Everyday Creative: 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Inner Artist [Cards]

Eric Maisel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2004

Award-winning creativity coach and therapist, Eric Maisel, offers the A Little Every Day Deck series to help readers develop a more centered, creative, intelligent life. Each card in the series presents a single idea and a simple exercise to try every day. Readers can use the decks in a variety of ways. They can:

• Read through the 30 cards in the deck, pick one that resonates, and try the simple exercise the card suggests.

• Use the cards as a 30-day program, practicing one message and exercise a day.

• Shuffle the cards, cut the deck, and let a random message speak.

• Find a favorite message and exercise, repeat it until the message is taken to heart, then go on to another card in the deck.

Each deck is designed to work with the others to help readers grow in profound, even unexpected ways.

Everyday Creative provides 30 ways to awaken the artist within. Each card helps build a more creative life: undertake new creative projects, live life more authentically, and manifest a true artistic nature. Cards invite readers to acquire new confidence, allow for fortunate accidents, embrace mystery, reduce anxiety, and more.

Mystery is the artist’s territory. We know. And we don’t know. Grow creative by embracing mystery. Intending is more powerful than wishing. Intend to create. Hold the intention in your heart and in your belly. Grow creative through powerful intention. No desire, no creativity. Burn to create. Fall deeply in love with life. Grow creative through passionate desire.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Eric Maisel is a therapist, creativity coach, and award-winning writer. He is the author of more than 20 books, including The Van Gogh Blues, the 2002 finalist for Books for a Better Life Award; Affirmations for Artists, named Best Book of the Year for Artists by New Age magazine; Fearless Creating; A Life in the Arts; and Sleep Thinking. Maisel lives and practices in San Francisco, California.

Product Details

• Cards: 30 pages
• Publisher: Red Wheel; Crds edition (August 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159003077X
• ISBN-13: 978-1590030776
• Product Dimensions: 4.8 x 3.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,155,957 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Tool for Expanding, Exploring, Opening Channels!, August 27, 2004

By 

Lori L. Lake "Author of Like Lovers Do, Buyer... (Portland, Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everyday Creative: 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Inner Artist (Cards)

Some time ago, I purchased a set of 48 playing-card-sized cards painted by Susan Seddon Boulet. I've kept them by my computer and occasionally dip into the deck, pull one out, and see if the colorful painting in some way inspires me in my writing. Now, with his new "A Little Every Day Decks," creativity coach, writer, and psychologist Eric Maisel has given me an exciting new deck and a simple, easy-to-use program to spur creativity and inspiration. Each card contains a truth about creativity: "Grow creative by astonishing yourself" or "Grow creative by opening to serendipity," for instance. The point of focus on each card is book-ended by ideas about the truth and then an exercise that can be done to enhance or change one's experience and accessing of creativity.

In an introductory section, Maisel tells us, "You can read through the thirty cards in your deck, pick out the one that feels particularly resonant, and try the simple exercise the card suggests. You can use the cards as a thirty-day program, taking in one message a day....You can shuffle the cards, cut the deck and let a random (is it really random?) message speak directly to you." All of these are good ideas, and once you've gone through the deck, I have a hunch it will pay off to go through it again. And again.

I've been examining and pondering the meanings of the cards for a couple weeks now and have settled upon using one each day at random before I begin my writing. In just a little over two weeks, I find that each morning I am anticipating reading the next card. Often the idea contained within stays with me all day, firing me on to carry out my appointed tasks. The cards are not just for writers or artists but for anyone seeking to expand, explore, or open up channels of creativity. Highly recommended. ~Lori L. Lake, author of lesbian fiction and freelance reviewer for Midwest Book Review, Golden Crown Literary Society's "The Crown," The Independent Gay Writer, and Just About Write.com.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice way to start the day, April 19, 2006

By 

Dakota (Gambrills, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everyday Creative: 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Inner Artist (Cards)

Whenever I sit down to work (I am a visual artist) with my coffee in the morning, I pull out one of the cards and read it. Then as the coffee smell fills the air, and the warm liquid fills my body - ahhh...I think about what the card is saying to me, and I get to work! A very nice way to start the day! Each little card makes me smile. (They are good for helping you to get out of a temporary rut, too.) One of life's simple pleasures. Try them, you will like them!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Everyday Creative: 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Inner Artist, March 17, 2007

By 

Michel Rosenthal (U.S.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Everyday Creative: 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Inner Artist (Cards)

I really liked the cards. I teach a class in creativity and I was able to give them to individual students to encourage their creative growth.