Category Archives: Creative Solutions

Hola de Costa Rica! / Conscious Creativity

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Costa Rica - Hillside Sunset

Amazing smokey purple-pink magic sunset I captured from my balcony in Costa Rica.

¡Hola a todos!

As I’m sure you’ve figured out from the title of this post… I’m in Costa Rica!!

Here’s what I’ve been up to over the past six weeks:

  • Switched web hosts
    (Which took longer than expected,
    and sadly bumped me out of the habit of blogging as often as I’d prefer)
  • Attended “Anarchapulco”
  • Experienced Turista for way too long
  • Attended Sasha’s Direct Dating “Relationship Mastery” Summit
    (Steve was one of the speakers)
  • Met new people and made some new friends
  • Walked in the waters of the Acapulco Bay
  • Took in many beautiful sunsets over the Acapulco Bay
  • Was bitten by way too many mosquitoes
  • Rode in one of the public buses in Acapulco — a very unique experience!
  • Went to the Acapulco Historical Museum
  • Visited the cliffs in Acapulco where the cliff divers dive
  • Enjoyed a lot of delicious green juice and vegan food
  • Played games with friends  — Carcassonne, Spades, and Asshole.
    (Getting to be an undefeated President is fun!)
  • Relaxed
  • Said bye to my sweetheart — I hate goodbyes 🙁
  • Witnessed one of the most epic thunderstorms I’ve ever seen!
  • Watched a building get struck by lightning
  • Flew from Acapulco to Mexico City
  • Felt pretty ill during and after the flight — such massive turbulence! 😛
  • Flew from Mexico City to San José, Costa Rica
  • Used Uber a bunch for the first time on my own. It Rocks!
  • Spent time hanging out in San José
  • Had my most expensive Starbucks latte ever
    (And that’s with free soy milk and a 10% discount for Gold Card members!)
  • Discovered that $an Jo$é is the 2nd most expensive city in Central America
  • Met up with a friend I hadn’t seen in years
  • Made a new friend via Airbnb
  • Visited the Costa Rican Art Gallery
  • Walked around in a park
  • Watched the new season of House of Cards
  • Traveled to San Isidro de El General
  • Moved into a little apartment that will be my home for about a month
  • Got freaked out by giant cockroaches
  • Was startled by loud geckos
  • Made friends with the geckos
  • Drank fresh green smoothies and ate vegan burritos
  • Got bit by more mosquitos
  • Was followed home by a random stray dog
  • Enjoying the beautiful view from my balcony
  • Witnessed the most magical hillside sunset ever
    (As pictured at the beginning of this post)
  • Attended a gathering where I got meet and learn about indigenous peoples of the area
  • Getting grossed out and paranoid about eating oranges after discovering well over a dozen little worms in one of the oranges I had sliced up and was about to eat.
  • Exercised a little bravery and decided to start eating oranges again after not eating them for a few days.
  • Making a lot simple and relatively inexpensive vegan meals
    (Quinoa and nuts are SO expensive here!)
  • Reading some Eckhart Tolle
  • Pondering too many things
  • Studying Spanish
  • And, finally, blogging and writing again!
  • Addendum: I’d like to add getting the bejesus scared out of me by the largest bug I’ve seen in my life flying into my living room through an open balcony door. (Screened doors and windows don’t seem to be a thing here. I have no idea why.) Seriously, it could have been mistaken for a small bird or bat. It was big, dark, and ugly. I think perhaps it was a cicada. This thing was so big and loud I could hear it bumping into things and flopping around behind my closed bedroom door, where I temporarily hid myself hoping this giant bug would eventually leave on its own. I think it did. Before it did, it was even scratching at the door for a while, as if it wanted to get in. WTF?
    …Weird shit like this happens to me all the time, I swear.

So many different types of things have been happening over the past six weeks, it seems too much to cover in detail in one blog post… hence, the above list! 🙂

If anyone happens to have any questions about any of the above, please feel free to ask in the comments, and I’ll be sure to respond. 🙂

Conscious Creativity and Being a Conscious Creator

It’s hard to believe I’ve been here in Costa Rica for three weeks already. I’ve been taking it pretty easy. But in another sense, I’ve been a bit hard on myself, as I’ve been tormenting myself thinking obsessively about the future — My career path, life in general, and specifically regarding figuring out where to stay next; I want to stay somewhere that isn’t too pricey nor too isolated, yet someplace that also meets my needs for comfort and happiness, such as a pedestrian friendly and lively area, vegan friendly cafés and restaurants nearby, a cozy room or apartment that feels like someplace I can truly call home, and friendly people that I can converse and hang out with and relate to. I’m pretty sure I found the perfect spot for me, and I’m excited to temporarily live there (back in San José) for more than a month after the end of my current month’s lease for the budget apartment where I’m currently staying in Pérez Zeledón / San Isidro de El General.

