Have you ever had someone ask you if you remember something about your past, only to come up empty? Has this happened to you more than once? Does it happen all the time? Reflect on your life. When did you have periods of stress? Were they moments, months, years, or longer? Do these periods correspond with some missing memories? Your memories may be missing because of stress.
Apart from extreme stress situations (like trauma, which our brain processes differently altogether) or lower stress situations (like waiting in a long line at the store, which may be below threshold to have much of an impact long term) moderate to high levels of stress can impact both how we create and retrieve memories. Part of the reason for this relationship has to do with stress hormones in our bloodstream. When we are stressed, stress hormones are released, and over-secretion of stress hormones can impair memory. For example, cortisol, a biomarker for stress, when present in excess in the bloodstream can block the hippocampus in the brain from storing events as they happen, and from recalling them later on. Stress hormones can also take energy from the brain by diverting glucose, an energy molecule, to your muscles. Over time, if this pattern continues (e.g. in cases of chronic stress) the brain can re-wire itself and affect both the way we remember and the way we think long term. Ok, so this applies to you. What can you do with this information? Luckily, our brains are adaptive- you may have heard of this as “neuroplasticity.” Like roads that are built into superhighways due to increased traffic, the more we do something one way, the quicker and more solidified that pathway is in the brain. We can build new roads and turn them into highways by redirecting our “traffic.” In other words, we can train our brain to rewire by teaching it other ways to do something. That means if we learn to lower our stress level, we can help our brain become more effective at storing and retrieving memories. Your first step will be finding ways to be less impacted by stress. What are some techniques to accomplish this? Sometimes it is a matter of doing things differently. Other times we need to make bigger changes. Something we have explored in a previous news topic, is using mindfulness. Mindfulness helps us reduce stress by focusing on our present experience. By doing this, we are turning off our inner monologue and fully immersing ourselves in the moment. We can also use practices like meditation and deep breathing which biologically reduce chemical stress reactions in the body. When we are mindful, we use all five of our senses to experience something, and create an effectively stronger memory. For this reason, mindfulness also positively impacts our ability to make and retrieve memories. The combination of reducing stress and creating stronger memories through mindfulness can be a powerful start to re-wiring the way you interact with and remember the world around you. Explore in your next session how mindfulness and other techniques can help you reduce stress, make better memories, and create your best life! © 2017 Creatively, LLC An important facet of emotional health is good self care: the concept of deliberately spending time attending to your own needs. It is fundamental to your wellness and something you should do in some fashion daily. Part of therapy can be learning when and how to care for ourselves, and the signs we subconsciously give ourselves that self care is overdue. Today’s topic is two skills you can use to practice good self care. They are presented as exercises for you to try. As always, talk in session first before implementing a new skill about the benefits and risks, and how to maximize the effectiveness of the tool for you!
Today’s self care skills: Safe Place and Self Soothing. One of the challenges in our hectic lives is to find small moments of peace and happiness. Rather than wait for these moments to come to us, we can also learn ways to make them for ourselves. Two ways to do this are by creating a safe place and through self soothing. Try these exercises to get you started: Exercise 1. Making a safe place. Think of a time in your life when you were at peace. Where were you? Inside or outside? What was around you? Were there people there? What time of day was it? You can combine several peaceful experiences or just focus on one to answer these questions. What was it about your surroundings that made you feel at peace? The lighting? The smells? Were there specific items around you that made you feel peaceful? A tree? A stuffed animal? A candle? Use some extra paper to write or draw about your safe place. Fill it with as many peaceful things as you can. Are there any pieces of this you can recreate right now? If your safe place is at the beach, can you go outside? Can you light some candles or get a stuffed animal? Think about how you can recreate or find your safe place in your everyday life. Maybe you can actually go to your safe place every day, maybe you can spend time meditating and imagining yourself there. Think about ways to make this