asked my muse for specifics. What should I create? The answers didn't come all at once. Generally they came as flashes of insight while I was out on my daily walk that puts me in a meditative state where an idea arrives that excites and energizes me. Then I know I'm on to something. One idea involved putting together an ebook for my writing students and clients based on my workshops to support them in engaging the process on their own. I also got the idea for doing the same for creativity coaching and to do more focusing on Nature and Creativity in Yosemite and other places I am exploring.

Beyond that I got that we all need to be willing to be surprised. That we need to open up in new ways. We tend to limit our creations, whether in the realm of creative expression or in creating our lives, to what we already know or to a variation on what we have already done. We also limit ourselves by thinking we need to figure out "the how" of whatever we are inspired to create rather than trusting and allowing the universe to support and guide up step by step.

At this pivotal time in human history opening up to truly new ideas and possibilities is essential. As Einstein noted, "We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them." So here are some questions to ask. Can we allow ourselves new thoughts? Can we start to see ourselves differently? Can we see ourselves as capable of more than we have imagined up until this point?

I am asking myself these same questions aware that there is a seed within me and all of us wanting to emerge. We don't have to go looking for our creations, they live inside us in the dark womb of our soul and imagination. We have to learn to let them grow, leaf out and blossom.


Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative essence. Upcoming Yosemite Retreat - Waterfalls, Wildflowers & Wonder details bit.ly/1kSApoL For all offerings check out https://creativitygoeswild.com as well as her extensive blog at www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog

Greeting Wacco Community:waccosun:

I just did an interview on The Heart of Writing with Sharon Ann Wikoff on her Blog Talk radio show The Voice of Change. It's available as a free mp3 download or you can listen online. In the interview I share insights, ideas and wisdom on the writing process based on my more than twenty years of teaching writing. Whether you want to writing a novel, a memoir, poems or a blog for our website the writing and creative process is the same. Falling in love with the writing process has enriched my life in countless ways. I explain the possibilities for everyone in the interview. I wanted to share it with you.:heart: Here's the link to the recording https://bit.ly/1d87N8Q


Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative fire. Upcoming Yosemite Retreat in April - Waterfalls, Wildflowers & Wonder details bit.ly/1kSApoL and she has written a book The Heart of Writing eBook based on her writing workshops. Check it out https://bit.ly/1ctY6M8 For all offerings check out her website https://creativitygoeswild.com

Understanding The Nature of Poetry

I was accomplished at writing essays before I started to write poems. As I ventured into writing in a new form it took me a while to figure out that poems were more than very short essays. I had to learn the rules of punctuation and line breaks and the music the words could make. It wasn’t until I read poet Donald Hall's essay on writing poetry titled Poetry: The Unsayable Said that I really understood the power of poetry.

His advice was “if you can say it any other way, don’t write poetry.” As my own experience of writing poetry deepened I began to grasp that poetry was the numinous expressing itself through words. More than in any other written form the poet has to surrender to what wants wants to come through. Poetry gives voice to the ineffable, that which is difficult to describe. Poems capture the feeling or soul of the experience. Once I really understood that my poems got a lot better.

Here's a poem of mine I wanted to share to celebrate the coming of spring. It was inspired by an awareness that kept tugging at my imagination. I then had to let myself be surprised by where the spirit of the poem wanted to take me. This is part of the magic and joy of writing poetry.


Spring

Loons drift across the bay
slowly dressing for summer, turning
winter's drab gray into the elegant
black and white of attraction.

Oaks unfurl their green brilliance,
and the melodies of warblers
crisscross the branches
coloring the forest with song.

Still, it is only when the swallows
suddenly appear, looping wildly in a clear sky,
that spring finally opens within me,
as if they have carried the season north.

- Suzanne Murray


Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative fire. She has written a book The Heart of Writing based on her writing workshops. It's available as an ebook https://bit.ly/1ctY6M8 For all offerings check out her website https://creativitygoeswild.com

Writing a Poem

I thought I'd share with you my experience of what it feels like to write a poem so that you can learn to tap this place as you write:

It all begins in the miracle of the moment, a sunset, a bird in flight, the song of a river, each giving birth to the poem that winds a thread deep into the subconscious, weaving unexpected images tied neatly together tugging the heart strings of the reader. That is the magic and music of verse.

I start out with a flock of snow geese on a cold morning and my mind goes super nova, expanding like the universe, the awareness of the Oneness of all things undeniable. The dreamer, dreaming the dream. The scene finds its way to a satisfying conclusion. To write a poem you have to trust what wants to be born, you have to let spirit move through you, you have to surrender to, in the words of Nobel prize winning poet Seamus Heaney, "a moment of lift, of joy, of unexpected reward".

Here's a poem that came to me that way.

Snow Geese

Rising before dawn, we wait
in winter’s sharp cold
for the sun to climb crimson
out of the valley floor, stirring

a white froth of feathers. Ascending
in waves, one hundred thousand
lift from the marshes, their warbling
and wings a roaring ocean of sound.


Flying in long loops, they vibrate
like excited electrons spun off
the first explosion
that sent planet, asteroid, stardust

swirling in an expanding spiral.
We stand fourteen billion years later,
amid an orbiting flurry of life,
aware of this wonder of Being.

- Suzanne Murray


Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative fire. She has written a book The Heart of Writing based on her writing workshops. It's available as an ebook https://bit.ly/1ctY6M8 For all offerings check out her website https://creativitygoeswild.com

PLAYING WITH HAIKU

Lately, I've been playing with Haiku; a form of poetry originating in Japan in the 16th century. A traditional Japanese haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count. It often focuses on images from nature and emphasizes simplicity, intensity, and directness of expression.

The form was mastered in the 17th century by Matsuo Basho. Here are two of his I particularly enjoy:

A wild sea-
In the distance over Sado
The Milky Way.

Wrapping dumplings in
bamboo leaves, with one finer
she tidies her hair.

Over time the form has evolved and the rules -- including the 5/7/5 syllable structure -- have often been broken. Yet the essence of haiku remains the same. The focus is on a brief moment in time; offering vivid, colorful images and a sense of expansion, insight or illumination.

I've always felt, as Shakespeare so brilliantly said, that "brevity is the soul of wit". Writing Haiku gives you a chance to really distill the essence of a moment in time and how it touches you on the deeper level of your heart and soul.

Here's one of mine

A single bird's call
opens our heart to the Universe
awakens our Oneness.

Plus if you want to try instant publication - it's perfectly suited to the 140 character limits of Twitter. I'm having fun with this and I thought you might too.

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative fire. She has written a book The Heart of Writing based on her writing workshops. It's available as an ebook https://bit.ly/1ctY6M8 Plus dates are set for the next Yosemite Retreat October 24 to 26, 2014 For all offerings check out her website https://creativitygoeswild.com

CREATIVE PLAY

Lately I’ve been writing at least one haiku poem a day - the Japanese form of three lines of 5/7/5 syllables. I’ve been doing it first thing and then posting it on Twitter, not waiting to revise or get it exactly right. I’ve just been playing with putting it out there and having fun. With more than thirty years of writing experience with essays and poetry I’ve always been exacting in crafting my work. There is great satisfaction in getting a piece exactly the way it wants to take shape. Yet I am also now enjoying relaxing and finding a sense of play with the quick word sketches.

Our brains, our soul, and our inner child need creative play time. Whether we consider ourselves to be creative we are all hungry to express ourselves in this way. It’s a deep human need on the level of our heart and soul. Creative play is one of the ways we can reclaim our joy and nurture not only ourselves but the world. It opens up more of our brains and capacities and exercises our imagination.

