my sculpture class

Always assume the best in others.  I know some people see me as pollyanna...too much focus on the positive, not enough on "reality" but   my life is better because I focus on the good in people.  As a teacher, when I focus on the good in my students I get much more good from them.  As a person, I have always been inspired by the people who saw the best in me.  I never wanted to let them down by being less than they believed I was. 

My daily life is better when I look for the good in people; when I assume that someone who is rude is having a bad day and can respond in kindness.  This doesn't mean being foolish or being unsafe, It just means recognizing the humanity is others. It means treating others with respect and kindness no matter what they look like or who they are.

Often people assume that I look at people this way because I have never seen bad  people, that I have been sheltered, that I have never had anything bad happen to me in my life.  Without sharing details, I can tell you with certainty that this is not true.  People who know me well know that I have lived and grown through a great deal of personal and family pain. I taught students with severe social/emotional disorders and I even worked in a psychiatric hospital for four years.

Assuming the  is how I choose to live.  It is one thing that makes my life joyful and beautiful, and that's the kind of life I choose.

6 Play freely in my art without censorship

Self censorship is perhaps the greatest creativity killer.  When I stop exploring and start trying to create work that will sell my creativity suffers.  Sometimes I explore playfully, sometimes deeply or ruefully or even heartbreakingly in my art.; but the key is to keep exploring without censoring.  Of course, when I decide what to give to the galleries to sell self censorship is important, but not when creating.  Sometimes my best pieces come from work that I was tempted to censor, sometimes the work I was tempted to censor is unsellable.  It doesn't matter.  The truth is that the work comes from deep within my soul and needs to be made.  It is only after that that the judgement can begin.

6 Play freely in my art without censorship

Self censorship is perhaps the greatest creativity killer.  When I stop exploring and start trying to create work that will sell my creativity suffers.  Sometimes I explore playfully, sometimes deeply or ruefully or even heartbreakingly in my art.; but the key is to keep exploring without censoring.  Of course, when I decide what to give to the galleries to sell self censorship is important, but not when creating.  Sometimes my best pieces come from work that I was tempted to censor, sometimes the work I was tempted to censor is unsellable.  It doesn't matter.  The truth is that the work comes from deep within my soul and needs to be made.  It is only after that that the judgement can begin.

4.When I feel guily about something, change it and let it go.

Guilt can serve a purpose, but most often it is a wasted emotion.  It serves to tell us that we made a decision that was against our true beliefs or against who we really are.  That in itself serves a wonderful purpose.  It tells us we are off track, and that we need to take a second look at what we are doing.

The problem comes when guilt cycles again and again with no introspection and not change in behavior.  This type of guilt is debilitating and serves no positive purpose.  My resolution this year is to let go of guilt quickly.  I was to use it to keep me on track in being who I am here to be.  I want to feel it, recognize what it is saying to me, make the adjustments that I need to make, and let it go. If it is result of old thinking or holding myself to unreasonable standards (see #2), then I need to conciously let that go as well.  It requires energy to look at where it's coming from, but nowhere near the energy toll that it takes as it continues to cycle over and over again in my psyche.

2. Forgive myself as I would my best friend.

Over and over again I see people that I love being so mean to themselves.  Somehow they expect of themselves that they should be perfect, never make mistakes, never make bad choices. When they do make mistakes or bad choices, they berate themselves, put themselves down and feel shamed.  I have seen them do this to themselves for things that they would easily forgive in friends. I have done this to myself for things that I would easily forgive in friends.

Forgiveness is so important, and I think we often forget that it is perhaps most important for us to be able to forgive ourselves.  When we are able to do that, we are able to interact with others with much more compassion, love, and joy.

1. Make decisions based on joy, not fear:  There is a lot of fearout there.  Fear of someone trying to hurt us, fear of the economy collapsing, fear of dying. of making mistakes, of failure, of financial ruin.  I want to live my life based on joy. 

 I will travel if that brings me joy...even if there are recent reports of people trying to blow up airplanes.

I will deepen relationships even if I may be hurt.

I will create new work that brings me joy even if others don't like it.

I know I am going to die.  It is an absolute...one of the few absolutes we have in life. The decision that I have to make is how I live in the mean time.  Do I live by fear or do I live by joy?  This doesn't mean I will always make the least "responsible" decision.  I feel much better when the bills are paid and relationships are valued. Those things add to my joy.

It does mean, though, that I will pay little attention to the fearmongers and focus on the joybringers. I will choose my actions based on what makes me laugh, feel, appreicate, love, and grow.  All these things bring me joy. My friend Carole says she is getting a new puppy.  It sounds like she is going for joy too.

Please chime in with your ideas for a joyous and creative 2010. Here are mine:

1. Make decisions based on joy, not fear.

2. Forgive myself as I would my best friend.

3.Respect that each person has his or her own journey.

4.When I feel guily about something, change it and let it go.

5 Bring joy when and wherever possible.

6 Play freely in my art without censorship.

7. Allow myself to feel how I feel without judgment.

8. Always assume the best in others.

9. Laugh often.

10. Act on the knowlege that I am happiest when I am creating, and create daily.

This month I will be expanding on what I mean by each of these and how I will integrate them into my daily life.

What is your gift to yourself this year?  To the world?  Martha Graham said it beautifully: 

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action,and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. --Martha Graham

This will be my gift to myself and the world this year.  What will be yours?

I find myself being constantly intrigued by the creative process.  I am intrigued with how that happens for me, how I can keep it moving for me, and with how I can help others in their creative journeys.  I have long felt that one of the biggest blocks to creativity is the fear of not being perfect; of making mistakes.   In my search for all thoughts creative, I came across this video of Eric Maisel talking this exact idea and about honoring the creative Journey.