a part of your daily schedule. Exercise 2. Self soothing. This exercise is similar to the safe place exercise. It is based on mindfulness or appreciating the moment. The process is simple. Take each of your five senses, one at a time: sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. Think about things in each of the five senses that you like or that make you happy. Use some extra paper to make a list of things for each of the five senses. Take time to think about the little things that make you happy. Is it the sound of crickets or the rhythmic sound of a window fan? Do you like the feel of cold water on your hands or a soft blanket? What are your favorite tastes? Does the smell of freshly baked cookies make you happy? The list you make will probably be of everyday things. Some things on the list you may not have noticed before as things that bring you peace. After you are done making your list, go back through and circle things you can do every day. Can you turn your pillow over to the cold side and snooze five extra minutes in the morning? Can you have a bowl of your favorite cereal for breakfast? Think about ways to use your five senses and self-soothe as part of your daily schedule. (c) 2017 CREATIVELY, LLC It seems appropriate, during this time of year as we transition from Summer weather and schedules to Fall with a new school year and more, to discuss change. Specifically, dear creatives, how it applies to you and your creative personality. Creativity has been heavily researched in recent years and is often divided into several categories of interest- one of which is the creative personality. Some of my favorite research on the subject is by Mihaly Czsikszentmihalyi. In his work Creativity: The Work and Lives of 91 Eminent People, published in 1996, Cziskszentmihalyi talks about personality traits of creatives. Many of the traits he lists exhibit a type of dual nature: e.g. being both introverted and extroverted, or both high energy and reserved. In this case, both averse to and seeking change. For you, that means during a time of year such as this you may feel both energized and fatigued by change. Creativity is often related to novelty, and so it follows that change can give you new ideas and energy and be exciting. However, creative people tend to be very passionate people and so with change comes risk of new things that are either good or bad- and felt deeply in both cases. You may be excited for the changing seasons and new things this time of year may bring your way, while also feeling uneasy about the unknown. What to do? Unsurprisingly, I will of course always encourage you to be creative. Make new work, engage in your creative process and express the new emotions and ideas that come with change. Capitalize on the new energy and use it to temper any more negative feelings. Be careful and don't assume that “bad” is always “bad”- things are rarely all-or-nothing and tend to fall somewhere in between- looked at the right way, most things for you can be inspiring. Do you know for sure something is coming up this Fall that you are not looking forward to? This is also a natural part of life that your creative personality has strengths to help you overcome. Explore your feelings about change and this transitional time of year in your next therapy session, and learn more about how these themes apply to you! (c) 2017 CREATIVELY, LLC Good news, students! I am now offering telehealth services to students enrolled in college credit courses in the states of Maryland and Virginia!
While speaking to some of my colleagues and friends in the community, including my own alma mater, we agree that getting counseling is hard for students. Students are busy. Students live on campus with varying amounts of access to transportation. Students are on budgets. Being a student is also stressful, intense and transformative. For many of us, these years of our lives are those during which we make life decisions which ultimately shape the rest of our adult years. We do this often outside of our normal support system, living for the first time apart from close friends and family. With the added stressors of classes, grades, relationships and more, this is a time of life when we need extra support. I am here to help! Let me remove some of the barriers and give you guidance during this time in your life. If you are a student enrolled in college courses I can offer you my services exclusively online on an audiovisual system that is confidential and easy to use. Get counseling from the convenience of your own living space. Don't wait to get support during this important time in your life. Your help is just a click away! Fill out a referral or call and email me (on the "Contact" page) today to get started. Create your best life! (c) 2017, CREATIVELY, LLC There are many types of creative therapies: dance therapy, art therapy, drama therapy and more- this post does not summarize these approaches- rather it describes the uses of the creative process that research (including my own) has shown is important and effective in mental wellness and healing.
