Make Mandala Magic in Minutes

This morning I gave myself permission to enjoy 15 minutes of pure creative process by coloring in this free printable mandala. Click here to watch my 15 second instagram video that brings the mandala making magic to life: http://instagram.com/p/cJ1WamsRKP/

If you're looking for a way to experience some quick, fun creativity mandalas are fabulous. You'll find a nice assortment of free printables at www.printmandala.com and many more sites if you just do a quick google search. You can print them on regular paper to use crayons or colored pencils or card stock for markers and watercolor paints.

Mandalas provide ideal Instant Oasis Moments because they're easy and fun. You get to choose your colors and mediums but the shape (structure) has been provided for you. There's something very meditative about the act of coloring in or making a mandala. As many of you know, I love mandalas.

My logo is a mandala.

We've had Creative Oasis Day Trippers outings to create our own mandalas.

(click here to learn more about our outing)

We created a mandala using found objects at one of my 

Creative Oasis retreats at the Double J Art Ranch.

One of my wonderful clients recently hosted a group of Tibetan Monks who were 

performing an intricate sand mandala ritual in Oklahoma.

(click here to see more gorgeous photos and read about her wonderful experience)

Here's to giving ourselves a few minutes of creative play time using mandalas for this week's Mid-Week Oasis Moment.  If you create a mandala and would like to share, I'd love to see it! Feel free to send a photo to: creativeoasiscoach@me.com.

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

Jill

P.S. – If you'd like to have Mid-Week Oasis Moments (bite-sized bonbons of creative inspiration) delivered each week please sign up here: http://www.creativeoasiscoaching.com/newsletter.html

You'll also receive a free copy of "Permission to Be Creative 101" – my short e-book that will help you take the first small steps to make the time and space for creative fulfillment – your Creative Oasis – in  your busy life!

Ready to Retreat, Relax and Embrace Creative Momentum?

Embracing Creative Momentum

A retreat offering creative guidance, yoga and rejuvenation

with Jane Baldwin & Jill Allison Bryan

at the Double J Hacienda & Art Ranch

June 10 ­–12, 2011

Jane & Jill recently experienced the power of retreat first hand in Taos.

Do you long for time away from have-to-do-lists, general life noise and pressure? Do you crave the time for rejuvenation, inspiration and peace? Then please join us for a weekend in retreat…time to create (or not)…to stretch…to sketch…to nap…to read…to write…to think…to breathe…or to simply be.

Peace in the sky chair

How good would it feel to give yourself a welcome respite from the stress and strain of everyday life? To learn and practice powerful ways of attaining and maintaining creative satisfaction that you can continue to use and enjoy once you return home? When we step outside our everyday surroundings and schedules, we allow ourselves to reconnect with our inner wisdom and creative spirit. We remind ourselves what it's like to truly experience the joy of personal fulfillment.

Our Embracing Creative Momentum retreat includes yoga, Creative Oasis™ workshops, lodging and meals including dinner on Friday evening, 3 meals on Saturday and breakfast & lunch on Sunday at the glorious Double J Hacienda and Art Ranch in Mineral Wells, Texas over looking the Brazos River. (Just 45 minutes north of Fort. Worth, Texas but a world away from the stress of everyday life!)

Double J Hacienda & Art Ranch
 133 Seybold Road, Mineral Wells, TX 76067

This will be the third retreat I've facilitated at the Double J, an amazingly special place which is nothing less than a swirling vortex of creative energy, peaceful spirit and unconditional love! I hope you'll join me and Jane for what promises to be another transcendent experience there.  

