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Boundless Creativity: A Spiritual Workbook for Overcoming Self-Doubt, Emotional Traps, and Other Creative Blocks
A transformational guide from the author of The Plot Whisperer to lead you—step by step—on a spiritual journey toward living your best, most creative life.
Creativity engages our imagination and opens us up to thinking differently. It frees us from the constraints of everyday life, allowing us to access a part of ourselves that is not ruled by time, pressures, or conditions. It’s no wonder many of us long for more of it in our lives. When creative energy flows through us, it connects us to our deepest selves, as well as the world around us.
If you’ve ever embarked on a creative project, you may have experienced moments of pure joy or a sense of higher consciousness, when creativity seemed to pour from you. It’s also likely you’ve encountered moments of feeling stuck or blocked, being full of fear and self-doubt, or just not seeing the point. The truth is, emotions have a way of powerfully disrupting our creative flow and dismantling our inspiration. And by examining how emotions affect creativity—how entangled we can become in our own negative thoughts and beliefs—we can learn to unblock channels of inspiration and reach our true creative potential.
Boundless Creativity is designed to help writers, artists, and anyone feeling creatively blocked move beyond the self-doubt and criticism, past emotional wounds, and habits and patterns that keep you from realizing your artistic ambitions. Using a powerful technique called “The Universal Story”—a four-phase program with easy-to-follow steps and exercises—you’ll learn to identify and dissolve the emotional and energetic blocks that get in the way of your creativity.
With these tips and tools, you’ll have the keys to unlock creative inspiration, intuition, and new ways of seeing yourself and the world—with acceptance, emotional balance, and a tolerance of imperfection.
Creativity engages our imagination and opens us up to thinking differently. It frees us from the constraints of everyday life, allowing us to access a part of ourselves that is not ruled by time, pressures, or conditions. It’s no wonder many of us long for more of it in our lives. When creative energy flows through us, it connects us to our deepest selves, as well as the world around us.
If you’ve ever embarked on a creative project, you may have experienced moments of pure joy or a sense of higher consciousness, when creativity seemed to pour from you. It’s also likely you’ve encountered moments of feeling stuck or blocked, being full of fear and self-doubt, or just not seeing the point. The truth is, emotions have a way of powerfully disrupting our creative flow and dismantling our inspiration. And by examining how emotions affect creativity—how entangled we can become in our own negative thoughts and beliefs—we can learn to unblock channels of inspiration and reach our true creative potential.
Boundless Creativity is designed to help writers, artists, and anyone feeling creatively blocked move beyond the self-doubt and criticism, past emotional wounds, and habits and patterns that keep you from realizing your artistic ambitions. Using a powerful technique called “The Universal Story”—a four-phase program with easy-to-follow steps and exercises—you’ll learn to identify and dissolve the emotional and energetic blocks that get in the way of your creativity.
With these tips and tools, you’ll have the keys to unlock creative inspiration, intuition, and new ways of seeing yourself and the world—with acceptance, emotional balance, and a tolerance of imperfection.
- GenresNonfictionSelf Help
242 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2020
10 people are currently reading
1063 people want to read
About the author
Martha Alderson
19 books281 followersMartha writes at an enchanted beach somewhere off the coast of California. She draws inspiration in the beauty that surrounds her.
Visit her website for more: https://marthaalderson.com
Visit her website for more: https://marthaalderson.com
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 8, 2020
I became aware of Martha Alderson by way of her work with writers. She has over thirty years of helping create and studying stories and exploring artists’ relationships with their creative works.
This workbook uses her experience to reconnect you, the creative person, to your source and the resources available to you. This presents a program of layers, goal setting, action taking and acceptance of belief on the spiritual plane.
She talks about four major phases of creation —idea, action, adversity, and success - that must be traversed between an idea and the finsihed product. There will not be only one path to achieve a dream and each road will contain obstacles, in which life lessons will hide. Along the way your energy will rise, gain momentum and fall off. There will be decisions to make, including whether to continue or quit. The only "correct" answer at each point is to reflect and adjust.
Writing down your intentions, experiences and emotions will help you along your creative journey.
It gives you the opportunity to see your progress, identify paterns of thought and behaviors, and make more educated choices when the need for those decisions and adjustments arise.
