The Roses’ Chronicle SPRING 2023 Dear Friends, This is the second iteration of our chronicle, written exclusively for our members, where we hope to inspire and delight you. In this issue we reveal ways our Roses family get creative, including some incredible ways our staff use their free time from professional singing to Board Game design. As I read the draft of this chronicle, I had an incredible feeling of pride and privilege to be working at the centre of creative community in Gloucestershire. However, I also felt a pang of jealousy: despite working in this inspiring space surrounded by talent my own creativity has been a little on the back burner. Work and home life have taken over recently and I forget to prioritise my own creativity despite knowing the massive mental and physical health benefits it provides me. I’ve been thinking a lot about how I want to be more creative. The problem is that’s where I stop – I just do the thinking! While ideation is a crucial part of the artistic process, it’s really the doing that’s the important part – writing that book, getting the knitting needles out, putting paint to paper or dancing the dance. I find that starting the doing is the hardest bit – so many creative gremlins get in the way! My dominant gremlin is ‘it’s not going to be good so why bother?’ To quote Annie Lamot, who writes brilliantly about the writing process, ‘Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life.’ For those of you like me, struggling to bring creativity into your lives, here’s some top tips and some blatant cheats to help you bridge the gap between thinking of the thing and doing the thing! •
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To steal from the some of my business productivity books The One Thing and Essentialism, start with the minimum viable action – write for 2 minutes a day then stop, draw a simple line drawing, write one line of a song. Takes the pressure off and fits in with life! I love using an journaling app. Try and be bad at it instead of good at it. This is a game changer as it makes it about the process not the result, and definitely makes it more fun. Copy someone who’s already done it – don’t be afraid to write / paint / sing in the style of your favourite author / artist / singer. Let them be the fuel and spark of your creative fire. Use prompts that other people have created. Over lockdown I participated in the wonderful Isolation Journals created by Suleika Joauad, that provided a daily writing prompt for a huge community of amateur writers. If you’ve got a bit more time and really want to connect with your inner creator, I highly recommend doing the 12 week self-directed creative discovery mapped out in Julia Cameron’s brilliant book The Artists Way. I hope this Chronicle stokes the fire of your inner creator and gets those creative juices flowing. I can promise you it’s always worth it.
Jess Brewster Director