Looking After Yourself this Holiday Season

Happy Holidays, or at least I hope this is a happy season for you. I know it can be difficult if you have experienced loss, or are alone.  I totally understand that, my mother died on January 2, 18 years ago. It was the most difficult Christmas ever. We rushed her to the hospital on Christmas Eve, and the next day (Christmas Day) she came home to die. It was an excruciating week. But, we were so grateful when she finally passed as she no longer needed to suffer. It had been years of suffering.

But, Christmas was ruined for me. My girls were teenagers at the time, so I did what I had to. Once they left home I did nothing for the holidays until my grandchildren were born, when I started to come back around and heal my wounds. In that time, I had also lost a partner, so there just seemed no reason to celebrate.

I look back and I wish that I had started that healing sooner, however, I wasn’t ready, nor did I have anyone to show me the way at that time. 

That still took...

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Use Gratitude to Create a Bounty of Positive Change in Your Life

Consistent gratitude is one of the most powerful tools that you can use to propel yourself into a brighter tomorrow. Gratitude isn’t a magical shortcut, though. It doesn’t necessarily create any changes outside of yourself. What it can do, however, is open you up to other opportunities.

As you become aware of the multitude of blessings already present in your life, you may begin to focus on abundance more and more. This can set you on a path to a mental state rich in optimism.

This transformation takes place as you begin to express genuine gratitude to others, and start feeling gratitude for everything in your life that brings you joy.

Become Receptive to Abundance 

A great way to increase your awareness of the abundance you already have is to start a gratitude journal. You don’t have to wait for something great to come into your life to appreciate it. Instead, just open your notebook once a day and take a few minutes to write down everything you’re...

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The Biggest Obstacles to Your Creativity

Do you feel like you lack imagination? Do you struggle to create or to find solutions to the challenges in your life? It’s possible you’re suffering from a few creativity-blocking obstacles. By identifying the obstacles in your path, you can find ways to work around them.

Eliminate the creativity blockers from your life:

  1. A cluttered mind makes creativity a challenge. Have you ever noticed that your best ideas come when you’re alone? You’re either being quiet or doing something very routine, like driving on a low-traffic road or taking a walk. It’s hard to get the creative juices flowing when you have too much going on.

  2. You don’t prime your creative mechanism. Try doing a different creative activity for a few minutes. If you’re trying to write a book, try creating and humming a new song for a few minutes. Legos, Lincoln Logs, tinker toys, modeling clay, crayons, and brain teasers are other options.

  3. Stress. You might have time to yourself,...
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5 Easy Actions That Develop Your Intuition

Intuition is a tool that all of us have. Some people suggest that it’s mystical power. Others would suggest that it’s merely our subconscious trying to tell us something. Regardless of the source, we all have that little voice that tries to tell us things from time to time.

As we get older, we often learn to ignore that little voice. We turn to logic and focus on being practical. But we’ve experienced a lot over the years, and there is some part of our brain that has accumulated a tremendous amount of wisdom. Listening to that little voice can be a good thing. 

Last week we talked about ways to determine if we are acting from a place of intuition or insecurity. So how can we develop our Intuition more to be able to step away from those insecurities?

Try these techniques to develop your intuition:

1, Meditate for a few minutes each day. One characteristic of intuition is that it has a soft voice most of the time. It can be challenging to notice it if our minds...

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How to Differentiate Between Intuition and Insecurity for the Best Decisions

Life-changing decisions can be so intimidating. You spend days and even weeks juggling between the options in front of you. All you really want to do is make the best decision, but it's stressing you out. Your gut instinct tells you to go one way, but you still hesitate.

Indecisiveness can make some situations more difficult than they actually need to be. But what's causing your indecisiveness?

You're probably allowing insecurity to cloud your judgment and cause you to second-guess your intuition. Don't worry - it happens to everyone.

