Surrender to Creativity

  • The Heart of Writing by Suzanne Murray, available at Amazon
     
    Guest Blogger Suzanne Murray encourages creativity by surrendering.  

    SURRENDER IS CRITICAL TO CREATIVITY

    We can’t force creativity. We know this intuitively. If we told a painter that we wanted a masterpiece by five o’clock tomorrow, they would look at us like we were crazy; that we clearly didn’t understand what being creative was all about.

    An important part of being creative is learning to surrender to the flow of the universe, allowing something greater than our everyday self to move through us. It’s not something we can figure out with our linear mind. Of course, if we want to paint we need to learn how to work with our chosen medium and studying the work of the masters can help.

    If we want to write it’s really valuable to read widely and deeply, to show up daily to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and perhaps take a workshop on the form we want to work with. Yet at the heart of being creative is letting go and allowing the ideas, the inspiration to move through us. This is where practice comes in.

    As Flannery O’Connor said of her writing experience, “I show up at my office everyday between 8 am and noon. I’m not sure that anything is going to happen but I want to be there if it does.”
    I recently met a young man in the park who had a set of watercolors laid out on a table and quickly produced a couple of small paintings that were quite lovely. We spoke of creativity and how so many people think you either have it or you don’t.

    “Yeah,” he said, “really it’s a muscle, you’ve got to use.”

    He went on to say “No matter how lousy I feel, if I do even a couple of little paintings I instantly feel better.”

    I feel the same way about writing, even if it’s just a page of free writing where I let the words flow out of the pen. Being creative feels good and lightens our mood because we become more present to the moment, quiet our chattering minds, and allow for the awareness of our heart and knowing to do the work.

    In the surrender we find ourselves in an expanded state of consciousness where we can do things we didn’t think we could. In whatever way creativity calls to you, make a habit of showing up to play with it. Let your self be guided by what excites you. Surrender to what brings you alive.

    Sending you blessings and the wish for creative flow, Suzanne.

    Suzanne Murray is a Creativity Coach, Life Coach, Writing Coach, and EFT practitioner.   She blogs at Creativity Goes Wild.  






  • Guest Blogger Suzanne Murray has this to say:

    With anxiety and fear running high in the world these days, I wanted to share how we can make friends with these feelings and use them to our advantage. Anxiety and fear can prevent us from being creative or living a life we love. To live and create fully, we be must be willing again and again to step out of our old comfortable life and into unknown territory. This always feels scary.

    Many years ago I read the self-help book Feel the Fear, And Do It Anyway which presents the premise that just because we feel a sense of fear about a project or moving in a new direction in our lives doesn’t mean we are supposed to stop ourselves from proceeding.

    More recently I’ve been fine-tuning my understanding of what this really means and feels like, how to best use it in my life and creative work, and how it fits the idea of following my internal guidance of my intuition and heart to bring my soul and creative gifts into the world. Any time I stretch in a new direction in my writing or my personal and professional life I have to step out of my comfort zone which gives rise to a feeling of anxiety.

    I’ve found it’s important to learn to distinguish between the kind of anxiety that represents our bodily intuition signaling a real threat (like don’t walk down that dark alley or that new relationship really isn’t good for you or that’s really not the best art project for you to pursue) versus the kind of anxiety we feel when we step out of our comfort zone in a way that stretches our capacities, capabilities and sense of self. The anxiety that is genuinely trying to warn us off feels heavy with fear whereas the anxiety that simply marks stepping out of our comfort zone has a sense of exhilaration to it.

    When I’m at my desk writing and I start to feel a lot of resistance, if I make myself sit in the chair and keep writing, (even when I desperately want to get up and make phone calls or clean the refrigerator), I find that I will usually move through the anxiety into what I really want to say and find myself very excited by the work that results. The same is true every time I do anything new in my life that feels like a stretch. I feel nervous and excited whenever I push past the feeling of fear and take action to make the new idea or vision happen.

