Getting creative...

This morning both my husband and I woke up at 5.30 (well, I probably woke him if I'm really honest). We had a lovely chat and he decided he'd get up and start the day and I decided I'd stay in bed and think about what I was going to write about creativity (last week's workshop) in this, my blog.

What happened... I dropped off to sleep. Not that I got bored thinking about creativity or anything like that - it's my pet subject - but I was tired and, although my mind was engaged in an interesting 'does it have to be original?' internal discussion, my body had other ideas.

I woke up with my alarm a few hours later and have had the most creative of mornings.

My number one hint about creativity is sleep. Although it's romantic thinking of great ideas in the early hours of the morning it really only works if you can have a lie-in the next day. Creativity comes easiest with an awake mind.

My number two hint is stop worrying about whether or not you're being or feeling creative. The moment you start relaxing and taking care of yourself the creativity will come.

My number three hint is forget being original. Even Marie Antoinette noted that there weren't many original thoughts still to be had. Just be yourself.

It's Friday and the postman has just delivered all the photos I ordered last weekend - now for a creative treat...

Next week's Life Clubs workshop is all about stress and worries. We explore how to solve them so you can leave the workshop feeling lighter. See you there - come burdened!

Hope you have a great weekend,
Nina

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Could I get to sleep...?

Normally I'm like this sleeping baby. I can drop off to sleep anywhere and at any time.

My children are used to finding me on the floor asleep, on sofas asleep and, of course, in my bed asleep.

This week has been different. On Wednesday our Life Club was on stress and the two people I was working with were both insomniacs. They either couldn't get to sleep in the first place or they woke in the early morning and couldn't drop off again. Of course, with all this talk of insomnia it's been on my mind and I've had two of the worst nights I've had for a long time... wild and crazy dreams, waking up every two hours, restless at light-turning-out time.

Of course, you get what you focus on. Silly me.

So, I've gone back to that workshop and have taken my learning from it. This is a temporary worry and won't last, so I can cross it off my 'things that are causing me stress' list. I've done just that.

Let's hope tonight I sleep again as soundly as that baby.

Sweet dreams.
What do you do when you can't get to sleep? Do let me know.

All best,
Nina
Founder Life Clubs

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Throwing all your worries away

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could just drop our problems in the bin?

Well we can. Not all of them, but most probably quite a few of them.

The problem I just dropped in the bin was worrying about the birthday party coming up for my son. I decided that I'd just think about it the day before and stop it worrying me all the time. In the end he was sick so it had to be cancelled anyway, but it was wonderful to put a deadline on my worrying and only allow it to start 24 hours before the actual event. The worry of it had been hanging over me for weeks and I didn't want it to.

I know, that was a frivolous example of worrying, when all around me people are losing jobs and money. But worrying is one of those activities that just makes you unfocused and panicked. It'll probably cause you to procrastinate and not do anything which might make the worrying - and the problem - even worse.

At Life Clubs we're going to see which of your worries can be held onto and solved and which dropped in the bin. And then we're going to see how to solve those we're still hanging onto. We're going to give you a clearer way of thinking.

See you there,
Nina
Founder Life Clubs

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