Cultivating Creativity

This week I thought I would mention an idea that has come about from this year’s Spring Retreat.

We were blessed to have Kelly Fox on retreat this year who very kindly agreed to come along and not only nourish us with beautiful food but also share a session on creative writing. I like to include a creative session on my retreats as we are all born with creativity within us but often as we get older it isn’t expressed or we lose the ability to express ourselves creatively in the belief that we are not able or that it wouldn’t be good enough.  “I can’t draw” or “I can’t write” are common excuses for not engaging.

Kelly’s session was on”Ekphrasis”, which is about harnessing the power of images put into words. We had a selection of the free postcards that you often find in local cafes and Kelly demonstrated how to look at an image and start to express what you see using all your senses. So you look at the card and jot down how it makes you feel, what you see, what you might hear, smell, taste and so on. Put these words onto a piece of paper and let your pen start writing with no expectations at all. It is a great way to start expressing that suits any level of writing experience you may or may not have. It is also a great practice to lead into journal writing, letting anything at all roll out onto the page.

As a result of that session we are about to start a project that you may like to join us for. We are challenging ourselves to write once a week about the photo of the week and the photo will be taken by one of the participants of the group. We will all take a turn at sharing a photo via our mobile phones then have a week to pen our response. We will all be writing about the same photo each week and I am excited to see the individual expressions that will emerge as we share via an email group.

If this is something you might like to join us in please email me with your intention and I will include you in the challenge which we are hoping to start within the next ten days.

We all have an innate artist within us that is really just waiting for the opportunity to express so come on, give this a go and join us for some fun and free expression as we create a space to share that is safe, non-judgemental, caring and compassionate.

Namaste from my inner artist who is excited about this creative project. I leave you with this quote to contemplate your participation.

“Creativity comes from looking for the unexpected and stepping outside your own experience.” Masaru Ibuka

Sarah