    When you are trying to decide what the fear or anxiety is trying to tell you, just take some deep breaths and get clear on the exact quality of the feeling in your body: whether you feel contracted or expanded by the thought of what you desire. If you feel expanded then you need to “feel the fear” that comes with it and begin to take action however small toward achieving your desire. Also new neuroscience shows that the simple act of naming or labeling a negative emotion like fear calms the brain which makes it easier to get clear on what to do.

    Wishing you many blessings and creative flow, Suzanne

    Check out Suzanne’s coaching opportunities:

    Creativity Coaching, Creative Life Coaching, Writing Process Coaching & EFT Sessions

    EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques)

    CREATIVE LIFE COACHING

    CREATIVITY COACHING

    Creativity Goes Wild Blog

  • Guest Blogger Suzanne Murray shares why freewrites inspire writing:
    I have taught the creative writing process for more than twenty years, working in part with a technique known as “freewriting” where I encourage participants to “just let it rip”. We don’t worry about punctuation, spelling, grammar or whether it is good. We suspend the censor and let our first thoughts spill out onto the page. People new to the class are always nervous about this kind of letting go. Since I write and share my own raw writing with the group, I was rather nervous when I first started teaching the classes but found that by maintaining a safe and sacred atmosphere of unconditional acceptance for whatever wanted to come forth it really calmed the fear for everyone.

    We learn quite early to fear making mistakes. We all have a well-developed censor that confines us within the limiting parameters of being socially acceptable. Neuroscientists have identified a part of the brain, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) that is closely associated with impulse control. It keeps us from embarrassing ourselves or saying the wrong thing to our boss or spouse.

    Young children create so naturally because their censors don’t yet exist. The DLPFC is the last part of the brain to fully develop. Around 4th grade it engages and children lose interest in making art in the classroom. If we are worried about making a mistake, saying the wrong thing or doing something poorly we often end up doing nothing at all. The censor has us holding back our latent talent.

    In a study by a neuroscientist looking at brain activity in jazz musicians engaged in improvisation, research subjects showed increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain associated with self-expression, while at the same time the DLPFC or censor appeared to deactivate. At this point there is a surge of raw material coming forth but rather than being random or chaotic it is organized or structured by the rules of the form. In the case of jazz musicians, they naturally improvised in the right key and tempo.

    I have noticed this tendency in my freewriting workshops. Students bypass the censor yet they also naturally wrote in the form that seemed to most call or appeal to them. Individuals drawn to poetry and who read a lot of poetry had the raw writing take on a poetic quality.

    The same was true with fiction, memoir or non-fiction. It’s why I always tell people that reading the kind of writing you want to do is one of the best things you can do to improve your work because when you let go and let the creativity flow, your brain then has a sense of how to organize it. When we let go, we have access to the vast storehouse of the unconscious mind.

    I really encourage creative play and practice, free from the expectation that we have to produce something, as a way to opening up to our creative gifts and talents. Learning to let go and create an atmosphere of inner permission, acceptance and allowance can really help us more fully express ourselves creatively.

    Now in the time to really let our creativity fly in our own live and the world.

    Wishing you all well. Sending you all lots of love and inspiration,
    Suzanne

    Suzanne Murray is a gifted creativity and writing coach, soul-based life coach, writer, poet, EFT practitioner and intuitive healer committed to empowering others to find the freedom to ignite their creative fire, unleash their imagination and engage their creative expression in every area of their lives.
    Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)
    Combining Western psychology with Chinese acupressure, it works to actually rewrite subconscious patterns and limiting beliefs that keep us stuck. I’ve had miraculous results and have been working with EFT in new ways that allow us to laser in on the issue and shift it at the core and change your life from the inside out. We often make significant shifts in a single session. Sessions are available by phone and Skype.

    CREATIVE LIFE COACHING Would you like to live from an expanded place of grace, ease and flow? Would you like to tap the wisdom and power of your heart and soul? We work with soul based ways to let go of limitation and gain clarity of the next steps to living a more joyful, authentic life.

