Certified Life Coach and Author Jennifer Lee, PCC, CPCC, MA
I haven’t done a pencil sketch in many years, so it was cool to try my hand at it again. Especially with one of my favorite subjects, my dog Emmett. Brian is always taking great photos of Emmett (he’s very photogenic – it must be that “eye liner!”). This sketch is from a photo that Brian took last year.
[tags]National Blog Posting Month, NaBloPoMo, Art Every Day Month, dogs[/tags]
Seems like it’s baby season! Many of my friends have just had babies, are having babies soon or are thinking about their second! I love making little cards and gifts for these special occasions. Today I created a few baby cards using pieces I had in my stash of craft supplies. It’s fun to see what I can make from what I have already – kinda like cooking dinner using only the ingredients you have on hand.
In the book “Living Artfully” artist and entrepreneur Sandra Magsamen says,
“Celebrations are an opportunity to use your creativity and imagination to connect with the people you hold most dear.”
I love how she encourages us to find simple ways, like creating handmade cards for friends and family, to bring more creativity into our lives.
[tags]National Blog Posting Month, NaBloPoMo, Art Every Day Month, handmade cards[/tags]
On Day 3 of Art Every Day Month, I took an encaustic painting class (painting using melted beeswax). I enjoyed learning a new medium and look forward to playing around with it more. My mixed-media collage features photos of my grandfather and Japanese paper. A few years ago, I created a collage book about my grandfather’s story of being the first Japanese-American employee at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, so it was nice to reconnect with that.
Rock Paper Scissors, where I took today’s class, is a cool artists’ co-op in Oakland that offers free and low-cost workshops to help foster creativity, community and collaboration. Watch this YouTube video to see the space and hear more about what they’re up to.
[tags]NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month, Art Every Day Month, encaustic painting, Rock Paper Scissors Collective[/tags]
Day 2 of NaBloPoMo and Art Every Day Month! My intent for this piece was just to take up the whole space with oil pastels. The end result is nothing like what I envisioned in my mind, but I like that something completely new emerged.
My friend Dorie, an Expressive Arts Therapist in training, shared with me that during her art making she takes photos to capture the progression of the piece. I thought that would be interesting to play with here…
I also started to rotate the page as I filled in all the white space, to discover how I might want to add more color and lines. It was cool to notice how shifting the angle changed my perspective.
If I hold an inquiry (such as “What would more balance in my life look like?”) as I ponder the different points of view, I can be open to new ways of responding.
In the top horizontal version, the yellow center looks like an eye, so I could choose to have more “focus” on what I am doing.
But as I rotated it clockwise, I started to see a woman with her hair flipped out over her shoulders and talking on a phone. Perhaps, I can seek out more girl-talk with my friends.
From this angle, the yellow and blue circles seem to be lying next to each other or embracing. I could spend more quality time with my husband.
And in this view, I can see a candle flame flickering with smoke wisping above which makes me imagine lighting a candle and meditating or another way of looking at it is to follow my passion.
See how there are so many more options made available by accessing my creative wisdom??
What do you notice by shifting your perspective? What new choices, options or innovative solutions surface from your intuition? Playing with different perspectives is a powerful coaching skill and it helps us to get unstuck. In fact, in my coaching, I use a tool from Karin Bauer, creator of Guidance Cards, which can be used to help clients uncover new ways of seeing a situation.
Try on a new point of view today!
[tags]NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month, Art Every Day Month, art visioning, expressive arts coaching, coaching[/tags]
Today kicks off National Blog Posting Month (post everyday for all of November) and Leah’s Art Every Day Month challenge. For me it’s a jam-packed month already but I couldn’t resist the structure and support around inviting more creativity into my life.
One of my tenets going into this challenge is to expand my idea of what constitutes “art.” Even though I crave creativity, often times I forgo it because of excuses like I don’t have enough time, my idea isn’t fully formed, I don’t know how to execute my vision, it will turn out stupid so I won’t want to show anyone, blah, blah, blah. And so, I end up not creating anything and my inner muse stagnates.
So, this month is all about busting those limiting beliefs and trying something new. It’s about honoring the creative process and not worrying about the end product.
For my first endeavor I wanted something simple and quick. The crisp autumn air inspired me to use the changing leaves. And given that I just launched my new coaching name and brand, the theme of transition seemed appropriate. I gathered a few fallen maple leaves and stamped Japanese characters on them in silver ink. They read “truth,” “beauty,” “grace.” I love that the leaves are imperfect and delicate and yet they are still beautiful.
