Revoking My Martyrs-R-Us Membership

I’ll admit that though I try my best to practice what I preach through Creative Oasis Coaching, at times I fall short. Routinely rewarding myself for a job well done is a perfect example. (Feel free to substitute the word creativity, writing, gardening, crafting or whatever you consider your personal Creative Oasis for the word art in the quote above!)

Even though I know what a good idea it is to “treat yo self” (for all you Parks & Rec fans out there) after making headway on a project or crossing something off your to-do list, I often zip right passed this important step and onto the next big thing.

Luckily, last week the stars aligned and I revoked my membership to “Martyrs-R-Us*.” You know, the club where we put off anything mildly enjoyable because we must muddle through with our never-ending have-to-do list! Raise your hand if you’ve ever been a member.

Instead, I enjoyed several wonderfully nurturing experiences as well-deserved rewards to celebrate my one-year anniversary of Mid-Week OasisMoments. 

(Click here to learn how you too can celebrate by joining me for myfree teleclass “Creativity Cubed” on March 19th!)

I treated myself to:

* a fun two-hour catch-up lunch with a dear friend I hadn’t seen in ages

* a transcendent Abhyanga (Ayurvedic full body treatment) with Sweet Ojas

* a fabulous organizing session in my master closet with Make My Life Simplified

* and a full service and car detailing

All of which left me feeling lighter, healthier, happier and filled with renewed energy to get back to my passion of helping people make the time and space in their life for creative fulfillment and fun!

I share this with you as a reminder that though we often feel like taking time for self-care is taking time away from the things we should be doing, the truth is, our productivity, health and happiness (in body, mind and spirit) increases greatly when we nurture ourselves.

* You’ll find lots of wonderful reasons to practice good self-care and revoke your membership to the Martyrs-R-Us club in the Muse Song chapter of The Nine Modern Day Muses and a Bodyguard by Jill Badonsky. For example:

“Stockpiles of guilt, and the fear of being selfish, may prevent you from operating at your full potential because you underestimate the effect that being good to yourself has on others. Taking care of yourself can awaken your higher self. This process has an almost magical quality to it because one of its foundations is the nurturing of our artist’s child. When nurtured, we return the favor with grand displays of creativity.”

(Is it any wonder that she helped me totally transform my life by introducing me to the amazing methods of Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching?!)

How might you give yourself permission to enjoy a little (or not so little) reward in the coming week?

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

* Enjoy 10 minutes coloring in a mandala

* Eat lunch outside on your patio 

* Sign up for a creative class or workshop

* Get a chair massage at Whole Foods

* Read a magazine during the day (gasp!)

* Dive in to some guilt-free craft time

* Try a new restaurant for dinner

* Take a nature walk with your camera

* Make a handmade card for a friend

* Write a letter and send it through snail mail

and this small, but oh so delightful reward I just gave myself for writing this Mid-Week Oasis Moment:

* one piece of Adora dark chocolate calcium followed by a ten minute catnap in the sun on my back patio

I guarantee as good as that sounds, it felt even better! 
(Note to self - this is your new favorite small reward!)

What sounds like a good self-care reward to you? I’d love to hear your ideas and better yet how you feel after you’ve given yourself permission to enjoy them!

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

Jill

www.creativeoasiscoaching.com

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 e-booklet 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!

Time to Celebrate! 52 Mid-Week Oasis Moments & Counting

Today I’m celebrating the One Year Anniversary of Mid-Week Oasis Moments! (Woo-Hoo!)

That’s right. You my friend are reading Mid-Week Oasis Moment number 52 which means over the past year I’ve:

* Dreamed up the concept for Mid-Week Oasis Moments (bite-size bonbons of creative inspiration delivered each week)

* Written more than 20,000 words

* Created more than 50 visuals

* Connected with hundreds of fabulous readers like you consistently each and every Wednesday for the past year.

As a recovering procrastinator/perfectionist extraordinaire I have to tell you – this is a big deal for me – so believe me when I say I am ready to celebrate!

