Creative Inspiration: Overcoming Limbo with Courageous Creativity, Roslyn Elena McGrath

creativity, tips, therapeutic creativity, holistic wellness, U.P. holistic business, U.P. holistic wellness publication, creative inspiration

As we move into U.P. spring, it’s hard to know just how gradual this movement may be, how long a gray, muddied limbo between snowy wonders and warm blossoming may go on, and how many restrictions, challenges, and losses we may need to weather through this time. These possibilities alone might nudge us to descend into the doldrums.

But we don’t have to feel diminished by any of this. We can choose to expand our world by exercising our innate creative capacities. In my years teaching visual art in public schools, I saw over and over again how by a certain age, most kids would decide they were good at an art or not. That inner critic can loom so large that many who did not see themselves as “the artist,” “the singer,” “the musician,” etc., might never participate willingly in such activities again.

Do you have to excel at fishing to go fish? At cross-country skiing to go ski? Creativity is part of human nature, and much-needed to come home to ourselves, reduce stress, and increase self-expression and novelty. And if anything is going to combat the stay-at-home same-old same-olds, it’s novelty!

So no matter how rusty, shoddy, or splendid you may believe your creative abilities are, you can take some time this season, even for a few minutes at a time, to juice up your life through your creativity.

If you feel at a complete loss as to where to begin, check out what kinds of guided creative experiences might be available to you locally or online, and pick one that sparks your curiosity.
If you already know of something creative you enjoyed doing as a kid, consider exploring a do-able version of it that excites you now.

If you create regularly but feel you’re in a bit of a slump, try a new art form.

It’s likely to take you in a new direction and/or spice up your old one.

If any of these suggestions make you nervous, that might just indicate you’re on the right track! As artist Henri Matisse once said, “Creativity takes courage.”

If an act is truly creative, it’s a step into the unknown, so there will be plenty of opportunities for your inner critic or inner curmudgeon to try to hold you back. But you can decide which part of you is in charge, and go for it anyway, if only for the pure daring of it!

So, here are some solid do’s and don’ts to help you along the way:

DO create a regular routine of creative time. Don’t wait for inspiration to descend from on high. While it‘s wonderful when that happens, research shows habitual creative time not only increases how much you create, but also helps you generate new creative ideas. So if you’re not creating regularly, put it in your calendar, repeatedly, even if for short bursts of time after prepping in advance.

DONT try to critique or refine your creation at the outset. There will time for that later. The beginning is the time for the rough sketch, the raw draft, the stumbling notes. It’s the time when a field full of possibilities is being explored. Newly-born humans don’t walk, and newly-started projects don’t usually seem like masterpieces. Nurture this tender stage. And if you choose to share this part of your process, only do so with those you can trust one-hundred percent to cheer you on.

DO open up to new experiences. They can trigger new creativity, even if seemingly unrelated.

DO your best to open up your senses more fully to what’s around you. Listen, look, smell, feel, sense with greater attention, and you may find new inspiration even in familiar surroundings, as well as feel more fully present and alive.

DO shake things up if you get stuck–create in a new or even unusual location, do a repetitive non-creative task, or go for a walk. In fact, the connection between walking and creativity has been confirmed by research. According to a 2014 Stanford University Study, a person’s creative output goes up an average of 60% when walking, whether indoors or out. (And a little personal confirmation—ideas for this article came to me while out on a walk.)

DON’T become overwhelmed by a big idea or project you may have come up with. Chunk it down into manageable steps, and even micro steps if needed.

DO remember that everything man-made once existed in imagination only, and honor that magical capacity within yourself and others.

DON’T listen to the naysayers in your head or your life. Be bold, and put your attention on your freedom to choose to create instead.

DO remember that creativity includes more than fine art. It can also be how you put together a meal, a gift, a room, a schedule, resolve a challenge….

DON’T use the truism above to justify shying away from a creative activity that intrigues you.

DO hang around with other creative people. Creativity can be contagious!

DON’T imagine what “others” might think or say about your creation. It’s none of your business anyway. Your job is to nourish your creative faculties.

DO get enough sleep. The brain requires adequate sleep to process ideas and to function well. And the rest of you needs sleep to be able to carry out your creative ideas effectively.

Roslyn Elena McGrath supports fulfilling your innate potential through soul and intuition-based sessions, classes, and products at EmpoweringLightworks.com, and publishing Health & Happiness U.P. Magazine.

