Creativity Unleashed

Posted on January 5, 2012April 16, 2014 by Sandi Amorim 24 Conversations

Today’s spotlight shines on a very special person. She’s someone I connected with about a year ago, but it’s only in the past couple of months that we really clicked, and I’m so glad we did because she is magical. She is Cigdem Kobu and she’s just launched an extraordinary project called A Year with Myself.

You may remember her from the month of self-care; her contribution The First 66 Days of Taking Better Care of Yourself was not only a very popular piece but she generously shared a free workbook to help you on this path.

My first conversation with C.A. left me inspired, energized and buzzing with ideas. She calls herself a creative alchemist and project midwife, and that was certainly my experience of her. She’s also an idea generator!

But she’s so much more. She’s one of the most generous people I’ve met; sharing her gifts with others, showing up as a resource and bringing people together in ways that instantly work. Could be that alchemy she speaks of!

Can you tell? I’ve got a serious friend crush on this woman!

She is up to some extraordinary things and I’m delighted to have her here in the spotlight.

Enjoy!

1. Why are you here?

I’m here to serve my kind. That means serving courageous and wild women who want to grow, create and change their world. These are women who have entrepreneurial spirits. They are venturesome and fertile in heart and in mind.

I want to hold their hands and make it easy to rediscover their wholeness and their powers, to reconnect with themselves, and to translate their authentic gifts into fulfilling and change-making feats.

I want to wake them up and help them flourish.

{Note from me: You can see why I’m crushing over here, can’t you?}

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The Death of Someday

Posted on December 28, 2011October 23, 2012 by Sandi Amorim 37 Conversations

Day 28 – Vocabulary

If you could eliminate one word from your brain forever—what would it be?

If you’ve read anything I’ve written the past year or even just my online bio, you’ll know that the word I’d eliminate is someday.

some·day

– at some unspecified time in the (distant) future

How I detest that word.

It lets you off the hook, not responsible for your life and makes me cringe with distaste. It calls to mind a funeral I attended a few years ago.

I saw people cry, full of regrets for what might have been with the deceased. I heard people make promises of how it would be different, maybe not right then and there, but someday.

Those promises? Soon forgotten.

I’m not immune to someday.

Everyone falls prey to it sometimes and I’ve had my periods of inaction and stuckness. I’ve also kicked my someday thinking to the curb on many occasions:

Someday I’ll be more athletic. ==> I ran a half marathon at 34, one year after knee surgery.
Someday I’ll figure out what I want to be when I grow up. ==>I found my calling as a coach at 37, and a new calling as a writer at 47.
Someday I’ll write a book, even though I’m still not sure of the topic. ==> 2012 is the year this will happen.

Someday is a dream killer.

It will kill your dreams in a heartbeat if you let it. These 3 tips can help you avoid that regretful outcome!

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Threads of Creativity

Posted on December 24, 2011April 16, 2014 by Sandi Amorim 7 Conversations

Day 24 – Creativity

If you think of your life as a tapestry, what are the threads that have been with you as long as you can remember?

My primary thread has been creativity. The colour of the thread nay have changed over the years as I moved from painting and printmaking to photography and now writing, but the thread has been consistent.

It’s how I express myself, and what feels most natural to me.

elderly Hispanic woman creating ceramics at Jackalope, New Mexico

Like this woman I came upon at a market in Santa Fe last year, I’m positive I will still be expressing my creativity as I get older. It’s part of who I am.

But how about you?

Do you own and acknowledge your creative gifts?

Or do you believe you are not creative?

Maybe you were told as a child that you were no good at drawing, writing, painting. . .fill in the blank.

It’s sad when that happens, when an adult says something that damages a child’s belief in themselves.

What if that adult was wrong?

cre·a·tiv·i·ty

– characterized by originality of thought; having or showing imagination: a creative mind

We are all creative in some way and just because you can’t draw a stick figure to save your life doesn’t make you less so.

Picasso said, “The chief enemy of creativity is good sense.”

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The Search Is Over

Posted on December 20, 2011April 16, 2014 by Sandi Amorim 12 Conversations

Druids, seers, wizards, sorcerers, psychics, fortune tellers and gypsies.

I am none of those but I have a crystal ball.

Come closer and look within.

See a you that is whole and complete.