Whether it’s trying a haiku poem or picking up an instrument we may or may not know how to play and exploring the sounds we can make or getting messy with an art project like finger painting or working with clay, the child that we once were still lives inside us and remembers how to play in this way if we let her.

Even if you don’t think of yourself as creative that’s just a story that you bought into somewhere along the way. Everyone is creative in their own unique way. Playing can help you find and express it. So go buy a pack of crayons or watercolors. Sing in the shower or the car. Suspend the voice of the inner critic. Feel the joy that lives at the heart of creative play.

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative fire. She has written a book The Heart of Writing based on her writing workshops. It's available as an ebook https://bit.ly/1ctY6M8 Plus dates are set for the next Yosemite Retreat October 24 to 26, 2014 For all offerings check out her website https://creativitygoeswild.com

I've been a fan of haiku ever since, many years ago, I read a book of haiku by the great masters Basho, Buson and Issa on acid. I would recommend that.

I once read about a guy who studied haiku with a Japanese haiku master. He wrote haiku every day for 3 years before he finally produced one that the master deemed acceptable.

That seems awfully stringent to me! I suspect that the master's criteria for judging the haiku were very subjective. I'd love to see a study of inter-rater reliability in judgments of haiku. I bet it'd be low.

Back in the 90s I spoke at a meeting of the San Francisco General Semantics organization. They gave me a couple issues of their magazine; I think it was called Et Cetera. Therein was an interesting article that taught me something about haiku. It said that properly written haiku comprises only sensory description. There is no abstraction, no interpretation, no generalizing, no philosophizing, no "spiritual" talk--just sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile experiences. Looking over the works of the great haiku writers, I found that this was true. That one principle forever changed my approach to haiku.

Edit: Looking over some of Issa's and Basho's haiku for the first time in quite awhile, I notice occasional slight departures from the rule I cite above--a generalization here, an expression of a feeling there. Just thought I'd mention that for the sake of accuracy.

CREATIVITY AND NATURE

When I received the inspiration for the name of my business Creativity Goes Wild I was on a modern day vision quest with Bill Plotkin in an extraordinary canyon in southern Utah that allowed me to really open to the flow of new ideas. Along with the name, I also got that the essence of the work included three different elements: Nature, creativity and the soul which are aspects we can connect to that can really help us live full and authentic lives.

I have long thought of nature as the original artist. If you spend any time in nature and pay close attention, you become aware of the beauty and design and patterns in both small things like the symmetry in pine cones and snowflakes or on a grander scale the patterns in the erosion of mountains or the movement of clouds across the sky.

At first glance nature might look chaotic or random or disordered but the more you observe and learn about the natural world the more you become aware of the elegance of design in every creation. We can draw inspiration for our own creativity from spending time in Nature, the same way we feel inspired by visiting an art exhibit, going to a play or watching a good movie.

Spending time in nature actually slows down our brain waves, taking us from the beta waves where our mind attends to daily activities into alpha waves which offer a naturally meditative state where we access the part of our mind that has new thoughts and ideas, flashes of insight, and more readily makes connections. This can help us with the essence of the creative impulse and process.

Whenever I find myself stuck on a creative project I will go for a walk in nature and it always opens me back up to the flow. Or if I am looking for a place to begin a creative work I will plant the seed in my subconscious mind and then go to nature, not to think about it, but to allow the inspiration to rise to the surface of my mind.

Try it. Whether you like to sit in the garden or go for a walk among the trees, see if you don't find that connecting to nature doesn't open you up to new ideas and possibilities. Also you can create in nature. Take a notebook and try writing or drawing in nature opening your senses to all that is around you and allow it to feed your creativity.

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative fire. She has written a book The Heart of Writing based on her writing workshops. It's available as an ebook https://bit.ly/1ctY6M8 Plus dates are set for the next Yosemite Retreat October 24 to 26, 2014 For all offerings check out her website https://creativitygoeswild.com

LIVING LIKE POETRY

I recently found this wonderful poem by noted American poet William Stafford where he captures, as poetry does, the essence of what it means to be authentically alive. We live soulfully from a place of spontaneity and presence. We are aware of greater happiness and joy and celebration in each moment. We are less concerned with the confines of social norms.

I've always thought of poetry as being written by the soul for the soul. From this place we have access to expanded ways of knowing and being. We connect with what we really value in our hearts and can make choices from a place of greater clarity. Poetry can open us to new ways of seeing ourselves and the world.

Read Stafford’s poem below. Drink it in. Dance with it. Let it play in your imagination. Then ask yourself, "What would it look like, feel like for me to live like poetry?" What traits of spirit do I want to embody? Freedom, peace, joy, happiness? Pick one and play with experiencing it in your daily life. See if you don’t feel lighter and more open to new possibilities. Consider reading a poem a day for inspiration. Most of all poetry would ask you to have fun with this.

Poetry

Its door opens near. It's a shrine
by the road, it's a flower in the parking lot
of The Pentagon, it says, "Look around,
listen. Feel the air." It interrupts
international telephone lines with a tune.
When traffic lines jam, it gets out
and dances on the bridge. If great people
get distracted by fame they forget
this essential kind of breathing
and they die inside their gold shell.
When caravans cross deserts
It is the secret treasure hidden under the jewels.

Sometimes commanders take us over, and they
try to impose their whole universe,
how to succeed by daily calculation:
I can't eat that bread.

- William Stafford


Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative fire. She has written a book The Heart of Writing based on her writing workshops. It's available as an ebook https://bit.ly/1ctY6M8 Plus dates are set for the next Yosemite Retreat October 24 to 26, 2014, https://creativitygoeswild.com/yosemite-retreats/. For for more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com

Are You Ready to Set Your Creativity Free?

Does it feel like your creativity is locked up tight in a box you are afraid to open? You put it in there long ago when your third grade teacher didn't like your drawing or your father disapproved of you wasting your time writing poems or your grandmother told you that you didn't have as good a singing voice as your sister.

It happened to me in junior high school when my in my design class the teacher exclaimed about a drawing I actually really liked, "Suzanne, you can do better than that". Decades later I've yet to pick up another drawing pencil. The creative self is a tender and vulnerable part of us, so it doesn't take much to discourage it.

I could have left the creative urge locked up with my drawing pad but fortunately I found other outlets. In college I developed a passion for black and white photography for creative expression. It was a fine replacement for drawing. Eventually creative writing became my main form.

I was lucky enough to grow up in a city, San Francisco, and with a parent, my father, who valued the arts so I wasn't weighed down by the general cultural beliefs that the arts and creativity are frivolous. I had implicit permission to play with creativity from early on and it informs my life in countless ways.

Back before I started my own writing and creativity coaching business and needed a resume to apply for work, the line that got me the most interviews was "creative problem solver". My relationship to creativity allows me to use the process to access the field of all possibilities so that I can come up with new ways of looking a situation and new solutions.

We all have this capacity. I just was lucky enough to grow up in an environment that age me permission to play with it. Whether you know it or not you probably are using this ability to some degree on a regular basis. You've all had the experience of trying to solve a problem at work using your rational, linear mind. Frustrated to give up and let it go, you drive home and as you pull up to the house the solution pops into your head. That's one way the creative process works. You learn to trust that if you give a problem over to your subconscious the answer will show up.

So to reclaim your creativity, to set it free, consider the ways you are already creativity in every area of your life and the benefits it brings. How have you been discouraged over the years from being creative and what action could you take today to begin to reclaim those gifts. Play with the idea. Have fun. That's the heart of the creative process. Joy and a deep sense of satisfaction.


Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative fire. She has written a book The Heart of Writing based on her writing workshops. It's available as an ebook https://bit.ly/1ctY6M8 Plus dates are set for the next Yosemite Retreat October 24 to 26, 2014, https://creativitygoeswild.com/yosemite-retreats/. For for more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com

CELEBRATING THE EVERYDAY THROUGH YOUR CREATIVITY

Pablo Neruda, Nobel prize winning Chilean poet, early in his writing life wrote serious political poems which actually got him exiled from Chile for a time. One line from his poem I'm Explaining a Few Things written in 1935 during the Spanish Civil War has long stayed with me capturing the intensity of Neruda's work, ...and the blood of children ran through the streets/without fuss, like children's blood...

Later in his life, as if weary of the burden of protesting atrocities and political corruption, he began to write Odes about everyday things: salt, cat, dog, dictionary, tomato, to name a few. His Odes celebrate the ordinary in an extraordinary way. I have a hard bound collection of Odes to Common Things, the original Spanish facing the English translation. I cherish this book because, beyond the fact that the poems are an exquisite, playful honoring of the everyday, those things we take for granted, the things we no longer really see; they remind us to pay attention and look at common things with new eyes and imagination.

You could do this too in whatever form your creativity takes. Play with it and see if it doesn't brighten and expand your world.

Here's one of my favorites Odes by Neruda:

Ode to the Artichoke

The artichoke
With a tender heart
Dressed up like a warrior,
Standing at attention, it built
A small helmet
Under its scales
It remained
Unshakeable,
By its side
The crazy vegetables
Uncurled
Their tendrills and leaf-crowns,
Throbbing bulbs,
In the sub-soil
The carrot
With its red mustaches
Was sleeping,
The grapevine
Hung out to dry its branches
Through which the wine will rise,
The cabbage
Dedicated itself
To trying on skirts,
The oregano
To perfuming the world,
And the sweet
Artichoke
There in the garden,
Dressed like a warrior,
Burnished
Like a proud
Pomegrante.
And one day
Side by side
In big wicker baskets
Walking through the market
To realize their dream
The artichoke army
In formation.
Never was it so military
Like on parade.
The men
In their white shirts
Among the vegetables
Were
The Marshals
Of the artichokes
Lines in close order
Command voices,
And the bang
Of a falling box.

But
Then
Maria
Comes
With her basket
She chooses
An artichoke,
She's not afraid of it.
She examines it, she observes it
Up against the light like it was an egg,
She buys it,
She mixes it up
In her handbag
With a pair of shoes
With a cabbage head and a
Bottle
Of vinegar
Until
She enters the kitchen
And submerges it in a pot.

Thus ends
In peace
This career
Of the armed vegetable
Which is called an artichoke,
Then
Scale by scale,
We strip off
The delicacy
And eat
The peaceful mush
Of its green heart.


Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative fire. She has written a book The Heart of Writing based on her writing workshops. It's available as an ebook https://bit.ly/1ctY6M8. Yosemite Retreat October 24 to 26, 2014 Connecting to Nature and Creativity, https://creativitygoeswild.com/yosemite-retreats/. For for more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com

I believe this passionately: that we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it. - Ken Robinson

THE PROBLEM WITH IGNORING OUR CREATIVITY

I've been reading a brilliant book by Ken Robinson called Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative. The title springs from Robinson's belief that at this time in human history if we fail to promote and support the vast reserves of latent creativity and innovation living within every person, then we must be "out of our minds".

He insists and I agree "that everyone has a huge creative capacity as a natural result of being a human being." The challenge is the lack of cultural support and permission for reclaiming the creative gifts that we have been largely schooled out of. There needs to be an atmosphere where it's okay for everyone to be creative rather than holding the assumption that it's the domain of a select few.

On a global level, we are in the midst of a major paradigm shift where old structures unravel because they no longer really serve the greater good. Humanity is in the process of evolving from a world based on competition to one where cooperation and co-creation holds the key to our well being and survival. As entirely new ways to doing things need to be developed, engaging and expanding our creativity and innovation are absolutely critical. Creativity is where our intuitive and imaginative minds play with the field of infinite possibilities.

Since most of us have had our creative efforts discouraged at an early age, we have a hard time wanting to re-open that door. Start with this. Look at all the ways you are already creative in your life. This includes creative problem solving. Many years ago at a wilderness trailhead miles from help I fixed the broken cable to my gas pedal using a paper clip and rubber band so we were able to drive home.

I suspect that if you look at your creative self in this new light you will come up with a long list of all the ways you are already creative. Then ask yourself, "how can I expand my creative capacity?" and "how can I support others in being more creative?"
Along with helping the world, on a personal level being creative feeds our own heart and soul. When we fail to use our creative capacity we limit our experience of the joy and presence that being absorbed in the creative moment brings.

As we approach the new year be open to the ways you want to bring more creativity into your life. Once you ask yourself the question, "how can I bring more creativity into my life and the world", let it go and just see what pops into your mind when you aren't thinking about it.

Pay attention to synchronicities, those chance occurrences that hold meaning. I've had books I've needed to read literally fall off the bookstore shelf at my feet. I tend to get goosebumps at such moments as if my body recognizes the communication from a higher source at work. That's part of how creativity works.

Opening more fully to our intuition, imagination and creativity can be key in navigating the rapid pace of change in the world. Accessing the expanded way of knowing, at the heart of being creative, can keep us from feeling overwhelmed by our sense of uncertainty.

The more complex the world becomes, the more creative we need to be to meet its challenges. - Ken Robinson


Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative fire. Her book The Heart of Writing: Jumpstart the Process, Find Your Voice, Calm the Inner Critic and Tap the Flow, based on her decades of experience is available as an ebook https://bit.ly/1ctY6M8. For for more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary - Steve Jobs

READY TO CREATE A NEW YEAR, A NEW STORY

It’s hard to describe the creative process with words and rational thought. It’s really a dance, a song, music in the blood, rising on the breath of inspiration. It’s a flow of energy that connects you to the heart of the universe. When you enter that river it feels really good. You are alive in the moment, expressing the uniqueness of you.

You can create anything from this place: a poem, a song, a garden, a solution to a problem or a new story for your life. Take a dash of inspiration, a flood of ideas, woven into a images in the mind’s eye by your imagination. Your heart and intuition play a key role, too.

What if you really knew that you could create anything from this place? What if you understood that you could rearrange the creation of your life by what you imagine, what you pay attention to, and what you choose to focus on.

Begin by relaxing your hold on whatever you think of as your “story” now. Suspend disbelief and imagine that you can change the story of your life more easily than you think. Consider that you have an opportunity for rebirth. What would that look like if you had a magic wand that allow you to access infinite possibilities?

TRY THIS: Take a moment and consider the life you desire for yourself. What do you feel called to create? What areas aren’t working the way you would like? Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths. and drop your attention down into your heart. Then imagine yourself journeying to a place where anything and everything is possible. As you leave your old story behind feel the creative excitement and energy of the new life that wants to be born. Invite your soul to participate and ask the universe to help.

Imagine the elements of your new life coming toward you. What do you see, hear, smell, feel, and taste. Using your senses makes the experience feel much more real. Know that whatever you can imagine is possible. In your mind’s eye try on whatever comes to you. How does it feel? Do you feel expanded? Does it feel good? If so, this helps you discern what is for your highest good. The more you play with this exercise on a daily basis the more you are energizing the potential for what you want to create.

To help your creativity along begin to break out of habitual patterns. Find new ways to creatively engage even the most ordinary aspects of your daily life. Put your clothes on in new order. Eat new foods. Find meaningful and inspiring challenges. Explore new possibilities for interacting with your inner and outer worlds. This generates new opportunities that will lead you to the future you feel called to create.

