3 Steps to a Creative New Year

In the spirit of celebrating the coming New Year, I invite you to try this simple 3-step process to help set your intentions and spark a year of joyful creative living in 2015.

Grab some colored pens or pencils (I love writing with colorful felt-tip markers! ) and a blank piece of paper or, better yet, a beautiful journal you haven't been able to bring yourself to write in yet because you don't know where to start. Click here to download the prompts in printable form below if you'd like.

Ready? Let yourself answer the following questions quickly and intuitively without overthinking them. Your first answers are usually your best and most true.

#1 ~ Give Yourself Credit ~

~ What creative projects, pursuits and experiences did I enjoy most in 2014?
~ What helped give me permission to enjoy these creative experiences?
~ What worked well when it came to living a creative life last year?

#2 ~ Give Yourself Ideas ~

~ Which creative projects, pursuits and experiences would I like to continue in 2015?
~ Which new creative projects, pursuits and experiences would I love to explore in 2015?
~ What's one small way I can experience creative joy every day in the coming year?

#3 ~ Give Yourself Permission ~

~ Where can I find compassionate support to help me make time and space for my creativity? (Think friends, groups, classes, coaching, etc...)
~ How can I practicing giving myself permission to enjoy creative experiences more often?
~ What's one loving way I can allow myself to experience more creative joy than ever in the coming year?

Here's to living the creative life in 2015! May your year be filled with many wonderful Creative Oasis moments, laughter, love and light!

Jill

Put Away Your Credit Card & Boost Your Creative Cred Instead

When was the last time you received a handmade gift or card or even a hand-written note rather than an e-mail or text for that matter?

Do you remember how it made you feel? Pretty darn warm and fuzzy all over, right?

In this age of dashing into a supermarket to buy a gift card at the checkout counter on the way to a birthday party or quickly typing "HBD" on someone's Facebook page rather than taking the time to write a heartfelt message or even better, actually sending a real card by mail (gasp!) it's easy to see why receiving something created by hand feels like you've been given a treasure.

One of the awesome women in my recent "Living the Creative Life" class felt inspired to create lovely handmade presents (see above) for me and the other members of our group to celebrate our last day of class. As you can imagine, we were all absolutely delighted by her thoughtfulness and creativity!

A heartfelt message written on a piece of brown paper 

tied with twine and decorated with

 fresh sprigs of rosemary and lavender ~ 

truly a gift that touched all of the senses

 ~ not to mention our hearts!

How would you like to enjoy a bit of creative play, boost your creative "cred" and make someone's day at the same time? Sounds good, huh?

Why not create and send a personalized postcard to a friend, family member or even to yourself?

The photo above shows some examples of postcards I invite members of my classes and workshops to create at the end of our sessions. They decorate the front of the postcards then write a special message of encouragement or reminders from the class to themselves. At a future date I use my intuition to drop the cards in a postbox so the makers receive a beautiful piece of mail on (hopefully) just the day they really need it. 

Enjoy creating your own special postcards in 5 easy steps!

#1 ~  Click here to download the postcard template I've created.

#2 ~ Print out on an 8 1/2 x 11 inch piece of matte card stock then cut in half horizontally. Now you'll have two postcards to create. (Card stock is plenty hefty enough to decorate and send through the mail.)

#3 ~ Embellish the front blank space anyway you like. You may want to cut out images from magazines and use a glue stick to make a simple collage. You may choose to draw or doodle something. You may play with watercolors, crayons or markers. If you're more of a word person, you may want to use only words to decorate your card without any visuals at. 

There's no right or wrong way to do this! The main thing is just to have fun playing with the creative process and materials. 

#4 ~ Write a note to yourself or someone else on the back left side of the postcard. If you're not sure what to write, what if you just copy one of your favorite quotes?

#5 ~ Address your postcards and pop them in the mail! (If you want to send one to yourself why not ask a friend to mail it to you in the future?)

If it sounds like something you'd like to try I encourage you to give yourself permission to dive in and being right now. Just set a timer for ten minutes and go! You'll be amazed at how quickly you'll be enjoying the feeling of creative flow. 

