OMG, that’s me with the wild and succulent woman herself, SARK!
This afternoon, I joined about 70 other creative souls in a packed room at the Hayward Library to participate in SARK’s Juicy Pens Thirsty Paper workshop. What a treat to meet SARK in-person and experience her vibrant creative energy and warm spirit. She had me in stitches as she shared one hilarious and fantastical story after another. And when I wasn’t laughing my ass off I was nearly in tears, touched by her heartwarming tales. The afternoon was filled with one delicious morsel of inspiration after another. A few of the SARK-isms I’m savoring include:
“Delight yourself first and others will be delighted.”
“Action comes before inspiration. Inspiration comes from the actual doing of anything.”
Ask yourself, “How well are you loving yourself today?”
I also appreciated learning how SARK honors her introversion. As a fellow introvert, it’s comforting to know that someone who is so successful and in the spotlight has found ways to balance her energy through honing her extroverted skills (she’s a riveting presenter and her energy lights up a room) and protecting her need to be alone and to not be busy all the time. It was also good to hear directly from her how she can get distracted from her writing, but how she keeps her momentum through micromovements. Last year, I did an Art Every Day Month post with the page of reasons why I don’t feel like writing from the Juicy Pens Thirsty Paper book.
One of the activities SARK had us do was to craft our own writer’s manifesto. Here’s what I came up with:
We also filled in some micromovement wheels to help us find delightful, do-able actions that we could complete in just 5 seconds to 5 minutes. I’ve already accomplished two. The publisher catalogs from my trip to BEA are now stacked in a neat pile instead of strewn across the floor unintentionally acting as a makeshift pillow for Emmett’s head. Also, I added to my new “I am a published author” vision board on my Vision Board iPhone app. I included the photo of SARK and me and my writer’s wo-manifesto. Woohoo for accomplishing a few steps toward my creative dreams today!
And here I am with my friend the inspirational Laurel Bleadon-Maffeiwho was there assisting along with her wonderful husband Wes. My other creative buddies Chris Zydel and Michelle Favreault participated in the workshop, too! It made the day even juicier to be surrounded by these wonderful women.
If you haven’t checked out Juicy Pens Thirsty Paper yet, I encourage you to give it a whirl. It’s fun, inspiring and practical. Also, I signed up for the e-course Juicy Journaling with SARK: A nourishing adventure to start your day off write.
When I ask myself the juicy question, “How well have I loved myself today?” my answer is “pretty darn well.” I chose to say yes to being in creative community with likeminded spirits, I chose to honor my creative dreams by taking some micromovements, I delighted in affirming my creative gifts as writer/artist and last but not least I laughed my ass off.
My husband is the tech-geek of the family, however, I must say that I love my iPhone. I’m lusting after the new one with video and voice command, but will be patient for our next upgrade. In the meantime, there are several apps that make my life so much easier and more fun.
I’ve highlighted some of my favorites here:
Inspiration
Vision Board Delux – The awesome Carla White just launched her new Vision Board app today. Yay, Carla! I’ve been having fun playing around with it. Since I’m a big believer in vision boards (I’ve created my own portable vision board kit), I love that I now have a digital version that allows me to easily move things around. I can create boards for very specific goals and also add my own positive affirmations. Plus, Carla’s got inspiring images from a featured artist that you can add to your board.
Gratitude – Another one of Carla’s creations. This was one of the first apps that I downloaded because it’s right up my alley. I love what Carla has created with this simple way of noting what you’re grateful for each day. Plus the icon is just plain cute!
iMantra – This app is loaded with lots of mantra options to help you meditate or feel more grounded. You can also move the virtual mala beads for an even more meditative experience.
SUZU Meditate – A simple app that let’s you set a singing bowl to chime after a set period of time.
TED – Love TED videos and love that I can watch them easily on my iPhone!
Productivity/Tools
To Do which I sync with Toodledo – It’s easy for me to organize and keep track of my tasks on my laptop and also access them on my iPhone.
Calendar synced with Google Calendar – I love using my Google calendar, so I was thrilled when I was finally able to sync it to the iPhone Calendar.
Kindle for iPhone – Originally I wasn’t into reading books on my phone. I did used to have the Rocket eBook when my husband worked for Nuvomedia, so I’m not opposed to electronic books. It’s just the iPhone screen is pretty darn small for reading. However, I must admit that when I finished reading my library copy of Twilight for my book club, I just had to immediately download the next title in the series. I was hooked (on both Kindle for iPhone and yes, the Twilight series!). I love having multiple books to choose from at the touch of the screen and that I can read easily in the dark.
MileBug – I was more than happy to say goodbye to stuffing a pen and notebook in the car door pocket and having to enter all the data into a spreadsheet. Now I just plug my trips in my iPhone, run a report at the end of the month and e-mail it to my bookkeeper.
HopStop – Helped me get around NYC by subway during my last trip.
Games
Wurdle and Tangram Pro – The games I use to kill time or if I’m being a total insomniac.
Social Media
Tweetie and Facebook - For feeding my social networking addiction on-the-go.
Wordpress for iPhone – Great for approving comments when I’m away from my computer.
I also love to upload photos of my collaged vision boards, values cards, art and other inspiring pictures so I can access them for inspiration on-the-go and even rotate them as my screensaver for visual reminders.