You can use this exercise for anything you want to create whether it’s engaging with a new art form or creating a whole new life. In the changing world we live in using our expanded capacities of imagination and intuition can open you up to things happening in magical and unexpected ways, that our mind would never have considered. Living from this place allows you to tap the creative flow in every area of our lives. It leads to our greatest happiness and fulfillment.


Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to write and access their creative fire. Her book The Heart of Writing: Jumpstart the Process, Find Your Voice, Calm the Inner Critic and Tap the Flow, based on her decades of experience is available as an ebook Now available on Amazon Kindle! https://amzn.to/174WIU9 or on her website https://bit.ly/1ctY6M8. For for more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com

I'm not much of a math and science guy. I spent most of my time in school daydreaming and managed to turn it into a living. - George Lucas


THE IMPORTANCE OF DAYDREAMING

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Do you remember all the times you were told as a child to stop daydreaming and all the times you got in trouble in school for staring out the window? We are routinely judged for daydreaming, the implication being that we are wasting time or being unproductive. Yet, daydreaming is actually a very high-level brain function that has many uses and benefits.

Scientists have found that daydreaming actually exercises your brain’s ability to handle multiple thoughts at the same time. This can definitely enhance creative abilities. You may have noticed that your most brilliant ideas come while you are washing dishes, going for a walk or taking a shower. When you are occupied with an simple task your brain is free to process complicated thoughts and problems drawing on the depths of the subconscious.

People who are actively creative likely have an increased capacity to stay focused on a task at hand while letting their mind wander at the same time. Your mind can drive your car or clean the house while also working on a poem or coming up with a solution a problem at work.

Once you let your mind wander without trying to control it, you allow your brain to explore ideas and solutions to problems that you might not have thought about before when you were actively concentrating on the problem.

Allowing your mind to drift without censoring or judging provides space new ideas or perspectives to show up. When you are daydreaming, anything is possible. This allows you to imagine things working in a new and better way. You can use this for creating anything including your life.

Often while daydreaming you will find that the answer to a problem seems to just pop into your mind, even when consciously you thought there was no possible solution. Many of the greatest minds in history claim that they came up with their best ideas while daydreaming. So the next time you find your mind wandering let it go, knowing something important and productive is going on.


If you would like more inspiration for the New Year consider collecting your Free eBooklet: Setting Your Creativity Free: Essential Elements to Help Your Engage Your Natural Gifts https://bitly.com/1bxnGyE

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to access their creative fire. Her book The Heart of Writing: Jumpstart the Process, Find Your Voice, Calm the Inner Critic and Tap the Flow, based on her decades of experience is available as an ebook on Amazon Kindle https://amzn.to/174WIU9 or on her website https://bitly.com/1ctY6M9. For for more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com

Stories Bring Our World Alive - The Power of Storytelling and the Oral Tradition

On my first visit to Ireland, I went to Matt Molloy’s pub in Westport, County Mayo and had the delight of hearing a traditional storyteller. I could feel the enchantment woven through this oral tradition. The same way I have witnessed people's attention held in a wondrous way from my own involvement with spoken word poetry in Sonoma County. There is something in the human psyche that is brought to life by stories.

Ireland has produced per capita more Nobel prize winning writers than any other country. With a population of 4 million, Ireland claims four Nobel laureates in literature: William Butler Yeats, Seamus Heaney, Samuel Beckett and George Bernard Shaw along with other writers of great stature like James Joyce, Jonathan Swift and Oscar Wilde.

The reverence for words, stories and poetry runs deep in Ireland tied to the oral tradition of the Celts who had no written language For centuries in Ireland, the itinerant Seanchai—the Storyteller—was the person who kept the legends, the history, the traditions of the people alive. Up until the 1950s there were still storytellers traveling from village to village housed and fed along the way. This oral tradition was especially important in holding on to Irish culture during the eight hundred years of British occupation. Writers and storytellers are revered. Poet, William Butler Yeats, was instrumental in helping to spark the rebellion that lead to Irish independence in 1923.

My father, son of two emigrants from Ireland who settled in San Francisco, came home every evening and read the great works of literature. Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy and W. B. Yeats were among his favorite. So I was raised with this love of words and stories that runs deep in my bones and I suspect is part of why I became a writer and why Ireland has such a strong pull on my heart.

While the storytelling tradition isn’t so obviously present in modern Ireland, support for writing and the arts is strong. Ireland actually gives a tax exemption to writers, composers, visual artists and sculptors for income made from the sale of their work. Traditional Irish music has remained vibrant through the 20th, and into the 21st century, despite globalization. Musicians gather nightly in pubs all over Ireland to play together.

I have long felt that Ireland hold something for the world. There is an ancient wisdom that runs deep in the land, the feel of magic and mystery present especially in the West where the Irish language is still spoken. It holds a reminder that a love for words and stories can bring the world alive. You don't have to be Irish or travel to Ireland to experience this. You can embrace it wherever you are.

. . .to understand the Irish, mere facts can never be enough; this is a country that reprocesses itself through the mills of its imagination. - Frank Delaney


Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to access their creative fire. She leads journeys to her beloved Ireland for more info https://bit.ly/1IUyk3h Her book The Heart of Writing based on her decades of experience is available as an ebook on Amazon Kindle https://amzn.to/174WIU9 or on her website https://bitly.com/1ctY6M9. For info more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. - Albert Einstein

Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people. - Leo Burnett

CURIOSITY CULTIVATES CREATIVITY and keeps you younger

Leonardo da Vinci, one of the most diversely talented individuals ever, was infinitely curious. He carried a notebook with him wherever he went and wrote down or sketched anything that aroused his curiosity. While best known for his paintings, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, he was also a sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer and inventor.

Being curious is a way of inviting creativity and can open us up to our unique genius. It opens our mind to make new connections and consider new possibilities. Albert Einstein attributed his brilliance to being passionately curious. Writer Henry James suggested to help your writing, Try to be someone on whom nothing is lost. With my writing students and coaching clients, I ask them to shake things up and do new things or visit a place they have never been before. Without curiosity, without “I wonder what would happen if I tried. . .”, we would never create anything new.

Between my own creative work as a writer and my interest in nature, my curiosity about the world is finely honed. I love to eavesdrop on conversations or watch people in cafes, not out of noisiness, but a real interest in other people’s lives and the wonderful range of possibilities for being human. I often get ideas for my writing that way. I’ll make up stories about people to exercise my imagination.

Paying attention and being curious as I walk in Nature is a great way to practice mindfulness and live in the moment. It also allows me to feel connected to and nourished by a larger world. Observing Nature’s great capacity as an artist also provides inspiration for my own creative work.

One of the things that ages us is doing the “same old, same old” over and over again. We do the same thing everyday, drive the same way to work, eat the same foods. The neural nets in our brain actually get rutted by our habits. Developing a habit of being curious and trying new things can keep us open to new possibilities and help keep us young as well as increasing our ability to be more creative.

TRY THIS: What are you curious about? It could be about trying a new recipe or visiting a new store that just opened. It could involve exploring a new place to walk or reading a book about a field you don’t know anything about but feel a pull toward. What can you do today to start building the muscle of your curiosity?


Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to access their creative fire. Her book The Heart of Writing based on her decades of experience is available as an ebook on Amazon Kindle https://amzn.to/174WIU9 or on her website https://bitly.com/1ctY6M9. For info more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com

Imagination is everything. It is the preview to life's coming attractions. - Albert Einstein

WORKING WITH AN IMAGINARY MENTOR

I’ve been asking myself, how can I best help empower others at this time of great global change. The first answer that came in the flash of inspiration was the word imagination. Einstein regularly insisted that “imagination is more important than knowledge”. But the thing is, it’s not just for geniuses. It’s for everyone. We have just be taught to favor the rational mind at the expenses of capacities that actually can help us in amazing ways. It’s easy to reclaim.

