Because We're All Writers

Are you a writer? Hell yeah!

In today's world where most of us spend our days writing emails and status reports, texts, tweets, blogs, and simply expressing ourselves and our ideas and intentions with colleagues and friends in some form of written communication -- we're all writers. Or what I call everyday writers.

On this note, I'd like to announce that going forward, my coaching is going to focus on helping people with their writing lives.

So, Tatyana Mishel Coaching is now called Everyday Writer: Coaching for People Who Write. People who write = everyone from formalist poets to creative professionals, solopreneurs and anyone who wants to have a more confident or playful or expressive relationship to their daily writing life, whatever that may be (writing poems, status reports, emails, love letters, blogs, business Web sites).

The coaching work  focuses on everything from how to write with more ease and find your voice to personal coaching around creative blocks and time management.

One of my projects, along with coaching packages, is to create a Writing Gym -- a place where people can come together to work their writing muscle in a community and get tips and support and helpful perspectives on expressing themselves in their perfect voice and learning to fly with it. 

This is all new and if you'd like to be a part of it and let me know what you think as it moves along I welcome your thoughts!  I'm in the process of  updating the Web site content to reflect the writing focus.

Here's to all your creative, expressive endeavors -- personal and professional! Because you are creative.

What's Your Best-Of for 2009?

If you wrote your own personal Best Of 2009 List, what would be on it? I just wrote mine and like any really honest inventory there's always something revealed: what really matters and a theme or two.

There were plenty of events and accomplishments I could have put down on my Best-Of list that would make sense, such as: having written a novel (albeit at the speed of light). But in my heart it wasn't fulfilling. I actually felt more moved and excited by the first poem I finally wrote this year, just yesterday. There's a message here obviously.

What a Best Of list can show you is a potpourri of: What you did; a theme of a year; movement and direction; and point to goals/themes/commitments/devotions/whatever-you-call-them for 2010.

So, I invite you to write your heart-felt personal Best Of* list for 2009. See what you find there.

*What counts as a best-of? Some examples to get you started:

A big-ass accomplishment: You arrived somewhere new and great in your work life, personal life, creative life, spiritual life, child- and pet-raising life.

The internal stuff: You reacted to that same ol' button-pushing situation in a new and improved way. And YOU know it. Or, you had a conversation that was at a higher level even if for five minutes.

Courage: What did you do that took courage and faith?

Action: Where did you take action to begin to move in the direction of your dreams (even if dreams are fuzzy)? In-the-moment moments: Did you walk in the dusk and stop to look at the silver fairy dust and ethereal light and declare, "Oh WOW"? Because stopping to notice this beauty, some might say, is mastery.

Anything else that whispers in your ear. Trust your instincts of what counts for a 2009 Growth-worthy Best-Of Accomplishment.

Here's to a kick-ass 2010. You've earned it, don't you think?

Signs of Your Creative Life

 

I've hear this way too often:

"I"m not creative."

Well let me renounce this type of proclamation with a quick story:

About ten years ago I'm working at a dot-com start up in a creative director positon. I need an idea and I'm talking to one of the smart IT guys and he gives me a pearl of an idea: simple, elegant, perfect -- creative to the T.

And then he says, "But what do I know, you're the creative one."

This moment has stayed with me as a whisper, a temptation to wonder: What would people do with their working days, their daily lives, their yearly goals if they saw themselves as innately creative?

Imagine if everyone woke up in the morning and went through the day believing they had access to a creative state that they could harness whenever they wanted to -- what would your life look like?

My credo is: If you breathe, you're creative.

Being creative isn't about being an artiste. It's about how you express yourself that is uniquely you, and rising to your full potential to move through this chaotic, messy, wonderful, heartbreaking and exhilerating experience of life.

So, as you consider your bad-ass creative self, I'd like to give you a list of all the things you do that are creative. Why? Because you are always creating something: an act, a product, an expression, a thought. And it's all you. Some acts are more creative than others. And leveraging that creativity is when life comes more easily, we have breakthroughs, we communicate more flexibily with others and we just have more goddamn fun.

Here are all the ways you are being creative in your work and life:

Walking down the street

Having a conversation

Balancing your checkbook

Managing other people's money

Staring at your screaming kid and wondering what to do now

Figuring out how to write that email to your boss worded in just the right way

Lying in bed at night chasing your thoughts

Reading a book

Taking a photo or posing for one

Having a really bad day or week or even year and reaching for all the ways you can get through it

Giving someone a hug. Receiving a hug. 

Cooking a meal or walking up and down the grocery aisles

Getting out of bed in the morning

Getting dressed

Driving around town

Saying hello to a stranger you walk by on the street

Picking up the phone to call a good friend

Writing your status on Facebook

Buttering your bread

Reading this

Breathing

What's the Best Swine Flu Immunity?

Hey, I'm no doctor. But I'm going to say this anyway. There is a LOT of talk right now about the pros and cons of getting a swine flu shot.

What if we put our attention on staying healthy rather than preventing illness?

What would happen if most of our news and information was about all the great ways we could stay healthy and we all focused on that?

Here are a few tips I've learned recently for good health*:

Take Vitamin D3. If you have sufficient Vitamin D3 levels, your chance of getting sick goes way down.

