Creating art is one of the most loving, healing things we can do for ourselves. It is a refuge in challenging times as well as uplifting times. So long as we approach our creative time in a spirit of love, play, permission, and partnership with a field of life larger than we are. So long as we remember to enjoy it as the gift that it is and enter into it with curiosity and openness. So long as we make one vital agreement with ourselves before we create each time. I’ll share that agreement below.

But first, I want to address the physical space in which you create.

One way you can support yourself in making your creative play a gift to yourself is by taking the time to make your creative space a sanctuary, a soothing, nurturing, inspiring place to make your art. Your space doesn’t need to be large or fancy. The changes you make need not be expensive. But they can make a difference in creating a true oasis where your muse feels encouraged to come out and play, where you feel inspired and can relax into that precious state known as flow, where we lose all sense of time and self-consciousness and are deliciously absorbed in the process of creation, rather than obsessing over the results.

Here are some suggestions to help you make your creative space a sanctuary. Take the ones that appeal to you and also invent your own.

Clearing the Space

Many of us use our kitchen tables or desks for our creative work. If that’s you and you don’t have a dedicated space just for art, one thing that can be very helpful to enticing your muse is to take five minutes before you begin creating to clear the space as best you can. Remove the dishes and old newspapers from the table and wipe it down. Stack the bills and papers on your desk to one side or put them on the floor. Open the space for creating and remove distractions.

If you do have a dedicated studio, sometimes a few minutes of clean-up or preparing your tools and materials is a perfect ritual to begin your creative time.

This will make your creative space feel more inviting and also signal to your muse, your inner creative spark, that it’s time to make some art.

Also, if at all possible, keep your phone in a different room or turn it off altogether. Tell the people in your home not to bother you. Shut out the possibility of distractions and disruptions.

Beautifying and Enlivening Your Creative Space

The furniture, objects, colors, and images you include in your creative space matter. Is the space fun, inspiring, beautiful? In short, does it stimulate your muse? Or is it boring, lifeless, overwhelming, distracting, or worse, ugly?

How can you bring more beauty and inspiration into your creative space? What objects or talismans might enliven your muse?  Does she want it playful and colorful or for it to have a Zen elegance and austerity?

Is it time to paint the walls a new color or paint clouds on the ceiling? Get a colorful throw rug? Or put some new art on the walls? My desk has many special, small objects on it, as well as inspiring quotes and a rotating selection of images on cards. It feels bright, spacious, fun, and beautiful. But it does get cluttered with work-related things easily, so I usually take a few minutes to clear it before I start making art there.

Perhaps you might even want to make an altar to your muse with special objects that inspire her.

You don’t have to revamp your space all at once, but taking time to make it the way you truly like it is a wonderful gift to your muse.

Sounds

Playing quiet music, music that inspires you, or sounds that nurture you (recordings of oceans, wind in the trees, birds) is one way to carve out space for your creativity apart from the daily concerns and noises of the outer world. Kristin Tweedale of the Crafty Ass Female podcast—shoutout to her for inspiring this post with one of her own podcast episodes—loves her noise-canceling headphones, which allow her to shut out the outside world and listen to music she loves.

I rarely listen to music while creating, especially while writing, but I do use ear muffs designed to protect your hearing when using power tools. They are a godsend when my husband is home and listening to music in the other room or talking on the phone. They muffle the outside noise in a wonderfully helpful way. Just putting them on helps me feel I am in a special, secluded space, and it helps me concentrate. You can get a pair of these for less than $20.

Smells

Are the smells in your creative space pleasing and soothing to you? Essential oils and a diffuser are a wonderful way to bring scents into the space. Perhaps it’s just some fresh air you crave and can open the window at least a little. Find what smells invite, soothe, and nurture you.

Ritual

Having a simple ritual to begin your creative time is a wonderful way to let your muse know that it’s time for making art. It helps your consciousness shift out of the mundane mode into an open, receptive state.

A simple ritual that also helps you relax is excellent because we need to be relaxed and to feel safe to create our best work.

