CreateNet

Welcome to CreateNet®

CreateNet connects the art and science of living your creative potential. This is not about artistic ability. It's about the capacity to be who you are, to live an authentic life. The spiral image shows the unfolding and continuous change that we experience in our lives. When you live your creative potential, you create in this way, from the inside out. You both go with the flow of your life and decide what you can and will create. Fulfillment occurs when you live who you are -- who you are meant to be. Like an acorn grows into an oak tree.  LIke a spiral unfolds in continuous change and creating. Here you will find tools, ideas and experiences about living and working in this way. Welcome.

Embrace fear

Many people advise,  "feel the fear and do it anyway," or "no pain, no gain." Or, "push through your fear." This works well for some. For most of us, though, fear is an important signal to pay attention to -- a sign that you are not ready to proceed.

When you take time to embrace fear -- to explore and love it  -- you gain its wisdom and insights about what you are attempting to be or do. Insights that are not available to you in any other way. You gain more personal power and confidence to move ahead.

Make a decision to embrace fear even if you don't yet have the capacity to do this. Start slowly and notice first what triggers your fear. Play with the idea of embracing fear -- find an image that works for you. Perhaps it's this green open space image where there is plenty of room for fear to roam and a container to hold it.

Often fear is a signal that your "shoulds" are operating. That is, you are planning and taking action based on what you think should happen and that may not be what is or can happen.When you embrace fear, you obtain useful information both about yourself and about the situation. Then you can decide how you want to proceed.

Another advantage of embracing fear is that you can both feel your feelings and think about what to do. Your emotions don't hijack your power. You manage yourself in the situation instead of being triggered emotionally by real or imagined dangers or barriers.

When you embrace fear, you engage your creative mind. In this space, fear, confidence and personal power co-exist in a space of compassion, kindness, care and connection. This builds confidence. In creative mind space, you are whole. You are your natural self. 

As someone who has dealt with PTSD for many years and who now successfully manages triggers of past trauma most of the time, I know the joy and personal power that flows when you gain the capacity to embrace fear. It's truly an awesome homecoming to my natural self, to who I am.

 

Image by Dmitry Maslov Dreamstime

The 8 powers of creating: what it takes to create something new

The power to create emerges when eight separate powers are engaged. All eight must be present in order to create something new.

We intuitively know this as the eight-pointed star image is a familiar one. This quilt with its yellow eight-pointed star in the center offers an inspiring symbol of the 8 powers of creating. The quilt was designed by Charleen Touchette who produces art to inspire healing and action.

The 8 powers of creating are:

Culture: beliefs, values, traditions and customs that support what you want to create.

Community: support of social political, economic, environmental conditions.

Control: Your ability (by yourself or working with others) to engage time, resources and conditions needed to create what you want.

Competence: Ability skills, confidence required for your creating.

Communication: Skills and freedom to speak up, express your ideas.

Connections: Resources and people who support what you want to create.

Commitment: Determination to move forward and choose to use the power to create what you want.

Creative action: The ability to define and implement a plan, learn from experience, get desired results.

The 8 powers of creating weave personal capacity and social conditions. Personal skills, confidence and beliefs impact the power to create. Social conditions also are key.

Access your creative mind

A creative mindset is the source of the capacity to see possibilities, create opportunities. In this mindset you are able to imagine and implement new ideas and create something new.

In contrast, a critic mindset generates problems and barriers. When you are in this mindset, you focus on analyzing what can't work and searching for what is not good enough. Or, you debate and critique every possibility until the creative energy so necessary for productive action and achievement plummets. A critic mindset keeps you attached to the status quo. In this mindset, you will feel stuck continuously. On the other hand, a creative mindset fosters your ability to create change as you need to and to live your creative potential.

