3 ways to cultivate abundance in your life today:
Enjoy what you have. Say out loud what you're grateful for and what delights you.
Give away more than you get.
Believe in benevolence. Feed Life's algorithm and watch what happens.
162: Abundance
Where is the line between the power of positivity and foolish denial?
How do we become more comfortable asking for more, hoping for more, believing there’s more?
Merideth lets us in on some of her inner chatter this week as she launches a big project, and she'll answer a listener's question about the spiritual nature of creative blocks.
Join us for the Word of the Year Workshop on January 8th or get the recording
Submit your listener question: hello@artistsforjoy.org
161: Choose your word(s) of the year
This week on the podcast, Merideth helps you choose your word(s) of the year. Grab your journal and earbuds and explore the prompts paired with meditative music to craft an intentional, creative year with joy.
Reflect on 2023: looking through your phone at photos of the last year, ask yourself: what do I wish there had been more of? If you had a word(s) of the year, in what ways did you see them reflected in your life? If you didn’t, based on the last twelve months, what words might you have been living by?
Now looking forward: Answer this question with a stream-of-consciousness list–This year, regardless of my circumstances, I want to feel… Write as many words as possible about how you want to show up in 2024.
Read your list and circle the words that resonate most. Look especially for verbs or action words. Take the list of circled words and make a fresh list. If anything is missing, add it now.
Sit with this list of words for a few days. Talk to a loved one, therapist, or coach about it.
What activities, deadlines, trips, and events are coming up in 2024, and which of these word(s) will help you show up as you most want to, regardless of the outcomes or circumstances?
Narrow it down to one (or more) words you’ll live by this year.
Please share yours with me on Instagram on the post for this episode @artistsforjoy so we can cheer you on.
160: Joy Actually: An Invitation to a Wholehearted Holiday
What if all your feelings were welcome this season? This week on the podcast, Merideth offers a meditation on persistent joy, an invitation to a wholehearted holiday where grief + excitement or sorrow + joy can coexist. She'll share a story of when joy appeared in the most unlikely place and answer a listener's question about maintaining creative routines when everybody's home. Wishing you and yours a joyful holiday, whatever you're carrying.
Join the February’s FREE Artist’s Way Creative Cluster
159: The Spiritual Invitation of Movement
Have you felt a spiritual stirring during a long walk or a workout? What connection do creativity and movement have? Why did so many famous artists throughout history take long walks in the afternoon?
This week, Merideth explores how movement helps us connect to something larger than ourselves and invites us to practice self-acceptance, deep listening, and completing the stress cycle.
Submit your question: hello@artistsforjoy.org
Let us know what you think of this episode on IG
Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts
Sign up for the February Artist’s Way Creative Cluster
158: Mini-Joys: 3 Tips for thriving this "gigmas"
This week on the podcast, Merideth offers three ways to thrive this month. "Gigmas," or the holiday creativity vortex that hits freelancers like a polar express, is upon us. Listen for things you can do to keep your head above water during "the most wonderful time of the year."
Email Merideth: hello@artistsforjoy.org
157: Meet an artist who wastes nothing (with Heather Lanier)
This week, Merideth chats with writer Heather Lanier about creating in the cracks, why she writes, and how to become more comfortable with the inherent uncertainty of making a new work of art.
Heather's bio:
Heather is a poet, essayist, teacher, speaker, and thrift-store shopper. An assistant professor of creative writing at Rowan University, she is the author of the memoir, Raising a Rare Girl (Penguin Press, July 2020), a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, along with two award-winning poetry chapbooks, The Story You Tell Yourself, and Heart-Shaped Bed in Hiroshima. She is the recipient of a Vermont Creation Grant and an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award. Her full-length poetry collection, Psalms of Unknowing, is forthcoming from Monkfish Publishing.
Heather often writes at the intersections of spirituality, motherhood, and feminism. Her essays and poems have been published in The Atlantic, TIME, The Sun, Salon, Brevity, Vela Magazine, Longreads, and elsewhere. Her TED talk, “’Good’ and ‘Bad’ Are Incomplete Stories We Tell Ourselves,” has been viewed three million times and translated into 18 languages. Her essay, “Out There I Have to Smile,” was among the top 10 most-read Longreads essays of 2021.
