Creativity Cookies: Belief Berry Booster

[Dan Goodwin]

Our beliefs about how creative we are define how creative we are going to be. Your beliefs are the equivalent of a glass ceiling on your creativity’s rocket ship. If that ceiling is so low you bang your head every time you even try to stand up, let alone launch a rocket ship, then it’s no surprise you’re not reaching anywhere near your creative potential.

This Creativity Cookie is called “Belief Berry Booster” and will help you start to give your creative self belief the boost it needs to reach new levels.

Head over to Creativity Portal for the full Cookie, try it out for yourself, then head back here to share your comments and experiences.

Click here to get the Creativity Cookie - Belief Berry Booster

[Mary Hicks]

I'm amazed at what "cleaning/sorting/cultivating" I can get done in a short amount of time. I don't always set a timer; usually I put on a CD of my favorite music and work until it's finished.

[Julia]

I work very similarly to you Susan, though since I have been ill, and unable to do the mundane 'normal' things, I find that the 'guilts' have gone, and I am calling it 'positive therapy...

Julia Cameron (The Artists Way)-incredibly motivating book if you haven't read it yet... I would have to call her my mentor- nice that we share the same first name :-) Anyway, I used to use her 3 main principles a few years ago, then the artists block set in, and just when I needed these creative tools, I buried them in the closet!
The main 3 essentials being to keep a daily journal, just stream of consciousness writing- ie ...anything that comes into your head, even if it is to grizzle and moan about DOING it- write that, write anything, just keep moving the hand across the page and eventually the right brain will kick in, and you may just come up with some helpful insights...

The next thing is to take a daily walk-um, no I haven't been doing that regularly because of my health- but this is so important to our health and well being- to stop and smell the roses, to take in and really notice what is around us which we often pass by in our haste to get things done. I used to take a camera with me on my walks, and now I am on the improve,I hope to do so again- not very inspiring to get outdoors at the minute-cold, wet, wintry, windy-
It needn't be a long walk, 20 minutes, half an hour, start off slowly..

Finally -take an Artists date! This is meant to be done on your own, to recharge the creative batteries- push your boundaries, do something different each week- visit a gallery, go to the movies, visit open gardens(very inspiring and a host of potential creations if you have your camera) I have missed so many golden opportunities by not having my camera in the car...go somewhere for a coffee. study the 'street theatre'- the masses of humanity passing by, take a notebook-write!

Thanks to Dan, and the group here, I am feeling recharged and re-inspired.
Hey Dan, I see you are on the Creativity Portal...you are such a motivator :-) hug

Hope it's okay to post an image here...

[Lin Neiswender]

That's a whole lot of information packed into one post Julia! Thanks for the summary of Cameron's ideas, it was helpful- I've never read her.

[Julia]

Worth buying Lin, you won't regret it...Julia is a recovered alcoholic and basically based her creative recovery series 'The Artists Way' on the 12 step program...it is aimed at all blocked artists...she describes our 'creative monsters'- those people who at some time in our lives have convinced us we are NOT creative-

I grew up in a household with creative parents...in a way my late dad was one of my creativity blockers...he was a commissioned war artist in 2nd World War, and Head of Art Dept till he retired in '76-As one friend aptly put it, and it struck a chord " It is hard to stand in the presence of a great oak"...well I overcame that fear, and attended Art school...and passed LOL...at the same school where he had taught all those years- it banished a lot of ghosts once I had the courage to try...

...and that's what it's all about- we must keep on trying :-) hug

[Lin Neiswender]

I'm adding it to my Christmas list...

[Julia]

Good move darl, you will never regret it....not to say that Dan here doesn't offer the same sorts of creative encouragement, but another good perspective I have found to be my bible - hug...

...and it's in a book, I find it difficult to pick up a thread online as I would following a book...LOL the paper page, I still love it the most- easy to find what you want :-)

You know me, I just gotta add another pic ...spent hours today backing up files in readiness to have my computer rebuilt!

Tomorrow is our first day of Spring, wow, I so love Spring, daffodils, Dutch iris, bearded iris, ranunculi, anenomes, foxgloves...I hope I am in for a garden feast if our drought ever ends :-)

So, behold my crab apple tree this time last year ...ah, I

can just smell new life in the air..............yes!

[Shayla]

Your photos are stunning!

[Lin Neiswender]

I have many happy memories of crabapple trees as a kid growing up- two at our front walk, the bright magenta blossomed trees- so I love this picture! Even the bark is beautiful, glossy outside and if you stripped it off a twig very carefully, you would see the magenta underneath there too. Lovely! Any the apples made wonderful doll food.

[Barbara Ann Storrier]

We have two big sour apple trees in the front yard and the deer usually keep the driveway cleaned up ... there were three beautiful bucks doing it when the apples first began falling, but they haven't been around for a week and the driveway is a mess!

[Susan Hosken]

Julia, Thanks for the wonderful cloud picture. i love clouds and have numerous photos of them. Julia I can't find the Photodream for Mac computer. I'll have to look around some more. Meanwhile....I was introduced to Julia's books 2 years ago and am always reading one and being inspired. I practice her tools except I do my morning pages at night and combine them with a gratitude journal. It works better for me. I walk and go on artists dates. I've just finished reading the right to write by Julia about writing It is fabulous. I am also reading vein of gold.

[Julia]

Oh you have a Mac, I'm not sure about that-I use windows...Macs are said to be so much better and more stable for graphics!

So glad you read Julia's books, I was introduced to her about 10-12 years ago now, and I'm ready to get back into her words of wisdom...such a motivating lady, and the 12 step program is sheer genius- thank God for her shared insights...
yes, I have Vein of Gold too, I got stuck at about 20 on the timeline- I must get back to that, feeling the time is right, my creativity is dying to take some dominance in my life, and I can't wait to get into my studio again when we get back from the Sunshine Coast...

I used to have her book 'Right to Write' but I loaned it out and gone forever! Think I may reinvest in it ,a friend from an American cluster online sent it to me some years ago...

Yes, I do my 'morning pages' at night too LOL

[Barbara Ann Storrier]

I'm a Julia Cameron fan also, Julia :) "The Artist's Way" was a book I purchased and left sitting on the shelf for many years. I finally opened it in late 2006 and began writing morning pages as my New Year resolution on January 1st of 2007. I don't do them every morning, but as often as I can, and I prefer the mornings, helps me to get out all of the stuff I would otherwise be fretting about all day long without even realizing it. If I get up early enough, I have time to do some drawing also in the early morning, when I have the house to myself.

Artist's dates (alone) are harder for me to do. Walking is so easy ... yet I also sit home in my computer chair instead. I'm not caring for my physical body the way I should ... I have to keep asking for motivation and encouragement to help get me back into physical exercise. It really hits home how far out of shape I am when I do hike a ways, and doggone it, it hurts during the last stretch! Or I get on a bike, and wind up walking it up hills on the way back :(

I'm currently reading "Transitions" by Julia Cameron and it's great. One to read over and over, or just open to a page and read any time.

Another one I really enjoyed by her on creativity is called "Supplies ~ A Troubleshooting Guide For Creative Difficulties" and is written very humorously, tongue-in-cheek, about all the ways we and others sabotage our creative efforts.

I got "Vein of Gold" recently ... maybe we could start a discussion of it here?