Years ago I learned an exercise from Jean Houston, noted author, visionary and one of the founders of the human consciousness movement. It involves working with an imaginary mentor to get advice on any question that we have for any area of our life. Using our imagination and intuitive mind give us access to a deeper wisdom and way of knowing beyond the capabilities of our linear mind.

I have used this exercise for years in teaching writing and with creativity coaching. I have been amazed and delighted that my students get much better advice than I could have ever given with all my years of experience. Everyone in class could hear the wisdom coming through as we shared our answers. Most remarkable is that the answers actually sounded like they were coming from the individual asked. If someone asked Mark Twain, the response would sound like something Mark Twain would write. Tapping your imagination and writing in flow can give you access to expanded awareness and better answers you could think up.

TRY THIS: Pick someone you think would give good advice. It could be Einstein, Plato or your grandmother. Imagine you have written him or her a letter asking a question you have about anything in your life. It helps to be specific. Then using the technique of free writing (writing as fast you can without censoring) you write the response to you as if it is coming from your imaginary mentor. Really let go on this one. Don’t think. Just let the answer flow out of the pen or the keyboard for at least ten minutes. Then read the answer with an open curiosity as if you really have just received this letter in the mail. Be open, be objective. The more you play with this, the stronger the muscle of your imagination grows.

OR TRY THIS: You can also go for a walk with your imaginary mentor and have a conversation with them in your imagination. The key is to play and be open. Let go of thinking that you have to figure out everything with your mind. After all Einstein never figured out anything with his rational mind.

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to access their creative fire. Her book The Heart of Writing based on her decades of experience is available as an ebook on Amazon Kindle https://amzn.to/174WIU9 or on her website https://bitly.com/1ctY6M9. For info more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com

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Posted in reply to the post by creativity:

After all Einstein never figured out anything with his rational mind.

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With all due respect--and I do think you have a lot of good stuff to teach about writing--you are stepping outside the bounds of your expertise here. Your ludicrous statement (above) shows your bias as well as your ignorance of both Einstein and the relationship between rationality, imagination and intuition.

Hi Dixon, Thanks for sharing. Einstein himself said that none of his discoveries came from using his rational mind. I probably could have a made that clearer. Best, Suzanne

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Posted in reply to the post by Dixon:

With all due respect--and I do think you have a lot of good stuff to teach about writing--you are stepping outside the bounds of your expertise here. Your ludicrous statement (above) shows your bias as well as your ignorance of both Einstein and the relationship between rationality, imagination and intuition.

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Suzanne, thanks for your prompt and pleasant clarification. I'd be very interested in seeing the quote from Einstein if you could direct me to it. But even if he said that "none of his discoveries came from using his rational mind", he was wrong about that--not surprising, since his expertise was in theoretical physics, not cognition or epistemology. His reasoning processes are well known, as he discussed them publicly, and things like his "thought experiments", as well as, obviously, his use of math, fit perfectly with the definition of "rational" you can find in any dictionary. Also, his commitment to empirical verification of his hypotheses is very rational (well, okay, rational-empirical). Some may think that if imagination or intuition are involved we have exited the realm of rationality. This is mistaken; both imagination and intuition, used properly, are part and parcel of the rational enterprise.

If I seem touchy about devaluation of rationality--well, I am! Two reasons for that:
1. As a committed rationalist, I take put-downs of rationality personally.
2. We're faced with very serious problems on this beleaguered little planet, some of which are unprecedented. We're gonna need all the rationality we can muster to have any chance of coming through the crises in decent shape. So when I see people seeming to want to demote the rational mind to a position of little influence, I get scared, then angry.
Thanks again for your clarification, and I hope you enjoyed mine. :waccosmile:

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Posted in reply to the post by creativity:

Hi Dixon, Thanks for sharing. Einstein himself said that none of his discoveries came from using his rational mind. I probably could have a made that clearer. Best, Suzanne

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Dear Dixon, Thanks for your response. I didn't intend for it to seem that I devalue rationality. I think all our capacities are important and that they are a complex weave. And I share your deep concern for this lovely planet of ours and my work with creativity and imagination are intended to help build all of our capacities for solving the problems we face. All my best, Suzanne

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Posted in reply to the post by Dixon:

If I seem touchy about devaluation of rationality--well, I am! Two reasons for that:
...

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I'm way over my head here, not being very rationalist, more on the creative side, but I've got to say Dixon, that was a good one about being a rationalist, and taking offense at put downs of rationality. How irrational.

Anyway, Einstein was a creative genius, and what he created were mind bending theories about reality.

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Posted in reply to the post by Dixon:

... 1. As a committed rationalist, I take put-downs of rationality personally. ...

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Posted in reply to the post by Richard Nichols:

...Dixon, that was a good one about being a rationalist, and taking offense at put downs of rationality. How irrational.

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Hmmm...I don't see how it's irrational, but maybe I'm missing something. Could you clarify how it is?

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Posted in reply to the post by Richard Nichols:

I'm way over my head here, not being very rationalist, more on the creative side...

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FWIW, I don't see rationalism and creativity as being opposites or incompatible in any way. [Not that you were necessarily implying that.]

Me niether. To me existence is expressed in creativity, and rational thought is one of many humal expressions of that.
I thought the joke was, since you are a rational reasoning person, that taking offense at a put down of rationality is a little illogical.

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Posted in reply to the post by Dixon:

FWIW, I don't see rationalism and creativity as being opposites or incompatible in any way. [Not that you were necessarily implying that.]

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The “Belief Bubble”
What is in your head?
Is it:
Believing or thinking?
Intuiting or imagining?
Deluding or hallucinating?
Instincts or fantasizing?
Dreaming or avoiding?
Asking or expecting?
Wanting or needing?
Wishing or hoping?
Loving or lusting?
Faith or conviction?
Gospel or dogma?
Fiction or fact?
Giving or taking?
Caring or ignoring?
Growing or shrinking?
Absorbing or exuding?
Projecting or listening?
Curiosity or resistance?
Connecting or severing?
Empowering or depriving?
What are we really doing?
Living vicariously or in reality?

A College Level Edition of the Dictionary can create a solid memory bank to refer back to.

©2009 Alpha Moonprayers

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Posted in reply to the post by Richard Nichols:

I thought the joke was, since you are a rational reasoning person, that taking offense at a put down of rationality is a little illogical.

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I understood that you meant that. I just don't see the illogicality you infer.

Since I'm sort of thin skinned, I've been offended personally many times, but I realize that induldging in feeling offended has little value, for me at least, and since it has no value, it seems illogical. But of course this is a very personal opinion, so please don't attack me or I'll feel offended!

Anyway, I've enjoyed the thread.

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Posted in reply to the post by Dixon:

I understood that you meant that. I just don't see the illogicality you infer.

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Posted in reply to the post by Richard Nichols:

...I realize that induldging in feeling offended has little value, for me at least, and since it has no value, it seems illogical.

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For me, feelings aren't something we choose; they arise automatically. The only choice I seem to have about them is to acknowledge them or to deny and repress them.

For any writer who wants to keep a journal, be alive to everything, not just to what you’re feeling, but also to your pets, to flowers, to what you’re reading. – May Sarton

TAKING NOTES - PLAYING IN THE FIELD OF CURIOSITY

Keeping a journal or notebook to record not only your inner landscape but you observations of the world around you can make your life much more vibrant and alive. There is a long list of famous people who kept journals or notebooks. Anthropologist Margaret Mead, Charles Darwin, Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Winston Churchill, Franz Kafka and Virginia Wolfe are just a few. The great geniuses and innovators kept their child-like sense of wonder and curiosity alive. Keeping a journal can help.