Six keys to a creative mindset:

1. Focus on what you want to create. Instead of criticizing an idea, convert the criticism to creating: describe what would work better. Rather than say what you don't like or don't want, define what you do want.
2. Create space for different ideas. Imagine putting ideas on a table where you can view them separatelly and in different combinations. You don't have to accept all of the ideas. Just open the space to consider them.
3. Find connections among ideas. Experiment with connecting different ideas or put together parts of ideas to shapre a new alternative. Define what to include rather than what to exclude. Consider what you like about ideas rather than what is missing. This helps to open the space for solutions and new ideas that can work to emerge.
4. Avoid "shoulds" and assumptions -- as in there is only one right way to do this or others should do it my way. Open the space to see the situation as it is rather than as you assume it should be. Detach from what you think should be happening and from assumptions about outcomes. This will help you to see more clearly and to find what can work.
5. Find opportunities and possibilites -- the green lights. When you decide to find what you can do, it's easier to discover possibilities. Opportunities always are available, although often hidden from view. A decision to find the green lights opens your eyes to new ways of thinking about the circumstances you face and focuses your attention on what you can do now.
6. Use symbolmaking activities. These activities connect to the part of your brain that thinks in pictures and images rather than words. In our lives and work, pictures of what's next always come first -- before words. You always can picture what you want or what is emerging before you can create it. In fact, the picture-making part of your mind usually is the source of a rising desire to change or to create something new in your life.

I hope these ideas will stimulate your thinking about other ways that you use to access your creative mind--source of aha! experiences and breakthroughs. May you find joy in creating -- the key to living your creative potential.

 

Practicing Safe Yoga

[Carol Bedrosian, publisher of Spirit of Change holistic magazine gave us permission to publish this post from her blog at Spirit of Change.]

The recent yoga controversy over New York Times Science writer William Broad's 5-page article How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body rocked the yoga and holistic health communities. Long time yoga teacher Glenn Black is quoted in the article saying "the vast majority of people" should just give up yoga altogether, based on his belief and experience that yoga can inflict damage on your body. The article and subsequent commentaries quote various medical experts and publications confirming a host of yoga-related injuries.

20 million Americans are estimated to practice "yoga," up from just 4 million in 2001. That's a huge growth in numbers, but exactly what is everyone practicing? Yoga originated in India as an 8-limbed spiritual practice and path to divine realization. The Americanized version of yoga focuses almost exclusively on the third limb of this path called "asanas" or physical postures.

In the 8-limbed yogic tradition, asanas help you learn to master your body to reach a point of stillness and meditation. Due to the tremendous health benefits that can be gained through the twisting, massaging and stretching of the body and its internal organs and all its energetic pathways during asanas, Western practitioners of yoga have plucked this practice from the 8-limbed path to create a highly commercialized and competitive $5 billion dollar industry removed from its spiritual context.

With its focus mainly on sculpting sleek bodies, maintaining vibrant health and polishing poses to perfection in a competitive push with self or others, Western yoga offers all the designer accessories, clothing, props, trends and yoga styles to satisfy every niche of the market. However, asanas practiced without awareness of the first two limbs on the path — non-violence and moderation — most certainly do have the potential for leading to self-injury.

A well-experienced yoga teacher brings the greater awareness of yoga to his or her students and steers students away from the potential for self-injury by not fostering competition in class or goading students to "do better" or "stretch further" than the body is willing to allow. He or she offers modifications of easier options for each pose and individualized pose corrections to guide students in finding their optimal level of exertion at each moment. Choose a yoga class based on the quality of the teacher first, and location, schedule and cost second. Search until you find a teacher you feel confident about and a class you can enjoy. 

Not that yoga is easy. My first year of practice was quite the challenge. I came close to calling it quits many times amidst the frustrating grunts and groans of getting into position, until I came to realize that yoga was not about conquering poses and getting it right, but letting go and settling in. When practiced with the full awareness of non-violence and non-competitiveness, yoga is as safe and essential to good health as daily grooming. It is Western commercialization that has provided less healthy "fast food" versions of yoga to us — pleasingly packaged, convenient schedules, tasty additives, but missing many of the essential ingredients necessary to provide a whole yoga diet.

As a 16-year student of yoga, I find that yoga is the second most important remedy in my medicine chest. First is my belief that my body is my friend and knows how to keep itself well when I pay attention to its needs; my brain affirms this by continually sending "healthy" cues to my body to keep it on track. Yoga not only gives my body the regular physical maintenance it needs to stay healthy, but also keeps me in close communication to know what my body is asking for. If anything, it's no yoga that's more likely to cause the wreckage.

Carol Bedrosian is publisher of Spirit of Change holistic magazine. Email carol@spiritofchange.org.