I have said this before- and I will say it more!- creative people need to create. It is your most powerful tool in life, and your most valuable asset in staying well. Creativity in therapy asks you to explore your own experience of things including your feelings, thoughts and imagination. The focus is on making and expressing what comes from inside you, rather than perfect depictions of what you can already see. Your creative process becomes a healing experience when used therapeutically. Drawing, painting, dancing, writing and other art forms are powerful ways to communicate. They have been used to record human history, ideas, feelings, and dreams. They show a wide range of emotions from joy to sorrow, triumph to trauma. Creative arts have served as a way of understanding, making sense, and clarifying inner experiences without words. Used therapeutically, these are activities to soothe you, release stress and tension, give enjoyment and rise above troubling feelings.The process of creating may help you express fear, anxiety and other stressful emotions. It touches the soul or spirit. While family, work and other parts of life may fulfill you, creative experiences can help you express or understand parts of yourself that other activities and interactions cannot. Creative people usually feel better and happier about themselves and their lives during and after being creative. Creating helps you be more flexible in problem solving and makes you more insightful and true to yourself. Creating and communicating in a meaningful way are necessary for psychological, physical and spiritual health. A common worry about creativity as therapy is that you are not creating something that is good enough. You may worry that if you don’t create a product up to your usual standards, creative therapy won’t work and you have somehow failed. The purpose of creativity in therapy is not to make great art: it is to experience the process of creating. This is likely a shift in how you conceptualize your creative experiences, and an important distinction. Remember, creative artist, that when you are creating therapeutically it is the journey and not the destination that is important. There are many more words of wisdom on this topic- creative therapy ideas and exercises, creative personalities, creatives and mental wellness- more on these to come! Subscribe to the Creatively newsletter on the home page, and never miss a thing. © 2017 CREATIVELY, LLC Person Centered Therapy is an approach often credited to Carl Rogers, and was developed in the 1940s. It is an approach my patients have found very useful over the years, and something I regularly incorporate into sessions. Today’s mental health topic is more information about this theoretical approach. Remember- there are many theories designed to help us understand the way we think and ways to improve our lives- this only represents one of them:
In Person Centered Therapy, we have symptoms when we are “not congruent.” This means that the way we see ourselves versus who we are as defined by our life experiences (our “actual selves”) are different (“incongruent”). The problem is, we listen too much to what others think of us and try to make them happy (“conditions of worth”), instead of listening to our inner voices (“organismic valuing processes”). According to this theory, the goal is to become congruent and “self actualize.” This happens when we are guided by our organismic valuing process, rather than conditions of worth placed on us by others. Think about it looking at the graphic above. We listen too much to what others think and this can negatively impact us because it steers us away from what naturally makes us happy. With me so far? So what is the goal for therapy? How can therapy help us self actualize? The therapist will help you identify the conditions of worth in your life and deny these, instead finding worth from being true to yourself and listening to your organismic valuing process. For example: what is the difference between who your peers want you to be versus what will make you happy? How can you teach yourself to be proud of who you naturally are, as opposed to whom your peers want you to be? The therapeutic goal is called “congruence.” In session, your therapist will help you identify how YOU FEEL about something to help you be more aware of your genuine self. Helping you understand your own feelings about things, instead of the feelings of others about them, is how you will in time learn to guide your life according to your organismic valuing process instead of conditions of worth. You will learn in this approach that your best decisions come naturally and not by distorting your perspective with the opinions of others. An important aspect then becomes self sufficiency: to feel confident and capable as an individual person. I like this approach because it helps you to understand your best self and find happiness creating your life by making genuine and independent decisions. However, please know that there are a variety of theoretical approaches to therapy for a reason: not every approach is for everybody at every time. While sometimes it is an appropriate therapeutic goal to foster independence and understanding your true self, it is not always appropriate. You may be in a place in your life where a better goal is to build support around you and take advice and counsel from others. As with all of the information shared in these blog posts, please discuss with your therapist first before putting it into practice. Ask in your next session if Person Centered Therapy is right for you! (c) 2017 CREATIVELY, LLC Creative Community, There is now a new way to make referrals to Creatively! In addition to calling or emailing to refer yourself or another, you can also complete referral forms in a variety of ways: 1) A paper copy can be completed and mailed or emailed. A copy of the paper referral can be found on the "Services" page under "Referrals 2) An electronic referral form can be completed. You can find the electronic referral form on the "Contact" page 3) You can request copies of referral forms, or other informational material about Creatively to be sent to you via email or standard mail Taking the first step towards your happiest life can start today! Yours in mental wellness, Cindy Image (c) 2017 Cindy Cisneros
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Image (c) 2017 Cindy Cisneros Wonderful Creatively Patients, Prospective Patients, Referral Sources and Community,
I am officially ending my maternity leave and returning to the office this week, effective Monday, July 17, 2017. Thank you for your patience and flexibility during my leave. All my regular services and availability have resumed at this time. Please look out for new blog updates (and check out the archives!) and call or email to set up your appointments, and/or for more information about services. Wishing you continued mental health and wellness, Cindy Image (c) 2017 Cindy Cisneros A quick update- I will be returning to the office in the next week and am resuming scheduling at this time. More details to follow shortly- but please feel free to call and/or email to schedule your next session!
