Ep #176: Flowing Your Creativity with Playfulness and Fun: DELIGHTMENT

“Creativity is intelligence having fun,” Albert Einstein. In this week’s episode, I am carrying forth the creativity and the powerful transformative energy from the Art School Mastermind retreat that we had in early March. So, in this collection of episodes, I wanted to carry forth some of that energy that happens within this container to share with all of you, the wider Art School listening audience.

And one element that I so delight in about our community and about the Art School experience is the element of fun and is the element of play, something that in this round of the mastermind, we’ve been calling DELIGHTMENT, all caps.

I wanted to share that energy of DELIGHTMENT with you in this episode. Not only because it is just intrinsically delightful and fun, but also because it is rocket fuel for making leaps in your own evolution and landing squarely in your zone of genius. I hope you have a lot of fun with this episode. Enjoy.

You are listening to The Art School Podcast; a show for artists and creatives who want to become the next greatest version of themselves. Learn how to cultivate an extraordinary way of being and take the mystery out of making money, and the struggle out of making art. Here is your host, master certified life coach, artist, and former lawyer, Leah Badertscher.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Art School Podcast. As I mentioned in the intro, we had a lot of fun in this mastermind retreat. We always have a lot of fun. And that’s good in and of itself. And it’s also a strategy. Fun and playfulness are a strategy. And they are radical ones.

Because in a world that says, you know, taking yourself, your art, your dreams seriously, it’s so heavy. It’s no fun. It’s a slog. We’re saying no to that. We’re saying yes to then defining our own creative process and that actually, fun and strength and resilience are not mutually exclusive. Playfulness is not mutually exclusive with crating serious results and serious money and serious opportunities and evolution in your life. It’s actually a strategy, and a really fun one at that, particularly in a community.

So, before I launch into that, I realized in creating these episodes that I had forgotten – I got so in the flow of sharing what I had to share that I forgot I also wanted to share some fun in my own life recently. And I am also aware that I am creating this in the world at a time when there is war and there is great tragedy and fear and a humanitarian crisis on all levels. And I am very well aware of that, and offering this too as a way to edify your spirit in these times.

Because I know all of you listening have big hearts. And as I mentioned in an earlier episode, the importance of doing, as Glennon Doyle says, harnessing that heartbreak into help. And I know it is so much easier to harness that heartbreak into help when you are not so world-weary that you feel like you’re dead inside and you have nothing to contribute.

So, also widening our lens and embracing paradox and fueling your soul with some good fun and some DELIGHTMENT where you can, so you can also carry on contributing to peace and to healing and to creating a new world order in all of the small and big ways that we can. I know that is so important.

And so, in many ways, I want this podcast to be a sanctuary for you, a respite, a place where you can come rest and restore and also refuel and revive your spirit and your soul. And I would be remiss if I knew one of my purposes in life is to do this work of reviving and edifying and attending to creative souls, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that fun and play and joy are such an important part of that.

And not in a sense that we’re denying anything, but in a sense that we are fully aware of what’s happening, and therefore then we know actually how important it is to give our souls the fuel of joy and play, play together, fun together, to give ourselves the experience, like we had in this mastermind retreat, of enjoying one another, of playing at a high level in the ways that creative, brilliant adults play with one another, with loving our lives together and co-appreciating other people loving their lives and delighting in one another.

That’s what the world needs more of. More recognizing our connection and our unity and how much life we do get from enjoyment of one another’s company, appreciation and celebration and enjoyment of one another’s success and triumph. And just the plain – you can’t reduce it any further – joy of having fun together, laughing together.

Which also brings me to just a celebration I wanted to share from my own life. So, I had a birthday in February and I knew one of the ways I wanted to celebrate my birthday month was to offer free coaching, the miracle of coaching, and coach my face off in the free Art School Facebook group all month long.

And within, like, hours of deciding, “Yes, that totally, I can geek out on that. That lights me up so much,” I’m like, that’s a great way to celebrate, within hours of that, I had a text from a friend who said, “Hey, our boys, our sons,” who are friends too, were going to go to DC over winter break to visit another friend, his family that are also family friends out there and she said, “I think we should go along. Do you want to go?”

