Today we’re delighted to be catching up with intuitive abstract artist, Mandy Thompson, whom we interviewed on episode  12 of the iCreateDaily Podcast! https://icreatedailypodcast.com/mandy-thompson/

Raised in rural Georgia with pencils in hand as early as her mama can remember, Mandy Thompson has always been an artist at heart. She spent 15 years offering her creativity in other arenas before becoming a professional artist.

Mandy returned to art in her mid-30s as a way to work through depression and process her emotions and found abstract art as her medium for expressing emotional concepts.

Mandy encourages other’s creativity and healing through her work, which is about so much more than art. In fact, we’ve been calling it ‘Soul Centered Intuitive Art.’ Today, we get to catch up with what Mandy’s been up to!

Topics Discussed:

- Why Mandy created 'Analog: a Field Guide for The Soul'

- Art changes your brain chemistry

- Benefits of art journaling & writing

- Living with intention

- Creators like exploring questions

- About Mandy's Analog journal & physical subscription

- Mandy's description of Slow-Living

- Making the Analog series sustainable

- Personal and creative alignment with values

- Awareness, reflection, & asking deeper questions

- Mandy's intuitive painting process

- Dealing with tragic world news with art

- Medication, art, & mental health

- Working through depression and anxiety

- Mandy's top business activities

"Living with intention is accessible to people." 

~Mandy Thompson, visual artist, creator, entrepreneur

"Live the questions now."

~Rainer Maria Rilke, Bohemian-Austrian poet & novelist (1875-1926)

"We need to be tangibly engaged with our reality." 

~Mandy Thompson, visual artist, creator, entrepreneur

In today’s maze of options and noise, people everywhere are seeking an integrated life.

https://www.icreatedaily.com/integrated-life/

From integration of personal and professional lives to integration of purpose, passion and work, creators especially, are seeking fulfillment more from meaning than money. But creators need money too to be free to pursue their purpose.

Managing Your Ideas Journal

First, accept that your ideas journal is going to be a messy place. Like a construction site in process, or a garden after tilling, "building sites" are supposed to be messy.

Ideas journals are the sketch stage of the blueprints for future projects. This is where you sketch and ideate, complete with strikeouts and scribbles, that anchor the outline of things to come, should you decide to bring them to life.

The inception of any project, is messy. Beginnings are where you splash ideas to paper like throwing paint to canvas.

~LeAura Alderson, author, entrepreneur, cofounder-iCreateDaily

Idea to Paper

Your first recording of your idea is a brain dump. This idea is going to evolve, but for now, your goal is to capture it... to anchor it... to save it for future, and, as importantly, to clear your mind of it.

Recording your idea on paper is the first step of manifestation.

So have fun and enjoy the freedom to be messy in the creative process. Don't worry about editing while your idea is under construction. You can revisit it later, when you have the time to consider whether this is the next idea for you to develop further.

If you need help on how to decide which idea to do next we elaborate on a simple process for that in this article and video.

Keeping an ideas journal can free your mind and help you stay focused on your present projects. Consider your journal as a repository keeping this new life alive and safe until you're ready to nurture it to life... or release it back into the ethers.

It's the pauses... that's where the music resides.

~Arthur Rubinstein, Polish American pianist & composer, 1887-1982

Can we all agree that comparison is the worst? https://icreatedailypodcast.com/compare-and-despair/

And we don't mean 'Do you think nachos or pizza is better?'  Nachos, of course. We mean: "Ugh. Why should I ever bother singing or songwriting because I'll never sound as good as Adele? And I don't even know how to write a song!"  

Compare and Despair

We all compare at some point in our lives, even if we know it's to our detriment.

Often times these days, many people are trapped and stumped by the masquerade of perfection portrayed on social media.

Everything looks effortlessly amazing and everyone looks endlessly happy. And let's not even get started on that painter who made the most epic time-lapse video of a mandala with perfectly ratioed circles!

In fact, just this morning after we filmed this, I (Devani) logged onto Facebook and what was the first thing I saw? Marie Forleo had published a new video! And the topic? Of ALL the topics she knows so much about... This video was about comparison! 

Now I love Marie Forleo, she's one of my role models, but my first and strongest internal reaction was: "Crap. Her video is obviously going to be so much better AND it's already got hundreds of comments AND look at her perfect film studio."