Dear Creatively Patients,
Effective today, June 20, 2017, I will be beginning my maternity leave. Please allow one week for me to contact you about scheduling if we have made telehealth arrangements. Otherwise, please allow for 2 weeks before contacting me for an appointment. Appointments will resume in 4 weeks from today. For emergencies, don't hesitate to call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room. For non-emergencies that are urgent, please refer to your list of urgent resources in your new patient paperwork, also found on the "Services" page under "new patient paperwork." Wishing you the best in your mental health, Cindy When I talk about journaling as a therapeutic tool, I am not talking about "Dear Diary, today I..." entries. I am talking about what I commonly describe to patients as a daily emotional download- a freestyle writing session of what is on your mind, what you are feeling, or what you need to "dump" somewhere to free up some space in your brain. Sometimes I may recommend specific topics based on our session for you to explore and try to make connections about- this homework-style journaling is also important. I will not recommend journaling to my patients without some simple guidelines and words of caution. Journaling is a powerful creative tool that is healing when utilized in the right way. If you are interested in using journaling a word of caution: since it can be such a powerful tool, please do not embark on this unless we have first talked about its usefulness to you in your process, as well as safe and responsible ways for you to utilize it. Specifics, as always, will be particular to you and your journey. The following guidelines, however, are important for your journaling in general. Come back and review these tools as often as you need to as you write. First, it is important to briefly explore: why is journaling so powerful? I will give you the analogy I frequently use with kids and teens. Imagine a balloon, filled up with air. You are holding it by the end, pinching it off so no air will escape. You can at this point either add more air (balloon may explode) or release some air (to prevent this). Imagine you let go of the balloon- what does it do? Flies all over the room as it expels the air that was trapped inside (also not a good plan). In a simple analogy, journaling is powerful for one reason because it is releasing air from your balloon so it won't explode. However, there are techniques to use while journaling to prevent your balloon from flying out of control (imagine releasing some air through your fingers, then pinching the balloon closed again, for example). A guideline that is important here is emotional containment. Emotional containment, simply put, is containing your emotions. We do this by creating parameters for how long we will expose ourselves to something emotionally triggering. For journaling in the beginning, for example, I will recommend writing one page, freestyle, then stopping. Put the journal away (have a place for it like a drawer or a shelf) and follow this with another activity that is completely different. Read a book that is not related to what you wrote about (SciFi or Fantasy anyone?) Take a warm shower, take a walk, go into a different room- do something different to "close" the journaling activity. Do not continue to write, do not sit and ruminate, do not call someone and rehash what you wrote, etc. Separate the time and space from the journaling activity with something else. Limit the amount of time spent. This is a simple, but important journaling guideline. A second reason why journaling can be so powerful: you will make connections in your brain. Have you ever heard the studying recommendation: see it, say it, write it down? Our brain processes information in different ways, and by writing about things you have also talked about in therapy, looking back over what you have written, writing more, etc, you are helping your brain make powerful connections about your experiences, both past and present, and how they impact you. These can be significant and emotional realizations, that also need support and rules to help protect you and assist you in receiving them in a positive way. This guideline for journaling is to simply be sure you are discussing in session what you are writing and following your therapist's recommendations when you return to write again. You may not always have to do this as thoroughly as I would recommend that you do when starting out, but, until you learn more about your journaling process and how it impacts you this is a very important guideline. When you are journaling in therapy, talk to your therapist about what you write, what you learn about yourself, how you feel before, during and after, and how the work impacts your symptoms. Like most therapeutic processes, you will work with your therapist to adjust and mold this tool to best help you on your journey to mental wellness! (c) 2017 CREATIVELY, LLC Therapists like to tell you that your thoughts are powerful and affect how you feel. We will tell you to use positive affirmations and to think positively and it will in turn make you feel better. We watch you take this skeptically. After all, can it really be so simple? Yes and no. Will it cure what ails you? Probably not. Will it be an impactful and important tool for your recovery? Absolutely. Here is a simple illustration of positive thought: Think about a freshly baked, warm, chocolate chip cookie. Smell it? Taste it? Want one? How about this negative one: Don't think about an elephant. Did you? I never can help myself. The truth: our thoughts build our reality, including our sense of ourselves, our lives and the world around us. We believe what we have been exposed to, things we regularly tell ourselves and/or hear from others. We have inner monologues and committees shaping and discussing our viewpoints. The louder and more repetitive the thoughts, the more impactful on our