Successful Blog

Let your dreams and inspiration pour out

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I have a bad habit of using Amazon’s “swipe to buy” tool from my iPhone. It’s downright dangerous, because when I’m reading something online, and a favorite writer recommends a great book…

SWIPE

A package arrives in a couple of days, or I see it pop up in my Kindle app.

I’m at a conference, and the speaker says something is a must-read…

SWIPE

The magic genie delivers a new book to my doorstep.

A few weeks ago, my swiping brought me the most magical book. I’m 20 years late to this party, but I finally got around to reading “The Artist’s Way,” by Julia Cameron.

Don’t roll your eyes at me. I’ve been busy.

The key to the Artist’s Way is the “morning pages.” This is three long-hand written pages, preferably in the morning, full of whatever random junk is in your brain. The morning pages are not intended to be read by anyone, even yourself. You can even write about how dumb morning pages are!

Something about channeling your dreams and inspiration onto a blank page first thing in the morning is magical.

You may not even realize you have dreams. You may be in dire need of inspiration. And stream of consciousness writing will elicit both from the depths of your frenzied brain.

All day long, you are having an inner dialogue. Sometimes you’re a best friend, sometimes a coach, often a big meanie. Pulling that dialogue out of your silent recesses and getting it on paper is so freeing, so wonderful that it can change your life.

Here’s my story, briefly.

I’ll start by saying I’m NOT a morning person. So the idea of morning pages wasn’t really appealing from the start. However, after reading the first couple of chapters, I set an alarm for 6am (1 hour earlier than usual), wrote my three pages, and then exercised for 30 minutes.

That may not seem earth-shattering, but I’ve been trying to coax myself to do those very things for YEARS. I’ve tried reward systems, multiple alarms, punishments, everything. I felt so great that whole day that I did it again the next day.

Three weeks later, I’m still getting up at 6am and doing my writing and exercise for an hour, and even more things are falling into place. It’s like the cobwebs were cleared out and I can see things from a different angle now.

This small ritual has affected my demeanor so much that my son (not knowing what I’m up to) said the other day, “Mommy, you’re acting weird.” That’s my badge of honor. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Creative people need an outlet. If you’ve been stuffing your creative self into a corner in your brain, or just “trying to focus on work,” I’d strongly encourage you to check out The Artist’s Way. There’s a reason it’s been a global phenomenon for decades.

For those of you who have already been doing morning pages for years, what has been your experience over time?

 

Featured Image via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/y02jEX_B0O0

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Beach Notes: Castles and Creativity

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By Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

 

It is amazing to see how a bucket that was originally designed to carry water is so often used to create sand castles and in this case create a city of castles.

Someone, somewhere, some time, took a bucket which up till then had only be used for carrying water or other practical purposes, filled it with sand, tipped it upside down and created the first sand castle.

Now all over the world children get their little buckets and make sandcastles, delighting themselves and others.

This is how creativity works sometimes, through play, not through striving.

 

Creative Castles

Authors’ Bios: Suzie Cheel is the Heart Whisperer at Suzie Cheel You can find Suzie on Facebook and on Twitter as @suziecheel. She also shares her inspiring Beach Notes here on Sundays.

Des Walsh is a Digital Disruption Navigator at Des Walsh Dot Com You can find Des at LinkedIn and on Twitter as @deswalsh

Beach Notes: Gray Days Are Normal

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By Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

 

Most beach pictures seem to be taken on bright, sunny days. But it’s the same beach, the same sea, on gray days and rainy days.
Like life, like business. Just because not every day is wonderful doesn’t mean life isn’t wonderful or business not full of possibilities.
Just see it through. That old sun will come out again.
Gray days are normal

Authors’ Bios: Suzie Cheel is the Heart Whisperer at Suzie Cheel You can find Suzie on Facebook and on Twitter as @suziecheel. She also shares her inspiring Beach Notes here on Sundays.

Des Walsh is a Digital Disruption Navigator at Des Walsh Dot Com You can find Des at LinkedIn and on Twitter as @deswalsh

Beach Notes: Symmetry in Motion

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By Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Kites were flying at Kirra Beach at a Kite Festival, only the challenge was there was no wind, the larger kites were beached, but these 3 kites , so light that they were able to fly.

kites flying

Authors’ Bios: Suzie Cheel is the Heart Whisperer at Suzie Cheel You can find Suzie on Facebook and on Twitter as @suziecheel

Des Walsh is a Digital Disruption Navigator at Des Walsh Dot Com You can find Des at LinkedIn and on Twitter as @deswalsh

Beach Notes: Froggy Beach

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By Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

There’s this little beach where we walk sometimes. We don’t know its official name but the locals call it Froggie Beach, or just Froggie, for short.

Because someone, years ago, painted one of the rocks as a frog. The paint gets mysteriously renewed by a person or persons unknown.

Everyone else saw just rocks. Someone saw a frog.

What will you see differently today?

Painted rock frog

Authors’ Bios: Suzie Cheel is the Heart Whisperer at Suzie Cheel You can find Suzie on Facebook and on Twitter as @suziecheel

Des Walsh is a Digital Disruption Navigator at Des Walsh Dot Com You can find Des at LinkedIn and on Twitter as @deswalsh

Beach Notes: Logs Unchained

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By Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Our previous picture Unchain My Logs left us wondering what these piles of chains and logs would become.

Several days later we were greeted with the answer. The piles of logs and chains had become a climbing balancing bridge, one of several contraptions along the beach, for some fitness activity.

For now, we’re sticking to walking and swimming.

fitness on the beach

Authors Bios: Suzie Cheel is the Heart Whisperer at Suzie Cheel You can find Suzie on Facebook and on Twitter as @suziecheel

Des Walsh is a Digital Disruption Navigator at Des Walsh Dot Com You can find Des at LinkedIn and on Twitter as @deswalsh