Taking three deep breaths is one very simple ritual you might try. You might do some yoga stretches or even go for a run—it’s great to enliven and relax the body before creating. Perhaps you turn on some special twinkle lights or other special lighting. Or, like someone entering an Aikido studio, you might bow upon entering. I like to light a candle, say a short prayer, and ring a bell. Sometimes I also wash my hands in a special bowl.

What helps you relax, shift gears from your ordinary tasks into a creative, receptive state, and feel safe?

Creating the Inner Space to Make Art

Creativity needs safety to flow. One key way to provide that sense of safety and invitation is to make an agreement with yourself every time before you begin that you will not judge the work. You agree to suspend judgment and simply invite what comes to come. You adopt an open attitude of permission, curiosity, and playfulness. You are willing to make mistakes and messes and bloopers.

Even when engaged in the refinement or editing process, you don’t judge your art. You cultivate discernment, not judgment. Judgment shuts the whole creative process down. It’s death to creativity. So make a promise to yourself to not judge the work, and if you catch yourself judging it—we’re all human!—stop yourself, apologize, suspend judgment, open yourself to surprise. Often, in the moment of creating, we have no accurate sense of whether the work we’re making is any good or not anyway. Some time and distance is needed to gain perspective and see what’s there.

Treat your muse lovingly. Be encouraging, as you would with a small child. And take some time to make your creative space a sanctuary. Your muse will thank you.

The post Make Your Creative Space a Sanctuary appeared first on Maxima Kahn.

Here in the Northern hemisphere, we have entered the darkest, coldest time of year.

Though the light begins to return with the turning point of the Winter Solstice, we are still very much in the sacred dark. The fertile void.

We have passed the blur of the holidays with their unique challenges and joys.

With the advent of New Year’s day, many feel pressured to just barrel right into setting goals and leaping into action.

But our bodies, hearts, and souls long for rest. And soulful dreaming.

by Erik-Jan Leusink on Unsplash

If we are to move with the rhythms of nature and honor ourselves, this is a time for introspection. Hibernation. Taking it slow.

January is for Resting in the Gap

I believe that the whole month of January, at least in the Northern climes, should be a time for Resting in the Gap.

We complete the harvest of the old year, if we haven’t already. We rest. And we tune into what wants to be birthed through us in the coming year.

What tugs at you? What calls to you? What inspires you? What do you long for or need?

Give yourself space and time to answer these questions. To name your heart’s desires for the year ahead in a way that lights you up.

Take the whole month to tune into the dreaming of the new year coming through you. To come to heart-centered clarity and soulful dreams, goals, intentions, or guiding themes for your year ahead.

And to rest and replenish.

The New Year Begins Around February 1

Let your new year begin with the lunar new year and the ancient Celtic cross-quarter day of Imbolc, which was considered the very first beginnings of springtime. This year, lunar new year falls on January 29 and Imbolc is on February 1.

See how this feels in your body to give yourself the month of January to rest in the gap and tune into the dreaming of the year ahead.

by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

And then, as February begins, you can step into inspired action, gently, the way the first crocus peek up from the snow.

When we move with the rhythms of nature, our life flows better and we feel better. We live in a culture that doesn’t honor this. I invite you to grant yourself this gift as best you can.

With love and blessings for your year ahead,

P.S. For more on my process of harvesting the old year and dreaming the new, you can read this: https://maximakahn.com/harvesting-and-dreaming/

P.P.S. On Thursday, January 23 from 11:00 – 12:30 pm PT I will offer a free webinar on Harvesting Your Creative Year. Sign up for my e-mail list to hear about that.

P.P.P.S. Last week I posted all about Awakening, non-duality, and our birthright of joy on my new Small Wonders project. You can read that for free. And then, consider joining us as a free or paid subscriber. Wonder-full things are happening over at Small Wonders. I’d love for you to be a part of that.

The post Resting in the Gap appeared first on Maxima Kahn.

It’s amazing the way our intuition guides us to just what we need.