Creative Inspiration: Interview with Shane Murray, Founder of Music 4 All Kids

What is Music 4 All Kids?

It’s a non-profit organization devoted to the advancement of youth ages five to eighteen through learning, applying and teaching music, regardless of a student’s ability to pay. We work with students at our local facility, (MacDonald’s Music), as well as Marquette’s Alternative High School and YMCA.

We teach individual lessons and workshops, along with a comprehensive four-phase advancement program that culminates in students becoming instructors.

In the first stage, students learn the fundamentals of music, begin lessons on an instrument of their choice, and have access to one-on-one mentorship for building confidence and motivation.

In the second stage, students can join an ensemble of two to four peers playing many genres of music. Social skills are developed while expanding their social circle.

Once students have advanced, they get to experience engineering and recording. In this third stage, they create their own productions and promote them, which develops their job skills. Working on a project and producing a finished piece is a great experience for our students!

Those who reach Stage 4 can become student instructors. They work with our team, learning how to lead workshops and teach beginning lessons. This gives them a sense of accomplishment while promoting leadership skills, and the good feelings that result from passing on what they’ve learned to another student.

We have a talented staff of directors and teachers, plus a board of directors. And we’re partnered with the Cedar Tree Insitute.

What inspired you to found this program?

My mom’s work as Director of Great Lakes Recovery Centers for twenty-seven years inspired me to become a counselor in that field, working for seven years with kids with substance abuse problems in residential settings. As a musician, I later began teaching music lessons in Marquette to kids. While teaching, I realized there was a local need to help children thrive and become better students overall through music and mentoring. So I decided to create a nonprofit to help reach these goals.

We just finished our first instructor training program on October 26^th and 27^th. Fifteen instructors, local professional musicians and social workers, were trained. We’re implementing the program at the Marquette Alternative High School and the YMCA, along with other community nonprofits. The passion of the musicians and teachers at the instructor program was amazing, and we all can’t wait to share our passion with the students!

What successes have you seen with the program so far?

The children in the program are thriving, excelling in school and life. And we had a student who’s been part of the program since it began attend our instructor training program. This year she attended the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camps on a scholarship. We are excited to expand our staff, and to begin teaching in the Alternative School – which currently has no music program!

What are the challenges?

We’re a nonprofit, so we rely solely on donations from the community, and are working hard to obtain grants. We’re constantly looking for donations of instruments, new and used, as well as sponsors from local businesses, and anyone in the community who believes in children, music and personal growth, that can assist us with monetary donations.

What else would you like people to know about Music 4 All Kids?

Research shows children who participate in music programs become better students. Our program teaches and mentors children. We believe in the power of music in a child’s life, and the power of a positive role model. Music can expand and grow your life, and we are excited to bring music to children who don’t have that benefit through their school system.

If there is a child you know who could benefit, or needs a mentor or a musical mentor, contact us. Our new website is http://www.music4allkids.us, and my number is 906-235-5163.

Additional funds would help us to expand our program by providing funding for those students in our target demographic, as well as add a wider variety of musical instruction to our current program.

If you or anyone you know would like to make a donation of instruments or money, we thank you, and the children in the program thank you!

And what did Shane say when we surprised her last night with news of Health & Happiness’s donation?

Oh my God! That’s great! That means so much. Wow, thank you!

Be sure to check out their website, www.music4allkids.us and Facebook page for more on their program!

Creative Inspiration: Spinning Your Web, by Roslyn Elena McGrath

Glimpse the shimmer within shimmer within you

that snags your dreams

and digests them into poems,

stories, anecdotes, detailing your pursuits.

Glimpse the shimmer within shimmer within you

that composes melodies,

visualizes songs, and arranges cantatas

into vessels that carry your essence.

Glimpse the shimmer within shimmer within you

that turns sounds into words, words into stories,

stories into epics and epics into history

that echoes your perspective.

Glimpse the shimmer within shimmer within you

that causes thoughts to grow into patterns,

patterns into beliefs, and beliefs into panoramas

of living art that creates itself.

You are now enchanted here,

the believer of the tales you’ve spun.

Turn this weaving at an angle now

and watch the kaleidoscope rearrange.

The colors shift and change

to elaborate new stories.

Cause and effect continue unbroken

‘til the strand holding them together changes.

Allow one piece of the puzzle to emerge

and the whole puzzle is recreated.

