song + dance

The Window Series (Part 1)

More photos from my own collection - this time, the Window Series. Enjoy...

In Val Paraiso, Chile

Val Paraiso, Chile

Bisbee, AZ

Flagstaff, AZ in the Debbie Reynold's Room at the Monte Vista hotel.

In Jerome, AZ

In Santiago, Chile

Val Paraiso, Chile

Toronto, Canada

Toronto, Canada

More to come...

Love, Robyn        

2009 in review (Part 1)

Hello Creative Ones and happy winter,

This blog is primarily dedicated to teaching people how to connect with their own creativity and intuition. One of the things that I love about working with creative people is that I have the opportunity to see the world through their eyes. With the end of 2009 quickly approaching, I thought I would spend a couple of blog entries sharing some of my own photography with you - as a way of showing you the world through my eyes. 

Here are some of my favorite photos that I've taken this year. This first set comes from my trip to Chile, where my fiance Tom was raised.

 On the coast of Chile. Right before I made this photo, I thought of my mom.

As children, Tom and his brothers used to swim in this cove on the coast of Chile. 

The view from our lunch spot on the coast of central Chile. 

 I loved the waterfall of foliage. In Val Paraiso, Chile. 

Another view on the central Chilean coast. 

I love this one of Tom. Though it might look like he's holding a martini glass, it's really a boat on the beach in front of him. 

More to come...

love, 

Robyn

 

Happy Winter (Shine On)

"And we all shine on (like the moon and the stars and the sun)" ~The Beetles

Upon reflection I realized that three years ago on the winter solstice I still lived in Kansas in a sweet yellow house with a red door. In the months following the long end of a long relationship, I felt very sad and very alone. 

And yet, I still had hope that the longest night would give way to more. 

More light. 

More fun. 

More joy.

 

I was right. In the months that followed, I sold my house and moved into the country with my friend Barbara, where I healed as I wrote my dissertation and finished my internship. After the best summer of my life, I moved to Columbia, Missouri for my residency program. 

On the longest night of 2006, I never would have guessed that just a few years later, I would be living in the Arizona desert with Tom, doing the work that makes my heart sing and my soul light and happy.

Indeed, it has. 

So on the Winter Solstice of 2009, I'm sending out loving, joyful vibes in all directions of time and space - for who I was then and who I am becoming. And for you, too. 

Hope is eternal. 

Shine on.

love, 

Robyn

The CLEOS Project: Guiding (Part III)

Hello Creative Ones,

 

In two earlier posts (Part 1 and Part 2) , I began teaching you about my beloved CLEOS project that I co-founded at the University of Kansas. Here is the third installment of the article. This section describes how we guide creative people who attend our workshops. It's one of my favorite parts because I get to help people understand themselves more fully.

 

Guiding

CLEOS protégés begin by taking a battery of assessments that reveal their personality needs, strengths, interests, and values. They learn about flow, the consciousness state associated with creativity, and they answer the question: “where do you find your flow?” The group engages in a spirited discussion, which for some is the first time that their creativity ever has been affirmed.

During individualized coaching sessions, protégés discover how their personalities, strengths, values, interests are linked to their creative flow. They find out about the gifts of living creative lives as well as the threats to their creativity such as drug and alcohol use and early sexual activity. CLEOS counselors provide suggestions about possible career paths, ideas about next steps, and encouragement to continue on the creative path. During a guided imagery experience, protégés imagine themselves doing the work that they love the most, 10 years in their own future. And in the end, they create personal maps that link their vision of the future to short-, middle-, and long-term goals; peaks and valleys of their personalities; their creative flow; and other key learnings from their CLEOS experience.

 

More to come...

 

Love,

Robyn

Ciao bellas and creative ones!



About 4 years ago my doctoral advisor asked me what I wanted to do after I graduated. Rather than telling him something easy like "I want to go into academia" or "I want to go into private practice" (which are two of the most common responses to that question in my field). Instead I was honest.



"I want to write books and to teach and travel internationally," I announced.



To which, my dear, sweet advisor gasped and then responded, "That's great! I want that for you...but (and here he hesitated...a frightening pause actually), how are you going to eat?"



(sigh)



I have to admit, my advisor's question scared me. What if he was right? What if I couldn't eat while pursuing my dream?



And so it is with creative people's career paths. Usually we scare the hell out of our parents, teachers, and apparently our doctoral advisors. Afterall, they want us to be safe, to have a roof over our heads, a place to sleep and money to pay back all of the student loans we've acquired over the course of our long and expensive educations.



Nonetheless, here I am continuing to pursue my intentions. I am gainfully employed with a great boss who says "yes" to my travel requests more often than he says no.



Which is a good thing because I just returned from Italy where I WORKED for a week! A team of coaches, psychologists, and entrepreneurs gathered to create a heart-based leadership program for business people. And by the way, I ate really well. And had a roof over my head the whole time (except when I was outside exploring the incredible countryside and Venice, too).



As it turns out I eat just fine when I'm working internationally. I'll have to let my advisor know. He'll be very pleased.



love,



Robyn

The Creative Environment

Hello Creative Ones,

Earlier this month, I traveled to Italy with a team of coaches and psychologists to create a leadership training program for business people. The event was hosted by Dr. Al Ringleb at CIMBA. For me, it was some of the most intellectually stimulating, creatively challenging work that I've done in a long time. And I rediscovered the value of being part of a team who loves and supports each other. Between ideas and conversations about building a heart-based leadership program, we had a grand time. Our laughter continues to ring in my ears.

