May: Creativity Month

It’s a new month in Cultivate Club!

This month we’re examining our relationship with Creativity. 
Look for the ✔️ which notes action items to take for the New Month!

“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with objects it loves.”
― Carl Jung

"Whatever pain you can't get rid of, whatever joy you can't contain: make it your creative offering.”
― Thomas Schaller

Celebrate!

This step is critical.

✔️ Take the time to celebrate the past month and record your wins and lessons learned.

✔️ Scroll back through your photo gallery. Do you have a photo from your Solo Date? Or Self-Care Experiment? Or perhaps a photo from a moment that represents a shift you’re seeing?
(Now’s also great time to delete any random screenshots or duplicate photos to keep your photo stream managable!)

Contemplate.

✔️ Download a fresh Monthly Planning Worksheet and start planning the month ahead with a focus on this month's theme: Creativity.

When considering your relationship with your Creativity, what do you need to clear? What do you want to cultivate?

Here are some ideas:

>>There’s a lot of inspiration from Julia Cameron, because Cultivate Club was born through The Artist’s Way process! It’s in our DNA.<<

• Cultivation Mantras

  • “I do good work and share it with people.”
    (Inspired by Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist)

  • “I am an open channel of creative energy.”
    (Shakti Gawain, Creative Visualization)

  • “My creative offering is a labor of love.”
    (Inspired by Anne Lamott’s sentiment in Bird by Bird, “You can make the work a chore or you can have a good time.”)

• Boundary Mantras

  • “I will not judge my early artistic efforts against the masterworks of other artists.”
    (Inspired by Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way)

  • “I will not succumb to Resistance.”
    (In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield says, “Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. … If you take Resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.”)

  • “Please help me get out of the way so I can write what wants to be written.”
    (Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird)

  • “What people think about me is none of my business.” 
    (Inspired by Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird)

• Decluttering Categories

  • Join us in a week-long Media Deprivation Challenge May 8-14, inspired by Julia Cameron’s reading deprivation prescription. 

  • Artwork & Decor Items.
    What you surround yourself with matters.
    (Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist)

  • Utility Items / Creativity Tools.
    Consider setting up two separate work stations: an analog desk with paper, Post-It Note, markers, index cards, and a digital desk with a computer. Use the analog desk to do your creative work.
    (Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist)

  • Embrace the idea of “killing your darlings” – remove the ‘good but not best’ stuff to serve the greater whole.
    (“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.” – Stephen King, On Writing)

• Solo Dates

  • Make your Solo Date an Artist Date this month. The main differences are that you must go solo and the purpose is to fill your creative well. Explore new experiences and new inputs instead of retreating to known comforts. 

  • Some inspiration/ideas: take and art or cooking class, attend/perform at an open mic night, take an improv class, see live music, go dancing, make a nature mandala. 

  • Follow your own curiosity.

• Self-Care Experiments

  • Try Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages practice to clear your mind. 

  • Make a Sit Spot journal to hone your observational skills.
    (“There is ecstasy in paying attention” – Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird)

  • Start a daily writing practice with 100 Words.
    (David Kadavy, Author of the Heart to Start)

  • Cultivate a creative ritual.
    (“Rituals are a good signal to your unconscious that it is time to kick in.” – Ann Lamott, Bird by Bird)

Connect.

In Cultivate Club, our small groups meet every other week as a primary point of connection for our members while they are on their journey, but you can also build your own community for connection!

What does that look like for you? Perhaps a coffee date or a zoom call after the kids’ bedtime with a long-time friend. Or maybe it’s couple people in your living room once per month for “real talk, real sharing”.

Enrollment in Cultivate Club opens once per year in October.
You’re always welcome to request a Guest Pass for one of our monthly Guest Experts, viewable on our events page!

💜 Wishing you continued cultivation this Creativity Month.