It’s easy to start. Get a bound blank book, or you can start with a cheap spiral notebook. Date your entries. Begin by describing your surroundings, the current state of your life as well as your hopes, dreams, desires or questions. Put down anything you are curious about or whatever wants to spill out on to the page. If you are a writer, this is a good way to loosen up.

Leonardo Da Vinci actually carried a notebook attached to his belt and recorded anything he was curious about, any image he saw that drew him, any ideas that popped into his head or any questions that came to him. He insisted that passionate curiosity about all of life was one of the keys to his genius and remarkable accomplishments.

Short-term memory only retains information for three minutes. Unless committed to paper, an inspired idea forever can be lost forever. You can use your journal to record all the ideas and inspirations that flash into your mind. Plus paying close attention to the world and asking questions actually invites the subconscious mind into play increasing your creative and mental capacities.

So try what Leonardo did. Keep a notebook with you at all times. It could simply be a small spiral bound one that fits in your back pocket. Do it for a week and see if it doesn’t awaken your sense of amazement for the beauty and complexity of the world.

I’ve started doing this, making note of the reflection of trees on the surface of a pond, the hawks crying out as they circle overhead, the newborn baby asleep in a stroller rocking back and forth with the motion, and the power of horses racing across a field.

I’ve kept a journal for over 40 years. It’s added so much to my life and my writing. Carrying one with me everywhere has me opening to appreciating the world around me on a whole new level and making connections I would have missed otherwise.

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to access their creative fire. Her book The Heart of Writing based on her decades of experience is available as an ebook on Amazon Kindle https://amzn.to/174WIU9 or on her website https://bitly.com/1ctY6M9. For info more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com

HOW CAN TAKING A WALK ENHANCE YOUR CREATIVITY?

All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking. – Frederick Nietzsche

Me thinks that the moment my legs being to move, my thoughts begin to flow. – Henry David Thoreau

When you are engaged in a project and feel the creative inspiration has dried up, take a break. Anything that occupies the consciousness mind in a physical way can open you to the flow of fresh ideas and insights. Doing the dishes or taking a shower are good ways. One of my favorites is taking a walk. You could simply stroll around the block or walk deep into nature.

I have not been alone in my awareness that walking opens creative channels. There is a long list of well known creatives who walked to allow ideas and connections to flow . Charles Darwin, Virginia Woolf, William Wordsworth, Nikola Tesla, Aristotle, Sigmund Freud, Thomas Jefferson, Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens, Beethoven to name but a few.
Scientific studies have now found that creative problems can indeed be solved by walking, especially in nature. While walking the brain undergoes physiological changes that lower frustration and stress, increase your awareness and engagement with the world, allow for a natural meditative state and improve your mood. All of this helps you to experience more creative connections and flow.

Walking also allows you to balance two states that enhance creativity. Mindfulness, where you are present in the moment, and mind wandering or daydreaming, where you allow ideas, connections, dreams and visions for the future to come to us from the deeper realms of consciousness.

Try it. Next time you are looking for some creative inspiration take a walk. If you aren’t used to walking or don’t have a lot of time, simply start with a walk around the block. Find a park or a trail in nature and see how your muse opens up for you. Your body and health will love it too.

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to access their creative fire. She will be doing an in person workshop Writing in Nature on October 15 for more info https://creativitygoeswild.com/writing-in-nature/. For info more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com

The earth has music for those who listen. – George Santayana

CONNECTING TO CREATIVITY AND NATURE CAN SUPPORT OUR WELL BEING

Nature and creativity are doorways to the sacred. They can help us connect to the deeper parts of ourselves, the knowing of our hearts and souls. They can assist us in being more present in the moment and give us access to expanded capacities of intuition, inspiration and imagination. Connecting to the natural world, which is inherently creative, opens us to our own creative gifts, which allows us to bring forth new possibilities and solutions for our own lives and our troubled world.

The ongoing tragedies in the world combined with instant access to these events through the news and social media can leave us feeling helpless and hopeless. Our psyches and nervous systems overwhelmed.

Spending time in nature as well as with creative play can be a balm for heart and soul and help us ground our lives in an expanded sense of self. They relax our body, bring us more into the moment where we can breathe more deeply and release our worry about the future. They can increase our sense of well being allowing us to connect to a sense of peace.

Here’s a bit of inspiration from Pulitzer Prize winning poet Mary Oliver from her poem Praying from her book Thirst. She explains how to connect to nature and creativity wherever your are and how the deeper threads of knowing can find you in the process.

It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak. . .

It doesn’t have to be a poem or even words. You can draw or doodle or dance or sing or cook what comes to you. The key is to reclaim your child-like sense of wonder where you are playing with creation free of any expectations. Relax and have fun. Who knows what inspiration might come.

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to access their creative fire. She will be doing an in person workshop Writing in Nature on October 15 for more info https://creativitygoeswild.com/writing-in-nature/. For info more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com

Do You Let Distractions Get in the Way of Your Creativity?

I started writing before the development of the personal computer, when cut and paste meant I was down on the floor with a pair of scissors and a jar of that thick white glue that smelled vaguely of peppermint. It was in many ways a simpler time with far less pulling on my attention.

Every morning upon rising I would make my single cup of French roast coffee, dripped through a Melitta, and then sit down to write. There weren't any thoughts like I’ve got to check my email or Twitter feed to interfere with putting words on the page.

If I needed to do research, I went to the library, the sacred hall of actual books. I would flip through the cards in the small wooden drawers of the card catalog to find the book I needed, check it out and carry it home.

Now I love my laptop. It make revision including cut and paste so much easier. It connects me to a larger world. I can Skype my friend in Australia and feel like I’m sitting in her living room talking. I can connect to the web to find wealth of information I need for my work.

Yet lately I’ve been thinking about the issue of distractions. The fast pace of our times pulls us in so many different directions at the same time. We can lose ourselves in the swarm of emails, the compulsion to engage social media, surf the web or check the notifications coming in on our phones.

I’m not suggesting that we need to give those things up. Rather what if we brought more awareness to what we really want to be doing with our time in each moment. What is we asked ourself the question “What would bring me the most happiness and joy right now.” If the answer is to post something on Facebook, great.

Bringing consciousness to our lives on a regular basis helps us chose the activity that feeds us and helps us create more of what we really want in our lives. Asking “what would bring me the most happiness at this time, can help us overcome procrastination and the distractions that can get in the way of our creating.

When I asked myself that question this morning I got that I wanted to write a blog about distractions. Writing is one of the things that always brings me a satisfaction as I tend to be more present and lose myself in flow.

What does this for you. Start being more mindful of what really brings you happiness. Maybe set an alarm on your phone to go off every hour to remind yourself to stop and ask the question and be more conscious of your choices. Play with it. See what shifts for you.

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to access their creative fire. She will be doing an in person workshop Writing in Nature on April 22 for more info https://creativitygoeswild.com/writing-in-nature/. For info more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com

Learning to Let Go Is Essential to Your Being Creative

We can’t force creativity. We know this intuitively. If we told a painter that we wanted a masterpiece by five o’clock tomorrow, they would look at us like we were crazy, that we clearly didn’t understand what being creative was all about.