Values shape what and how you create

Values of creating personal and community wellbeing are embedded in the CreateNet® creative approach, What would our society be like if we focus on helping everyone to live his and her creative potential in ways that nurture who we are, each other, and the Earth, our home? Perhaps we would value ourselves as co-creators with each other, communities, with society and with nature rather than dominators and competitors.

The CreateNet® creative approach is centered in a co-creating creative process. Everything new in nature, in our lives, in organizations, communities and in society comes into being through a creative  process. However, it is our decision as human beings to co-create with this process and with each other in ways that foster freedom, democracy, opportunity, equality, economic, environmental and social justice and sustainability.

The CreateNet® creative approach defines and applies values of creating personal and community wellbeing continuously. As you develop a vision of what you want to create, as you imagine and implement your vision, consider how your creating helps to move toward and build a society where you and everyone else lives his and her creative potential in a sustainable future, locally and globally.

Define "what you want" before "how to do it"

Notice your thoughts as you consider new possibilities. Do you immediately think, “How can I do that?”  Or, “That can’t work because I don’t have the money/time/skills to do it.” Or, “That’s a great idea but what are the implementation steps?”  These “implementation” thoughts are very useful, just not yet. First, give your ideas space to grow.  Allow a vision of what you want to form. Just as a seed needs time to gestate in the ground, just as a caterpillar needs time in the cocoon to become a butterfly, so too, your ideas need time to form. When you spend time to define a vision of what you want,  you increase the likelihood that you will develop ideas that you can implement.

 

A NEW society focuses on wellbeing creation

A NEW society nurtures everyone’s wellbeing in a sustainable future of freedom, democracy, opportunity, economic and social justice, care for each other and the Earth, our home. To build this society we focus on wellbeing creation.

 The current focus in the United States on profits and markets has made everything and everyone into a commodity.  Wealth and profitability have become the measures of effectiveness. Grow bigger, faster, more for the bottom line. 

A NEW society focus offers a different approach. Our three point program envisions wellbeing for all.  This means building a sustainable society for:

1. All the people
2. Every community
3. The Earth, our home

 

Avoid transition trauma

Transitions challenge us to let go of the status quo and create something new. When you know what's coming, it's easier to anticipate how to respond. When many parts of your life, organization or society are changing simultaneously, it helps to create a container for change. The container may be the only steady form for awhile.

 

Here are some tips:

• Recognize that you are in a transition -- face what is happening.
• Embrace fear of the unknown as a friend to be nurtured rather than an enemy to be defeated.
• Write down the stages that have brought you to this point -- what happened when
• Define the strengths you have for the future -- you'll get much farther building on your strengths than trying to correct your weaknesses -- though you may need to do some of that too.
• Create a safe space to imagine new ideas and solutions -- avoid criticizing or discarding ideas before they've had a chance to be considered.
• Use an incubator -- a place to experiment and test ideas before you go public -- ask people to help you!
• Engage many perspectives -- avoid "group-think" or "one-way" thinking.
• Find the green lights -- the opportunities and possibilities. Avoid focusing on what you don't want, don't like and can't do
• Be clear about values and criteria for a desired new growth and development and use your list to assess options. Identify when you need to build additional support or engage public education to expand support for your ideas.
• Be open to new and different ideas and others' opinions even if you disagree
• Know that you are going to be confused for awhile. Embrace confusion and look for clarity.
• Be patient with the process -- give the "seeds" (ideas) you are planting time to germinate and grow -- avoid digging up the seeds every few minutes to see how they're doing
• If you're working in a group or for social change, remember that the idea or solution that works may be a combination of diverse opinons -- sometimes even opposite views. Play with how ideas can work together. Be willing to actively disagree. Avoid personal attack.
• When clarity comes, be willing to take the risks needed to move forward -- define a plan, take action, assess what happens, make adjustments as needed and celebrate along the way

 

 

Give ideas a chance to grow

Wouldn't it be wonderful to know the final results when we're just beginning to create something new in our lives or at work? Our ideas are like tulip bulbs. They contain a lot of potential but don't look like much in the idea stage.

It's easy to throw away our ideas instead of taking time to consider them. Too often negative self-talk chatters "this is a bad idea, too dangerous, difficult ... you'll never be able to do this ... that can't work."  Or, we listen to people who are always critical instead of asking supportive people for feedback about our ideas.

