Your Creative Way

Has This Ever Happened To You?

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(Part One of a Three Part Series)

Have you ever done this?

Had a crystal clear idea of where you are going and then bam, life gets in the way?

So that happened.

Last August, I sent you an email introducing a new direction that I was very happy about. In fact, it was called the Happiness of Creativity. My intention was to focus on the benefits of establishing a creative practice specifically using visual journaling as a tool for self-expression and self-discovery.

Then, life + traveling + holidays + new information all came together to change the trajectory of my life and work. I am still in love with visual journaling and I’ve used some of my quick collages here.

BUT what came next was too big to ignore.

Normally, when one year comes to an end and a new one begins, I take a look at where I am and where I’d like to be. And as always, the one area that I am rarely happy about is my weight.

For most of my life, I’ve struggled with a general pattern of over-eating and a constant battle to keep my weight within a normal range. I’ve been able to lose weight when I finally decide it’s time. But the moment I stop dieting, it comes back and then some.

Sound familiar?

Daily Quick Collage ~ Linda Hough 2017

Maybe it’s not weight you struggle with. Maybe you have a different bad habit or compulsive behavior that is totally interfering in your life. No matter how much willpower or discipline you manage to muster, you find yourself frustrated and stuck with this unwanted behavior.

And maybe, like me, you’ve reached a point in your life where you’re just plain tired of limiting or putting restrictions on yourself. Personally, I want to enjoy my life. In France, eating is elevated to an art form. I no longer want to deny myself any of the pleasure that revolves around our daily meals.

At the same time, I don’t feel all that good about carrying these extra pounds. Or continuing to do what obviously hasn’t worked.

So now what?

As someone immersed in the field of human potential, I am continually reading, studying and researching tons of ideas + concepts on how to live fully and richly as we become our best selves.

Looking at the big picture, we humans have come so far in so many ways. Yet we continue to experience way too much pain and suffering, buckling under the weight (excuse the pun) of our many problems.

Why does this seem to be getting increasingly worse instead of better? Why are more and more people turning to unhealthy habits and behaviors that end up causing them even more pain?

Daily Quick Collage ~ Linda Hough 2017

How can we retain our health and wellbeing in the midst of all the temptations and distractions?

While there are many outside considerations that I’ll leave for another time, my primary interest lies in what we can do personally to alleviate our own suffering.

What I’ve come to understand is that there is an effortless path to freedom that does not rely on willpower, disciple or positive motivation to release bad habits.

Amazingly, this path is completely aligned with and includes the creative principle that I’ve been working with in visual journaling.

Imagine an effortless way to free yourself from the bad habits and behaviors that are keeping you from doing what you want to do, from being who you want to be.

Imagine a way to naturally connect to your innate wisdom and health.

Imagine having a clear + stress free mind, going about your daily life with confidence + clarity.

This might sound impossible but you don’t have to imagine it, it already exists.

(Part One of a Three Part Series. Part Two: Could this all be just a simple misunderstanding?)

Daily Quick Collage ~ Linda Hough 2017

When It All Comes Together

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As I write, summer is slowly fading and the heat residing. Thankfully. September is about to open up a new time, a new season, traditionally a time for harvesting.

There have been periods here and there in which this blog has been fallow. Usually it has been because my direction has changed and this time was no exception.

Three years ago I was introduced to an amazing process that changed my life. If you’ve been reading along, you know that visual journaling has had a profound impact on my work. Yet I was struggling to understand how to use it in combination with my coaching.

Over the past year, I’ve taught several live workshops, each taking me deeper into my exploration and most importantly showing me the incredible value that this process has for others.

When sharing visual journaling with other women in workshops both here in France and in Sweden I can’t help but feel overjoyed at the response. It’s almost like those cartoons where paper is flying all over the place and there is a creative frenzy going on.

The participants LOVE it!!

creative flurry

Workshop in Gothenburg Sweden, May 2016 (Photo: Danette Quartey)

It is the use of images and words and creating with your hands in combination with inquiry and self-reflection that creates such a powerful experience.

Still I was struggling with how to share this online.

