Next month at the Comfort Cafe the amazing Jill Badonsky will be our WisdomExpert (a person who comes in from the big world and helps us e-x-p-a-n-d our understanding) and right now, she’s doing a blog tour for her new book Awe-Manic: A Daily Dose of Wonder which I utterly adore!

Here’s a brief noodling with Ms. Badonsky to your reading pleasure!

If the Divine Spirit came to you blocked during the creation of Earth and humans what would be some suggestions you would give to help them to motivate themselves to keep going?

Well first I’d ask them if anything had worked in the past when they felt this block and if there’s anything THEY think might work.

Then we’d talk a bit about what might be getting in their way.

I’d have them ask the question, “What’s one small, fun way I can work on the creation of the Earth today?”

If they had no answers, I’d have them practice by purposely making an imperfect universe that just consisted of two dimensional scribbles and doodles (there might be one of these floating out there in a two dimensional galaxy so keep your eyes open).

Or maybe we would both work on our worlds at the same time so they felt a sense of supportive structure.

Your new book is about being creative every day, many of us have read creativity books that suggest doing daily writings in a journal. Do you feel that writing in a journal is a necessary step to a creative life?

Yes, absolutely.

One can be creative without writing in a journal, but there are so many advantages to it I’m not sure why any of us wouldn’t want to do it.  Just 2 minutes writing a day can make a difference. Journal writing not only accesses our creativity it also helps develop neural pathways that act as water-slides for new ideas.

Talking to ourselves on the page frees us, allows us to play, opens the pathways for making mistakes in our writing or art that lead to discoveries we hadn’t considered, helps us stumble into new perspectives, elevates the very awareness we need to flourish, reminds us of our uniqueness and enhances our self-confidence which is fuel for creative progress.

The Awe-manac has at least one journal writing prompt for every day of the year to help journal writers with some fresh new journal approaches.

Did you spend a lot of time laughing while you created this?

I had a blast writing this book. I laughed out loud quite a bit because it seemed like I was channeling someone very funny. To be able to invent things to laugh at, to me is one of life’s greatest gifts.

To get myself in the mood to be funny I would watch Ellen, John Stewart and Stephen Colbert beforehand, as well as read Paula Poundstone’s book. So they were my Muses and helped keep me in a festively funny mood.

What’s your favorite “writers block” reliever/writing exercise?

I have four depending on the nature of the block:

1. Breaking down my writing time to just 5 to 15 minutes.
2. Lowering expectations down to just saying to myself “write something really awful but go ahead and write.”
3. A word pool where I start with at least 15 randomly picked words and add other words to write something fun or profound as a warm up.
4. Reading something I’ve written that I really like reminds me of my voice.

(Jen adds: come to The Writer’s Retreat with me and Havi Amazing Brooks – best writer’s block dissolver yet invented – only three spots left.)

Thanks Jill for stopping by!

Related posts:

1. Unspeakable Truths
2. Come Retreat With Me at Kripalu April 10-12th or 12th-17th
3. Comfort During Fearful Times: Election Hang-Over
4. Gratitude
5. Doubting