Be Amazing — Always Be Creative!

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Only Artists Are Creative…Uh, Not!

Everyone has a special brand of creativity — yes, I’m talking to you!

You might not think of yourself as particularly creative — perhaps you think creativity only has to do with the arts?

Not at all.

People who are creative can take anything and turn it into something beautiful.

You can be a gardener, creating a masterpiece in your rockery.
You can be a street sweeper who dances like Fred Astaire with his broom.
You can be a carpenter who injects perfection, pride and passion into furnishings
You can be cleaning out public lavatories whilst singing ‘Tosca’.
You could be a teacher delighting his students with theatrical renditions of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’…and the list could go on — you get the picture, right?

Creativity is usually equated with joy — the biggest blessing is in the fact that you can, at any time, be saturating this globe in happiness and bringing smiles to weary faces.

You don’t even have to stop at your ‘trade’ or hobby…if you’ve got a dull job at the moment, why not infuse it with piquancy? Give it the edge.

Why not dress the part? Dazzle the world with your flamboyant fashion fetish. Or how about showing your creativity in how you interact with your colleagues or clients — your personality can be a brand of pizzazz, you know?

In short, be amazing! Show your true colours and see how it brightens up the space you occupy. Dare to show your inner creative and stroke the inner passions of those around you to do the same.

Being Afraid

All too often we are afraid to reveal who we truly are, what our passions may be and what a pity that is (especially for the rest of us).

Everyone is unique and has something of value to contribute to this world and the excitement is finding out what and then going for it guns blazing!

Yee-haw!

The Payoff

And saving the best for last, naturally — your payoff is going to be:

A less stressy you — we tend to burnout when we are not being true to ourselves. Getting creative will relieve you of this burden and introduce you to a much more exciting existence.
More Personal Fulfillment — The feeling of bringing something beautiful into this world is incalculable, and you feel that sense of achievement and liveliness that creation brings with it — bliss!
Time for Inner Reflection — getting creative gives you the time to do a bit of introspection. You can realign yourself with your goals and keep in touch with the core of your self — something most people fudge over as unimportant.
Pure Unadulterated Enjoyment — When you tickle the inner child that bursts to express whole-hearted happiness and ingenuity, you will find that the tasks you do that invoke such inventiveness also bring elation. Connecting with your creativity will connect you with your joy.

What is it that you do to express your creative flare? I’d love to hear all about it in the comment box below.

Other articles you may enjoy:

2 Things You Can’t Thrive Without

I Dare You To Unleash Your Creativity!

Use Your Experiences For Creative Expansion

What You Need to Throw Out When You Decide to Choose Fulfillment

2 Things You Can’t Thrive Without

Posted on May 20, 2015 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” ` Maya Angelou

Who can’t agree with the above statement from the late and great, Ms Angelou? We all want the full juicy experience that the cornucopia of life can lay tumbling at our feet.

ROFLOL, Drive and Grace

To have strong, hot passion — in whatever we endeavor to do — is the delectability of living this life. To be able to laugh at our fragile mortality and existential situations is pure magic and can be one of the most important exercises in our daily routine. And to be bestowed with style is simply flamboyantly fabulous, darling! They all make life more livable (and in the case of style, our wardrobes heavier and our wallets lighter).

But the two things I think are paramount to living the life extraordinaire are to have a limitless supply of love and compassion.

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.” ` Dalai Lama

I think the Dalai Lama hit the nail on the head with that one. These two ‘traits’ are our innate tools to a trade-up in human existence.

Most of us want peace on earth and the sense that we are evolving and not devolving. Although on the surface it might look like society is on an insidious degeneration, I feel that where love and compassion exist — even if it is in small packages (after all, we’re going to do this one fabulous soul at a time — one courageous community at a time) — there is hope for reprieve.

Connect, Love and Fertilize — Happy Days!

Love holds our intrinsic ability to connect with and hold space for each other (fleshy or furry) and the planet (and the universe!) — it’s the glue that holds existence together IMHO (soon I’ll be writing these articles in pure acronym — God forbid!).

Compassion fertilizes the soil for love to grow strong (*violin softly playing in the background*). If we can’t empathize with each other we are doomed. Truth is not singular and we need to open up to the possibility that not everyone thinks the way we do…duh! Retaliation is never going to lead us to peace.