I’d love for you to help me celebrate this major milestone by being my guest for my all new complimentary teleclass – “Creativity Cubed” where you’ll get to create your own Instant Oasis Cube and multiply your creative joy! You’ll find all of the details here and at the end of this post.)

If you know the story of my creative journey you know that once upon a time follow-through was not my strong suite. There was a time I had about a million creative dreams I longed to bring to life but didn’t have the tools to make that happen. So I spent a fair amount of time feeling stuck, frustrated and unfulfilled.

Then I found Kaizen-Muse® Creativity Coaching and all that changed. Using the “this stuff will change your life!” methods of KMCC I’ve:

•  Earned my Kaizen-Muse® Creativity Coach certification and was chosen 
to be one of the very first Master KMCC coaches

• Started my own business – Creative Oasis Coaching™



• Written, recorded and released my solo CD, “Dancing In Limbo”



• Created and hosted “Infinite Possibility – A Night of Music, Art & Women Helping Women” a benefit that raised more than $10,000 for Women for Women International

• Trained for and ran my first half-marathon



• And perhaps, most importantly, learned how to weave creative satisfaction into my life in small, doable ways on 
a daily basis

Today I get to add my one-year anniversary of Mid-Week Oasis Moments to this list!

How did I move past the creative blocks so many of us share? I dipped into my treasure chest of creative coaching tools that helped me to:

• Take small steps – like playing in my creative space for just five minutes.

• Ask small questions such as What Lights Me Up?

• Lower the pressure. I decided Mid-Week Oasis Moments would be short and sweet and therefore doable and fun for me!

• Embrace gentle accountability. Because I promised you that I’d deliver a Mid-Week Oasis Moment to your inbox each and every Wednesday without fail I’ve been inspired to keep to my promise and my writing schedule.

• Keep it fun! I played in my Creative Oasis Journal, went on photographic scavenger hunts and colored in mandalas.

• Cut myself slack. We creative types need to be gentle with ourselves you know.

You can count on me to practice what I preach in my own life! I use all of these methods and more…the very same ones I share with my one-on-one coaching clients and classes and, happily, in my Mid-Week Oasis Moment.

So back to that celebration! I wanted to find a way to say thank you to all of my lovely Mid-Week Oasis Moment followers and so I created a fun free teleclass to share.

I’d love for you to celebrate this milestone by being my guest for a complimentary teleclass: 

“Creativity Cubed” 

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Noon (central time)

You can find all the details by clicking here or read on...

We'll create personalized Instant Oasis Cubes and play with new ways to multiply the time we spend enjoying our creative passions! 

To register, drop me a line here so I can save you a space, send you all the details, call-in information and everything you'll need to join us.

This special no-charge teleclass will be great for you if:

* You need a little help giving yourself permission to spend time with your creative pursuits and passions

* You could use the gentle reminder that experiencing creative joy and fulfillment doesn’t have to take a lot of time

* You’d like to contemplate what Instant Oasis Moments might look and feel like in your busy life

* You’d enjoy some fun, low-pressure creative play with easy-to-follow, step-by-step guidance

* You'd like to celebrate with me and other amazing members of the Creative Oasis tribe!

It has been a true pleasure and one of the greatest experiences of my creative life to create and share Mid-Week Oasis Moments with you each and every Wednesday this past year and I'm ready to par-tay!

I do hope you'll join me Wednesday, March 19 at noon central time for "Creativity Cubed" – a fun FREE teleclass created especially to celebrate the one year anniversary of Mid-Week Oasis Moments! 

Drop me a line here if you have any questions or want to save your place for the call.

In the meantime, I'm off to celebrate and enjoy some small rewards (another great creativity coaching tool!) for a job well done – lunch with a dear friend and a massage. Woot!

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

Jill

Maintaining Momentum After Your Creative Retreat

Have you ever felt delightfully wrapped up in the creative cocoon of a fabulous retreat or workshop focused fully on the joy of creating and surrounded by oodles of other supportive creative souls also totally engaged in experiencing their creative bliss? Wow! It’s an amazing feeling, isn’t it?