Early Bird Discount with registration and $150 non-refundable down payment by May 15, 2011

$400 – double occupancy with private bath 

($500 after 5/15/11)

$450 – single occupancy with shared bath 

($550 after 5/15/11)

$475 – single occupancy with private bath 

($575 after 5/15/11)

Gentle yoga and breathing

View of the  Brazos from the best porch in Texas

Visiting on the patio

Returning our mandala to the earth


Here's what participants of past Creative Oasis retreats have to say:

"As I began my day I was aware of being more open and less judgmental of myself, in small ways.I am repeating "small steps" and taking them as I have gone through my day. I also an trying to train myself to re-frame my thoughts. Your "exercises" were meaningful and gave me things to not only think about but that are easily put into action. I loved the menagerie of goodies you brought for us to get my creative juices going. Took me to the enthusiasm I felt in my(several years past!) grade school art classes.The eagerness and wonder of what I could do! As I relaxed I experienced (total para-phrase)  what you said about losing track of time when in  the midst of the passion of your creativity. The warm smiling faces and the willingness of our group enhanced my creative spirit. The group's grace offered  both a lightness and a sensation of being grounded all at once. Inspiring,helpful and whimsical!I Can't wait for future Creative Oasis events! Thank you, Jill."

Alicia N.

"Thank you. You gave me so much energy and inspiration. Thank you so much, Jill, on drawing such a wonderful group, for teaching us SO many valuable things and for putting into practice what you preach. Thank you so much, Jane, for sharing your spiritual talents, healing powers and beautiful life with us." Ashley B.

"I wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the wonderful retreat last weekend.  It was more than I hoped it would be.  I keep flashing back to our group circles, creative time, morning coffee and quiet time and it feels so good.  You are a wonderful leader and a gifted coach.  Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!"  Shannon K.

"Today,  as I meandered through my "everyday" world again,  I could barely stay focused.  I found myself drifting back to the last couple of days and the joy I witnessed – watching and listening to each one of you as you progressed through the weekend.  I learned so much by just being near your spirits.  Jill, you are so correct when you say that there will not be another retreat like this one.  True, there will be more magic, but a different magic."   

Miki G.

Jill Allison Bryan is a certified Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach and the founder of Creative Oasis Coaching™

Jane Baldwin is certified yoga teacher and the founder of Pranasalara

To register and reserve your space contact: 

prana@djartranch.com or creativeoasiscoach@me.com.

The Creative Soul Sisterhood of the Traveling Paisley Velvet Pants & Sparkling Skirt

Mabel's at Sunset
photo by Liz Fautch

I’m sharing a few photos and remembrances from my recent trip to Taos, New Mexico partially because I want to keep the luscious memories alive, and partially because I love living vicariously through other people's travelogues and hoped you might too.

The mere fact that I finally went to Taos ranks pretty high on my “hot-damn-this-is-cool-o-meter.” That I went to attend, perform and participate in a Creative Retreat and Salon hosted by Jill Badonsky amped things up to the “has-the-potential-to-be-one-of-the-coolest-trips-ever” status. But what shot the whole eye-opening, breath-taking, awe-inspiring, first-time Taos trip over the desert moon was traveling with my creative soul sister Jane Baldwin. (Pranasalara & The Double J Hacienda & Art Ranch)

Soul Sisters

No matter where we go, time shared tends to be part therapy session, part slumber party, part creative retreat – usually with a dash of wine, delicious food and chocolate sprinkled in for good measure. And so it was this January when we headed for New Mexico – me the Taos/Santa Fe/Chimayo virgin and Jane the enthusiastic, free-spirited, well-versed guide who knew the lay of the land and even came equipped with the CD from “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” which made for the ideal soundtrack for our drive from Albuquerque to Taos.

Thank the travel gods, the night before we left we decided to rent a car rather than take a shuttle. This gave us the sacred space of a car interior on a long stretch of desert highway to catch up, and dream, and share stories from our pasts and plans for our future.  It also granted us the freedom to stop whenever and wherever we wanted. (I LOVE road trips with people who don’t mind that I drink gallons of water and need to pull over at every third gas station.)

Jill at Santuario de Chimayo
photo by Jane Baldwin

Jane suggested we stop to visit El Santuario de Chimayo – a famous holy site nestled in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  I was especially delighted to visit since Doug and I own a wonderful painting by our friend Tori Pendergrass that features the church.

By Tori Webb Pendergrass

After paying our respects, we made a beeline for the Ranchero de Chimayo so Jane could get her red-chili sauce on in proper New Mexico fashion.  Once we'd refueled with a delicious lunch we stopped at the Ranchos de Taos to visit yet another iconic church.