And I’m like, yeah, I want to go. So, it was not quite a total last-minute trip, but kind of. We had a few weeks. And so, this dear friend and her son, and then my son, flew out to DC. Our boys stayed with their friend and his family. We also got to have dinner with that family, and then on my birthday, that other mom is also a dear friend. So, the three of us got to go out for dinner in DC and one of the friends had a birthday a few weeks ago before mine. This other friend I went with has a birthday in March, and it was on my birthday night.

And it was such an amazing, wonderful evening. It really felt like a celebration of life, a celebration of friendship. And I was personally just celebrating the blessing of knowing women like this in my life, brilliant big-hearted women.

And then laughing about – okay, I’m not going to tell you what we were laughing about. We were laughing so hard. And before I knew it, I looked up and the rest of the restaurant had cleared out and we were pretty much the only ones left. It was just a night I’m so grateful for and that  just stamped on my heart and soul, including all of that genuine connection, being able to be myself with other women being themselves and connecting as women and friends and mothers and laughing so hard.

Because I tell you what, it’s been a few weeks since we were actually in DC and I can still recall that feeling of us laughing so hard, and it feels so good even to remember. Like, laughing is so good, that genuine, just, you’re laughing and then you keep laughing more because the laughing is funny and it feels so good.

And it was also a cause for me to reflect on all of the amazing friendships and relationships that I have, and with men and women. And I have particularly been thinking about the women in my life. It was my mom’s birthday, the most amazing women in my life just a few days after mine, and so celebrating her, celebrating the abundance.

I mean, I was really spoiled with friends, the friend you know who you are, who came to my house with a stack of beautiful boxes and she basically went personal shopping for me. And, like, opening beautiful boxes that someone picked things out because they were like, “This is Leah,” and I’m like, that is Leah, Leah loves that.

Like, to feel so known. And I’m thinking about another gift and another dear friend who’s also a listener, sent me that I just wept opening it because it’s so her and it’s so me and it so demonstrates – to me, I’m like, I just felt known and loved and appreciated. So, I wanted to celebrate that, like the joy and those friendships, the joy of being able to be yourself, in your essence with other people.

I mean, that’s what I want to do. That’s what I love about coaching, actually, is creating a space where people can start to shed their inhibitions and it’s like coaxing out that shy creature of their true self, that their soul feels safe to be seen in the world, who they really are feels safe to be seen in the world.

I love being in spaces like that myself. I love creating those spaces, whether it’s in coaching or in friendships and relationships. That’s where life happens. That’s where true connection and healing and joy happens. That’s where those belly laughs and lifelong memories and synchronicities, whereas adults you find yourself saying, “Oh my gosh, we get to make this up.” And it’s so fun.

So, I wanted to share that energy too with all of you and also to thank all of you who sent such beautiful birthday wishes and blessings and messages. They are fully and gratefully received.

And so, now I want to share with you some of the fun that was had in the Art School Mastermind retreat because this is fun you can do yourself at home and you can do with friends and loved ones and your creative allies in your own corners of the world.

Oh, and one thing I forgot, before I go on. DC is awesome. The travel and being there, I haven’t been there in a while and the last time I was there, I didn’t really get to experience the city like we did this last time. And it was really moving to be there, and particularly even more so to be there while a war, a war on peace breaks out in another part of the world, to just really take in everything that the memorials and the monuments and the history, even the conflicted history in this country stand for.

And as the poet Amanda Gorman said, “We are not finished, of course.” But also just to celebrate the freedoms we do have and that those freedoms and what we have, were also created in the hearts and minds of humans that acknowledgment and that being in spaces, celebrating that aspect of human creativity, that was profoundly moving for me, and even more so to then be able to share it with my oldest son.

Friday night, we went out to eat, the boys and us two moms. And we walked around Georgetown after having dinner at a Spanish tapas restaurant, and then walked with our sons for like a mile and a half to see the White House at night. And just that experience of being able to walk, spend that time with 13-year-old boys and to talk about the week in DC and the time with friends. It was a life memory.

So, I also wanted to stamp that here, and then also give my shoutout to DC, again just appreciating it’s beauty and the history there. And as my son said, he’s like, “Everybody was so nice.” Every coffee shop and bakery – we went to a lot, coffee shops, bakeries, museums, and everybody truly was so kind and welcoming and warm.

