Practice Creative Mindfulness through short expressive poetry. Write one poem each day as a way to connect with yourself and the present moment...
Over in the Creativity, Art and Mindfulness Facebook group we have been creating with intention just a little bit each day as a community while we all practice social distancing in our various corners of the planet.
By practicing small Creative Mindfulness exercises each day we are building our muscle of intention. We are practicing showing up with presence in the here and now just a little bit each day. When we can do this in small ways, we are better able to do this in big ways in other parts of our lives.
What better use of our time than to show up and create in new ways?
One of my intentions is to help people open up to their creativity in the broadest sense. For people to expand the horizons of how they create and express. If you are someone comfortable in the visual arts my hope is that you can see how expressing yourself in other ways can feed your visual practice. When we take down the boxes of our expression we find that our creativity blossoms in new ways and we can go even deeper in our art!
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Practice A Challenge Each Day for a week or do them all right now in this moment. Join the facebook group here. Not on Facebook? No problem the prompts are included here and you can share your comments below! Just comment with your poem and list what day number you are doing.
DAY 1
Throughout the day today, pause and notice what you are feeling. What is happening in your mind, your body, your surroundings? Express it through a few simple words of poetry either in your mind or by jotting it down somewhere quickly. Do this throughout the day and then share one of your 'one line poems' below.
No rules! It doesn't have to rhyme, it can be more than one line, it can just be a word. The idea is to use creative and expressive words to name what you are experiencing in any moment and share it with others...
DAY 2
Today we are going to practice stoping ourselves in any moment during the day and noticing what we are feeling. We then can channel this into our expressive selves and see what insight emerges. Not a poet? Nonsense. Thats not what this is about. This is about presence, expression, and what you will find is insight will emerge if you let it. Try this.... stop right now, look around, notice your surroundings. Imagine that a voice is narrating what's going on for you in this moment. A voice like from a novel or a film... what richness in this moment is the voice highlighting!? Share below!
Day 3
Today we continue building our muscles of observation and expression and focus just on gratitude. Take a moment during the day perhaps when you feel uncertain, tense, happy or just happen to notice yourself thinking and think about something you feel gratitude for. Let your expressive self take the reins and write one line of poetry that captures what you are thankful for. Notice how this shifts your internal state, and if you choose to share, how it feels to make it real and put it out there for others to witness. Just notice all the subtleties at play within you...
Day 4
Let's try something different today! Share a line of a poem or a quote that connects with you today. Expression happens through us and with us. Sometimes another persons words can connect you with exactly what is happening inside you. Its like someone has put their finger on your pulse and can hear it just perfectly as it is.
Again break the rules and keep sharing your own or share more or less or whatever you like. Lets just revel in words a bit longer...
Day 5
Anyone feeling a little lonely? One of the beautiful things about creative mindfulness is that when we attune to ourselves it can help us attune to others more authentically. We connect with our own vulnerability and can more clearly connect with others because of it. Is there someone who you feel you want to reach out too? Someone you appreciate and value? Maybe someone on your mind or someone who has offered you something? Write, or find a poem or quote that speaks to this sentiment and share it with that person. We of course would love to see your words down below as well!
Day 6
It's so incredible to me how much has happened in the past week. How things can change from moment to moment. As we know, mindfulness is all about paying attention to the present moment with intention. So let's let the big picture fade away and express what's going on for us right now. Take a moment to arrive in the present moment, notice what's going on and then express it through a simple one line poem! Share below so we can witness and connect with you
Day 7
This is our last day of poetry! Tomorrow we welcome a new medium of expression for the week. Something I have been noticing a lot lately (and also just generally before this even) is our deep aversion to pain, suffering and hurt. We just stepped into this uncertainty and already I see people trying to push it away, minimize it and quickly move on. Its the elephant in the room we are pretending isn't there. Sadly, I feel that one of the things this pandemic is here to teach us it how to be with our pain and worry. Mindfulness has taught me that we need to welcome every feeling into our lives without judgement and to be with it, not just chase the happy ones. So I want to encourage us today to welcome a worry in. To turn our gaze towards something that is weighing on us so that we can get to know it better and release it a bit. I am suggesting a Haiku which usually takes the form of 5-7-5 syllables but don't let that structure hold you back, just use 3 lines, or as many as you need! Please share below and we can witness and make space for our concerns collectively.
