Doodle Reflection: How Much Are You Being?

How much are you doing?

It’s such a competition out there. It goes a little something like this:

“I have to take the dog for a walk.”

“Well, I have to take my dog for a 5 mile run while answering emails and practicing my breath work!”

Even meditation and mindfulness are added to the to-do list and multi-tasked away! Our value, our worth seems to hinge on all of our doings.

I certainly get caught up riding the doing-ness train right alongside everyone else. And sometimes this leads to major blocks to my creativity and joy.

Just this morning, I found myself scrolling on Instagram wondering why some people have so many more followers than me. I started spinning in what I could do and getting a little upset that what I have done hasn’t really paid off. And a voice said, “Step off the doing-ness train.”

I shot back, “But this is what people DO!”

And the voice said, “But in this moment it is not supporting who you want to BE.”

Sigh. Yes. I’m once again too focused on how much I am doing instead of asking myself, “How much am I BEING?”

Well, today, I want to be creative. I want to be joyful. I want to be kind to myself and others. I want to be inspired. I want to be rooted in my vision.

When I make this tiny shift, when I take a tiny moment to think about my being, I am reminded of what is truly satisfying and enlivening in life.

It feels like a much softer place to land. I feel my stress filter though the clouds, leaving me free and open to explore and intentionally build the creative path I am on, centered by my BEING.

How much are you being today?

If finding and removing blocks along your creative path is important to you, you will be excited to know that in September we will be launching a creative community that you can join! It will provide regular community interaction, creativity jump-starts, and lots of tools to help you on your creative journey. Stay tuned!

Doodle Reflection: Thinking Inside the Box

We all dream of being free of whatever limitations we feel hold us back. We talk a lot about thinking outside the box to free us from these limitations. But when is it time to think inside the box?

One day, when I was a young Teaching Artist, I was out of ideas, out of money for supplies, and completely out of time and energy. I went to my recycling bin and filled grocery bags full of scrap paper, bottles, and other random materials.

When the kids came in, I placed a bag at each table. I told them that this was all they had to make art with today and that each table had to make one art piece together as a team. I wondered aloud which team might come up with the most creative piece of art.

The kids immediately jumped in. Behavior issues were almost non-existent that day. They were completely absorbed and engaged, excited to put something together that would impress their peers! At the end of every class, they proudly showed off their projects and we displayed them around the art room for months. They wanted to do it again.

That grocery bag art project blew my mind. With so little art in schools these days, all I ever wanted to do was give my students the most freeing creative experience ever! I wanted them to have a chance to really engage their imaginations and follow where it led them! But it took me really limiting them with supplies and ways to put the materials together for their creativity to come completely alive.

So, next time you find yourself begrudging a limitation, why not try to think about it a little differently? Why not see it as a creative problem leading you to imagine something you might have never thought about? I wonder what new, amazing things might make you feel limitless because of your limits, not in spite of them.

If stimulating your creativity and making your creative dreams come true is important to you, you will be excited to know that in September we will be launching a creative community that you can join! It will provide regular community interaction, creativity jump-starts, and lots of tools to help you on your creative journey. Stay tuned!

Doodle Reflection: Thoughts of Freedom

Am I being a key or a cage?

This is the question that I continually ask myself in regards to my own personal freedom, in regards to how I interact in my relationships, and in regards to my work in the world.

As I look around, I see a lot of us in cages. Both quite literally - too many people locked behind bars for being poor, for being immigrants, for being mentally ill - and metaphorically - too many people feeling trapped by the outer circumstances of their lives.

If the outer does indeed reflect the inner, then what questions do we need to ask ourselves to be free from the oppression locking us into lives that are not life giving and supportive of who we really are? How can we learn from the outer to free the inner? How can we learn from the inner to free the outer?

I once heard it said that every time someone triggers you emotionally, that trigger reflects a place inside you that is not free. As I hold this idea close, I have been learning so much from the words and actions that trigger me. I see the judgments I hold over myself and work to release them. It leads to a feeling of greater spaciousness within that allows me to open up to humanity, not to condone harmful behaviors, but to connect in a space of deep understanding from which positive action can happen. As I feel more free, I want to help others become more free and I am more acutely aware of those who are not.

It seems to me that true freedom is really freedom from the fear and victimization in our minds. This, in turn, frees the heart to live with the courage it takes to transform one’s world and the world. Being a key instead of a cage means unlocking the creative life force necessary to create a sustainable way of life that includes all people and the earth, transcending all borders and perceived limitations.

So are you being a key or a cage? The truth is we are all a mixture of both. But these times are calling us to take an honest assessment and embrace the unique way we are each equipped to free each other.

Connective Threads: A Doodle Reflection

When I first did this doodle the other day it felt sooo heavy. The more symptoms I wrote (I'm sure I didn't even get them all) and the more connections I drew between them, the more overwhelmed I seemed to get.

But I as I sat with it, wondering what the heck to do with it, I actually started to feel hopeful. These questions got me there:

- If everything connects to something else, how are we ever going to untangle this knot?

- What can one person do in her/his/their life to start pulling at the threads?

- If I look around and back on my life, how many thousands (millions?) of people have been pulling on threads?

- If it is all connected, are we actually all pulling on the same thread?

- What would happen if more people realized this and acted on this consciously and intentionally?

- How can all these causes come together instead of competing for attention? What kind of movement would THAT look like?

I welcome your thoughts.