    CREATIVITY COACHING
    Do you want to experience the pleasure and joy that comes from adding satisfaction and meaning and a sense of well being to your life through creative expression. I will offer practical, emotional and soulful strategies to help you fully uncover your creative gifts and support yourself in expressing them. I will provide encouragement and support in understanding of the creative process and its stages and exercises for accessing the wisdom of your imagination. I’ll help you set realistic goals and support you in achieving them. We will work with tools for coaching yourself through the issues that get in the way of your creativity including career concerns, blocks, limiting beliefs, relationship issues and the existential and spiritual questions that can arise from wanting and needing to create. 

    THE HEART OF WRITING COACHING
    Do you want to ignite your creativity and show up to your writing on a regular basis or go deeper into the process and craft? I  offer online coaching to support you and coach you through any resistance or problems along the way. I can send you daily lessons and assignments that cover important aspects of the writing process and information on craft. I hold the space of unconditional acceptance and support to nurturing your unique voice  and work on the stories that are really important to you.  

    The Heart of Writing eBook

    Jumpstart  the Process, Find Your Voice, Calm the Inner Critic and Tap the Creative Flow

    I have been working an exercise a day through your The Heart of Writing eBook. I love it! It’s like being in class again. – Tonya Osinkosky
    Now available on Amazon Kindle! http://amzn.to/1d7oe60
      or still available is a pdf download from my website
    (includes a one hour mp3 interview about writing process)
    https://www.creativitygoeswild.com/the-heart-of-writing/  

    For more detailed information on all my offerings check web site at  https://www.creativitygoeswild.com  or call Suzanne Murray at  707.360.7776  or email  creativitygoeswild@gmail.com . Also check out my Blog at  https://www.creativitygoeswild.com/blog-1/  for ideas on writing, creativity and life coaching.  Follow me on Twitter at @wildcreativity where I tweet inspirational quotes for creativity and life.

  • Today’s Guest Blogger post is about inspiration, by Suzanne Murray.

    Excerpted from Suzanne’s September 5, 2020 Creativity Goes Wild Blog Post.

    “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” — Jack London

    Recently a new writing coaching client emailed me to say, “I haven’t been writing. I just don’t feel inspired.”

    I immediately shot a message back, “You can’t wait for inspiration. If you get nothing else out of our coaching together, this awareness will make a huge difference in your creative life.”

    No writer or other artist waits for inspiration before showing up. Painter Chuck Close said, “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.” Flannery O’Connor, the noted Southern writer,
    described her habit of going to her office every day from 8 am to noon, “she wasn’t sure if anything was going to happen but she wanted to be there if it did.” 

    Most writers just start writing and find inspiration along the way. John Steinbeck would always end one day’s writing in the middle of the page, so he could pick up the thread the next day. He insisted that “In writing, habit seems to be a much stronger force than either willpower or inspiration.”

    Research in the neuroscience of the brain shows that creativity is activated when we are in the brain wave states of alpha and theta which are associated with meditation, intuition and information beyond our conscious awareness. This is why a writer often needs to write a page of what feels uninspired in order slow the mind down and hit the zone. 

    This is true of all acts of creativity. We have to show up and begin to play with the process to access the place of inspiration. The more we commit to our creativity through our intentions and actions the more our creativity flows and the more juiced, excited and inspired we feel.

    Now more than ever we need to play with our creativity in whatever way that calls to us and see where it leads. Even small creative acts can help lift our spirits and energy as we face the many challenges we see in our world. Exercising our creative muscles can open us to new possibilities and inspiration.

    Note from Marlene:
    Many writers use a method of freewriting to warm up before embarking on their writing project. You can use a prompt to inspire freewrites. Writing Prompts on The Write Spot Blog.
    Suzanne Murray is a gifted creativity and writing coach, soul-based life coach, writer, poet, EFT practitioner, and intuitive healer committed to empowering others to find the freedom to ignite their creative fire, unleash their imagination, and engage their creative expression in every area of their lives. 

