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pictured, “Everyday Gratitude Vol 1”

Series volumes on finding the small things to be grateful for each day.

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“the intent of this blog is to incrementally build a body of thought that works toward integrating various topics, yoga, fitness, and the arts – it’s a process…”

Site Areas

Fitness ** Arts ** eBooks

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scarcity and intent in creativity, thoughts

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Article Outline

Intro

Uh Oh

About My Selection Below

“Trance of Scarcity” – Review on Magazine of Yoga

Teachasana Article – “Creating a Pre-Class Ritual”

Active & Passive Creativity / Intent

Emmanuelle – Plans on a Comet, Daily Intentions

Excerpt from “101 Sports Poems Vol 5”

From the Creative Poetry Writing Workbook Project

Intent

Setting Up – Winning

Scarcity

Sports

Creativity

Back to My Blog

Final Thoughts

Other Yoga-Adan Links You Might Like

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Intro

Uh Oh

i hadn’t been able to get to this, an article i’ve been wanting to write, because i’ve so much else i also been wanting to write, and need to, such as my series of ebooks, the ability to finally, as with a blog, post one’s collective self out to share

in this case, several decades of creative work, especially written work (vs paintings & photos)

i’d been so intent (my choice to focus on my ebooks so significant for me) i’d forgotten this article was already scheduled for today, and went up for viewing early this morning –

like the skeleton of a bldg set up for sale without word on the signage, that the shell of a building was still in-progress and not yet fit to be lived in 😉

yes, my time, by my choice, was scarce, but i should’ve been more attentive

was it ironic that scarcity and intent were my chosen subjects in this article?

or just plain crazy? serendipity?

both? all three?!?

also ironic, if not equally crazy and serendipity! is my image above – of a bird on a fence, its body facing toward one field, its head turned toward the field opposite?

just lucky i think 😉

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About My Selection Below

below is an excerpt from Vol 5 of my “101 Sports Poems” series

i do have all the sports poems in one simple volume now, “The Poems” and offer the mini volumes (and eventually another full edition, but with all the “stuff” in the mini’s) as an alternative with commentary, personalizing templates, and (becoming) most important to me, the creative writing workbooks (on poetry) –

where i blab even more about creativity and things yoga and fitness 😉

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“Trance of Scarcity” – Review on Magazine of Yoga

below, as i started to stay 😉 is an excerpt from Vol 5

i’d been thinking about this as part of the continuity of my series of creativity writing projects in the ebook series, and how i’ll eventually also just publish an ebook of the creative writing sections, when i came across a nice little article on the magazine of yoga

“the trance of scarcity” reviewed by tali koziol, written by victoria castle, has a lot of ideas i like

the book itself, is about unlearning our thinking that “we are not enough” –

as tali in her review says,

“I think like all good plans the changes will have to be subtle, take it one day at a time as it were. More specifically I will need to start incorporating this shift from feeling inadequate or out of time and energy into different areas of my life, one at a time….”

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scarcity, as a reality, is something i speak to below in my ebook excerpt, and yet also, i maintain that things aren’t as scarce as they need be

my feeling is, scarcity is not a necessity, for something (or someone) to be valued

creative value can be found repeatedly, with confidence –

and, that intent is instrumental in that process…

plus, choices must happen…

will happen…

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Teachasana Article – “Creating a Pre-Class Ritual”

linda nutter snay has a nice article, with lots of concrete suggestions, of the desirability of creating some sort of pre-class routine or ritual, that focusses the (yoga) teacher and thus helps create a better class for students

can’t really argue with that, so i posted a comment, saying,

“can only add, that –

“from my experience, if even being or becoming centered, esp in both mind and body, doesn’t feel firm, don’t fret, just setting myself into the idea of ‘intent’ – seems to eventually find me a way to an intent

“anyway, thanks again, great ideas on pre-class breaths, asanas, music, etc; helps in many creative endeavors, and yoga’s definitely creative 😉 ”