[tags]National Blog Posting Month, NaBloPoMo, Art Every Day Month Challenge[/tags]
Imagine eight vibrant, creative women spending a Sunday afternoon together drawing, playing and exploring. This colorful and expressive group scribble gives you a taste of the fun, bright energy of this gathering of my friends for our first “Creative Playground.” We’re a group of coaches, therapists and artists at heart who are called to bring a more expansive view of creativity and feminine power out into the world. The concept for this Creative Playground was born out of a “quest” that I claimed at a CTI workshop, called Quest: A Leader’s Journey, in September.
I am on a journey of discovering how to root expressive arts and creativity more deeply into coaching. The arts (visual, music, dance, drama, creative writing, and the like) have long been used by therapists for insight, recovery and healing. And, given my experience in recent Expressive Arts Therapy courses, I believe there is an opportunity to create more community and thought leadership around using the arts and creativity from a coaching perspective. Since in coaching the client is viewed as already whole and doesn’t need healing or fixing, the focus is more on using creativity as a catalyst for forward movement toward their goals and dreams. I’ve been using this for myself and in my own practice and refer to it as art visioning.
I’m excited to share that I’ll be co-leading a call on “Expressive Arts Coaching” with a fellow Quester, Kathy Loh, on November 15th to dialogue with other coaches about how they use the arts and creativity in their practice.
What does creativity mean to you? How do you express your creativity? How do you use creativity to help you move forward in your life?
[tags]art visioning, creativity, coaching, expressive arts therapy, art therapy, expressive arts coaching, creativity coaching[/tags]
Yesterday morning, I reconnected with my blessings box which sits on a little altar in my meditation/yoga room/coaching office. Whenever I’m moved, I’ll write what I’m grateful for on a handmade “I am blessed” card and place it in my blessings box.
Reading my cards filled me with deep appreciation and joy as I was reminded of how grateful I am of my supportive and loving husband, the beautiful area in which we live, my wonderful circle of friends and family, living my dreams and so many other amazing things!
Coming from a place of gratitude created a lovely flow synchronicity throughout the day:
What are you grateful for? I’d love to hear! Or take a moment to write it down and tuck it away in a special, sacred space. And as you appreciate what’s positive and wonderful right now, notice how you open yourself to serendipity – even in the simplest forms. It’s amazing what the universe will serve up when we’re ready to receive!
[tags]Blessings Box, Law of Attraction, Synchronicity[/tags]
After Friday night’s experience in the Expressive Arts class, I had a lot to process. There was so much for me to begin to integrate. Embracing the research and theories of an established field, rather than rebelling against something that felt too “masculine,” “mental,” “problem-focused” and “intellectualized.” I had lots of judgments coming up – probably based in my own fears and insecurities. I allowed myself to open up to ways of thinking that aren’t my normal mode of operation. I was reminded of one of my new commandments: “Go where you’ve never been. Go toward the roar. What’s in the way, is the way.” With this shift, I now saw tremendous value in the research and history and became inspired to do my own researching, hypothesizing and experimenting. I don’t tend to take a logical or rigorous approach to my endeavors and I could learn from that. It’s striking a balance of masculine and feminine.
On Saturday, as we moved into experiential activities, I loosened up more. For the first exercise, I was drawn to the earthy, malleable quality of clay. My impulse was not to break it into pieces, but rather to work with the whole and see what emerged; to create from. First the instructor had us center ourselves and sense what we felt in our bodies. I noticed both a sense of grounding and also an excitement or agitation , almost like an itching or a bursting out from my skin. She played music for us to see how that might add to our experience of art making. For me, I was inspired to create lots of energy and fluid motion, like ideas radiating from the center.
I wanted to color my piece and since there was no paint, I improvised. I rubbed chalk on a scratch piece of paper and then dabbed the vibrant dust onto my sculpture. I loved the idea of repurposing this medium in an innovative way. And I ended up liking my “scratch paper” as it felt like an integral part of my overall piece.
What was so symbolic for me about this process was the idea of taking the concepts from Expressive Arts Therapy and integrating it into coaching. While we don’t analyze past issues or problems in coaching, we do look at different perspectives, tap into intuition and use our creativity to move forward. I’m borrowing ideas and approaches from one field and am finding ways to incorporate them into another, newer field. Lately I’ve found myself in conversations with other cool women who are exploring similar ideas. It’s like we’re on the verge of defining an emerging body of work. My piece represented that for me in many ways – the centering in myself, the borrowing of established wisdom and the boldness of putting myself and my ideas out there in ways I might not even understand fully yet.
