I woke up this morning thinking about the CHANGES I am facing and the ones I know family, friends, colleagues, and clients are facing. I also wondered about the CHANGES you and your family, friends, and colleagues might be facing. That’s why I am reaching out to find out what’s happening with you.
Please use this week’s Thriving Mindfully Food for Thought as a reflection guide. I’d love to hear what’s happening with you. Feel free to comment or send me an email at ananda@anandaleeke.com.
If you need more help, check out my Thriving Mindfully self-care resources and sign up for Thriving Mindfully Mondays below. I look forward to hearing from you and supporting you during the next four sessions of Thriving Mindfully Mondays on September 8, 15, 22, and 29.
Join me on September 8, 15, 22, and 29 from 7:30 p.m. ET to 8:15 p.m. ET for a four-week self-care series that offers a virtual community gathering with safe space to ground yourself with a mindful moment and participate in a mindful creative activity (journaling, affirmation and letter writing, collage, drawing, coloring, or painting).
These sessions are offered as a gift with an invitation to make a donation to support my work.
Use the schedule below to gather your own writing and art-making supplies for each session.
1) September 8: Wear your favorite cozy clothing. Bring your favorite beverage and/or snack, pen, pencil, paper or journal to explore a reflection question.
You will create an intention and affirmation reminder, sign, page, or poster with an index card, journal page, or colorful construction or drawing paper. Bring your favorite crayons, pencils, or magic markers. Decorate it with drawings, doodles, or stickers.
2) September 15: Wear your favorite cozy clothing. Bring your favorite beverage and/or snack, pen, pencil, paper or journal to explore a reflection question.
You will write a letter to yourself or create a collage. Bring a picture of yourself as a child, a pen, and paper to write a letter to yourself.
Bring poster board, construction paper, drawing paper, a glue stick, scissors, your favorite magazines, crayons, pencils, and magic markers to create your collage.
3) September 22: Wear your favorite cozy clothing. Bring your favorite beverage and/or snack, pen, pencil, paper or journal to explore a reflection question.
You will create a drawing or painting. Bring white poster board or drawing paper, paint brush, watercolor or tempera paint set, crayons, pencils, and/or magic markers.
4) September 29: Wear your favorite cozy clothing. Bring your favorite beverage and/or snack, pen, pencil, paper or journal to explore writing prompts.
Join me on September 8, 15, 22, and 29 from 7:30 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. for a four-week virtual community gathering that offers safe space to ground yourself with a mindful moment and participate in a mindful creative activity (journaling, affirmation and letter writing, collage, drawing, coloring, or painting).
Use the schedule below to gather your own writing and art-making supplies for each session.
1) September 8: Wear your favorite cozy clothing. Bring your favorite beverage and/or snack, pen, pencil, paper or journal to explore a reflection question.
You will create an intention and affirmation reminder, sign, page, or poster with an index card, journal page, or colorful construction or drawing paper. Bring your favorite crayons, pencils, or magic markers. Decorate it with drawings, doodles, or stickers.
2) September 15: Wear your favorite cozy clothing. Bring your favorite beverage and/or snack, pen, pencil, paper or journal to explore a reflection question.
You will write a letter to yourself or create a collage. Bring a picture of yourself as a child, a pen, and paper to write a letter to yourself.
Bring poster board, construction paper, drawing paper, a glue stick, scissors, your favorite magazines, crayons, pencils, and magic markers to create your collage.
3) September 22: Wear your favorite cozy clothing. Bring your favorite beverage and/or snack, pen, pencil, paper or journal to explore a reflection question.
You will create a drawing or painting. Bring white poster board or drawing paper, paint brush, watercolor or tempera paint set, crayons, pencils, and/or magic markers.
4) September 29: Wear your favorite cozy clothing. Bring your favorite beverage and/or snack, pen, pencil, paper or journal to explore writing prompts.
Mindful creativity is what I share with military service members, veterans, their families and friends, and staff when I serve as an artist-in-residence for Smith Center for Healing and the Arts at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center each week. Read and listen to my latest interview with Smith Center.
Check out a short video I made during one of my breaks at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Laura Hollick, an artist and shaman, is the brainchild behind them (see photo above). She is also founder of Soul Art Studio, a business that guides people to connect with their spirit and create a life and business that expresses it. Hollick says, “Soul Art awakens your inner artist so you can create your reality.”
Photo Credit: SoulArtDay.com
International Soul Art Day is annual celebration held on May 14 that brings together Soul Artist from around the world to connect virtually and create art together for the day. Yesterday, I joined the Soul Art Day celebration by listening to recordings of two Google Hangout session and creating my own body mapping art project.
My Soul Art Day mixed media collage
The body mapping art project allowed me to trace my hands and feet, journal, and create a mixed media collage (see photo above). The collage has become a visual affirmation and celebration of what’s living in my creative heart.
Have you ever participated in an online creativity challenge, event, or project that encouraged you to explore and honor your creative process?
