Every weekday morning I invite you Behind the Scenes at my studio.
Today: I spent this rainy summer weekend creating, visioning and getting ready for Wednesdays Full Buck Moon! That meant a trip to the bookstore for some magazines and a couple of additional inspiring finds!
Because “awareness” has a sacred quality too often we relegate it to special circumstances – a particular state of mind, a certain type of environment, an uninterrupted period of time. But awareness is a gift that’s available to us in each moment, whether we are sitting beneath a tree, gazing out our window or waiting in a doctor’s office.
Cultivate Your Awareness
To cultivate your awareness in any given moment, all you have to do is choose a focus and activate your senses.
Choose a sense: sight, hearing, taste, smell or touch
Select an area of focus (e.g. the tree outside the window or your cup of tea)
Pay Attention
For example, you might choose to explore your sense of touch combined with the focus area of your front closet. Run your hands along the sleeves of your jackets. Put that scarf against your cheek. Notice what it feels like to put your arm into that sleeve. Crawl into the closet and take a seat. Feel your back leaning against the wall. Simply notice what you notice. What does it feel like? What does it make you think of? What does it inspire in you?
In the Cultivating Awareness video, I use sight to pay attention to a small patch of my garden. In those few moments I opened my awareness to the present, nature, myself, my memories and my relationships. From there, I had ideas for a poem, a dance and a short story.
Cultivating awareness and paying attention to the world around us fills us with rich resources to draw on. Give yourself a few moments each day to connect to your senses and pay attention. Keep a journal nearby so you can catch the ideas as they start to fly! Let this simple creative practice be a powerful foundation for your creative life.
People often ask me where I get so much creative energy and how I manage to be so productive. Much of the answer lies in the development of a creative practice
Start or Deepen Your Creative Practice Starting Today!
It’s not to late too join me.
Developing a creative practice is the way we tend the soil for all of our dreams and desires. It is how we invite in inspiration and how we assure the muse that we are ready for her arrival. Practice is what brings us home to ourselves again and again when we lose our way. It is the earth beneath our feet as we dance our way through our wild creative adventures.
Practice is with us throughout our creative lives, at the beginning, at the end and every step in between.
When in doubt, practice is the perfect place to start.
Join me for the first of our Studio Seminar Series: Creative Practice
Learn about Creative Practice. You’ll be introduced to the concept of creative practice and the ways it can support you and what you want to bring to life.
Find Your Why: Tap into the root of your creative heart and discover your unique personal why, a powerful key to a sustainable practice.
Discover Options: Discover a wide range of possibilities for your creative practice so you can begin to determine what would serve you best in your creative life without getting overwhelmed!
Learn “Stick to It” Strategies: The nature of practice is to be ongoing, which brings along ongoing challenges like resistance, boredom, life’s natural disruptions. Learn strategies to support you in coming back to your practice again and again.
Participate in Live Discussion: This is your opportunity to ask an experienced coach your questions about creative practice. Plus you’ll hear from other creative hearts about their experience with practice – the ups, the downs, the questions and the successes.
Receive Inspiration & Encouragement: Even if you have experience with creative practice, dipping your toes into this time with the Jamie Ridler Studios community is an opportunity to refresh your perspective and renew your commitment with encouragement.
Access All Summer Long: You’ll have access to the recording for the entire summer so that you can refer to it again and again as you bring your creative practice – and your creative self – to life!
Registration: $30
The Details
Webinar: Take part from anywhere in the world!
Date: TODAY! Thursday, June 25, 2015
Time: 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm EST
Recorded: Participate at a time that is right for you. (You’ll be able to watch the recorded workshop until August 31st)
Supplies: Just something to write with and something to write on.
Wondering if this Workshop is for You?
This workshop is for…
Emerging Creatives new to practice: Creative souls new to creative practice who are looking for guidance about where to start.
Committed Creatives ready to renew their practice: Creative hearts who find themselves committed to but struggling with their creative practice.
Experienced Creatives looking for refreshment: Creatives looking to reconnect to the heart of their practice with a new sense of energy and devotion.
Tim Manley is the author and illustrator of Alice in Tumblr-land: And Other Fairy Tales for a New Generation, based on his tumblr Fairy Tales for Twenty-Somethings. His online art projects include i need you to know how much i love you, 100 reasons to be happy, lock screen love and advice to myself. Tim’s live storytelling has been featured on The Moth Radio Hour and the Unchained Tour, and in other shows across New York City.
Book: Alice in Tumblr-land: And Other Fairy Tales for a New Generation (on Amazon.com, on Amazon.ca)
About Jen Lee
Jen Lee is the director and producer of the new documentary film, Indie Kindred, which offers an intimate look at creative collaboration among independent artists. A publisher, producer and a performer in New York City’s storytelling scene, Jen has been featured on public radio’s Peabody Award-winning Moth Radio Hour and The Best of The Moth: Volume 15. An instructor for numerous workshops and retreats, Jen also creates resources for artists, makers — and the people who gather them — at jenleeproductions.com.
Subscribe: You can subscribe to Creative Living with Jamie here and also on iTunes (Note: this link will ask to access your iTunes and then take you to the podcast. You can also simply open iTunes and search for “Creative Living with Jamie)
Email: You can email your feedback, questions and suggestions to Jamie.
Share: Spread the Magic! If you loved this show, please share it with other creative hearts!
Every weekday morning I invite you Behind the Scenes at my studio.
Today: The Creative Practice Seminar is live tomorrow so the studio is abuzz with preparations. It’s fascinating to be creating this seminar while I am right in the midst of seeing how my own practice supports me through the loss of Jinx.
Every weekday morning I invite you Behind the Scenes at my studio.
Today: On Friday I said goodbye to my cat companion of 20 years, the dear, sweet Jinx. Today has been particularly difficult, as I go through my regular morning routine without her. Thank you for all of the love and support. It means so much.
You can find me and my #goodmorninggarden photos on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook.