Mine has been leading me beautifully throughout the hard journey to health I’ve been on this past year.​

One of the places my intuition led me recently is to Rhonda Byrne. Not to her well-known work on The Secret book and movie, but to her later work.

I heard a podcast with Rhonda and knew immediately she was onto something real that I wanted more of in my life. I started searching for and listening to more podcasts with her, and in one of them, the interviewer spoke about Rhonda’s book The Magic and what a magical impact it had on her life.

I ordered the book right away from my favorite online used book source, ​Better World Books​. You can find all sorts of books there, used, at low prices, and every book you buy provides free books and donations to libraries and literacy programs.

I love real bookstores that you can walk into and browse, and I support small, independent bookstores as much as I can. I hope you do too! But my book habit is so voracious and my budget tight, so I do buy a lot of used books.

Anyway, I want to tell you about The Magic.

It’s a gentle, fun, 28-day program to cultivate gratitude in every aspect of your life and experience the magic that this practice brings. I am a proponent of gratitude practices—I teach them in my Living Your Dreams class—but I also know that gratitude can sometimes feel like a struggle.

Well, I can definitely say that The Magic works!

It has been so fun doing the practices and has made me feel much happier and more grateful. It has shown me all kinds of things to feel grateful for that I have taken for granted. Every teacher of gratitude I’ve ever heard also says that practicing gratitude brings more blessings and abundance into your life, more to be grateful for, according to the law of attraction.

Mostly, it just feels so darn good and right.

I’ve continued to do the practices well beyond the 28 days. When I slow down on them too much, I immediately notice a shift in my mood.

So, if you’re needing an emotional and/or mental boost these days, or you find yourself dwelling in lack or what’s wrong, I highly recommend getting a copy of The Magic by Rhonda Byrne and following the program laid out in the book.

Some of the practices may feel goofy to you. Try them anyway. Later, you can choose the ones you prefer to keep regularly in your life. I’d love to hear your experiences with gratitude. You can post a comment here. Let’s share our gratitude!

To your joy,

Maxima

The post The Gift of Gratitude appeared first on Maxima Kahn.

Something has happened and is happening to me.

After all the hours and days and weeks and months of illness and suffering and fear and fierce hope and determination and making endless batches of vegetable juice and countless appointments with doctors and healers of all kinds, after all the fatigue and pain and teeth-gritting endurance and incalculable letting go—to almost all of it, good riddance!—and surrender and sacrifice and unbelievable grace and kindness and love and generosity showered upon me, a quiet revolution is taking place.

I’m changed and changing. Irrevocably. And it’s happening almost undetectably in its motion yet unmistakably in its effects. It’s like I am wearing a mantle of light, which I haven’t earned but which each of us deserve, it being our true, abiding nature. And I am learning the reality of joy and wonder and gratitude, even as I continue to grub about often in suffering and fear and illusions and plans and dreams and goals and desires and opinions and judgments.

I am transformed and transforming. I am waking up slowly and sometimes startlingly, even while parts of me are still often fast asleep. And it is what I always longed for in the deepest parts of my being and what felt maddeningly far away and hard to get.

And yes, I’m wildly grateful for it. And I hasten to add, I’m still nothing special, except inasmuch as we are all unutterably special and precious and beautiful and good to the core.

And despite this momentary ramble today, I am mostly finding it incredibly hard to put words to this miracle for fear of sullying it or having it fly away like a frightened songbird or getting it wrong.

Mostly, I find myself tongue-tied these days, especially when it comes to the written word, and that’s very odd for someone for whom the written and spoken word has always been an astonishingly fluid thing readily available to my hand and tongue.

I want so much to speak to you, to share with you so many things that have occurred and are occurring to this body and mind and heart and soul on this crazy healing journey I’ve been on this past year. I long to commune with you through language (and in my offerings), and most days lately, I can’t find how or where to start.