I literally was comparing our video about comparison to her video about comparison after explaining to our tribe about how detrimental comparison can be! WOW! For those of you who love irony, how about a dish of meta-irony? 

So I quickly snapped out of it, closed Facebook without watching her video, and carried on with the day.  But it was a good reality check to realize that even consciously being aware that comparing is bad, there are times we all fall prey to it.  Over time, snapping out of the twinge of jealousy or envy we feel gets easier!

"Don't be intimidated by the masquerade of perfection portrayed on social media." 

~Devani Alderson, author, entrepreneur, cofounder-iCreateDaily

Episode 222: Publishing Novels, Selling Books, and Irish Mythology with Ayn Cates Sullivan https://icreatedailypodcast.com/ayn-cates-sullivan/

Our guest today is an award-winning and bestselling author of celtic mythology and folklore for the modern age, as well as inspirational children’s books. More than an author of celtic fiction, our guest—Dr. Ayn Cates Sullivan’s—life is deeply entwined with her appreciation of Druid legend and spirituality.

Ayn’s love of celtic goddesses and heroines is played out upon the pages of her novels as well as in her spiritual teaching from the platform of her Master’s in Literature and in Spiritual Psychology.

Ayn Cates Sullivan’s “Legends of the Grail series” includes two highly acclaimed books,

- Heroines of Avalon

- Legends of the Grail: Stories of Celtic Goddesses, with a 3rd in the series for 2019, titled:

- Legends of the Grail: Kings and Heroes

Ayn hasn’t just written about the Ancient Celts… she has also extensively toured the British Isles in pursuit of connection with legends and roots, and today continues to study with British experts on Celtic myth and legend.

As a teacher, Ayn Cates Sullivan loves to assist creative women and men in spiritual discoveries as well as tutoring for emerging authors each year.

We won’t list all of Ayn’s books here but you can visit her website linked below for the complete list! 

Topics Discussed:

- Ayn's background story and heritage

- Chasing Celtic folklore in Ireland and the UK

- Dealing with depression by visiting sacred sites

- Finishing her Doctorate

- Ayn's daughter encouraging her to publish her stories

- Being turned down by publishers

- Starting a publishing company

- Getting published overseas

- Celtic goddesses, Druids, and Irish folktale

- Sold out her first Legends of the Grail book the first day! 

- Tips for authors, aspiring authors, and writers

- The most productive actions for selling your books 

- Importance of Foreign Rights agents and overseas publishing

- Radio shows, book signings, and events

- Finding the right award ceremonies for submitting your book

- The three most important things that Ayn would recommend for authors

- Working with illustrators for illustrated books 

- What to look for in a PR agency

- The critical importance of Amazon reviews

- Closing thoughts

"We achieve our wholeness by asking the right questions." 

~Ayn Cates Sullivan, author, publisher, & teacher

Episode 222: Publishing Novels, Selling Books, and Irish Mythology with Ayn Cates Sullivan https://icreatedailypodcast.com/ayn-cates-sullivan/

Ideation tools can be complex or uber simple. You can probably guess which approach we favor. https://www.icreatedaily.com/ideation-tools/

Ideas can come in a flash… a flash of inspiration, of awareness, of reflection… and they can disappear as quickly.

Ideas are ephemeral entities that live in the vaporous ether that permeates, envelopes and protects life on our planet. Ideas can come and go like clouds on a windy day. Here now, gone in a minute, before they’ve had time to precipitate their essence into your conscious mind.1)

The ideation process helps you find, gather and grow your ideas. From our experience, the simpler the ideation process, the better for successful replication… from inception to idea to manifestation.

If you’re not yet in that place where ideas flow freely, this article may be the first place for you to go before continuing on here.

"The more you act on your ideas, the more ideas will flow to you."

~LeAura Alderson, author, entrepreneur, cofounder-iCreateDaily

Episode 220: Busy Brain Syndrome ~ Audio Article:

https://www.icreatedaily.com/busy-brain-syndrome/

So I was going to research something online, noticed I had a Facebook notification, clicked on it, responded to it… then, 8 minutes later, I forgot what I was doing. It took me a couple minutes of retracing my steps to recover it. I call it BBS… Busy Brain Syndrome.

