How to Stimulate Your Creativity and Intuition

Dear Reader,

What do you see outside your window right now? I see wind-driven snow, a choppy, deep green North Sea, and the bare outline of Bressay island across the harbor.

Here’s a fun exercise for you to try… make a list of things you have seen outside your window over the course of your lifetime. Your list can be as brief or as comprehensive as you want; you can include everything from the mundane to the spectacular, and from any house you have ever lived in. Don’t think too much; just let it fly and give yourself a time limit if you’d like. This exercise not only engages your memory and helps you consider the big picture of your life, it can break up your patterned thinking, engage your use of imagery and perception, trigger emotions relating to things you love, and engage your creativity.

These elements can all be important catalysts for intuitive guidance. So go full out! Get comfortable, and cultivate a relaxed but open state of mind. You can go fast as you make your list and be surprised, or you can take your time, allowing the images to fully filter in and register in your body, heart and mind. Pay attention to every sensation, thought and emotion you experience.

To help get you started, here’s my partial list:

• fishing boats
• seagulls
• a garbage truck
• the full moon
• lightning striking the Empire State Building
• the pope (I’m serious; you never know what you’ll see living in New York City.)
• rainbows and double rainbows
• a family of deer
• a fox
• a snow plow
• my father walking across an ice-covered lake in winter
• pine trees
• grass
• a cactus
• a stolen white van abandoned in my driveway
• a great blue heron
• a kingfisher
• my niece and her boyfriend washing the windows