Get probiotics in your diet. That's yogurty stuff and there's also the supplement form. I don't know much more about the details here. But probiotics help keep the flora well-balanced in our gut so our digestive system stays nice and healthy which = higher immunity system.

Stay hydrated. Yes, it's still about 8 glasses of water a day and drink the first one upon waking.

Sleep. Make it sacred. If it's a choice between working out and sleep, pick sleep as a default.

Don't forget to laugh. And breathe. And do the things you like to do. And play. Be creative.

Very few things in life are as serious as doing the things that keep you feeling whole, healthy and relational.

Here's to thinking about how to BE HEALTHY rather than preventing illness.

*Thanks to Dr. Mark Adams of onvo for the great health tips.

A Niece and Her Dog: The Power of Creative Thinking

This is a tale about the power of creative thinking. And a beloved family dog, Gomez, RIP.

Last night my niece, Taya called me in tears. Her family dog, Gomez age 11, died that day. She was heartbroken, and crying her little heart out. After one lame-o comment about death being the cycle of life (pathetic, right?) I asked her to tell me everything she wanted to tell me in that moment. 

She started telling me in detail about a memorial project the family was going to make and display under Gomez's favorite willow tree. Suddenly the crying quiver was gone and her voice carried a sense of strength and excitement. She couldn't hold the sadness while her focus was on the act of creation. Ah, the power of the creative mind!

Next, I started telling stories of spending time with Gomez, and of course they included her, too. And the next thing I know, she was giggling and laughing. I was surprised, I admit it.

The point is, she had her cry, I let her feel sad but when we decided together to go into creative mode -- her telling me about the memorial art project and me telling a story -- there was a joyful presence hanging out in this space, instead of all dark, wallowing sadness. I mean, how many times can you say "I'm so sorry" and not feel a bit lame.

It reminds me how focusing on the act of creative thinking and doing is so good for a human heart and soul.

So, what are you going to create today?

Be a Quitter

“I don’t want to be a quitter.”

It’s the American rally cry. To quit is to be weak, a loser, a person of questionable moral fiber. And so we stay in the job, in the same types of relationships, we do the same sports, read the same books and carry on in the same way of thinking -- even after any of these may have stopped working for us.

And of course there are all kinds of positives about sticking with it during tough times. However -- what about the times when quitting might be the best thing to do?

Maybe our resistance started when we were young kids doing a sport or playing an instrument we hated but our parents said, “You’re not going to be a quitter.” But what if you had quit the swim team or piano lessons, the scout group or dance classes and instead found that you liked tennis, writing or calculating quadratic equations?

Seth Godin writes about the joy of quitting which gets the ball rolling on this topic.

With that in mind, the question here is:

Is there anything that you could quit – or let’s say RELEASE – that would let you discover something you’d rather do?

Is there something you could let go of that would make you breathe more easily and add a spring in your step and give you a bit of an excited rev in your engine to go forth and manifest?

It can take a lot of courage and discernment to be a quitter.

Letting go and being open to the faith of new possibilities takes balls.

Also, giving yourself the space to leave may give you the moxie to jump in and try new things. You don't have to be imprisoned by sticking with it if it continues to be unfruitful and sucky. We're not suffer-mongerers here!

So, with all this in mind –- how can releasing a person, place, thing or behavior make your life even better?

What have you always wanted to do?

We've all said it, and probably multiple times: "I've always wanted to ______________."

But how often do we do that thing -- the trip, the class, the food, the book, the sport, the conversation -- whether it taps into our sense of adventure or creativity or romance or dream job or personal development?

Some of them can't be that hard to do.

Here's what got me thinking about this.

I was watching a sport video by a group of base jumpers who traveled to Norway to do some nutty extreme adventure sport in which they hurl themselves off some of the highest cliffs and do a bit of "flying." 

It's probably waaaaay more far fetched than any "I've always wanted to ..." most of us have ever claimed, and it went like this:

The video stars with skiiers dropping and flipping down the steep cliffs of Norway with water below and a voice explaining:

"What we've always wanted to do is go off a terminal cliff, rip our skis off and then fly away in a wind suit."

Mhhm! Those words that come after the "always wanted to part" are almost funny. They put images of Paris in the Spring in the leage of of a home-delivered basket of kittens. Of course, it's all relative, still ...

This outrageous "always wanted" made mine seem so... doable. And cozy and safe, because some of these guys die doing this stuff. And so, a ticket to a Swimtrek trip in the Greek islands is comparatively easy. Taking a painting class -- piece of cake; my reading list? It almost makes me laugh, no, actually -- it does make me laugh. It's so easy to do some of these things. Reach out pick up book lie down let some time go by. Sit down, pick up phone, pull out credit card, recite or enter a series of numbers -- first big step, done.

And these guys with the crazy flying squirrel dreams figured it out. 

And no, I'm not going to Greece tomorrow or signing up for a painting class this week. But it does get a person thinking about that list. Because sometimes that What-I've-Always-Wanted-to-Do list includes simple stuff like: make jam or go check out a new neighborhood or do a Sunday drive through the next town or say that nice thing to that nice person ... easy stuff.

With that in mind, is there anything on your Always Wanted To list that you can start working toward right now?

Think about it.

This summer, I finally read Dante's Inferno. I've always wanted to read it. And finally did. It's just a book. But suddenly, other Wants became possible.

And if going to the Maldives is on that list, how can you bring a bit of the Maldives home, for starters?