“You must write for yourself, above all. That is your only hope of creating something beautiful.” ~Gustave Flaubert

~I always trust my creative instincts.~

Do you have a favourite beloved fairytale character?  What would happen if that character went bad?  Would Cinderella, plot Prince Charming’s demise?  Would Dopey use his innocent demeanour to hide his mastermind plot to rob banks?

Be creative and most importantly ~ have fun!

“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.”

~Franklin D. Roosevelt

~I will not restrain my creativity.~

You have probably heard the saying “Don’t judge someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.” 

It’s a reminder that we can never know what it’s like to live another person’s life. Often others struggle with problems, which we’ve never seen, or could ever imagine.  

What if you could walk in another person’s shoes for just one day? Who would you choose? What would that day be like? What lessons would you learn? Would it change your view of life?  Reflect and write!  

“So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”

~ J.K. Rowling

Getting Back Our Creative Spark

For many creatives, our worst enemy is often ourselves. To be creative often times means being vulnerable. For some, that vulnerability opens them up to feelings of insecurity and a strong fear of failure. We may mask those feelings by using subconscious excuses; we are too tired, too busy, too broke, or too stressed that we waste our unused creative abilities to think up every imaginable excuse to avoid facing the reality that we “need” to create. Often we view it as being “blocked” or “stuck” and as a result, we stop creating all together.

Not honouring our creative selves can cause us to feel unbalanced, overwhelmed, stagnant, irritable, frustrated, depressed and even resentful to those we feel are manipulating our time. These feelings, if not addressed, can become bigger in our lives than any creative failures ever could.

Life does have a habit of getting in the way. Things happen, we get sick, relationships have rough patches, unexpected expenses arise, jobs end, and much of the time we can’t control events but we can control how we react to them. We can give these “events” more power by wallowing in them and letting them damper our creative fire or we can use them as a catalyst to create. We have to accept that life will deliver unforeseen events that will test us and change us. Change is the one thing that is constant in life. It’s a fact. We will face delays, and our plans will often be derailed, but this is when we need to express our creativity the most. By not taking action and doing something we love, we are making a decision in itself; we are saying that we don’t matter. We have the power to choose and to take action that supports what we want and need. We may fail but we may succeed. In the long run, our bravery to create will give us a sense of accomplishment that will far outweigh regretting our inactivity.

To get back our creative spark we have to look within, the messages we send ourselves ultimately shape our lives. If we are negative and tear ourselves, and our abilities down, we are feeding the insecurities that stop us from creating. We need to change our outlook, change our modes of thinking and catch our negative thoughts before they take hold. By changing something as simple as our internal dialog, we can change our lives. We must focus on our accomplishments, not our failures. We need to appreciate that our failures are our teachers and our creative life will only benefit from them.

Sometimes we just need to realize how important creativity is to us and revisit what inspired us in the first place. We should reflect on the following questions:

• Why is being creative important to me?
• When do I feel joyful and hopeful?
• When do I feel a sense of accomplishment?
• What feels meaningful to me?
• How do I feel physically, emotionally and spiritually when I create?
• Who benefits from my creativity(directly or indirectly)?
• What am I doing when I am having fun and losing track of time?
• Where do I feel the most alive and inspired to create?
• What am I missing from my creative life?

By examining our thoughts and becoming aware of what stops us from creating, we can take the first step to ignite our creative passions. Self-awareness is a gift if we brave enough to take the first step.

“Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing.” ~ J.K. Rowling

Creativity Coaching at Ignite Your Creativity

Google “Creativity Coaching” and you will discover thousands of links to people who dedicate their lives to help everyday people reach their creative potential. Ignite Your Creativity is pleased to announce that we are now offering creativity coaching as one of our services. What are Creativity Coaches? Creativity Coaches are life coaches who focus on one’s creative evolution. Our mission is to help you focus on improving and redefining your future by encouraging you to focus on creative pursuits. Many artists, writers, musicians, and other creative people live with anxieties, doubts, fears, and worries that often hinder their creative minds. A Creativity Coach’s main goal is to assist and guide you to reach your dreams and to help you live the creative life you desire. Ultimately, we endeavor to help our client write, paint, compose, find meaning and happiness where the main goal is to create. We will encourage you to set attainable goals and offer a level of accountability through assignments geared to your specific goal. We will inspire you to think bigger and to work on developing your ideas and energies into meaningful creative projects. Together we will help you identify, understand and work through any creative blocks that stand in the way of your goals. Working with us will enable you to become the creative person, you have always wanted to be. The “Ignite Your Creativity” program consists of:

• 4 weeks of creativity coaching via email (consecutive weeks)
• 1 initial assessment email to get started
• 4 emails with tips, inspiration and activities geared towards your particular goals

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” ~ George Eliot

Affirmation For Creativity

This Month’s Affirmation: “I believe in and honour my creative abilities”

To use as wallpaper click on image to enlarge, for Windows right-click “Set as Desktop”

Book of the Month

Getting the Words Right [Paperback]

Theodore Cheney (Author)

When asked by the Paris Review what compelled him to rewrite the ending of A Farewell to Arms 39 times, Ernest Hemingway replied, “Getting the words right.” His answer echoes what every successful writer knows: The secret to all good writing is revision.

For more than twenty years, Getting the Words Right has helped writers from all professions rewrite, revise, and refine their writing. In this new edition, author Theodore Cheney offers 39 targeted ways you can improve your writing, including how to:

• create smooth transitions between paragraphs
• correct the invisible faults of inconsistency, incoherence, and imbalance
• overcome problems of shifting point of view and style
• express your ideas clearly by trimming away weak or extra words

You’ll strengthen existing pieces and every future work by applying the three simple principles–reduce, rearrange, and reword. Once the secrets of revision are yours, you’ll be able to follow Hemingway’s lead–and get the words right!

Review via Amazon.ca

February’s Book Recommendations

by Julia Cameron

List Price:CDN$ 30.00

Showing & Telling: Learn How to Show & When to Tell for Powerful & Balanced Writing[Paperback]

by Laurie Alberts (Author)

List Price:CDN$ 20.99

The Key: How to Write Damn Good Fiction Using the Power of Myth [Paperback]

by James N. Frey (Author)

List Price:CDN$ 17.99

February’s Writing Prompts

Letter to yourself?…

Write a letter to give to your past self during a trying time. Explain to yourself how what you were experiencing was necessary to go through in order to grow as a person.

“I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial…” ~ Winston S. Churchill

A picture is worth a thousand words…

Where do you find your inspiration? Do you find it in a person, place or thing? Reflect and write!

“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious – the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”
~ Albert Einstein

To use as wallpaper click on image to enlarge, for Windows right-click “Set as Desktop”

Inspirational Spark~Ignite Your Creativity

www.igniteyourcreativity.net

Graphics by Belinda Witzenhausen ©2012

Music by Mike Witzenhausen ©2012

“Writing’s not terrible, it’s wonderful.
I keep my own hours,do what I please.
When I want to travel, I can.
But mainly I’m doing what
I most wanted to do all my life.
I’m not into the agonies of creation.”

~ Raymond Carver