Tag: creative

• Daily Bliss – January 26

  

  She remembers the time 

  She stood at the sink

  And wished for more time 

  But all she saw in the mirror was tears

  And time became her enemy,

  For how can she trust 

  All the good times 

  While she watches time and tears circle

  Down the drain? 

  ©Ashley Castle Barnes

  ---

  I’m often struck by how time seems like the enemy.

  As if time is the reason I sit scrolling instead of taking a walk.

  Or the reason I wake up early on a weekend instead of sleeping in.

  Or why I get to the end of a weekend and feel like I have so much I didn’t get done.

  In those moments, time becomes the enemy.

  I mean, how can I really trust that things will happen if I want them to if time is working against me?

  Of course, in quiet, honest moments I know this is not exactly accurate.

  How I spend my time determines how much time I ultimately have.

  And it’s even more than that.

  It’s the perception of how I’m “supposed” to spend my time.

  I spend this past Sunday working on an art and writing project.

  All day.

  The angst I felt welling up over spending a whole day on art and writing when I could’ve been “productive” was palpable.

  And despite finishing my project, the day ended with anxiety.

  We’re so programmed to spend all our time DOING something – as if making art and poetry isn’t doing something!

  Although I’ve been writing for over a decade, I’m finding as I put more focus on it this year that the work to unravel my disordered relationship with time is imperative to a creative life.

  Or any kind of life really.

  How are you unraveling your relationship with time today?

  January 26, 2023

  art, creative, creativity, healing, poetry, productivity, time, unraveling, writing

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• Daily Bliss – July 18

  

  And what if she allows herself 

  To float 

  To be carried by the current 

  And washed ashore 

  What if she floats 

  While the seeds of her creations 

  Bloom and flourish 

  While she nourishes 

  Her creative soul 

  ©Ashley Castle Barnes

  ---

  One thing I often have to be reminded of is that once I create and put my creation into action, there is a period of non-creating.

  To allow time for nourishment of the creation and myself before moving on to the next thing.

  Except my particular brain doesn’t much enjoy that. I want to be creating all the time.

  What’s new? What’s next? are the constant questions.

  And I could keep powering through of course. This is what I’ve done many times before.

  Publish a book, have a party, forget said book exists. Start a new program, run it once, move on to create the next program.

  It’s not a lack of consistency or discipline. It’s the satisfaction and motivation I get from creating something new.

  The power, I’m finding, is in following my natural instincts instead of trying to be someone I’m not.

  Even if that means I have to do things in an unconventional way.

  I’m not going to magically change what motivates me.

  But I can learn to take time to float and allow so I’m not just chasing the next new thing, but instead allowing that time to inform what’s next.

  This awareness, it’s part of the liminal space that’s created when we embark on something new and dare to put it out in the world.

  The waters get tumultuous and then we must float right into the next right thing.

  What are you floating into today?

  July 18, 2022

  allow, create, creative, float, liminal, nourish, seeds

  ---

• Daily Bliss – March 10

  

  What if she runs out of insight

  What if the words never come 

  What if she creates without thinking 

  What if she looks for the fun 

  ©Ashley Castle Barnes

  ---

  Some days I sit here looking at the screen or my journal with a blank mind.

  And a little bit of panic always ensues.

  What if all my creativity is dried up? What if I’m just done. What’s next?

  What’s even left?

  And then a sigh of calm returns because I know I’m thinking.

  And that’s not where insight comes from.

  In fact, the more I think, I usually get LESS.

  It’s when I’m moving or sitting in a hot bath or just waking up, all times when my thinking brain is quiet, that it comes.

  When I’m not trying, but allowing.

  When I’m more focused on the fun of creating, not what comes of it.

  Are you blocking your creative flow by thinking too hard about how it should be?

