The Creative has found me again and I am giddy. A few posts ago I tried to lure you writers into one my favorite futzing around forms of collage. Wait’ll you hear this!
Do you have boxes of journals? I do. I have burned some, stripped some and some still await that task. I have notebooks of writing and I have notebooks of journals, which I categorize differently, but still mine both for gems.
Working on a new-to-me idea during my friend’s group writing session, I went back into a writing notebook from 2015. Apparently, in 2022, while working through Kate Northrup’s Money Love Story (for at least the second time) I saw a list patiently waiting for me. A list of affirmations and uniquely a list of forgivenesses. Often when we are out of alignment in one area we are out of whack in another and it matters not (for me and my list) that those on the list act on my story, but that I rewrite, integrate and reduce the charge in my own mind so I can increase my joy.
When I started to read down the list, I started checking-off “the grievances.” Much to my surprise I had been doing the internal work of moving these stories through. With each check mark, I felt a lightness of being. There was one I am still working on and instead of rehashing the grievance, my eyes shifted over to the newly acquired stack of magazines. I decided instead of resenting or rehashing, I would create upon the past a new story. Here’s what my journal entry evolved to:
It was epically freeing. Why?
Here are my 2 takeaways:
Use another medium to transform and get your subconscious participating
Shift from “getting rid of” to building upon
Art is essential for growth
The third isn’t a takeaway, it’s an reassertion of what I need to keep in my frontal lobe.
📚If the phrase declutter your genealogy intrigued you, I’d suggest this book.
I invite you to give it a try.
If you don’t think you have time, then for sure do it. Don’t you love when people say that? [Insert eye roll] It ends up being true, especially the further you have fallen away from your Self, or put another way, the more dysregulated your nervous system is.
The last Sit & Write lunch break all the attendees talked about feeling intimated when I told them we would write for 10 minutes (together in silence) and ALL of the told me they were shocked how much information came, how easy it was to write and how they could have kept going.
I keep reminding myself: What we make space for arrives.
So we are doing it again; this time we are asking for focus. So, if you want to sign up and between now and then get an old journal, or an old story that you want to move through and grab yourself a glue stick, some magazines and bring them to our break, you can rebuild your story in a quiet but supportive community. Have you ever co-worked creativity? It’s a powerful practice. It’s where my collage was born!
We’ll have a short inspiration story (last time was inspired by Martha Beck and Dante’s Inferno, so fun) and then a writing|creating prompt, and viola you leave refreshed and revitalized to create.
See you there!
The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live in the present moment wisely & earnestly. - The Teaching of the Buddha