#02. The Monday Muse ✌️
A weekly round-up of quotes, content, practices & more that inspired me this week.
Happy Monday, Wild Creatives ~ I’m deep in the process of writing V2 of ‘Creative Dysregulation’, and I have to be honest, it’s a whole thing. After re-reading V1, I couldn’t help but take a digital red pen and mark the whole thing up. This surprised me actually. The feedback I received was so overwhelmingly positive that I really thought I would only want to make a few tweaks. I thought I’d shuffle some paragraphs around, add a section on ‘Creativity and Attachment Theory,’ improve the closing chapter, and send it to print by mid-April. But alas, the idea has evolved, deepened, and thickened.
Like a chili stew that’s better the next day, the concept of creative dysregulation has been simmering and becoming more flavorful with time and contemplation 🍲
As of this morning, upwards of 90% of the book is changing, although the central premise remains the same: We were born to create and anything that gets in the way of us creating is ripe for healing and transformation. My understanding of what this invitation really means is due in large part to the fact that I wrote V1 of the book. The whole project is so delightfully meta that it’s a bit silly. Although I had to work through post-launch vulnerability with V1 (a version I estimate ~700 people now have), it did exactly what it was meant to do: teach me what to do next.
Letting the book live a life out in the world generated feedback, instigated real-life convos with readers, and filled my inbox with people’s reflections (including improvements). I learned where people were confused, where they dropped off, and what they could use more of. Over the last six weeks, I’ve really begun to see who this book is meant for and how I can better write for them. Now, as I wrangle V2 into existence, I have their words, faces, and voices in my mind. This time, I’m not only writing for my past self (the book 20-something Kelly needed), but I’m also writing for real-life people that I’ve come into contact with.
In some ways, it’s now a co-creation 🤜🤛
Just so ya know…Because I’m deep in the book writing process, I have very little bandwidth for much else (except self-care and cuddling with my family). For this reason, I won’t be producing as much original long-form newsletter content over the next 4-6 weeks unless the inspiration and energy are abundantly there. But I will share snippets of the book chapters to work through ideas publicly every week or two.
I must say that I love how this project is calling forth all of me and refining where I place my time, energy, and attention. This seems like one of the many gifts of creative projects. It’s not possible to birth something from nothing without commitment, discipline, and devotion, and with those in place, the non-essential things that fill our plates tend just to fall away.
"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." - Pablo Picasso
That said, The Monday Muse is all about re-filling the creative cup. So here are some of the things that have been helping me stay inspired, lit up, and creating this week 🎨 #createyourthing
With wild love,
~ Kelly
PS: 📖 I’m hosting a 30-day book publishing challenge in July. Go from idea to self-published with a group of other creatives. Pre-register your interest here. Official details will be announced in the next few weeks.
02. The Monday Muse
✍️ Articles
I published an article months ago but didn’t send it as a newsletter because I was feeling creatively dysregulated. The article is, Embracing Metamorphosis: A Journey of Transformation through Art & Psychedelics and it takes you through my butterfly bodypainting project to honor my personal healing journey (plus, how to execute your own expressive arts healing project) 🦋
Rewiring my online compulsions with my new friend, Carolyn Yoo
An Encouragement for Spring and the Writing Life by Parker Palmer via On Being
Spring Is Mud and Miracle by Parker Palmer again
🎧 Audio, Music & Podcasts
Suno AI empowers you to make a song about anything in one minute with any hodgepodge of genres you can think of. Here’s ‘Morning Musings’, an introspective mellow smooth jazz beat about my morning writing routine that Jonny prompted. Existential Musing: What will AI music generators mean for places like Spotify and will we mind if music is made by humans or not?
Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil might be the greatest role model for healthy teenage rebellion. In an interview with Tim Ferriss, Guy takes us through his story of being a broke street performer to building a billion dollar global entertainment business (my favorite Cirque to-date is The Beatles LOVE). If I could go back in time with the chutzpa that he demonstrated as a 14-year-old, I think I would’ve followed my dreams much earlier in life.
Have you followed my Spiritual Hip Hop Playlist yet on Spotify?
I’m writing my book listening to isochronic tones for creative thinking
🎥 Film & Video
Nothing but chills and inspiration while watching 15-year-old Emma Kok in this gorgeous live performance. Ohhh to be 15 and fully embodied in your creative gifts!
Call forth your inner child because Roald Dahl is back in four short films by Wes Anderson on Netflix. I’ve seen two out of four and my favorite so far is The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. A quintessentially Anderson-style quirkfest, I felt like I was watching a moving picturebook.
Well this was a fun find: Meditation x DUNE — Deep Relaxing Ambient Music for Meditation, Concentration & Study (with Paul from DUNE)
💭 Wise Words
“How do you build a good life? Relentlessly follow your intuition. Build with people who also love to grow. Take responsibility for your healing. Love yourself so deeply that you feel at home in your own body and mind. Teach yourself to forgive. Never stop being a kind person.” ~ Yung Pueblo
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That’s it! I hope you enjoyed the second Monday Muse roundup! Feel free to share anything you enjoyed in the comments below. Xx ~ Kelly 🧡
Wooo thanks for the mention Kelly! And I newly discovered isochronic tones through this roundup - I knew about binaural sounds but not isochronic! TIL~
Reading about you totally rewriting your book both excited me and made me a little sad! I'm super excited for the next evolution of the book, knowing that you have so much more to say about the topic and that the deeper you can take the reader, the more delicious the book will be.
My sadness is in the idea of it being V2, which I'm guessing would supersede V1's presence online. And the world will be a duller place without the first book that was written in five days. How'd you feel about having both out in the wild? Maybe V1 could be renamed to something like "The Book I Wrote in Five Days" if you wanted to keep the OG title for the updated V2.