With an MA in Teaching from Johns Hopkins and an MFA in Creative Writing from Ohio State, Heather has taught Shakespeare to ninth graders in Baltimore, conversational English to housewives, ship workers, and executives in Japan, and expository and creative writing to undergraduates at places such as UC Berkeley, Miami University, and Southern Vermont College. After seven years in the Green Mountain State, she is learning to live—and drive—in New Jersey. If you follow her on Twitter or Instagram, she vows never to post a post-workout selfie… although if you do, she’ll cheer you on!
156: Nothing is wasted
This week on the podcast, something we all need to remember: no creative act is wasted. If you find yourself wondering what the point of all the tiny efforts are or if you need a reminder of the long game that is being an artist, this one is for you.
email Merideth a question for the show: hello@artistsforjoy.org
Leave us a voicemail 302-415-3407
155: Mini-Joys: Off/On Ramps
This week on the podcast, a Mini-Joys episode all about something that's really helping me recently: an off/on ramp!
Listen to learn more and tell us on Instagram if this worked for you!
Design your own off/on ramp:
Think of something you’ve been avoiding or dreading, something you've been worried about starting or finishing.
Ask yourself:
What might future-me need?
Is there a task, activity, or decision that will help to do or make before or after?
How do you want to feel?
Make space and set boundaries to give yourself what you need.
154: Throwback: Letting Go
It's hard to podcast when you have no voice! This week in lieu of Ariel from The Little Mermaid (post- encounter with Ursula), you're getting a throwback… one of Merideth's favorite episodes from Season 1. How can letting go be a creative act? What is it in you that only letting go can reveal?
Original show notes:
This week, Merideth explores the the art of letting go. Is it beautiful or just plain painful? She’ll share her thoughts on how it can be an expected part of the creative process and even a road to healing.
Learn more about artist Emie Hughes: https://bit.ly/3kFUkcx
Blue Jar Studio Instagram: https://bit.ly/3jOqGkp
Blue Jar LLC on Etsy: https://etsy.me/3e7fzBy
Pyxis Piano Quartet: https://bit.ly/3oDu0Cr
Submit a creative conundrum here: https://bit.ly/3kFNMLf
153: Musical Meditation: Loving-kindness
In today's episode, a loving-kindness meditation to some music by Franz Schubert.
As you listen to each selection, repeat the mantras:
"May I be well."
"May you be well."
"May all manner of things be well."
Pre-order Merideth’s book, The Artist’s Joy
Email your question to be read on the air: hello@artistsforjoy.org
152: How can we go on?
This week on the show, Merideth answers a question we all tend to ask when the world is on fire. How can I feel creative joy in the face of violence, injustice, and brokenness? She explores why art matters in these moments, especially, and how our creativity offers us a place to process the pain and turn our anxiety into energy that can make a difference. The late famous conductor, Leonard Bernstein, answers the age-old question, “How can we go on?” and we learn about two fantastic non-profits using creativity to change the world.
Pre-order Merideth’s book, The Artist’s Joy
Email your question to be read on the air: hello@artistsforjoy.org
Photo cred: littlesun.org
151: Musical Meditation for Inspiration
This week on the podcast, a Musical Meditation for Inspiration featuring music of Chopin performed by Emile Pandolfi, Gleb Ivanov, and Yuval Vilner. Settle in and make some space for quiet time to reflect as you listen.
Self-Coaching Questions
When have I felt the most inspired? Remember a time when you couldn’t wait to sit down and make something? What transpired that brought on this frenzy of creativity? What activities or actions inspire you most?
What is a way to embed more inspiration into your daily creative life? Where is there white space for inspiration to strike? If you don’t see any room, can you work to create larger margins for yourself so that inspiration can find you?
And lastly, what creative endeavor or project is just for you right now? Take out your calendar and find an hour to get out the watercolors or dust off the guitar or take out the novel you were writing. Create for the joy of it.
Artists for Joy Classical Playlist
150: Inspiration
Season 4 opener! Let's discuss the ephemeral, mystical, inevitable miracle that is creative inspiration. Merideth shares about a hobby she is not monetizing (yet) and a powerful story of a chance encounter at Staples. How do we escape the constant pull to monetize our creative work? How do we become the kind of person who is more inspired and connected to the spiritual invitation of creativity?
