Ananda writing at Smith Center for Healing and the Arts
I am in the middle of writing my second memoir, Digital Sisterhood: Fierce Living Online for 25 Years. It’s my third book in five years!
My creative process is magical, messy, and SLOW right now. I am struggling with the fear of writing a new book and wondering how it will be received. I have turned to my artwork for comfort.
My creative soul has found sanctuary in Collagetry. Collage + Poetry = Collagetry. It is a technique I developed while working as an artist-in-residence for Smith Center for Healing and the Arts at Howard University Hospital.
Ananda's art suppliesAnanda's art suppliesAnanda's art supplies
A few weeks ago I created several Collagetrys (my made up word) for patients I was working with at The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. I took photos of the collages because they spoke to my writing fears and life as an artist. See below.
Collagetry
This Memoir Collagetry reminded me to own my story and voice in my writing process. It also reminded me of the collages I made during my first memoir writing process and the energy and inspiration I received after creating them. So I made a mental note to make more time in my writing process for collage.
Healing Artist Collagetry
The message of this Healing Artist Collagetry really touched me: Self-expression. This is you. This is now. Healing artist. Your heart. Watercolor landscape. It offered me permission to use my healing artwork as a path back to my memoir writing.
Taking Flight: Inspiration And Techniques To Give Your Creative Spirit Wings by Kelly Rae Roberts - photo credit: Amazon.com
After reading the book’s description on Amazon.com, I ordered a copy. I started reading the book and have enjoyed the journaling exercises which are forcing me to confront my writing fears. One of my fears is running out of inspiration. So I have turned to Pinterest. I created two inspiration boards for my art and writing. I use them on a regular basis to stay energized. Check out the links below.
I returned to reading Poets & Writers on a regular basis. The February issue focused on inspiration. I have been rereading Frank Bures’ article about creating inner space for inspiration. It reminds me to UNPLUG from technology, my to do list, my writing deadlines, etc. Unplugging creates more time to relax and recharge. When I do it, I am able to surrender. SURRENDER is the key that unlocks the door to my creative process. So wish me luck as I practice the art of surrender from now until the fall season, make Collegetrys to overcome my writing struggles, and complete my fabulous Digital Sisterhood book!
My photo of BlissDom arrow advertising Girls Night In event
My BlissDom 12 Conference experience inspired me to embrace my visual voice passionately. I learned that lesson while attending photographer Diane Cu’s “Storytelling and Embracing Imperfection: Empower Your Visual Voice with Photography and Video.” Diane talked about how powerful it is to express your authenticity and tell stories with imperfect photos. During the session, I sat next to Ellen Seidman, founder of Love That Max blog. Ellen introduced me to Animoto, an online service that turns your photos and video clips into professional video slideshows in minutes. I have been playing with Animoto for the past few weeks. Today, I created a very short video that documents what I learned during Diane’s session. It’s my first video with photos, text, and music. It was really easy to make! Click here to watch it. Let me know what you think.
Some of my best BlissDom Conference moments were spent supporting and celebrating the Heart of Haiti Campaign, a partnership between Fairwinds Trading, Macy’s, and the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. It was created to provide sustainable income to Haitian artisans impacted by the January 2010 earthquake. Through the partnership, the artisans create artwork that is sold as the Heart of Haiti collection in Macy’s stores. The sales from these hand-made products including quilts, metalwork, paper måché, painting and jewelry generate the sustainable income and provide trade instead of aid to the Haitian artisans.
Photo Credit: Everywhere Heart of Haiti Photos
As soon as I arrived and settled into my room at the Opryland Hotel on February 23, I tweeted the Everywhere team, Danica Kombol and Britton Edwards, to let them know I was ready to put on my Heart of Haiti Blogger Ambassador hat and support their Heart of Haiti booth in the BlissDom Handmade Marketplace. When I saw the booth, I was in complete AWE! Why? Because these ladies know how to make a conference booth attractive and fun to visit. And it’s not hard when you have the beautiful Heart of Haiti collection to work with. Danica and Britton gave me a brief update on the new items in the collection and showed me photos from the #Bloggers4Haiti trip to Haiti in January. Check out the photos below.
Photo Credit: Everywhere Heart of Haiti photosPhoto Credit: Everywhere Heart of Haiti photosPhoto Credit: Everywhere Heart of Haiti photosAnanda and Danica Kombol - Photo Credit: Everywhere Heart of Haiti PhotosAnanda and Britton Edwards -- Photo Credit: Everywhere Heart of Haiti Photos
While I was at the Heart of Haiti booth, I met and chatted with BlissDom attendees about my experiences as a Blogger Ambassador and February 2011 trip to Haiti. Many of the attendees told me about their passion for using social media for social good and plans to support the Heart of Haiti. Those conversations reminded me how important it is to tell people about the Haitian artisans who are using their creative gifts to make their lives and country better. They also reminded me that I have got to get to Haiti in 2013!