I hope you have fun playing with this low-pressure creative experience. You're sure to brighten anyone's day who is lucky enough to receive your handmade, heart felt postcard!

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

Jill

Are You Daydreaming Enough These Days?

(Empowered Quote by Mary Engelbreit & Jill Allison Bryan.
Click here to learn more about how to create Empowered Quotes of your own.)

We've been practicing the power of Kaizen (small steps to continuous improvement) in my Living the Creative Life classes the past couple of weeks.

When I invite these wonderful women to break down one of their creative wishes into as many small steps as possible they're often surprised when I suggest they add "daydream" to their lists. They're also delighted to learn that not only does daydreaming count, it's actually an important and useful (though often overlooked) small step. Why?

Daydreaming helps us step away from our never-ending to-do lists for a bit and imagine new possibilities. (Just writing that statement made me take a nice deep breath!) 

It's also a wonderful way to stop and ponder what it even is that we want to experience.

Spending some relaxed time (even just a few minutes) allowing our minds to wander and consider "what if" scenarios can open the door to all manner of creative options we may never think of otherwise.

Add a little gentle structure to your daydreaming (such as simply keeping the phrase "what if" in your mind) and you may find yourself coming up with all manner of fabulous creative plans and possibilities.

When's the last time you gave yourself permission to daydream? I'm guessing it's been a while. And you're not alone.

I invite you to set a timer and give yourself the next two minutes (That's less than a bathroom break!) to stare out the window, gaze at your navel or close your eyes and simply ponder the question "What if?"

Next, click here to download and print the free Permission to Daydream fun sheet below. Then give yourself the gift of another two minutes to engage in some guilt-free, lightly structured daydreaming with your wise inner self.

So there you have it. In less then five minutes you've treated yourself to a relaxing (and hopefully, eye-opening) time to dream up some new ways to say yes to your Creative Oasis this week!

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

Jill

Jill Allison Bryan

Daydream Believer/Singer/Songwriter/Creative Coach

Creative Ignorance is Bliss

This Mid-Week Oasis Moment was inspired by the amazing commencement address given by award winning novelist, graphic novelist and screenwriter Neil Gaiman last year at The University of the Arts. (see more below) One of the many fabulous reminders I took away from his captivating and inspiring speech was that not knowing the rules can be a good thing.

To quote Gaiman, 

"When you start out on a career in the arts you have no idea what you are doing.

This is great. People who know what they are doing know the rules, and know what is possible and impossible. You do not. And you should not. 

The rules on what is possible and impossible in the arts were made by people who 

had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond them. And you can.

If you don't know it's impossible it's easier to do. And because nobody's done it before, they haven't made up rules to stop anyone doing that again, yet."

Though his speech was written for and delivered to a group of college graduates,
it nonetheless spoke directly to my heart - the heart of a 48 year old woman
long past my own college graduation and well into my third or fourth career.
(depending on whether or not you count working on a private sailboat in the Caribbean
as a career move, which I do) Hearing Gaiman's wise, compassionate and inspiring words
filled me with as much hope and desire to go forth and live my creative dreams
as if I too were just starting out in the "real world."

Click here to see video of his wonderful speech and read more reminders that

I believe can serve all of us pursuing our creative dreams no matter how long ago
we finished school, or if like Gaiman, we never pursued higher education at all!

   COME PLAY!

Join me for my

Living the Creative Life Workshop

Saturday, June 8 from 1 to 4:30pm

Pigment School of the Arts

(click here for more info)

   

Explore the powerful experience of one-on-one creativity coaching. Email me at creativeoasiscoach@me.com to schedule your complimentary session today.

Thanks for joining me for this Mid-Week Oasis Moment.

Please feel free to share with anyone you think could use a bit of creative inspiration and permission!

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

Jill    

 Jill Allison Bryan 

Certified Master Kaizen-Muse®Creativity Coach

Founder of Creative Oasis Coaching(TM)

Singer/Songwriter  

  

  www.creativeoasiscoaching.com    

 creativeoasiscoach@me.com

 

  

The Great Toilet Paper Roll Creative Challenge

I think we all have one or two of these around the house.