But I want you to know how much I think of you—even those I’ve not yet met—and I cherish you being here with me, willing to lend me your ear and time occasionally, and I want to be worthy of that and gift you something deeply valuable, that’s so important to me. And of course, that’s an awful lot of pressure to put on oneself, especially when that self is just recently emerging from the fires of hell and still getting singed frequently and not yet out of the woods entirely, to switch metaphors mid-stream here.

But last night, as I was reading essays by the inimitable Brian Doyle, and his wild speech set free my own for a moment so that I had to sit bolt upright in bed and grab a pen and paper—thank goodness, they were handy right there by the bed—this I had to tell you, about the change in me, the wonder of it, the grace of it, even though incomplete. And I’m so grateful to have been given some words at last to share it with you.

I’m not the same person I was a year ago, when I was diagnosed all of a sudden with an illness that was supposed to claim my life but didn’t and I began an intense and ultimately miraculous healing journey that I’m still on. Of course, none of us are the people we were a year ago. But I’m noticeably not, after all I’ve endured and weathered and gathered.

It was hell to go through, even as it was filled with beautiful, astonishing gifts and moments. I don’t in any way want to make light of that journey. Some days the slow healing still causes me to despair. But I am grateful for the changes in me and curious to watch them continue to unfold and eager to help them continue in the right direction and very much wondering who am I now and what do I need and want and how can I support myself in all aspects.

Some of the big questions I’m living with daily right now are:

What to offer you in the coming year. Definitely The Artist’s Way at the start of the new year. And Freedom to Write as soon as I can after that. But what else and when and how.

How to re-imagine my Patreon subscription program into something gorgeous and wondrous and delectable and necessary that people want to share with everyone they know. What to add, subtract, and restructure so it becomes that. And should it move to Substack?

How to revitalize and reshape my Brilliant Playmates membership community into something powerful, beautiful, needed, and thriving. 

How to live in this crazy world and provide for myself and be as healthy as I can and also give my gifts to as many as I can and make a difference.

How do I keep nurturing this awakening in myself and others because it is the most essential thing?

How can I best contribute to co-creating a world in which all of life is cherished?

And how can we all have more joy, play, wonder, and beauty every day, because when we do we stop fighting and hoarding and doing all the other silly and damaging things we do?

And here’s what I really want to know:

What is it that you most need that I can give to support you living and flourishing artfully and soulfully and giving your amazing gifts to the world?

What are you grappling with? What do you long for? Where do you get stuck or need support?

I know it can feel ridiculously hard to answer such questions, but how about just “first thought, best thought”? And I know it can feel absurdly vulnerable to send the answers in an email to me, but I promise you I read each one with love and care and real interest. You can contact me here.

The post A Quiet Revolution appeared first on Maxima Kahn.

When students ask me what’s the secret to making time for what they long to do, I always answer first with this: Schedule it!

I’m such a huge fan of scheduling regular time for your art or whatever gives your life meaning. When you want to make progress toward your big, scary dreams, or your little, delightful dreams, scheduling time for it is the best way to make it happen. Or, when you want o make time for whatever you love to do.

Because if you don’t schedule it, it doesn’t tend to happen. Have you noticed? Everything else seems to come first.

One summer, many years ago, I found myself without much teaching work because some planned classes didn’t fill. Although I’m sure I panicked about the lack of income, I also made a wonderful choice right then, a fateful choice.

I decided to set aside the kind of creative schedule I had wanted for years, or at least something near to it. I blocked out two hours on weekday mornings, four days a week, for what I call studio time. (My ideal schedule would be 3-4 hours 5 days a week, but this was as close a cousin as I could get and still earn a living.)

I’ve kept that schedule all these years, protecting the time zealously. I would refuse to schedule classes, meetings, or appointments during those sacred hours (sometimes against great pressure to do so). I would refuse to give up that time to others’ needs or my own distractions.

What a huge blessing that has been!

My studio time is my absolute favorite time of the day and week. It makes my life feel more meaningful, beautiful, fulfilling, and fun. And I make real progress on my creative projects, dreams, and goals.

When I got diagnosed with cancer last September, I gave up that studio time to the whirlwind of doctor’s appointments, phone calls, symptoms, and details. And I haven’t had it since.