Artist dates are an essential ingredient in my life as an artist, author, and creativity coach. They spark my imagination and open my creative heart and mind to new ideas.
I love to take myself on artist dates to galleries in my U Street neighborhood in Washington, DC. Today, I visited the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery to see the “Alchemical Vessels” exhibition featuring 125 unique bowls (see photo collage). Being in the midst of so much creativity was inspiring.
Mine is collage. I can make them all day long. They help me express what’s waiting to burst forth from my creative heart. They also help me visualize my creative making process. I use them when I am writing my books and working on other projects. I also use them in my visualization boards.
Ananda’s books and paintings
What creative dreams are you longing to give birth to?
I long to give birth to more books and paintings. I have a few e-books and a novel inside of me. I also have some big paintings that long to live on the canvas.
May we all use the Spring season to give birth to our creativity!
From now until March 31, I am offering a special discount package on my creativity coaching services. See details below.
My Creativity Coaching Practice: Click here to read more about my approach and background as a creativity coach.
Discount Period: The creativity coaching packages must be purchased via PayPal by March 31, 2014. They must be used by July 31, 2014.
Contact Information: If you are interested in one or more of the packages, please send me an email at kiamshaleeke@yahoo.com to schedule a free 20-minute consultation call (available via telephone, Skype, and Google Hangout).
Contact Information: If you are interested in one or more of the packages, please send me an email at kiamshaleeke@yahoo.com to schedule a free 20-minute consultation call (available via telephone, Skype, and Google Hangout).
February is a great time to open your creative heart with artist dates. Artist dates are scheduled play dates that you commit to on a regular basis (weekly or monthly). These special moments can jumpstart your imagination and inspire your creative juices. They can also help you explore your own creativity and witness the creativity of others and Mother Nature. I learned about artist dates while reading Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist Way in the 1990s.
Photo Credit: National Museum of African Art
Each month, I schedule several artist dates. I started this month with an artist date to the National Museum of African Art’s Earth Matters celebration and exhibition on February 1. It was just what I needed: spoken word, live DJs spinning groovy music (yes I love the word groovy!), photographers taking photos (will blog about my own experience next week), body art performers, African dancing and drumming, live bands performing incredible music, and a documentary film about Kenyan feminist and human rights activist, Wangari Maatthai.
What artist dates have you gone on this year?
What type of artist dates are you planning this month?
Opening Your Creative Heart Coaching Special Discount:
From February 1 to March 31, I am offering a special discount package on my creativity coaching services. See details below.
My Creativity Coaching Practice: Click here to read more about my approach and background as a creativity coach.
Discount Period: The creativity coaching packages must be purchased via PayPal by March 31, 2014. They must be used by July 31, 2014.
Contact Information: If you are interested in one or more of the packages, please send me an email at kiamshaleeke@yahoo.com to schedule a free 20-minute consultation call (available via telephone, Skype, and Google Hangout).
Photo Credit: “Kreative Grooviness: That Which Awakens Me ” by Ananda Leeke
Happy Creativity Thursday!
Have you ever dreamed of making something with your hands and then allowed your fears or lack of training to stop you?
It happened to me several years ago when I started dreaming of painting. I was afraid to try it because I had never attended art school. My perspective changed after I started working with a master artist during my tenure as an artist-in-residence for Smith Center for Healing and the Arts at Howard University Hospital. The master artist happened to be a patient I was assigned to work with on creative projects that would help him express his feelings. He transformed our sessions into art workshops where he taught me to trust my intuition and natural creative gifts. He pushed me to paint and gave me numerous painting assignments. This experience helped me create a series of paintings that I used to illustrate two book covers (see paintings above and below). The master artist breathed life into my creative dreams.
Photo Credit: “Be Love. Love Light. Live As the Spirit of Life.” by Ananda Leeke
Has anyone breathed life into your creative dreams?
How did the person breathe life into your creative dreams?
What creative actions were you inspired to take?
Visit Amazon.com to learn more about my creative journey and book, That Which Awakens Me: A Creative Woman’s Poetical Memoir of Self-Discovery (2009). My book is available as a Kindle download and a paperback book.
Last weekend, I hosted the Digital Sisterhood Month field trip to see artist Kesha Bruce’s “The Guardians” exhibition at Morton Fine Art in Washington, DC. Kesha’s work is rooted in her personal mythology. The paintings in “The Guardians” series evoke ancestral energy. They make me think of the many women and men who came before me. The people who sacrificed so that I would be able to enjoy my life. They remind me to show gratitude to my ancestors. They also inspire me to create some ancestral art work in 2014. So get ready for some surprises!
Kesha was recently named 2013 Digital Sister of the Year – Creativista. While I was at the exhibition, I reconnected with Adrienne Fikes, 2013 Digital Sister of the Year – Enchantista. We had a great time chatting about Kesha’s work. What a great day I had!
Have you attended any gallery shows or museum exhibitions this holiday season?
Ananda Leeke 