Cloverdew Creative

If you’re wondering how to have more energy and how to get creative, I can tell you that I have more energy now than I have in a long time. You want to know my secret? I haven’t been sleeping more or drinking more coffee (in fact, I’ve been sleeping less and drinking less coffee). I have brought more energy into my life by clearing away the things in my life. This week, I have cleaned out my spice rack, pantry, refrigerator, medicine cabinets, freezer, RSS reader, and both of my email inboxes. I have also packed away about 15 boxes of things to be moved and thrown out 5 trash bags worth of things. I have put together a couple of bags of clothing for donations and thrown out old make-up. This spring cleaning has made me feel so full of energy that I don’t know what to do with myself except keep going, cleaning out unnecessary things in my life and inviting in only those which bring me joy, motivation, and happiness.

There are a few keys to doing this:

1. Don’t Delay: Do it right now. If you have an hour or only five minutes, take some time to tackle one thing and just do it. Something you’ve been putting off forever because it seems too daunting or undesirable or something you just don’t want to deal with – like the basket by the front door or the coat closet. You’ll be surprised how great you feel after just five minutes of straightening things up.
2. Tackle Something You Loathe: I HATE doing dishes. It’s probably my least favorite chore, even though it doesn’t take very long to do. But, if I get in the habit of doing it after each meal instead of just once each day, they don’t pile up, it takes less time and I feel great when the dishes are all clean in the rack or put away in the cupboards where they’re supposed to be.
3. A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place: There’s a reason this is an adage. It’s because it works. If you don’t have a place for something or don’t know where to put it, let it go. Either find a place to put it and make room for it in your life, or don’t. It’s that simple. (And make sure that it goes back to this place when you’re done using it, of course.)
4. If It Doesn’t Serve a Purpose, Lose It: If it doesn’t serve an immediate purpose, why hang on to it? Clothes that don’t fit? Worn out shoes? CD jewel cases? I got rid of them all and I feel great, like a giant weight’s been lifted off my shoulders.
5. If It Doesn’t Have Good Energy, Why Hang On? If you got the object from an old boyfriend or girlfriend or you’re hanging onto it just because you think your mom or grandmother or grandfather would want you to have it, give it to someone else who will love it and use it. That piece of heirloom jewelry in the back of your box isn’t going to wear itself, so unless you’re going to put it on sometime soon, why not give it away? If you’ve got art supplies from an art class you never finished, donate them to a charity or a classroom that needs supplies.
6. Inbox Zero! Do you know how awesome it feels to have ZERO unread emails? When was the last time you went through and cleaned up your entire inbox? Go through and delete anything that’s not important (important = essential to your life, livelihood, relationships or finances). Don’t bother to read unimportant emails, just delete. Once you’ve done this, look at the important emails and decide what is urgent – answer those right away. Yes, right now, even if it’s just to say “I will get you that project as soon as I’ve finished.” Now, the important, but not urgent emails, answer those. Everything that needs archiving should go into folders and anything else should be deleted.

Follow these few simple steps and you will feel the energy around you and within you start to build. It’s a great way to get rid of anything negative and invite positive change into your life. Make sure to declutter and cleanse your life often. It’s not a one-time thing, but a project that you must continue again and again. Each time you do, you’ll feel better, so do it as often as possible.

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” – Roald Dahl

In pursuit of happiness, I have just joined a great eCourse called Adventures in Manifesting. It’s run by a long-time favorite Twitterer and blogger, Sarah Prout, and her sweetheart Sean Patrick Simpson. In the course, they outline great ways to manifest your deepest dreams and desires, as well as give you concrete rituals which make manifesting easier and more accessible. You can choose whether to pay for the course, or you can choose to take it for free in exchange for spreading the word about this awesome opportunity.

Benefits of the course include:

• The single most important thing you can do every morning to set the foundations for your day and life
• Powerful rituals applied by millionaires, billionaires, conscious celebrities and sages
• Simple strategies to getting clear about what you want to create
• How to create the mental and physical space for intentional manifesting
• Ways to create your environment for success
• Tactics for getting into the feeling place of manifesting your desires
• How to create visual inspiration for your intentions
• One of the most powerful 10 minute intention exercises I’ve discovered Adventures in Manifesting members have raved about
• The language patterns which proliferate negative energy within yourself and how to transform them into empowering statements and questions
• How to raise the bar of self-love within your life to create greater happiness.
• How to consciously turn your life from a ‘Dammit’ to a ‘Thank You’
• Powerful methods of meditation to begin creating a more balanced, centered, harmonious, and peaceful life.
• A vibrant community of conscious and inspired individuals to empower you, mastermind, manifest alongside, and spread the love with.
• Ways and practices to creating a better relationship with yourself and those around you.
• A crystal clear view of your future self having manifested your intentions
• How to change your life by changing the lives of others through simple ‘random acts of kindness.’
• Your new found community just one click away within your Facebook homepage.
• How to make your inner temple a place of peace, joy and happiness
• How to open your heart and mind to be able to receive gifts from the universe
• How to live a more joyful and happy life!