mood. Negative thought exposure, especially when repeated over time, makes us feel negatively. I think most of us can agree and come up with examples of negative people, places and things that have this effect on us. Doesn't it follow that positive thoughts work the same way? It does! A secret: most of us are not as good at giving ourselves positive thoughts as we are the negative ones. That means other people, places and things we are exposed to are likely to follow this same pattern. What to do? Start with yourself. Fake it until you make it. Also known as: positive affirmations. This cheesy notion was right all along! Come up with some phrases that are positive, and tell them to yourself regularly. It will probably feel silly for awhile- but like the negative thinking, the positive talk will take time to build. If you stick with it, it will be impactful. You will find, in time, instead of thinking the automatic negative messages, you may say a positive one to yourself first. Other areas in your life will begin to be impacted by the positivity until you find yourself looking for and appreciating more positive things, despite negative messages that still fill our lives. Are you ready to take control of this simple principal? Talk about it in your next therapy session. Problem solve some of your negative thought processes that you can start to replace with more positive messages. Discuss ways to adhere to this new practice and watch your life change! (c) 2017 CREATIVELY, LLC BIOLOGY: PSYCHOLOGY: SOCIOLOGY What are biopsychosocial approaches? Why are they important? In treating mental health problems, I, like many other clinicians, take a biology-psychology-sociology approach. This means I believe the etiology of mental health problems arise from a combination of biological, psychological and sociological factors. As such, it is important to treat and address each of these in working towards symptom resolution. Here is a brief summary of what each aspect is as related to your mental health, and some treatment approaches that may be discussed as part of your therapy session:
BIOLOGICAL: The brain operates on electrochemical signals sent through the use of neurotransmitters. When emotions are out-of-whack, this means that the neurotransmitters in the brain are out-of-whack, too. Ever heard of serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, or epinephrine? These are just some of the neurotransmitters responsible for our emotional responses in the brain. Sometimes clinicians will call etiological symptoms from neurochemical imbalances "endogenous," meaning we are feeling too many effects of certain neurotransmitters and not enough of others. There are both natural and psychopharmocological ways to treat endogenous symptoms. In other words: there are natural and medicinal ways to improve the balance of neurotransmitters in your brain and reduce your symptom presentation. PSYCHOLOGICAL: Therapists spend a lot of session time here. This refers to cognition, or the way you think. We may be predisposed to certain thought traps, patterns in our thought processes, assumptions, negative or anxious thoughts or other cognitive pathways that are precipitating our symptoms. Identifying and addressing these in therapy has also been the focus of many theoretical approaches in psychology. Have you heard of CBT? DBT? REBT? These are just a few of many theories in psychology that explain how the way we think impacts the way we feel, and by making changes in one, we can make changes in the other. Recognizing and changing to healthier cognitive patterns is an important way to reduce your symptoms. SOCIOLOGICAL: Human beings are greatly impacted by the interactions that they have with others throughout their lives. Understanding these interactions and their impact is another powerful treatment tool. Things like trauma, difficult life experiences and challenges, current stressors, grief and loss, relationships and more are all examples of sociological factors that impact us and our symptoms. Looking for ways to build social support and address gaps in our support system is also an important therapeutic goal in therapy. Consider when you are working towards mental wellness, your journey will include addressing and improving your biological, psychological and sociological health. Expect to spend time in therapy on each of these and share your own insights and experiences on how they impact you. The good news is, not only are symptoms presented and impacted in each of these ways, but each area also represents a group of tools to help you feel better! (c) 2017 CREATIVELY, LLC Friends in mental health:
I have decided to commit to a schedule of weekly mental health topics updated on this news feed! As I have worked in mental health over the years, I have noticed common psychoeducational topics, therapy themes and other information that I believe it will be beneficial to keep available to you for review and reference on my website. I will refer you to these topics as reminders for homework assignments, as summaries of things we may have reviewed in session, things to read about between appointment times, information for friends and family members and more. I will share links to the updates on my social media so you can easily find them. And- don't forget you can always read up on past topics here in the archives! If there are topics you are interested in having addressed in this format, send me an email, bring them to session, or share with me on social media. Coming up first: biopsychosocial mental wellness. Stay tuned! (c) 2017 CREATIVELY, LLC I will be the first to admit that I am an amateur, self-taught mandala draw-er- but drawing them is so therapeutic! Art therapy and creative and mindfulness theory will tell you that the circular nature of these beautiful designs are a powerful tool to help you relax, stay in the present moment, clear your mind, and use your creativity. Don't feel overwhelmed if you want to start- here are a few tips for beginners I have worked out for myself that might also be useful to you:
