Interview with the magical Christina Rosalie [+ Giveaway!] ? In ...

Why ?magic?? Easy. She?s got it.

I?ve been reading Christina?s blog for six years now. It was still called ?My Topography? back then. She was one of the first blogs I felt moved to comment on. And I still receive the same rush of ?whoa? when reading her writing now as I did back then. It?s always good, because she is always present. Now she has her own shimmery spot on the Internet under her own name ? a move I feel is coming for my own self soon. As with her writing, I fell in love with the new website the minute I saw it. I had to write to her and tell her:???I love the new site. I find you to be the exact same person, Christina, ?just with a bigger,?sparklier aura!?

Now I have written on this blog for quite some time as well. Seven years now, I believe. And at times, I?ve really written. What you all don?t know ? what I?ve never ever mentioned on here ? is that in my deepest, heart of hearts, I want to be a writer. I?ve written fluff for seven years in a way to assuage the need-to-write that is at times as fierce as the need to take a breath when submerged in the pool. No more. I?ve allowed myself to inch closer to speaking my dream ? just?speaking?it. And as I approach that momentous place, of speaking my dream and then embarking on it (the first books on writing cracked, the first prompts attempted?) I have this proud moment of sharing a special interview with Christina. And in telling her something she doesn?t know: that ever since I found her blog, she has been an unknowing inspiration. I don?t want to write about mindfulness, or the present, but I do want to write as powerfully as she does, and with as much magic.

Of course you know about her book, right? According to Christina, this book is??for anyone?with the desire to discover or reclaim your creative pulse ? amidst the overwhelm and distractions and responsibilities in their daily life.???It?s sitting on my ?special bookshelf? right now, next to three other books that are keenly inspiring to me. It?s a special shelf she?s landed on, but does that really surprise anyone? Not me.

?Without further ado, a fascinating interview with the magic maker herself.?

You?ve mentioned on your blog your early morning writing moments. What role does your morning pages/personal journaling routine play in your life? How does it support your creative endeavors, and more importantly, how does this personal writing support/influence or interact with your professional endeavors??

More than anything, writing is my practice. It?s my way of showing up and paying attention: to what?s around me, and to what?s within me. Morning writing in particular is like walking into a room and flipping on the the light. Everything was already there in the dark: the furniture already arranged, the fern already on the windowsill it?s many minute leaves siphoning CO2 from the air. But without the light, all you can make out art the dark shapes and silhouettes. You can?t see the red and umber and olive green of the woven rug, or the fading turquoise of the desk chair, or what the titles say on the spines of the books stacked along the wall.

Writing in the morning then is my way of shining the light on what I am really thinking and feeling?beyond the mere gesture of reaction; the mere silhouette of who I am in any given day.

And on the days?and sometimes there are several days at a stretch lately?when I don?t get to write in the morning, or at all, I can feel the way I become increasingly reactionary in my thinking. It?s almost as though I go into defense mode, perpetually responding to input, rather than reflecting and pondering and processing. I think now more than ever it?s easy to spend one?s entire life in input mode: consuming information as it hits us in all the various forms, in our pockets, in the subway, in line at the grocery store, at our desks at work. And for me it?s vitally important to my happiness, and my relationship to my work, to my children, and to my love, to have this time to write, one word following the next on the page until I arrive in the bright truth of my life again.

?How does it feel to be a creative person with a messy side, who needs to organize and simply life with the use of technology and spreadsheets? Do you ever find yourself wishing your calendar could just be pen and paper, or do you love the technology? I?d like to know what the relationship between your work and the needing to organize and schedule and promote feels like.

?I wonder where you must have gotten the notion that I have spreadsheets? I have quite an aversion to them actually. I have to produce them sometimes for work, and it?s everything I can do to work inside boxes in that manner. I certainly don?t make any spreadsheets for my own creative work, but I do quite adamantly believe that organization is essential to getting anything done, and I do make lists?in many different forms.

I always have a notebook on hand, and I?ve found that having it nearby when I?m working on a project allows me to capture the things that come into my head: to-dos and things I don?t want to forget, that would otherwise derail my focus. Instead, I jot them down and then can feel the way my mind is able to release them.

