Guest Blogger Suzanne Murray suggests walking to inspire creativity. WALKING HELPS YOUR CREATIVITY When you are engaged in a project and feel the creative inspiration has dried up, take a break. Anything that occupies the consciousness mind in a physical way can open you to the flow of fresh ideas and insights. Doing the dishes or taking a shower are good ways. One of my favorites is taking a walk. You could simply stroll around the block or walk deep into nature. I have not been alone in my awareness that walking opens creative channels. There is a long list of well known creatives who walked to allow ideas and connections to flow. Charles Darwin, Virginia Woolf, William Wordsworth, Nikola Tesla, Aristotle, Sigmund Freud, Thomas Jefferson, Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens, Beethoven to name but a few. Scientific studies have now found that creative problems can indeed be solved by walking,…
Tag: EFT
The Joy of Creativity
By Suzanne Murray Years ago I heard Nobel Prize winning Irish poet Seamus Heaney give a lecture at the University of Washington. In the middle of this very academic speech, he paused, threw up both his hands and said, “Oh, just write for the joy of it” and then dipped back into the lecture. I don’t remember anything else from the talk, but Heaney’s sudden burst of inspiration stayed with me because it really captured an essential element in being creative. Whether you are cooking a great meal, growing a beautiful garden, writing a poem or singing in the community choir, you likely feel a deep sense of satisfaction and a joyfulness that comes with being creative. Creativity draws on the best of human nature: perception, imagination, intellect, inspiration, courage, intuition, and empathy. The urge to create asks us to bask in the experience of the world, to see, feel, taste,…
Surrender to Creativity
Guest Blogger Suzanne Murray encourages creativity by surrendering. SURRENDER IS CRITICAL TO CREATIVITY We can’t force creativity. We know this intuitively. If we told a painter that we wanted a masterpiece by five o’clock tomorrow, they would look at us like we were crazy; that we clearly didn’t understand what being creative was all about. An important part of being creative is learning to surrender to the flow of the universe, allowing something greater than our everyday self to move through us. It’s not something we can figure out with our linear mind. Of course, if we want to paint we need to learn how to work with our chosen medium and studying the work of the masters can help. If we want to write it’s really valuable to read widely and deeply, to show up daily to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and perhaps…
Calm Your Brain
Guest Blogger Suzanne Murray has this to say: With anxiety and fear running high in the world these days, I wanted to share how we can make friends with these feelings and use them to our advantage. Anxiety and fear can prevent us from being creative or living a life we love. To live and create fully, we be must be willing again and again to step out of our old comfortable life and into unknown territory. This always feels scary. Many years ago I read the self-help book Feel the Fear, And Do It Anyway which presents the premise that just because we feel a sense of fear about a project or moving in a new direction in our lives doesn’t mean we are supposed to stop ourselves from proceeding. More recently I’ve been fine-tuning my understanding of what this really means and feels like, how to best use it in…
Manifest with Brad Yates
Today’s Guest Blogger is Brad Yates. In Manifestation 101 (& Taking Likely Action) Brad talks about a five-step process for manifesting what you really want. 1. Create It 2. Clear It 3. Live It 4. Let Go 5. Likely Action Step One: Create It Decide what you really want. Write it down. Start with something like: “I am so happy! I have . . .” Then list the qualities and features of what it is you want (as if you already have them). It’s important that you write it in the present. If you write “I want this,” then you are vibrating at a frequency of want – and the wanting of it is what you will continue to attract. You want to be vibrating in harmony with already having it. Write positive things, stating the positive aspect (what it has), rather than what it doesn’t have. If you write, “My…
The mind can’t tell the difference . . .
Today’s guest blogger is the extraordinary Brad Yates, Emotional Freedom Technique Tapping (EFT) instructor. Reposted from his 8/19/2019 Email. Reviewing the Past In spite of all the encouragement to live in the present or focus on the future, most of us are likely to still spend a fair amount of time reviewing the past. And, more often than not, the moments we dwell on are not necessarily the highlights. It’s normal … but it isn’t without cost. Because the mind can’t tell the difference between something that is real and something that is imagined, just thinking about past troubles triggers the same chemical reactions and the same uncomfortable feelings. Given that we create our reality based on what we are feeling, you can see where this could be problematic. Each time we go through those unpleasant experiences, we hardwire those memories and feelings more firmly, making it more likely we’ll keep…
Relax To Enhance Your Creativity
The Write Spot Blog is all about writing: Writing Prompts to inspire you; Just Write tidbits to motivate you; Quotes to let you know others are in the same boat as you; Places to Submit to get your work out there; Book Reviews to share authors’ work; Guest Posts for all kinds of writing-related things. Today’s Guest Blog Post by Suzanne Murray talks about increasing your creativity by relaxing. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? But what about cortisol, adrenaline, and epigenetics? Factor those in, and it becomes apparent that relaxation isn’t as easy as drifting in a hammock. Fortunately, Suzanne Murray offers strategies to help us learn to relax. HOW CREATIVITY CAN HELP US RELAX We all know that relaxation makes us and our bodies feel good whereas stress causes us to tense up and feel less that optimum. New scientific research shows just how important relaxing our bodies and minds is….
Cultivate Creativity
Cultivate creativity: Grow awareness and eliminate distractions. Like gardening: Pull what you don’t want (those darn weeds) and nourish what you want to grow. The following Guest Blog Post is an excerpt from Suzanne Murray’s 1/14/17 blog post. I started writing before the development of the personal computer, when cut and paste meant I was down on the floor with a pair of scissors and a jar of that thick white glue that smelled vaguely of peppermint. It was in many ways a simpler time with far less pulling on my attention.Every morning upon rising I would make my single cup of French roast coffee, dripped through a Melitta, and then sit down to write. There weren’t thoughts like I’ve got to check my email or Twitter feed to interfere with putting words on the page. If I needed to do research, I went to the library, the sacred hall…
It’s time to . . . .
It’s time to leave behind the beliefs that limit us and embrace the creative beings we truly are. —Suzanne Murray Join Suzanne in one of her many fabulous writing workshops, or personal coaching, or EFT. Yosemite Spring Retreat April 4 – April 6 Journey to the west of Ireland The Heart of Writing – a four week coaching package EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) Check out Suzanne’s Blog for ideas on writing, creativity and life coaching.