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Creative Lift 65 – Designing with Your Voice in Mind

Creative Lift 65 – Designing with Your Voice in Mind

In today’s episode of Creative Lift, Creating Space: Designing with your Voice in Mind, we’re continuing our series that explores the Illuminary. The Illuminary is a visualization tool that invites you to picture your creative thinking process happening in various rooms. Our goal is to make the abstract and sometimes confusing creative process more tangible, giving ourselves tools to see the way we move through the creative process with clarity and flow.

Today’s room is the Attic. In this mental space, you’re invited to think reflectively—collecting ideas, asking questions, and discovering personal connections. Come into my Attic for a while to explore the various possibilities, so that you can then design your own to fit your approach and style. What elements would make an ideal reflection space for you?

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EPISODE LINKS:

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

 

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a huge thank you to Alex Doherty for his fantastic editing of the show.

 

Creative Lift 64 – Strategizing in the Workshop

Creative Lift 64 – Strategizing in the Workshop

In today’s episode of Creative Lift, Creating Space: Strategizing in the Workshop, we’re continuing our series that explores the Illuminary. The Illuminary is a visualization tool that invites you to picture your creative thinking process happening in various rooms.

Each room is designed to support a particular mode of thinking. For instance, your Studio is a space for divergent thinking, brainstorming, improvising, and experimenting, where your Workshop is a space for strategic thinking, craftsmanship, and decision-making. Both kinds of thinking are essential in the creative process. However, when you try to do them at the same time, the creative process slows to a crawl as these two approaches wrestle with one another.

In last week’s episode, we explored the Workshop and discussed how this space might support your creative work. Today, we’ll apply that understanding with an activity that invites you to roll up your sleeves, sort through your ideas, and make strategic decisions in your Workshop.

LISTEN IN:

EPISODE LINKS:

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

 

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a huge thank you to Alex Doherty for his fantastic editing of the show.

 

Creative Lift 63 – Designing with Strategic Thinking in Mind

Creative Lift 63 – Designing with Strategic Thinking in Mind

In this season of Creative Lift, “Creating Space,” we’re making the abstract and sometimes confusing creative process more tangible. We’re giving ourselves tools to see the way we move through the creative process so that we can ideate, craft our work, gather feedback, and revise our work with more clarity and flow.

Today’s episode, “Designing with Strategic Thinking in Mind,” builds on the concept of the Illuminary, which I outlined in episode 60. In this imagined space, you can visualize different kinds of creative thinking inside distinct mental rooms. In our last two episodes, 61 and 62, we explored the Studio where you’re invited to think expansively—brainstorming, improvising and experimenting.

Today, we’re heading over to the Workshop, where you’re invited to think critically—making decisions, developing ideas, and revising your work.

When I spend too much time in the Studio, my ideas spiral out of control, leading me into intriguing, but often illogical territory. When I spend too much time in the Workshop, my work bogs down under the weight of my critical eye. 

Even though both rooms are essential, so is the wall between them. Without a wall to separate these kinds of thinking, your inner critic has clear access to throw darts at fledgling ideas. In retaliation, your creativity is likely to rebel and either shut down or tangle storylines into rats’ nests.

My recommendation is that you firmly close your Studio door, and march across the hall into an entirely separate room where you can envision your Workshop. You’ll want to be able to move easily between the rooms—often in one work session, you’ll start out in the Studio to generate ideas, head over to the Workshop to begin to shape those ideas, hit a snag and need to pop back to the Studio to brainstorm again, and then bring your solution ideas back to the Workshop to finish the day’s work. The more capacity you build in these two spaces, the more fluidly you’ll be able to use as you move between them.

Let’s explore the Workshop, which is filled with practical tools and the can-do optimism you need when you’re facing a pile of messy, but promising ideas. 

LISTEN IN:

EPISODE LINKS:

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

 

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a huge thank you to Alex Doherty for his fantastic editing of the show.