And so, now, back to the fun that we had in the Art School that I’m now sharing with you. I started this episode with the Albert Einstein quote, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” And I love that quote and I also love that it ties into the theme about these few episodes, about acknowledging the sacred gift that is our intuition, acknowledging the sacred gift that is creativity.

And as I have talked about it, acknowledging that it does flow through us as a different form of intelligence. And for me and for a lot of my clients who are creative, a lot of times, creativity does have this playful aspect to it. And we can get so serious. I mean, we might be creating serious pieces, and then too, to remember that there is a certain magic and strategy even in tapping into the fact that creativity, intelligence loves to have fun. And that is when those creative channels open, like perhaps maybe never before.

Like the flow state in and of itself, there’s a certain kind of experience of that, that is so fun. And a very particular flavor of fun. So, what I’m wanting to do in this episode is carry forth this conversation, acknowledging this other kind of intelligence, this gift, this intuitive gift, this sacred gift, our creative genius that runs through us and weave in the conversation about fun.

How does fun relate to that? How can we use fun? How can fun be a portal into that? How can creativity be a portal to fun? And then introduce now a simple exercise, activity that we did that you all can do, it’s very accessible, and again might seem silly and therefore do not let your serious side diss’ play and fun. Because remember, creativity is intelligence having fun.

So, one activity that we did towards the end of the retreat was, in popcorn style, everyone went around improv style too with the prompt, “Wouldn’t it be fun if…”

And also, because we have this beautiful medium of audio, let me use my voice to convey too the energy of this. Like, “Wouldn’t it be fun if… Wouldn’t it be fun if…” Keep repeating that to yourself until you give rise and conjure the kind of energy that gives you the goosebumps, that makes you a little giddy, that makes you feel playful and maybe like a kid again.

I know I’ve shared the, “Wouldn’t it be amazing if…” prompt before. So similar but a little different. This is just pure fun, pure DELIGHTMENT. Like, wouldn’t it be fun if…

And interestingly, this all got started too with conversations about doing simple, clear-eyed, open-hearted evaluations of when in our life we, to this point, have been the most powerful and most powerfully creative, most effective at creating the results, at bringing intentions to fruition.

And people are recognizing, it’s the times when I was like, “You know, the energy was, “Wouldn’t it be fun if X, Y, and Z? Wouldn’t it be fun if…” So, this is what we did. We went around popcorn style and the key to this is to not then, on the back end of, “Wouldn’t it be fun if…” like bring it down with a, “But how will I do that?”

No, that’s not the activity. That’s not the strategy. That’s not the game. The game is only, the strategy is only, “Wouldn’t it be fun if…” and then you state what that is, and then you hold that note, that energetic note at the end and let that energy ring out, reverberate like a bell, a note being rung through the outer reaches of your consciousness and the universe.

Hold it for longer than feels comfortable for you. This is also a strategy with the rewiring exercise. This is also a strategy for moving beyond your upper limit, for moving beyond those places where your brain is accustomed to saying, “Oh, that’s too much goodness. God, she’s having too much fun. He’s creating too much money and having too much fun at the same time.” Shut that shit down.

And then, how does the brain do that? It goes, “But how are you going to do that. That’s so unrealistic. Why don’t you get serious and get back to work?” But what we’re doing is acclimating the central nervous system to more joy. To more possibility, and the more you stay in this place, then the more open your brain is to seeing possibilities, to seeing next steps.

The more your body is acclimated to holding out in a space of, “Oh yeah, and then I could see this and I could see this and I could see this,” you’re holding that space, that door open a little bit longer. And that in itself breaks old patterns of shutting yourself down, of getting stuck again, of going back to old ways of trying to figure things out, trying to force, and trying to do.

So, it’s a very fun, a very subtle, but a very powerful, gentle way of moving past upper limits. You are increasing your capacity for the goodness you’re allowing yourself in life. It’s like asking yourself the question, “How good am I willing to let it get.” But then you’re really, in that moment, embodying the feeling of allowing it to be good.

