Yep, right now is your time to re-discover, re-connect and re-set what is important to you! If you are thinking, “I been craving this timeout”, you are not the only one.

Around the world women are asking the same question you are and seeking a different way to do things in order to lead better lives for themselves and their families.

But how do you start? What can you do? How can you radiate happiness, health and creativity in yourself and for others, while being a mum-teacher-partner-worker-business owner-woman in the world?

You do it with small everyday ways that spark your creativity. Here are eight, royal Creative Queen Bee foundations that I share in my book, Daily Acts Of Creativity. These will ground you firmly on your creative life path and re-connect you with something you may have felt was lost.

1. Awareness
An artist’s mind is a storage space, a library of observation and sensory awareness dependent upon being aware in the moments you are living.
Awareness unlocks your subconscious and your artistic eye is the lens through which you view the conscious. Become aware of everything; mindfully commit the shapes, colours, smells and sounds of life to your imagination.

2. Listening
Creative spirit begins in the quiet. You will begin to hear creative spirit if you dare to turn off your phone, stop checking your emails and responding immediately to every request made to you. Be deliberate, intentional and mindful in making the time for quiet contemplation.

3. Courage
Learn what ignites your imagination by keeping a notebook or journal in your handbag to coax and encourage writing, sketching or scribbling every day. Letting your ideas boil and bubble in your journal without judgment will exercise your confidence and help to discover your courage for creative risk.

4. Curiosity
Develop your creative thinking skills with curious questioning. Creative spirit answers when questions are clear and intentional.
Consider these open-ended ‘re-framing’ statements when starting questions: ‘What if’, ‘How might I’ or ‘In what ways might I’, or ‘Am I willing to see things differently in this situation’? Thoughtful questions invite spirit and are guaranteed to help you find more inspiration.

5. Playfullness
What was your favourite thing in the world to play as a child? Turn on your imagination with play and watch how happy accidents turn into creative breakthroughs. Always be prepared for something new, make believe, be spontaneous, have fun and be prepared to ‘see what happens’ – it’s the adventure of life. Play with ideas. Say ‘yes’ instead of ‘no’. If you need to create healthy boundaries, say ‘no’ instead of ‘yes’.

6. Acceptance
When you hear your inner critic judging you, telling you, you are not talented, good or creative, you need to quickly loosen the critical grip. Heal the wounds of past scars by showing loving kindness to yourself first. It is not selfish to pursue a creative path for yourself, it is acceptance. Consider instead the ‘self.’ Acceptance is the gift of self-love. If you have been waiting for permission to be creative, the good news is that you have the green light. Now give yourself permission.

7. Gratitude
Gratitude is so closely entwined with creativity that it’s almost the same thing. Think about gratitude as simply an act of being present – thankful for both the gift and the giving. Being grateful is simply to be present to what is. Once you start to see the gift of gratitude, it will show up and flow into your creative practice. Your heart will be more open and more thankful.

8. Connection
You have a natural inbuilt creativity power button and once you are connected to it, you will come to understand creativity as your very own superpower. Finding a connection to your ‘power button’ or ‘creative spirit’ is experienced when you are in-flow. Being ‘in the zone’ or in a ‘state-of-flow’, is when your world feels timeless. Connection to your creative spirit is the result of your intention to let go and surrender.

We don’t live in the world alone and even though creative practice is deeply personal and often worked on in isolation, it doesn’t mean we are not connected to others. If you see the world and others as all linked in spite of our culture, religion or place in the world, then you experience the incredible power of connection.

A happy, healthy, creative day to you!

Amanda ♥