Tag: Creativity

creative block, Creativity, focus, Personal Development, Personal growth

Make the Most of Constraints

Adele Satori

I was waiting at the bus stop, looked up and saw this banner “Make the most of constraints”.

Many of us are familiar with the phrase “work with what you have”.. but how often have we seen constraints as a challenge to reach deep into our creativity, instead of limitations?

Perceived lack can often be an excuse to not create. Not enough time. Not enough money. I don’t have the right equipment/materials.

What can you do with what you have? What lying around might become a musical intstrument you hadn’t considered? How can you shift your mindset of limitations to be a creative challenge or inspiration instead of a block? What poem or drawing will flow from you in the 15 minutes you have if you allow it? What sculpture could you create from that stack of paper bags and ball of string?

I invite you to shift your vision. Make the most of your constraints, and see what wonders you can unleash into the world.

Feel free to share your discoveries, and how it felt in the comment section below.

Creativity, drawing, focus, Personal growth, sensation, spirituality

Visualizing Sensation

Adele Satori

visualizing-sensationb

Today while walking, two men passed me.  They smelled of old books.

Not long afterwards, I saw them admiring a tree.  One patted it with affection and said “I’m sure this tree has stories to tell.”  The other nodded.

Later I saw them again, looking at the plants in the garden.  First one would say something about it, then the other.  Sharing their knowledge, not in competition, but in conversation.  They looked at each other often in the way of loving understanding that only people who’ve been companions a long time do.  In my head I named the men Verso and Recto… facing pages in a book.

I sat on a bench and began to doodle, as I sometimes do there.  Doodling for me is a way to turn off my Inner Narrator- that constant voice in my head. I don’t think about what comes next; I just let the pen go where it will on the paper.  This time, I realized.. I was drawing the way the garden sounded and felt.  I was drawing sensation.. not what I saw.  I tuned in and continued with this focus. I will leave it to you to interpret what I was hearing, seeing, and feeling.

I’ve done this with creating music, or dancing before, but not drawing, and it felt amazing.

Will you take a moment to let your Inner Narrator settle and silence?  What do you hear?  What do you feel?  What does that look like?

I’d love to see what you come up with!

 

 

Creativity, Personal growth

The Importance of a Beginner’s Mind

Adele Satori

IMG_5610Today I decided to learn a new to me craft.

The process of it is awkward to me, and it’s reflected in how it looks. I found myself tensing up, trying to do it the way it’s “supposed” to be done. So I took a moment, set things down, and checked in with my body and mind. And remembered one of my basic tenets of life: explore the what ifs, rather than have them be blocks and fear-making.

There’s an importance and glory to approaching things with a beginner’s mind. You don’t know how to do the thing yet, your your motor skills are not automatic. Your mind explores the different possibilities.

Unless you come to the table with a lot of rules. Rules can block the creative flow. The inner critic might wake up and parade all the failures you’ve ever experienced. Your body tenses up, and then you fall, or make mistakes, or get so frustrated you give up on trying to learn the thing completely.

So yes, what I’ve made today is clunky and awkward, but I also learned alot about the process of the thing. And I learned probably as much about myself as the craft I decided to pursue.

I’m going to be offering creative exploration workshops soon. I hope you will join me with a playful beginner’s mind.

Creativity, Personal growth

Ready, Set Go!

Adele Satori

You can listen to a podcast version of this post here: https://anchor.fm/adele-satori/episodes/Ready–Set–Go-e1bbe2u

I’ve been making things since I can remember… and for nearly as long, seen a connection between making and healing.. or at least of getting better acquainted with one’s Self.

Nearly a year ago, I attended an expressive arts therapy conference, and I came out of it with seeds of a course of self discovery using the creative process.  So many ideas!  So many directions to go!  I bounced around until I exhausted myself into inaction.

And life happened, as it always does.

Still.. .. the call has been whispering for attention.  Until this past week when it began tugging at my sleeve.

And I thought and bounced some more….

This afternoon, I spontaneously got up and started making… grabbing the first materials that came to mind, and the pieces began coming together.. much like the object I am making.

I need to fine tune the process a bit this week between bouts of the survival gig, but there will be a course for you all to take very soon!