So, you can do this on your own. and here’s the thing that I think is so magical and powerful about a group, is that you are holding the energy, you’re sustaining it for longer through your vicarious participation in other people’s joy.

So, let me say that differently. You might be able to hold that portal open to possibility and joy and expansion for a little bit yourself by saying, “Wouldn’t it be fun if I published my book and it was read by millions and they loved it,” and then you hold that, you hold that. And then, your brain is like, “What next? Fill the space. Fill the void.”

And so, then you keep going, like an improv. You comma and, you keep going. But when you’re with a group, the pressure is off just you. And then, there is something. There is like an upward spiral, a positive snowball effect when you’re in a group and you’re feeding off one another. It’s a positive phenomenon of tapping into, I think, lobal empathy in negative situations would be called a sort of mob energy. But this is a positive one, harnessing, tapping into those places where joy and expansion, and success can also be contagious and create an upward spiral and magnetize you for more and more success.

It also then primes your brain to stay longer in the loop of constructive, uplifting, fun, playful thoughts. So, you can organize your own group to do this with, people you love to have fun with, people who are open minded.

I wanted to share with you – because I said every week I was going to share a little bit of celebrations, either from the groups I’m working with and or from ones I hear from those of you listening. So, on point, I wanted to share what one of our mastermind members wrote this weekend on the forum.

So, she joined more recently. She didn’t start in January, but just a few weeks ago actually and has been getting up to speed and getting to know everyone. And so, this weekend was her first real opportunity to do a deep dive with everyone.

So, before I share what she wrote, I want to share again a quote that I have shared many times in this podcast, it’s one of my favorites, from Lady Gaga, “I want people to walk around delusional about how great they can be and then to fight so hard for it every day that the lie becomes the truth.”

So, keep those words in mind from creative genius Lady Gaga, and then here is what this mastermind member wrote, “Wow, I had no idea what I was getting into when I signed up for Art School. But it is truly magical and fantastical. If I shared our thoughts from today with my friends, family, husband, they would call it delusional at best. But finally, a group of people who I feel at home with,” and a smiley heart emoji,” Also, please don’t take offense to the delusional comment. My friends, family, and husband are all muggles and have no idea what they’re missing out on. Thank you for such a wonderful experience today. I’m looking forward to spending another beautiful day with this group of goddesses tomorrow.”

So, the reason I wanted to share that and think it’s so important to acknowledge is it can be hard to maintain the level of repetition and practice that I refer to in other episodes in this inner work that it takes to really change your brain and your way of being, to build the person, to become the person, to build the brain, the neural networks, the mindset to become the person who is the affluent artist, who makes extraordinary results inevitable just as a byproduct of them being themselves, flowing their essence in the world.

Because when you’re doing that and you’re giving that amount of effort and energy into holding this new high level of thinking and this new high level of being, that kind of high level thinking, being, and living into a vision is what much of the world will call delusional because it is out of the ordinary. It is not what you are supposed to do when you’re towing the line and conforming.

And there is the power in being in a space of people who are thinking big, who are thinking way outside of the box and can hold a space for one another, a nonjudgmental and encouraging celebratory fun space where they are not only allowing other people to think and dream aloud as their true self, maybe feeling safe to do that for the first time ever in their lives.

But they’re egging them on. They’re saying, “More. We want more of you. We want to hear more about your really big dreams. What you said is a big goal, but now how about what’s beyond your wildest imagining?” What do you want that you’re not even letting yourself want yet because you’ve been so cramped and tamped down by society that was like, “Just toe the line. Just stay on the straight and narrow. Just do what’s quote unquote professional and responsible and don’t be crazy. Don’t be delusional. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you’ve got these illusions of grandeur.”

And instead, we are celebrating living authentically from the soul, truly being in integrity with what’s true for you and that space is a fun, fun space. It’s also a fiercely loving space. And it’s actually that space too when you’re allowing yourself that level of your own truth, that you are more willing than ever to do everything it takes to be able to keep doing that.

So, the things in the past, you’re like, “That just seems too hard.” You’ve been conceiving that it seems so hard and daunting from the perspective of someone who is not really allowed to be themselves. So, it’s like you’re living with half the amount of life force, half the amount of spiritual blood that is available to you, half the amount of oxygen.