Ananda and Emily FaliLv - Photo Credit: Everywhere Heart of Haiti Photos
Yesterday I learned that BlogHer published its 2012 study of women and social media. What timing! I was hoping the study would come out in time for me to include in my last chapter of my Digital Sisterhood book. The Internet geek in me is jumping for joy. Time to read the study and learn more about digital sisters!
Click here to see the BlogHer SlideShare presentation.
Click here to read more about the BlogHer 2012 Study.
Guess what? I am so excited about BlogHer coming to New York City in August. Why? Because I get to speak about one of my digital loves — Podcasting 101 with several dynamic women on August 3 from 1:15 pm to 2:30 pm at the Hilton New York in NYC City. I am also excited that this year’s conference will mark my fourth BlogHer adventure! WOOO HOOO!
Great news! I will speak about my work with wounded warriors as an artist-in-residence for Smith Center for Healing and the Arts at The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on March 15 from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm at the Veteran-Civilian Dialogue Project held at Smith Center in Washington, DC. Veteran-Civilian Dialogue is a project sponsored by Intersections, a New York-based non-government organization that works at the intersection of communities in conflict The Project brings together veterans and civilians to discuss the impact of war in their lives and others.
I started working as an artist-in-residence for Smith Center in 2000. My first residency was based at Howard University Hospital where I served people living with cancer, HIV/AIDS, and other health challenges from 2003 to 2009. Click here to learn more Smith Center’s artist-in-residence program.
The morning of my BlissDom session on February 24 began with meditation, prayer, yoga, and Reiki healing touch in my lovely room at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. During my morning spiritual practice, I focused on opening my heart and surrendering to Creator’s highest good. I made sure to say a prayer of thanksgiving for blessing me with an opportunity to share my gifts as a creative professional with an amazing community of women and men bloggers. Afterwards, I got dressed, packed my conference bag with my workshop materials, and headed to breakfast.
The Bliss Chicks - Photo Credit: BlissDom Flickr Group Photos
Breakfast was yummy! I ate plenty of delicious fruit and two chocolate muffins as I watched the powerful opening video and listened to the “Bliss Chicks” Allie Worthington, Paula Bruno, and Barbara Jones welcome everyone to BlissDom. The morning got better as I sat writing notes during author and blogger Jon Acuff‘s keynote address. It ended with entrepreneurial inspiration from Allie and Ana Roca Castro’s introduction of Picha Global, a social media business they formed with Barbara Jordan and Megan Jordan.
The positive BlissDom brekafast energy followed me into Jeannette Kaplun’s amazing session, “Living (and Embracing) the Best of the Life You Have Created for Yourself.” Jeannette reminded me to choose joy, grace, gratitude, ease, acceptance, forgiveness, and peace in my daily life. What a beautiful gift!
The morning events filled my heart with so much joy and positive energy, and affirmed that BlissDom was indeed the perfect place for me to share my insights on how I discovered fierce living from my creative heart during my afternoon session.
Me speaking at my BlissDom session - Photo Credit: Holli, founder of AWonderingSpirit.blogspot.com
Before I began my session, I took a minute to take in the faces of the BlissDom attendees. I smiled inside and outside. Why? Because we were about to learn and grow together!
My session began with the following introduction.
Welcome to “Fierce Living from Your Creative Heart.” Fierce Living is a journey worth taking in 2012. It begins with an open heart in the present moment. When you breathe intentionally and deeply, you invite yourself into the present moment. You also create space to discover who you are from the inside out and what’s happening in your creative heart. So let’s get started.
The yoga teacher inside of me always makes sure that breathing exercises are included in my workshop sessions. Check out the breathing exercises I shared with the BlissDom family.
Join me in taking 10 deep breaths. We inhale through our noses and exhale through our mouths. Feel free to make sounds like hah as you exhale. You can get loud too.
Take a deep breath and inhale self-love. Exhale anything that gets in the way of you experiencing it.
Inhale self-care. Exhale anything that gets in the way of you experiencing it.
Inhale self-expression. Exhale anything that gets in the way of you experiencing it.
Inhale self-discovery. Exhale anything that gets in the way of you experiencing it.
Inhale vulnerability. Exhale anything that gets in the way of you tapping into it.
Inhale intuition. Exhale anything that gets in the way of you tapping into it.
Inhale imagination. Exhale anything that gets in the way of you tapping into it.
Inhale inspiration. Exhale anything that gets in the way of you tapping into it.
Inhale creativity. Exhale anything that gets in the way of you tapping into it.
Inhale gratitude. Exhale anything that gets in the way of you expressing it.
In this sacred place, quietly set an intention for your session today. An intention is a statement about what you want to experience. When you are done, open your eyes.
Photo Credit: Smith Magazine
The next exercise focused on one of my favorites: six-word memoirs. I asked the group to write a present moment six-word memoir which is composed of six words that expressed how they were feeling in the present moment. During the group sharing circle, I listened to the authentic, beautiful, creative, and vulnerable statements people wrote. It was powerful to witness!
Check out the six-word memoir that Katherine Malone, founder of Buckhead Betty … on a Budget blog, wrote: Energized, ready for a new adventure. Click here to read her BlissDom blog recap.
