What kills your creativity? Vulnerability and Shame?

I came across Brene Brown's research about a year ago and am fascinated by her work on shame and vulnerability.  If you've ever felt 'not good enough' it's important that you listen to this recent interview Brene did with Krista Tippett on the NPR show On Being here.   Brene will encourage you to consciously choose to start living a whole-hearted life. What does that mean?

Do you measure your self-worth by your productivity or use your level of  exhaustion as a status symbol?  What are the shame triggers that get in the way of doing what we are supposed to do?

For example, comparison kills creativity.  This is one reason why I was drawn to zentangle because it is non-representational.  You are not comparing your drawing of an apple to the actual apple.  

If you like the podcast look into Brene's TED talks on previous blog posts.

Article in the Philadelphia Inquirer

Anndee Hochman attended one of my classes and wrote a lovely article about Zentangle that ran in the Philadelphia Inquirer.  You can read the article here.

 

Enjoy!

 

Wow - Mind Blowing Tangle Combinations

Wow - I just found an amazing post by CZT Sandy Hunter where she is combining two tangles into one - the results are outstanding - see for yourself here.  Try a few out or use your favorite two tangles to come up with a new tangle!  Have fun!

Here is one of my favorites by Elena Hadzijaneva

Zentangle Ornament Ideas

I just came across Sue Jacob's blog where she has modified a felt ornament design for use with paper and tangles (see her image below).  It's simply stunning and I hope to test it out this weekend.  Here is the link ornament.

To combine six of the ornaments below into a more complex paper ornament go here.  There is also a video at the bottom you can watch!

We survived Sandy

Hurricane Sandy started blowing on Sunday and increased in strength throughout Monday.  By 8pm Monday night we had lost power.  We live on a hill and have a great view of the valley.  We watched the night sky light up like it was the fourth of July as transformers blew all around us.  Slowly the entire valley went dark and the only lights we could see were from emergency vehicles and flares.  It was scary, but we were fortunate.  Our power was back on within 24 hours and I am grateful to the line repair workers for their hard work.  Many of my neighbors are still without power, due to downed trees that need to be removed before power can be restored.  However, we did not see the damage that the Jersey Shore suffered.  We are very fortunate.  Thanks for all your good thoughts!!