Have you ever found yourself back in the real world just days later feeling that joyful creative energy evaporate as your busy daily schedule, never-ending to-do lists and obligations take over?

You’re not alone! Luckily, using the gentle yet powerful (some would say magical) methods of Kaizen-Muse® Creativity Coaching, we have a wonderful variety of ways to continue to ride our creative waves.

That’s why I’m so happy to be able to share my special workshop, “So In The Flow –Maintaining Your Creative Momentum Even After the Retreat” on the final day of this year’s Art and Soul Retreat in Portland, Oregon. Find the line-up for seven full days ofmixed media art workshops here. (April 7 – 13, 2014)

We’ll spend the day together exploring a potpourri of fun prompts, activities and discussion topics designed to help lucky participants return home from Art & Soul feeling ready to stay in the flow and maintain their creative momentum. (Read all about it and find registration information here.)

It will be my absolute pleasure to send enthusiastic creativity lovers back into the world with a treasure chest of tools and techniques designed to help them move past procrastination, perfectionism, overwhelm and other creative blocks that may await.

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

Jill

p.s. – If you’d like to receive my Mid-Week Oasis Moments (bite-size bonbons of creative inspiration) as well as my e-booklet, “Permission to Be Creative 101” you can sign up for both right here.

I Can Beat Myself Up or...

I can Be Gentle and give myself a few moments to practice self-compassion in the form of pure creative process. You'll be glad to know that though tempted to choose the former I decided to "practice what I preach" and went with the latter. I chose to Be Gentle with myself…and you can too. 

How? I grabbed my Creative Oasis Journal, a few simple art supplies and gave myself permission to play and quickly create a visual reminder of one of my favorite self-compassion come-backs – Be Gentle. I also added a bit of wisdom from the Buddah for good measure with a quote I recently found and love.  It was as simple as that. 

"If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete." – Buddah

You can see the process and the end result in the 15-second Instagram video below.





Simple truth – today started off pretty sucky. I'm not feeling all that great. A recent class that I offered didn't make. I'm behind on paperwork and a writing project. And I'm a bit overwhelmed by life at the moment. It happens. You get it, right?

Since I wasn't feeling on top of my game my inner-critic knew this would be a great day to get her digs in so thoughts like these kept rolling through my mind: 

Aren't you ever going to finish that new e-course? How long have you been working on that anyway? Look at those piles on your desk! No wonder you can't find anything! You should have done a better job about getting the word out about your class. Etc….

Thankfully, I recognized right away that those negative thoughts belonged to my opportunistic inner-critic. I also knew that her negativity could be shut down (or at least greatly quieted) by the compassionate power of reminders and comebacks. These are two of the many jewels in the Kaizen-Muse® Creativity Coaching treasure chest and especially effective when combined with some low-pressure creative play. 

I quickly countered the harsh running commentary with the reminder that I have the choice…I can beat myself up (not much fun…not remotely productive)…or I can Be Gentle. (feels much nicer…paved the way for a quick creative collage and this blog post)

Do you ever find your inner-critic sneaking in when you're guard is down? What if the next time you're thinking less than kind thoughts about yourself you take a moment to ponder these two simple (but oh, so powerful) words…Be Gentle? What if you give yourself permission to spend five or ten minutes practicing being gentle by allowing yourself to visit your Creative Oasis? (Remember - your Creative Oasis is anything that makes your heart sing and time fly!)

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

Jill Allison Bryan
www.creativeoasiscoaching.com

Discovering Unexpected Oasis Places

It always makes me smile to discover an Oasis in an unexpected place. Last week we took a family trip to Universal Studios in Florida and came upon this one, so I couldn't' resist snappy a selfie with it. Finding this fun spot reminded me that you never really know where you'll find your own Creative Oasis.

