When it's time to prioritize our creativity

Hello,

At the end of one of my Develop a Writing Ritual trial classes last week, we spoke about the challenge of prioritizing our creativity and how much it stings when we tell someone that we have made space in our lives to write, draw, dance (etc) and their first response is…

“What have you done with it?”

I’ve been reflecting on this conversation a lot since then. I’ve been thinking about how, when met with that question, we might feel pushed to defend our creative practice and make it seem valuable, worthy.

I got so fired up by this inquiry that I wrote a blog post about it. You can read it here.

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There are two different groups moving through the Winter Term of my Develop a Writing Ritual program. One on Mondays at 6:30pm PST and another on Wednesdays at 1:30pm PST (a couple people are doing both days). I’ve based this terms version of the program off of ‘The 'Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron.

I did ‘The Artist’s Way’ for the first time when I was 21. I wrote about my progress on a blog I kept at the time. I had a lot of fun with it. I got very good at completing the exercises, writing my morning pages, and understanding my relationship to creativity. I did not become very good at prioritizing space to be creative.

The second, is what this program is about. Once a week (for the next 10 weeks), we’re going to be engaging in a writing ritual as a group (cameras can be off) that includes breath, guided writing (with questions from the Artist’s Way… some of which I’ve expanded on) and 40 minutes of space to dedicate to a creative project of our choice. Perhaps, over these next 10 weeks, we’ll start to understand for ourselves, in our own unique ways, what it means to get good at prioritizing our creativity. I hope we’ll also get really good at supporting each other and the creative projects we’re each bringing into the world.

In these sessions, folks are working on novels, songs, and books of poetry. The first session was yesterday and we had so much fun.

Some themes that have come up so far:

• How difficult it is to turn off those distractions and say ‘this (my creativity) is important and everything else can wait. And yet, how rewarding it feels when we do turn those distractions off and dedicate time to a creative practice.

• How many ideas we have! How many stories have been aching to be born within each of us, and the challenge of choosing where to begin. But then, how pleasing it is to begin and to choose the one that feels most rich and resonant to us in this moment.

It’s still not too late to join. The Wednesday group is meeting for the first time tomorrow at 1:30pm PST. I’m leaving registration open until January 23rd and then registration will close until the Spring.

It’s only $150 CAD + GST to join us for all 10 weeks.

I’ll continue to write about what we’re exploring together in this newsletter. I think it’s going to be a very rich container of exploration into the delights and challenges of the creative process.

1. Embodied Poetry - 8-Week Writing Workshop

This is my flagship workshop and oh how I’ve nurtured it and grown it over the last 3 years. In this series, we write, read, and talk about poetry. But it’s more than that… thanks to authors like Molly Peacock, Robert Pinsky, Jane Hirshfield (and many more) I feel pretty confident saying that poetry belongs with the body. In this series we explore what that means, not just intellectually but sensorially.

Each week has a theme. We’ll be writing poetry about our relationship to our voice, our experience of ambition/ success, the way we’ve moved through loss. We’ll be reading poetry (from authors around the world) on those same themes and through this process, we’ll explore how we contribute to the various dialogues happening around us.

I remember after the last series, one participant said that after certain sessions they had to take themselves for a walk to sit with what they’d discovered, not just about poetry but about themselves. For many, this series has awakened a love for poetry they didn’t even realize they had.

No experience with poetry writing is necessary to participate.

Winter Term: January 23rd - March 19th from 6-8:30pm PST (online).

Register by going here.

2. Voice into Poetry - 6-Week Expressive Writing and Performance Workshop

How do you feel about about having a voice? In this series, you’ll reflect on how you’ve used your voice throughout your life, and then (with the support of your breath) you’ll turn those reflections into a series of poems.

These poems will not just live on the page. You’ll be speaking them out loud (for yourself or for the group), and inquiring into what it means to speak and share your voice with the world.  Different theme and performance focus each week. Themes include: silence, apology, assertiveness, and delight.

Winter Term: January 30th - March 12th from 12:45-3pm PST (online)

Register by going here

Some extras:

• A poem that I wrote when I was in my mid twenties has been published by ‘The Afterpast Review’. The poem is called ‘Soft’ and is about my changing relationship to my breasts. You can read it here.
  

• On the weekend of February 3rd to 4th, I’m going to be participating in a nurturing Breathexperience workshop, hosted at the Breath Space in Vancouver, BC. This is the style of breath work I teach in my classes. They have 2 spaces remaining in the workshop. If you’d like to learn more, send me an email: [email protected]. It’s only $250 for the weekend.

Questions about the above classes? Don’t hesitate to reach out. Email [email protected]

Thank you for your support,
Christine Bissonnette

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