Top Five Journal Exercises
Keeping a journal is a form of creative expression that enhances the creativity coaching process. Keeping a journal develops emotional awareness, reinforces self-esteem and aids in problem-solving. Keeping a journal also provides a written record of artistic growth, struggle and change. Here are some basic exercises that I use throughout the creativity coaching process. DIALOGUE: Writing a dialogue between one or more subjects helps to identify and separate emotions, ideas, issues and influences in a given creative situation. The primary result of writing dialogue is to clarify the creative situation, to give voice to all aspects of the situation and to restore the situation to it's proper perspective. GRATITUDE LIST: Thank you lists are very easy to write. It takes no more than a few seconds, some paper and a pen to create a list. Thank you lists, no matter what the length, powerfully challenge negative thoughts, disappointment and disouragement. Lists also help restore the situaition to it's rightful place in the clients creative pocess. Thank you lists are especially useful when pursuing long-term goals and facing crises. COMPLETED ACTION LIST: What a client thinks can powerfully impact the creative process. Building an artistic career upon past negative artistic experiences blocks creative expression. It also leaves no room for the possiblitiy of current or future positive change. Keeping track of completed actions, no matter how small, provides an accurate record of the client's progress toward her artistic and business goals. GOAL LIST: Identifying and developing artistic and business goals, provides a clear path for fullfilling the client's dreams. Regular progress through each goal can become a ready source of motivation for the client. The goal list provides a reality check for boh the client and the coach, when difficulties rise or progress is being assessed. CHARACTER TRAITS LIST: Developing and maintaining a list of the character traits reinforces self-esteem, aids in problem-solving, and increases emotional awareness. The client describes one success using one character trait. The client learns to acknowledge her participation in the creative process which will encrourage future creative learning and growth. Keeping a journal of creative work and progress can enrich all areas of an artist's life. Start exploring your creativity today. Copyright 2005 Writer's Eye Advisory Service Lael Johnson, owner of Writer's Eye Advisory Service, offers creativity coaching services and writing resources.
at: http://www.writerseye.com
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Connect with Your Surroundings
Clutter is one of my favourite topics, and I've written before about the many different types of clutter and how each affects our creativity and our creative expression.
Creativity Stereotypes ? Are They Holding You Back?
Here's a quick quiz:
Creating Success
All things begin in consciousness.
Creativity Management ? Synergy of Craft and Art
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.
Forget Thinking Outside The Box....GET Outside The Box
I happened to overhear a conversation the other day between two men?
Creating and Living Your Ideal Legacy
A legacy is more than a gift that lives on after you. Certainly, a legacy is a contribution to humanity. A legacy provides value to future generations. However, if you are creating your ideal legacy, it will also make your heart bubble with passion and excitement today!
Codifying Creativity
Can we codify creativity? Within these few words are a number of principles that must be identified and resolved before we can really answer the question.
True Power Series Part I. Visualization: Image Production and Verbal Thought
(5 minutes a day)
There is no limit to what you can visualize. The most effective visualization
usually happens when emotion is connected with a strong image as, for example,
when you really want something specific that you think will make you happy. But,
visualization can be used to change core beliefs, to combat what you may
consider a negative belief, without trying to oppose that belief. Say you would
like to have greater abundance, but you believe there's something inherently
wrong with money. You want to make a change. To make that change, you can
visualize all the positive effects affluence can have in you life. You can
attach positive visuals, emotions, even sounds to the idea of money and begin to
make new associations. This will begin the process of drawing affluence to you
because your beliefs have been repelling it.
To do the visualization exercise, you must agree to suspend your disbelief for
only five minutes a day. Agree to give yourself completely to this fantasy for
that time without distractions, objections, fears, or doubts. You had no problem
pretending you were Batman in third grade. The same sort of abandon is needed
here. Bask in the fantasy for this short period of time and, when it's through,
you can indulge in all of your doubts again though over time you will learn not
to do so.
Visualization Exercise
The only time you can ever accomplish anything is in the present. The present is
where everything happens, and there's tremendous power here. Look around the
room. Take notice of where you are and how you feel in the moment.