Whereas, when you shed that and you’re in a space where you can play as you, who you really are is safe to come out and play in the world, you have access to levels of energy that you have not experienced before. When you are no longer carrying around the weight that perfectionism imposes upon you, whether that perfectionism is disguised as professionalism or other people’s expectations or, “This is just the way the world actually works,” when you’ve cut all of that psychic baggage, then you’re lighter. Then you have all of that energy available and you realize, “Gosh, with all this energy, I’m no longer burnt out because I’m not spreading myself thin trying to please everybody in the world. In fact, I’m feeling more integrity with myself and my truth and my highest purpose than ever before.”

And that’s when you get really serious about doing your work in the world, That’s when you create serious results and you have serious fun. You can create serous money and serious impact. And so, now the second creative exercise, activity that we did in the retreat was flower arranging.

Because with every retreat, I love to send flowers. I love to send flowers to my clients. I particularly love to send flowers to kick off any retreat, in person or virtual. There is beauty, I believe, flower power, like the essence of flowers and nature being right there that feeds the soul. It feeds the muse. It sets the stage. It signals to a part of us that there’s something sacred happening, there’s something special.

And it also signals too, you know, my clients, my acknowledgment of their sacred presence and like a welcoming ritual for their sacred presence and then invitation to their creativity and to their muse. And so, for this retreat, I thought, better than send flowers, I sent them a nice amount of cash with the instructions that they were then to go out and use that cash to spoil themselves with a beautiful amount of flowers, beautiful flowers. And that then we were going to employ the activity of floral arrangement, floral design as a kind of heuristic process for the themes that we would be working on overall in the mastermind and in particular this retreat.

So, using is a heuristic process. So, that just meaning that it enables – the definition of heuristic, the adjective, enabling someone to discover or learn something for themselves. It’s a hands-on approach to learning.

And so, with the flowers, given that none of my clients currently are professional floral designers, even though some of them are professional artists and others of them are working towards being professional artists, the stakes would be lower. And in a way that the euphemism, “The way you do anything is the way you do everything,” since this is a lower stakes process, this is not where any of my clients are making money or making their career, and yet it is also a creative endeavor, hands on, it would give them the opportunity to see maybe more objectively, maybe more clearly, particularly since we were slowing our minds down, to examine our minds and our process of what their brains throw up to them as they move through the creation of anything.

So, if the way you do anything is the way you do everything, then the way you would create a floral arrangement then should show you aspects of your brain’s approach to creating and to a creative task, and also your body’s response, your central nervous system’s response.

Do you have a stress response? And some of my clients did, even though this was meant and totally framed as an activity for them. But that doesn’t mean that was done wrong. There is no way to do this wrong. It’s all about awareness.

And if a stress response happens, such as, like, a competition, “I’ve got to have the best bouquet,” or, “Oh no, Leah’s making me do this, dread, I don’t want to do this,” and then I shut down, or there’s a fight response, a flight response, a freeze, fawn, people please, so competing, wanting to make the best bouquet can be an example of people pleasing.

All of that, there’s no wrong response. And going about this, it all just shows you, gives you a picture of your creative process so that you can be like, “Ah ha, I see that.” And then we can, once we see it, we can work with it. And when we can see it and work with it, we can learn. We can integrate. We can process. We can discover. We can heal.

We can also transmute and transform. There is an alchemy that can happen when we, like, allow all of these things within us to rise to the surface.

So, the flower arranging, creating a scenario where maybe some things that we’ve kept in our subconscious, that’s been out of sight for us in our creative process, because we’re doing this floral arranging activity in a creative coaching container, then we can see what comes up for me, and then what can I work with and how is that currently impacting my relationship to my creativity, to my creative process, to the creative medium, the work I usually work in? What does this show me, reveal to me, about my relationship to results and to creating results?

What does this show me about my relationship to myself? It was such a rich and fascinating process. I loved hearing and seeing what came up for everyone and holding a space where we can be compassionate and fascinated with what comes up for us, and everybody, there was something like gems that everybody had from this process.

And then, there’s also the product of a beautiful floral bouquet. And then, we’re able to take the insights from that process and then say, “What I learned here, how can I apply this to what I’m trying to create with my book, with my company, in my personal life, with my writing career, with my painting, with my financial goal?”