Beth Zimmerman shared her six-word memoir @betzimmerman on Twitter. See below.
Fierce Living via @digitalsisterhd at #Blissdom – My 6 Word Memoir: blessed, happy, tired, achy, wondering, grateful
After the six-word memoir writing exercise, I gave a five-minute talk that discussed my 2012 wake up call and realization of fierce living from my creative heart. It is also an excerpt from the last chapter of my next book, Digital Sisterhood: Fierce Living Online for 25 Years (2012). See below.
My 2012 Wake Up Call (Copyright 2012 by Madelyn C. Leeke. All Rights Reserved.)
On the first day of the new year, I wrote in my journal: 2012 must be different from 2011. I must return to the deep, juicy space of creativity that I discovered in 1992, the year I baptized myself in poetry, meditation, journal writing, self publishing my own work, art, daydreaming, museum and gallery visits, and travel adventures. I must come home to myself. How? How do I come home to myself? Through fierce living from your creative heart. What’s that?
As I wrote in my journal about the meaning of fierce living from my creative heart, an acronym emerged. It has become my personal theme for 2012 and a reminder of what I need to do to come home to myself.
Fierce Living is
F- Finding your
I – Inner women inside of you by
E- Exploring who they are and
R- Receiving them into your life as your
C – Community of
E- Expression and
When you tap into your inner women be sure to
L- Listen to them because they offer
I – Intuition
V – Vulnerability
I – Imagination
N – Nurturing and
G – Growth opportunities
During January, I reconnected with my eight inner women otherwise known as archetypes and personalities. We’ve known each other for many years now. They include Ancestor, my wise woman; Ananda, my spirit woman and mystic; Kiamsha, my creative woman; Madelyn, my CEO woman; Cheryl, my balanced woman and peacekeeper; Puf, my girl child and Black American Princess; Sapphire, my warrior woman and sexy vixen; and Broomhilda, my inner critic. We spent time reconnecting and getting to know each other through mindful meditation, Reiki healing touch, yoga, journaling, collage making, writing an intention statement, playing with six-word memoirs, going on creative adventure dates and walks, reading magazines, listening to music, shopping for our favorite things, and playing dress up in our closet. This investment of time helped me deeply listen to myself. What I discovered was I needed to do a better job of taking care of myself. I discovered I needed to practice self-compassion. I discovered I needed more ME time to just be, to rest, to daydream, to imagine, and to create. I discovered I needed to set better boundaries with my time, energy, resource sharing, and relationships. I discovered I needed to say no to certain people and requests so I could have space to say yes to the people and things that nourish my creative heart.
The session continued with more breathingand writing exercises that invited each attendee to explore what their creative heart looked and felt like, what their creative heart needs and wants in 2012, who their inner women are and what they want them to know, and their definition of fierce living. The group engaged in deep discussion after each exercise. Aha moments, tears, sighs, laughter, joy, and a range of emotions and thoughts were shared. At the end of the session, my creative heart was filled with humility and gratitude for each person in the room. The experience reaffirmed my calling to do creative coaching and write and publish my books.
During the BlissDom 2012 conference, I had a chance to spend time with Tawanna Smith (a/k/a @WorldTravelMom on Twitter), founder of MomsGuideToTravel.com. We talked a lot about what it means to tap into the power of fierce living from your creative heart (the topic of my February 24th conference session), writing, intentions, and setting boundaries when completing goals. She and Lucrecer Braxton, founder of Art Slam, also stopped by my BlissDom book signing and purchased a copy of my memoir, That Which Awakens Me. We had a great time discussing creativity. After I signed Tawanna’s book, she invited me to do an interview on her Spreecast video show.Now that’s Digital Sisterhood in real time!
Lucrecer Braxton (red), Ananda & Tawanna Smith
FYI: Tawanna will be interviewing me about “Fierce Living from Your Creative Heart” (includes a discussion about my book, That Which Awakens Me) on March 12 at 8:30 pm ET. Click here to watch the live interview. If you miss it, you will be able to watch the recording.
While I was at the BlissDom 2012 Conference, I had a chance to learn about the Child Hunger Ends Here campaign sponsored by Feeding America and ConAgra. After speaking with the campaign representatives, I decided to record a video to support their efforts. Click here to watch the video.
FYI – Here are several key statistices about child hunger in the United States.
1) More than 1 in 5 children in the U.S. don’t know where their next meal is coming from.
2) More than 16 million children in the U.S. face hunger
3) The face of child hunger is different than you might think. It’s not just starving or homeless children. Often, it’s a one- or two-income family that has suffered from the economy and have depleted their savings.
Today is International Women’s Day (IWD)! In honor of IWD, I created a Pinterest board that features women’s empowerment and rights campaigns, issues, photos, and videos. Click here to see it.
Aminah Hanan 
ash 
Mocha Moms, Inc. 
Megan Tietz 
Tina LeAnn Erdmann 
Ananda Leeke 