As soon as I gave up my regular schedule, I stopped making art. Granted, I was going through a very tough time. But that time would have felt better, and less overwhelming, if I’d carved out even tiny amounts of time for creativity.

After the first horrible months of my healing journey, I began to salvage bits of time for art—like when I took on a 30-day challenge to fill one index card a day with some kind of art. Or when I had to write a new poem for the Ekphrastic Fantastic show I was invited to participate in. I started scheduling occasional creative play dates with friends. And I signed up to get Sketchbox delivered to my door once a month. (The photo above is from one of my first Sketchboxes, including the paintings I made following their tutorials and the art supplies they sent.)

But I didn’t save creative time on a schedule. To be fair, I couldn’t, due to the nature of my symptoms and the many healing treatments and appointments weekly. My life was a chaotic, unpredictable tornado.

Now that I have made huge progress in healing, I find myself missing my creative time so much. My life in the mornings, my best creative time, is still topsy-turvy. It’s when my body is most likely to act up with symptoms. And, having given up my precious schedule for so long, my morning routine with my husband has spilled over into that precious time I once had.

Lately, I’ve been writing on my weekly to-do list things like “Creative Time 5x” or, less ambitiously, “Creative Time 3x”, hoping for at least 15 minutes out of the day to make some kind of art. But guess what? If I don’t schedule it, it most often doesn’t happen. That’s what I’ve been telling my students for years, and it’s true!

I long to get my beloved creative schedule back. It’s going to take refiguring the morning routine with my husband, a lot of commitment, and also patience and flexibility as I continue to navigate the healing process.

I’m daunted by having to start from square one again. In so many ways. I’m having to re-invent myself, my life, and my work to fit with the new me that is rising from the ashes of this intense healing journey. And I’m navigating a painfully slow recovery process from major surgery two months ago.

But what a gift to get to do that! And I know I need this regular studio time like I need air to breathe. And I know it’s up to me to make it happen.

It starts with a decision, followed by commitment. And getting back on the horse every time I fall off. And it’s so worth it.

Is there something you long to do that you don’t get around to? You might try this to get started.

The post Rekindling My Creative Schedule: My Secret to Making Time for Art appeared first on Maxima Kahn.

I’ve come across this term “making marks” quite a few times recently as I’ve been dabbling more in the world of two-dimensional visual art.

I’ve told you about my occasional forays this year into illustrated journaling, which has provided a fun and helpful entry point on some days and breaks up some of my usual journal writing habits.

And I shared that I took on my own 30-day, index-card-a-day challenge in March which was fun and gave me daily bursts of creative play in a doable way. Plus, I wound up with this interesting, colorful stack of cards at the end.

Most recently, I’ve discovered Sketchbox. For $25 a month, they send me a sampling of art materials and a short instructional video on how to use them. Oh my gosh, it’s like having a birthday every month. Super fun!

But back to our topic today: Making marks. I love this idea that what we’re up to as 2-D visual artists is simply making marks on a page or canvas. It demystifies the process and makes it less intimidating.

Anyone can make a mark. Then, how about trying a different kind of mark or seeing how many different kind of marks you can make with one pen, pencil, crayon, oil pastel, brush?

I think of Georgia O’Keefe saying her aim in making art was “to fill space in a beautiful way.” Or maybe just in a pleasing way. Or a fun way. Or an exploratory way.

If I’m just making marks, I can try anything, be simple, experiment. I’m not trying to reproduce a tree or bird necessarily, though I might try that. I’m not trying to make ART. I’m just making marks.

And that leads me to get curious about what kinds of marks I want to make. Big splashy ones or lots of dark lines or scratchy little marks or loop-de-loops. Making marks invites me to be less self-conscious about my belief that “I can’t draw” or that things should look a certain way.

And then I realize that all art is making marks. Whether I’m painting or playing music or dancing or sculpting or making a film or writing a poem. I’m making marks in some medium.

