Museletter #2 - The Importance of a Daily Creative Practice

July 25 2017

(Date of Original Museletter)

I want to share with you today about the importance of a daily creative practice.

Some of you know that I have been struggling with writing my story for three years now. There are two ways that I tend to look at it. Well, there are more ways than that, but I want to focus on the main two ways. One way is to see my project as a struggle. To focus on the idea that I am not writing more than I am writing. To focus on the fear, the sense of inadequacy, and the attachment I have to how the book will turn out, to how it will be received. Will I find a publisher? Will I be able to reach thousands or even millions of readers? How will I ever figure out to tell a story that I am still living? How will I survive revealing myself in such a raw way? What makes me think I have the right to share my story when so many others do not? These are the questions that the critic is ready to shove into the spaces created by self-doubt.

The other way I look at it, is this: to focus, instead, on the work. To trust the process, and have faith in the mystery of creativity and to just show up every day for myself in the practice.

Here is the bad news: there is no shortcut to the work. There is no special pill, coach, method or system that will make the work happen. There really is only one way to get something done, and there is no way around it. The work is the hard part. The work is the un-glamorous part. The work is the part where you have to excuse yourself from dinner parties and shut yourself in your room even when everyone else is going to the beach. The work is the part where you blindly believe in yourself, or what you are doing even if you have no idea where you are going or how you are going to get there. The work is about living in uncertainty and putting your focus on the task. The work is about showing up for yourself every day. Even if you show up for just 15 minutes. Even if you didn’t do anything good for that 15 minutes. Even if you don’t feel inspired. Even if you feel depressed or tired. Even if you hate your project that day. Even if your critic says you aren’t a real artist/writer/musician/fill in the blank. Even if you feel lost. Even if you’d suddenly, for some reason, after months of ignoring it, suddenly desperately want to tackle organizing your kitchen shelves.

Here is the good news: I give you permission to let your kitchen stay messy for 15 minutes longer. (Or in my case: 15 weeks longer).

I have a simple mantra that I use to help me remember how to return to work:

To get to work, get into the work.

This mantra heads us back into the process, the actual doing. I have found that even if I am resisting working on a project, the pressure is relieved when we let the work become a practice.

For example, last month, as I found myself having more free time, I felt this enormous pressure to return to writing my book, but I was terrified, and out of practice. I felt lost and daunted by the task. I decided to what I usually do: I committed to writing everyday for 15 minutes for the month of June, but at first that commitment still had a lot of pressure around it. I still waffled and wondered with all the questions. But then as I kept up my daily writing practice, I realized the exercise was more about getting me back into writing. It was a warm up exercise. It was an oiling the machine exercise. Sometimes I wrote 15 minutes of boring free associative writing. Sometimes I wrote a whole poem. Sometimes I wrote memories from my life to add to my book. Sometimes I made lists of essay ideas. Sometimes I wrote down all my fears. The point is that I had to just keep going, no matter how I felt. No matter what came out. I had taken the pressure off of how good it had to be, or even what I wrote about. All that mattered was that I did it. And after one month of practicing (nearly) every day (I missed 2 days of my practice, and I forgave myself and then just returned to the practice the next day), writing has become easier again. My thoughts are flowing. My ability to communicate (across the board) has increased. Instead of my true self being trapped inside a small box, which is how I often feel in the world. My true self is knocking at my door every morning, and can't wait to be let out. I actually look forward to writing now. And I often stay for longer than 15 minutes. Much longer. I am more compassionate. More awake to the necessity of my creative self. My book now feels possible, even if there is still so much uncertainty. I am learning to live with it, and write anyway.

Even if your main thing is not writing, I highly recommend a 15 minute writing practice as therapy, or as a way to connect with your creativity. Or, if writing really is not your thing, then I recommend committing to a 15 minute daily practice of doing anything creative, as a warm up, as a way to get you out of perfectionism and the endless reasons why you can’t create.

In other words, if you feel stuck with your creativity, with your paintings, your book, your songs, your dance, your films, your sculptures, then paint, write, sing, dance, video and sculpt your way back into your work. Do not attempt to think your way back in, as I can tell you, it doesn't work. Your mind will always come up with more reasons not to work.

