Relaxing and playing allows the floodgates to open and you are illuminated with new and unique ideas. Reading is another favorite past time and as words and thoughts are consumed, new innovative concepts emerge.

Napolean Hill, who wrote the 1937 classic Think and Grow Rich devotes an entire chapter in Laws of Success to imagination. Hill explored the scientific basis for the concept of the LAW of ATTRACTION as well as a common sense  explanation for how like attracts like and how this actually works in the real world. Next, he focused upon improving the way Infinite Intelligence is accessed through the imagination. Hill created methods to unlock ideas hidden in our subconscious minds and developed other methods that allow the possibility that ideas may be accessed from outside sources.

Hill described two kinds of ways to use your imagination. One was called “synthetic”imagination which is actually more effective if described as synthesized imagination. This approach uses all of your life experiences, knowledge and allows new combinations of former knowledge. Inventors like Thomas Edison used this approach when as he discovered 10,000 ways to not create a light bulb with consistent efforts, he finally found a new combination of knowledge that made his efforts a success. Creative imagination is the second approach and this one employs the contact made with Infinite Intelligence and allows us to telepathically access information from other people’s minds.

Hill goes on to say that his term Cosmic Habit Force is WHY his methods work. Infinite Intelligence is HOW it works and Imagination is WHERE it works. Without totally understanding all of this new terminology, my confidence increases as in my own life experiences, the kind of fun activities that I engage in allow a simultaneous opportunity to have solutions present themselves as these activities are enjoyed. It also is in alignment with the idea that what you resists persist. Once you are relaxed and no longer pushing against things in your life, things tend to be released.

Other methods include a consistent practice of meditation will give you a “tapped in, tuned in and turned on” access to Source with ideas flooding your mind with a  Divine intervention.This can also be called “intuition.” Recording your dreams will have those messages and symbols become clearer to you while solutions are presented to a challenge that you went to sleep thinking about. This new epiphany came to me as I refused to spend all day plugging away at projects—instead I made the decision to enjoy my life more. Each day do more of the things that I love. You can imagine my surprise when I realized the  incredible benefits of such play time. Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way gives credence to these same ideas when she encourages you to enjoy an artist’s date with yourself each week to replenish the creative resources that may have been depleted in your busy and overworked lives. Cameron says,

” Creativity is God’s will for us and should be practiced like any other spiritual practice—a day at a time.”

Discovery of this truth and way of being and continuing to pursue the avenues that open up for me can only catapult me into  new and exciting arenas that teach me more about myself and life. Continuing down this kind of path can only reveal truths and like honesty in a relationship, will only take me deeper.

” I have always known that at last I would take this road, but yesterday I did not know that it would be today.” Narihara  (excerpted from Christina Baldwin’s Life’s Companion)

Recommended Readings:

1. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

2. Life’s Companion by Christina Baldwin

3. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

In my last post, I mentioned that I was feeling the “urge to purge.” For any art teachers out there, you know that is a rare sensation as we usually were on the hunt for new still life items or interesting and unique things to use in decorating our classrooms, homes or garden rooms.

However I have found that clearing out stuff and making room for new things can do a lot to lift your spirits. When we make art, we sort and choose. Now I will be the first to say that during the process as you turn your house upside down, that can be more than a little bit distressing. When it is all said and done, now that’s a very good feeling.  I  will confess that I have always been a “ pack rat,”  and finally I am ready to unpack many unused items. After the clearing out, I will attend more estate sales and auctions and seek out some new  unusual and unique kinds of items.  What I have discovered is as I move through the layers, there is a system of organization underneath the top layer of stuff. It is getting some things out the door to make room for an organizational system that works for you now with what you are doing in your life.

Yesterday for example, I took the leap and purchased a new IMac computer with a huge 27″ screen. I am more than anxious to get it set up and running and have spent two days backing up the information on the two 300 GB hard drives. It gave me an opportunity to organize and discard duplicates and unused, outdated items. It will be fun to continue organizing all the information and even get creative with the new applications to see how I can create some new things as I gain the skills.

It is a new year and a perfect time to streamline each of our lives. I read somewhere that the state of your environment is a reflection of your state of mind. I wouldn’t want you to pop in on me in my office with boxes and disks and cables laying everywhere. Oddly enough, I feel invigorated and excited about the new possibilities that can result from my ongoing intentions to “lighten up.”

