Creativity: One of the Best Elixir's to Life's Stressors

“...the only way to stay creative is to keep moving forward.” ~Dr. Travis Bradberry

 

Whether you think of yourself as a creative person or not, creativity is what fuels any kind of change in our life. This year my creativity has taken on a completely different form--motherhood. It’s active, it’s in-your-face, it’s singing many times everyday, it’s dancing to entertain my baby, it’s creatively getting things done while keeping my baby happy. Over the past 7+ years though, I developed a creative self-care plan for myself which involved collaging, reflection writing on a regular basis, dance, nature photography, teaching workshops--pretty much anything creative is considered self-care for me. 

Since becoming a mom though, I’ve rethought self-care (read my blog from January for instance) but I find myself missing the regular writing that I used to do. I also miss teaching. I taught 2 workshops at the end of this past December and beginning of January and had another scheduled in February but had to cancel it due to snowy weather and low enrollment. Since then, I decided to focus on building up my life coaching business online. This involves some writing, like my daily posts with a different weekly wellness theme. But I crave typing away when I get an inspiration and also recording my favorite memories. 

I have been writing down all of our baby’s first things on a notepad on my smartphone, but there’s something about hearing the clicking away of the keys on the keyboard when I type at a computer that I miss. I started using my 15 minute breaks at work to write about 6 years ago and have a lot of content saved from over the years now. I’ve always wanted to convert what I wrote into a memoir or novel someday. 

Now as my biggest dream has come to fruition to be a momma, I want to be recording all my feelings & emotions but I’m not. Of course being a mom is a constant juggling act and there sometimes isn’t time to even use the restroom, let alone write about my feelings and lessons, but I want to take more time to write. I came across an interesting quote about writer’s block that may also explain my lack of writing these past months:

“Writer’s block is having too much time on your hands.” ~Jodi Picoult

When I’m in the flow creatively, I’m constantly writing. So despite living my dream of being a mom, I feel like I’m missing an important piece without writing about it. And goodness knows, I need my creative well fully filled as a mom. It’s part of my self-care regime, it helps me find creative solutions to everyday tasks as a juggling momma, and expressing my creativity fills me up emotionally too. I think it’s right up there with mindfulness as one of the all-time best elixir’s for life’s stressors. 

Do you have a favorite elixir you use when feeling stressed or juggling many things?

If you’d like support in living a more creative life or in reaching your wellness goals, I’m here for you. You can learn more about my life coaching and creative wellness services here.

Remembering Gratitude, Courage and Vulnerability

"We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known, and when we honor the spiritual connection that grows from that offering with trust, respect, kindness and affection."  ~Brene Brown

It's hard to believe sometimes but in a little less than a month, it will have been two years since my surgery. Sometimes it feels like much longer ago than that. Other times, I feel like it could have happened just last week when the traumatic memories of agony and pain come flooding back all the sudden. Thankfully this doesn't happen very often anymore. But I have discovered how very sensitive I am to memories. And I think this led me to a recent epiphany. What if instead of remembering automatically all the difficult, painful, and sad feelings I experienced during that time in my life, I choose to remember and retrain myself to focus on the feelings of elation that I felt right after I woke up from surgery. When I think back of the euphoria I felt in that moment, how relieved and incredibly grateful I was right after I awoke from surgery, after I asked if the surgery had been successful, if the doctors had been able to move my left renal vein away from my aorta, which had been compressing my renal vein to the point of extreme pain and a network of internal varicose veins above my left ovary, and that my vein had not collapsed, gracias a Dios, my heart grows and I remember all the outpouring of love and support I received from family and friends and the amazing dedication and unconditional love and honor that my mother and my husband gave me before, during and after my surgery and long road to recovery. 

This is essential in reframing our past. In not being afraid to "go there" when remembering of a particular time in our life. I don't want to be afraid to think about the time when I fought the Nutcracker Syndrome and won! I want to feel proud! And grateful! I don't want to feel bitter and angry about all the time and energy I lost as a result of the surgical infection I got. I want to remember what an awesome job the doctors did do of transporting my delicate vein to a safer location inside me, so that now nearly 2 years later, I can do pretty much whatever my heart desires. I am no longer held back by physical limitations or pain. Only by the fear of remembering. Only by my own self-doubt. Only by the lack of practice. But those are things I can control. I can reframe what I remember of this period in my life. I can gain confidence when I remember how much courage and strength I showed during that time. And I can get back out there and start moving more again, getting back into the habit of exercising and practicing whatever my heart desires. Little by little. Like I've been doing with my writing this year.

So my nugget that I take away from this epiphany is that if I find myself going back in time and remembering something--whether it be a wonderful memory or a painful one--I must challenge myself to look around in there for just one moment when I felt grateful or loved or joy, and remember that moment above all others. I did not feel a lot of joy during my recovery. I did not have a lot of fun, even though my dear mom would take me to beautiful, lovely places to cheer me up. (I love you, Mom! You are my hero!) I did not always remember how incredibly grateful I was for having a successful surgery, because I was under so much distress from a painful recovery. But now that I have been fully recovered for 1 year and 7 months (because it took me 4 full months to heal the wound left from the infection, aka. Sparkle) and I can look back on all this from a distance, I choose to realize and own my own strength, courage, gratitude, faith, love, and tenacity. 

I sometimes foresee the wisdom and goodness I will gain from a challenge before I actually go through a difficult time. Kind of like seeing yourself at the finish line before you have even started training to run the marathon. And this has helped me move through challenging times with the comfort and faith that I will grow into myself more deeply, practice vulnerability and open my heart up to receive all the love that comes to me, and be able to touch more lives in the end.

Thank you for reading my words. I would love to hear your stories of courage. Share below or on my Facebook page or email me at maritakane@gmail.com.