I am so excited to share with you that this summer, in addition to writing my book, recording my songs, and organizing my house, I am developing my first online creativity course. Jumpstart Your Creativity in 30 Days, September 2017. The backbone of the course will be committing to a daily creative practice. There will also be downloadable meditations, creativity coaching exercises, art therapy & art journaling assignments. Additionally, there will be a Facebook community, email support, daily prompts, encouragement and feedback from me. I will also be offering my individual coaching services for additional support. I cannot wait to share it all with you, and to live out one of my missions: to help others make their art & be true to their creativity. Pricing & Details will be available soon.

What are your creative commitments and practices? What is holding you back?

Write me an email and share with me your story, your dreams, projects & struggles.

Love & Creativity,

Zoë

Museletter #1

June 25, 2017 (original date)

Happy Summer! Summer is a special time here in Baja, because it has something in common with winter. Not weather-wise, of course, summer here is hot, humid, buggy & rife with threatening storms. And long, lasting from July-October. We live off the grid, with no air-conditioning, but just enough solar power for a fan (which is something we did not have for the first few years living here). What feels like winter in Baja Summer is that it tends to be a time away from the outdoors, and from the social realm. It is a time of inner-reflection and of storing-up. Whatever money, projects or connections that were made in the winter season, need to be stored up during the summer, when tourism and activity comes to a hault. It’s a time of slowing down, of returning to the senses, of life being dictated by the weather.

Living in nature for the past 8 years of my life (after 35 years of living in cities) I have discovered the importance of honoring seasons and cycles. The more I am aware of the context of living within a certain season, the more compassionate I am towards moods (mine and others), the pace of productivity and self-care. Seasonal thinking gives us an understanding of how nature affects us, both within and without, and that we must learn to honor the limitations or structures that nature creates.

Today, in my 15 minute daily writing practice, which I committed for this month of June, as a way to write myself back into my book, I asked the question:

What is your art rebellion?

This is what came next:

My art rebellion is my commitment to two things:
revealing process & siding with no one part of Self.

And then a whole poem emerged.

Sometimes, just the right question opens us up to deeper layers of truth in our writing. Which brings me to the book I am reading now: Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, PhD. As with all remarkable & transformative books, I am reading this book slowly. Savoring each sentence. Underlining often. Not wanting to move forward until I have fully digested each idea. I see how this book might be the feminist companion to The Hero With a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell’s brilliant and poetic synthesis that reveals how all myth and story are human medicine. I’ve only just started Women Who Run With the Wolves, so I dare not say too much, but I will share this: Estés' premise is that women and girls need to relate to the wild woman archetype, for the survival of our souls, for the purpose of wholeness. Through relating to the wild woman archetype, we nurture and allow our instinctive & creative nature to live. This I believe wholeheartedly. Estés has offered us a gift with her multifaceted map of the female psyche, and with it, I suddenly have a name and landing place for my symbolic artwork and a new understanding of my my compulsion to reveal shadow and my insistence on creating rock-and-roll. I have been given a new perspective in the form of poetry & stories to help me navigate my journey, which will helps me write my book, which, in turn, will inspire others to heal and transform through the telling of their stories. The cycle of human evolution is hopefully a spiral that moves us forward a little bit each time, even as it also takes us back into our history. The story is the vehicle of evolution.

In her chapter on how to confront the inner intruder of the psyche, as expressed in the tale of Bluebeard (symbolized by a murderous husband), Estés shows us that the key to challenging the self-saboteur, the part of us that is threatened by the emergence of the true self, with its wild instincts intact, is: asking questions. Asking the question that awakens the shadow truth within. It is not only about asking the question, but also the courage to face and hold what one discovers.

What questions do you need to ask in order to for you to get closer to your own wild nature?

For me, writing has always been a form of inquiry, and of making space for truth. It has been a space to allow my own wildness as well as mystery. If you want to start writing, or return to writing, if you want to get closer to your truth, I recommend writing everyday for 15 minutes with out holding back. Write freely, with no editing or even adherence to traditional grammar. It is here, between the cracks of correctness that we find our instincts. Try it, and let me know how it goes.

Love & Creativity,

Zoë

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

““Asking the proper question is the central action of transformation—in fairy tales, in analysis, and in individuation… questions are the keys that cause the secret doors of the psyche to swing open… The ability to stand what one sees enables a woman to return to her deep nature, there to be sustained in all thoughts, feelings, and actions.””

