Letter To My Guests

Being a creative person in today's fast-paced world can be very challenging - both internally and externally. Inwardly, it can sometimes be frustrating to find just the right way to express things we strongly feel and see. All artists, writers - all people who are creative, share that basic drive, that burning urge to bring something to life that will authentically mirror their highest vision. In the arena of commerce, the challenge can be even more daunting: How do we find ways to market the thing we love to do so that we may share it with a wide audience - and maybe make some money at the same time?
Clearly, as a creative person, you are doing what you do because you love it, because you are someone who sees the world in a very special way, and have a passion to share your wonderful talent with others. But, sometimes creative people feel alone in their journey. Wouldn't it be nice to have someone close at hand to acknowledge and validate who you are and what you're doing? What if there was the possiblility of a relationship that could take you even farther than that, beyond the "feel good moment" when you see your work being appreciated, and into an energized space where you would be able to improve that work and connect even more deeply with the source of your creative inspirations?

As a visual artist and poet, I have struggled with these questions myself. I know the kind of stress that can build up during long periods of creative block; I've also felt the pressures that come when that inner critic told me "you're not good enough, you'll never succeed." All of us wrestle with self doubt and high expectations through the creative process. But, beneath even these troubling feelings, there continues to burn a constant desire to express impulses that are foundational to who we truly are.

For me, one of the great challenges I faced in my artistic journey was finding the right medium for my creative talent. Would it be paint, pen, poetry? After years of pursuing that question, I finally came to realize that the unique medium that called to me most strongly was the energy of the human heart; and, I saw that I could experience that energy best when I became connected with other people. This has led me towards a career working with creative individuals. The art that I engage in now is an art of dialogue. Words have become my brush, my pen, my resonant instrument. I employ a specific form of conversation where I act as moderator in a drama and dance of human development. Through that interaction, the talents of my clients seem to rise to the surface, and they become able to utilize their abilities more fully and to excel in what they do. I inspire, and encourage them. And my personal joy is fulfilled by witnessing the products of their success.

I am a Creative Purpose Coach. I work with creative people - not only to help them find success in their careers, but also to discover things about who they are, why they're here; I help them identify their life purpose, the reason behind the doing.

If you've been feeling a desire to stimulate your own creativity, to integrate it more with your daily life, to increase your professional confidence, or simply improve your skills at marketing yourself, I can offer you tangible, expert help in any of these areas.

The program I offer is based on a process I call Coaching The Inner Light.
For more on this - and to share in my personal, interior journey as a Life Coach,
please, read on.....

COACHING THE LIGHT

When I read the book "Breaking The Rules" by Kurt Wright I was deeply impressed by the concept of "right questions" - how, when asking for information in a certain way, we might stimulate our minds to search with keen focus for particular goals - and, how these kinds of questions could be catalysts for personal enlightenment.
As well as questions, there were also various forms of instructions - or tools offered as methods to develop intuitive thinking. One of these employed the use of daily affirmations - personal statements that could be planted in the subconscious mind to later sprout as feelings of strong intent, attitudes of "want to" which have the power to counteract lifetime habits of pessimistic thought.
I've experimented with a number of affirmations that I hoped would propel me into the kind of thinking that I want to hone in on as a Life Empowerment Coach. For the most part, these have all been very helpful. But I want to tell you about one particular grouping of intentional words I have found that, like those "right questions", have created the perfect "right affirmation" for me.
It addresses all of my desires and goals around being a coach and has even helped me to bring the coaching mindset beyond the "session" moment and into all my daily interactions.
The affirmation is:

I SEARCH FOR THE SPARK OF LIGHT, ACKNOWLEDGE BEAUTY IN EVERYONE.

The imagery and symbol of "light" means a lot to me. I think of light both as the core energy of all existence, and as a state of being - a light heartedness, free from the heavy press of gravity. I search for this in everyone, knowing that each person, whether living in a catabolic or anabolic energy state, has at least a spark of this reality inside them. And, when I find it ( and the search itself has become a sort of "game" for me - an eager play at discovery), I acknowledge it either inwardly to myself, or outwardly by speaking some word(s) of encouragement and recognition to whomever I meet.
Of course, this is the ideal, and I don't always remember to be focused on my intent. But, it is my chosen affirmation, and the working goal that I have adopted for my life. The game continues to unfold, the challenges continue to play upon the screen of my observations - meanings shift and develop.
My hope is that, by using this affirmation as my daily exercise, I will continue to grow in the sense of what I believe a true coach should be - a light giver, light celebrant, light sharer, inspirer of light ways of thinking and feeling: a light magnet.

This blog will be a record of the illuminated path that is revealing itself before me. Focused on the intent that I have just stated, it will appear as poetry, journal, parable and anecdote. I'm offering my story as a form of inspiraton and encouragement for my fellow coaches ( and clients).

Of course, by presenting this, I'm not trying to say that my affirmation is appropriate for anyone other than myself ( though it may be). I just want to share the thoughts it has inspired. I think that all creative, life affirming thought, when shared with others, can help each of us to grow. It helps me to write these things. I hope, in the very least, that some of what you read here, will make you smile. That would make it worth the effort.

This is the introduction. More to follow....