As the workbook progresses with questions and areas for you to record your thoughts and experiences, the author shares pieces of her own, unique, personal story. She shares responses other creatives have given for their motivations and disappointments. It makes the reader understand they are not as alone as they may feel.
There is room to shine a light on what fears you have, what is keeping you from moving forward.
And there is encouragement to be honest and figure out what options you have.
Although you, the reader, the creative, will be the positive force behind your own results, the author gives concrete steps you can take at each point along your journey.
Regardlesss of the medium you choose as your primary, Martha Alderson suggests you use various senses and medium as you discover your path. There is inner work, outer work, mental work, physical work. Become more aligned with and aware of your emotions, feelings, reactions and responses. Learn to listen to and FEEL your intuition.
You would think that after you have reached your goal or finished your creative piec, that is the end of the process, or at least end of this author's assistance. WAIT - there is more!
Of course I can't give it ALL away.
This workbook uses her experience to reconnect you, the creative person, to your source and the resources available to you. This presents a program of layers, goal setting, action taking and acceptance of belief on the spiritual plane.
She talks about four major phases of creation —idea, action, adversity, and success - that must be traversed between an idea and the finsihed product. There will not be only one path to achieve a dream and each road will contain obstacles, in which life lessons will hide. Along the way your energy will rise, gain momentum and fall off. There will be decisions to make, including whether to continue or quit. The only "correct" answer at each point is to reflect and adjust.
Writing down your intentions, experiences and emotions will help you along your creative journey.
It gives you the opportunity to see your progress, identify paterns of thought and behaviors, and make more educated choices when the need for those decisions and adjustments arise.
As the workbook progresses with questions and areas for you to record your thoughts and experiences, the author shares pieces of her own, unique, personal story. She shares responses other creatives have given for their motivations and disappointments. It makes the reader understand they are not as alone as they may feel.
There is room to shine a light on what fears you have, what is keeping you from moving forward.
And there is encouragement to be honest and figure out what options you have.
Although you, the reader, the creative, will be the positive force behind your own results, the author gives concrete steps you can take at each point along your journey.
Regardlesss of the medium you choose as your primary, Martha Alderson suggests you use various senses and medium as you discover your path. There is inner work, outer work, mental work, physical work. Become more aligned with and aware of your emotions, feelings, reactions and responses. Learn to listen to and FEEL your intuition.
You would think that after you have reached your goal or finished your creative piec, that is the end of the process, or at least end of this author's assistance. WAIT - there is more!
Of course I can't give it ALL away.
May 11, 2020
Boundless Creativity: A Spiritual Workbook for Overcoming Self-Doubt, Emotional Traps, and Other Creative Blocks is based on viewing one’s own creative journey as a linear plot which borrows elements of Freytag’s triangle, Joseph Campbell’s mono-myth, and Vogler’s mythic structure. Alderson, who also authored The Plot Whisperer, calls this linear plot, the Universal Story. She organizes Boundless Creativity around the four stages of the Universal Story: Know Yourself (inner exploration to find a goal), Sea of Creativity (facing internal and external obstacles), Dive Deep (a time that asks readers to risk everything for their dreams), and The Prize (gaining external success and spiritual wisdom). This is a book that is filled with many reflective exercises. (There are 18 writing prompts in the first chapter alone.) The twenty chapters that follow are also filled with many exercises in the form of prompts. Boundless Creativity would be most useful for linear thinkers who want step-by-step encouragement to start creating and for those who prefer to plan their journeys before they start them. Alderson’s understanding and encouraging way of coaching offers empowerment to readers whose creative impulses have been discouraged in the past. I wanted to love this book but as one who plots by the seat of her pants, one who revels in the spontaneity and gloriously messy aspects of creativity, I could only give it four stars.
April 5, 2020
First, I was not familiar with Martha Alderson prior to reading her workbook, Boundless Creativity: A Spiritual Workbook for Overcoming Self-Doubt, Emotional Traps, and Other Creative Blocks . I do want to thank the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this workbook and review it prior to publication. With that said, my review of the workbook is entirely my own.
The book itself explores a number of issues that people have when trying to overcome hurdles related to creativity. Aldreson's text is part spiritual treatise on the subject of creativity and part guided journaling to help you think through your own creativity.