We also practiced authentic movement and then drew something based on our experience. During the movement, I found myself light and airy at first and then toward the end felt an immense draw to the earth and to take up space on the floor. I just allowed myself to explore, be lost and then find my way to a grounded place. As I write that, I realize that was actually my process in the class, too. I went in to try something new and learn, I found myself being resistant and then I discovered ways to make it my own and to be inspired from it.
This experience has underscored a somewhat new dream that’s slowly forming. I am sensing that eventually I want a physical space, an inspiring and centering environment for art visioning/expressive arts coaching, workshops, yoga and community gatherings. A place for others to come and express themselves, to explore, learn and grow. I really love how the creative process allows new and exciting things to unfold!
How can you use your creative process to imagine new things for yourself? In what ways can you engage your senses? What’s something totally different you’re willing to try?
[tags]Art visioning, expressive arts therapy, expressive arts coaching, authentic movement, art therapy[/tags]
Friday was the first night of another class I’ve signed up for at JFK University. This time it’s an Introduction to Expressive Arts Therapy: A Jungian-Oriented Approach. Once again I found myself to be the only non-therapist/coach in the room (besides a new friend of mine, Laura, who is a therapist training to also be a coach).
When I entered the classroom, I was excited to see colorful scarves adorning a table. I had visions of colors swirling around the room in creative, playful expression throughout the weekend!
As we settled in, I started to noticed that there was a masculine-type energy in the room – a more staid, intellectual focus. Perhaps being in a classroom setting didn’t help me? I found myself having an adverse reaction and wanting to reject the information, the lecture, the questions as they didn’t speak to my heart or feed my soul… at least on the surface they didn’t, until I looked deeper. I started to get very curious about my reaction and began to look for the gift in it. What was it I couldn’t be with and what could I learn from that?
At the end of the evening, the instructor invited us to wander over to the table in the corner and pick up an object that spoke to us. I walked over and immediately grabbed a scarf. With my hand on the fabric, I looked over and saw that everyone else was going for the solid, tangible (“real”) objects in the center of the table – the rocks, crystals, shells. I suddenly doubted my choice and mouthed to the instructor, “Does this count?” She nodded gently.
As I played with the scarf, I was flooded with so many reasons why the scarf spoke to me. It’s fluid and flowing. It’s playful and beautiful. It’s bluish-green like water, which can be emotional and expressive. It’s expansive, able to hold a lot and I could wrap myself in it so it could be nurturing and integrating. It’s malleable, it could transform into other shapes – a flower, a small ball. It’s transparent and sheer – there’s nothing to hide. It’s soft and silky. So different from the other hard, small, rigid inanimate objects. It was something that was needed in the room – a touch of flair and femininity. A different perspective.
For me this was significant as it represents a journey I’ve been on of claiming the power of my own feminine style and leadership. As I shared some of that with the group, the instructor mentioned that in all the years she’s done this exercise, no one has picked the scarf! So, even though sometimes the feminine can be dismissed or overlooked (just like some might have thought the scarves were just decoration surrounding the objects) it’s important to know and own that it’s much needed in the world. And to take a stand for it! I now have another new motto to live by, “Reach for the scarves!”
[tags]Art visioning, masculine and feminine, expressive arts therapy, expressive arts coaching[/tags]
I’m a huge lulu lemon athletica fan. Their yoga clothes rock and I absolutely adore their manifesto. It’s inspiring, sassy, thoughtprovoking and cool. And it gave me fodder for my own creative project.
After recently reworking my life purpose statement, I also went back to update my detailed life plan. The plan is based on all facets of my life (career, health, money, relationships, etc.) and has actions and timelines for accomplishing my goals. I hadn’t looked at it in a while, so it was cool to see all the things that I could now check off. Like leaving my corporate job to go into business for myself, getting certified as a yoga instructor, and visiting Greece, Egypt and Turkey to name a few.
Reconnecting with my life plan energized me. I wanted a visual reminder of all the purpose statements I created for the different aspects of my life. The manifesto postcard proved to be the perfect medium. I did my own twist on it and am calling it a “woman”-ifesto! I’m going to put a few copies throughout my house to remind me of my vision.
What’s your “woman”-ifesto? How do you keep connected with your life purpose? What cues can you create to remind you of all the wonderful things you’re up to?
[tags]life purpose, life coaching, life plan, woman-ifesto, manifesto, art visioning[/tags]