Wishing You These True Gifts...

In celebration of the Christmas season I wish you peace, love, light

and permission to fully embrace your creativity in 2015! 

How have you delighted in your creativity this season? 

How will you embrace and enjoy your creativity in the coming year? 

How will you nurture your creative spirit? 

Here's to good self-care, laughter, love, light and

fabulous creative experiences that make life worth living ~
at Christmas time and throughout the year! 

Merry Everything from my Creative Oasis to yours,

Jill

Jill Allison Bryan

www.creativeoasiscoaching.com                                        

Recipe for a Dreamy Little Christmas

How are the holidays treating you so far? More importantly, how are you treating yourself?

I'm enjoying a rather smooth transition into the Christmas season. Not to toot my own horn, but I have to admit Create the Christmas of Your Dreams seems to be major reason for this!

Here are a few ideas that are helping me and the lovely members of our CTCOYD support group the most:

~ Any project, plan or party can be broken down into small, doable steps ~ or as I like to call them this time of year, Merry Little Movements.

Imagine my delight in realizing one Christmas project in particular could easily be divided into more than a dozen small steps. So long overwhelm ~ hello creative joy!

~ Enough really is enough. 

For example, I gave myself a decorating deadline. That meant any holiday decorating I intended to do needed to be finished by Sunday, even if that meant not putting out every single decoration I own. And you know what? It was not only enough...it was plenty!

~ Creative joy can be experienced in small little burst of creative play. 

Five or ten minutes coloring in a holiday mandala, creating a Christmas card or digitally enhancing a photo sparks creative satisfaction that lasts for hours. Here's a pinterest project using rolled magazine pages I'm creating during some of my brief of Christmas Oasis Moments.

~ Permission to embrace what's most important and release the rest. 

Rather than show up to a holiday gathering feeling frazzled and fatigued because I felt the need to create some gourmet dish from scratch along with everything else I had going that day, I chose to show up rested and ready to party with a store bought appetizer and a smile.

~ Good self-care is not optional ~ it's essential. 

With the social invitations rolling in, the pressure to finish shopping mounting, not to mention "end-of-year-everything," it's easy to tell ourselves we simply don't have time.

That's why it's so nice to be part of a group that knows the value of taking good care of ourselves, especially during the time of year we're often running on too little sleep, too many treats while dodging the omnipresent cold and flu bugs.

~ Good self-care is easier than you might think.

Something has simple as using some nice, rich hand cream, taking a walk around the block or enjoying a few deep breaths and stretches can revitalize you and keep you going strong throughout the holidays.

I invite you to use the recipe above with your choice of ingredients from the list below to create a dreamy Christmas of your own!

Click here to download your complimentary printable "Dream Christmas Ingredients" list.

Until next time, all the best from my Dreamy Christmas Oasis to yours,

Jill

Jill Allison Bryan

www.creativeoasiscoaching.com

P.S. ~ If you enjoyed this post and would like to receive bite-size bonbons of creative inspiration like this in my Mid-Week Oasis Moments plus a free copy of my e-book "Permission to Be Creative 101" join me here: http://www.creativeoasiscoaching.com/newsletter.html.

May Your Heart Shine Like a Peace Sign

I took this photo of our vintage marquee peace sign for Day 30 of my #100HappyDays challenge.

The idea behind the #100HappyDays challenge is simple and inspiring and that's why I love it so much! 

Each day I get to take a photo of something that makes me happy and post it. Easy-peasy! (Click here to visit my #100HappyDays pinterest board to see the crazy variety of things that have made me happy over the last several weeks.)

The purpose of the challenge is to help people realize that it doesn't take a lot of time to be happy.

As a result of #100HappyDays I'm focused on seeing something good in my life at least once a day. Even the simplest things like a fluffed up bird sitting in a tree or the fact that tasty orange cuties are in season bring me happiness. Focusing on what brings joy to my life, even for the few moments it takes to snap a photo and post it, also brings me peace.

This aligns so nicely with my philosophy that even small amounts of time spend enjoying your Creative Oasis (whatever makes your heart sing and time fly) is time well-spent! 

This is the time of year we often hear the message "Peace on earth ~ good will toward men." Ironically, it's also the time of year that can stress us out so much we end up spending much of the time feeling quite the opposite of peaceful! 

So, what can we do about that? How can we experience more feelings of peace during the Christmas holidays?

When we make our own self-care a priority that helps us handle all of the relationships and responsibilities in our lives with more grace, ease and joy. This in turn helps the people in our lives to also experience more happiness, grace and peace. And so on...and so on...and so on. (If you're of a certain age please pardon the shampoo commercial reference.)

As the Christmas season begins, I invite you to choose an easy-to-do, soul-satisfying, peace-inducing creative challenge of your own. Here are a few ideas to help you begin...

~ Join me for the #100HappyDays challenge 

(www.100happydays.com)

~ Choose one thing you're grateful for each day in December and

write it in your journal, post it on Facebook or simply keep it in your heart

~ Ask yourself "What's one easy way I can help myself feel peaceful today?" 

(*Hint ~ it could be as simple as taking a few nice deep breaths.)

~ Enjoy 5 minutes of "I Get To" creative time 

(Easy ideas: doodling, coloring in a mandala, writing a haiku, stringing popcorn & cranberries)

I wish you many peaceful moments and a season filled with lots of love, laughter and light ~ especially the kind that makes your heart shine like a big ol' peace sign!

All the best from my Creative Oasis to yours,

Jill

Jill Allison Bryan

www.creativeoasiscoaching.com

P.S. ~ When I began playing with words to add to my peace sign photo for this post, I was delighted to realize that the "earth and heart" are anagrams. This felt like a special heemeesheemee to me. (*Heemeesheemee ~ my word for a serendipitous occurrence.) 

5 Quick Questions to Help You "Create the Christmas of Your Dreams"

Click here to take this fun short survey and grab your spot for my free "Warm-Up" teleclass for: 

Click here to take this fun short survey and grab your spot for my free "Warm-Up" teleclass for: 

 Create the Christmas of Your Dreams ~ 

 3-week Teleclass and Support Group 

where I'll help you embrace holiday happiness, 

creative joy and good self-care!

November 19, 2014

1 to 2pm (CST)

(Call will be recorded & shared if you're unable to join us live.)