I can imagine someone who has never seen a tulip in bloom throwing away the bulb. Who would think that this little lump can grow into a beautiful flower?

There are no guarantees that your idea can blossom ... just as all tulip bulbs do not produce tulips. It's also true that if you never plant and nurture a tulip bulb (your idea), your idea will never bloom.

 

 

 

Image:Tulipbulb7.png|thumb|description

 

The challenge of change

My passion is helping people -- and myself-- to live creative potential. By that I mean, being fully alive and engaged in being the best we can be and making society a better place because we're here.

For over three decades, I've worked with myself and with others to create change that produces this way of life and work. Change often has been difficult and, too often, has failed.

One day, five years ago, I painted this painting -- at first just the images. There were no words. This is a familiar way of work for me as I often paint images and then play with what they mean.

This time it took several weeks before words came to explain what I had painted. The image on the left with triangles and circles painted in a pattern represented the status quo. The yellow ball --that I first thought of as a bowling ball moving toward a bowling pin to knock it over -- represented change. And then I saw the pattern of resistance to change. 

 I realized the very obvious idea that what exists has its own pattern and usually that pattern has no space for something new. So, the change ball must exist outside of the pattern. I saw that patterns are useful -- they provide routines that allow us maintain what exists and to live every day. Imagine how exhausting it would be to have no patterns -- to have to figure out everything all the time.

Yet, when many parts of our lives or society are changing, it would be helpful to have a different pattern, I thought. A way to incorporate the change more easily. In this picture, you can imagine how someone could feel  bombarded by change that disrupts an existing pattern -- status quo.

So, what's an alternative, I wondered? What does the pattern need to look like when we need to incorporate change -- to co-create with change -- to create something new? I considered the continuous change that always occurs in nature and thought -- nature always lives creative potential and co-creates with whatever exists.

How do we humans do this? We need an option for a pattern that accommodates change. We need a pattern that incorporates the change ball. A pattern that includes space to use change energy to imagine new ideas and possibilities and then to implement them. When you think about how this works, this pattern is the creative approach to change -- imagine + implement = creating something new. This is a different pattern from the one that protects the status quo.

So, now we have two choices: 1)protect the status quo and 2) create change. We can choose the appropriate option for the situation. The shift we are in right now requires our ability to create change. That's the challenge and the opportunity of living your creative potential. Welcome!

 

 

Positive thinking helps -- here's why

Is the glass half full or half empty? What you focus on stimulates your brain's thinking patterns. It's like opening a file folder and reading what's inside. File folders that contain blaming and complaining and fear are opened when you focus on what's wrong or what's missing (glass is half empty). On the other hand, when you focus on the positive (glass is half full), you stimulate brain patterns found in resourceful thinking file folders of your brain. During change, it's most helpful to activate resourceful thinking so that you can generate ideas and options about what may be possible to create now.

While positive thinking isn't all you need in order to create positive things in your life, it is an essential resource.

Photo shot by Derek Jensen (Tysto), 2005-December-10   http://commons.wikipedia.org

Find the green lights

So often, we get stuck one idea or way that something should happen. We forget to look around and see what else may be out there for us.  A decision to find the green lights can help you to go with the flow of change -- to createi where you can and re-direct your energies if a red light appears.

When you're working on a big change or creating something new that has never existed, it's essential to find the green lights that will help you to build momentum and keep moving forward toward your goal.

Look for the green lights -- the opportunities and possibilities. When you're considering an option, ask yourself, is this a green light? Or, is it a red light? Does it feel open and flowing or stuck and difficult?

When you decide to find what you can do, it’s easier to discover possibilities.  Opportunities always are available, although often hidden from view.

 photograph by Pixomar, FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

The creative process: a natural way to create

When you want to create change, nature's way of creating offers a guide. Nature's creative process is a spiral that moves endlessly from creative energy, through emergence (confusion) to visible form (clarity), and then growth and development (creative action) that generates new creative energy. Even in decay and death, creative energy is released.

Applying this process to human creating, we see that we use both analytic and creative thinking to move from creative energy, through confusion to clarity, and then to creative action. Each time we take action, we generate new creative energy as the spiral continues to unfold. I use the term "confusion" because that usually is our human experience of the emergence phase.