    THE HEART OF WRITING COACHING Do you want to ignite your creativity and show up to your writing on a regular basis or go deeper into the process and craft? Suzanne offers online coaching to support you and coach you through any resistance or problems along the way.   She holds the space of unconditional acceptance and support to nurturing your unique voice and work on the stories that are really important to you.  

    The Heart of Writing eBook   Jumpstart the Process, Find Your Voice, Calm the Inner Critic and Tap the Creative Flow

     * Follow Suzanne on Twitter at @wildcreativity where she tweets inspirational quotes for creativity and life.      

  • Today’s Guest Blogger Lara Zielin:

          I often have the feeling I’m in trouble. 

          It’s this pervasive unease, like I’m doing something wrong.

          The problem is, I don’t know WHAT I’m doing wrong. Which means that if or when I get in trouble, it’s going to be a terrible surprise. 

          Because of this, I have my antennae up all day, scanning, looking, wondering what I could be doing that’s awful. I mind my P’s and Q’s and I try so hard to do everything right. I try to stay busy.

          I try to be so, so good. 

          But some part of me knows it won’t be enough. Trouble is still a-comin’. 

          Which means by the time I get to the end of the day, there is this exhausted part of me that is BEYOND READY to feel safe. To feel good enough. To feel comforted. 

          That part of me wants to eat ALL the carbs. And drink. And scroll Facebook. And numb, numb, numb. Because it’s painful out there, people. 

          This feeling has only gotten worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

          Without regular face-to-face check-ins with colleagues and friends, the gnawing unease that I’ve done something wrong only grows. My hankering for carbs only grows. My addiction to Netflix and my phone only grows. 

          That is, until I stop running and face the darkness. Until I open my arms to the fear and to the pain of thinking I’m not enough and just … sit with it. 

          I’ve been doing a LOT of writing around this lately. And I’m here for you if you want to do some writing around this, too.

          Instead of trying to run from the darkness, let’s invite it in. Let’s listen to it. And let’s meet it with love. 

          Because that’s the ONLY thing that’s going to help us feel better, feel lighter, and feel whole. If we run from the darkness, it will only continue to chase us. But if we embrace it, we can let it complete us. 
          To help us do just that, Lara is leading a free one-hour online group writing time on Thursday, April 23. 
          

    Note from Marlene: If you need ideas for relaxing and de-stressing, here ya go. You might already be doing some of these.

    I’m working on the next Write Spot book and will include these self-care tips and more!

    Creativity Coaching

    Alisha Wielfaert 

    Suzanne Murray

    Hypnotherapy

    Ted A. Moreno

    Inspiration

    Hands Free Mama – Rachel Macy Stafford

    Meditate

    Gaiam

    Headspace

    Insight Timer

    Mindful

    Movement

    Dance

    Ten minute Qi Gong

    Yoga

    And, of course. Write. Write what you know. Write what you want to know. Just write. If you need writing prompts, take a look at The Write Spot Blog.

  • Today’s Guest Blogger, Creativity Coach, Suzanne Murray, asks:

    DO YOU RESIST ENGAGING YOUR CREATIVITY?

    Suzanne’s thoughtful answer:

    Recently I got a note from one of my writing students saying that she was really enjoying writing when she managed to find the time. The three top reasons that people give for not being able to fully show up, move forward or change some area of their life are, “I don’t have enough time, I don’t have enough money or my health isn’t good enough.”

    On the surface these excuses appear valid and hard to argue with. In truth they always cover up some deeper resistance. When we really want to do something and commit to it we can always manage to find the time, the resources and a way to work around any physical limitations.

    Robert Olen Butler who won the Pulitzer Prize for his collection of short stories A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain worked full time and had a difficult home life so he wrote everyday on the train computing into New York City. J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, was a single mother struggling on state aid in Edinburgh Scotland where she sat every day in a local cafe writing the first book in the series that would turn her into a multi-millionaire. These stories point to the reality that you don’t have to have everything together or know exactly what you are doing or how you are going to make something work to begin whatever it is you want to create. Beginning opens you up to new possibilities.

