Category: Creativity

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freshen up

freshYesterday I could have pulled the covers over my face and stayed in bed all day. Last night was one of our closest friends birthday parties and it took every ounce of energy I had in me, to get dressed and go out last night. Once I was there though, I had the most fabulous evening, with old friends and new ones.

This morning I woke up bright, fresh and was up and out of bed ready to go to the beach and take on the world. Team V, went to the beach early this morning and stayed there for hours looking at pelicans, people fishing, building sand castles and getting a little sun kissed.

What changed between yesterday and today?

Nothing.

No major conflict, no difficulties, no trauma.

Some days I just struggle to get out of bed and get motivated and others I don’t.

How about you?

The only difference I can find, is no matter how I wake up, if I get out and get moving and start creating, no matter how the day starts, it always finishes differently.

If I force myself to do the things I don’t want to, it has a significant ongoing effect on the next day as well.

Fresh perspective always comes.

If I walk the beach, if I eat and drink good food, if I spend time with inspiring and caring people, my perspective shifts and I freshen up.

If I read, meditate, quieten myself, fresh perspective rises.

What do you need to do differently today to create a shift in the current season you find yourself stuck in?

How can you bring simple changes, to bring a radical shift in perspective?

How can you freshen up?

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(#inspire14 here is my visual journal entry from today. )

Happy 2014 everyone.

It’s looking like a great one.

Amanda

 

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Make beautiful things

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The last two nights my husband has been on nightshift so I have had plenty of time to myself.

A bit of crochet, a bit of reading, a bit of Downton Abbey, okay a lot of Downton Abbey!

One of my dear friends is about to give birth to a little baby girl, so I made some little bits for her.

The funny thing about creativity is it is so satisfying. I know its a gift for someone else, but I feel like I’m the one that has been given the gift. As the little precious things begin to appear out of a ball of wool, my heart sighs.

Crochet may not be your thing.

In fact I would pretty much guarentee it.

But what is your thing?

What is it that you were designed to make?

I believe everyone feels the most satisfied when they are producing what they were designed to make.

You all have a make button.

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Some days we just need to find that button and then keep practising and get better at it.

Do you like to draw?

Then draw.

Get great at it.

Do you like to cook?

Then bake.

Get brilliant at hospitality.

Do you like to write?

Then write and keep on writing.

Find your make button.

We all have one.

#inspire14

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the smell of summer

summer rideDay two: #inspire14

(Each day of 2014 I have committed to drawing in my visual diary and posting it online in my social pages and here.)

This morning I woke knowing my husband was home from work and so any excuse I could come up with to negate my morning walk would be void.

I just don’t know why it takes me so long to get out of the door.

Exercise, what is it?

We all have a demon habit that refuses to submit to our yearly resolutions will. Prayer, chocolate, coffee, smoking, drinking too much, eating carbs…You know the vice as soon as you read these sentences, it screams out pridefully ‘That’s me!, that’s me!’.

Anyway, back to my morning walk. We live 20 metres from the beach and you’d think I’d skip out of our front door every morning and frolic in the ocean with the penguins and dolphins, but honestly it is a major effort to get my body moving.

This year, after doing my new year reflection pages rather than setting New Years resolutions I decided I would set a daily routine rather than set goals.

See my goals have been quite similar for the last few years and I just don’t get around to making them a part of my everyday life.

Goals to:

Exercise more

Eat Healthier

Pray more

Read more

 

summer

So I made myself up a routine daily that helps me achieve these goals.

7am- wake up (not with my phone and check online forums)

7.30am- play worship music in the house, not tv etc

8am- go for a walk/ exercise

9am- online time

12pm- lunch

1pm- Phone goes offline and no carbs after lunchtime

6pm- dinner

9pm- prayer and reading to go to sleep (online blackout)

I have realised, that radical bans from the foods and the habits, don’t work for me, but a routine with balance around it everyday, not just on special days, changes my personal culture and allows the resolutions that I have to become a reality.

As I walked the beach this morning, I smelt the smells of summer. I saw families, getting ready to ride the ferry, I smelt fish cooking, I saw colours and life, the wind exposed my fears and my heart refilled again ready for a new day of resolve.

Are you struggling already with the New Year commitments you have made?

Maybe you need to change your daily routine to make change not negotiable for this new year.

All my summer love

Amanda

 

 

 

 

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change 2014?

change

Do you struggle to set resolutions at the change of a year?

Do you struggle to keep them?

Do you wish change, rather than see change happen?

One of the main reasons I find that people fail in their commitments to bring change from one year to the next, is that their resolutions are

1) unattainable or

2) based in negative experiences or pain.

Each year for the last decade I have asked myself the following questions before I even attempt to set goals, resolutions or change for the new year. These questions have helped me significantly in the tone and tenure of goals I attempt.

Reflection, hope and contemplation is an amazing gift that this season offers us.

Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’

Alfred Tennyson

I have put together a downloadable document, that you can print out and go through the questions I ponder at this time of the year. They have changed and evolved as the years have gone on from my reflection, but they have been so helpful in orientating my thoughts towards the future. (here are a small selection of the questions; click on the link to download all the questions and print out to write in the guided reflection journey).

Download the questions here: change reflection pages

Hope this helps.

I will be making myself a cup of tea and buying a almond croissant and reflecting with you.

Happy Days

Here’s to a brilliant 2014.

Amanda

reflection pagesreflection pages 2reflection pages one

 

 

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Trust the engineer

We often do things in our everyday that we have blindly trusted someone we will never meet.

When we step in a car, we trust the engineers that made it’s engine.

When we sit on a bus, we trust the driver and his mechanic.

When we fly on a plane, we trust the pilots and his staff.

We often trust many people who we have never met.

However one of the greatest responses people give me when I say that I am trusting God for something, is this ‘How can you trust someone you have never met?’

My response is, ‘He’s proven faithful so many times.’

Like the years I thought I would never be a Mum. Trusted Him, proven faithful.

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Like the years I have watched my friends go through deep, dark tunnels of sadness, when they have come through to the otherside: faithful.

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This weekend my dear friend Annie will watch her first daughter Hannah be married. I am so grateful that I am here in New Zealand for this beautiful moment. Tunnel for Annie is however, her dear husband Craig died two years ago suddenly.

She never dreamed that this day in her families life would be quite like it has turned out.

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This photo here is of my dearest friend Annie in the green and her two daughters on the ends of the photo and one bridesmaid sitting to her right.

The engineer has not finished the story yet. He is at work in the midst of this picture.

Can’t you see it?

I can.

Amanda

Ps- if you are in a tunnel right now, hang on and trust the engineer.