For example, you have an idea – a creative energy burst. You feel the excitement, the possibility. Soon, what looked like such a good idea becomes complicated. Confusion sets in. You wonder how your idea can work and what you can do to get the results you want. This confusion is part of the creative process. When you find clarity, you can move forward to create change or to innovate and create something new. When we take action, we generate new creative energy and a new round in the ever-unfolding, creating spiral.

Nature also shows the interaction of individual and social conditions. Some say your mindset and personal behavior control your power to create. Others say that social conditions determine what is possible. In reality, both personal capacity and social conditions are involved. Your mindset, beliefs, skills, and confidence impact what you can create. Social conditions also are key.

Symbolmaking accesses a hidden resource for transition and change

When you create a symbol of what you want (a picture), you connect with the vision part of the creative process. By accessing the part of your brain that thinks in pictures and images rather than words, you gain perspective about what you want and how to achieve it.  

Pictures always come first. You always can picture what you want before you know how to attain it. When you have a picture of what you want, it’s easier to take action to create it.

 

A symbol might be an abstract image or something specific. For example, you might select this picture of a tree as a symbol of your personal wellbeing.  As you look at the tree,  describe the qualities that make it a symbol for you. Perhaps you observe the tree's healthy growth and development with deep roots, firmly grounded in the earth while having space to live and grow.

When you use symbol-making, you then consider how this relates to your vision of personal wellbeing. Usually, this activity provides ideas about a vision of what you want  ... even if you are confused. 

We all have a part of the brain that thinks in pictures rather than words. Often, this is a part of the brain that we shut down when we were young. Education emphasizes analytic and critical thinking rather than the creative thinking that symbol-making accesses. Symbol-making activities allow you to tap into this key creative resource, that is not accessible to the part of your brain that thinks in words. This is not about artistic ability. It’s about tapping your imagination which is your creative mind. 

Most of us have overdeveloped logical, analytic parts of our brain. As soon as we have an idea, we immediately begin to analyze and critique it.  We do this because the part of the brain that thinks critically is engaged rather than your creative mind which is the source of new ideas.

Symbol-making creates a space for your creative mind to generate images and new ideas that can inspire new insight, aha! experiences and momentum to break through and create something new.

Photograph by Simon Howden www.naffarts.co.uk from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Create a container for transition

If you want to make soup, you need a container ... or the water spills all over the floor. When your life is in transition, it's also helpful to have a container  for your ideas and options, contacts and connections.

Think of your transition process as similar to making a new soup. What kind of soup will you make? Maybe you want to sample what others who are in similar situation have created for their lives. Or maybe you want to experiment and come up with your own ideas just for you.

We often think that we should just know the answer right away. Transitions, though, take time. Just like soup simmers on the stove, you may need to let ideas simmer even as you make day to day decisions and continue to live your life. Give yourself the gift of not knowing, of sitting inside confusion and letting your creative spirit lead for awhile. Get to know this inner resource -- the part of you that is always creating and that knows, trusts, loves and values who you are.

Let this inner source of living your creative potential lead. Keep your analytic, practical mind engaged but don't let its critic take you away from what you know is right for you now.

Put in your container every idea and possibility without critique or criticism. Work with the creative process and your creative wisdom to mix and match, stew and simmer, separate and combine ideas, imagine and implement until a good idea that fits for you begins to emerge.

Find ways to keep your spirits up and to stay open to what is happening, Move around the brick walls rather than crashing into them or letting them discourage you. Remember the goal is to live your creative potential no matter what happens. Some days are easier than others. Engage in self-care every day. You are a remarkable human being who is worthy of love, nurture and support. 

Creating something new is different than fixing what exists

When you fix something that exists, you know or can find out what is required to make it work. You may repair something that has broken down (example: puttng air in a flat tire) or replace a faulty part (example: replacing a burned out light bulb with a new one). When you create something new, you also need a vision of what works and an operating manual.

For most of our lives, we fix what exists rather than create something new. That's good because it would be exhausting, stressful and dysfunctional to have to continuously figure out what works and how to do something new. Routines and patterns make life easier and contribute to our wellbeing. 

Sometimes, though, the existing way isn't working and can't be fixed or no longer exists. Our life journeys at times bring circumstances that require us to create something new. We lose a job or get a new job. We begin a career or the career we have worked in changes. We go to school, drop out of school, graduate from school. We get married or divorced. Babies are born or people we love die. Children grow up and leave home, or come back home. Someone gets sick and needs our care or we get sick and need care. An economic crisis hits and we lose our life savings. Companies move away from our town, devastating its economy or we lose our home or job. 