Now, close your eyes and imagine that the thing you want is already in
existence. Feel what it feels like to have accomplished what you want. Color the
experience with as much feeling and emotion as you can muster up. Experience as
if it had already happened, as if it was in the present. See it in your mind
with as much detail as possible. If you're not good with visuals, then do the
same thing through verbal thoughts, talking to yourself about what you want,
repeating the idea in your mind, feeling and experiencing the sensation of the
idea. Stay in the present while you're doing this. It's happening NOW. What you
think of as your normal everyday life no longer exists. This new idea is what
you're experiencing.
When you're done, drop the idea completely. Don't worry about accomplishing it,
but do look for new ideas, impulses, gut feelings, and new energy that will
begin to guide you to what you want.
Notice when you have thoughts during the day that contradict what you want, and
realize they're just thoughts, non-active ones, because you're now building new
beliefs. In other words, learn to write-off thoughts you don't want without
combating them. You notice them and let them go.
It may be some time before your new beliefs or ideas "take." Even if you get
quick results, keep doing the exercise. You want to make sure your new belief is
more powerful than competing ones. It's important to do the exercise only once a
day for the proscribed amount of time. More is not better because to do more is
to focus on the new belief out of fear instead of trust, thereby defeating your
work. Mindlessly doing the exercise and letting it go is always most effective.
Give yourself a month before you check your progress, and continue to do the
exercise as long as necessary.
If this exercise isn't your cup of tea, then look for upcoming articles on
self-hypnosis, affirmations, diagramming, treasure-mapping, and much more. Or,
think creatively of your own ways to visualize or affirm new realities for
yourself.
Art, Artists and Vocation
"If you really want to upset your parents?go into the
arts!"-Kurt Vonnegut
Art of Creation with Attention
Attention is the greatest creative power in the world. If you command your attention, you command your creation/life. But attention is not same as mind rut OR thinking but it constitutes pure awareness in the background.
We invite problems as a result of restless with our own ideas about the state of reality. The greatest creative act is to stabilize in a environment where relaxed attitude takes over and everything is trusted for what is. Individual interpretation or evaluation of the things has no significance when what is accepted. I suggest you to practice the YOGA of being relaxed here and now and this itself will eliminate all your mental problems. 99% of the problems are your own mental creation with the background of fear. The antidote for this is tune to a state of being rather than doing. It is ground of creativity.
Gifts of the Inner Voice
Now that I no longer awaken to the sound of a jarring alarm clock, I've learned to welcome the early morning hours.
Creative Memory Tricks
What's the biggest problem with memory tricks? Remembering to use them, of course. There are many memory techniques that work well, but you'll forget them when you need them most - unless you make using them a habit. So when you take the time to learn a technique, use it until it becomes automatic. Here are some to try.
Find the Artist Within
Can anyone be an artist?
The Sylvia Plath Pattern Of Creative Flow
* Sylvia Plath teaches a valuable lesson about the Even Flow - opening the channels for creativity, regardless of this is for poetry or not.
Riches Through Creative Thinking!
When solving problems after you have exhausted the normal means of coming up with the solution, think in terms of unorthodox methods. Vary your thinking and try to solve the problems by creating something completely new and irrelevant. Come into the problem through the "back door".
Self-Care for Creative Artists: 10 Reasons To Care About It
1. To be more comfortable in performance situations ? performance anxiety usually stems from a variety of causes ? physical, mental and emotional. Maintaining your overall health and wellness, including keeping your stress at a manageable level, managing your negative thinking tendencies and getting the emotional support you need, will diffuse some of this anxiety before you hit the stage.
Creativity Management ? Collaboration NOT Competition
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.
Creativity
Creativity is the gift to mankind. This is not the thing which can be created by human beings.
Charge Your Imagination (1)
"The challenges are not in the marketplace. They are in the mind"....... Jean Bernard
Fear & Creativity
My fears are most powerful when they're simmering just under the surface of my awareness. I'm resistant to a new idea, I'm defensive about holding on to my old ways, I feel excited and panicked at the same time ? these are sure-fire signs that there's some fear under there.
|