 

Creative Lift 62 – Creating Space: Playing in the Studio

Creative Lift 62 – Creating Space: Playing in the Studio

Today’s episode of Creative Lift, “Creating Space: Playing in the Studio,” is a hands-on experience of playing in one of the Illuminary’s rooms, the Studio. You can think of the Illuminary as an inner creative hideout that is made up of various rooms designed to support your creative thinking process. The Studio is a space for divergent thinking, brainstorming, improvising, and experimenting.

Last week’s episode offered a tour of the Studio, and today’s episode invites you to experience it. Since this is a hands-on experience, I encourage you to listen to this episode when you have a few quiet minutes to focus and a pen and paper in hand.

LISTEN IN:

EPISODE LINKS:

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

 

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a huge thank you to Alex Doherty for his fantastic editing of the show.

 

Creative Lift 61 – Creating Space: Designing with Play in Mind

Creative Lift 61 – Creating Space: Designing with Play in Mind

In today’s episode of Creative Lift, “Creating Space: Designing with Play in Mind,” dive with me into the first of the Illuminary’s rooms, the Studio. You can think of the Illuminary as an inner creative hideout that is made up of various rooms designed to support your creative thinking process. The Studio is a space for divergent thinking, brainstorming, improvising, and experimenting. In our episode, we’ll explore why play matters, no matter what age you are, and how play facilitates your creative flow and momentum.

What kind of environment would work best for you in your internal Studio? What colors, tools, and supplies invite you into a playful state of mind? Your Studio is a place to experiment, even when you have no idea whether a possibility will lead anywhere productive. In this space, making a mess is not only expected, it’s celebrated.

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Don’t miss out on next week’s follow-up episode! In this season, we’re alternating between an episode like this one, that provides a tour of one of the Illuminary’s rooms, followed by an episode like next week’s, in which we’ll play through a hands-on activity together to get a feel for what actually being in that room might feel like. I encourage you to set some time aside next week to join me in the Studio and stretch your playful thinking skills. 

EPISODE LINKS:

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

 

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a huge thank you to Alex Doherty for his fantastic editing of the show.

 

Creative Lift 60 – A Room of Your Own – Why Creative Space Matters

Creative Lift 60 – A Room of Your Own – Why Creative Space Matters

In Season Eight of Creative Lift, our theme is Creating Space. Today’s episode is titled, “A Room of Your Own: Why Creative Space Matters.”

When you think of creative space, what comes to mind? Do you think of your physical creative space? Or does your mind turn to something less easy to define, such as your mental or emotional space?

Maybe right now, you’re in a season where you feel you have the just-right amount of creative space. Or maybe you are longing for more physical or metaphorical creative space in your life. No matter where you are, this season invites you to take a deep breath, and to look at creative space in a new way. You’ll gain tools that help you apply your creative thinking skills directly to your creative process. We all have those stuck places that come up over and over again. What if your creativity was exactly what you needed to reimagine those challenges and overcome them?

If you’re familiar with Writerly Play, you’ve likely heard me speak about the Illuminary. This imagined villa houses many rooms, and each room offers a particular thinking environment. The Studio, for instance, provides you an expansive, playful space where you can ideate and dream. Across the hall, the Workshop holds practical tools to help you craft those ideas and dreams into a shape you can share with others.

The Illuminary makes what the invisible—our creative thinking process—visible. By illuminating the shifts we make from one mode of thinking to another, we avoid common creative blocks. By equipping each room with tools that are personalized for our own approach, we learn not only to rely on our strengths, but also create ease in the spaces that are less comfortable for us.

Throughout this season, we’ll explore the Illuminary’s rooms, discuss the essential mindset required for each, and try out activities that help you experience the feel of each mindset. In today’s episode, we’ll walk through the Illuminary so that you have a map for where we’re headed in this season, and I’ll share a few stories about how and why I developed this tool for myself and others.