An important part of being creative is learning to surrender to the flow of the universe, allowing something greater than our everyday self to move through us. It’s not something we can figure out with our linear mind.
Of course, if we want to paint we need to learn how to work with our chosen medium and studying the work of the masters can help. If we want to write it’s really valuable to read widely and deeply, to show up daily to put pen to paper and perhaps take a workshop on the form we want to work with.

Yet at the heart of being creative is letting go and allowing the ideas, the inspiration to move through us. This is where practice comes in. As Flannery O’Connor said of her writing experience, “I show up at my office everyday between 8 am and noon. I’m not sure that anything is going to happen but I want to be there if it does.”

I recently sat next to a young man in Starbucks who had a set of watercolors laid out and quickly produced a couple of small paintings that were quite lovely. We spoke of creativity and how so many people think you either have it or you don’t. “Yeah,” he said, “really it’s a muscle, you’ve got to use.” He went on to say “No mater how lousy I feel, if I do even a couple of little paintings I instantly feel better.”

I feel the same way about writing, even if it’s just a page of free writing where I let the words flow out of the pen. Being creative feels good and lightens our mood because we become more present to the moment, quiet our chattering minds, and allow for the awareness of our heart and knowing to do the work. In the surrender we find ourselves in an expanded state of consciousness were we can do things we didn’t think we could.

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to access their creative fire. For info more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com. To get your free copy of her Creativity eBooklet: Setting Your Creativity Free go to https://creativitygoeswild.com/free-creativity-ebooklet/

Creating with All Your Heart

If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing. - Marc Chagall

Love is a sacred reserve of energy; it is like the blood of spiritual evolution. - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

I recently saw a short film tribute to Chuck Berry, the undisputed father of rock and roll, with comments from John Lennon of the Beatles and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones both saying how much they admired Berry and tried to emulate his guitar work. Berry himself said that his secret was that he felt the music. Berry played with all his heart.

In my own creative work, especially with my writing, I have long been aware of the importance of connecting to the heart; both in the context of finding subjects and themes that make our hearts sing but also creating from the feeling place of the heart, from what we love and care about.

As Robert Frost said, “No tears for the writer, no tears for the reader.” I always know that if I am moved in my own heart by a piece of my writing then it will genuinely touch other people.

For whatever you want to create, imagine dropping down into your heart and drawing on that feeling place for your inspiration and guidance. One of my clients envisions a wooden staircase leading from her mind to her heart and sees herself walking down them and when she reaches the bottom she immediately feels the clarity and expansiveness her heart has to offer.

Centering in our heart gives us access to our connection to all of creation which inspires and informs the highest expression of our creative self. It allows us to live and create from the place of expanded possibilities.

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to access their creative fire. For info more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com. To get your free copy of her Creativity eBooklet: Setting Your Creativity Free go to https://creativitygoeswild.com/free-creativity-ebooklet/

Where Do You Find Inspiration

I recently spent time in Cedar Breaks National Monument in southern Utah. Besides having a colorful canyon and subalpine meadows filled with wildflowers, it is a designated International Dark Sky park with a wonderful night sky program provided by highly knowledgeable and committed astronomers volunteering their time. Much to my surprise spending time watching and learning about the night sky opened new doors to wonder for me. It fueled my imagination and inspired the poem you’ll find below.

It got me thinking about how we can open to new possibilities for inspiration for our creativity and lives now when we need it more than ever. Where can we find resources that uplift our spirit and help us create the positive future we all yearn for.

Appreciating the night sky certainly expands our view of our world and our place in the universe. Even if you don’t live with a dark sky you can still find inspiration. When you have a chance, step out after dark and look up at the moon and the stars. Pay attention to what inspiration comes to you when you do.

Stargazing

Constellations picture
the night sky,
line drawings sketched
by an imaginative hand.

Connecting the dots
we discover
a lion, a scorpion
an eagle, a ram.

As night descends
planets pop out first,
Jupiter and Saturn
shimmer
in the last twilight.

The Big Dipper points
to Polaris, the North Star
ever-present compass bearing
should we find ourselves lost.

As darkness deepens
mythic ones wander the heavens.
Draco the dragon, Sagittarius the archer,
ancient Greek tales of their exploits
sizzle the imagination.

Away from city lights
we gaze up at a black sky
glittered with stars.
Open to the wonder
of billions of other worlds.

Stars being birthed.
Stars exploding and dissolving
back into the fabric of space.
Stars like our Sun
generous with their fiery light.

We experience
the living pulsing galaxy
we call home,
find ourselves part
of this sparkling swirl of stars
our Milky Way.

– Suzanne Murray

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to access their creative fire. For info more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com. To get your free copy of her Creativity eBooklet: Setting Your Creativity Free go to https://creativitygoeswild.com/free-creativity-ebooklet/

HOW DOES IRELAND INSPIRE CREATIVITY?

I take small groups to the West of Ireland and I am always struck for the support for the arts in Ireland. On my last trip I discovered a poetry walking tour in Galway City that honors a couple of dozen prominent Irish poets.

One of my favorite stories about the support for creativity in Ireland comes from an experience I had in the village of Doolin, County Clare which has been the epicenter for Celtic music revival in Ireland. Some of the best musicians in the country live there and play in the pubs.

One evening I went up to McGann’s pub to listen in. At one point a young boy about ten years old joined the group with his tin whistle. I learned that his parents brought him now and then, a two hour drive from their home, to encourage his desire to make music.

As he began to play the entire pub went quiet and as he continued one of the experienced musicians picked up his own tin whistle to support the lad through the places he couldn’t quite carry the notes on his own. At the end of the song the entire pub erupted into wild applause.

What if we all got that kind of support for our creative urges? What difference would it make? In Ireland with this kind of encouragement people come together in pubs all over the country to make music. It is a vibrant part of the culture. Three years after first hearing the boy with the tin whistle I was back in Doolin in a different pub and the same boy stepped up to play with a great deal more skill than before.

It’s not just music that is supported. In Ireland up until recently writers didn’t pay income tax and still artists don’t pay tax on what they make on the sale of their work. This honoring of the writers and poets has produced per capita more Nobel prize winning writers than any other country. With a population of 4 million, Ireland claims four Nobel laureates in literature along with a number of other writers of great stature.

How can we find ways to support our children, our grandchildren and ourselves in this vital part of being human. How can we honor the creative gifts that each of us hold in our own way and the world so deeply needs now.

What if it was as simple as a willingness to open up and play with however the creative process calls to us. Can we honor these creative yearnings and find community that supports our explorations. What would this look like for you? How would it feel?

Can you sense of joy fluttering in your heart at your willingness to play and create for no reason and see where the process leads. That will help you unplug from the pressure of feeling like you have to produce something. Rather being creative feeds our spirit and inspiration and support can show up for us in wonderful ways.

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to access their creative fire. For info more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com. For more information on her Ireland Journeys to join me for music, magic, myth, mystery and more https://creativitygoeswild.com/west-of-ireland/

HOW HAS THE HISTORY OF STORYTELLING IN IRELAND INSPIRED WRITERS AND IMAGINATION?

On my first visit to Ireland, I went to Matt Molloy’s pub in Westport, County Mayo and had the delight of hearing a traditional storyteller. I could feel the enchantment woven through this oral tradition. The same way I have witnessed people’s attention held in a wondrous way from my own involvement with spoken word poetry in my community in northern California. There is something in the human psyche that is brought to life by stories.

Ireland has produced per capita more Nobel prize winning writers than any other country. With a population of 4 million, Ireland claims four Nobel laureates in literature: William Butler Yeats, Seamus Heaney, Samuel Beckett and George Bernard Shaw along with other writers of great stature like James Joyce, Jonathan Swift and Oscar Wilde.