I do also use Action Method which is a cloud based project tracking and planning tool. It forces me to be reasonable in my goals: allowing only 5 focus action steps per day, and it emails me with reminders when I an action step is overdue. I find it very helpful to have access to this list wherever I am?on the go, at work, or at home.

Do you have a strategy or personal solution that you?ve created for dealing with the internal nasty voice of doubt? I know you hear it at times, I know only because I know that each and every one of us has it, that is all. How do you deal with her, specifically? Has that voice changed, diminished or increased since your work has become more public??

Oooh, this is a great question! That voice?we all hear it, don?t we? Since having my work become more public, it?s taken on the tone of comparison: how do I measure up? Am I enough? And some days that voice is terribly loud. Especially when I?m exhausted and too busy and haven?t had enough time to nourish myself or fill my own creative well. But on wiser days, when I?ve had enough sleep and coffee and kindness, I know that comparison and self doubt are the plot line in some kind of story I?m choosing to tell myself about how there isn?t enough to go around: enough love, enough readers, enough recognition, enough fill in the blank. At World Domination Summit this past July, Brene Brown, at the had the most wonderful thing to say about this, that I?ve truly tried to take to heart.?

She essentially said that whenever you feel yourself listening to that voice that there isn?t enough, thwart it with gratitude. And it?s really amazing to do that: to stop in the moment of doubt or self-criticism or comparison, and open your heart to gratitude.

Because the truth is: I?m so damn grateful for my beautiful life, and and for the incredible kindred creative souls I?ve met along the way?you included, Jessica! Your readers are so lucky you share your wisdom so openly.

Where does your need for a mindfulness practice stem from? ?Is there a time in your life that you wish you could go back to you and use what you know now?

What I discovered in writing this book, and exploring the present tense in all its varied moments?is that being mindful in the moment, allows you to shape your future actions with intention. Big things start with this small act: of paying attention, of noticing, of recognizing again and again that this moment is the only one that you can really live.

We get so easily preoccupied with the past and also with the future. Yet the only moment we have is now. I think in many ways, I understood this as a child. In fact, I think children intuitively understand this, and my own children have taught me much about how to?just be right here.?The more I practice this, the more I learn about how really being here, wholly in this moment, opens the door to possibility to being anywhere you dream of.

If for some hypothetical reason you were not able to write ? period ? for a year, what would happen? What would it feel like? In your body? In your head? If you weren?t able to write, how would it impact your relationships with others?

That would be devastating of course. And I imagine it would confuse me to some extent, as so much of how I map to myself is through writing. But I also imagine that I would throw myself into painting and making art. That would inevitably carry me farther outside my left-brained, rational, analytical mind. I felt this even when I was doing the illustrations for the book. Finding the right image that could call to readers; that could evoke just enough meaning, without being too literal, was an act of letting go of my rational mind, and just letting the language of image take over. It?s because both of these ways of thinking?visually, and with words?are important to my creative process, that I decided to include illustrations in?A Field Guide To Now.

In the Artist?s Way, Julia Cameron suggests as a ?task? to give up reading for a period of time. She discusses the importance of not being pulled into others, or being triggered by others, and instead, allowing our brains to open up with their own creativity and ideas?.which will only really happen by abstaining from reading, she says. As an avid reader I balked at this. On the other hand, I voluntarily wade into ?research quicksand? and never really get to my project as long as I do. I see both sides. Could you give up reading, or do you, for a time while you focus on your own creations?

I actually do! While I was working on?A Field Guide To Now,?I did almost no reading that was in that genre. I read magazine articles, and I was deeply submersed in the heady academic texts of Heidegger and Marshal Mcluhan and Walter Benjamin, as a part of my MFA studies at that time. I completely agree with Cameron, that its essential to take a fast, of sorts, from reading every so often. It clears the mind, and allows your own voice to emerge. This is also true for painting, or writing poems, or doing design work, or any other form of creative work. Taking a break from input invites curiosity, and curiosity is absolutely essential to creativity, I think.?

Source: http://www.insearchofdessert.com/?p=8812

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