Unfettered. Untainted. Pure.

No thoughts, no stories,

A perfect blank slate.

You were born this way.

Remember?

“Stop searching here and there, the Jewels are inside you.” – Rumi

Maybe not.

Life causes you…

To forget.

To shrink.

To hide your light.

But that you, is still there.

Patient, waiting.

It knows…

You already know how to shine.

Wake up.

The search is over.

Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should

Posted on December 17, 2011October 23, 2012 by Sandi Amorim 20 Conversations

Day 17 – Saying No

“Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.” – Dr. Lissa Rankin

You’re so good at. . .

You should be a. . .

No one else can do it like you. . .

We need you to do it. . .

Nothing new here, you’ve heard it all before.

You have things you can do, things you’re good at, maybe even things you’re better at than anyone else. But unless you feel good about doing them it’s time to start saying NO.

True story:

Before I became a coach, I did many different jobs and I was good at pretty much anything I tried.

There was the year I worked for a publishing representative. I love reading and writing and I had a lifelong love affair with books. What more could I ask for? Nope, not for me.

Then there was the year I did research and development for a post-secondary institution. Loved the challenge of finding the right material, enjoyed supporting the instructors in creating their courses and was pretty brilliant at it, if I do say so myself. But did it light me up and make my soul sing? Nope, not a peep.

Two years of freelance photography and being my own boss. . .this was it, right? Nope, not even this, although it came closer than anything else I’d tried.

Each time I was lured by the challenge, seduced by the feedback that I was doing a great job and lulled by security.

But here’s the thing I knew in my gut and ignored. . .

None of that work came close to touching my soul or using my own particular genius.

I was just good at it.

Being good at something truly doesn’t mean you should be doing it.

“Lean in. Listen up. Closely.
It’s your soul speaking and she says,
Get UP! I need you. I want you. I am you. Choose me.
Lean in. Listen up. Closely.” – Danielle LaPorte

Are you willing to listen that closely?

Right here, right now, listen up.

L I S T E N.

Your soul’s been speaking for a very long time. It might sound like a whisper, butterflies stirring, or a long slow breath.

Take a good, long look in the mirror.

Is that the expression of someone who is lit up and inspired by life?

If your answer is yes, celebrate! It takes courage to shine that brightly.

If your answer is no, consider it’s time to start saying no so that you can say YES to the genius burning inside you.

You are ready.

Over to you:

In 2012. . .

What’s on your “stop doing just because you’re good at it” list?
What’s on your “hell yeah, that sets my soul on fire” list?

You owe it to your genius to find out.

#reverb11 is a prompt driven writing project during the month of December. Its purpose is to inspire reflection and create intention for the coming year.

Ramblings of an Overactive Mind

Posted on December 16, 2011October 23, 2012 by Sandi Amorim 14 Conversations

At the start of the month I was introduced to Reverb, a month-long writing challenge. Like other online challenges I’ve done it’s introduced me to a new community, and as in any group, individuals stand out.

Jason Benoit stood out like a sore thumb.

His blog, Love Letters & Suicide Notes, is a foreign land, a land in which you might lose yourself in words or perhaps fall into a darkness which could scare you off, never to return. It’s this tension that makes his writing powerful.

I read a lot, and skim even more, so to catch my attention and leave me on the edge of my seat not wanting a story to end is quite a feat. There are probably hundreds of Reverb posts being published each day; his is one of the few I look for.

It’s that compelling. And, it’s not for the faint of heart. It challenged me to stay with it, to keep reading, and I’ve gotta tell you it is not easy reading.

It is however, extraordinary reading because he masterfully shines the light on our darker emotions, the ones we most try to hide.

Jason writes about the humanity of living; the good, the bad and the often ugly, and I appreciate that. It’s easy to put on a happy face, smile big, and make it look like you’ve got life handled. What’s not easy is baring your soul, and yet he does.

So beautifully.

His writing reaches out and invites you in, even when he’s writing about a traumatic event from his past.

And when he writes about beauty, connection, intimacy – the emotions we all want more of – it is heart-breakingly beautiful.