The same is true for organizations and for society. Sometimes what has worked isn't working and can't be fixed or no longer exists. Then we must create new ways to build more effective organizations and to solve social problems, to make society work better for everyone.

Most of us are inexperienced in creating something new. We are more accustomed to having an operating manual and to fixing something that is broken. In fact, that way is so familiar that we don't realize that a different approach -- a creative approach is needed when we create something new. We keep looking for an operating manual but it doesn't exist because we haven't created the new thing yet.

It's logical, then, that we use the tools we have. We analyze what is wrong and, because new ideas don't fit the existing way of doing things, we reject them immediately. Or, because we don't have an agreed upon vision or idea of something new  we engage in endless argument. Conflicts erupt and we are stuck.

The creative approach is for the times when you need to create something new. Its tools fit the creative process, the way that new things come into being in nature, in our lives, in organizations, communities and in society. This is not about artistic ability. It's about the capacity to imagine and implement -- it's about the power to create something new.

A decision to work with the creative process doesn't guarantee success. That depends on how people decide to engage the process and whether there is agreement to create in the interest of all. However, if you don't work with the creative process, you won't be able to create something new. It's that simple.

 

Let Your Yoga Dance®

This joy-filled power dance combines yoga, the breath, and user-friendly dance with fabulous music that gets your toes tapping and your body moving. It is a funky, sacred, inspirational dance of the multi-dimensional self, bringing tons of fun and healing to body, mind, and spirit.

Let Your Yoga Dance^® is for every single body and wonderful for all ages. You don't need to know how to dance and you don't need to know yoga.

Through music and motion, we are held in the sacred arms of mother earth while simultaneously honoring her. We dance our energy, inviting it to flow upward from the base of our spine up through the crown of the head, and back down to the earth again. We dance our dreams and our prayers – fast and fun to quiet and peaceful. Result? A blissful body, joyous heart, a steady and quiet mind.

 Seven energy centers of the body provide the foundation for this yoga dance. We connect with and dance our energy as gentle as you like, as vigorous as you want. You can follow your own rhythm and follow simple steps and movement. Every dance is led by an experienced teacher who guides you through the music and movement.You can dance the whole time, or take a break and walk or sit for awhile.

I fell in love with this fun and energetic Chakra Fusion dance at a program offered by Let Your Yoga Dance® creator Megha Nancy Buttenheim. I enjoyed it so much that I became a Let Your Yoga Dance® teacher and offer workshops at Yoga Shivaya in Tarrytown, NY.

Find our more about this form of yoga dance www.letyouryogadance.com   

 

From Grief to Gifts

This phrase -- from grief to gifts -- is from a card I wrote to Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli as I reflected about 2011, a year of healing from grief after my mother's death in September 2010. Ginger is the minister at St. Matthews United Methodist Church in Bowie, Maryland -- the church where my parents were members. After my mother died, Ginger's steady support, practical and spiritual guidance helped my daughter Lauren and me through that difficult, sad time.

I chose this lotus flower image because the lotus flower grows out of mud -- a fitting symbol for my experience of the grief process -- being stuck in the mud and muck of sorrow and then slowly, gradually rising into new life. For me, this felt like a a slow emergence from grief to gifts of new life. As I emerged, a bud of new life came first -- a budding time before the full flower of new life opened for me.

My mother's death opened sadness and grief in me that felt like a neverending story of loss. Her death came so close to other deaths in the family. My father died in February, 2008, my brother Glenn and only sibling died in December 2008 and my son-in-law Michael died in August 2009. Lauren and Michael were soulmates and his death plunged her into deep grief. For me, I lost a dear young man and sat with a mother's helplessness, unable to heal my daughter's pain.

By the time my mother died, grief compounded on grief. Four years of family caregiving and so many losses in a short period of time had depleted my body, sapped my energy, emotional health and my spirit. Accustomed to high energy, a positive outlook, creative energy flowing -- often overflowing, caregiving and helping others all the time, this time I had to care for myself. There would be no quick fixes. Through sometimes painful trial and error, I learned how to nurture myself. For the first time in my life, I put myself first.  I learned how to do what the flight attendants tell us -- put your oxygen mask on first before helping others. I had taught others this principle for years. For myself, I always thought that was selfish. I learned that is selfhood. That I deserve a life, too.

