Cultivating your creativity is more than spending time with a hobby or performing and displaying your work. Cultivating your creativity takes time, awareness and deliberate action. Creativity like any other skill, needs to be nurtured and affirmed, as well as directed, in order to expand throughout your life. Creativity crosses all barriers,cultures,even when styles differ and philosophies change. Creativity never changes. Its time to put away those past negative influences, including no more starving artist scenarios. Lets explore what creativity really is.

REASON ONE: Creativity is born in movement, be it physical, intellectual, enmotional or spiritual or any combination thereof. When you perceive change going on in your life , some part of the creative process is on the move.

REASON TWO: Training yourself to create art regularly contributes significantly to making an idea work by exploring, expanding, building, performing or sharing it.

REASON THREE The creative process takes time. However, it can be structured and directed. You can finish your creative projects on or before your deadline.

REASON FOUR: Creativity stretches your comfort zone. Practicing a creative skill, takes time, concentrated effort and consistent work. I know that I feel angry as I progress through the first phrase of the creativity process. I struggle to admit that I need to practice, that I dont know everything, that I dont need help and that in spite of these thoughts, I can still make progress using my skills. I am not comfortable when I fail to meet my expectations. When I complete one creative project. I know that Ive done a good job. My next challenge is to patiently repeat the first phase of mechanical learning for as long as it takes, to complete my next job. My reward is to become more comfortable using my creative skills ,over and over again.

REASON FIVE: Creativty is fun. I love looking at numerous possibilities. Its wonderful to be able to freely interpret and produce a creative product.

Copyright 2005 Writer's Eye Advisory Service

Lael Johnson

Contact Information: Ms. Lael Johnson P.O. Box 2405 Culver City, CA 90231 Journallady2001@yahoo.com 310-649-5543

Lael Johnson is the owner of Writer's Eye Advisory Service. She has a varied background in history, marketing management, psychology, community service and facilities management. She is also a trained creativity coach, writer and beader. She owns Creations Beadwork, selling handcrafted jewelry at craft shows and other community events. She is a published author whose writing interests include: haiku and related forms, devotional and inspirational material, short stories, essays, children's stories, volunteering, journaling and lyrics. She's published in inspirational material in the Vineyard Voice, Single Spirit and Children's Bible Search. She is also a published poet in Makar, Frogpond and Woodnotes. She edited copy for the Vineyard Voice, edited the weekly church prayer bulletin for four years, and edited and published the National Journal Network newsletter for six years. She's completed one basic course in children's writing from the Institute of Children's Literature.

She is currently completing several email and teleclasses in creativity coaching and small business topics. She is a member of Cassell Network of Writers, International Women Writer's Guild, and California Lawyers for the Arts (artist member only), respectively. She also participates in several other niche writing organizations. Currently she welcomes creativity coaching clients, using journaling and other resources, to help artists, small business owners and people eager to expand their creativity skills. She's authored several articles on creativity coaching and other relevant topics. She can be reached by email.

She is a member of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship Westside. She currently resides in Culver City, CA. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, writing and listening to classical, Celtic and international folk music and taking care of her two companion parakeets.