Courage to Create

Another Monday already! That was quick!

First, a huge thank you to Elysabeth, Steve, and Heather for their angelic and brilliant editing of my Web copy. I owe all three of you!

NEWS: Please remember to stop by and visit UPositive Life Coaching's table at the Turner Center Health Fair on Saturday, 2/23, between 9 and 2. It's focusing on (mildly) Alternative Medicine and Health, so there promises to be interesting information available. The Bellevue Y is behind the Starbuck's in the newly developed area just Nashville-side of Chaffin's Barn on Hwy. 100. Let me know if you need directions.

The March-April calendar for both UPositive Life Coaching and Passion-for-Life Psychotherapy is ready. I'm really excited about presenting a very wide range of workshops. The dates will be up on the Website as soon as the Website is up (UPositive.com), which is soon, I promise! Seminar topics: Goal Attainment for the Creative Person, Breaking thru Creative Blocks, Getting it Done! (accountability for attaining your goals), Intro to Past-Life Regressions, 2 Hours to Better Sleep, Positive Thinking, and a Women's Therapy Group. Contact me if you want more info on any of these prior to the website getting going.

Hopefully, my winning, and funny, contest entry will up on http://www.coolstuff4writers.com/ this week. I'm in the process of finding out what's holding it up.

THOUGHTS

The Courage to Create, what a wonderful phrase! It's also the title to one of Rollo May's books, first printed in 1975. Rollo May is a psychotherapist whose writing can fit as easily under the heading of philosophy.

Before I get into more detail, my Argumentative Imps (adorable little things, really) insist on being heard. The book talks about creative endeavors in the sense of high art, or well-judged art, or successful art. I wholeheartedly argue that creativity, art of any sort, every product of creative energy, has equal value. Rather than go into detail about that (a totally separate blog), I'd just like to say that what takes courage is not the quality of product, but the quality of action---the doing, the process. We only have the ability to choose to create, not to choose the results (if only we did! Grammies all around!)

In The Courage to Create, May addresses such questions as, Why does an original idea pop up from the unconscious at a given moment? What's the relation between talent and the creative act? Why are we so delighted by the products of creativity? Right in the Preface he gives the answer: "We express our being by creating. Creativity is a necessary sequel to being." The rest of the book explores the process of creativity itself as well as the courage needed to participate in life with a creative response. He discusses form and harmony, the need to make meaning from chaos, the high of the creative moment, the depth or absorption into the energy of life itself that is required for creativity.

The book is well-worth reading: I can't possibly do it justice here. Anyone interesting in creativity as a process or act will enjoy reading it.

What I would like to ask, though, is what does 'courage' mean, in relation to creativity?

Courage is usually defined as the determination to proceed with fear. If there is no fear, there is no courage...there's just everyday action. So...what's fearful about creativity?

Instead of giving my answer (fingers itching to type), I'm going to open the discussion up to all of you. Please post your thoughts, other questions, and ideas. I'm curious to hear what you all have to say! (And I promise to offer my own thoughts on the topic next Monday, or before.)

---Batya

Updates, Monday Monday

Well, it's Monday, and here I am blogging. Yes, I do try to keep my word.

First, some News and Updates:
I won! I won! First prize in Seven Outrageous Writing Resolutions for 2008, on http://www.coolstuff4writers.com/Contest/Pastwinners.html. You know I can always create a list of goals, right? It's not up yet, but it should be there within the next few days. Guaranteed to give you a chuckle or two!

UPositive Life Coaching will have a table at The Turner Center's Alternative Health Fair, on Saturday, February 23, from 9 to 2, at the Bellevue Y (Hwy. 100, just before Chaffin's Barn). Stop on by to say hello!

UPositive.com is moseying its way into existence...almost there, almost there. I'll be sending out an email to friends, clients, and family to announce it's actual day of birth.

In the meantime, some thoughts for this Monday.

I'm preparing a new seminar about Time Management for the Creative Person. Basically, there's a lot of conversation needed between the Left and Right Brains in this process, especially because the Left Hemisphere functions on (maybe invented) linear, clock-and-calendar time, and the Right Hemisphere functions on non-linear, cyclical-sequential-mood-go-with-the-flow time. The challenge is to overlap those two functions in the same realm of action: our actions.

There are tricks, of course. Time-expansion, which I'll teach at the seminar, works wonders, but can't be overused. Right-Brain/Left-Brain Communication is essential.

Maybe it's time to finally write my book: How to Get Everything Done Through Procrastination. I've got the title page and intro down, but I seem to get distracted by other activities....

Personally, I'm finding that after doing my goals visualizations, and my goals lists, and my goals outline, and my chart----that a running list of (almost 200) To-DoAbles helps. This won't work for everyone, but it might be worth a quick try. I hang it behind my computer, where my eyes (and hands and butt) spend most of their time---so I can't miss it. That way, there's no "I don't know what to do next" voice in my head with any validity. Sometimes I pull the list down, close my eyes, and just point. If I don't do that DoAble, I can always do the one above or below it (hey---who's looking?).

I do have some other ideas/points/tricks ready to go for the seminar, but I was wondering: Do any of you have ideas for time management that has worked for you in relation to your creativity---either getting down to creating or just making time for it in your busy schedule? Please feel free to share in a comment here.

--Batya

Welcome to the new blog for UPositive!

Welcome to the new blog for UPositive!!

Here, you'll be able to read and post comments about all sorts of topics related to psychotherapy, life coaching, creativity, upcoming UPositive Life Coaching and Passion-for-Life Psychotherapy seminars, new eBooks, motivation, and more!

In order to respect friends, clients, parents, and youngsters who might visit, I would appreciate everyone refraining from cursing on this blog. Other than that---thoughts, feelings, questions, answers, quotations, suggestions---pretty much anything goes.

My idea is to use this blog to address various issues related to the topics of my businesses---even the fact that I have more than one business. I'll mention books, quotes from books, maybe even movies or TV shows that elicit thoughts, inspiration, or questions, and I hope you'll add your own responses.

I'm hoping that clients, prospective clients, friends, family members, creative folks of all styles of expression find the blog helpful and inspiring!

Unlike my personal blog, I promise to post to this one at least once a week, preferably more often. I'm planning on Mondays, so please do check back!

And please visit my new Website: UPositive.com (up and running by the end of February, 2008), and about time!

--Batya