That’s never happened to you, right?

Episode 219: Cultivating Intuition for Creativity with David Young

https://icreatedailypodcast.com/david-young/

David Young is an author, musician-singer-songwriter, public speaker, meditation teacher, visual artist, and intuitive channeler, cultivating intuition through music and meditation.

As an author, David’s latest book is titled: The True Story of Jesus and His Wife Mary Magdalena: Their Untold Truth Through Art and Evidential Channeling

As a visual artist painter, David creates beautiful, intuitive art he calls “channeled painting”, which we will link to in the podcast show notes. 

As a musician, David has recorded 60 albums and sold over 1,000,000 copies and is a twice Grammy Nominated musician who plays two renaissance flutes at one time in harmony. 

David Young is also a healer and an evidential channeler.

Well known for its soothing sounds and healing properties that aid in cultivating intuition and healing. David’s music is a staple in hospitals and healing centers and spas throughout the country. John Hopkins Medical Centers is one hospital that has entire floors playing David’s music 24/7.

As Musician, Teacher and Speaker David travels throughout the country hosting over 350 of his signature workshops, A Portal Between Heaven and Earth.

These meditation workshops, combine David’s healing music with guided meditations, where countless attendees continuously report phenomenal spiritual experiences.

Topics Discussed:

- David Young's story

- How David started playing spiritual flute music

- Launching his first album with a friend

- Touring the US playing his music at art festivals

- How his music helped facilitate other-worldly experiences

- Making music to help people reach meditative spaces

- How David's music and art festivals sparked his interest in painting

- Making 150 seemingly abstract 7' to 8' paintings

- The connection between spiritual channeling and David's paintings

- David's music influencing other artists

- Hospitals and spas using David's music

- David's 400+ meditation healing workshops

- Cultivating intuition and spiritual guides through creativity

- Channeling verse evidential channeling

- David's personal and workshop meditation practices

- Stories of people who've had other-worldly experiences

- The story of how David wrote his book

- Traveling through South France for book research

- David's daily creative habits

- Creative business tips for selling your art

"Our minds are like umbrellas, they're only useful when they're open." 

~David Young, musician, artist, author

"Whenever we repeat a certain action, it goes into our subconscious and just becomes so natural."

~David Young, musician, artist, author

Episode 219: Cultivating Intuition for Creativity with David Young

https://icreatedailypodcast.com/david-young/

You know it’s there. You sense strength within you.

https://icreatedailypodcast.com/meaningful-quotes/

You know you’re capable of more, and you cannot ignore that nudge from within… that impulse to create greater meaning and purpose in your life and in each day.

Tuning into meaningful quotes, positive podcasts and other inspiring and motivational resources is one of our favorite ways to stay on track with our highest visions for our lives.

Elevating yourself is not just a nice thing to do. It’s essential for keeping you on track with yourself.

“You’re not the product of your circumstance, but rather a product of your decisions.”

~Stephen Covey

Persistence to Achieve Your Goals

https://icreatedailypodcast.com/perseverance/

You know that feeling when the newness and excitement of a goal start to fade? When you're facing this long runway with hurdles to jump and curveballs to duck.

AKA: when the long-haul of work sets in.

We all experience it. Being excited in the beginning is easy, whether it's a new year, new goal, new week, new day.

This Coffee Break was inspired by an interview we listened to from Chase Jarvis and Lewis Howes.  Two entrepreneurs, podcasters, and creators who have experienced the ups and downs of achieving goals, setting new goals, and everything in-between.

Immersing in Inspiration

We always advocate tuning into the stories behind successful creators because it helps us put our own journey in perspective.  We're constantly listening to content from those we look up to so that we can sharpen our own mindsets, learn, and level up our own efforts.

Almost every "overnight success" story took years to reach. Success is a failure-laden path. Learning from those who've been there and done that reminds us that our own success, whatever it looks like, is within reach.

Topics Discussed

- The long haul of goal achievement

- Deadlines

- Highs and lows of accomplishment

- The journey of becoming great

- Big vision goals

- Goals aren't just for business

"The journey is about maturing in one's efforts to pursue and achieve one's aspirations." 

~ LeAura Alderson, cofounder-iCreateDaily