As mentioned above, I’ve also been  tormenting myself trying to figure out “my life”. Despite having spent three weeks on my own here in Costa Rica, I still feel as though I haven’t quite figured anything out. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate — I think I’ve figured out one of my biggest hinderance, which is definitely a good step in the right direction.

It’s become somewhat of an ingrained habit of mine to perpetually think/live in the future; continually planning out when and where and what I’ll be doing when I’m not visiting or traveling with the love of my life, wanting to nail down when exactly we’ll get to be together again, and so on. This mental habit had already been a part of my life long before Steve and I ever got together, based on the contract-nature of theatre work, not to mention other aspects of youth that reinforced this particular pattern. That is to say, I’m rather used to it. But seeing as I’ve been in a long distance relationship for over six years now, this habit has become even more ingrained than before.

What it boils down to is this: When I have time to work on projects I’ve been wanting to work on, I’m compelled to put them on the back burner while I instead obsess my focus on determining my plans for the future, which more often than not results in ignoring the here and now and thus getting much of nothing done — save for possibly figuring out and making travel plans, like booking flights and accommodations. These little things give me a little sense of security in my very “up in the air” lifestyle.

It’s becoming obvious to me this habit gives rise to a mind that doesn’t know what to do with itself when it’s not attempting to focus on the future — or, in other words, when it’s focusing on anything but the here and now in the present. It can be hard for me to focus on the present moment because I may start feeling anxious over my lack of future-focused thought.

I know, this is kind of messed up! I know that if I want to live the life of a conscious creator, I must drastically change my predominant thought patterns and mental habits; if I keep doing what I’ve been doing, I know I’m just going to keep getting more of what I’ve already been getting! Can I have a habit and thought pattern interrupt, please?

What are the best methods of pattern interruption that will give rise to a thorough focus on the present moment of a creative task? I’m still trying to figure out the best approach for pattern interruption, but so far I’ve come up with a few simple tactics that lend a helping hand:

  • Meditate: Focus on your breath, heighten your awareness, and still the mind. Focus on simply existing in the present moment. Stay in that place of presence until its beautiful and wondrous nature fill you with joy and power. Now you have your fuel for your creative endeavor.
  • Get busy: This can be doing anything active, like cleaning, making your bed, doing laundry, making a meal. While going through the actions of these activities, try to silence the mental chatter going on in your head and instead silently focus on the task at hand. It will be a lot easier to go from the conscious-chore-action to conscious-creative-action vs unconscious-mental-chatter-inaction to conscious-creative-action.
  • Exercise: This is similar to the above suggestion, but in addition the keeping the flow of action and momentum going, the increased oxygen in your blood supply will provide added mental energy, enabling you to focus more on the present moment and your creative task at hand.

I plan on putting these practices to use over the coming weeks. I think it’s working, because it helped me to focus on writing this very blog post. (I started it at least a week earlier but then felt too mentally-cluttered to focus on finishing it.) Focusing on the present moment instead of trying to figure out “my life” and “the future” definitely helps.

For now, I still don’t feel like I have my life figured out quite yet, and I still have a lot of uncertainty as to what my future might be. But that’s okay. I think it’s better to live and create in the power of the present moment vs being stuck in my head all day wondering what the hell I should be doing my life. 😉

…And so, at least for now, that’s what I’m going to do — focus on conscious creation in the flow of the eternal now.  Let’s see where I end up!

Pura Vida!

xox

How To Make Great Decisions in 6 Easy Steps

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How To Make Great DecisionsIndecision has been something that’s plagued me to some extent or another my entire life. Especially as a child, I’d be paralyzed when it came to making decisions. There were occasions where, as a very young girl, I had made some particular decisions independently (and even confidently!), thinking that whatever it was I had decided to do was surely a good idea and would benefit not only myself but others too… but sadly, I hadn’t yet learned to take into account the reactions of, say, a parent with an irrational temper. Often, it’d result in being yelled or screamed at, or sometimes even worse. Yikes!

