by Holly Lasky

Optimize Creativity While Navigating the Ups and Downs of Life

In writing this blog, I was struck by the title of this group, which is “Writers in the Storm”. In the “about” section of this blog, it states, “Along the way, we’ve discovered that there’s more to life than writing, and sometimes life can be the richest story of all… Every writer must weather the storm within: self doubt, rejection, deadlines and balancing our writing passion with everyday life. Not to mention the storm raging outside — the paradigm shift in the publishing industry.”

Speed bumps on the writing journey.

It is exciting to consider when we are in the ups and downs of the storms of life, our creativity can be an expression of the journey.

• How can we bring “The richest story of all” into our writing? 
• What happens when those ups and downs don't feel very manageable or we're in crisis mode and all of a sudden our best intentions go sideways? 
• What do we do when our carefully, meticulously plotted schedule takes a left turn and we find ourselves at the end of a very busy day and yet we haven't accomplished any of the things we wanted to accomplish? 
• Instead of being tossed around in the storm, what would happen if we could ride the waves and be empowered instead of drowning?

It's easy to feel frustrated and beat ourselves up and think there's something wrong with:

• Our ability to focus. 
• Our ability to organize. 
• Being able to do what we love in our creative expressions, be it writing or anything else. 

Andy Andrews said, “If you're not in a crisis right now, you've just come out of one or you're about to be in one.” 

This idea of crisis, or ups and downs as a way of life can take on new meaning for us. It's important as we navigate these times to have tools and strategies so when we are in moments of:

• Overwhelm 
• Crisis 
• In the middle of those days that just go completely wrong. 

There are ways to: 

• Create momentum. 
• Spark our creativity.
• Encourage ourselves. 
• Be empowered in the choices we're making.

In part one, we took a look at the tools of:  

• Breathing techniques.    
• Getting out of overwhelm.
• Eat That Frog for 90 minutes a day 

Let’s examine three more tools that can be instantly incorporated into your daily creative life.

The idea of optimizing creativity when things are not going well in life is a priority. Often in those moments, it seems like time is slowing down or stopped, whether dealing with a loss or illness or the car broke down and you're stuck by the side of the road. Whatever it is that causes your day, your week, your month to not be what you expected it to be, we can get unstuck by taking daily small steps. The small decisions every day compound into massive growth, change, and progress in our life.

Grace

• We tend to be very unkind to ourselves. 
• We say unkind things to ourselves. 
• We are more kind to the people around us than we usually are to ourselves. 

This is where we can have grace for ourselves. 

Grace for Ourselves

• We're NOT broken.
• We haven’t done anything wrong. 
• We're not  terrible people. 
• We're not lazy or unmotivated.

Getting things done and optimizing AND being creative is a process. We have days where more happens and days where less happens. One Client came down with flu symptoms. It turns out, they were avoiding a confrontative conversation with a key person in their life. The moment they showed themselves grace and then took responsibility for their actions, their flu symptoms were immediately gone. 

As we begin to understand what's driving us consciously and unconsciously we can have a lot more compassion for ourselves.

95% of our brain is unconscious and 3 to 5% is conscious. The 95%, the unconscious mind, is driving everything. Consciously we may be trying to be super productive, get stuff done and hit our word count for the day. All of a sudden we find ourselves staring out the window or watching Netflix or completely avoiding whatever it is we need to do by doing something else. Whatever it may be, there can be other things driving it. 

The First Step

The first step is awareness. Are you in a pattern or a habit that isn't working for you? We default to these patterns, not because they work anymore, they worked maybe once upon a time, it's just that they're familiar and comfortable. Well, familiar and maybe uncomfortable, but they're still familiar. We are creatures of habit and we default to whatever is familiar. Often where we go in stress is the familiar places of childhood trauma. 

One of the things that inspires me about being a coach is helping people gain that outside perspective to figure out why it is that they're not finishing their book or finishing the edit or coming up with their next great idea. Usually it is rooted deep in early childhood. Beyond understanding where it came from, we can have resolution. 

• What if our creativity was fueled by wholeness and healing and love?
• What if our creativity was fueled by our growth journey? 
• What if our creativity was powered by something bigger than our old story of the terrible and unfortunate things that have happened to us?