And I’m making my mark upon the world. Not in a grandiose way but in the way an animal might mark a tree or stone to say “I was here. I made this. I felt this. I thought this. I encountered this. I dreamed this.”

So, maybe just trying making some marks today. Any kind. And see where they lead.

The post Make Your Mark as an Artist! appeared first on Maxima Kahn.

The Sierra Poetry Festival was spectacular. The power and beauty of this offering blows me away.

People pour their hearts and souls openly and with great care and artistry into words, sharing vulnerably their wisdom, their fears and failings, their faith and hope, their longings and grief, their wonder and questions. It’s a rare and special thing in our world.

I realize that I have a deep need—I think we all do—to be a part of something larger than myself and to make a contribution to the world. Helping to produce the Sierra Poetry Festival each year gives me that. As part of the most remarkable group of passionate volunteers, we give our time and energy to make this beautiful, astonishing day for others.

I’m longing for more of that in my life, more meaning and purpose, being a part of collaborative projects to bring beauty and wonder, hope and magic, art and connection into the world.

My teaching here at Brilliant Playground gave me a ton of that. Since I’ve been on this health journey for 7 months, I’ve had to cut way back on my teaching. And I feel the loss deeply.

Since I left the community based in indigenous wisdom traditions that I was a part of for 22 years, I have missed many things, including the deeper connection and fulfillment it gave me.

It’s not satisfying to be only consumed with my own little concerns or even my art, though art certainly helps me reach beyond myself and connect with things larger than me in the making and the sharing of it.

But I think there’s this fundamental need for each of us to participate and contribute to our world, to be a part of collective efforts to make the world a more beautiful, loving, just, wise place.

I think that fundamental need gets twisted in some people who are already twisted by trauma, and it becomes totalitarianism or racism or other horrifying, misguided movements.

Part of what all this has me realize is I have to look for opportunities to give, to collaborate toward the common good, and then, I have to dive in and welcome them.

Of course, I have to take care of my energy, especially these days. But I can be too cautious and rob myself of what these things give me. They nourish something deep within that can’t be nourished any other way.

Do you have something like that in your life now? Tell me about it. Or tell me what these musings bring up for you.

The post Power and Beauty, Connection and Purpose appeared first on Maxima Kahn.

When you are confronted with a life-threatening illness as I was suddenly four months ago, it’s natural to reach for spiritual inspiration and timeless wisdom to help make sense of the road ahead. It was in that spirit that I felt drawn to re-read Teach Only Love: The Twelve Principles of Attitudinal Healing by Gerald Jampolsky.

I first read this book over a decade ago when I stumbled on it in a bookstore. Now, Jampolsky’s stories of transformation among the children and adults with life-threatening illnesses at his Center for Attitudinal Healing took on a new depth. The principles developed at the Center are elegantly simple, offering a path to inner peace, freedom, and universal love. For months now, I’ve been wanting to share with you some highlights from that book.

These days, I’m learning at a whole new level how profoundly our thoughts determine our experience of life and impact our health on all levels—physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. But beating ourselves up for having so-called “negative” thoughts is not helpful at all. Nor is trying to suppress those thoughts. Jampolsky suggests a kinder approach.

“If you simply think what it pleases you to think, what rests and comforts you, you will be doing all I suggest. There is no rationale in trying to force a change in your state of mind. Simply take careful notice of what it is that makes you happy to think and what makes you unhappy, and your mind will make the necessary adjustments itself.”

I love this. At any moment, I can stop and ask: Is this thought making me happy? Is it making me feel good? Again, I don’t try to suppress the unhappy thoughts. Sometimes I have to air those painful, stressful thoughts first. I just notice and allow myself to make better choices over time.

Here’s another quote from the book that I adore, as it puts authority figures in their rightful place in our healing journey: “One party’s accumulation of verbal knowledge is of little use to deep inner healing.”

So, what is of use to us? Love.

