You are here: Home / Archives for Creativity

How to Turn Your Life Verse into a Spiritual Vision Board

January 6, 2012 By 3 Comments

Have you ever been asked what your “life verse” is? You know, the scripture quote that seems to speak to you directly – the one that holds a personal meaning for you. When I first heard this concept, I was immediately overwhelmed. With more than 31,000 verses to choose from, how could I possibly select just one? How could one verse define my entire life? Even if it seemed to fit now, would it still encourage and strengthen me in 10 years?

That reaction is my typical perfectionist response to any sort of challenge or assignment. I had to remind myself that THIS IS NOT A TEST! That God wasn’t waiting for me to choose the “wrong” verse and then condemn me for failing a quiz. And that there was no rule preventing me from picking a new verse any time I needed one! (After all, there’s a reason there are more than 788,000 words in the Bible – we need to read them at different times in our lives.) With those comforting thoughts in mind, I set off to find my life verse.

Selecting Your Life Verse

The mission took me several months. I tried a few verses on for size in my mind.  I read them aloud to listen to the message behind the words. Wondered how they would serve me as a compass. I couldn’t make a decision. It still felt like such a commitment!

Then one Saturday morning, I was at a women’s retreat exploring the relationship between creativity and spirituality. We were making Spiritual Vision Boards and we were told to begin with our life verse in mind. Naturally, I considered and debated long after everyone else in the room started working on their boards. I eventually settled on a verse – it was more of a random selection based on the pressure to make a decision quickly before the others noticed that I didn’t have a life verse (how shameful!). The verse I selected spoke to me in the moment and has become a guiding force in my life ever since: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christian, Creativity, Inspiration

How to Choose a Word of the Year

December 29, 2011 By 13 Comments

How to Choose a Word of the Year

While most people are busy making their New Year’s Resolutions this week, I’ve been joining the millions of creative and innovative thinkers who choose a Word of the Year instead. This different approach to New Year’s resolutions is something I discovered from my mentor, Christine Kane, who launched a Resolution Revolution with her Word of the Year Discovery Tool in 2009. The idea is simple – choose one word to fully embrace in 2012. A word that will guide you, transform you, inspire you and challenge you for the coming year.
The Word of the Year may sound easy – as if you can cross this project off your list by just choosing the first word that comes to mind and then forgetting why you chose it by Valentine’s Day. But when you truly give your word choice your full attention, the process can be much more powerful than creating traditional New Year’s Resolutions. Your word can become part of your daily life all year long. Like a gentle reminder to inspire you in the choices you make throughout the year.

Three Tips to Help You Decide on Your Word of the Year

If you’re feeling anxious about selecting just the right word to shepherd you through the new year, I want to share a few tips to make this process fun and rewarding!
1. Let your word pick you. Just like the wands in Ollivander’s Wand Shop choose their owners in the Harry Potter series, your Word of the Year will choose you. All you need to do is set the intention to discover your word, and be open to the magic. Chances are your word will sound very strange to you at first. You might even be tempted to break out the thesaurus and find a similar word that “sounds better” for some reason. But once it appears in your conscious mind, you won’t be able to shake it. You’ll find yourself asking WHY it’s showing up for you and what it could possibly mean. Give this word the attention it deserves and explore what it is trying to teach you.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Creativity, Free Articles, Inspiration, Writing

Seven Unique Ways to Keep a Gratitude Journal You Can Stick With

November 10, 2011 By 3 Comments

I confess – I have abandoned more journals than I care to admit. I always begin with good intentions.  Like any devoted Oprah fan, I set out on a mission to write down three things I’m grateful for in an attempt to focus my attention on the blessings in my life. The whole process is like a diet – it works for a few weeks or a month and then I let it slip. I take a day off. Or a week. Or a month. Sometimes I pick it back up again and rededicate myself to the daily practice. (Once I even made it a whole year!) But eventually my journal ends up lost under a pile of papers or stuck between the seats of the couch cushions, collecting dust while my heart collects complaints and criticism.

I used to beat myself up for this abandoned gratitude. I dubbed myself a failure. But now I realize that I was setting myself up for failure. That there is more than one way to do this gratitude thing. Experts tell you how to do it “right”  – select a beautiful journal and a pen that feels good, allocate time each day in your schedule and create a dedicated space where you can write comfortably without distractions or interruption. All great tips. But even when I follow them to the letter, I somehow end up getting derailed. This recipe for journal writing doesn’t work for all of us, all the time.

So, here are my personal tips for keeping an attitude of gratitude even if journal writing isn’t your thing!

1. Gratitude Cards: Who needs an entire notebook when you can do the job with a single index card? Buy a stack of colorful index cards and keep them someplace where you will see them. Any time you feel joy, take a minute to write a sentence or word down on an index card and post it on a wall, refrigerator or bulletin board so you can be reminded of your blessings. You can also use sticky notes. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Creativity, Favorites, Free Articles, Inspiration, Writing
« Older Posts