I’d love to hear what apps you find useful, fun and inspiring. What are your favorites?
I can’t believe there’s only one more week of the Wreck This Journal journey. This week’s wrecking revolved mostly around the theme of yoga. The fabulous Connie, who is also a yogini and artist, inspired me to dabble in producing my own little video this week. I call it “Wreck This Journal-asana.”
The yogic spiritual guidelines of the yamas and the niyamas showed up, too. I practiced the yamas Aparigraha (greedlessness) by giving away some of my pages to friends. I gave my “scrub this page” to Kate to include in her heartfelt brush + scrub adventures with her honey. I practiced Ahimsa (nonviolence) by being kinder and gentler to my book this week. And I practiced the niyama of Swadhyaya (self-study) by doing the inner critic and good thoughts pages.
The inner critic thoughts remind me of vrittis (which in Sanskrit means vortex or circular activity with no beginning and no end). In my yoga teacher training we learned about how these “mental modifications” color our perceptions.
I decorated my good thoughts page with lovely comments from my recent Creative Life interview on the amazing Susannah Conway’s Ink on my fingers blog. The collage was my answer to Susannah’s juicy question, “What does happiness look like to you?” A perfect image to place on my good thoughts page.
I randomly picked a word from a page in the magazine for my “write one word over and over again page.”
Here are typical grocery lists from two of my favorite places to shop.
And finally, in the yogic practice of non-attachment, I dropped my journal into the mail today and left it in the hands of the postal service. Now that’s an exercise in letting go!
Creativity and play are two of my top values and Leah is the epitome of creativity and play – for goodness sakes, the girl makes the cutest smooshing noises when she’s squeezing her paints! I’m thrilled that we’ll be rolling up ourselves together and getting messy and silly with you! If you’re in the area, I hope you can join us. It will be fun to meet you in person! Sign-up here, space is limited.
What is creative play for you? How is it showing up in your life?
For me, creative play paves the way for intuition to flow freely, giggles to run rampant, and wonderful surprises to emerge. Here are a few of the ways I see creative play frolicking about in my life right now:
When my friend Amy wears colorful sippy cups on her head like hats to make her daughter laugh uncontrollably
At intuitive painting class where Chris Zydel is always gently nudging and supporting the crazy creative process to unfold
Discovering sparkly paint between my toes or inside my purse after intuitive painting class
While I’ve enjoyed the past several weeks of wrecking, this was the first week that I felt a little stuck around it. Not as inspired to crack my book open. Wanting a bit of a break from all the creation/demolition. During the creative process this can be thought of as the dip or a lull. I’ve noticed that in this pause, I’ve been renenergized around some other projects. I’m thinking that now might be a good time to mail the journal out to myself (one of the activities I’ve been avoiding since I’ve been so attached to it). We could probably use a break from each other for a few days!
I’ve been avoiding the “sticky” page, because well, it’s sticky/yucky. I’m also afraid that ants are going to invade my journal when they smell the honey and maple syrup!
Last week when I visited the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse, I picked up an old UC Berkeley newspaper from 1974. I clipped an article for my “random newspaper”page from it. I used to work at the UCLA Daily Bruin and that’s where Brian and I met, so I had a bit of nostalgia using a college paper.
I had fun practicing some handwritten type with the “four-letter word” page.
Perhaps having more ideas of how to wreck this journal will inspire me next week!
I have to say that the most excitement for me around Wreck This Journal this week came from my hilarious friend Connie. She conducted her own brilliant awards ceremony video – you must check it out. I’m super honored to be the winner of the “Cute as a Cupcake Wreck This Journal Dirty Footprints Studio award” and can’t wait to get my page from this creative chica! Thanks, Connie!
What do you know about your family history? How far back does your family tree go? Unfortunately, my family doesn’t have a whole lot of information about my relatives beyond my grandparents. And even that is fairly sparse, especially since my grandparents didn’t talk to much about their pasts when they were alive.
Fortunately, last year [...]
I can’t believe that I’ve lived in Oakland for more than five years and had yet to visit East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse! Well, last Friday my friend Julie and I rectified that situation. We beamed with excitement as we read on the website, “Every teacher’s first stop and every artist’s second home.” Since [...]
The wrecking continues on week 6 of the Next Chapter Wreck This Journal adventure. When I was at Trader Joe’s this morning, a woman came up to me and asked me if I was a life coach. She had seen my coaching website the other night and also enjoyed looking at all the wreckage of [...]
During these past five weeks of the Next Chapter’s Wreck This Journal adventure, I’ve had so much fun making my mark on this book. I even had to change the title to Wreck Jenn’s Journal! The cute stickers are from my friend Ana Ottman (thanks Ana!). Here’s a look at my wreckage for the week.
These past couple of weeks have been filled with serendipitous events. I love when that happens. As @peacemeals shared with me on Twitter, “It’s how the universe talks to us.”
Well, the universe has been sending me lots of messages that I’m on my path and in my flow. The other week, just a I was [...]
Woohoo! The Right-Brain Business Plan was mentioned in the August issue of Entrepreneur Magazine as an online business planning resource for creative companies. The article includes great tips on making a simple plan. An interesting post on how to make ideas happen. The New York Times article Creative Types, Learning to Be Business-Minded talks about a cool […]