Sometimes we start out looking for one thing and wind up with something totally different. That's exactly what happened with me and creativity coaching. I went searching for a way to rekindle my own creative dreams of music, writing and acting and along the way discovered Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching and a new career as a creativity coach. (It's been an amazing journey!)

I believe that your Creative Oasis™is anything that makes your heart sing and time fly. I believe we can all enjoy an endless variety of Creative Oasis moments and experiences throughout our lives. The key is to be open…to stay on the lookout…to be willing to try new things and revisit long lost creative loves that we've given up over time. Have you discovered an unexpected Oasis of your own lately?

Once you begin to look for them…you'll find them everywhere. A theme park might seem like an unlikely place to find a Creative Oasis but I sure did. I adored leaving behind the "real world" for a few days and diving into the sublime fantasy of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. (The art direction was amazing!)

Spending time in Universal's version of Springfield, the hometown of the Simpsons. was a blast as well. We loved the crazy Simpsons' Ride, had a snack at Moe's Tavern and even hung out with the Simpsons themselves for a photo. (Again - the creative art direction throughout Universal Studios was marvelous.)

Taking a break from our normal routine and real world "stuff" and giving ourselves permission to enjoy the fantastical world of Universal was a great way to recharge after the holidays. 

Where did you find your latest Creative Oasis? I'd love to hear about it.

All the best from my constantly changing Creative Oasis to yours,

Jill

Jill Allison Bryan

www.creativeoasiscoaching.com

5 Tips to Jumpstart Holiday Happiness

Click here to print out your free holiday mandala to color or paint!

Wow – the holidays seems to have come out of nowhere this season! With such a brief amount of time between Thanksgiving and the first of December, like many people, I feel a bit unprepared and overwhelmed.

Luckily, I know that the best thing I can do to defuse those feelings is to dip into my bag of Creative Oasis™Coaching tricks. Since I use these techniques myself, I thought I'd share them here to help you jumpstart some holiday happiness of your own.

5 Tips to Jumpstart Holiday Happiness

#1 – Reward Yourself with Short Creative Breaks

I printed out the free holiday mandala above to use as a fun and easy way to reward myself each time I spend a some time on a project or check something off my to-do list. I've been playing with it throughout the day in five minute bursts. It's great way to stay motivated and reward myself with a little creative play. If you like, why not click on the link under the mandala up top to print one for yourself? 

#2 – Say Ho-Ho-No

What if you take a look at your to-do list each day this month and chose at least one thing to let go? If we tend to have somewhat unrealistic expectations for ourselves, chances are that's even more true during the holidays. In addition to all of the things in our usual routine we're heaping on extra social outings, shopping excursions, baking, cooking, school and dance programs and the like. Toss in the unexpected weather snafu or two and you've got a recipe for instant holiday stress.

The truth is the world won't come to a grinding halt if we skip a thing or two especially if we've filled our to-do lists with more than we can realistically handle. How do you think it would feel to release at least one "to-do" each day and gave yourself the gift of letting go?

#3 – Take Elf-Like Steps

Any holiday happening, project or party – no matter how big – can be broken down into smaller steps. Planning the holiday get-together for your family is a large undertaking, but think of all the tiny steps you can take along the way. Does the thought of addressing and stamping all of those Christmas cards have you feeling Grinchy? What if you just did five at a time? Focusing on just one small piece of a project at a time or tackling a task in short ten or fifteen minute bursts helps diffuse feelings of overwhelm and increase feelings of comfort and joy.

#4 – Ask Yourself These Small Questions

Whatever the holiday event or project on your plate asking these two questions can be a big help:
"How can I make this a little easier?"
"How can I make this a bit more fun?"
Often we're running on autopilot and simply taking a second to ask these questions can shed new light for us. Even if it's something as simple as realizing, "Addressing these cards would feel a lot nicer if I was listening to my favorite holiday CD and drinking hot tea." Or realizing, "Hey - I have a teenager who can help me wrap all of these packages!"