The antithesis would be to hold fear for others and even possibly for our planet (that can appear so volatile at any given moment). Fear often leads us to judgment — the need to make someone right and someone wrong — which inevitably closes down the channel to empathy and understanding.

Hippy Nonsense!

I know I’m going to get some people shaking their heads and saying that love and compassion ‘aint going to cut it — we need justice in the world!

I’m not arguing the fact that justice may indeed need to be withheld for a community to run smoothly, I’m just pointing out that you can still have love and compassion for a person(s) who has done ‘wrong’. Instead of condemning someone for life, try to see if you can rather figure out the ‘why’ (compassion) and then treat the root of the problem (with love).

Okay, said my piece now. Ciao until next week.

Other articles you may enjoy:

The Importance of Being Earnest

I Dare You To Unleash Your Creativity!

What You Need to Throw Out When You Decide to Choose Fulfillment

How to Use Your Heart Wisdom

I Dare You To Unleash Your Creativity!

Posted on May 13, 2015 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

The quote below is an extract from my book ‘Creative Expression — How to find our inspiration’.

You can buy the paperback HERE, you can download the eBook for free HERE or you can watch the audio/visual HERE on YouTube (also gratis).

Prints of the painting above are available HERE.

Other articles you may enjoy:

The Importance of Being Earnest

What You Need to Throw Out When You Decide to Choose Fulfillment

How to Use Your Heart Wisdom

Use Your Experiences For Creative Expansion

The Importance of Being Earnest

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

What a drab word — ‘earnest’ — but hang on a minute…is it really?

When one hears the word ‘earnest’ it conjures feelings of great seriousness — being diligent, sincere and fervent. Stiff upper lip old chap!

Take a Walk on the Wilde Side!

Now let’s look at the funky and ferocious side of this delectable word — it also means:

wholehearted
passionate
purposeful
zealous
enthusiastic

Not such a lackluster word, eh? In fact, it’s a word we should live up to every day.

Now, I’m no idiot — not everyone falls out of bed as perky as a Pyrenees. So how does one evoke such earnest behavior?

Give Your Thumbs a Break

By switching off that iPad, turning off the smartphone, unplugging the television and getting that butt out the door, you could pave the way to more earnest characteristics!

Don’t get me wrong, I love the internet — that old information highway, social networking delight — but you’ve got to have balance or you’re going to stagnate.

Trouble is, inertia can slowly creep in without you even noticing it until you’re the opposite of earnest — apathetic…trivial…dare I say, frigid? *Shudder*

But wait — there is hope…

Where New Ideas Form

Go experience the great outdoors, meet new and diverse people — old and young alike. Everyone has a story to tell, motivation to give, wisdom to impart, knowledge to share and enthusiasm to spread and when these types of people get together A-bombs go off (well, not literally…but you get the drift)!

Since my move to the country, I have met the most interesting people from 16 year olds to 80 year olds — I love ’em all and would hang out with them in a heartbeat. Every one of them has a rich blend of reality to weave and fresh ideas to bring to the global table.

Make time to hang out with your friends (you know — the real flesh and blood ones). There’s nothing more exhilarating than hanging out with your tribe. Don’t have a tribe? Go find them! And they’re not usually the ones hanging out in bars either (although it’s not unheard of).

Mingle and get to know your community — you’ll be surprised where your tribe is actually hiding out.

Kick Bunbury to the Curb

In earnest eagerness to exit this essay, I want you to stop bunburying — yes, you read right! ‘Bunburying’ — a legitimate English word coined by Oscar Wilde in his book ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’ (after Bunbury, the fictitious invalid friend of Algernon whose supposed illness is used as an excuse to avoid social engagements) and a word I’m going to throw around a lot more in polite conversation.

Get out there and socially engage with Wilde enthusiasm. I encourage you — my dear readers — to make merry, emblazon your passions, engage in zealous pursuits, live wholeheartedly, sow your seeds of vim and vigor and entice people to do the same with your ardent fervor!

Let’s hope it’s catchy — you might start a wave of industriously, impassioned and potently purposeful living!

And I say all this to you in earnest whilst closing my Oxford dictionary.

Other articles that may tickle your fancy:

What You Need to Throw Out When You Decide to Choose Fulfillment