365 Inspirations—295: A Room Of One's Own

My Writing Room

"Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again."—Joseph Campbell

My husband is closing up shop. The overhead at his current, beautiful yoga studio is too high. He's kept it for almost four years, but it's still expensive. He's led dozens of yoga retreats, outings, events and it will be sad to see it go. He will be officially leaving his space next Tuesday.

He has decided to continue teaching a limited number of yoga classes in our house. I look around at our small house and suddenly see it shrinking.

We have a beautiful open living and dining area that will accommodate yoga classes. Now that we've updated and remodeled our house, I know it will be perfect for a small group of students. We've had seven to eight students in our house at one time before my husband opened his own studio.

I find that now, more than ever, I need space to write. I'm very happy to announce that I'm working on my next book, a travel memoir. It's not the book I thought I'd be writing, but I think it's going to be good.

The room across from our bedroom will be my writing room. This will be my space to write, blog, and create and I think I'm going to really personalize it into the space I dream about. Right now it's a bit minimalistic, which I like, but I want to spend some time changing things around a bit.

Now that there will be classes in our house, a room of one's own and staking out space is of utmost importance. I'm glad there is still space for me to have a room of my own, besides our bedroom.

My husband has transformed a room in our basement into his man cave. He hangs out down there and watches videos from the library, reads, and relaxes. I'm glad he has a space too.

Our little house has seen its share of people and events. We've had three live concerts, a talk about happiness from a Tibetan Rinpoche that drew a rather large crowd, yoga classes, barbecues, badminton matches, picnics, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas family events, a baby shower and we've had NUMEROUS people stay over. My writing group, whom I've been meeting with for over 4 years, has come here on many occasions.

A few summers ago, our house got a facelift—new floors, walls, kitchen update, bathroom update, new roof, etc. It's quite cozy now.

To tell you truthfully, as much as I fret about the space becoming smaller, I do like the community or the sense of community we have around us.

But I am also very grateful to have a space to call my own.

Do you find it important to have a room of your own?

365 Inspirations—197: Living Creatively

Collages created at our Yoga/Writing Retreat at the Yoga Lodge

"Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things."—Ray Bradbury

I don't know if I could live without creativity. After all, we as humans are creations. Creativity is part of our nature.

I've been teaching classes about intuitive or direct writing at some of our writing/yoga retreats. Believe it or not, this is a class that came to me "inuitively" and I've gotten great feedback from it. Creativity can come in many forms. In fact, even if you don't think you are creative or live a creative life, you probably do.

Have you ever dreamed up something to cook for dinner with what you have on hand? You are being creative! Have you ever gone to a beach or park on a whim? Decided to rearrange your furniture? Bought new, colorful sheets? Took a different way home from work? All of these activities require creativity.

Anytime you deviate from what you normally do, you are being creative.

How much creativity you allow in your life depends on you.

In my writing retreats, I try to get people to free write without editing or censoring. The idea is to keep the pen moving across the page with whatever comes to mind. Later, when people go back and read these, they are often surprised by what they have written. It is often even more surprising if you put these spontaneous pieces of writing away for a few months before you read them again. Many things I've written or collaged about have actually come true for me in real life. It took the act of creatively writing or doing art for me to see what was probably already there.

We often are our own biggest obstacles to living a life we want, creatively or otherwise. It is the self talk we do that blocks us from our own potential.

Creating space for creativity is very important. Otherwise, how will you be able to hear yourself and what your heart is calling you to do when there is so much outside noise?

In the beginning, it may feel strange to have creative space to yourself. You may feel like you are wasting your time. Give yourself some time. Before you know it, you will be creating all kinds of things and you'll be living a creative life.

Are you living a creative life? In what ways are you in tune with your creativity?