I am excited to start my journey with the other folks who are adventuring into manifesting with this course and have already started to get involved with the online community associated with the course. I can’t wait to delve in deep and shift my life in the most positive of ways. Will you join me?

Cara Sara,

Remember to tell yourself that you are in love with life and life loves you back. Remember to buy yourself flowers. Remember to eat healthy, get enough sleep, & exercise often. Remember to indulge in chocolate, sexy lingerie, and comfortable blankets. Remember to be yourself and love yourself no matter what.

♥ Sara

Lately, I’ve been overwhelmed by the number of posts coming from some particular blogs and email lists. The oversaturation in media isn’t helping my creativity blossom, rather it’s hindering me from hearing my own thoughts. It’s not because I’m subscribed to too many feeds or because I’m taking in things from too many channels, but because I am getting so much from particular sources. The sources are ones I used to feel gave me wisdom, but now I have the distinct feeling of wading through muck.

Recently, I read a great post on Quora from Lucretia M. Pruitt entitled Welcome to Quora. Do Yourself a Favor and Slow Down. A post from Lauren Vargas at the Root Report soon followed, where she stated that There Is No Such Thing as the Status Quo. In her blog post, Lauren says, “Instead of thinking of how many social channels can I participate in, think about how should you be participating in those communities…if you should be there at all. Take this much needed breather to assess how you respond and why.”

What a perfect response! I urge you all to take that into consideration when creating your own communities, blogs, and Twitter accounts. How many do you really need? How many do you want? Is more always better? I think not.

This is not a new discussion. It’s been had over and over and over again and, with regard to information, there is such a thing as pushing too much on your followers and friends. If you have something important to say, by all means, SAY IT. But think long and hard about the push of information over this web space and ask yourself if your post is necessary; if it is not necessary, is it helpful, wanted, craved? Because, if it’s just chatter, why not benefit your audience better by giving them something they really want.

I’m stepping back myself. I’m thinking, processing, dreaming, and creating. And when there’s something really good to share, I’ll share it. Until then, my friends, may the muses bless you with important, compelling blog posts.

It seems that lately, I’ve fallen into a morning ritual. It wasn’t expected or planned, but it is a great way to wake up. Instead of getting right out of bed and into the shower, ready for the day, I lay about a little, reflect on where I want to be, and then I pick up supplies and work on my scrapbook journal. This little ritual of creating has taken place of my morning cup of coffee and blog-reading.

It’s the golden hour of dawn (or, in my case with insomnia at the moment, the wee hours before dawn), it is quiet and the world seems peaceful. I can spend the time drawing in the qi, the life force energy, and channel that into how I want my day to go and how I want my future to unfold. With bits of scrap paper or magazine cut-outs, I focus on nature, art, and my own inner comfort and joy. When I have picked and chosen the pieces I want to give myself, I find a way to put them on paper.

It’s powerful to put thoughts on paper, whether to write them out or visualize them. Regardless of if I write or paint or piece together a collage, my mindset is thoroughly influenced by this practice. With the help of the quiet earth’s turning, harnessing my qi, I piece together at least one page a day. This joy is something that stays with me all day. I’ve done something positive, creative, and, if nothing else, I have put my hopes and dreams onto a page. This, in and of itself, is an act of fearlessness and I hope I can keep it up throughout the year.

It is something that both expresses and brings me joy and can help to heal pain. It’s much better than a cup of coffee, don’t you think?

What’s your morning ritual? Are you creative, do you take a long time in the shower, what wakes you up with joy?

In the pursuit of happiness and for the sake of getting back into blogging, I’ve decided that there is no better time than now start up a new section of my site. In my search, I have found an affinity for the website The Happiness Project and decided to do an offshoot of my creativity blog which will be focused on the same thing.

After all, isn’t that what we’re all looking for? A little bit of happiness?

It’s usually very easy for me to find happiness around the holidays with my family and during times when things are going well externally, but what about when things don’t seem to be going my way, when I have a bad day or find out really upsetting news? Well, that is a much greater challenge. Although I see myself as a generally happy person, I always see room for improvement and thus, I am taking on my own Happiness Project in 2011.

There are things that I do which bring me joy and increase my happiness quotient and there are things I hate to do which completing increase my happiness quotient, and there are things which are true tragedies that I can learn to overcome. It’s all about perspective. So I’m going to take this year of 2011 and focus on using perspective as a tool to find happiness and to use that happiness to strengthen my own perspective.

I have signed up for an account on http://www.happinessprojecttoolbox.com. My username is Cloverdew and I invite you to join me on this journey. I’d love to know your usernames there if you decide to join so that I can follow along with your journey, as well. If you are also keeping a blog about it, please link me to it, so that I can follow that, too.

What creative ways can you make yourself happy? How can you forge ahead with your own plans and accommodate the unexpected? What does creativity have to do with happiness? Join me and find out.

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And with that, Happy Holidays, all! Enjoy yourselves, your family, your friends, and the quiet time of year when we reflect on all we’ve done and all we intend to do.