Happy New Year and may you also be inspired to “create the space in your life for miracles,” as Michelle Passoff says.” by freeing yourself from too much stuff.” I have a ways to go and it’s a start.

“Once there is nothing to improve upon in the physical environment one can set about improving on oneself.” Henry Miller

Recommended Readings:

1. Lighten Up: Free Yourself from Clutter, Michell Passoff. Offered in this book is a look at how stuff robs you of energy and when the stuff is eliminated, your free to create miracles.

2. Clutters Last Stand, Don Aslet. This book provides a whimsical approach to junk with a junkee’s exam to see if you classify as a “ junkee.”

I Close My Eyes in Order to See!

Robert Fritz begins in his book, Creating, saying, “Many of us have the suspicion  that there is much more to life than what we have been led to expect. Perhaps our lives are filled with secret possibilities—possibilities that there are dimensions to ourselves, depths of our being, and heights to our aspirations that are lurking just below the surface.”

We each have the urge to do something that matters to us. Perhaps we exist only  as shadows of our future selves, and this subtle yet persistent force nagging at our consciousness—to be a creator, to be one who brings into existence creations that previously lived only in our inner thoughts.

This deep longing to create resides within the soul of humanity. Beyond our basic instincts for survival which includes fulfilling such needs as food, warmth,water, and air— we also have a natural instinct for building, organizing,  forming, and creating.

Webster defines creativity as ” creative ability; artistic or intellectual inventiveness.” Webster tells us that the word  create means ” to originate; to bring into being from nothing: to cause to exist. In other words, when we talk about creating we are talking about causality—that is causing something to exist that did not previously exist.

The creative process has had more impact, power and influence than any other process in history. Consider all of the inventions, the arts, architecture, and the amazing technological age we now live in as a result of the creative process.We have experienced so much innovation and growth in our lifetime.

It is the reason why research scientists once teamed up with school age children to consider ways to save the California coast from slipping off into the ocean. In many educational environments, the creative process of art, music, dance and drama are seen as nice extracurricular activities that broadens a child’s horizons. Too many times educators are forced into thinking that learning to create is more “fluff” rather than being the centerpiece of education.

” To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” Joseph Chilton Pearce

As the world becomes more competitive—it would be an error to misunderstand the power of the creative process not only in the world but in our individual lives as well. The creative process —a power able to generate new technologies,medical breakthroughs, transportation, film, music, painting, fashion, cuisine, robotics, healthier lives and environments and so much more.

” Why should we all use our creative power? Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compassionate, so indifferent, to fighting and the accumulation of objects and money. ” Brenda Ueland

Can creativity be taught? Can creating be learned? Yes. Creativity is a skill that can be learned and mastered by people from all walks of life and from all backgrounds. One can learn to create just as easily as they can learn to  drive their car, swim, or work on a computer.When creative skills are used in music, painting or acting or dance—the result is art. When creative skills are used in technology—the result is innovation and invention. When creative skills are used in business—the results are production. When creative skills are used in relationship—the results are a deep and abiding love. When creative skills are used to build a life—the results are increased vitality, adventure and expansion. Creating can be just as important to the  manager as it is to the  artist, just as powerful to the organization as to the individual.

” You need to claim the events of your life to make yourself yours.” Anne-Wilson Schaef

When your life itself becomes the subject matter of the creative process, a very different experience of life opens to you. Suddenly you are involved with life at it’s very essence. When this happens, your experience of time changes. Tastes, colors, touches, and sounds are experienced more deeply. You begin to experience important life events as having more vitality and life, while being able to appreciate small events as lovely and poetic and precious. You may even discover that you love your life even though you may not have loved all the events that have transpired in your life. These newly deepened experiences are the outgrowth of living life at a different level of involvement. Awareness of the creative processes can produce amazing results. Each of our lives can benefit from more involvement in the creative processes. Perhaps your life is filled with secret possibilities that you never until now imagined.

” Creativity is God’s gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.” Julia Cameron

Recommended Readings:

Vein of Gold, Julia Cameron, Another great book designed to inspire the artist in everyone and present tasks to involve the reader in “”inner play”" that can lead to artistic growth.

The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron. One of my very favorite books,this is the seminal book on the subject of creativity.

Creating, Robert Fritz, A practical guide to the creative process and how to use it  to create anything from a work of art , a loving relationship, or a more fulfilling life.

Creativity, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, This book is a first hand account about creativity from  the history of people who have lived with creative experiences in their own lives.