— Clarissa Pinkola Estés, PhD, from Women Who Run With the Wolves

Start From Where You Are & That Which Hinders Your Task is Your Task

Dear Creative Crusader,

I’ve been thinking about creative blocks lately. It’s the theme for the second week for my online creativity intensive. 

Over the years, I’ve experienced and worked through a lot of blocks to my creativity and I’ve helped a lot of other people with theirs. I’ve used my creativity, my expressive arts therapy training and techniques from my study of the arts to work through these blocks.

There are so many kinds of blocks, and so many creative ways we can work through or with our blocks. We can work through them on the mental level—questioning our beliefs. We can work through them on the physical level—relaxing the body, deep breathing. We can work through them on the emotional level—acting as compassionate witness to our inner resistances, like fear. We can work through them on the spiritual level—opening up the channel of our creativity to a higher source, and relinquishing the smaller self. 

I have tried all of these, and they have all have worked for me depending on what the particular block is, and my current relationship to it.

But, there’s one method of unblocking that never fails and is applicable to all situations. It doesn’t require any special equipment or knowledge. You don’t need to spend a lot of time with it. And it is always available. 

START FROM WHERE YOU ARE

That’s it. It’s really that simple.

What does it mean?

It means checking in with yourself and asking yourself honestly, in this moment, what do I feel? What do I want? 

And if the answer is: I’m blocked.

Then what do you do? You start from that place.

You create from that place. You feel into the block. You get curious about the block.You use your imagination to imagine the size, the shape, the color, the weight of the block. You draw the block. You dance the block. You speak to the block. You describe the block with your words. 

And then something is starting to happen. It may be a very small something. It may feel insignificant. But, I can tell you, it’s not. It’s very, very important. Because you it's a way of seeing that your creativity is always there, it’s just that you have not been able to see it. You can't use it if you don't acknowledge it. Acknowledging what is happening in the moment is the first spark of your creativity. 

Still feel a wall between you and your creativity?

Draw the wall. Mime your hands up the wall. Write an ode to the wall. What does it feel like to touch? How has the wall served you? 

You may soon be laughing. Or if not, maybe you are crying. At least creating something.

Go ahead, and laugh. Or cry. And then get curious about what happens next…
 

There is only one thing I can teach.

I can teach people how to look within to access the resources they already have. 

The resources are:

creativity

curiosity

compassion

consciousness

We all have those resources and they are endlessly renewable and free. We don’t need a new app or an upgrade or a class. We just need to learn how to look.

There is another phrase I am fond of saying:
 

THAT WHICH HINDERS YOUR TASK IS YOUR TASK

It’s a different way of saying the same thing.

This phrase comes from Sanford Meisner, the great acting teacher. For two years, I trained in his methodology, not under him, but with two teachers who had trained with him. My teacher posted this phrase in large letters on the wall of our acting studio. It summed up everything we needed to know about Meisner's method.

The technique Meisner developed was called the repetition technique. The basic idea is to have two actors sit on the stage, in chairs, facing each other. The actors take turns making simple observations about each other. "You're smiling." The other actor repeats the statement, "Yes, I'm smiling." The repetition goes back and forth until the statement no longer feels true, or until one of the actors notices something new that is happening either in herself or in the other.

A photo from my Meisner class with Joe Anania, in the late 90's. That's me, all in black.

The technique is about staying connected to the emotional truth of the moment, and riding those emotions as they change. Many years later, I trained for 3 years to become an expressive arts therapist. I consider my earlier Meisner training an invaluable part of my training as a therapist. And it was essentially the same thing—a training in emotional presence. In connecting with the truth of the moment, and allowing oneself to let go of the former moment in favor of what’s happening right now. 

You don’t need to train in the Meisner technique or as an expressive arts therapist, to make use of this concept. All you need to do is drop in, at any moment, to the truth of your experience. That is where your real and authentic self is. Your self is not a thing, but a process. You are not a noun, you are a verb. 

I think it is safe for you to try this at home. 

Get comfortable in your chair. Close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths and check in with yourself: What do I feel right now? What am I aware of? Whatever first hit you get— a pain in your shoulder, a fluttering in your chest, an image of a blank page. Create something out of it. Let the dots connect from one moment to the next. If you get frustrated because your cousin drops in unexpectedly as you are creating, then, by all means, invite your cousin into what you are doing.

That which hinders your task is your task.

Love & Creativity,

Zoë