The reverence for words, stories and poetry runs deep in Ireland tied to the oral tradition of the Celts who had no written language. For centuries in Ireland, the itinerant Seanchai,the Storyteller”was the person who kept the legends, the history, the traditions of the people alive. Up until the 1950s there were still storytellers traveling from village to village housed and fed along the way. This oral tradition was especially important in holding on to Irish culture during the eight hundred years of British occupation. Writers and storytellers are revered. Poet, William Butler Yeats, was instrumental in helping to spark the rebellion that lead to Irish independence in 1923.

My father, son of two emigrants from Ireland who settled in San Francisco, came home every evening and read the great works of literature. Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy and W.B.Yeats were among his favorite. So I was raised with this love of words and stories that runs deep in my bones and I suspect is part of why I became a writer and why Ireland has such a strong pull on my heart.

While the storytelling tradition isn’t so obviously present in modern Ireland, support for writing and the arts is strong. Ireland actually gives a tax exemption to writers, composers, visual artists and sculptors for income made from the sale of their work. Traditional Irish music has remained vibrant through the 20th, and into the 21st century, despite globalization. Musicians gather nightly in pubs all over Ireland to play together.
I have long felt that Ireland hold something for the world.

There is an ancient wisdom that run deep in the land, the feel of magic and mystery present especially in the West where the Irish language is still spoken. It holds a reminder that a love for words and stories can bring the world alive. You don’t have to be Irish or travel to Ireland to experience this. You can embrace it wherever you are.

. . .to understand the Irish, mere facts can never be enough; this is a country that reprocesses itself through the mills of its imagination. – Frank Delaney


Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to access their creative fire. For info more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com. For more information on her Ireland Journeys to join me for music, magic, myth, mystery and more https://creativitygoeswild.com/west-of-ireland

SPARKING YOUR CREATIVITY IS GOOD FOR YOUR BODY AND WELL BEING

One of the loveliest words in the English language is the word “inspiration”. It signifies again the creative breath. It also has to do with spontaneity, with the arrival of the unexpected image or idea in the mind. Inspiration is the flash of connecting light that suddenly comes from elsewhere and illuminates. – John O’Donohue

We don’t all find inspiration for our creativity in the same way. For me walking can open things up and let the ideas pop in. In my writing, starting with a word or phrase without thinking about where it’s going and allowing what wants to emerge on the page with a willing to be surprised gets the inspiration going.

For you it may be cooking or playing with your kids or grandkids or walking in nature or sitting in meditation or reading poetry or taking a class or dancing around the living room. Take a minute and consider what brings your inspiration alive. Plan to include more of that in your life.

There is tremendous value in sparking our creativity, not only for our work and personal lives but our bodies benefit as well. Research shows that when we engage our creative capacities we produce endorphins, the feel good hormones, along with boosting our immune system and the neurochemistry that increases brain function. We have an overall sense of wellbeing and an ability to solve problems and engage projects in expanded ways.

I know this is so true for me. Even writing a short draft of a poem or haiku immediately lifts my spirit. It doesn’t even need to be something I think is good. The act of opening to the creative flow even in small ways opens us to more flow and possibilities. Play with it and see if this isn’t true for you.

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to access their creative fire. For info more about all her work or to read her blog go to www.creativitygoeswild.com. For more information on her Ireland Journeys to join me for music, magic, myth, mystery and more https://creativitygoeswild.com/west-of-ireland

FALL IN LOVE WITH CREATIVE PROCESS

A lot of people think that when it comes to creativity, inspiration is the key. Yet those moments of insight or revelation never occur without the willingness to commit to the work and continue to show up. This perseverance is just as important. You get a creative flash. You show up to the work and what wants to be born becomes more clear.

Nobel prize winning Canadian short story writer Alice Munro once said, “I threw away all my early writings and it wasn’t because I was the mother of three small children. It was because I was learning my craft and it took a long time.”

It was the same with David Guterson who wrote the award winning novel Snow Falling on Cedars. When critics acclaimed that a brilliant new writer had just come out of the Pacific Northwest as if he and his book had arrived by magic, he responded “excuse me but I’ve written in the early morning hours for 25 years before going to my job.” It took him ten years to write the novel.

Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning poet, Mary Oliver wrote for twenty five years before putting her work out into the world. She refused to take an interesting job because she didn’t want to be distracted from her work. It was only a few years after she started publishing her work that she won the Pulitzer. Her perseverance clearly paid off.

One of the favorite essays I’ve ever written is thirteen pages and it took five years to write. I started from a clear place of inspiration but then I had to do the work. I needed to do research. I needed to continue my writing practice. I had to put the draft away for a couple of years while I developed my skill as a writer because this essay was very complex and when I started it I didn’t have the level of ability to finish it.

This is why as a writing teacher and creativity coach I teach people to fall in love with the process. It is true for any form of creativity. You show up, you start playing around and you find yourself in the flow where time stops and you taste of the joy of being creative. This allows you to persevere. Even when things aren’t going well, you can find pleasure in showing up and being willing to play with what wants to be born out of your effort. This provides its own sense of satisfaction.

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to access their creative fire. For info more about all her work or to read her blogs go to www.creativitygoeswild.com. For information on her book on writing The Heart of Writing: Jumpstart Your Writing, Find Your Voice, Calm the Inner Critic & Tap the Flow https://bit.ly/1ctY6M8 For her Ireland Journeys to music, magic, myth, mystery and more https://creativitygoeswild.com/west-of-ireland

DO YOU LOOK FOR INSPIRATION IN UNLIKELY PLACES?

Recently on a trip to the Montana mountains, where we spent a week camped near a river that slowly snakes through a broad meadow, I noticed a pair of baby ducks who were clearly without their mother. I walked down to the water several times a day to check on them and was always relieved when I found them actively feeding and looking to be in good health.

I have been interested in birds since I was a teenager and enjoy simply watching them. The more I watched these two ducks I was startled to realize that they were two different species, two very different kinds of duck. One was clearly a diving duck as it keep arching it’s body down into the river in search of food. The other was a dabbling duck incapable of diving, feeding instead on the pondweed and aquatic insects floating on the surface.

I have never seen anything like these two orphaned ducks so different yet so a home with each other. They never strayed more than a few feet from each other’s side. Baby ducks instinctively have a strong urge for the sense of safety in being part of a flock and they had somehow found each other to satisfy that need.

It occurred to me that nature was offering me a wonderful example of creative problem solving and inspiration for how we human may benefit from forming unlikely alliances in these challenging times. The ducks reminded me of the importance of letting go of how we think things should be and opening to being surprised by new possibilities.

This really is the heart of creativity, a willingness to play outside the box, to try new things and imagine new ways of being. Since this experience I have found myself more open to conversations with strangers who I might have previously perceived as quite different from me.

Along that same river I spoke with a stock broker from Chicago who has been fly fishing the region for 40 years and has a deep commitment to the environment. I met a rancher from South Dakota who is on a treasure hunt with his daughter and grandchildren, who explained that the directions to buried treasure was left in the form of a poem that, to my amazement, he recited by heart.

Being more open allows for more inspiration to flow into our creativity as well. I am finding it’s enriching my life in wonderful ways and new ideas keep popping into my mind. So try this. Consider the ways that you can be more open to unexpected inspiration and play with it. See if it doesn’t bring more joy to your life.

Suzanne Murray is a writing teacher and creativity coach with more than twenty years of experience in helping others to access their creative fire. For info more about all her work or to read her blogs go to www.creativitygoeswild.com. For information on her book on writing The Heart of Writing: Jumpstart Your Writing, Find Your Voice, Calm the Inner Critic & Tap the Flow https://bit.ly/1ctY6M8