One-Step Creative Self-Care Solution via Anne Lamott

"Have you tried unplugging it?" 

This is the standard reply you'll hear in my house when faced with an electronic device problem of almost any kind. Unplugging your computer when it freezes up is one of the easiest and most effective methods of solving the issue. 

Why not try this one-step solution for your own creative self-care?

As I enjoy some "unplugged" time in the beautiful mountains of Colorado these delightful (and true!) words from Anne Lamott seem most appropriate to share. 

Here's to giving yourself a break this summer...to unplugging for a day, an hour or even just 10 minutes to "reboot" your creative spirit. 

Here are a few prompts to help you get started: 

* When I visualize myself unplugged I see...

* When I give myself permission to unplug I feel...

* One of my favorite ways to unplug is to...

* Even if I only have 10 minutes to unplug I could...

* I'll give myself permission to unplug at least once this week by...

Find more ways to creatively unplug using my "Create the Summer of Your Dreams Kit" right here. 

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

Jill

Jill Allison Bryan

www.creativeoasiscoaching.com

P.S. ~ If you enjoyed this post please share on Facebook and twitter using the buttons below!  If you'd like to receive bite-size bonbons of creative inspiration like this 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.

Mountain Lesson #3 – Chipmunk Logic

(photo by Christy Cogsdill)

The card with the cute photo of a chipmunk with overstuffed cheeks has been sitting on my desk since my return from Breckenridge, Colorado. He reminds me of the sweet little creatures that feast on sunflower seeds (courtesy of my dad) on our back porch.  They’re adorable to watch as they scamper to and fro. They stuff so many seeds in their mouths that you’re absolutely sure their tiny cheeks will explode if they go for one more, and then somehow, miraculously, they pop in a couple more and do not, in fact, explode.

I’ve kept this card out because I wanted to use it for a blog post, but I just couldn’t seem to find the exact topic the photo conveyed. I’ve been home for almost two weeks now. Still not sure what this little guy was saying to me, I thought to myself, “I’ll just scan the photo and then I’ll have it – just in case.” And that’s when it hit me!

The reason I resonate so much with those hoarding chippies is I can relate to them! They’re stocking up while the gettin’s good "just in case" they show up one morning to find no more seeds.  Well, I too have a bad case of the “just in case” blues. I keep my grandmother’s china just in case I ever want to have a formal dinner party or tea. (I never do.  I’m not the formal type!) I hold onto old toothbrushes just in case I want to scrub tile grout with them. (I never do. I guess I’m not the grout-scrubbing type either.) I stash decades of documents in boxes that overflow out of my office closet, just in case I ever need them. (like I could find them if I did – ha!)

I recently read a great article on the “just in case” mentality, and I’m sure I clipped and stored it somewhere –“just in case” I should ever want to refer to it again. (Like I do today, but can’t, because I don’t have the first clue where it is!)

I have this image in my mind...somewhere in the cosmos there are these enlightened beings watching me scamper around my office with my stacks and stacks of stuff. I can hear them now, “Oh, how cute. She’s bought another book on creativity. Wouldn’t you think she’d have enough by now? Do you think she’ll actually read this one all the way through?”

Having just recently cleaned out and organized my bedroom closet and my daughter’s closet with the help of a wonderful professional organizer (Atta Girl Organizing), I know first-hand the fantastic feeling of letting go of things I really don’t need (give-away totes with ripped handles, sandals I haven’t worn in five years, clothes that don’t fit) and then putting the things I really do need and want in order. Seriously, my closet now brings me a feeling of peace and serenity. Sometimes I just look in it and sigh. It’s like my moment of Zen.

My challenge to myself, and to you, this fall is to practice feeling abundant, knowing that I have plenty, and that things that I’ll need in the future will show up exactly when I need them. I don’t have to hang on to a bunch of stuff “just in case.”

It’s interesting how creating literal space, seems to free up our time as well. Less stuff to deal with (clean, store, repair, manage) more time to create (write, sing, paint, play, run, design). What about you? Anyone have any ideas for making space in your life? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let’s support each other this fall and enjoy the freedom of the “just in time” mentality, rather than the frenetic “just in case” pace of a squirrel storing food for the winter – which can make us nuts!

P.S. – Here’s a link to that article I was thinking of earlier. It was written by Martha Beck for the April 2009 Oprah Magazine. I found it “just in time”! 