#5 – Remember to Breath

This one sounds simple, but how many times have you found yourself holding your breath as you put the finishing touches on a present, project or pie? What if you add to the holiday decorations around your home by placing colorful sticky notes here and there with this gentle reminder: "BREATHE"
If you're anything like me, you tend to actually stop and take a deep breath when you read the word. Enjoying just two or three nice deep breaths will give you a refreshing pause, send much needed oxygen to your brain and rejuvenate you!

Here's my completed holiday mandala. I hope you enjoy creating one of your own this season. Here's to jumpstarting your holiday happiness!

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!

Do Stuff…Even Without Inspiration's Shove

Holy moly, how I love this quote! There's a "teachable moment" (says the mom in me) in every single line. This quote shines (hence the star at the top) as an example of the wonderful tools and techniques we use in Kaizen Muse Creativity Coaching. Let's take if line by line, shall we?

Do stuff.

This one is fairly straight forward. Do stuff. Do the stuff you daydream about doing. Do the stuff you see other people doing and think to yourself, "I could do that." Do the stuff you used to love to do and haven't done in ages. Do the stuff you can't even imagine how in the world you'll possibly ever do, but you know if you do you'll be better off for it. Do stuff.

Be clenched, curious. 

I have to be honest. "Be clenched" threw me for a bit of a loop. To my mind, she's reminding us to always reach out for new experiences. In the spirit of "being curious" I did some research to see if I could find other interpretations of Sontag's meaning and discovered this wonderful blog post. The author of the post even prints Sontag's speech in its entirety which is absolutely inspiring! 

Be curious. Keep asking questions of yourself and others. Keep learning new things. Keep traveling to new places. Keep searching out new experiences. Better to be killed by curiosity than boredom, right?

Not waiting for inspiration's shove...

Ahhh…not waiting for inspiration. That was a powerful lesson for me when I first discovered KMCC. You mean I can just sit down at the piano, play around and see what happens? I don't need to feel any particular angst or joy? I don't have to wait for the muse to visit me complete with a gray, rainy day and candles to add to the ambiance? I can create pre-inspiration strike? That novel concept soon found me playing at my keyboard almost daily – writing new material because I wanted to write. If I'd waited for inspiration's shove, my solo CD, Dancing in Limbo would quite likely never have been born.

                              or society's kiss on your forehead.

That was another thing I didn't wait for when writing and recording my CD. This was about the time "they" started to say "don't bother making a CD - everyone releases music digitally now." Well, I had waited many moons to finally release my own CD, so I didn't listen to what "they" had to say. 

I've also met many people who don't seem to see the value in or understand what creativity coaching provides. But that's hardly going to stop me from continuing to follow my calling as a creativity coach. (Great news! That means I have more time to coach, teach and write for those of you who do get it. Yay!)

Pay attention. It's all about paying attention.

This one is all about awareness. Letting the fairies and muses have your attention. Looking for clues. Taking note of what lights you up.

Attention is vitality. 

Attention leads you to the experiences and people that energize and delight you!

It connects you with others.

When you follow your creative curiosity you tend to meet some pretty fabulous people. Sign up for a class, join a group or visit a place you've never been before and let the connections begin. 

It makes you eager. Stay eager.

By all means, stay eager. Eager to learn. Eager to create. Eager to explore. Eager to discover. Eager to connect. Eager to be energized and delighted by life. Stay eager.

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

Jill

Jill Allison Bryan

www.creativeoasiscoaching.com

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!

What Lights You Up? (*Hint: for brilliant results ask often)

If you've been reading my Creative Oasis™ blog or receiving my Mid-Week Oasis Moments for awhile now, you know that I'm a big believer in the power of asking ourselves small questions. It's one of the "super-simple-yet-super-effective" tools we use in Kaizen-Muse® Creativity Coaching. Here's one small question that I turn to time and again for quick creative realignment and a plethora of possibility producing ideas: (try saying that 5 times fast!)

What lights me up? 

This is a great question to ask when you're feeling stuck, are running out of ideas, are looking for something exciting to explore or even are pondering a new place to visit. Asking this one simple question can uncover a multitude of fabulous options and remind us of what we really want to do. 