Going forward, this type of conditioning can really damage a young person and their ability to make future decisions. You soon learn that a poor decision might not only result in an undesired outcome, but that it might very well result in some form of reprimand or punishment, too. I think this is why I became so fearful of making decisions from such a young age. Add a dose of perfectionism into the mix, and you’ve got a great recipe for debilitating indecision.

Although I’m still not as decisive as I’d like to be, I’d still say that I’m SOOO much better at making decisions than I ever used to be. For example, even ordering something from a menu used to feel excruciating…. let alone making big life decisions like figuring out which field of study to major in at university, or whether or not to break up with a fiancé when things started to fall apart.

Little decisions are usually pretty easy these days. Sometimes, though, I might still feel uncertain or confused when it comes to making other more important decisions that are likely to have a significant impact on my life.

A couple years ago, I made my first video ever with the intent of posting it up on YouTube. But even though I published it on YouTube over two years ago, I never wrote about it here on my blog! I titled the video, “How To Make Great Decisions in 6 Easy Steps“.

Truth be told, I felt a little nervous and self-conscious when making this video. When I was a kid, the first time I ever heard my recorded voice played back to me, I cried and cried, horrified to discover that that was what I really sounded like. Thankfully, I’m not that self-conscious anymore. Although, of course, I still have my moments… We all have our moments, don’t we? (Objectively, I think I come across in the video as being sort of quirky and maybe even a little dorky. But oh well…)

Anyway, I recently thought about this video because I feel as though I am currently faced with needing to make a lot of decisions about my future career, creative path, and life as a whole. So I decided to revisit this video, and it actually helps a lot! I figured I might as well share it here on my blog, too, in hopes that it might help others as well.

In the video I describe a process for making great decisions in six easy steps.


Those six steps are…

  1. Dream
  2. Enthusiasm
  3. Congruence
  4. Integrity
  5. Dedication
  6. Execution

As you’ve probably noticed, the six steps themselves are an acronym that spells out “DECIDE“.

  1. Dream:
    The first step, Dream, could also easily be Daydream, or even Desire. In this step, use your imagination to dream about what kind of results and experiences you desire. Make a list of the different possibilities that pop into your head while you daydream.

  2. Enthusiasm:
    In step two, review your list from the previous step and take note of which items on your list result in feelings of Excitement and Enthusiasm.

  3. Congruence:
    Now look over each of these possible decisions that made you feel enthusiasm, and review each of them through the filters of Heart, Mind, Body, Spirit. …How does each possibility align with all four of these quadrants? What you’re looking for here is congruence — alignment with as many of these four areas as possible.I’d strongly recommend you discard the possibilities that only align with one or two of the four categories. Take note of the possibilities that align with at least three but preferably all four of the Heart, Mind, Body, Spirit categories, and then continue on to the next step.

    (Note: If needed, you can watch the video for a more thorough description of the Heart, Mind, Body and Spirit alignments. If none of the items on your list meet at least three of these alignments, then I’d strongly suggest revisiting step one to dream up some more ideas.)

  4. Integrity:
    In this step, it’s time to review each of your most congruently aligned possibilities in the context of your personal Integrity. How might each possible decision or course of action align with your morals and values? What’s important to you? You want to avoid making decisions that violate your morals and values. Making decisions that clearly exemplify your most dearly held beliefs, morals and values are decisions that demonstrate your personal integrity.

  5. Dedication:
    Review each of your remaining possible decision options and ask yourself if you’re willing to fully dedicate and commit yourself to carrying out this potential decision. Consider the time, energy, effort, work… all the possible resources you may need to spend in order to fully dedicate yourself to making this decision a reality.  Are you ready to do what it takes? If the answer is “no” for any of your decisions that are still up for consideration, then eliminate it from your list.

  6. Execution:
    By this point, any decision possibilities that are still left on your list are virtually guaranteed to be great decisions… great decisions for you, at least. Now it’s time for the final step — Execution! In other words, execute your decision by taking all the necessary action steps that are needed to reach your desired goal.Sometimes it helps to make a big list of all the necessary action steps that you’ll need to make, and then simply ploughing through the list and crossing off each step as you execute it. Once you execute all the steps on your list, you’re done!…Congratulations!! You’ve turned something that merely started off as a dream into part of your reality!! 😀 Woohoo!!!

I know I’ll certainly be using this process to help myself in making some kick-ass decisions…
I hope my little six step process for making great decisions proves to be helpful for you, too!

p.s. …Did you like it? Did the process come in handy?
Leave a comment and let me know what you think! 🙂

(p.p.s. Go easy on me! It’s my first video, and it’s more than two years old already… 😉 )