Last week I sent an impromptu email to my “Living the Creative Life” class with the subject line “The Great Toilet Paper Roll Creative Challenge.” What does a creativity coach with no particular agenda on a lazy, rainy Saturday afternoon do for fun? She dreams up a creative prompt using empty toilet paper rolls.

So, I'm a slightly compulsive about recycling, (hmmm…“slightly compulsive” is an oxymoron, isn't it?) and as I tossed another toilet paper roll into the recycling bin that day I thought “What if I used this ubiquitous household item as a creative prompt?” (BTW – asking ourselves "what if" is a fabulous way to mine creative gold!) I'd made some cute little owls for my daughter several months earlier that I’d seen on The Hidden List. She in turn had recently created something on her own she dubbed “The Little Roll of Happiness” and left it on my desk as a surprise. As you turn the roll the messages say: I love you! You are amazing! You are beautiful! Best mom ever! Best wife ever! You are you! (Still get vklempt whenever I read it.)

So, inspired by these fun little projects, here is the optional creative challenge I offered up to my class:

“Sometime before we meet this week, what if you created something with an empty toilet paper roll?  You can use one roll or fifty. (though I doubt you have 50 spare used toilet paper rolls handy) You can create the project all on your own or you can look for something fun on the internet. You might collage it, or paint it, or write a poem to it or about it. There are no rules other than to have fun with it!”

Everyone chose to participate, although some admitted that at first they weren’t going to, either because they didn’t think they had the time or couldn’t imagine what they would do or thought it was a little silly. But, in the end everyone came up with a wonderfully creative idea of their own and completed their creations in a short amount of time.

Funky Necklace

One person shared that though she was excited to create something at first she soon felt stuck. She found herself worrying about whether or not she would make something “good enough” (does this sound familiar to anyone?) and it totally shut her down. Then, as she sat holding her empty toilet paper roll she saw the humor in it. “Why am I freaking out over making something out of a used toilet paper roll?” And she decided to lower her expectations. (The super cool serendipity here is that lowering expectations was a Kaizen-Muse® Creativity Coaching tool I'd already planned on sharing that week!)

She gave herself permission to create the ugliest thing ever and that released the pressure she was feeling and helped her begin. She allowed herself to have fun. She combined her love of color and textures with the belief that anything can be turned into a necklace and ouila! Before she knew it she had created something very cool in a very short amount of time and had a lot of fun doing it. (and, as it turns out…she may end up using this as a template for some other real necklaces – yay!)

The Guardian Angel of Toilet Paper

Another wonderful creation was The Guardian Angel of Toilet Paper. She watches over your bathroom to make sure your holder is always ready with a full roll with the paper faced in your preferred direction! The wings were crafted from the used roll, flattened and covered with glitter and Modge Podge. Then the angel herself was made from actual toilet paper. (we all agreed there may be a market for this beauty, so consider her copyrighted!)

Planter and beautiful reminder

This tiny planter holds a bit of soil and some lemon balm seeds. The lovely reminder reads, "When I tend to my garden my creative spirit soars!" This was one of the wonderful creations that nearly didn't get made. (not enough time...don't know what to do....ect....) And then, when the idea came to her, she created the entire project from start to finish in less than ten minutes and admits it made her very happy to do so. When the seeds begin to sprout, she's going to plant them outside as a living reminder for herself. (I told you - these are amazing!)

Toilet Paper Butterfly of Transformation

This sweet butterfly was inspired with a discussion of the butterfly as a symbol of transformation in a previous class. Again...a fun creative project, created in a very short time which gave a large amount of satisfaction to the creator and to the entire group.

In a beautiful bit of serendipity, Jill Badonsky, founder of Kaizen–Muse® Creativity Coaching recently shared this fun list of creative modalities:

Though toilet paper rolls are not on the list, I feel sure she would applaud their addition!
So there you have it. Further proof that it doesn't take huge amounts of time or baskets of expensive materials, or even a particularly serious idea to enjoy some wonderful soul-nurturing creative satisfaction! If you're up for The Great Toilet Paper Challenge I'd love to see your creations. Please send a photo to me at creativeoasiscoach@me.com! 
Until next time, all the best from my creative oasis to yours,
Jill
www.creativeoasiscoaching.com