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A Lesson In Breathing

Posted on December 14, 2011October 15, 2012 by Sandi Amorim 17 Conversations

A Lesson In Breathing

breathe in, breathe out,

just one moment

hand on heart,

and breathe.

notice,

shallow, deep,

taken for granted.

lengthen, deepen,

breathe.

inhale, exhale,

thinking unneeded.

this moment,

not another,

here, now,

just breathe.

Day 14 – Breathe

#reverb11 is a prompt driven writing project during the month of December. Its purpose is to inspire reflection and create intention for the coming year.

The Darkness of Fear

Posted on December 13, 2011October 16, 2012 by Sandi Amorim 15 Conversations

Fear.

It bubbles up uninvited in the middle of the night like slow-moving lava, so hot it burns through everything in its path.

Burning, it makes room for a host of dark allies: doubt, cynicism, resignation.

You can’t breathe, your heart beats faster and your mind? It’s way ahead, having conjured up some grisly outcome worthy of Masterpiece Theatre.

Oh wait. . .

That was me in the middle of the night imagining various worst case scenarios of a health challenge that arose this year!

And I am (like you) so very good at worst case scenarios, thanks to my old friend the lizard brain.

Back to fear. . .

Fear has a tendency to stop you.

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Wish I May, Wish I Might

Posted on December 12, 2011October 23, 2012 by Sandi Amorim 14 Conversations

Day 12 – Future Self

Write a letter to your future self, telling the future you what you hope for you.

Dearest,

I have such hopes for you and I; hopes that I’ve begun to speak aloud.

Seems I’ve spent so much of my life listening to others’ hopes and dreams, they’ve displaced my own. Reminds me of a time someone said, “If you treated your friends the way you treat yourself, you’d have no friends.” That’s a tough one to admit.

But this is an opportunity to be honest and tell you what I wish for.

I dream of a slower paced life; one that gives me time for more of what I love – writing, travelling, connecting. I imagine you sitting at an outdoor table somewhere warm, writing about your travels and adventures. Writing about people and their stories; writing about your own.

I hope for a new level of health and well-being. I so want you to feel good 20 years from now. I know I’m going to have to work hard to fulfill this intention, but I’ve got good people supporting me and I’m trusting that all will be well. When I close my eyes I can see you dancing.

I wish for a more intimate experience of life; not just in relationships but with places and cultures, with you. The practices I’ve begun will serve you well: meditating, honouring silence, writing. They will allow this intimacy to deepen.

I dream of making a difference in a new way, of waking people up. Perhaps in a way I’ve yet to discover but I instinctively know you’ll revel in.

I dream of looking back and remembering this time with gratitude and appreciation.

Who you are for others is anything is possible. It’s time to be that for your Self.

xoS

“Now is the only time. How we relate to it creates the future. In other words, if we’re going to be more cheerful in the future, it’s because of our aspiration and exertion to be cheerful in the present. What we do accumulates; the future is the result of what we do right now.” – Pema Chödrön

Over to you:

What would you say to your future self?

This exercise might surprise you.

#reverb11 is a prompt driven writing project during the month of December. Its purpose is to inspire reflection and create intention for the coming year.

Quoting Yoda, Trashing Goals & Declaring Intentions

Posted on December 11, 2011October 23, 2012 by Sandi Amorim 22 Conversations

The prompt for today was actually the word try, but like Yoda I believe,

“Do or do not. There is no try.”

So I’ve replaced it with the word intend.

intend: to have in mind as something to be done or brought about

Compare it with another word you’re probably more familiar with.

goal: the result or achievement toward which effort is directed

I know which appeals to me more, especially after reading 100 Days with No Goals by Joshua Fields Millburn.

Like many, I used to be very goals oriented. I created all kinds of goal tracking worksheets and action plans and produced some great results. I was perhaps a bit driven.

I’m done with that, have been for a long time and wince when I find myself seduced by the lure of goals.

And then I remind myself of the power of intention. . .

“to have in mind as something to be done or brought about.”

My insides relax, my heartbeat slows down and I feel a spaciousness that chasing goals never once produced.

In my reading about goals and intentions I came across the Hawaiian concept of Ho’ohana and I felt a strong connection.

Ho’ohana is about making your living in a world that provides direction and intention while leaving you much more fulfilled than the familiar, goal-obsessed path.

Intentions or Goals?

I know which I’m choosing.

So, back to the prompt and the creation of 2012.