Chat with Merideth about the book tour: hello@artistsforjoy.org
149: Mini Joys: Q & A
Today's episode of Artists for Joy is one of our Mini-Joys episodes, and in this one, Merideth answers alllll the listener questions. From creative routines to how it feels being edited to creating in the cracks...she tells a little of what life has been like on the book-writing journey and how you can shift your lens and make space for creative joy. Even if you don't call yourself a writer (yet!), this one is for everybody.
Artists for Joy Classical Playlist
Enjoy the show? Buy Merideth a coffee
148: Mini-Joys: Perfectionism + a special surprise
Today on the podcast, Merideth shares a central thing she’s been learning on her journey back to joy for music. Plus, she has some exciting personal news and a sneak peek inside a big project coming soon.
Email the show: hello@artistsforjoy.org
147: Mini-Joys: Time Management
This week on the podcast, a new bonus episode series: Mini-Joys. Got 10 minutes? Listen for three questions to ask yourself if you’re struggling with time management.
What is possible?
What is the percentage I need?
Where is the “ma”?
Register for the next Artist’s Way Creative Cluster
Email the show: hello@artistsforjoy.org
146: 9. Artist as Peacemaker
Today on the podcast: our final Creative Archetype….Enneagram 9s. Teachers call this type The Peacemaker. Merideth chats with author and editor Ariel Curry, bassist and author David James, and author, spiritual director, and retreat leader Lori Melton, all about life as a creative 9. They discuss figuring out how you feel, cultivating a relationship with conflict, and making room for individuality through creative expression.
(Side note: All 3 of these 9s are married to Enneagram 8s. How about that!)
These 9s invite you all to celebrate the space you inhabit in your personality as we encourage them to step into and celebrate theirs.
Invitation:
Take a moment to grab a pen or pencil and draw what you see with your non-dominant hand. 9s are great at not judging, so as you create, sustain judgment of yourself. Be open, playful, and imaginative as you take up space on the page. Allow whatever comes up to come up, and whatever you do, don’t stop until you are done. When you feel finished, journal about the experience.
What was your inner dialogue like? Do not let the noise of your critic shake your inner peace. Give yourself permission to try and try again.
Ariel Curry, author and editor
David James, bassist and author
Lori Melton, author, spiritual director, and retreat leader
Playlist of the Creative Archetypes Series
Register for the next Artist’s Way Creative Cluster
Email the show: hello@artistsforjoy.org
145: 8. The Beauty of Challenge
In the penultimate installment of our Creative Archetypes Series, we chat with Enneagram 8s. Authors Shannan Martin and Meredith Boggs, as well as hornist and educator Johanna Burian, share what life is like as a Challenger. We explore how creativity can feel like a full body experience to 8s, how vulnerability and levity are key to health, and something we can all do to help the 8s in our lives feel known and loved.
Invitation:
Take this prompt to your journal or answer the questions with a friend or therapist:
What creative challenge(s) am I facing right now? What beliefs underneath the challenge(s) need to be challenged?
Shannan Martin, author and speaker
Meredith Boggs, author and nurse
Johanna Burian, hornist and educator
Playlist of the Creative Archetypes Series
Register for the next Artist’s Way Creative Cluster
Email the show: hello@artistsforjoy.org
144: 7. The Joyful Enthusiast
In this week’s episode of Artists for Joy, we talk creative joy with some of our favorite Enneagram 7s. Christa Hardin, marriage counselor and author, Molly Wilcox, author and editor, and pastor, writer, and percussionist, Rev. Edwin Estevez share what life as an Enthusiast is like and what they believe they offer in the creative process. They also discuss how the Enneagram can shed a special light on all our relationships, what 7s can do to find more focus, and the most important fact we all should know about the 7s in our lives.
Invitation:
Find time and space for a good old-fashioned “yes and” brainstorm. Leave behind the “no's” when they pop up. Maybe there isn’t enough money or time or creative energy; put it aside and just let yourself dream. Believing anything is possible if only for a moment, can unlock creative joy when you least expect it.
Christa Hardin’s new book, Enneagram + Marriage
Molly Wilcox’s substack, Threshold
Rev. Edwin Estevez, Kirk in the Hills
Enneagram Workshop with Artists for Joy
Playlist of the Creative Archetypes Series
Register for the next Artist’s Way Creative Cluster
Email the show: hello@artistsforjoy.org