Mountain Lesson #2 – Breaking Through Self-imposed Barriers is Fun!

(as featured on MORE.com - the official website of MORE magazine) On Sunday, August 9, 2009, at 9am mountain standard time, I, Jill Allison Bryan, (former non-athlete, former non-runner, former person least likely to engage in any contest relying on physical ability and coordination), ran my first ever 5K race.  Not only my first 5K ever, but on a course which meandered through the mountains of Breckenridge, Colorado at an elevation of  some10,000 feet, with a vertical ascent of over 850 feet on the trail! (an added challenge for a flatlander from Dallas, Texas) My fantastic creativity coach, Jill Badonsky, used to encourage me to toot my own horn now and again and this feels like a most appropriate moment, so…TOOT!!  TOOT!!

Actually, I’m writing about this personal triumph not so much to sing my own praises, as to share with you the notion that breaking through personally imposed barriers can be an absolutely fan-freakin’-tastic experience!  We all have certain labels we’ve taken on or been saddled with by family members, friends, enemies or evil P.E. teachers.  As a child I believed I could write stories, play piano, sing and act, but I also believed that I couldn’t run well, wasn’t athletic and probably never would be.

As an adult, I slowly began to realize that I did have a few athletic abilities after all.  I could play a fair game of tennis.  I actually enjoyed weight training.  I even learned to windsurf when I lived and worked on a sailboat in the Caribbean.  But only recently, in the past two or three years, have I tried running (something that only real athletes do)…on the treadmill at first, and then, only one or two minutes at a time…but running none-the-less.  I was surprised to find that I actually enjoyed the way it made me feel.  When I took my runs outside, I was even more amazed.  I found that not only could I run further and faster than I ever dreamed, I love the mind/body/spirit experience.  I love the meditative feeling of moving my body in my own rhythm, at my own pace, being in nature, and letting my thoughts flow freely.  I love the fact that at 44 years old, I am healthy enough to engage in this new energizing physical practice.  (another Mid-Life Oasis ™ lesson – it’s never too late to begin!)

Though I’ve been running a few times a week for several months now, there’s a difference between running for an hour through my neighborhood, and participating in an actual race.  Although I’ve registered to run a half-marathon in January of 2010 at Disney World (the location makes it seem more feasible and fun somehow) I still had yet to run in an “official” race until this past Sunday. 

I registered on a whim after watching my daughter (who is almost ten) break through a barrier herself.  She was climbing an indoor rock-wall, trepidatious at first…inching up a few footholds, then coming back down.  Finally, after several false starts, she maneuvered her way to the very top of the climbing wall and rang the bell.  She was elated - so proud of herself and rightly so. 

Perhaps it was serendipity that a sign-up sheet for the Breck 150 Father Dyer Mail Run 5K sat right next to the climbing wall.  I felt a sudden surge of possibility and a little bit of “oh, what the hell” - paid my $25 and registered.  (There was also that nice, shiny new SIGG aluminum water bottle that came in the goodie bag – but I like to think that was only a small motivational factor.) 

The weather the day of the race was gorgeous and sunny.  I knew in theory that I could run the 3.1 miles since I had been running almost everyday on trails around town, so my goals were simply to finish and to have fun.  The latter was seriously challenged during the first ten minutes of the race which was extremely vertical.  But after I found my rhythm (run the flat bits, hike the climbs, breathe…breathe…breathe!) and a couple of nice pacing mates, I really enjoyed myself.  I kept thinking  “Wow!  You’re really doing this!” And “Hey, this is pretty fun.”  And occasionally, “Was that a 12 year old who just past me?”

The final ten minutes of the course was downhill and then flat out.  The adrenaline kicked in and I finished at a pretty good clip with the two lovely women I had run with for most of the race.  Once I past the finish line and handed in my ID stub for my time, I felt slightly nauseous and a bit emotional for a few minutes…then pure elation!  I did it!  I rang that bell!  I ran right through a lifelong self-imposed barrier and into the world of “real” athletes. 

If I can do it – so can you!  You can get up and sing at karaoke night!  You can take a dance class – even something dramatic like the tango or salsa or hip-hop!  You can bake a soufflé!  You can do whatever it is that you want to do!  Why wait another day?  Treat yourself to the giddy elation of breaking through a self-imposed barrier now.  Your oasis awaits you!