Why not try it now? 

Want to give it a try? It's easy. Take out a pen and paper, set a timer for one minute and let yourself come up with as many different answers as you can to the question "What lights me up?"Of course, if you're really on a roll after a minute, just keep writing! I'll do it with you. Ready? Set. Go!

What did you come up with?

Here's what came to me off the top of my head: playing with my 3 year old niece, playing piano, making music with my husband, running and walking by the lake, creating collages in my Creative Oasis Journal, reading inspiring books and magazines, trying out new recipes, visiting with good friends, writing just about anything, travel and dreaming about travel, coaching, getting a really relaxing massage, visiting museums and art happenings, seeing concerts and taking photos.

What's next?

What if you posted this list near your computer, in your day-timer or on your fridge or phone – any place you'll be likely to see it at least once a day? Then, the next time you decide to give yourself a five or ten minute Creative Oasis break you can choose something from the list and enjoy!

What I found interesting was the things that didn't show up on my list that I actually spend quite a bit of time doing like checking e-mail, Facebook, twitter and Pinterest. Which leads me to another thought. What if the next time I'm about to hop on Facebook or twitter, I first scan my "What Lights Me  Up?" list and then give myself five or ten minutes to enjoy one of those experiences first? 

To make our lists more visually appealing, I've included a free printable to download below. If you'd like to write your list on this be my guest. And as always, I'd love to hear from you if you want to share what lights you up in the comments section below.

Click here to download this free Creative Oasis printable

Last weekend I had the opportunity to experience something that lit me up as well as the entire downtown Dallas Arts District - Aurora Dallas 2013.

The Aurora Project was a free contemporary art exhibition in the rapidly developing Dallas Arts District. The project presented interactive new media artworks such as light , video, performance, and sound in exciting and unexpected public spaces that transformed 68-acres of downtown Dallas into one of the nations largest outdoor exhibitions of this cutting-edge medium. It was an amazing experience that left me energized, inspired and definitely lit up!

This is a photo I took of one of my favorite installations of the evening. 
I only wish that I'd remembered to write down the name of the artist!

Until next time, all the best from my lit up 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!

What Do You Really Want To Do?

When's the last time you asked yourself "What do I really want to do?" Whether in the grand scheme of life, as in, "What do I want to do when I grow up?" (no matter what your current age!) or on a much smaller scale, as in, "What would I like to do tonight?" asking ourselves what we really want is an important step toward living a happy, fulfilled life. And, I might add, it's a step that many of us often forget to take!

As Percival's quote implies, it can be all too easy for us to jump on the hamster wheel of life and keep running, never stopping to ask ourselves, "Is this what I really want do be doing?" And, if the answer is "No" asking ourselves, "Well then, what do I really want to do?"

One of my favorite tools we use in Kaizen-Muse® Creativity Coaching is asking small questions. It's such a simple yet powerful way to tap into our own inner wisdom, spark awareness, and clarify our desires. And yet, how often do we take the time to ask ourselves what we truly want? Isn't it easier just to stick with the status quo? To do what we usually do?

I'll use myself as an example. On any given Friday night, you'd be likely to find me and my husband watching a movie while enjoying one of my famous homemade pita pizzas and a bottle of wine.  

Feeling fried around the edges after a long week of deadlines and commitments, the easy thing would be to slip into default mode and do what we usually do. 

But...when we remember to ask ourselves, "Is this how we really want to spend our evening?" other options come to light. We become aware of all of the possibilities and our night may take a very different turn. We may decide that rather than vegging out in front of a movie, it would be fun to play and sing a few songs together at the piano or dabble in some low-pressure art fun by drawing, painting or making a collage. We may decide to sit on the back patio and talk while the relaxing sounds of the fountain gurgling and splashing and the cicadas chirping help us to wind down our week.

We may still choose to watch a movie later, but by asking the question "What do we really want to do?" we've given ourselves the option to change things up a bit, reset our "default mode" and enjoy our evening in a more fulfilling, intentional way.