    With my writing coaching clients, I start by asking for a commitment to write a minimum of ten minutes a day. It would seem like everyone could find ten minutes, but if there are some unconscious beliefs and fears around expressing yourself or being creative then you will put it off until the end of the day and then say you are too tired. This is what resistance looks like.

    If you are having trouble showing up to your writing, painting, music or exploring your creativity in some way, stop and get quiet. Take some deep breaths. Ask your deeper or higher self:  what’s in the way? Then just see what comes to you. It may be a memory of your third grade teacher humiliating you in front of the class by criticizing a drawing you did or your father’s refusal to let you take the dance class you so much wanted.

    Such events really can impact the tender, vulnerable, innocent part of us that is our creative self and years later have us not wanting to risk being creative. If something comes up for you, honor your feelings around it. If you feel sad or angry feel those feelings as a way of allowing them to shift and release their hold on you. Then send love to that part of you. 

    We also resist our creativity because it can take us into unknown territory and our mind, which is committed to keeping us safe, will put the brakes on when we veer from the routine. Becoming aware of what’s in the way of your desire to create and being mindful and patience and kind with your self will help you cross new thresholds into being creative and finding time to show up.

    Check out Suzanne’s new website.

    Work with Suzanne Murray:

    Creativity Coaching, Creative Life Coaching, Writing Process Coaching & EFT Sessions

    EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques)

    Combining Western psychology with Chinese acupressure work together to rewrite subconscious patterns and limiting beliefs that keep us stuck. I’ve had miraculous results and have been working with EFT in new ways that allow us to laser in on the issue and shift it at the core and change your life from the inside out. We often make significant shifts in a single session.
    Sessions are available by phone and Skype.

    CREATIVE LIFE COACHING

    Would you like to live from an expanded place of grace, ease and flow? Would you like to tap the wisdom and power of your heart and soul? We work with soul based ways to let go of limitation and gain clarity of the next steps to living a more joyful, authentic life.

    More about Suzanne Murray.

  • Today’s blog post is by Suzanne Murray.

    THE POWER OF COMMITMENT

    Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray. – Rumi  

    I’ve been thinking about the difference between trying and doing and how it applies to our creative lives.   Consider how it feels to say “I’m going to try to write a book versus I am going to write book.”

    The word try brings with it a lot of resistance and a sense of effort, whereas I am going to do it carries the sense “I can do this.”  

    Perhaps the most well-known line in the Star Wars movies is when Yoda says to Luke Skywalker “do or do not, there is no try.”   Yoda is encouraging Luke to commit fully because he know that if Luke is uncertain that he can achieve the goal, he will not be able to.

    Note from Marlene: Pause for a minute. Think about that.  
    If you are uncertain you can achieve a goal, you will not be able to.  

    Back to Suzanne:  There is always a learning curve to anything new we do or to increasing our skill level at something. With commitment we bring our heart to the task which helps fuel our capacity to show up and find pleasure in the doing.

    Suzanne Murray is a gifted creativity and writing coach, soul-based life coach, writer, poet, EFT practitioner and intuitive healer committed to empowering others to find the freedom to ignite their creative fire, unleash their imagination and engage their creative expression in every area of their lives.

    Check out Suzanne’s Blog for ideas about creativity and life coaching. Her April 13, 2019 post tells about how she came up with the name for her business, Creativity Goes Wild.
    The post starts out like this, “When I received the inspiration for the name of my business, Creativity Goes Wild, I was on a modern day vision quest in an extraordinary canyon in southern Utah that allowed me to really open to the flow of new ideas.
    Follow her on Twitter at @wildcreativity where she tweets inspirational quotes for creativity and life.


  • Today’s post is inspired by Creativity Coach Suzanne Murray.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Photo by John Pierce.

    Suzanne writes:

    CREATIVITY COMES FROM BEYOND THE MIND

    All the things that truly matter – beauty, love , creativity, joy, inner peace – arise from beyond the mind. – Eckhart Tolle

    Once years ago when someone asked me what we did in my writing workshop I laughingly responded, “I’ll teach you to lose your mind.” I was delighted when they signed up on the spot. One of the reasons most people don’t think they are creative is that the mind doesn’t understand how creativity works.

