Tag Archives: energy

In praise of play

Posted on by
Reply

What does play mean to you?
And fun…? When was the last time you really had some fun?

It can be so easy to slip silently and unconsciously into serious mode and spend days in a row working or just getting by, doing the necessaries, but little more. Engaging in activities that make our heart sing is so vital to our well being, as is spending quality time with people we love. So grab a friend if you can, step away from the screen and go have some fun!

Time playing is far from time wasted. When you are feeling stuck and unproductive, go play. Just think how much more energy you will have! Ideas and inspiration are natural by-products when you are in flow, so do things that make you feel good. Play regularly. Don’t hold back.

Last week, after too many days in the previous month spent face to screen, I played full on. Activities included:
Snooker with the kids
Bouncing on a trampoline
Bat and ball on the beach with my partner
Horse riding with my 5 year old son
Hide and seek
Drawing
Making beach art
Water balloon fights with my partner and our boys

Oh, we laughed and smiled so much. It was like someone had hit the reset button. I regained my perspective and got in touch with my playful spirit. This week, I am filled with energy and enthusiasm for my work and my mission. I am more creative and productive than I have been in rather too long and it’s all down to time out and fun. So here’s to more play and more fun because grown ups need to play too.
What will you do?

Start now

Posted on by
Reply

How often have you held back?

Oh, I dare not count the times that procrastination has won over taking action. I learn my lesson each time I begin and the energy starts to flow and I wonder what took me so long and how much further forward I would be had I only started earlier.
But I am not one for regrets.
I am one for lessons and learning and one foot in front of the next.
So if you didn’t do it yesterday, then when? Go on…

Start now
Take that first leap
Energy will flow when you begin.

Sending love and hoping you will share with me your outcome.
Julia x

Reaping the benefits of slow time

Posted on by
Reply

Home

When I wrote In praise of slow time in the early hours, reflecting on my time away, I had not yet experienced the full benefits. This morning, up early again, I felt energised and ready to take on the world. Perhaps it had something to do with the sunshine… or perhaps that’s what happens when you slow down and take time just to be.

Yes, I am back to my too busy self again, trying to squeeze way too much into my weekend, but right now, that’s OK as I have achieved more in the past 48 hours than in certain weeks recently! Remembering to stop is the key when I feel like this. I must not keep go, go, going… things can wait and they will. Sleep is vital. I must remind myself of this and slow down again.

One of the best things about staying away from home is the lack of clutter to distract me. There are fewer jobs waiting to be done, not as many distractions pulling me and as a result I feel calmer… something I want for my own home. So today, the de-cluttering continued. I am clearing out the old to make room for the new… whatever that may be. Old paintings have come out from under the bed, old frames are out the door, and a poster I adore is framed and ready to inspire me in my bedroom… I just want to do more! Something is shifting. I am letting go again… it’s a good feeling. I may resist and resist, but when I do let go, it feels so very liberating. I have also moved the furniture. In my little house, there is little room to move beds and sofas, so the only room in which I can really shift things around is my dining room. As luck would have it, that is where I spent the majority of my time, so a regular moving of tables and chairs really shifts the energy. I love it!

Art has been made, and a video too, timetables have been written and the work I’ve been avoiding is done.

Oh, and I have line-dried sheets when I finally fall into bed. Wait, I can hear it calling. Goodnight. Sweet dreams.
With love,
Julia x

Draw when you need to de-stress

Posted on by
Reply

Tuesday was challenging: a new project; a large group of fresh faces; a tube strike. I made it through. I left home at the crack of dawn to run the first in a series of ten 4 hour workshops for a gallery in Chichester. By the end of the day, I could barely walk, let alone think straight and was having visions of stopping at the first service station for an extended nap in order to safely drive the rest of the way home. Instead, I chose to go directly to the nearest café for a hot chocolate and lemon cake refuel. My intention was also to log on to Facebook to see what people were sharing in the group on the second day of my online creativity course. seeing the posts there prompted me to pick up a pen and add drawing to my refuel stop. Doing something so different from the focus of my day, in a fresh environment, was just what I needed to shift the energy and prepare to hit the road. Art has a habit of doing that for me… art is my de-stresser; my changer of energy. I sailed home, to uplifting music, with a head full of ideas, under dramatic skies. Today, I used art as a meditation… a way of clearing my mind of the clutter of the day. Again, it shifted the energy. In doodling away, my mind flashed back, for the first time in years, to the times when, as a teen, drawing had been my quiet friend, leading me out of one feeling and into another, more comfortable place. The reminder today? To draw when I feel uneasy; to doodle when I need to de-stress; to make art more often as it has so many benefits.

What sucks your creative energy? What feeds it?

Posted on by
6

Over the past few months, I have been working, on and off, on a project that has sapped my creative energy. At first, I avoided it; pretended it wasn’t there; focused on different things, but with a deadline approaching and no way out, I got stuck in. And then I got stuck again.

As a Creator, I felt far from in flow. I had been asked to write out and turn into lessons the work I had been doing off the cuff for a period of years… the work that came freely and easily to me when faced with a room full of artists. This recent request was work, not play. How lucky I am that my work does, at times when I am in flow, feel like play and how blessed I am to be in a position that allows me to work alongside artists with whom I can share thoughts, ideas and inspiration in both directions: I am inspired as much as I inspire in this and in any teaching role. It is a privilege to be paid for such work. But turning my thoughts and ideas into a teaching manual? That is something entirely different. My creative energy dried up. There was little room for inspiration or for art, but hindsight it a marvellous thing. With hindsight, I should have said no. I should have rejected this part which has taken over my brain and killed my creativity for way too long (and a week would be way too long, but this has been months!). The energy taken in doing this work left little room for my creative heart. And now… now that it is almost done and I have a little bit of space for myself and for my creative mind to take flight once again, patterns are emerging.

Today and yesterday, for example, the patterns took the form of mandalas, drawn out unconsciously, elaborate embellishments to the notes I was taking whilst speaking with people who ignite and inspire me. No brain-sucking energy there… just uplifting conversation with Creator friends whose spirit and ideas motivate and excite me. And guess what…? As I move back towards my creative friends, the creative energy flows naturally, spilling out of me without me even noticing until pages are decorated and ideas and energy spreads, outwards and on… from my notes to a fresh new page where the mandalas continue, a focus for my restless hands. That is the pattern… sharing freely with creative souls, I am at my most creative. Block my mind and my hands are also tied.

My creativity helps me focus and relax. I’m inviting and welcoming it back in and recognising the patterns. Play more, make more art, do more of what I love and more creative energy will flow. Next time I am faced with a task that is so far from in flow, I will simply say no. There is always a way round it… someone else for whom that task will be easy; even fun. Next time, I will find them and free myself to do what I do best.

What boosts your creativity? What saps your creative energy?
What can you do today to remain in the zone of flow?