About 6 months ago, I committed to a daily creative practice where I challenged myself to create 1 quick collage every morning. There was no time limit. The only requirement: each page has to have two elements. I wanted something that was quick to do where I was also practicing letting go of control and not thinking.

quickcollagejournal.sm

First Completed Journal from the
Visionary Journaling Quick Collage Challenge, August 2016

Just the other day, I finished my first journal. I have a shelf of unfinished journals so this said a lot to me. The process was something I could do every morning and it was fun! From this challenge, I came to understand how this process contributes not only to my work but most importantly to my life.

And now I feel ready to share it with you.

The process I’m calling visionary journaling works in two ways: as a way to receive deep messages from your intuition or higher self and as the antidote for any of you who are feeling creatively starved. This work can fill you right up with satisfaction and even happiness.

Yes, it can. This has been my experience and it can easily be yours.

So from here on out, I’ll be blogging on my new site. When it all comes together, a new look is necessary. It’s a new chapter, new energy and new beginnings.

Allow me to introduce the new website:

Happiness Through Creativity

You can pop right over there by clicking here. Sign up to get my newsletter and updates.

Or go to my new FaceBook page by clicking here.

With so much gratitude, I’m looking forward to sharing all about how you can experience more happiness through creativity.

See you over there!!

Nurturing the Seeds of Creation

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This is a digital version of my current exhibition in Vence with Danette Quartey. The words are printed on transparencies and floated over shadowbox frames so they cast a nice shadow onto the photos. When I can photograph them without reflections, I’ll post them here.

The Seeds of Creation

Creation is life.
Life is creation.
From the seed to the flower to the fruit,
whether life or cosmos or chair,
everything comes into being through the creative process.

Within each of us lie the seeds of creation.
What do these seeds need to thrive?
Are you nurturing them with love and attention?
Does your environment support their formation?

When all the elements for growth are in place,
the seeds sprout,
the flowers bloom
and the fruit is born.

The Seed of Life welcomes you home.

Are You Living In The Culture Of Not Enoughness?

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The words are rampant in the Western world.

Maybe you’ve even said them yourself. Surely you’ve thought them.

There is not enough.

I don’t have enough.

And the real kicker, I am not enough.

In societies that have more abundance and riches than in any other time in history, how is it possible that these words are so often, if not uttered, then at least thought or felt, several times a day?

Although men suffer from this syndrome as well, I’m going to focus the attention on women here because these words are the cultural battle cry underlying the majority of messages that come our way.

YOU ARE NOT DOING ENOUGH => YOU ARE NOT ENOUGH.

not enoughness

You can fill in your own personal blank.

You are not ______ enough.

Most of us have a self-image that is not beautiful enough, not thin enough, not sexy enough, not attractive enough.

We overwork to compensate for being not enough especially when we want both career and kids. We’re underpaid in most areas of the work world. We spend billions of dollars on products and cosmetic surgery to help us feel enough.

So what’s new? We have a pretty good picture of all this already, when we stop to think about it.

What I’m curious about is how much you think this personally affects your life?

When you do stop to think about it, how often does this insidious mantra pulse through your thoughts and your actions?

Do you overcompensate and over-give so that people will like you even though you feel like it’s never working?

Do you opt for the opposite, can’t be bothered putting in effort because it’ll never be good enough, but then don’t achieve the goals you have for yourself?

Do you strive to be perfect, often falling into overwhelm and exhaustion?

In my years of coaching and as an artist, I’ve noticed this primary belief lying at the base of some of the most talented, intelligent women I know. Whether it is unconsciously there or right up front in your face, these four words are the cause of more than their fair share of unhappiness and misery.

To give you an idea of how pervasive and deep this feeling of not-enoughness goes, I’ll share some thoughts from a must-read book for our times The Chrysalis Effect: The Metamorphosis of Global Culture.

chrysalis effect

Philip Slater describes two opposing systems that are currently engaged in an epic struggle. In his words:

The old system I call Control Culture. Its concern with mastery led to the creation of rigid mental and physical compartments, a static vision of the universe, a deep dependence on authoritarian rule, a conviction that order was something that had to be imposed, and a preoccupation with combat.

The new system I call Integrative Culture, because its guiding impulse is to dissolve mental walls and permeate artificial boundaries—to celebrate interdependence. It has a dynamic vision of the universe, a democratic ethos, and sees order as something that evolves, as it does in Nature, from spontaneous interaction.