There’s also the element of joy, of recognizing that we can slow down and it can be an activity of mindfulness too, where you’re present and you are in conversation with nature. Your nature is in conversation with the nature that’s manifested in the form of a flower.

There’s touch. There’s sight. There’s smell there because I have a very open and intuitive energetic group, energetically attuned group, there’s the essence of a flower. There’s the soul that you feel through other life. And that experience in itself is incredibly healing and therapeutic and fun.

There is also what Carl Jung said when he wrote, “The hands can often sole problems with which the mind has struggled in vain.” And this too weaves in our theme of there being other forms of intelligence beyond just the thinking rational analytical mind, that our body has an intelligence that also, when we engage our body, our hands, that we allow that intelligence, that creativity to move through us and we allow it to work some things out, work some things out, some knots out within us, within our hearts and souls and minds and work some things out within the world.

So, it’s really important to me in my work that not only are we doing work in our heads, but we’re always integrating it and always relating back and in conversation with the world, with our creature physical selves, with our central nervous system, with our art out in the world that it’s not just an intellectual activity. It’s not just thinking about things. It’s who you’re being and what you are making with that being in the world.

And that in itself brings such a great just intrinsic level of satisfaction. It’s a different flavor of joy. It’s a feeling of groundedness. It’s a feeling of connectedness and it gives a great peace. I think it’s very soothing for the central nervous system, which is very aligned, congruent with our desire to move ourselves into greater and greater states of flow and to be able to do that more and more at will, on command, masterfully.

So, this brings me to the part of the podcast where I want you to do more than just listen. I want you to lean in and really work with me, coach with me.

I think you can probably guess what this coach with me will be. I’ve offered you two very specific activities. I’ve also given you a lot of context, a lot of things to think about, about why are we doing these activities, what orientation you can bring to them, what to look for, what to investigate, how to use this in your own self-coaching and growth and awareness practice, how to use this to deepen and evolve your own creative process and to move to greater mastery and shortening that distance, that hap between the amount of time it takes you to conceive of a vision and idea, and then to create that, to bring that to fruition in the world.

So, the two activities, the “Wouldn’t it be fun if…” game. You can do this alone. You can do it in your journal. You can do it on a walk, in a meditation. You can gather a group and do this round-robin popcorn style.

There is the flower arranging. I gave options of instructions for floral arranging, but it was also because that’s part of the investigative model experiment study that I was setting up, was having people decide for themselves, “Maybe I choose to learn a little about floral arranging, and that’s okay,” and for other people to be like, “I’m not going to do that at all, and that’s okay.” And no matter what they choose though, to be really mindful and aware of what they’re thinking.

Are they thinking, “Do I have permission to do whatever I want to do? Or is it wrong? Does it mean I’m a bad artist, I’m not that creative if I learn a little bit about how other people do this or what different compositions, classic compositions there might be or what kind of classic instructions there might be?” It’s all an opportunity for discovery and learning that is hands on.

And so, therefore, it’s engaging all of you, left brain, right brain, mind, body, soul. And then also, it’s you moving outside of you, engaging with the world, something with nature and letting that do its own work on you as well.

Again, you can do this alone or perhaps you want to create your own mini workshop or retreat with friends, creative allies, and loved ones. Whatever you do, the only rule is, have fun.

Thank you for listening to another episode of The Art School Podcast. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, if it’s helped you move the needle in your life, I would love it if you would help me spread the word.

You can do so by sharing this podcast on social media, through emails, by tagging others on Instagram, on Facebook. You can also subscribe and go to iTunes and leave a review. Also, if you do share on social media, be sure to tag me, @leahcb1 on Instagram, #theartschool #theartschoolpodcast so that I can connect with you and celebrate how you’re taking this work and creating transformation, creating great art, great meaning, and contribution in your own life.

Also, if you love the podcast and are ready to have even more serious fun, get serious about your art, about your life, about what you’re creating, how you’re contributing, how you’re creating it, if you want to make serious money with your art, serious transformation in your own life, I would love to have you join me in the Art School.