  March 10, 2022

  creative, creativity, flow, fun, insight, thinking

  ---

• This Creative Life

  

  Discipline,
  A sign of destruction or denial?
  Or rather the decadence of a man
  Who cannot move forward,
  Displaying doubt

  And yet, when imagination takes root
  In the dying wasteland of order,
  Like a disease of chaos slowly creeping through,
  Destroying all in its path with disorder and disarray,
  Its only casualty the destruction of the mind which cries,
  “Only THIS way”
  And brings forth the great deity which anoints me
  To this creative life

  ©SpiritLed 2019

  October 13, 2019

  creative, creative life, creativity, discipline, doubt, order

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• Making the Commitment to a Creative Life

  

  Each of us is endowed with a gift: the gift of creation. It’s in our bones, our breath, the very fibers of our being. But often we don’t recognize this essential part of us. Maybe we don’t see it clearly because we don’t paint or write. Maybe we were told as a child that our passion for music was a nice hobby but wouldn’t be lucrative as an adult. Perhaps our lives were (or still are) so difficult, so unordered, so devoid of creative inspiration for whatever reason that we simply never discovered that one spark that is unique within each of us.

  Yet it’s there. And deep down, though we often deny it, we feel its truth. When we see someone else with a talent we admire, and we think, “Why can’t I do that,” it’s not that we are unable; it’s that we haven’t yet tried. We’ve doubted our own talent; we’ve clung to our learned sense of unworthiness, and we’ve allowed that to be our excuse for not exploring our creative being-ness. The fact that we’re even asking the question tells us that it’s there inside us. We just have to let it out. And lest we not forget, creativity is housed in our bodies, though not in the mind and not even fully in the heart. But rather we tap into it in the sacral region, the space that is uniquely designed for the most basic form of creation, that of new life. What better place from which to spring forth creation of all manner!

  Of course, we know that new life requires a birthing process, and that process can be painful, difficult, shrouded in darkness, the unknown, and sometimes loss. There are no promises, only the hope embodied in the delicate creation that is to come. For so many of us, that unknown and risk of loss is too great. We use it as an excuse to keep ourselves in the dark about our true power and the ever-present need to create. And without it, we wither. Because creativity is our birthright. It is our honor. It is who we are.

  And so how do we tap into that place inside where we once freely created as a child, and how do we go back and grieve that moment where we turned away from the creator we instinctively are? How, in this world that most places a high value on productivity over creativity (or perhaps more accurately, the act of creating, for we do so love the outcome of a creative endeavor) do we find the intrinsic value in a creative life? How, in this busy life, do we make time for creativity?

  Honestly, how do we not?

  READ MORE 

  October 11, 2018

  awakening, commitment, creative, creativity, Creator, joy, soul

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• Daily Bliss – January 2

  

  The Angels remind us that creativity is as important as any other work—as important, even, as breath. Today, breathe in life to that creative place inside. And then go create! No excuses!

  February 2, 2018

  angels, breath, breathe, creative, creativity, excuses

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• Daily Bliss – October 31

  The Angels remind us that the energy of creation is always flowing within us, through us, and around us. We can work to open ourselves more fully to this flow, so that we become a part of creation itself, and in turn find greater connection to our true selves.

  October 31, 2017

  angels, creation, creative, creativity, energy, flow, healing, true self

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• This Creative Life

  

  In creating, we find life,
  The kind of life that isn’t discovered
  In everyday endeavors
  Or positive pursuits

  But rather, the kind of life discovered
  Between long, slow kisses,
  Lazy sunsets by the sea,
  The lilting laugh of a joyful baby,
  Irises blooming in the garden for your mother

  All creating the backdrop
  Of a richer existence
  Longer days and sleepier nights
  With stars like spotlights above us
  Illuminating the many miracles
  Uncovered, created
  Through this creative life

  ©SpiritLed 2017

  July 17, 2017

  baby, creative, creativity, existence, iris, kiss, life, mother, sea, sunset

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• Silver Linings

  

  Refuse to feel sorry,
  to drown yourself in your own self-loathing
  to focus on the hatred
  of all that went wrong in your life,
  refuse to be mired,
  to get caught in the downward spiral
  that is misery and complaint;
  for life has so much to offer,
  silver linings in every dark corner
  for the creative mind to seek out,
  to pull from the deepest places
  where the light barely goes;
  silver only needs a tiny sliver of light
  to reflect its true nature,
  the bearer of positive intent
  making all things shiny-new,
  offering the slightest glimmer of hope

  ©SpiritLed 2015

  April 8, 2015

  complaint, creative, glimmer, hope, light, misery, peace, self-loathing, silver lining

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