How To Sustain Creative Thinking In This Liminal Time
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From my journal 2019 Notre- Dame burning, April 15,2019 ©beth vendryes williams
When I recently heard the word" liminal" to describe this time of a fast-moving world pandemic, intersected by the tragic racially charged murder of George Floyd by a police officer, I felt sad and a little untethered. Converge this with national and then worldwide protests for justice for all, and Black Lives Matter I had to find the exact definition. How could one word encapsulate the whole experience of the past four months?
Here it is from the New Oxford American Dictionary:
“ lim·i·nal | ˈlimənl | adjective technical
1 relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process.
2 occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold”
Now the word "liminal" makes sense as to me. It describes how we may feel because we don't know how our lives will change. With many of our regular routines and comforts no longer a given, do you feel like these transitions are reshaping your life?
There is fear in that, but also an opening to new possibilities.
While in this portal of unknowing, taking time to reflect can help you to find your roots. . It can also help you to tap into your hidden strengths, ideas, and dreams!
Writing your reflections and thoughts down can develop your train of thought further. Creating images can articulate your inner voice from a visceral, visual perspective. Combining these two ways of communicating allows you to try out ways of creatively working with the past, the present, and new ideas and situations.
For this reason, I am a passionate advocate of journaling. Meditation helps me, as does living in the now moment!
moving, ,yoga, walking, dancing, riding horses, playing with pets
reading ,listening, sharing, giving, praying
speaking with friends, growing a garden
creating, art, weaving, knitting ,quilting,
looking at clouds, water, ,gardens
listening to music, making music
listening to birds, singing, babies laughing, rain,
writing, a book, or a letter.
Leaving room for the soul will allow you to listen to your inner voice.
So pick up the habit of journaling along with a few other practices that encourage reflection. In that way, you can begin to process the grief of loss and fear of change and transform it into a new way of working, living, and creating!
How have you navigated the dramatic changes in our current times and the understanding that what each person does, affects the whole world?.
Be well.
love,
beth
How journaling can help develop and sustain a creative habit
A bouquet from the YFCA spring gala watercolor & ink, 6.6.19
Hope is in the air! Now that spring is officially here. I sat myself down with a cup of tea and my daily journal.
For the past several days I have felt unable to put anything down in writing or drawing.
Has that ever happened to you? There is a world in us, and it is vital to open the windows. To take time to rest and wait.
Keeping a journal has had a massive effect on my life
…and surprisingly, It wasn’t until I stopped teaching art to paint full time, that I realized that my small daily efforts had produced tangible results.
My strategy was this: I would always keep a journal and a small zipped bag of my favorite portable drawing tools in my pocketbook. I carried this with me at all times. I wrote and drew what I saw and felt, whenever I had a moment.
I ended up counting over 130 journals documenting my life and my growing family. I recorded places, people and events.
Expressing my struggles and celebrations in words and images
helps me to reflect on life. My only expectation? To make a mark that articulates my vision and reactions to the world!
What a treasure this has turned out to be!
Now I need to adapt my journaling method to my life as it stands now. Read my next few posts as I explore alternative ways of approaching journaling now that the previous system isn’t working as effectively.
Do you keep a journal? If so how has it helped you?
Do you find that you forget to adapt your habits as your life changes?
Let me know in your comments below.
7 ways that journaling unlocks your heart to be creative
rushing through, time travel
As I journey through life, maintaining creative flexibility,
I have found that most of the time, things don’t go the way you think they will. So when I earned my masters in drawing/printmaking from the University of Iowa, I was ready to begin creating full time and selling my work! Of course life intervenes and, shortly after graduating, my husband and I were privileged to have three sons, each 2-3 years apart.
journaling can weave creativity into daily life.
I decided to use my creative impulse to transform my rather large pocket book and uneven segments of time into a portable studio. I just kept writing, drawing and collecting the morsels of everyday life.( Link to Journal post fro October 30, 2016.)
1. Reflecting on these journals has been an unexpected gift, revealing my life from a intimate perspective, giving me an opportunity for reflection. This gives a bird’s eye view of the current map of my life.
2. Memories come welling up in my heart, as I page through, nudging the past back into consciousness.
3. Details that I had forgotten are right there in my drawings and writing.
4. Drawings and poems about events and thoughts, that were forgotten in the midst of everyday activities are reclaimed.
5. There is affirmation of the joy and recognition of the sorrows of my life.
6. I have an Opportunity to make a future based on recovering where I have been.
7. Material is at my fingertips, for both writing and painting with historical and creative primary source materials: my own journals.
Now when I am working, and I want some inspiration, I include my personal journals among the literary and artistic inspirations available to me.
How to find the time?
This is how I did it. I made a minimal packet in a small zip lock bag with a refillable ink pen, a pencil, eraser and sharpener, a plastic water-brush and a Moleskine journal, with sturdy paper that could take take light watercolor washes. As my bag and time allowed I added watercolor crayons, regular crayons, oil pastels and a portable box of watercolors. For a long vacation when I knew there would be a lot of relaxed time, I added larger paper and brushes, along with a lightweight coated masonite board on which to fasten precut/ torn paper.
What do I do with journals when they are filled?
As each journal neared the end, I placed on a shelf, High up in my studio area. Last year when we were renovating our home, I Had to clear off my journal shelf of what i surmised, was 10 journals. Surprise, I had 130 journals. I had never counted them and barely had the time to review them through the years.
Like a garden, I have reaped a harvest that is constantly providing nourishment that is based on my life and the memories and images I have collected.
But it’s not the only way….
My gift to you is the story of how it happened. I would love to hear you own way of reflection on your life that has helped you to grow creatively, in whatever medium you work! Is your art, raising children, making healthy desserts, finding balance, managing money, training animals, making music, doing massage, teaching yoga, being a lawyer, keeping a beautiful home?
I am very excited to hear your story!