Make things happen

I seem to have an abundance of energy at the moment. I already know that I have a pretty high output but I swear I somehow managed three days worth of To Do list accomplishments in one on Easter Monday. And it wasn't frantic either - it was a very relaxed, productive day spotted with regular bouts of lolling in the sun reading 'Good Omens' or 'Everyday Zen'.

There was no anxious energy underlying my productivity. It was just pure flow.

And it's continued on this week. I've been filling my evenings with projects and tasks and ticking things off to do lists left, right and centre.

One thing I've started doing again is submitting manuscripts to agents. This is always an interesting task as most agents prefer to be the only person you've sent a manuscript to. They take six to eight weeks to get back to you, so it's a waiting game once a manuscript is submitted.

I have five completed ones and three nearly complete. This gives me a bit more to work with. I can find eight suitable agents to submit to, check the dates, and then wait. I can space submissions a week apart to give some regularity to the task. I intend to do this and intend to carry on submitting until I am picked up because ultimately, in all the things I do and dream about and dabble with I always come back to the fact that since I can remember, since I could hold a pencil and form a letter, since I could put down into words the things that filled my childhood imagination, I have known in my bones that I am a writer first, foremost and with the greatest conviction.

All this meditating I've been doing (I'm sitting for a half hour both morning and night these days) is really focusing my mind in so many new ways. I feel very energised by it but also incredibly calm. I have a clear purpose:

I do what I do to engage people in their own sense of curiosity and wonder. 

I do what I do to encourage people to try new things, to be adventurous in their choices and to see their world and their life in a bigger way.

I write, I create art, I keep this blog, I have a full-time design job - and behind all of these things my big all encompassing 'why' is engrained in my every action. I'm really looking at this sense of purpose and how it drives us. When we know our purpose we can sort out the how and the what afterwards. I'm really enjoying this way of looking at my life and my intentions and actions.

So far it's resulted in some pretty incredible practical and creative output. Long may it last...

Cultivating wisdom

Two weeks ago I put the finishing touches onto a manuscript I’ve been working on in one form or another for over a three years now. Last week I posted it off and now I wait, in six weeks time, to hear from the first two agents I’ve chosen. 

The book is my first non-fiction piece (Most of my writing is young adult fiction) and it was initially inspired by my own experience with anxiety, depression, a mental breakdown and heartbreak. 

In my life thus far I have encountered many people suffering due to the stresses of modern life - scrambling to find happiness as though it were a physical thing we could hold or something we could build or buy. I have also had many experiences in which I was able to feel great compassion for people from entirely different backgrounds because I could recognise our shared human experience of emotion. 

This compassion and the belief I have that growing it will benefit myself and others is why I am so passionate about being a life coach. It’s also why I chose to write this book. I have an insatiable desire to help those around me and I believe that all human beings, everywhere, are capable and deserving of happy, content lives. I also believe that the way to attain this is through the cultivation of wisdom. 

Wisdom is on a deeper level than knowledge, which is something I discuss in my book and something which I invite the reader to explore further. As someone seeking to cultivate wisdom I use a multitude of tools and recognise that each one works for a different reason and that not all tools will work for everyone. 

But I believe that everyone has the ability to grow their wisdom. In doing so we can all offer something to those around us, through our shared understanding of the world as it truly is. 

In the coming weeks I’ll be posting some examples of the artwork I’ll be including in my book to http://www.FaunawolfCreations.com/writing.html 

Following on from the cultivation of wisdom, I’m soon going to be offering meditation classes! I’m just confirming the dates and times and will be announcing the details in my next Newsletter. If you want to be the first to know (As space on this course will be limited) you can sign up for the Me First Newsletter. 

www.CreativeLifeCoachLondon.com 

Sheffield

My computer woes are at an end! Thanks to a very dear friend (I certainly seem to write about dear friends a lot. I feel very lucky to have so many.) I have procured a used Mac. My girlfriend has a lovely new Mac Book Pro which she's named Lowly, after the worm from Richard Scarry books. Naming the computer was my suggestion as I have this thing about naming inanimate objects.

(My phone is Queenie and my iPod is Boon.)

No way was my new computer going to miss out on this personification and so Sheffield it is! It just seems the obvious choice, really. I won't go into that here though.

I will go into the set-up of Sheffield, however. Thing is, I haven't yet. I'm still bumbling around with my (unnamed) pink PC which has caused me grand frustration and angst over the last four months. The reason for this postponement is simple. I haven't had the time I'd like to set-up Sheffield properly. I'm a patient person and I believe that rushing something can lead to more upset than it's worth. When I first got my now loathed pink computer I set about transferring all the files from my old desktop with the help of a data stick. It was a slow-going business and one I conducted whilst trying to watch a program on television. As a result I managed to completely delete a large chunk of very important files which have never been recovered. It was a valuable lesson and not one I wish to repeat, which I guess means I learned something.

So I wait until the right time to sit down with Sheffield, an external hard drive, and the pink monstrosity. I will transfer all those photos of my art, all my manuscripts and all my music. I will savour the moment when it's finished and I make the first blog entry on a keyboard where all the keys work.

Lovely!

A manuscript

I have written five books, none of them yet published. Most of them I completed several years ago and up until now they have been saved in files on my computers, shuffled from system to system, occasionally tweaked but generally left unappreciated, unedited and unfulfilled. I don't believe a book is truly fulfilled until it is bound and held in the hands of a Reader, someone who enjoys exploring the written word.

I have begun to ease these manuscripts from their hiding places, at first sharing a chapter here and there by reading them aloud to my partner, and then slowly sending snippets to friends. One of my very dear friends offered to take an entire manuscript recently. This was an offer that had been made before by other people interested in my work. Occasionally I have sent a manuscript to someone to read and edit, but I know quite well the commitment they are extending to me and I'm not surprised when, in a few months time, the manuscript is returned untouched. Editing is a daunting task and largely the reason why my five completed novels and dozens of short stories have remained hidden from the public eye. I dislike editing my own work as it seems like a task so overwhelming that I don't know where or how to begin. Of course I've also been told a writer should never edit their own work.

Well, someone asked and I offered so another manuscript was sent. And for the first time ever I have received it back, read through twice (I am told) and edited thoroughly.

I am absolutely stunned and utterly pleased with this development. I haven't had a chance to look it over and to be honest, I'm sort of savouring the anticipation. I plan to make time for it, a window of space enjoyed with a cup of tea and perhaps a lovely feline friend. I will curl up and read my own words and read the words of someone I admire, having looked over the very same pages and offered their reflections, ideas and critiques.