Be Your Own Muse

Hello good people! Today, I realized that I have been a boring, boring, slacker writer for the past few weeks. Actually, I realized it about 2 years ago on a flight to New York when a wise woman sitting next to me schooled me on the fact of life and again six months ago, when I bought, started, and subsequently put down the Artists Way.

I didn't remember either of these, of course, and chose to point the finger elsewhere. I have blamed the past few months of creative famine, first on the absence of one ex, then work, then the emergence and sudden exit of another ex... but it was actually all me. I was looking for inspiration everywhere but within...

I've decided to be my own muse from now on. No more dating poets and musicians and academics to help me tap into my creative side. No longer settling for being someone else's muse. I will inspire my own darn self :) In fact, I think it will be my motto for the rest of 2010....#BeYourOwnMuse

anyway...

I found this totally kick butt list of ways to be your own inspiration online. It kind of rocks :) Reading it made me feel like I did when i took the picture above - liberated!!

enjoy!!

How to Be Your Own Best Muse:
101 Ways to Delight and Inspire Yourself

BY Molly J. Anderson-Childers

1. Blow bubbles in your backyard.

2. Lie back in the grass and watch the clouds roll past.

3. Roll down a hill, then do it again and again until you’re dizzy.

4. Draw silly pictures and print hopscotch grids and poems on the sidewalk with chalk all over your neighborhood.

5. Write a spontaneous haiku — just jot down the first seventeen syllables that pop into your mind.

6. Take a walk.

7. Make friends with someone new.

8. Call someone interesting and invite them out for coffee.

9. Go fly a kite.

10. Find a park or playground and play outside. How long has it been since you were on a slide? It’s fun, even if you feel a little silly and awkward at first.

11. Learn a new joke and tell it to three people, then write it down as part of a scene in a story.

12. Dance in the rain.

13. Go barefoot in the grass.

14. Try to go a whole day without talking. Instead, write down what you want to say.

15. Wander through your favorite gallery until inspiration finds you. When you see an interesting painting or sculpture, write a poem or story about it.

16. Go book-surfing at a library or bookstore. Write a question in your writer’s notebook. Hold the question in your mind, walking through the stacks, and then open a book at random. The first phrase your eye alights on is the answer. (I can spend hours doing this.)

17. Take a long nap.

18. Where are you when inspiration finds you? If you get your best ideas while driving, try taking a long scenic drive. Take along a mini-recorder, or call yourself and leave a voicemail if you get an idea along the way.

19. When all else fails, try a long, hot shower. It seems like I’m always in the shower when the Muses come calling. They have a funny sense of humor, and I’m sure it amuses them to see me scrambling to dry off and get to a notebook. Not being able to write an idea down because I have shampoo in my eyes is sure to spawn inspiration.