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in my creative writing workbook projects, in my sports poetry ebooks, i basically advocate something similar, though with a progression that, near the end, leads into more writing specific ideas, such as idea-pov, and 1st vs 3rd person

the idea of a pre-anything-important-to-you routine or ritual crosses into many aspects of people’s varied activities

learning about it one area, makes it easier to learn to apply those ideas to other interests, whether in fitness yoga or the creative arts

linda’s article on teachasana, i believe, could be useful for most anyone in any field

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Active & Passive Creativity / Intent

if one chooses to believe one is a passive yet receptive creative person, like a channel of some sort, that’s fine with me, but it’s not a requirement or only way for creative choices to happen

one can, i believe, actively set oneself to be creative, passively or actively

and that :

determining that scarcity is not necessary for something to be valuable, is active

deciding there is no scarcity in one’s creativity, is active

focussing oneself “as” intent itself, is active

at least in my experience anyway –

as able, i like both, to give and receive 😉

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a good example is the title of this article, and the image i chose for it –

the title includes the word “intent” and so kinda obscures my point, but if the title had “just” said “scarcity” this would still be as true – that here, my intent was there from the start

yet, with my “bird on the fence” photo, it had been left in a folder for another article, unused, but was literally haunting me, with its diagonal split of the screen and colors, lights darks and greys reaching into each other, the budding vines on the chain link, and that bird!

it could well have become aware of me watching it with my camera and mind-heart’s eye, breathing myself to wait for maybe a moment like that!

well, that image, was a “holding of intent” without a specific conscious intent –

this is something very important to me, and most of us, i think, that try to create art (or moments) –

the faith that simply holding a space-holder of sorts, of intent for intent, works –

i explore some of this in my creative writing project excerpt below

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Emmanuelle, Plans on a Comet, Daily Intentions

if you’re interested in a creative approach to developing daily intentions, you might want to check out emmanuelle’s interesting new project, “Little Guidebook of Daily Intentions”

check out how she puts it,

“you will have pretty tools for mindful living to awaken your awareness in 5 minutes a day, beautiful pics, and a lot of fun. Inspiration doesn’t have to be boring”

this from a young lady in europe who also writes “music matters” posts for the magazine of yoga

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Excerpt from “101 Sports Poems Vol 5”

From the Creative Poetry Writing Workbook Project

please note: a bit of formatting has been changed to better fit the blog format

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Welcome, to our fifth and mid-point Creative Poetry Writing Workbook project.

I decided to place the volume about inspiration in the middle of the nine sports poems ebooks, as both a pause and re-start of our creative writing efforts.

Previous projects had pre-writing exercises involving a three minute breathing routine, limbering, and a mobility. Today’s starter will involve intent.

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Intent

We can “do” creative writing without a conscious or dedicated intent, and we can “find” intent in the doing. Here, we will allow a few moments, minutes, however time each person needs (in a class setting, a set time would be given) to sit quietly.

If possible, and if the reader knows the previous pre-writing exercises, they can be done before or after today’s focus on intent. Sequencing is important, but in this case, not the end all. Here the creative process is our end-all.

Also, don’t worry about having a specific intent during this exercise. My own experience, in writing or painting, is that yes, having a specific intent is certainly helpful, but many many times I don’t have or maybe I don’t know my intent yet. Sure, it may be there, deep in my soul and combined experience, but part of the creative process itself, is just finding that intent.

So if you don’t have or know an intent you might want for your creative process, then a gently loosely comfortably held intent of “finding” your intent, is more than good enough. Literally. Finding your intent may be necessary. And may come quickly, or slowly.

I’ve read of authors who find their plot line or story from focussing on some one key, a character, a spoken line, a descriptive passage. And from there, by staying in process, solutions and discoveries are found. 😉

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Setting Up

Winning

“Winning” is our chosen poem for today’s project.

The act or desire of winning has many connotations in our culture. Both positive and negative.

We can and will choose to focus on how “winning” will be positive in our lives. Win-win would be a good way to think of it.

Other tidbit phrases might be, “we are all winners” – “my winning harms no one” – “my winning benefits all” – the idea is to phrase the feeling of winning as positively as is humanly possible within our personal frame work of values.

Winner-take-all is not a necessary attitude. Neither is “survival of the fittest.”

Being creative, is not a zero sum game. And surviving being creative does not mean others aren’t or can’t be creative also.

