Category Archives: Inspiration

Happy New Year 2012

Posted on by Linda Matthews
2

Happy new year to all my friends, readers, students and customers; to those who just stop in from time to time, to those who visit every day, to those who support me in so many different ways. If I don’t say it often enough I’m truly thankful and grateful that you’re here.

I hope you’ll join me as we take this marking of time, the upcoming first day of a brand new year, and use it as an opportunity to start afresh with a brand new blank page and begin writing our story for this year; a story that’s inspiring, creative and meaningful. And of course one that includes lots of cloth and thread.

I’m excited about this new year and I hope you are too.

Happy New Year

We will open the book.
Its pages are blank.
We are going to put words on them ourselves.
The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.
Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Beginning where you are
I love the sentiment of that quotation, however as I mentioned in an article I wrote the other day – you can read it here – that although the beginning of a new year is a wonderful time to begin writing your story, you can do it at any time. I got so many lovely emails about the article, and about that particular paragraph, that I made you a downloadable card – a new year’s gift – just so you can remember that you can begin writing your story at any time.

Begin Your Story

Click here, and the image will open in a new browser page then you can “right click” and save to your desktop (or whatever you do on a mac – sorry, not mac savvy). Print it out, stick it somewhere where you can see it regularly, and enjoy.

Other ways to help you on your new year’s journey

One Word Selection GuideHave you given vision to your year ahead by choosing a word yet?
Using a word is such a gentle and powerful way to carry you through the year because there are no hard and fast resolutions and no “shoulds” or “shouldn’ts”. A word guides with vision and flexibility. Because I believe so strongly in the power of using a word, I even made it easy for you to choose your own word by putting together a free One Word Selection Guide. … Continue reading →

Blocked Creatively? Here’s a Get Out of Jail Free Card

Posted on by Linda Matthews
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An article by Valery Satterwhite

The most damaging restrictions on a creative person’s freedom are self-imposed. What may have started out as a new idea, a new methodology, becomes routine, a habit, after awhile. Habits are the comfort zone. Once snuggled into a comfort zone there is a tendency to stay. However, this is not what a creator is here to do. Staying in a comfort zone habitually creating the same kind of thing over and over again does not feed the artist’s soul. Comfort zones are safe. Comfort zones bore creative people literally to tears. Stagnation goes flies in the face of an artist’s passionate desire to expand and express their full creative potential.

Habits are not limited to craft. The greatest crippler of the creative spirit is habitual thinking. Habitual thinking turns the innovator into the academician; passion into melancholy; fulfillment into despair.

“A ship in the harbor is safe. But that’s not what ships are built for.”
Anon

It is said that an artist of any kind brings a lot of himself into the work. The artist isn’t as interested in the subject of his creation as in his own reaction to that subject. When you change your habitual thought patterns you also change your habitual reactions. You literally have new eyes with which to see and observe the experiences in your life and your world. Newer expanded vision births newer expanded creation.

“Most new discoveries are suddenly-seen things that were always there.”
Susanne K. Langer

When an artist is stuck, dug-in, in the mire of rigid or habitual ways of creating he literally puts a cap on the availability of his own intuition, his inner muse. Those magical “in the zone” moments of full creative energy and accomplishment are fleeting because very little inspiration is allowed. Inspiration is limited to what fits into a self-limiting set of possibilities. The artist has unknowingly handcuffed his soul.

If an artist isn’t personally evolving; stretching, growing, moving beyond comfort zones, then her art isn’t evolving. Stagnation suffocates the potential creative expression that is the artist’s birthright. Treading water in life, not moving in any direction, is exhausting! Swimming against the stream, holding back your full creative potential, is exhausting. Let go of tired old ways of being, thinking and doing. Rediscover the playful child in you. Approach your art with the wide-eyed wonder and awe of a child at an amusement park where everything is new, exciting, waiting to be experienced. Fear and judgment is left behind. Play is what turns the utilitarian into the discoverer of new interpretation, new invention. Play is the vital heartbeat of the creative spirit.

If you think you might be treading water in life or your artistic endeavors, give yourself permission to play. Play with your craft, indulge your passions, do a silly dance. Shake up your stagnated energy. Fully alive and present, be open and available for whatever comes next. That glorious state of being is the ultimate freedom.

… Continue reading →

More than just one word

Posted on by Linda Matthews
12

Fresh Starts

I love fresh starts which is one of the reasons I take some time at the end of every year to do a little internal house cleaning and get rid of some of my mental baggage so I can move forward into the new year with renewed energy. I’ve already spoken a little about it here.

One of the things I’ve been doing these last few years instead of making new year’s resolutions, is to instead choose one word – an ideal word that creates a vision of how I want my year to look. I shared this concept with you for the first time last year and what resulted was a wonderful year-long series of “One Word Vision Cards” where I designed a downloadable photo-art image based on your word for the year and made them available to my newsletter subscribers. You can read how it all started here.

Imagine That!

One Word Vision CardMy word for this year was imagine. And imagine I did!

I imagined I could do all sorts of things – tough things like becoming more aware and more attentive to the way that I manage and inhabit this one amazing life I have. This hasn’t always been easy which I knew it wouldn’t be and which is probably why I put it off for so long, but it has certainly forced me to become more accountable and more responsible for the things that I do. I’m still learning to live with this.

And then there were things I wasn’t sure I had the courage to do but I did them anyway like exploring different possibilities for my business. This forced me to really evaluate what was important to me and the way that I feel about my business and also the way I want my business to look. As a result, things may be changing. Not all at once. And maybe only a little. But maybe more. I’m still wrestling with it.

This Year’s Word

One Word Vision CardThis year, instead of me picking the word, the word has picked me. My word is soar. For quite some time I’ve been seeing this word where-ever I look; it seems to demand attention and it feels full of possibilities. I can’t ignore it, so let’s see what happens.

Your Word

Now is the time to start thinking about your word for 2012.

The beauty about choosing only one word is that it comes with no rigid rules attached; no “shoulds” or “shouldn’ts”; no impossible demands or unachievable goals. It’s simply a word that is used as a guide and a focus to direct you through the year, and because it’s your own personal word, it can have any sort of meaning that you want to attach to it.

Download your FREE One Word Selection Guide

One Word Selection GuideIf you’re ready to invite some amazing magic into your life, it’s time to pick your word.

To help you along the way, this year I’ve put together a free “One Word Selection Guide” to help you clarify, define and choose your word. … Continue reading →