What if you asked yourself "What do I really want to do?" once or twice in the coming week? You may find that rather than saying yes to that party invitation that feels more like a "Have To" than a "Get To" you choose to stay home and do a puzzle or let your daughter give you a pedicure. You may realize that a quick trip to a museum during your lunch break sounds much more satisfying than gobbling down a salad at your desk. You may decide to open that paint-by-number kit you bought for yourself last year and have some low-pressure creative fun with it. You may choose to throw that impromptu happy hour for your neighbors you've been thinking about for months now or to curl up with a favorite book and read the entire thing in one sitting while drinking hot tea and eating gingersnaps. 

Whatever you decide, you can be sure of one thing, by taking the time to ask yourself what you really want to do you'll be treating yourself with the respect and practicing good self-care by giving yourself permission to jump off that hamster wheel and into a more authentically satisfying life!

Here's to all of the Creative Oasis moments (the moments that makes your heart sing and time fly!) that await when we remember to ask ourselves, "What do I really want to do?"

Click here to learn about how I had the opportunity to meet one of my favorite artists, Nick Cave, in person when I asked myself "What do I really want to do today?" and ended up experiencing one of the most amazing creative moments of my life! 

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!

  

You'll Love this Fab, Fun Coloring Experience

My Baby Blue by Jill Allison Bryan

I'm always on the look out for new ways to experience low-pressure creative play so I'm thrilled to share a fabulous new e-book that offers that up in spades! The Collabyrinth Challenge by Tina Gray-Siebers combines thought-provoking Creative Questions plus Musings and Meanderings with free-form abstract black and white coloring pages. Gray-Siebers, a certified Kaizen-Muse® Creativity Coach and artist, says Collabyrinth is a "unique blend of intuitive expression, labyrinth, mandala arts and problem-solving to help color your world in a different way." 

I'll go one step further and say it's an absolute blast! Gray-Siebers has created a wonderful method of giving us permission to experience creative play in a meaningful way. For the affordable price of just $15 the return on your investment for your creative spirit will be tremendous! (Click here to purchase your own copy.) 

I had so much fun creating My Baby Blue piece above! The title can be attributed to my Breaking Bad obsession and the fact that the last scene of the series finale has been playing over and over in my head along with the tune, My Baby Blue by Badfinger. (Click the image below to listen to this classic rock tune.)

Her Creative Questions such as "What if you used more than one medium?" and "How might you add texture?" provided the perfect balance of creative freedom and gentle structure to spark my creative process. After reading the first several pages of her book I felt completely open to playing with my creative supplies in a non-judgemental way. It felt wonderfully freeing to simply sit down and pick up my colored pens and pencils, pastels, crayons and watercolors and add them to the page I'd printed in a playful way. (Hint: Printing the coloring pages on card stock is a good idea if you're going to use watercolors or thick markers.)

Even though I'm a big believer in focusing on the enjoyment of the creative process more than the end product, I have to admit, I'm in love with my piece. It makes me smile every time I see it and I'm looking for the perfect place to hang it in my office. I know it will serve as a colorful reminder that I can experience soul-satifsying creativity in as little as ten minutes! 

I know that I'll be reaching for The Collabyrinth Challenge often to add more Creative Oasis Moments to my life. I also think this will make a super present for friends and family and is a great idea for teacher gifts as well. 

The Collabyrinth Challenge is for you if:

* You want to try something different

* You're in a mental rut and need a jumpstart

* You want to step out of your comfort zone

* You want to be creative, play and have fun

* You want new insight

* You enjoy coloring mandalas

   

If you do purchase a copy for yourself, I'd love to see your creations and hear about your experiences. Drop me a line at creativeoasiscoach@me.com to share. And last, but not least HAVE FUN! 

Final note: though Gray-Siebers kindly shared a free copy of The Collabyrinth Challenge for me to review, I'm not being paid to give my opinion or sell copies. I just adore this book and believe everyone should know about it!

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!