Al provided all of the ingredients for a creative and productive meeting. As team member Michael Saletta  wrote,"Your hospitality was warm and inviting … your facilitation of the process was allowing and engaging … and your vision allowed for a beautiful creation and the beginning of a lifetime of friendships."

  

The Green Team: Dr. Barbara Kerr, Mr. Michael Saletta, Dr. Nancy Fry, Ms. Terra Shaad, Ms. Katiuscia Baggio, Dr. Robyn McKay, and Dr. Al Ringleb

We refer to ourselves as the Green Team because of our intention to help people in business cultivate positive "Green Zone" emotions and thoughts that spark peak performance. The Green Zone includes experiences of hope, optimism, interest, zest, passion, and creative flow. And interestingly, green is the color of the heart chakra. It's a great color to describe heart-based, creative leadership.

Now that I'm home, I've had time to reflect on my experience with the Green Team. I can't help but think that the allowing environment that we worked in helped us to generate our own peak performances.  And the central Green Zone emotion that I experienced during our work was Love.

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens when we pilot our leadership training sessions - I expected that business people around the world will experience a powerful transformation as they unleash their own Green Zone experiences.

I'll keep you posted.

love,

Robyn

 

Clearing Creative Blocks

Hello Creative Ones,

Just yesterday I complained to Tom, "Every time I sit down to write, I feel like a thousand energetic cords are holding me back." I continued, "I'm so frustrated". And because I'm a (more than a) little dramatic, I added, "make it stop. This sucks!" 

Tom is a master counselor and he's also my fiance, so he knows better than to try to fix anything for me. Instead he took a different approach. He reminded me of the collage I've been meaning to create - the one that will depict my life as I want it to be. I hadn't started it yet and he simply suggested that I begin. 

And so last night, armed with magazines, scissors, and glue, I began flipping, clipping, cutting and pasting words and images onto a canvas. This morning we went for a hike in the desert not far from our home in Phoenix. We at lunch at a sweet little restaurant and listened to an acoustic guitarist play Green Day and Clapton. Later, we explored two different bookstores, and I found a couple of good used books that I had been wanting. And all that time, I did not write. I wasn't even near my computer for most of the day. Tonight, I made more progress on the collage. 

As I sat down to write this blog entry, I realized something.

Cross-training is important.

The creative people who I work with are usually multipotential - they can do a lot of things really well. They write music or poetry, they dance, they paint. And when they feel blocked, it's usually due to stress or depression. But sometimes creative blocks happen when you get bored, which is what has happened for me. Between my day job and all of the projects I have going on professionally, I spend hours at the computer every day. Too many hours, as it turns out. 

Here's what I think:

If you're a writer, step away from the computer. Pick up a paint brush, or as I did, a magazine and scissors. Create something that has nothing to do with your fingers moving across a keyboard and everything to do with honoring your creativity that goes far beyond the words that you put on a page. Go for a hike and break a sweat. Develop another creative outlet. When you do, see if your ideas flow and you regain your enthusiasm for your projects.  

As for me, my collage continues to emerge, and those thousand energetic cords that were restraining me? They've not entirely vanished, but I do feel a little more flexible and excited about my writing. Enough so that I've been happily writing this blog for the last 20 minutes. And I haven't deleted anything. Not once.

Love, 

Robyn

Hi Creative Ones,

I'm writing from my home in Phoenix, where I woke up with the sun and a soft desert breeze wafting in through my open bedroom window. For a moment, I had to remind myself where I was. Before I opened my eyes, I could have sworn I was back in my childhood home: the sounds and smells and feel of the sweet morning air were so familiar.

Later today, I'll meet a friend for an afternoon movie and then go to another's tonight for Christmas tree decorating - her way of ushering in the holiday season. But right now, I'm sitting in my sunny nook, writing.

As creative people, we sometimes struggle to make time for our work. There always seems to be something else to do - laundry or bill paying or even surfing the internet. And yet, many creative people I talk with tell me that they long for time, precious time to do their Work.

Perhaps it's the emphasis on Work that gets us all anxious and dramatic. What if it's actually work and not so much a game? Maybe it's the thought that "if I finish this, then what will I do?" It's easy to talk about creating in the abstract. It's much harder to actually produce. Yet, that's where all the juice is - in the creation itself. If you want to create, you have to do the work.

But how do you kick start that project that you started months ago? How to you get past the guilt of not doing that has held you paralyzed? If you can't see how it's going to end, you'll not arrive so easily.

Keep your eyes on the prize - and have fun along the way. By visualizing your completed project you generate enthusiasm and joy for the process and the final product. My teachers taught me to claim what I want by saying, "it's already done" and "it's already complete".

When you imagine your completed projects, see if you can feel the push of energy that's emitted from your solar plexis - the energetic center of personal power in your belly. Allow that energy to make its way from your belly to your heart, your throat, and face. You'll know the energy has arrived at your face when you smile or even laugh at the thought of completing your project.

That's how you'll know you're on your path. Take time to imagine every day. And then, go do.

Love, Robyn

On Happiness, Success, and Fear

This past Saturday, I presented a mini lecture from my workshop: "What do you really, really want?" to ASU undergraduate leaders. This video is the first of several.

Enjoy!

SWIHA Developmental Psychology Notes (Week 5: Positive psychology & culture)

Enjoy!

Slides for SWIHA Developmental Psychology (Week 5)