I was fortunate to be supported on what became a year-long path to restore my health -- wise health care providers and other precious people who provided gentle support and care, who could stay attuned to me and my needs without expecting me to take care of them. Gifts in grief.

In a miracle of grace and much hard work on my part too, grief has finally shifted to gifts -- and I bring gifts to my life and work and relationships. As Lauren and I have said many times in the past few years -- it's a good thing there are gifts in dark times. Otherwise they would be unbearable.  A special gift in 2011 was Lauren's marriage to Joe Travers. It's wonderful to see her happy again and to have Joe in our family. 

As for me, I celebrated my 65th birthday in November, 2011 by becoming a Kripalu yoga teacher.  A few weeks later, I completed training as a Let Your Yoga Dance teacher. Yoga's restorative power helped me to heal my body, mind, spirit and my heart and it sustains my wellbeing now. I love this beautiful practice and look forward to teaching. Over this past year, I've also reconnected with lost parts of myself -- with fluteplaying, singing and spiritual dance. I experienced glassmaking and I've taken up drumming and after many attempts, have found my beat -- in many ways.  I'm finding a new voice in my writing and in my journal. Now I'm also preparing for new work to create personal and community wellbeing in the new year. Most important, I have new gifts to give to myself and to others. And that makes all the difference. From grief to gifts.

 Image by Panpote, freedigitalphotos.net

 

Yoga for life transition

Life transitions require us to shift from the way our life is now. In the process, mind, body and spirit all must move in the same direction for transition to occur. If you are feeling stuck, it’s likely that your mind, body and spirit are in conflict about what’s next and how to proceed. Yoga can help you to resolve this impasse by expanding space for something new to grow and emerge, first within and then externally in your life. In this process, your conflict resolves as mind, body, and spirit connect and move forward together.

Yoga has been a valuable resource as I've navigated my own life transitions and especially to help restore my health and wellbeing after my mother died. I practice a simple yoga that invites mind, body, spirit connection through focused breathing that energizes the whole body, through simple yoga postures that expand space within and release stuck places. I learned this practice from Kripalu yoga teacher Kathleen Conlon-Hinge.Kathleen is especially gifted in helping people to find and work within their edge without pushing or prodding and without pain hoping to achieve gain.

I've added the creative approach that I use in working with people to navigate life transitions and to create organizational and social change. In yoga, this creative approach guides me to find my edge – the boundary that must expand during transition to new life, and to gently work within it to expand space and to create something new.

Gentle, sustained opening allows you to close the door to the past and to open a new path. A new path is formed when mind, body and spirit – separately and together are moving in the same direction.

This form of yoga facilitates your ability to learn and explore how the transition process works to navigate life’s changes and create something new. You gain awareness about your unique creative process. This isn’t about artistic ability. It’s about the power to create something new – the capacity to imagine and implement new ideas and experiences.

When you engage in this creative process of transition, you are able to explore what’s important to you now, what’s emerging for you and what you want to create in your life in the context of your life situation. Then you can find out how to get unstuck when challenges arise. And you gain ways to move from confusion to clarity and find the green lights – the possibilities and opportunities to live a meaning-filled life.

In addition to my personal yoga practice, I'm a Kripalu yoga teacher and teach a Life Transition Yoga Workshop at Yoga Shivaya in Tarrytown, New York.

 

Create a life-work plan for 2012

While I know that  life often happens when you're making other plans, it's still a good idea to develop an annual plan as a guide for where you want to focus this year. It's also true that your focus helps to generate momentum that makes it easier to accomplish what you want to create.

Consider how you will live your creative potential this year. What's important now? What do you want to start doing, stop doing or keep doing this year?

What is your work this year? I use the word "work" to define what gives my life meaning. While paid employment is important to be able to financially sustain ourselves and our families, it's not the only kind of work. I also include unpaid work such as caregiving, creative arts (like writing, painting, pottery, knitting), hobbies, care of children and family, gardening, volunteering. I view work as connected to my life purpose and the legacy that I want to leave for future generations.