“Attitudinal Healing recognizes a reality that is not connected to problems, upsets, or even life-changing tragedies. That reality is love. And love is entered and assimilated only as our mind loses interest in either fighting against or succumbing to the miseries of life. When the significance of this fact first begins to dawn on us, our initial reaction is likely to be one of confusion about how we should behave, because our tendency is always to want to know in what way truth is supposed to be applied to life. And of course the truth of the love cannot be applied; it can only fill our heart. Once this is done, we will instinctively act in an appropriate way.… decisions are made by learning to listen to the preference for peace within us.”

Ah, learning to listen to the preference for peace within. This is so powerful and such a relief. Does this thought bring me peace? Does this activity bring me peace? Does this motivation bring me peace?

If not, I let it go. As best I can. And in so doing, the way to peace opens before me. Doing this grants me relief from having to know and decide so much in advance.

“If peace is our single aim in all we do, we will always know what to do because we will do whatever will protect and deepen our peace. This approach is in marked contrast to the exhausting attempt to decide every action beforehand on the basis of whether we think it will turn out right.”

I can check in with myself before taking a step: “Are we acting with love, with peace, with happiness, and with certainty? If we are, whatever we do will promote those states.”

Judging others and ourselves, even judging circumstances, does not promote peace within. But there is another option.

“Instead of judging everything and trying to twist people and circumstances into appearances we like, the way of peace proceeds quietly and simply. Whenever life surprises us, our first reaction is now to consult that calm place within our heart. We stop and rest a moment in God’s love. Then, if action is needed to restore our peace, we take the course that comes to us from our calmness. We act with assurance, for indeed we have been assured. And if later we need to ask again, we do so quickly and easily. Our purpose is not to seek peace in order to make rigid decisions or set for ourselves long-term rules but rather to make those decisions that will return us to peace this instant. For it is only when we are peaceful that we can be truly kind.”

I’m not claiming I’m able to do this all the time, but it is becoming more and more of my practice. It’s like consulting an internal barometer. But in this case, we have a choice about the kind of inner weather we wish to have.

As I’m engaging in this deep healing journey, this quote from A Course in Miracles, which is the basis of Jampolsky’s work, has been a beacon for me: “There is no order of difficulty in miracles.” Think about that. Anything is possible.

Jampolsky goes on to say, “Miracles can be defined as shifts in perception that remove the blocks to our awareness of love’s presence. Therefore, they can be seen as a natural occurrence.”

So, what, then, is healing? “Healing is letting go of fear, because when our mind releases fear it returns to its natural state of love and peace and naturally extends them into every aspect of life.”

Sharing this love and peace with others becomes our only “job.” And it does not require us to do anything in particular nor to possess any special capacities or resources.

“As long as our bodies are alive, our job is to use them as a means of extending love in a form that others can recognize and receive.… It is what we do with our hearts that affects others most deeply. It is not the movements of our body or the words within our mind that transmit love. We love from heart to heart.”

I hope you found this inspiring or helpful in some way. I’m sending you love from my heart to yours.

The post Revisiting Timeless Wisdom in Gerald Jampolsky’s Teach Only Love appeared first on Maxima Kahn.

Don and I watched a gorgeous and incredibly moving and inspiring film called Pride. It’s about a small group of gay and lesbian activists in the UK, deciding to support Welsh miners who were on strike. So beautifully acted, scripted, directed. It’s a testament to the famous quote by Margaret Mead “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Amazing what the power of love can do. Oh, and in case that didn’t convince you to watch it immediately, it also has Bill Nighy in it.

I continue to love our subscription to PBS, very high quality programming. We are particularly smitten with watching the American Masters series and have seen excellent, engaging documentaries about Little Richard, Roberta Flack, Alvin Ailey and Michael Tilson Thomas.

Our trip to Costa Rica introduced us to people and projects that are reimagining how to live together in deep, intergenerational communities in a sustainable, eco-friendly way. Very inspiring.

I recently re-read Jerry Jampolsky’s Teach Only Love, which features the core principles of what he calls “attitudinal healing.” The book suggests a profound shift in how we see the world and relate to ourselves and others, so that we can be “love-finders” instead of “fault-finders” and live with much more inner freedom, peace, and joy. I’ll probably devote a whole blog post to this.