1) Learn the language. There seem to be repetitive shapes and designs used by mandala artists that you can learn. An easy way to do this is to look for images of mandalas and copy them. You will find arches, leaves, lines, dots, swirls and all sorts of shapes thematically repeat in mandala designs. 2) Rearrange the basic shapes you learned on your own. Start with a shape in the middle of your page that is round. Begin adding some of the shapes you have learned around the center and build outwards in layers. Stop when you feel done. Add more if you don't. 3) Don't judge your work. For our purposes we are using mandala drawing as a therapeutic tool and that means do what you feel! Let yourself feel calmed by the simple, repetitive nature of your drawing. If it feels right, draw it. Keep drawing until you feel peaceful. If you feel frustrated, stop drawing, start a new mandala, be less judgmental of your work, or any combination of these. 4) Always remember: creative people need to create! Use this simple activity to get your creative juices flowing in a nonjudgmental and therapeutic way. Make it a part of your routine. Use it to meditate and be at peace. And- since we know you are creative- be creative on how and when you use it so it works best for you! Talk about your use of this therapeutic tool during your next therapy session. My Esteemed Creatively Patients: If I go into maternity leave before our next session, please operate using these instructions: I will be posting on www.creativelyllc.com and reposting to social media (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @creativelyllc) that sessions are cancelled for the week due to the onset of maternity leave, with instructions on how to get back in touch to schedule the next session. Once maternity leave begins, plan for x2 weeks before I can begin telehealth sessions. I will return emails etc about scheduling as soon as I am able. For urgent matters while I am on maternity leave, see the section of resources under company policies and procedures. These are also listed on my webpage www.creativelyllc.com under the new patient paperwork link in the “Services” section. Being creative is therapeutic. Want to share your creativity with others? Want to be inspired by others' creative projects? Share a snapshot of your latest creative project on Instagram. Subscribe and share! Click on the icon above to get started.
I am now on social media! For posts and shares about new services, topics in art, mental health, your community and more, follow me on Twitter and Facebook @creativelyllc!
Esteemed patients, providers and community members: in keeping up with our fast-paced world of electronic information sharing, I am now offering Telehealth sessions to existing patients, on a trial basis. Sessions take place online via webcam using a third-party HIPAA compliant service. Contact me for more information about telehealth. For patients with existing telehealth appointments, browse to the "Contact" page and click on the button for your online waiting room where I will join you for our scheduled session.
Have a creatively healthful day, Cindy Hello, Creatives!
‘Tis the Season! And for many Creatives, the darkness and cold temperatures along with the expectations that come with the Holiday Season put us in a creative slump. It is normal this time of year for studios to be empty, brushes to gather dust, notebooks go unused. So- for this week’s Creatively blog, I give you a challenge- get creative! A good accompanying read for this week’s post is the “Getting Unstuck with Mindfulness” post. I have lots of information for you about getting unstuck and finding your creative flow (look for the upcoming workshop series at Columbia Art Center!) and this week we will highlight some of the advice: go simple. Release yourself, creative, from high-level expectations in your work. Set yourself up for a project that you enjoy. Choose a subject you are familiar with and know you do well and enjoy doing. Cook that back to an even simpler version of this that you know will likely produce something you can feel good about. We are trying to set you up for an enjoyable process and product. I really like mandala and zen doodling for this (there is a blog post to get you started on this if you are interested). One way to get yourself back into doing something is to simply remind yourself why you enjoy doing it. Need more? Add a small component of motivation. Give yourself a deadline in the form of a gift, find a local show, event, open mic or something to participate in. Self impose a deadline- and make it short (1 week MAXIMUM). What would happen if you gave yourself 30 minutes? Sometimes a shortened timeline can release you from higher demands you might place on yourself and further facilitate the exercise. When you are done, while you are doing it and as you are getting started- talk to others! Talk to friends, loved ones, other artists, or (gasp) a creativity expert (me!) about your process, what excites you, what your barriers are, what your successes are, what got you into your art form, what fulfills you about it. We are trying to get as many parts of our creative brains awakened to remembering our love of our art. That’s it! Stop reading, start doing! I challenge you to share your work on the @creativelyllc IG page- help challenge each other to reignite your creative energies and support each other! I’ll kick it off- I have challenged myself to two pieces this week, stay tuned... (C) 2018 Creatively, LLC Creatives: just like all of you my time is compact and any room to be creative is golden. Just like all of you the struggle to find time to do my art is real. Just like all of you I struggle to be mindful of my emotional signs and signals that I need to pump the brakes on my other “priorities” and take care of myself by making time for my art.
