Entries from: May 2010

Talking Intuition with Bridget Pilloud

May 7th, 2010, Comments (7)

I had the pleasure of speaking with the fabulous Bridget Pilloud this week and I'm so thrilled to be able to share it with you! Bridget is an Intuitive, Healer, Teacher, Writer, and all around awesome person.

Bridget has some great tips and tools to share about how to connect with your intuition in your everyday life and also as you create art! I especially loved her suggestion to "let your brain take a back seat" as you create. And of course the impromptu visit from Leo the cat was fun too! :-) You can listen to the interview below or right-click (ctrl-click on a Mac) to save to your computer and listen to later.

Click here to listen.

Bridget is planning an exciting year-long Field Expedition to the Energetic Body to start in June! Keep up to date with this and all the other amazing things Bridget is up to at her blog, Voila and follow her on Twitter @intuitivebridge.

Tapping into Your Intuition through Art

May 5th, 2010, Comments (16)


One of my favorite ways to tap into my intuition is through making art. There's something about the fact that it's non-verbal for me, which helps me to get in tune with the part of me that speaks in dream-like imagery and is more in touch with what's going on under the surface. When I'm creating in this way, I feel better able to go with the flow, to listen to and trust my inner guidance.

When I led the "Art from the Heart" workshop at wishstudio's wish*full Virtual art retreat last weekend, I taught tools that required letting go of control. Yikes! I have a little bit of control-freak in me at times, so letting go can be difficult. But I think that's another part of why creating intuitively is simultaneously scary and exciting.  And when I'm able to let go, that's when the images flow out, the choices seem to make themselves, and I can create from a deeper well within.

It makes me think of the lantern and lighthouse imagery I've used a lot, as I think these images are great metaphors for intuition. There's a light within each of us, always ready and willing to guide you, if you can tap into it.

Ways to tap into your Intuition while you create:

Get into your body: Ground yourself through meditation, movement, or simply a few deep breaths. Getting into your body helps you get out of your head and into a mode where you can make choices guided by your intuition.

Be Willing to Be Wrong: I think it's easy to doubt yourself when you first try creating from your intuition, so take the pressure off by being willing to be wrong, to make mistakes, to do it badly. Let go of expectation and let yourself play freely. It's a lot easier to be in a state of flow when you're not worried about doing it perfectly.

Don't Stop to Think: I like to move quickly when creating intuitively. I act on instinct before my talky-talky brain can get involved and cause me to doubt myself. Don't let your thinking brain get in on the action, at least not in the beginning. Give yourself some time to create without thought. After some time creating, you can step back and think about things. But having some time to create without judgment is a great thing!

Be Willing Not to Know: Often when I create intuitively, I have no idea where a piece is going. An image may start to appear and it may make no sense at all, logically. It can be a wild ride, not knowing where a piece is going (so much like life, yes?), but when I can let go and allow the story to unfold, interesting images come from it. Later on, while looking at these images, I find that they nearly always have messages for me about what's going on with me.

Step Back: After some time creating, I need to step away from the piece. Sometimes I put it across the room and stare at it for awhile. Other times, I put it across the room and work on other things, occasionally glancing up. Getting a little distance can often help you find what the next step is. Or it may let you know it's complete.

How do you let your intuition guide you as you create?

p.s. The image above is titled, Lighthouse. Prints are available here.

Creative Every Day Check-In: May 3 – 9

May 3rd, 2010, Comments (30)

This weekly check-in post is a place for Creative Every Day Challenge participants to share their creative activities.

Join in the Challenge: You can sign up for the  2010 Creative Every Day Challenge anytime! Find out more and fill out the sign-up form here to join in!

Ways to share: Once you've signed up, you can leave a comment on this post and/or use the "Mr. Linky" widget below to link to a blog post(s) about your creative activities during the days of 5/3/10 - 5/9/10.

The widget below is an optional method of sharing your creativity that makes it easier for others to check out what you're up to. You can use it to link to a blog post (or posts) or flickr image during the week listed. Or if you have a bunch of posts and don't want to link to all of them, you can link to your main blog page once. Do it in a way that makes sense and is fun for you! If you're unsure about how to use the widget, check out the "How to use the Mr. Linky widget" section on the Creative Every Day Challenge page. (If you're reading this in a RSS reader or email subscription, you will not see the "Mr. Linky widget", so click on over to the blog to use it.) If the Mr. Linky widget is missing from this blog post, it's probably a problem with their server and it will come back as soon as it's fixed. You can always leave your link in the comments.

You can also take advantage of the great CED flickr group to post your images and see what others are up to. If you're on Twitter, there's a growing Twitter list of CED participants and you can use the hashtag #CED2010 to help others find your Creative Every Day tweets!

Theme: The (totally optional) theme for April's theme is Intuition. I'll be posting about the theme throughout the month and you can feel free to use it to inspire your creations, follow your own muse, or do some combination. You can find out more about this month's theme and some prompts to get you started with it here.

Happy Creating!

Visuals = the language of intuition. ~Eileen M. Clegg