The Adventure of Seeing Earth

What happens when you’re on an adventure? You thrive. You learn. You make friends. You create. Most of all, you live well and love others. I have experienced this for myself and that is why I am making it a point to share all of this with you, my friend.

Let’s go on an adventure to see the Earth! You know Earth, that great place we all live on and can’t live without. Have you taken time to get to know the earth better? It’s no accident that this instruction for adventure is being prompted during Earth Week. Since the time is just right, I can show you how to get to know the amazing place you call home on a whole new creative level.

1. Be Cleared For Take Off

Take a moment before you journey out on your adventure to do a brain dump using a journal to write anything that might be on your mind at that moment. You can do a heap of wonders with only one page of an average spiral notebook. I do my best to avoid college ruled notebooks or I would never finish a page. To be honest, I use a small notebook so I don’t run into a problem of becoming empty minded before I even got really started.

I discovered the value of this process by reading a book that's fairly popular among creatives, The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. In this book, Julia invites people to empty their heads onto paper each morning first thing in order to be more open to our own creative potential. She calls this process, Morning Pages. I had a period of time in my creative journey where I filled 12 spiral notebooks by writing my mental garbage onto three pages every morning. It was very productive.

2. Take Your Work Outside

You need a change of environment every now and again. Whatever your work, it needs a fresh space periodically. It’s a fresh surprise like an unexpected snow day or a new outfit or an open window with a fresh breeze. It wakes us up and makes us feel special.

3. Take Friends

Taking a friend allows you to have a person to make conversation with and to collaborate your stories. Having a witness comes in handy as some people may not even believe that you actually went outside. If you don’t have a friend, be sure to say hello to someone while out on your adventure. To add another layer to this, form a smile when you say hello to a stranger. It may sound a little scary, but really, it’s the best feeling. Giving high fives is also a great way to take your adventure to the next level.

4. Put The Camera/Phone Down

See things in a whole new way using all of your natural-born senses. Metabolize the moment; Let it all sink in on a whole new level by documenting your adventure with art. Sit and feel the moist, uneven ground under you. Feel the air swirl around you. Smell the sweet, earthy aroma of the soil. Look for what catches your eye and touches the heart. Take it all in and, in a moment of gratitude, document this moment. Using tools that don’t require technical support or battery life, capture a connection between you and earthly nature. Use pencils, paints and paper to hold your words, art and memory of a sweet moment in time.

In case you don’t have a good grab and go art studio, I might have some options in my shop. It's easy enough to take a few select supplies that will help you be creative at any location.

5. Be Open To Discovery

I know it may not be easy at first to just walk out there with no time schedule or destination in mind, but this is where your brain gets to grow. Have you ever experienced driving to a new place and how you are more observant and sensitive to what is going on around you. It’s a wonderful mindset. You don’t have to even be in a new place to allow discovery to happen. I bet if you simply walk around a place you’re very familiar with, like your home, you will see things you never knew were there.

Don't Wait! 

I'm taking my own advice. As always, I teach mostly what I need to learn myself. Writing this blog post for you has inspired me to get outside today and follow the above recommendations for myself. I usually save this kind of behavior for when I'm on vacation. Why is that?

Show me! show me! show me!

Let's inspire one another. Take a photo of your creativity, post it on your Twitter or Instagram (or you can email me [email protected]) with the hashtag #yourcreattitude so I can see. I want to see the way you see the earth.