Feeling Blessed at Rancho de Taos

Things turned slightly less holy when stopped at Walgreens for the essentials (bottled water, dark chocolate and wine) before heading to the Mable Dodge Luhan Lodge for the retreat.

The two Jills sing the praises of Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching

Chilling wine the Taos way

Paisley Pants

Sparkly Skirt

It would take more space than I have here to share all of the wonderful experiences and inspiring people that infused the next three days. So I’ll share a poem and a few photos and offer this gentle reminder:

Set Free
photo by Laurel Aston

If you’re given the chance to step outside your comfort zone, visit some place new, try on crazy ideas (or clothes), and dance wildly like a whirling dervish with people you’ve never met before – DO IT! I promise your life will be better for it. 

Mabel’s Ghosts

by Jill Allison Bryan

Spirits speak through these old adobe walls

In the pops and crackles of the wood burning the fireplace

In the creaking of the floorboards

In the ghostly black and white photographs from another time

“Feel creativity in your bones” they say

“Make creativity your comfort zone” they say

“Go ahead – pretend like you live here – we don’t mind” they say

“Sink into your creative process like the cushions of this well-worn couch” they say

“Give yourself permission to see aliens, awaken sleeping dragons, make crop circles in your mind, and play all day – it’s okay” they say

So I do

All the best from my creative oasis to yours,

Jill

P.S. – Jane and I are hosting a retreat of our own – “Embracing Creative Momentum” –  this summer June 10-12, 2011 at the fabulous Double J Hacienda and Art Ranch. Stay tuned…

Have You Ever Tried To Put On A Sari Without A Mirror?

This query, asked by Ayurvedic Cooking goddess Elaine Dodson, stopped me in my tracks. Resplendent in a brilliant flowing sari, she posed this curious question as we headed into the great room of the Double J Hacienda & Art Ranch. Elaine was about to lead another wonderful cooking class during a weekend Ayurvedic Retreat and had just dressed in a room sans a full-length mirror.

“Um…to tell you the truth, I’ve never tried to put on a sari period…under any conditions,” I laughed. To Elaine who has been a devotee of the Krishna Consciousness Movement since the 1970s, has lived in an ashram, cooked for gurus and founded the award-winning Indian restaurant Kalachandji’s, this question was as simple as asking “Have you ever tried putting on mascara without a mirror?”

I keep thinking about her question, and I now realize what I find most fascinating is that to Elaine, she’d asked something fairly run-of-the-mill. But to me, she might as well have asked whether or not I’d ever accidentally hopped into my Lamborghini and driven off when I’d meant to take my Bentley. Her question seemed that far-fetched and exotic. 

Of course, things that are second nature to us may seem unusual and even outrageous to others. My daughter came home from school indignant after some of her friends refused to believe that her grandfather races sport cars. “They just don’t get it, Mom! They say a grandpa can’t be a race-car driver, but they don’t know my Grandaddy!”

For me, simply spending time with people like Elaine and my dad is inspiring. Believe me, I have no hidden desire to become the personal chef to an Indian Swami nor do I wish to race cars at speeds topping 100-miles-per-hour ­­– but I’m all about hanging out with people who do!

I have a friend, Dawn, who traveled to Africa on a mission trip a couple of years ago that changed her life. She can’t wait to get back there, but in the mean time she writes an amazing blog called Bringing Dinner Back which shares information about Africa in conjunction with the importance of bring her family together at the dinner table at least once a day. She also helps a group that runs a small orphanage called Congo Restoration, moved to action by her experiences in Africa.

Will I ever be brave enough or selfless enough to take a trip like that? I admit I have a tough time visualizing it, but just knowing Dawn and reading her heartfelt and intelligent insights, I’m moved to learn more about other cultures, to stop taking my own blessed life for granted and moved to make a difference when I can.

In Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching, exposure ranks as one of the most popular techniques we share for finding inspiration when you’re feeling stuck. Being exposed to the creative passions of others (be it cooking or racing or traveling) can sometimes be just the spark you need to ignite your own creative fire.

Who lights your creative fire? 

Here's a big thanks to all those who do!

Jill