    I remember early in my writing life when one of my personal essays won a significant award, including a grant to support my work, I went into a bit of a panic because I wasn’t completely sure how I had written the piece. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to do it again and they would find out I was a fraud.

    As I continued to write I realized that I had actually been practicing the craft of writing for years by showing up to write at least a page of some kind every day, reading the kind of writing I am drawn to write, playing with revision and evolving my own voice and style all from the place of the intuitive mind. I had a sense of how a piece wanted to come together and just keep playing with the weaving of words.

    I eventually understood that this was how the creative process worked. If I kept showing up the inspiration would continue to meet me and I would have a sense of what to do with it. I also learned that not everything I started wanted to be finished. Sometimes it was part of the learning process that took me to the next step or the next level.

    With more than twenty years experience of teaching the writing process and working as a creativity coach, I’ve seen the importance of actually giving people the experience of being creative. Helping them move beyond the mind so that they learn to let go and allow their hearts and the fires of imagination take them into the creative flow. That’s where the joy is, which provides the motivation to keep going. We discover that the act of being creative is its own reward.

    Suzanne Murray is a writing coach, creativity coach, and EFT worker.

    EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques)

    I’ve been working with EFT in new ways that allow us to laser in on the issue and shift it at the core. It can help expand your life on every level, mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. We often make significant shifts in a single session. Sessions are available by phone and Skype.

    CREATIVITY COACHING

    Creativity is a process that can be learned. Do you want to experience the pleasure and joy that comes from adding satisfaction and meaning and a sense of well being to your life through creative expression? I will offer practical, emotional and soulful strategies to help you fully uncover your creative gifts and support yourself in expressing them.

    HEART OF WRITING PROCESS COACHING

    Do you want to ignite your creativity and show up to your writing on a regular basis or go deeper into the process and craft? I offer online coaching to support you and coach you through any resistance or problems along the way. I can send you daily lessons and assignments that cover important aspects of the writing process and information on craft. Or if you are working on a project or book we can tailor our work together to really fit your specific needs. I hold the space of unconditional acceptance and support to nurturing your unique voice and work on the stories that are really important to you.

  • Guest Blogger Suzanne Murray writes about using imagination with a quote from Thoreau.

    This world is but a canvas to our imagination. – Henry David Thoreau

     

    We use our imagination all the time, whether we realize it or not. When we are worrying about a future event we are imagining the possibility of a negative outcome. When we are thinking about our next dream vacation we are imagining the place and what we may be doing there.

    When we are being creative we are imagining scenes as we write, the cake rising as we mix the ingredients for baking, or the blank canvas giving rise to color.

    Yet most of us don’t think much about the ways we use our imagination and the mystery of how it works. Most of us hold tight to the confines of the mind, living from its repeating pattern rather than being open to the infinite possibilities that live in our imagination.

    All creative acts arise in the imagination. If you can imagine it, you can create it. When Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them,” he was suggesting that we need to work less with our minds and more with our imagination.

    So how do we do this when we are used to trying to figure everything out and understand how to change or create something? How do we play with this incredible capacity of imagination that we all have?

    It’s like building a muscle. The more we use it, the stronger it becomes and the more we can trust it to support us. A willingness to play where we pretend something is real and true, the way we did as children is a good beginning.

    Try this. Talk to a tree. Whether it outside your window or in your local park. You don’t have to do this out loud. Just ask the tree a question about a problem you are trying to solve or something you want a creative answer to.

    Take a few deep breaths, relax, let your mind quiet a bit and see what comes to you.

    Or you could do this as a writing exercise where you ask the question of a tree by writing it on the page and then allow the tree to answer you through stream of consciousness writing where you just let the words flow.

    The key is to have fun with our imagination. Know that it is the doorway to the expanded capacities we need in our live and in the world today.

    Suzanne Murray is a writing coach, creativity coach, and an EFT practitioner.

