Spotlights & Insights, Vol. 3 – November 2017
The leaves are off the trees, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and the holiday season is upon us – even if the weather this week in southern Ontario was 15C!
November has been a busy month of finding inspiration, searching out new ideas and stoking the creative fires. I’ve collected some amazing resources to help you keep your creative spark burning brightly in the winter months to come.
And if you’re feeling the holiday jitters already starting to creep in – don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. Find out more in my Updates & News section.
Let’s dive in! ????
My November “Aha!” – Shake It Up!
Whether you’re an artist, athlete, teacher, speaker or entrepreneur creativity is essential to your success.
Your ability to see things differently and to experiment with things that have never been done before is what makes you good at what you do.
And keeping your creative spark alive and burning is an important part of your well-being as a performer.
After all, it’s your creativity that inspires you to change up the play that leads your team to victory. It’s your creativity that finds the magic words that open the minds of your employees or investors. And it’s your creativity that designs the perfect moment – where the lighting, costumes and actors all come together – to leave your audience breathless.
But what do you do if you feel your creative spark has gone out? How do you reignite the flame and get things sizzling again?
With all the clutter and chaos in the world right now, it can be hard to feel inspired. Moreover, it can be difficult to tune out the noise of the world and to tune into your own mind and ideas. I know this has been a struggle for me this past month, so I’ve been on a quest to track down tips, tricks and tools to help me through it.
I’ve turned to some of my own tried and true practices (hint: get up and move!) and I’ve also found some awesome new ones that have really helped get my creative juices flowing again. Be sure to check out the links below to find them!
But through all this, the biggest things that has come to me is that the arch enemy of creativity is complacency. It’s sitting back, becoming overly comfortable in our routines and then expecting our creativity to show up out of nowhere when we need it.
Creativity fosters creativity. We have to feed our creative spirit in order to keep it thriving.
So it’s important to shake things up once in a while. Surround yourself with new places, people or things and let yourself absorb this newness. Move your body, talk to new people, or try something new and see how your mind and heart respond.
Sometimes even the smallest change can be the key to unlocking new ideas and opportunities – in my case, sometimes that’s even just a quick trip around the block.
So go on, shake it up! I’m excited to see where your creativity takes you!
Much Love,
Mairin
Updates & News!
December always proves to be a busy month – from the scramble to wrap up work for the year, setting goals for the new one, parties, seeing family & friends, and getting ready for the holidays.
To help you through all this busy-ness, I am pulling together all my best resources from past blog posts and creating a Holiday Wellness Guide – top tools and exercises to help you prep and recover from all the “performances” you’ll be doing over the holiday season.
Keep your eyes on the blog for this post, coming to you in the next few weeks!
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As for me, I’m diving into the busy-ness of December head first with a workshop for 100 Peel District high school students on stress reduction and wellness on December 1st, 2017!
I’m so excited to hang out and work with this group of teens. And big props to their school for taking the health and wellness of their students seriously!
(Follow me on Facebook and Instagram – I’ll try to post some pics!)
Read, Watch or Listen
Feeling Stuck – Walk It Off!
On the blog earlier this month! My tried and true method for getting past creative blocks – with a guided meditation recording to help you through it.
https://www.fivewinds.ca/2017/11/10/feeling-stuck-walk-it-off/
7 Things You Can Do to Reignite Your Creative Spark
As I’ve mentioned on Facebook, I am generally skeptical of these “list” type articles – but I found some genuinely great ideas in this one, some that I’m even using myself.
https://medium.com/the-mission/7-things-you-can-do-to-reignite-your-creative-spark-70e3a0d4ba59
How Failure Builds Success
I loved this radio call-in! So worth a listen. Hear some amazing and candid stories about how people’s failures have been the keys to their biggest successes.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/programs/ontariotoday/olympian-erica-weibe-and-how-failure-builds-success-1.4375423
A Little Bit More…
50 Ways to Take Care of Yourself in the Arts
Total props to this Aussie arts hub for putting together this list! Great suggestions here not just for performing, but for all parts of life.
http://performing.artshub.com.au/news-article/features/performing-arts/madeleine-dore/50-ways-to-take-care-of-yourself-in-the-arts-249726
Neuroscientists Have Identified How Exactly a Deep Breath Changes Your Mind
Seriously folks! There’s a reason us coaches, trainers and teachers keep talking about deep breathing. It works!
https://quartzy.qz.com/1132986/neuroscientists-have-indenitfied-how-exactly-a-deep-breath-changes-your-mind/
8 Proven Performance Practices from Billionaires and Elite Athletes
Another “list” type article, but I was sold on this one by the credibility of the author (who I very much like). Some interesting ideas here. Definitely thought provoking and conversation starting.
https://medium.com/personal-growth/8-proven-performance-practices-from-billionaires-and-elite-athletes-80c0683a9dcf
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This blog is a part of my work with Five Winds. It’s a space where I share thoughts and insights on performing and wellness, and offer tips and ideas on how to stay balanced and healthy (body, mind, emotions and spirit) while living the life of a performer.
Find out more information about me here, or how to work with me here. To stay connected, subscribe to this blog in the sidebar or find me on Facebook or Instagram.