Connect with Your Body

When we're in the creative flow, we can sometimes forget we even have a body, because our minds are exploding with color, sounds, words and images. But when unhealthy habits sap your body of its vitality and strength, your creativity and productivity will be sapped as well.

What could be more frustrating than the interruption of your creative flow by an uninvited headache, back spasm, dullness of mind or the "shakes"?

I once heard the expression that as a guitar player, I'm a "small muscle athlete" – meaning I need to warm up those muscles and treat them well. Perhaps as artists we're ALL small muscle athletes. After all, we do need a good measure of physical endurance to get through our creative tasks.

Whether it's sitting hunched over an easel, the repetitive movements of playing a musical instrument, the stamina to stand and walk on stage throughout an entire show or sitting at a computer keyboard for most of the day, our creative tools all require the use of the body.

To keep that body strong and resilient takes daily attention.

Day-to-day self-care practices such as getting enough sleep, eating three healthy and balanced meals that are evenly timed throughout the day (plus healthy snacks if you need them), moving your body actively and drinking enough water are all essential for taking care of your body.

Taking care of the body also affects the mind. Fatigue, malnutrition, inactivity and dehydration will all have adverse effects on the mind and the ability to problem solve, concentrate and connect ideas.

The Creative Cycle and Self-Care

Touring with a band, rehearsing for a show or burning the midnight oil to finish a painting before a gallery opening, are all examples of extraordinary circumstances where we might relax our self-care discipline and adopt a whole new set of rules.

Then, when the show or tour is over or the piece is finished, we sometimes sink into an anti-climactic "low" or a period of transition before we get back into the creative flow again.

The daily practices you keep when things are "normal" will build resilience for the times when these extraordinary circumstances come up. They also build habits and healthy living skills that you can draw on when life gets more challenging.

Put it into play

One of the best practices for a healthy body, mind and spirit is to get enough sleep and rest. Tonight, end your evening activities a half hour early and spend that time winding down. Release the worries of the day by writing or speaking about them. Calm yourself with a bath, tea, massage, music or a good read that doesn’t remind you of your work.

We can all come up with reasons why we can't exercise, we can't make different food choices and we can't focus more on our health.

You have a unique creative gift to share with the world, but your creativity relies on a sound mind and body.

So which of your reasons for not taking care of yourself are more important than that?

By Linda Dessau

Work From Home Time Management Tips

Work from home? Time management can be a real problem. You can work from home and be completely organized.

Numerous Americans have jobs outside of their homes, but you might not be most Americans. If you do the job from your house, time management might be a problem. Yes, functioning from home has its rewards and you will find a lot of, but distractions are quick to come by. So, how do you stay clear of distractions and increase your earning potential when working from home?

1 – Do the job at the Same Time Everyday

Whether you do the job from residence part-time or full-time, having a set operation routine is advised. When your work times vary, you could find it harder to do the job. It’s also advised that you just work during the hours you perform the finest. In fact, that’s a one of the great single freedoms of working from house; you’ll be able to typically set your own several hours.

Do you perform better working during the day or at night? To strengthen your productivity, choose times of operation that are ideal for you.

2 – Work Around Your Routine

If you work full-time, you may spend all day or all night in front in the computer system. This may not give you a lot flexibility. Even so, should you work part-time from household as an net marketer, you might have the freedom to set your own times, as you will discover less hours to dictate.

When choosing which hours to operate, it truly is significant to look at your everyday activities. Do you have a morning exercise routine? Or, do you take your children to school each day? As opposed to functioning for an hour at a time, stopping, and starting again, arrange your schedule to ensure that you’ll be able to perform continuously. This will result in less distractions, more efficient perform, and much better productivity

3 – Do not Answer the Telephone

A issue with working from home is that it can be a concept that not everyone understands. For example, you will have friends or family who truly assume you happen to be just watching television all day. Yes, you know you aren’t, but these individuals generally do not know or understand. This might result in multiple telephone calls to your household while in work mode.

So, what do you do? Stay clear of answering the phone. If you happen to be a parent, this may possibly be difficult. For that reason, you must rely on the use of caller identification and an answering machine. This allows you to become alerted in the event of an emergency. As for why you should stay clear of answering the phone, you would not talk on the phone all day when working outside from the household, so don’t do it when doing the working from home.

4 – Stay away from Distractions

Prior to you are able to successfully stay away from distractions, you need to determine what distracts you. Unfortunately, distractions are common when doing the job from your house. While doing the job on your computer system, you may glance over to a sink full of dirty dishes. Rather than stopping what you will be doing, create a schedule. Set aside a day-to-day block of time, for instance a single or two hours to complete house tasks.

In keeping with distractions, you might come realize that the net can become a huge distraction. Since you perform from your laptop or computer, it can be easy to go from utilizing the web being a research tool to communication with friends. If your weakness is checking your email multiple times a day, reading the news, or visiting on the internet message boards to socialize, stay away from these websites. As an extreme measure, temporally block them from your pc.

5 – Remember Your Revenue Depends on Your Ability to Operate

Should you operate from home as an internet marketer, the time and energy you put in will determine your income. This can be one the positive aspects and pitfalls to doing work from your home office. The more you get done the more income you will generate. However, if you ever find yourself very easily distracted, not only will you fall behind, but you could lose big money.

Merely remembering that time is funds can serve like a a huge source of motivation.

In short, work a home based business is beneficial, but it’s not an effortless task. To improve your revenue level, increase your time management skills. This really is effortless to do with basic tools, for instance an alarm clock, routine that works for you and to do list.

Guest Author, Gregory L. Smith

Martin Luther King, Jr. "I have a dream"

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born Michael King, Jr. on January 15, 1929. He was 39 when he died.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. King is often presented as a heroic leader in the history of modern American liberalism.

A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he expanded American values to include the vision of a color blind society, and established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history.

In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other nonviolent means. By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and stopping the Vietnam War.

King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. federal holiday in 1986.

The full version of Martin Luther King's famous "I have a dream" speech.