     

    EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques)

    I’ve been working with EFT in new ways that allow us to laser in on the issue and shift it at the core. We often make significant shifts in a single session. Sessions are available by phone and Skype,

    CREATIVE LIFE COACHING

    Would you like to live from an expanded place of grace, ease and flow? Would you like to tap the wisdom and power of your heart and soul? We work with soul based ways to let go of limitation and gaining clarity of the next steps to living a more joyful, authentic life.

    CREATIVITY COACHING
    I offer practical, emotional and soulful strategies to help you fully uncover your creative gifts and support yourself in expressing them.

    THE HEART OF WRITING COACHING

    I  offer online coaching to support you and coach you through any resistance or problems along the way. I hold the space of unconditional acceptance and support to nurturing your unique voice and work on the stories that are really important to you.

    The Heart of Writing eBook

    Jumpstart the Process, Find Your Voice, Calm the Inner Critic and Tap the Creative Flow. Available on Amazon Kindle.

    Suzanne Murray Blog for ideas on writing, creativity and life coaching.  Follow Suzanne on Twitter at @wildcreativity where she tweets inspirational quotes for creativity and life.

  • Guest Blogger Suzanne Murray inspires our writing to flow from a dream-like state of consciousness and to trust our intuition.

    Suzanne writes:  How Do We Allow Creativity to Flow?

    When we get lost in a good book it’s because the writer got lost in letting the story come through as they wrote.

    I remember the first time when I got on a roll with my writing, where I knew I was writing something good. I stopped and looked around the room to see where it was coming from because I knew it wasn’t coming from my everyday self.

    Since then I have come to understand writing comes from a dream-like state of consciousness of allowing what wants to be written to unfold. It doesn’t involve thinking or trying to figure it out but rather feeling and sensing what wants to be born and following that golden thread.

    All creativity comes from this place of allowing something beyond our understanding to lead us. We can even create our lives from this place of expanded awareness. The trick is to let go of our need figure things out with our mind and our need try to control things to make things happen the way we think we want. Rather we let ourselves be surprised by what wants to unfold. We let go of the resistance we feel to letting go and letting our creativity and life flow.

    We focus more on our heart and intuitive knowing. We pay attention to the inspiration that comes from that place and take action from there. We relax into being and let go of the need to push to complete our to do list.

    We are more present in the moment, paying attention to the world around us.
    From this place we can pick up on the clues the universe or our creative self is giving us. Life becomes
    an adventure in allowing, an exploration of infinite possibilities. What if we think of our creativity and lives as a good book that we get lost in, where we can’t want to see happens next.

    About Suzanne Murray:

    EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques)
    I’ve been working with EFT in new ways that allow us to laser in on the issue and shift it at the core. We often make significant shifts in a single session.

    CREATIVE LIFE COACHING

    Would you like to live from an expanded place of grace, ease and flow? Would you like to tap the wisdom and power of your heart and soul? We work with soul based ways to let go of limitation and gaining clarity of the next steps to living a more joyful, authentic life.

    CREATIVITY COACHING

    Do you want to experience the pleasure and joy that comes from adding satisfaction and meaning and a sense of well being to your life through creative expression. I will offer practical, emotional and soulful strategies to help you fully uncover your creative gifts and support yourself in expressing them. I will provide encouragement and support in understanding of the creative process and its stages and exercises for accessing the wisdom of your imagination. I’ll help you set realistic goals and support you in achieving them. We will work with tools for coaching yourself through the issues that get in the way of your creativity including career concerns, blocks, limiting beliefs, relationship issues and the existential and spiritual questions that can arise from wanting and needing to create.

    The Heart of Writing eBook
    Jumpstart the Process, Find Your Voice, Calm the Inner Critic and Tap the Creative Flow

    I have been working an exercise a day through your The Heart of Writing eBook. I love it! It’s like being in class again. – Tonya Osinkosky

    Now available on Amazon Kindle!

    and available is a pdf download from my website (includes a one hour mp3 interview about writing process)