Try Something New
I hate the gym. Always have, and always will. For a while, I’ve been thinking about taking a dance class as an alternate cardio workout, but for whatever reason – latent fear, laziness – I haven’t pursued that instinct…until now.
Today I took a Zumba class at Peridance Capezio Center. (If you haven’t heard of Zumba, it’s a mix of Latin dance and aerobics… or, as the New York Times puts it, a “cardio-dance routine.”) I have no formal dance training, and I haven’t done an intense cardio workout….well, ever. So today’s class kicked my butt. But also: It was so much fun.
I looked ridiculous (more…)
Just So
I’ve always been sensitive to my environment. Strong sounds, sights and smells affect me more than your average bear. This can be a burden, as well as a gift — while it’s harder for me to tune out the smell of garbage or cigarette smoke in our apartment building’s hallway, the greenery of the park across the street fills me with joy, even though I see it every day.
Given this heightened sensitivity, you might think I like to keep my environment “just so.” In a sense, that’s true, but for me, “just so” means changing things with some frequency. (more…)
The Artist’s Way
“Life is a creative endeavor. It is active, not passive…When we experience our lives as flat and lackluster, it is our consciousness that is at fault. We hold the inner key that turns our lives from thankless to fruitful.” – Julia Cameron
In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron writes about two essential tools for creative living: (more…)
Trust Your Gut
“If I have learned anything in this lifetime,” a friend recently wrote to me, “it’s that I need to trust my gut.”
I couldn’t agree more – but oh, it can be terrifying. It can be so hard that it feels physically impossible. But the alternative – living life like you’re playing a role in someone else’s play – is so much worse. I’d rather the pain of the band-aid ripping than a constant, gnawing pain that won’t go away. (more…)
Getting Unstuck
Stuck in the mud
A friend of mine is feeling stuck – needing a push to do the thing she wants to do. I gave her some advice that I thought might be helpful for anyone needing help moving from dream to action:
- Surround yourself with people who support your dream, and you. (Some people energize us; others drain us. Pursue the former.)
- Do things that make you feel like your best, most powerful self. For me, this often = yoga.
- Turn the abstract into the concrete. Make a schedule of all the steps you need to follow to turn your dream into a reality, and commit to it.
- Write about your dream. Write down what scares you: why aren’t you taking action? Don’t censor your response – why try to keep information about you, from you? YOU will know that you aren’t getting the full story. Tell the truth. The sooner you can start admitting what you want to yourself, the sooner you can articulate it to others, and commit to doing what it takes to make it happen.
Then, of course, there are opportunities like the blogathon in which I’m participating – a structured challenge that takes the choice away from you, in part, and puts you on a track to just doing something, without deciding whether to do it.
What else do you do to get unstuck?
Photo above by David Schenfeld on Flickr
Related Reading:
- Be in the scene you want to be in
- Sage advice from Martha Graham (from my former blog, Creative DC)
- Creativity: daily practice, or fevered state? (Creative DC)