You can learn more by going to my website, www.leahbc.com and signing up for my newsletter, and also putting your name on the waitlist for the Art School, applying to the Art School Mastermind. You can also connect with me, @leahcb1 on Instagram. Or you can email us at support@leahcb.com with any questions you have about the Art School, the Art School Mastermind, or opportunities to work with me privately.

Speaking of creativity being intelligence having fun, we are going to have a bunch of very smart people, very creative people having a lot of fun at the end the month, at the end of March 2022, beginning of April. I am hosting a week-long workshop teaching the fundamentals of being an affluent artist.

I want to teach and equip you with the basic skills that you need to then take this work and then take it deeper on your own, whether that’s self-study or whether later you do join the Art School, or whether you just continue to self-coach on your own or hire another coach.

I’m going to be covering a lot of the basic building blocks that then you can use in your own at-home affluent artist Olympic training program as you’re building the neural pathways of someone who not only creates prolifically, creates from their heart and soul in an uninhibited way, who learns to turn the dial down on their inner critic, who learns what to do with quote unquote creative blocks.

I will be teaching you the fundamental skills necessary then to also create that affluent part of the affluent artist, so that you also have the mindset of a successful creative entrepreneur, so that you can not only make art that is you, that is a reflection, an accurate reflection of your vision, as an accurate representation of your essence. But you can also make art that creates a very beautiful living for you.

You can make art that makes money. You can create opportunities that you’ve been dreaming of. You can make sure that you are the perfect match for your dream opportunities. You can move from being in a permission paradigm where you’re just hoping someone will throw you a bone or give you a lucky break to being someone who is a magnet for those kinds of invitations and who matches effortlessly with those kinds of opportunities.

In this week-long workshop, I’m going to be covering, again, fundamentals that you will practice over and over again through your career. And the more that you revisit them and repeat them, then the better you’re going to get. It’s one of those things where mastery of them means you’ve just repeated it so many times, you’re taking it to an even higher and deeper level.

Because what I have found in working with artists who are all over the spectrum in terms of where they are in their journey, is that if they don’t have these solid foundational let’s call them coaching elements, these skills in mindset and emotional mastery, then it creates profound gaps, what I would call efficiency gaps later down the road, where you could be brilliant and you could be talented, but if you don’t realize that you’ve never been taught how to have a dedicated disciplined mind, if you’ve never been taught these very clear and assessable but need to be practiced and learned skillsets, then you’re not going to be as effective and powerful and conveying your creativity out into the world or in creating opportunities.

And so, I really wanted to make sure we are covering bases. It’s like fundamental literacy, so that you develop a fluency in the work of what it takes to create the brain, wire neural pathways that are clear highways for your creativity, that help you move your work into the world, and then also are clear channels for receiving abundance back, doing that work in your brain, learning what it means to condition your body and work with your emotions so that you can access that flow state, that flow state which helps you do your best work yet and then also helps you be so prolific, therefore putting you more and more swimming in the deep pool of opportunities for success, for financial success, and also for creating work that’s fulfilling.

And here to close is where I wanted to bring back in fun. Because we know from neuroscience that it’s the Hebbian principle, neurons thar fire together wire together. And what helps neurons fire and wire together? The emotion matters. And when we are having fun, when we are in a spirit of play, those neurons fire more deeply, more quickly.

So, it’s not just silly irrelevance. It’s also profoundly meaningful, and again, a strategy to learn to have fun in a process, it helps you – you could call it a hack. But that seems almost sacrilegious for how powerful and how sacred it really is to be able to transform your mind this way, that joy really is the hallmark of your soul, a sign that your soul is involved in this process. It really is a sign that your brain is learning and getting this. And also, it’s a great way to train the brain to want to do more and to continue down a path that is not always easy.

So, if you want to learn these fundamentals of being an affluent artist and you want to have so much fun, I hope you’ll join us for this workshop at the end of the month. It’s going to be only $47. You can keep it forever. And I hope you do and keep watching it and practice it so that what you’re firing and wiring together are absolutely a knowing that your success, your creative thriving is inevitable, it is yours in this lifetime. Do not wait.

Have a beautiful week, everyone. Have lots of fun too. And let me know if you try these activities out. I really hope you do. And I will talk with you next time.