Your Writing Mentor

Mary Knippel

Do you know your numbers? Coaxing Creativity Tuesday Tip, May 11, 2010

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As little girls, knowing our numbers meant counting from one through ten, or all the way up to 100. Today, the vital numbers we should be aware of correspond to May’s distinction as Women’s Health Care Month. I recently received a letter from Peggy Fleming, (yes, the Olympian and Preventive Health Advocate). No, I’m not in the habit of corresponding with celebrities. My entire Coastside community received the form letter inviting us to take part in several diagnostic screening procedures. The tests measured our risk for stroke, Osteoporosis, cholesterol (total & HDL), glucose (blood sugar), blood pressure, body mass index (ratio of height to weight), and body composition (percentage of body fat). Knowing our numbers helps us understand the health risks, and what we can do to adopt and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Tapping into our creativity by doing hands-on activities is a proven strategy to cope with daily stress. Pro-active lifestyle choices cause a healing physiology within our body when we are engaged in creative activity from gardening to cooking, reading to painting, writing in a journal or making a collage, reorganizing a closet or sorting a junk drawer, and more.

 As children, knowing our numbers was a big deal. Knowing our numbers as adults while giving ourselves permission to play is also a big deal. What will you do to do to have your test scores in the healthy number zone?

Write in your journal – Coaxing Creativity Tuesday Tip April 6, 2010

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Write in your journal – Coaxing Creativity Tuesday Tip April 6, 2010

April is Stress Awareness Month and writing in your journal is a great way to not only de-stress, it is a creative, empowering path to self-discovery and change. A journal may be many things:  a sounding board, a collector’s cabinet, a snapshot album, a history, a travelogue, a letter to yourself, a laboratory, a jewelry box, a treasury, or a dream-catcher. It may be kept regularly, or now and again. It may be entries on a calendar page. It may be gorgeous leather bound volume, a spiral notebook, or a collection of random bits of paper in a shoebox. A journal may be a record of your day-to-day life as well as a chance to keep track of your thoughts, record information, and keep ideas. You may even want to keep parts of newspapers or magazine articles you find interesting (or even consider creating beautiful collage pages in your journal). Many people have discovered a trusted and valued friend in their journal.

I’ve been keeping some sort of journal since I was 11 and I used to hide it from my older brother. My journals and I go back a long way and I plan to continue the relationship for the rest of my life. It’s become a part of my morning ritual. I never know what’s going to happen when I show up on the page.

Care to join me? Just grab a pen, a notebook and let the words come.

WNBA-SF Writers get creative at Coaxing Creativity Decide, Design & Declare Workshop

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WNBA-SF Decide.Declare.Design 2010Lots of laughter, powerful PLAY, attitude adjustment, accessing artist selves, lively conversation, sharing, and wonderful connections were made at the Coaxing Creativity Decide, Design & Declare Your Writing Life for 2010 Workshop. I am so inspired by all the creativity demonstrated by everyone in the room. Congratulations to all of you for Deciding to show up for yourself, Declaring how/what you wanted to achieve in your writing life in 2010 , and Designing such amazing works of collage art as a visual representation of your journey. Thank you for allowing me to facilitate this step. The vision board is just one step…I can’t wait to find out what happens next…

Celebrate International Creativity Month – create your 2010 Vision Board

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January is International Creativity Month – a whole month dedicated to Creativity! Well, I know that creativity is important on a daily basis. Many will start the New Year off making resolutions and creating lists of ambitions and goals to accomplish before the end of 2010.  Sometimes the list will include vows to:  lose weight, exercise regularly, write that book, contribute to savings, limit spending, work less & play more, spend time with the family… (fill in the resolution I’m missing). You get the point, these things are well and good, but will they really happen?

Did you know that according to the latest statistics, 40% of us will make New Years resolutions? Those who make resolutions are more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions. Most of those folks probably took a pen and made a list, or they sat down at their computer screen. The act of writing something down is a powerful way to make your thoughts tangible. The act of making a Vision Board (or collage) with pictures illustrating the written list of your hopes, dreams, intentions and resolutions for 2010 can dramatically increase the chances your projections go from possibilities to reality.

The Vision Board is part magic and part puzzle. If you’d like help getting started, I’m facilitating a workshop on Jan 30 at 10 a.m. on the San Mateo Coastside (sponsored by the Women’s National Book Assn-San Francisco Chapter) where we’ll be creating Vision Boards for 2010.  It will be a day of goal setting, brainstorming, good conversation, writing, much laughter, fun and chocolate. It’s a bargain too $30 for WNBA-SF members and $45 for non-members. Go to www.wnba-sfchapter-org to register.

Create a Vision Board – Manifest a Magnificent 2010

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Whether it’s a new concept, or an annual ritual, vision boards perform powerful magic in helping us manifest our dreams. They are a staple at inspirational retreats I’ve attended and if you saw the DVD “The Secret,” you know it played a significant part. The Law of Attraction directs us to envision success as if it is in the present and has already happened. The more detail you bring into the mental image, the better. The vision board brings life to the mental image.writing space vision board

A vision board may also be called a Treasure Map, or Creativity Collage. Using simple raw materials of paper and glue, a dash of whimsy along with a generous amount of your own imagination, the final result is the birth of a physical expression of your inner most hopes and dreams. The word collage comes from the French “to stick.” It is a work of visual art made from an assemblage of different forms (images from magazines, jazzy junk mail, ribbon, photo copies of favorite pictures, and sometimes handwritten quotes); creating a new whole.

This is an opportunity to have fun envisioning the 2010 you’d like to experience. We’re not just playing around. We’re Playing with Purpose!  The idea is that when you surround yourself with images of who you want to become, what you want to have, where you want to live, or where you want to vacation, your life changes to match those images and those desires.

Ready to create your vision board?

I can’t wait to see how this year turns out…