April 2020

As I continue to explore my personal creative practice, I started checking in with myself at the beginning of each month to help with the insecurities I might have toward myself and my art practice. In this process I connect to energy and set the intention of receiving guidance for the month. This helps me approach my process from a more intentional state and examine my blockages from an energetic perspective. I use my inner guidance and oracle cards as a general guideline, then I meditate on the subjects and see what comes up in my mind. Afterwards, I spend some time doing energy work on myself and bring awareness to where I could be holding these things in my body. Then, I journal and reflect on it. 

Recently, I decided I wanted to explore translating my findings into a forecast and practical prompts for self reflection. So we can all practically apply this information to our creative process and grow through it. This brings me to the first creative forecast I’m doing for the month of April 2020! 

We’re entering the month with some heavier energy. You might feel some frustrations coming up towards your work. This energy is brought on by our sudden change in pace. Usually this time of year is very busy and outward. Things are warming up after a long winter and everyone is eager to get going. It’s a refreshing fiery energy! This year, we can’t roam free as we please to express this energy outward which can cause us to direct it inward. This can sometimes manifest as mood swings, anger, frustration and anxiety if we’re not mindful of how to manage this fire. We’ll be faced with a lot of reflections about our basic needs early this month. Think root energy if you’re familiar with the chakra system. This is an energy that governs the emotions surrounding our human survival needs. Such as food, finances, shelter and our overall feelings of belonging. So to relate this to your creative process, these feelings can really derail our creativity and cause us to second guess ourselves. We may feel like we don’t belong or question our ability to provide for ourselves with our creative offerings. What is going to help us in these moments is creating some structure around our process. Gently allowing ourselves to let go of what we can control and developing systems around what we CAN control. Such as, scheduling time for free explorations and making more space for lightness and fun within our usual processes. Allowing ourselves to create for the sake of feeling, rather than providing. (This isn’t always realistic for everyone but even 10 minutes a day is effective. Allow yourselves to build a practice that works within your lifestyles and limitations, this is yours to discover) 

As we carry over into mid-month we’ll start seeing a little bit more clarity. I encourage you to start paying attention to the details of your process. What has fallen off your radar, or what have you been skimming over? This newfound clarity can help us dive deeper into our WHY and refine our purpose. But be mindful of how you feed this energy as you may also fall into becoming overly critical. To balance this out ask yourself, how can my artistic process fuel me in positive ways? There’s also a beautiful energy coming to us mid month that wants to encourage us to reflect on how our work can be of service to others.

Towards the end of the month, things are slowly going to start feeling lighter. We’re inviting in a very introspective energy. You might find yourself feeling more innovative at night. This is a great time to use the night sky as your guide (Maybe you meditate on the visual of a night sky or write a letter to the sky? Allow yourself to explore what this looks like for you) You might be hit with a sudden fresh perspective on something you’ve been pondering for a while. We’re going to start having some clarity around stepping outside of what was perceived as societal norms. As artists, most of us have had to sift through feelings of stepping outside of the norm already, we might start noticing people putting more value towards this, which can give us a boost in confidence about the worth that we bring to society. This energy may be in contrast to feelings of rebellion and or revolution, we might see this appear on a global level or personal level. This energy, even though it can feel very strong and intrusive at times, can lead us all to meaningful change.

Here's some prompts for you to explore your own emotions towards the energies that came to me this month. Remember, this practice is yours to explore freely and these are simply guidelines based on my personal experiences with energy. Enjoy! 

Reflection prompts for April: 

• Where do I already feel comfortable and secure within my creative process? 

• What kind of new rituals could I implement in order to feel even more grounded in my creative skills? 

• Where can I let go of my need to control when it comes to my creative process?

• What small, daily actions help me feel more clear and open to creative energy? 

• How can my art help me? How can my art help others? 

• Which societal norm is limiting me in my art-making? How can I gently move past this while remaining compassionate towards myself?