Be, Awake, Create: Mindful Practices to Spark Creativity

(Paperback)

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Settle your mind, connect with the moment, and unleash your creativity with this unique and mindful art journal. In our demanding, fast-paced culture, it's increasingly important to find ways to decompress and recuperate from the busyness and stress of life. More and more, mindfulness and creativity are being recognized as antidotes to the speed and overstimulation of modern society. This beautiful book combines the two, offering both creative and meditative practices to provide a guided journey into contemplative art for healing, relaxation, deeper connection, and greater well-being. Rather than focusing on any one medium or art form, this unique guide offers basic meditation instructions, and a variety of creative prompts and activities--from collage and coloring to meditative mark making and sketching to photography and perceptual exercises--making it perfect for anyone who wants to deepen and cultivate their mindfulness and creativity. With these artistic and introspective practices, you'll put meditation into action, and learn to view yourself and your own creative process without judgment or aggression. Using Be, Awake, Create, you'll see beyond habitual patterns, discover the richness of your world, and recognize the ordinary magic of your own creativity, with greater freshness of expression and spontaneity. By cultivating awareness and allowing yourself to play in the open space of artistic creation, you'll come to discover all of the positive impacts mindfulness and creativity can have on every area of your life.

Reviews

"Be, Awake, Create by Rebekah Younger is a must-read for anyone interested in developing their own creative potential of seeing and experiencing the magic of our ordinary world. Younger leads us on a symbiotic, hands-on journey of self-discovery through exercises enriching and developing our own creativity. Through activities of presenting the potential of our sensory experiences, new possibilities and insights arise. A guided source book journaling us to the essence of creative thought."
--Michael Doucet, PhD, Louisiana musician, composer, National Heritage Fellowship recipient, and Grammy Award winner--Michael Doucet, PhD
"Be, Awake, Create invites the reader to do just that, offering a tremendous wealth of activities that bring fresh perspectives to the creative process. Writing in a most accessible, engaging style, Rebekah Younger charts a meaningful journey, sharing her perceptive insights while gently guiding the reader to be fully present and discover the heart of their artistic vision. Wise, provocative, and playful, I highly recommend this book to all those interested in exploring and deepening their awareness of and creative response to the worlds in which we live."
--Ruth Wallen, MFA, artist, professor in the MFA interdisciplinary arts program at Goddard College, and shastri in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition--Ruth Wallen, MFA
"Be, Awake, Create is The Artist's Way for the twenty-first century, a gentle and thorough guide to next steps on the journey. For the artist who longs to land in the work more deeply, for the contemplative whose creativity yearns to bloom, Younger's book offers a beautifully designed combination of mindful and creative practices which embrace playfulness as well as discipline. Accessible enough for beginners, the book could also be used as a template for depthful learning at the meeting place of presence and artistic process, and a springboard for those powerful transformations toward which all art beckons us. I'm excited to begin!"
--Nancy Coleman, PhD, clinical psychologist and writer, facilitator of Wide Open Writing, and international writing and yoga teacher--Nancy Coleman, PhD
"Be, Awake, Create is a useful and profound introduction to the dharma art teachings. It offers a revelation of insight, teachings, and experiential activities. The exercises are contemplative, creative, and life transforming. This is a book about making palpable the compassion and potency of creative presence to heal our hearts and transform the world."
--Laura Simms, world-renowned storyteller, global educator, worldwide performer, and author of Our Secret Territory--Laura Simms
"Be, Awake, Create is full of inspiring exercises and motivating quotations. Once you pick it up, you can't put it down; and when you do put it down, you just want to rush off and do something creative! This is a unique book, which expands the boundaries of art and reveals the vital importance of being creative. It will be an indispensable resource of ideas and exercises for anyone interested in exploring the vast potential hidden within their being."
--Seyed Alavi, MFA, artist--Seyed Alavi, MFA
"Be, Awake, Create is sure to become a classic, for no other book presents meditation and mindfulness as the complete ground from which to access our creativity, while leading us through the whole experiential path. Whether a seasoned or new artist or meditator, this interactive practice journal will bring the magic of creating out of everyday life. With simplicity, lucidity, and wisdom, Younger reveals how being present naturally leads to the reawakening of not only our awareness and creativity, but also our true humanity--a view so needed in our world today. She is to be thanked for heralding the way!"
--Patricia Donegan, MA, poet, translator, professor emeritus of creative writing, Fulbright scholar, meditation teacher, author of Haiku Mind, and coauthor (with Yoshie Ishibashi) of Love Haiku--Patricia Donegan, MA
"Based on the popular meditation practice of mindfulness, Be, Awake, Create offers exercises and advice that introduce us to the wider view of 'wakefulness, ' where we learn to stop rushing past our lives and instead open to a timeless moment that unleashes our natural, creative brilliance. Rebekah's voice is wise; her advice, practical; her insights, profound."
--Michael Carroll, chief operating officer of Global Coaching Alliance; author of Awake at Work, The Mindful Leader, Fearless at Work, and Mindful Leadership Training; and authorized teacher in the Kagyu-Nyingma lineage of Vajrayana Buddhism--Michael Carroll
"Rebekah Younger has composed an elegant, accessible, and profound collection of practices, insights, and personal stories for those who are curious about contemplating and creating. She deftly manifests how the very act of creating can honor our interdependence with the world. I am deeply inspired by her own vulnerability, decades of experience, and innovative suggestions. Younger says, 'When you are committed to your vision and awake to reality, everything else is workable.' I will pick up this book again and again, in order to return to this truth."
--Miriam Hall, coauthor of Heart of Photography, and contemplative arts instructor--Miriam Hall
"The creative process and meditation are inherently contemplative, but they are not the same. The creative process is about discovering one's inspiration and then manifesting it. Meditation is about developing mindfulness and awareness in order to discover your own mind. Rebekah Younger's workbook, Be, Awake, Create, through a series of exercises and the sharing of Younger's personal journey, fuses the creative process with the benefits of meditation."
--Steven Saitzyk, international director of Shambhala Art, adjunct professor of humanities and sciences at the world-renowned ArtCenter College of Design, and author of Place Your Thoughts Here and Art Hardware--Steven Saitzyk
"This book is filled with enough wisdom and joy and encouragement to fuel an extended creative journey. Rebekah draws on her experience as a teacher, fabric artist, photographer, and Buddhist practitioner to produce language and activities that are inspirational and accessible. (I especially appreciated the links to audio instructions.) She reminds us that we constantly create through our choices and actions, and that a journey begun in stillness, conducted with attention, and enacted with compassion is of benefit to self and to others."
--Laura Peck, MPH, MTC, coach and consultant to leaders committed to creating a more just and compassionate world though their word, deeds, and presence--Laura Peck, MPH, MTC

Author Bio

Rebekah Younger is a multidisciplinary artist with over thirty years of experience as a professional creative entrepreneur, designer and teacher. Her work has been exhibited in museums in the San Francisco, CA, and Boston MA, areas, as well as featured in magazines like Ornament, Fiberarts, Threads and The Crafts Report. Younger is trained as a Shambhala Art teacher. This program, based on the teachings of Chgyam Trungpa Rinpoche (and teacher for such creatives as Allen Ginsberg, Alice Walker and Meredith Monk), explores the creative process as a meditative practice and a means to wake oneself up to things as they are. In this training, art is viewed as a practice to cultivate an awakened mind and genuine expression beyond aggression. Younger completed an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College, with a focus on contemplative art, Buddhism and photography/video/installation. She lives in the San Francisco East Bay where she teaches photography, creating and meditation.