Defining priorities and writing them down creates a path for the year. You are deciding what your path will be -- with the information that is available to you right now. As things change, you can adjust your plan. Making the decision to take charge of your choices and your path is an effective way to find out what you can and can't control, what's possible now and what you can build on to expand what you can create later. make possible later.

It may seem strange but it's true that having a plan makes it easier to shift when the unexpected occurs. You are defining your path as best you can at the beginning of the year. The plan doesn't have to be elaborate -- a one-page description of your priorities for the year is good enough. Even better is to also define 3-5 major actions to implement each of your priorities.

Here are categories that I use to define my plan: home/physical environment, family and friends, health/exercise, personal growth/education, religion/spirituality, creativity, nature/outdoors, community work/volunteering, play/social time/vacation, employment, finances. I create priorities and 3-5 actions for each of these areas and review them during the year, making adjustments as the year unfolds.

What is important to you this year? How will you live your creative potential? What's your life-work plan for 2012?

 

Nurture your creative spirit

Your creative spirit is the inner light that expresses who you are -- your authentic self. You experience this light when you are living fully in the present moment, unfolding with and in the flow of your life. Your creative spirit is the spark that reminds you that  you are deeply connected to yourself and you are ok no matter what is happening. Creative spirit generates generosity and gratitude feelings, beliefs and behaviors. 

Although this spirit is always alive within, its capacity to express depends on nurture. It's easy to smash your creative spirit if you put yourself down or criticize every idea and possibility for your life. This inner resource needs space and nourishment that your self-care can provide.

Today, create space to connect to your creative spirit -- it's not about artistic ability. It is about your taking time to nurture the ever changing artistry of your life in whatever way you feel inspired to be fully in and inspired by your life. The arts help us to connect to creative spirit. So does play. And quiet time being with yourself -- time to just be.

Find ways to nurture your creative spirit today. it may be play or yoga, walking in nature or sitting quietly. It may be  writing, dancing or singing, drawing or painting, music-making or drumming. It may be poetry or story telling, movement or stillness ... whatever it is for you today, take time to nurture your creative spirit. Let your light shine.

Happy New Year!

I enjoyed this New Year's eve fireworks video because it brings back memories of childhood family gatherings at my grandparents who lived across the street from the state fair grounds in Fairlea, West Virginia. During the annual fair in August, the family gathered every evening to watch the fireworks display. It doesn't matter what time of year I see fireworks, I always feel the excitement of anticipation and the wonder I felt as a child watching the sparkling light patterns fill the sky.

I hope that this year you will create or find many opportunities to experience whatever brings feelings of wonder and awe for you. With so many life and society challenges, enlivening our spirits can help a lot. And these experiences seem more important than ever to remind us that we have the power to bring light to dark times and places ... not always by ourselves, but working together, everything is possible.

NY Barnaul Fireworks 2012 from stepanstepansky on Vimeo.

 

 

What is living your creative potential?

I like this garden as an image for living your creative potential. Just as the beautiful, diverse flowers are growing with each other, side by side, I think of the parts of myself getting along well too. When I find ways to give space for my spirit, heart, mind and body's wellbeing that helps me to see and interact better with what is happening outside of myself too.

I experience living my creative potential when I feel fully alive, when I'm being my highest self contributing to the world in ways that warm my heart and mind, and make me feel good about myself and help others to do the same. For me, living my creative potential is using my gifts and talents to help create personal and community wellbeing -- making society a better place for us all.

Living my creative potential is about honoring and respecting myself, too. I think of each day as a new beginning that is mine to create even if I have very little control over the creating. That is, as I begin my day, I take time to think about or imagine the whole day. What is this day like (the parts that I know now)?  Where is the space for the unexpected and for self-care? What will I do for someone else today -- to make their day a little better, a little brighter?

I imagine how I will be strong and steady and where I will be soft and gentle. I consider how I will use my voice, choose my words, and use my energy. I consider where I need to define limits and where I can relax and be easy, and how to avoid stress and breathe through stress that is unavoidable.  As best I can, I decide how I will show up in my life and when I take a stand, do it for my selfhood in ways that also contribute to others' selfhood, too.

What is living your creative potential to you? What do you need to do to nurture this potential? What do you need from others? From society?

What intention for today would help you to live your creative potential, even if there's a lot you can't control or ways that you are blocked right now.?  How will you create today?