Written well before the current presidential race in the U.S., this is another quote from the book:

Control Culture is obsessed with building walls.

Does that ring any bells?

More interestingly, do you know what the foundation of the entire Control Culture is based on?

The demotion of women.

You cannot have an authoritarian, war-like society unless women are devalued and oppressed.

Whaattttt????

I don’t know about you but the Control Culture is NOT a world I want to continue to live in. If you take a big picture, visionary look at the world right now, you can see how this control/integrator dynamic is playing out in many different areas of life.

The conflict is within every nation, every political party, every religious tradition, every institution, every individual.

My question to you is simple: which culture would you rather live in?

On a personal level, where are you fighting for control and where are you letting life evolve?

Visionary journaling fits exactly into the Integrative Culture.

In the creative process, knowing when to step in and when to let go is essential. This is what makes having a creative practice worthwhile. The focus is not on the product but on the experience; being present in the moment, flowing with the materials in a dance that is happening just for you.

Your journal is a safe place to practice this dance with absolutely no risk, no consequences, no judging from the outside world. There is only you and your page.

Willingness all you need.

And a few simple materials.

Through this process you will find self-kindness and self-love. This self-knowledge culminates in a woman who knows herself to be enough, who knows what she is doing and why, and is satisfied with the life she is creating.

I invite you to step through the portal of enoughness and take the journey of a lifetime. Through private 1-1 sessions with me, you will use visionary journaling to learn how to let go and trust, how to find enoughness, how to interpret what emerges from the page and apply it directly to your life. This is intimate creative work at its best.

If you feel the desire to finally get free from the culture of not-enoughness, click here for more details.

portal of enoughness

The Creative Adult

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The Creative Adult

I jotted down the quote by Ursula K. Le Guin while listening to a creativity coach talk. When I looked it up, I found this was only part of the quote.

The creative adult is the child who survived after the world tried killing them, making them “grown up. The creative adult is the child who survived the blandness of schooling, the unhelpful words of bad teachers, and the nay-saying ways of the world. The creative adult is in essence simply that, a child. Falsely Yours, Ursula K. Le Guin

I wrote it down long before choosing this notebook for a 30-day journaling project. Of course I wish it was more beautifully done but it feels like the child inside who wrote it.

The project is to simply do one quick collage a day. The only parameter, to use at least 3 elements per page. The challenge is to do this without thinking. Choose images I’m drawn to. Cut and paste. Without thinking.

Harvesting comes afterward. What then do I see?

Here I see my ever-present connection to water, the divine, an invitation to let go and dream with the flow.

A New Conversation

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Transformation Th word ‘conversation’ seems to be cropping up all over today. I revised this site so I would have a place to have a new conversation with myself, with the inner realms, with the parts of me that need expression but don’t have a place to be heard.

There is this inner conversation which is private, and then the conversation with the outer world.

I feel like there is so much to say and then nothing at all. Polarities.

Somewhere in between lies my path.

Today I want to have a conversation with that part of me that died a long time ago. Did she die, or just wither away to nothing? Or was she ever even born?

Is this the missing part I’ve been searching for all these years? I invite you into my private room. Come have a chat with me and let’s see what we find.

Deep sadness arises. And then tears.

Yes, of course she is a little girl who does not want to come out of safety.

The chair is too big for her to get up on by herself. Too big for her to feel at ease.

But she is willing to talk. So the chair shrinks down to accommodate her exact size.

As she settles in, she fidgets, checking out the entirety of the situation.

She is not at all comfortable being the center of attention. That’s putting it mildly. Let’s get this over with, she indicates.

It’s not like she’s on trial although it may appear to be so. There are questions that need answers. Now. But where to begin?

You’re stalling, I think to myself.

Yes, I am. I’ve been here so many times before and have gotten nowhere. I don’t want to face the possibility that this may be the same. But I know the answers are here, in my body, with this part of myself who needs to be heard. As the atmosphere does not feel conducive to the occasion, I’m going to invite her into a playroom. Better for both of us to relax and communicate rather than a stiff grown-up chair in nothing but space.