I’m also inspired by these first days of early Autumn. It’s warm and bright during the day, cooler at night, with the first leaves just starting to turn and our garden abundantly producing tomatos and cucumbers. Also, we discovered an apple tree and fig tree in our yard that are giving us more fruit than we can possibly consume.

The post What’s Inspiring Me Now 9.15.23 appeared first on Maxima Kahn.

I’ve been thinking about how artists need to train like warriors. Or like athletes. Or like monks. I was inspired by one of Steven Pressfield’s excellent posts (https://stevenpressfield.com/2021/12/training-turning-pro/).

If we want to become the best artists we can be, we have to commit to the path of training, practice, and performance the way a spiritual warrior does.

I think of the Shaolin monks and their rigorous daily regimes, training in kung-fu, meditation, and Buddhist philosophy until body and mind are so highly skilled that they can accomplish extraordinary feats.

As artists, we need intense commitment and diligence. The fire to develop our skills. The will to create the inner and outer conditions most conducive to inspiration and to the hard and beautiful work of creation. And radical honesty about our strengths and weaknesses.

We need to gift ourselves the mentorship, classes, peer groups, and feedback that will foster our best work. We need to actively work to grow our creative abilities and not rest on our laurels.

Although cultivating a spirit of play, openness, and experimentation is vitally important in a thriving creative life, here I wish to focus on this aspect of training like a warrior. Why?

Because I see how easy it is for me to enter my studio with little plan of how I will use the time and wind up frittering away those precious hours. Letting myself mess around and discover happy accidents in my work (the source of much great art) is a key part of the process of creation. But I can also lose my way, and, in the process, lose my energy and joy for my art too.

I see how easy it is for me to let years go by, making new work, but never really growing as an artist. Churning out drafts of poems and not perfecting them. Having too little to show for my efforts because I lack a plan. I keep relying on my strengths and ignoring my blind spots. Or I dabble in this and that without gaining mastery or completing projects. This doesn’t feel good.

When I read Steven Pressfield’s post, a light bulb went on in me. I realized: If you wish to be as great as you can be in your art form (which I do), then training like a warrior will be essential.

The path of mastery requires focus, a plan (even though life is always full of surprises!), healthy habits, and determination.  We need a way to track our progress and stay on course.

A professional basketball player doesn’t go to practice and just dribble and shoot at random, based on whatever she feels like doing that day. She has a coach, a regimen, goals, and measurements of success. She studies other athletes and learns from them. She chooses what she eats, reads, watches, and does with her spare time carefully to support her being in the best shape, mentally and physically, to perform at her utmost.

That may sound rigid, but it needn’t be. It is vital to keep the joy and play alive in the process. One of the best basketballs teams of the past ten years, the Golden State Warriors, have joy as their guiding ethos.

So, even these intense training regimens can be a source of delight and grant a wind of positive purpose and rich meaning to our lives. If we want to truly grow as artists and give our best gifts to the world, then we need to adopt a similar approach to the professional athlete or the spiritual warrior.

Our whole lives can be structured to support our flourishing creatively. To give us time, energy, and space to create our best work. To bring in inspiration, ideas, new experiences, and new learning to nourish us. To study the lives and works of other artists carefully and deeply.

We can pay attention to what fosters our best art, and feed our souls with that. We can give ourselves assignments—or receive them from teachers or peers we trust—that stretch us to grow in new directions. We can train our bodies and minds to be in service to our art, and work to limit the negative thoughts, behaviors, and habits that would hinder that.

In our training, we practice to master the skills of our art form. We are willing to work hard and be uncomfortable at times. We also know we need to cultivate joy in the process, in order to keep going, and because our love and joy must infuse what we do for it to truly shine. And because we want to enjoy our lives.

We set goals and make plans to reach them. We know where we are headed and how we will use our creative time and our lives to best advantage.

We train like spiritual warriors, in deep devotion to our art.

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