Inspired

Nonconformity is uber creative

Being unique, bucking the trends, and thinking outside the box are constitutional for this  fresh-thinking guy: Chris Guillebeau finds ways to travel first-class - cheaply - while working from his laptop. In the middle of a recession. While promoting the idea that people quit their jobs in favor of enjoying life more fully.

Packed with down-to-earth honesty, unconventional wisdom, and exciting visionary thinking, there is something for every creative, artistic soul on this site.

His approach to life and work is refreshingly unconventional indeed.

new link to inspired creativity

Thanks "Orna Ross" for linking to my list of recommended movies!
Check out her site for more ideas on stimulating creativity.
Kindred spirits connect.....

Favorite movies to inspire creativity

Before Night Falls, The Red Violin, Amadeus, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Whale Rider, Like Water for Chocolate, The Sea Inside, and anything by Jim Jarmusch. These movies have inspired me because of their portrayal of the creative life or simply for their breathtaking beauty.

Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers

Malcolm Gladwell is one of my fave authors. He writes about things that make you think about the way you think - I just love how that stimulates creativity.

new work in progress

This painting started with random stitching onto the canvas before it was wrapped over a wooden stretcher frame. Then, as has been my most recent practice, I stand back and wait for the "chaos" inherent in the stitching to inform the shapes taking place.

I enjoy the background dance of randomness that metaphorically exists in both the macrocosm of life as well as the internal landscape. In this case I had an idea about two people bringing their energies and intention together to create a presence.

The colors in this work are related to the second and third chakras. The second chakra is associated with sexuality, creative expression, and personal power. The third chakra is associated with balance and letting go, physical identity, and self confidence.

Stress and Creativity: from bummed-out to bliss

I've often described the moment of getting lost in the creative process as one of the most healing kinds of activities. It is healing in the sense that modern ailments largely originate from our overwhelming levels of stress.

Stress can be a positive force, inspiring us to take action, to make changes, to let go and move forward. Unfortunately, many of us instead try to dissociate and avoid the pain of change with drugs, alcohol, food, and shopping. All of these activities are strongly condoned in our "culture of excess," but I'd like to suggest another way to deal with pain and confusion, overwhelm and negativity.

First, tidy up your home, office, bedroom. (Yes, mom was right...) A dirty, chaotic environment drains your energy and focus. If you don't have time do do all of it, clean and organize the room you spend the most time in.

Second, hit the off button and back away from the computer. Take out your musical instrument, art supplies, CDs, sewing machine, costumes, etc and spread out your stuff.

Put on some favorite music. Get up and move to it for at least 20 minutes to warm up your engine. Pretend you are on stage if that feels good - nobody's watching.

Now go over to your costumes/ art supplies /instrument/ writing journal. Give yourself permission to make "bad art" for the next one to three hours. If it sounds right, focus on your conflicted relationship, situation, or health issue and set an intention to "make a discovery."

Let feelings come up and inform your creative expression. Get it out in the open.
Then let me know what kind of magic you find...

Uniqueness as a definition of health

In Homeopathy, a person's uniqueness is everything.

Compared with conventional medicine in which uniqueness is completely ignored, Homeopathy is all about how you are different from everyone else. You know in an MD's office, a diabetic will get insulin, anyone with depression will get Effexor or Prozac or Wellbutrin, and every woman with a hormonal complaint will be given birth control pills. You are treated as a statistic that should fit into a chart. In this same way, bad reactions to drugs are considered anomalies that don't fit into the bell graph.

In the paradigm of Homeopathy, you are considered to be an original, one-of-a-kind-person that comes with your own set of symptoms, strengths, and weaknesses. Not only that, but the particular way in which you express a symptom (i.e. headache, menstrual cramps, chest pain) is also reflected in the "totality" of your mental and emotional way of being in the world. We could say that symptoms are a strategy for expressing ourselves. A good homeopath sees how everything about you resonates with a specific pattern (or color, or sound, if you want to get metaphorical.)