I’m very excited to share the Illuminary’s tools and creative mindsets with you. They’ve been transformative for me in my creative process, and I have seen them blast through obstinate creative blocks for others, too. My hope through this season is that through these tools, you will find a renewed sense of momentum and joy as you unlock new horizons in your creative process.

LISTEN IN:

 

 EPISODE LINKS:

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

 

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a big thank you to Alex for his fantastic editing of the show.

 

Creative Lift 58- Permission to Play

Creative Lift 58- Permission to Play

Have you ever thought about the importance of play in your life? In episode 58 of Creative Lift, Living the Artful Life: Permission to Play, we’ll chat about how you might give yourself permission to play.

Anyone who’s been reading this blog for any length of time knows that I firmly believe that play is not just for children – in this episode, we’ll discover one way in which play has great impact. We all know that the amount of energy we have when we approach a task is essential. If we experience our task as a slog, it likely will take more time and what we produce will often be of less quality. When that same task is framed as play, it can become buoyant, which speeds up the work, makes the work fun, and also often creates stronger, more inspired results. From cooking to designing our days, play can unlock our creative energy and give us the momentum we need to move forward.

What possibilities might giving yourself permission to play unlock for you this week?

LISTEN IN:

 

 EPISODE LINKS:

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

 

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a big thank you to Alex for his fantastic editing of the show.

 

Creative Lift 57- Design for Delight

Creative Lift 57- Design for Delight

In her book, Present Over Perfect, Shauna Niequist asks, ″What would our lives be like if our days were studded by tiny, completely unproductive, silly, nonstrategic, wild and beautiful five-minute breaks, reminders that our days are for loving and learning and laughing, not for pushing and planning, reminders that it’s all about the heart, not about the hustle?″

What would that be like?

Today’s episode of Creative Lift, “Living the Artful Life: Design for Delight,” builds on the ideas we explored in episode 55: Create Story Moments. We’ll look at additional ways to be intentional about savoring moments as part of living an artful life. How, for instance, might we find luxury in small, everyday delights? How might we learn to appreciate the simple things in life?

The invitation in this episode is to design an evening of delight and live it up to the fullest. The best part is that not only will your delight be FUN for you and whomever you include in your experience, but when you tell the story of your delight-filled evening with others, you’ll spread joy and happiness to others, too. What I’m learning is this: delight is contagious!

LISTEN IN:

 

 EPISODE LINKS:

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

 

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a big thank you to Alex for his fantastic editing of the show.

 

Creative Lift 56- Seek the Metaphor

Creative Lift 56- Seek the Metaphor

What does it mean to “seek the metaphor?” Here’s a quote from Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit that puts this hard-to-describe concept into words:

Creativity is more about taking the facts, fictions, and feelings we store away and finding new ways to connect them. What we’re talking about here is metaphor. Metaphor is the lifeblood of all art, if it is not art itself. Metaphor is our vocabulary for connecting what we are experiencing now with what we have experienced before. It’s not only how we express what we remember, it’s how we interpret it – for ourselves and others.”

― from The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp

What metaphors might elevate your lived experience today and help you see your relationships, actions, and emotions with fresh perspective? What if, instead of saying that you’re feeling “okay,” today, you described that state of okay as a specific kind of weather? Would it be blue sky with just a cloud or two, maybe one that looks a bit like a four-leaf clover? Or, would it have just finished misting and now a rainbow is cresting across the sky?

When we use metaphor to name our experience, we help ourselves see what might otherwise be invisible. We give ourselves language to understand our experiences more deeply and to communicate more fully with others. In today’s episode of Creative Lift, Living the Artful Life: Seek the Metaphor, we’ll try out another exercise that invites you to use metaphor to gain perspective.

I hope you’ll listen in and give it a try. And if you do, don’t forget to share your story with me! You can find me on Instagram @naomikinsman or sign up for my mailing list below for access to even more Creative Lift resources.

LISTEN IN:

 

 EPISODE LINKS:

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

 

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a big thank you to Alex for his fantastic editing of the show.