Here's how you know intuition is guiding you in the right direction: 

  1.     It's constantly on your mind. Your intuition pushes you to constantly think about the impact of a decision. It's difficult to get the thoughts off your mind when deep down you know the right thing to do.
    •  Avoid underestimating the power of your intuition!
  1.     You feel sad when you go against your intuition. You usually feel relieved when you...
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Awakening into your Creativity

Being creative can make anyone’s life more successful. The proof of this statement can be seen on National Geographic for instance. In one particular show, you will see mountain men, making “stone soup.” Living in the mountains and surviving requires creativity and these guys are exceptionally creative. 

To make stone soup, they find a nice stone deep in the river and use that to get minerals from it when boiled. To add flavor and other nutrients, they gather river algae and forage for a variety of mushrooms. Once everything is boiled up, they have a meal that fills their bellies and helps with their immune systems. 

The mountain men have unconsciously learned how to create new learning pathways in the brain and make the reptilian brain shrink. The reptilian brain which we still possess inhibits creativity and works more to find new things to be afraid of. For you, the best way to work on strengthening your brain and the creativity portion is to engage in...

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June 2021 Artist Trading Card Exchange

Our Create with Me! Community has been creating Artist Trading Cards (ATC's) for an exchange. We want to invite you to be a part of the exchange. You do not need to be a part of the Create with Me! Community, you just need to enjoy creating.

If you would like to take part, even if you have not joined us or do not know what ATC's are, everyone is welcome.

So, what are Artist Trading Cards or ATC's?

According to Wikipedia...Artist trading cards (ATCs) are a conceptual art project initiated by the Swiss artist M. Vänçi Stirnemann in 1997. He called it a Collaborative Cultural Performance. Artist trading cards are 212 by 312 inches (64 mm × 89 mm) in size, the same format as modern trading cards (hockey cards or baseball cards). They are self-made unique works or small series, signed and dated on the reverse by the artist/producer, exchanged and collected by the people who...

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It is important to have a sense of community

I embrace everyone I encounter. Being open to people’s differences encourages a sense of community.

Having a sense of community means being open to collaboration. I know that sharing thoughts with others is a great way to arrive at ideal solutions.

Working with others allows each person to contribute their strengths. The collection of attributes builds a team that is stronger than each individual member. I embrace the value that other minds bring to the table.

I learn to remain humble when I expose myself to the strengths of others. I realize that each person brings something special to this world we live in. My openness to learning about what someone else offers reminds me to acknowledge their worth.

When there is a community of friends around me, I feel safe. Knowing that there are people to rely on gives me the confidence to go confront tough situations.

I contribute to the sense of togetherness by showing appreciation to others. I take the time to let others know that...

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How Creative Routines Improve Your Health and Well-Being

Getting into a creative routine to improve your physical and mental health, might be something you have overlooked. There are some serious benefits for all concerned when you do this. 

For instance, children improve their self-confidence and self-esteem, by engaging in regular creativity programs. Adults still in the workforce can look forward to reduced stress and depression. As for seniors they too get the same benefits as the folks in the workforce, plus the added benefit of brain exercise.

There are a number of stress factors for adults and each one brings its own issues. By engaging in a creative routine, adults will notice that they become more relaxed in life. One of the main reasons is the healthy chemical that gets released by the brain during these pleasurable creative pursuits. The chemical dopamine is a big ally in the fight against stress and depression. It is believed to create feelings of joy and excitement while making a person become more productive. 

...

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Taking Stock and the Sharing of Ideas

I follow ‘Leonie Dawson’ who follows ‘Meet Me at Mikes’. Meet Me at Mike’s shared a taking stock exercise, and Leonie loved it and so she shared it. When I saw it, I also loved it and I am sharing it with you today. This will now be my new weekly check-in. Don’t worry I won’t bore you each week (just this week) with what I am up to, but it is a great tool for reminding ourselves what we accomplish and the changes we are making.

I love the sharing of ideas, I love how we create, collaborate, tweak and build on what we see around us. It is one of my favorite things about the Create with Me! Sessions. I love seeing what everyone is working on, I love trying new things. I have found so many great new art supplies, and suppliers, from those times together.

Taking Stock

Making: I have been working a lot in my art journals, making new pages, trying new techniques.

Getting: One exciting thing I got this week was the Oracle of the 7 Energies Deck by...

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