We could call the conscious part of you, your personality. The unconscious parts of you are attitudes and beliefs that motivate your behaviors and choices, big and small. All of us at one time or another, usually before the age of 5, decided who we are and what's possible for us, and we have been living our lives as if we are that. It's often the unconscious that runs the show called "life," where we are the stars of our own daytime soaps. This is the how a Homeopath diagnoses where your uniqueness has gotten "stuck" on one level or another - i.e. how you're not getting to fully "be" you.

I believe we are all here on this planet to learn how to express our uniqueness at the highest level, and that Homeopathic treatment is key to unlocking our own personal evolution. Relationships, family dynamics, work, and health status are all impacted by how we choose to either be ourselves, or not. Everything we attract into our lives is another piece of the puzzle to nudge us into unfolding, blossoming, manifesting, and expressing. The events and people that surround us are in some way resonating with who we are, who we want to be, or even who our parents wanted us to be. Since we can only evolve as much as we are fully expressed, the more evolved we are individually, the more the whole world becomes more perfectly expressed. When we are fully expressed we experience freedom, satisfaction, and joy - we are fully alive.

Deida: In the Spirit of Love

.....I will quote David Dieda from his newest book, "Instant Enlightement: Fast, Deep, and Sexy."

Praise
"Imagine praising the next person you see. Praise him or her as fully as possible, so you are embarrassed that you are so praiseful. What praise would you give? Picture someone you know - anyone - and feel what is the most magnanimous praise you can offer them.

Remember your mother and father as you offer this praise. Imagine doing so now. How do you feel?

You have probably chosen a career and sought an intimate partner in reaction to the praise you never got from your parents. Take time to remember what you didn't get from (them), and look at what you seek through your career and intimate relationship.

What do you wish your parents had told you more? Really feel into your childhood. Feel, as a child, what your parents said or didn't say to you. What do you wish your parents had given you more of? What do you wish your parents had said to you?

To the next person you see, silently give the praise you didn't get enough of from your parents but wish you had. Give this praise silently to everyone you see for the next three days. In your imagination, give this praise silently to your parents, right now. How does it feel to offer the praise you never got, but wished you had?

Holding back praise limits all the love you are willing to give - through speech, sex, and touch. It also restrains the love you could offer through your life's work. Give the praise that you wish your parents had given you more of. Give it silently to everyone, and give it out loud to your lover, whether you feel they deserve it or not. Find out what happens when you do. Discover the full offering you were born to give, as a gift, to everyone."

Happy Love Day everyone. May your heart be opened more deeply.

Fecundity

a. the intellectual productivity of a creative imagination
b. fertility: the state of being fertile; capable of producing offspring
c. fruitfulness: the quality of something that causes or assists healthy growth

Why socialized medicine? Sicko says it all.

Like in his other movies, Michael Moore makes you laugh, cry, cringe, and growl in his healthcare documentary. And as usual, many comparisons are made between Canada and the U.S. Geez, they have free healthcare, live longer lives, AND they don't have guns. How DO they do it??? Here are some facts I borrowed from his website:

(Those Canadians are so radical ~ I'm always impressed by my colleagues in B.C. who tell me Naturopathic and Homeopathic medicine are household terms, rather than mysterious symbols of "unscientific experimentation.")

Canada spends only $3,165 per capita on health care, compared to over $7,000 per capita in the United States.
Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services

The life expectancy in Canada is three years longer than in the United States.
Source: World Health Organization

The infant mortality rate in Canada is 5.0 per thousand, compared with 7.0 per thousand in the United States.
Source: World Health Organization

24 percent of Americans did not seek medical care because of cost, compared to 5 percent in Canada.
Source: 'Inequities In Health Care: A Five-Country Survey,' Health Affairs.

There are nearly 50 million Americans without health insurance, compared with none in Canada.
Source: Centers for Disease Control

The median waiting time in Canada is only three weeks for diagnostic tests and only four weeks for specialist visits and non-emergency surgery.
Source: Statistics Canada

70 to 80 percent of Canadians feel their wait times are acceptable.
Source: Statistics Canada