Remember that I always say that artists have to create to stay well? Remember that I always say that your most important way to refuel and be well is to be creative? Remember all the encouragement to have your own daily creative practice? Remember all the mental health goals to be mindful of our personal state of well being, and personal and emotional needs? As you continue to grow in these things you will begin to notice when you have to shove all else aside (and in my case) pick up a brush. Today I am tired. Today I am spacey and disconnected. Today I am irritable. These are my early signs. Signing off, Creatives, to practice what I preach, because I will be painting. (C) 2019 Creatively, LLC Hello, Creatives!
I am announcing what has now become my yearly Summer blog schedule change! I am a Summer person and this time each year the outdoors calls to me so loudly that I must heed the summons and scale back on my indoor commitments. It is part of my mindful self care- it means a better me, a better artist and a better therapist! It also means (for now) less blog articles for you. The Summer blog schedule will be: monthly. Released with the newsletter (last week of each month). But- never fear! There is so much blog content- now that I have been posting since 2017- that there is plenty for your #summerselfcare! So read away and check in at the end of each month for something fresh. Since I already posted articles for this month (check them out below!) the new schedule starts in July. Happy Summer, Creatives! Yours in Creativity, Cindy Creatives, I want to take time today to give you a written reference to accompany some of the early advice I give almost every client that comes through my door: to keep a creative journal, aka sketchbook journaling. With rare exceptions I recommend this to everyone, then launch into my explanation of what I mean- so here it is, for your reference: the creative journaling exercise.
Might you, Dear Creative, keep a daily creative journal? To do this you need three key elements:
And so, if you have successfully arranged your elements, here is the process I recommend to you: Engage in the process of free response process work. In other words, we are going to have no particular goal or outcome in mind and are interested in tapping into the current of what is flowing freely through our brains. The process can include flowing freely back and forth between drawing and writing, or be focused on one or the other. It should have either a time or page limit- not to exceed 2 pages or 15 minutes- whichever is shorter, more or less. If you are writing, you begin by writing anything- something- maybe “blah blah blah” until you have tapped into the flow of thoughts- then continue to write with them- sloppy script, incomplete sentences and words, free flow of thoughts just to release into content, until you run out of content or choose to stop. If the content is short you can return to your repeat word “blah blah” or whatever word you chose, until you tap into the next current, or you can choose to be done or change to drawing. If you are drawing, you begin by drawing anything- try to stay away from forms that are too informative and directional like icons (hearts, stars etc) as they can keep you rutted rather than flowing- scribble or doodling are pretty good- until you are into a flow of drawing. If you are a 2D artist you might go back to some of your sketching/drawing techniques like hatching, contour with continuous line drawing, stippling, and so on. Ok so let’s say you do this. You spend 2 pages or 15 minutes drawing/writing in your sketchbook journal, organically recording images and thoughts, every day. Why do I tell you to do this? The frustrating answer is the more you do it the more you will answer this question for yourself. The more immediate and satisfying answer is both a creative and wellness one: creatively you are generating creative energy by regular creative output and a daily creative journal is an important part of this, and from a wellness perspective you are downloading thought clutter from your brain (scientific terms) which will aid you in being more mindful and decrease symptoms fed by thinking problems like depression and anxiety. So, Creative, will you give creative journaling a try? (C) 2019 Creatively, LLC |
get more from The Creativity CoursesLiking educational topics and knowing what's hot in creativity? Creatively has online courses, with an interactive creative community, coaching sessions and more in the Creativity Courses. Want these blogposts in a newsletter? Subscribe here, and get a free gift. Cindy Cisnerosis a Creativity Coach, Creative Therapist and Professional Artist in Sykesville, Maryland. She is an expert straddling the realms of arts, creativity research, psychology, therapy, and coaching. She provides Online Creativity Counseling in Maryland and Virginia, and Online Creativity Coaching throughout the USA, Canada and the UK tailored for the discerning, imaginative, artistic, and neurodiverse. The information provided in this blog is from my own clinical experiences and training. It is intended to supplement your clinical care. Never make major life changes before consulting with your treatment team. If you are unsure of your safety or wellbeing, do not hesitate to get help immediately.
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