You are a shape-shifter,

turning with the tides set in motion

by your self-created patterns

that shine upon reflection

and remain invisible in the dark,

netting the nuggets that fuel their weave.

Beauty lies in the lace of creation,

its tensile strength and endless adaptability

mesmerizing us deeper into its geometric repetition,

echoing the sound wave its Originator made.

Strum a strand for your own expansion, expression,

create a new form that propagates itself for you.

Witness the shift

of one heart humming

with Original creation,

hanging in the mystery of the Void.

You are endless patterning

recreating itself

with thoughtwave

after thoughtwave.

Channel the changes you desire

into your warp and weft

as part of the Eternal Tapestry

that lives and breathes and moves.

Continue your hum louder.

The chorus grows to support you.

You emerge with poetry

laced throughout your skin

and echoing through your pores

into your cells and out to the world,

a spinner spinning itself into glory.

Roslyn McGrath facilitates healing experiences through her art, poetry, intuitive counseling, energy healing, workshops and guided meditations. This poem was inspired by her painting Spider Woman, and will be part of her meditation CD series. Listen to other meditations, view art and learn more at www.intuitivelearningcreations.com.

Creative Inspiration – Contagious?

Every day, the actions we take influence others, for better or worse. Though relatively small in population, our area has quite a few women who have influenced others for the better through their public achievements. We asked a few of them, predominantly those in the arts, to tell us about a woman who helped inspire their own creativity and/or achievements.

We also were fortunate to be able to include this year’s USA Weightlifting Champion and local USEOC trainee Vanessa McCoy, who has created a very significant accomplishment in a field until recently associated with men.

We hope these nuggets will inspire you and remind you of those who have already inspired you as well.

Nationally Award-Winning Water Color Artist & Instructor Kathleen Conover: Marquette resident Maggie Lynn is a dedicated artist, art educator, friend, wife and mother who continues to inspire not only in watercolor painting but in life. Though very busy, she always makes time to help others, even myself when she didn’t know me, a struggling newbie-artist. I called one day, asking her to critique my paintings. Without hesitation she looked over all my pieces very carefully, considered silently and shared her years of artist’s-eye expertise. Then she encouraged me not to quit! I was off and running and so was our friendship, for over thirty years now. I am blessed to have Maggie as a friend and role model in my life.

Gretchen Preston, local author of Valley Cats: The Adventures of Boonie and River, and More Valley Cats: Fun, Games and New Friends: I discovered the books of Beverly Cleary in the Riverdale School Library when I was a fifth grader. Her many books are about the antics of the children who live on Klickitat Street in Portland, Oregon. My attraction to her stories was that not only did I live in Portland, but my grandparents also lived on Klickitat! This connection inspired me to write local children’s stories. My favorite Cleary books are Beezus and Ramona, and Mouse and the Motorcycle. Beverly Cleary is a Newberry Award winning author. Her enchanting stories have been enjoyed by children for over sixty years.

Social Dance Instructor Camilla Mingay, co-creator and c0-producer of the Annual Blueberry Dance Festival and Holiday Dance Show: Marge Sklar, NMU Associate Professor and Associate Dean of the College of Business, has inspired me since my high school days, when she provided me key dance instruction, and throughout the years since. She gave me the opportunity to perform demonstrations for her college students, encouraged me to choreograph and perform at NMU events, and even brought me to my very first dance competition at Michigan Tech University, where my dance partner and I took first place! Marge has helped make dance instruction accessible to all ages and levels of dancers throughout the community by offering free ballroom dance classes at NMU, acting as advisor to student dance groups, and opening the Dance Zone, where people of all ability levels can learn different forms of social dancing.

Winner of three gold medals in the 2011 USA Weightlifting National Championships and Marquette USOEC trainee Vanessa McCoy: I’m greatly inspired by Olympic weightlifter Melanie Roach. Melanie has an incredible positive attitude and zest for life! She always seems to be smiling and having fun in competition. She’s also a master at life balance, managing a family of four children, including a special needs child and a husband in politics, while owning a gymnastics academy and training for elite weightlifting competitions. Melanie’s perseverance has brought her to the top of her sport. Her example of suffering a difficult back injury and coming back as the top finishing American 2008 Olympic weightlifter, male or female, pushes me to overcome my own obstacles.

Reprinted with permission from the Fall 2011 issue of Health & Happiness U.P. Magazine.