This is such an interesting perspective because resolution comes consciously and unconsciously when we look back and learn the lessons of the past, apply them to the present day and then take what we want into the future.

Consult Your Future, Next Best Version of Yourself 

When we say we want something, it is negative because we're going towards something we don't have. One of the practices I like is to consult my future whole, healed, empowered, next best version of myself. When I'm making a decision or casting a vision for the next thing I'm doing or working on a creative project, or what is the next best step, all of these, I take a moment, breathe, and then ask my future self:

• What would she do?
• What would she be eating for breakfast? 
• What would she be working on? 
• How would she prioritize this project? 
• What's important to her? 

Instead of this being somewhere way out in the future, this is now. Calling my future best self into right now creates empowered choices from a more healed perspective. What is she going to do? Is she going to binge watch Netflix? My future best self is going to sit down and prioritize the project and work through the next step. This is one of my favorite tools to get out of being stuck.

Divine Economy-Our life is happening for us, not to us

The last idea to consider is something Danilo Bridgens, the Founder of Via Vetera, calls the economy of God. Regardless of your spiritual context and beliefs, you should consider that nothing in our life is wasted. In the ups and the downs, in all the things we are unconsciously and consciously choosing in our life, not only is there hope of actual resolution, there's also the hope and the promise that we can learn, we can take forward into the future, we can call into now the person we are becoming.

The past, the present and the future begin to merge together - our healed self from the past, our healed self in the moment, now consulting our best self in the future. We begin to form a partnership within ourselves when we understand it's not about defining things as good or bad or up or down, they just are. Everything happening in our lives is because there's a lesson to be learned and growth to work through. We can empower ourselves by choosing what we bring into the present and future.

In coaching, it is really amazing to help people bring up to the conscious level, these long-running patterns and strategies that don't work, that keep them in the overwhelm, keep them in non-productivity, keep them in the workaholic mindset. This is where we perhaps take on the belief I've got to work harder to be successful. What if success came easily and effortlessly because you're doing something you love and you're passionate about? 

The Current Crisis - Growth Opportunity

Andy Andrews was right. If you're not in a crisis, you've just come out of one or you're about to go into one. As I was deciding what to write about for this blog, I realized this is exactly the perfect thing to write about because I am in a crisis personally.

The last 18 months have been a journey of 3 emergency rooms, 3 hospitals, 3 skilled nursing/rehab facilities and 5 ambulance rides as my husband is experiencing a catastrophic illness and a very long-term recovery. As the medical advocate, caregiver, domestic glue and CEO working full time in this season, I am using every tool in these articles and more. Also, I'm working with several coaches in my life who are helping me see the things that I can't see by myself, so I continue to grow and become the next best version of myself, even as my world is pretty stormy. 

Consider the possibility! There are tools and ways to move forward and understand the deeper core issues that are driving you. Through coaching, there's a way to resolve them. Even the things that seem like they're not going to change, will change. 

As we grow, the world changes around us and people around us change. Say it the way you want it. Step into your next best self right now and you will discover as I have, everything is possible, even in the most challenging times of our lives. Our life becomes the richest story of all.

Questions and Journal Prompts to Consider:

• Are you in a crisis, just come out of one or about to go into one?
• What are your strategies, patterns and ways of coping?
• Are your current strategies, patterns and coping working or not working?
• What is fueling your creativity?
• Write a description of your next best future version of yourself.

Check out the link below and join us for a free workshop:

“Empower Your Unconscious Mind: Get What You *Really* Want Now”   
https://linktr.ee/HollyLasky

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About Holly

Holly is an Internationally Certified Master Coach, Professional Musician, Writer, International Speaker, Encourager & Founder of Aligned Optimum Vitality Coaching. Holly coaches Executives, Entrepreneurs, Coaches, High Performers & Creatives in eliminating blocks and trauma in the areas of life they most need & then create  intuitive, congruent goals. Holly helps her Clients achieve repeatable, optimum results without rah-rah motivational & accountability coaching, toxic positivity, unnecessary & unproductive busywork & years of therapy. 

You didn’t come this far to only come this far!

Click this link to learn more and to connect: https://linktr.ee/HollyLasky

Let’s chat and get clarity on what’s blocking you. Interested in one-on-one coaching or our new group coaching program? Click the link above to reserve time on my calendar.

Images from Pixabay