movement as creative practice
weekly story work exercise
If you’re new here, Story Work is the name of my current book-in-progress. It describes a process of reflecting, reclaiming, and reimagining the stories of our lives. It involves looking at your life experiences as creative material that you have the power to shape.
The weekly Story Work topics cover universal life themes with references from literature, philosophy, science, and spirituality; offering perspectives that spark ideas for personal growth and creative expression.
Paid subscribers receive Story Work exercises every Sunday night at 8 pm et.
Hi friends,
There are many approaches to fitting creativity into your life, the key is to figure out what works for you. As writers, it’s vital that we nurture our creativity through self-care so we can work with our natural rhythms and not against them.
Once you understand how to fuel your creative process through self-care, you find clarity, focus, and renewed energy.
Next week, I’m facilitating an online workshop through The Writer’s Center that addresses the mindset we bring to our creative work. We will explore how to cultivate the discernment, mindset and habits necessary to sustain us through the emotional challenges of the creative life.
In Creative Courage and Self-Care for Writers, you will work through writing exercises that identify limiting beliefs, clarify your needs and motivations, and rejuvenate your creative process. You will work on the exercises individually and be encouraged to share your discoveries, challenges, questions and insights with fellow writers.
This workshop, a condensed version of my six-week writing intensive, is ideal for writers struggling with critical self-talk, burnout, creative blocks, perfectionism and procrastination. Participants will come away with techniques and strategies that support them in bringing their most authentic selves to the page.
If this sounds like what your creative journey needs, you can sign up here. The session will be recorded and distributed to all participants.
If you’re interested in the six-week intensive, you can learn more and sign up to be notified when it opens. We just had a showcase where writers from the Winter/Spring session shared the pieces they wrote while in the workshop, and it’s temporarily available to view here.
Okay, now on to this week’s exercise.
movement as creative practice
“Movement.
Action.
Curiosity.
Discovery.
Sometimes being stuck means
going deep
and deep discoveries are made there,
but sometimes stuck is just
stuck
and some kind of movement is required
to get things going.”― Shellen Lubin, director, writer, performer, and teacher of theatre and music
The body needs to move. Our creative efforts flow more naturally when we give the body what it needs. In fact, any type of personal or professional stagnation can be helped by examining the level of movement in your daily life. We talk about this at length in the Creative Courage Writing Intensive as we break down the steps of the creative process including the role of movement as part of a thriving creative practice.
When I’m writing and in a state of flow, the last thing I want to do is get up and take a break to move my body. I tend to hyper-fixate on what I’m doing and if I’m not mindful of this — I lose track of time, I ignore hunger pains and achy joints, I grind my teeth and strain my eyes, and by the time I’m done I feel unwell. And for years I didn’t realize that these signals are my body’s way of letting me know that I simply need a break.