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Scarcity

To be clear, yes, there have been and are instances of true scarcity. During emergencies where supplies are cut off. When a new medicine or technology is being ramped up and doesn’t met necessary or even life-saving demand.

When we humans hadn’t gotten full control of our living environment, away from competing fellow creatures, animals, without the capacity to live peacefully with us, there was scarcity via the threat to our existence, a scarcity of live survival.

As we eliminated threats from species outside ourselves, we seem to have carried the habit and fear of scarcity into do-or-die raids by one civilization on another, or a perceived scarcity of co-existence of peoples, such as with the nazis.

Regardless of desirability or practicality, there’s little question we can grow enough food for everyone on the planet. Which, though, doesn’t address the issue of distribution of and labor of creating that food. Or housing. Someone has to cook and clean and grow and build things. We haven’t solved “how” to do that, but physically, it’s doable. But we also seem to realize, not at any cost, such as forced labor, or caste systems, or slavery.

The scarcity of scarcity, so to speak, will be the underlying most important driving force in human culture, i believe, through the rest of my lifetime.

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Sports

Sports, as I’ve mentioned in other portions of these creative writing projects, are a wonderful creative invention by humanity. No one has to die, or not be able to come back, if they wish and are able.

Non-winners of the “top” prize or of being the “final one standing” are not exempt from benefiting from increased public exposure, applying their experience to lateral or new ventures, or even benefiting from “just talking” about their experience.

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Creativity

And nature seems to have “built-in” the necessary feeling of scarcity right into our bodies and minds through time – we age. We get injured. We get tired. We feel resistance to being able to be creative.

This internal “game” of creativity arises in two ways at least.

One, there is the felt resistance to finding the right word, right sequence of those words, their intonation and rhythm. Their beat and pulse.

Success comes as one finds the creative solution. One’s creative solutions also “create” a sort of muscle memory within our integrated selves that work together to get to our fun solution. 😉 This makes it easier to create along the same lines next time, which in turn, “can” lead to a second type of internal creative resistance.

Two, this second form of internally felt block to feeling creative, of being in a “rut” arises from doing and feeling and creating the same “thing” over and over.

In the muscle memory article above, I linked to another article on my site where I found and noted references and information via fitness theory and practice, that varying one or more of three components, time – intensity – frequency – helps one regain improvement in one’s physical exercise programs.

Applied to creativity, as most things within us in one activity are connected to other activities we do, several things seem to emerge for me.

One, practice will eventually produce results because the effort to create satisfying creative results builds roads I can more easily and confidently travel on.

Two, those roads can become ruts if repeated too exactly each time they’re traveled.

And three, the roads can still be traveled productively, if efforts (conscious or intuitive) to vary time elements, intensity points, and frequency intervals, can be carried out. Singularly or in any combinations.

There are folk who, without boring themselves or others, seem to produce the same style or type of work, over and over. They must’ve found the solutions. The variations. Minute or as grand as they might be. 😉

We will do a mini-intent-practice below, after reviewing the poem, “Winning.”

If you haven’t had the chance to read “Winning” yet, please do so now.

It helps, I believe, to get a non-analytical “feel” reaction first.

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Back to My Blog

“winning” – the poem, is posted separately today in a second article

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my excerpt above continues in Vol 5 with a series of short writing projects meant to help one experience the emergence or awareness of intent –

and, that “winning” is something built into how we live every moment –

that winning doesn’t mean a comparable loss elsewhere –

though there are choices, and time constraints

as i’ve experienced writing this post 😉

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Final Thoughts

intent, whether in yoga or sports or simply getting up in the morning (as if that’s always simple) –

can, i believe, be already present, as a conscious need or want, right from the beginning of a practice or creative session –

or it can be discovered during the process…

and doing so, is a “win” for us – a playful positive win that doesn’t have to hurt anyone

or deprive anyone, or deplete anything…

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the bird on the fence may not be sure which way to fly, but it won’t “run out of songs” chirping its tunes all day 😉

fitting each song to the moment at hand, or wing 😉

and neither will we…

namaste – con dios – god be with you

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Photography Plus – includes original photo-poem

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