As I was reviewing this book, I did not complete all of the exercises in order and work my way through the book as it is intended. Instead, I looked through the content and the types of exercises that Alderson presents through the book. To help guide her ideas, she discusses them like one would approach structuring a novel. As such, I really think this book would be great for budding novelists to think through their own literary works, but I also believe the book is generic enough that anyone trying to find their own internal creative spark would enjoy the experience.
The book itself explores a number of issues that people have when trying to overcome hurdles related to creativity. Aldreson's text is part spiritual treatise on the subject of creativity and part guided journaling to help you think through your own creativity.
As I was reviewing this book, I did not complete all of the exercises in order and work my way through the book as it is intended. Instead, I looked through the content and the types of exercises that Alderson presents through the book. To help guide her ideas, she discusses them like one would approach structuring a novel. As such, I really think this book would be great for budding novelists to think through their own literary works, but I also believe the book is generic enough that anyone trying to find their own internal creative spark would enjoy the experience.
May 27, 2020
BOUNDLESS CREATIVITY by Martha Alderson
Don't even hesitate to buy this workbook. It is extremely helpful.
Many creative people suffer from occasional self-doubt. We worry that we don't have what it takes to be successful in a highly competitive business. We start to believe that our dream will remain just that -- a dream. Then BOUNDLESS CREATIVITY comes along and informs us that we can reach our goals.
One of the hardest things about being a writer (or artist, photographer, etc.) is you're doing it on your own. I've always been jealous of the sports teams. They have a dedicated coach who gives the players a pep talk whenever they get discouraged. This workbook is like having a coach who cares about you and wants to see you succeed.
Not only is this workbook extremely helpful, it's also very fun to do. I looked forward to diving into the lessons every day. The exercises are enjoyable and eye-opening, and I learned a lot about creativity, the Universal Story, and myself.
In closing, I want to direct your attention to another workbook Martha has written: The Plot Whisperer Workbook. I know you will find it amazing.
Don't even hesitate to buy this workbook. It is extremely helpful.
Many creative people suffer from occasional self-doubt. We worry that we don't have what it takes to be successful in a highly competitive business. We start to believe that our dream will remain just that -- a dream. Then BOUNDLESS CREATIVITY comes along and informs us that we can reach our goals.
One of the hardest things about being a writer (or artist, photographer, etc.) is you're doing it on your own. I've always been jealous of the sports teams. They have a dedicated coach who gives the players a pep talk whenever they get discouraged. This workbook is like having a coach who cares about you and wants to see you succeed.
Not only is this workbook extremely helpful, it's also very fun to do. I looked forward to diving into the lessons every day. The exercises are enjoyable and eye-opening, and I learned a lot about creativity, the Universal Story, and myself.
In closing, I want to direct your attention to another workbook Martha has written: The Plot Whisperer Workbook. I know you will find it amazing.
September 23, 2020
This a workbook to tap into creativity, but it really will require you to do the work of remembering, journaling, and analyzing your thoughts. The author sees a plot, what she terms the "Universal Story" not just within the creative work but underlying the process itself:
"The Universal Story, the format of this workbook, and every creative endeavor are divided into four major phases—idea, action, adversity, and success—that I translate into “Know Yourself,” “Sea of Creativity,” “Dive Deep,” and “The Prize.” Each of these four phases carries its own kind of energy meant to challenge the habits of your mind and your personality."
The book breaks these down into small sections that you journal your way through. I found that my memory just couldn't quite yield all the results needed--perhaps I'll have to try it again someday with fewer distractions.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a digital ARC for the purpose of an unbiased review.
"The Universal Story, the format of this workbook, and every creative endeavor are divided into four major phases—idea, action, adversity, and success—that I translate into “Know Yourself,” “Sea of Creativity,” “Dive Deep,” and “The Prize.” Each of these four phases carries its own kind of energy meant to challenge the habits of your mind and your personality."
The book breaks these down into small sections that you journal your way through. I found that my memory just couldn't quite yield all the results needed--perhaps I'll have to try it again someday with fewer distractions.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a digital ARC for the purpose of an unbiased review.
May 6, 2020
I have followed the author for several years now and have used her plotting books to help with writing my novels. I've used her formatting suggestions for plotting the story and character development, but for some reason would always get tangled up in my own fears or with taking the time to thoughtfully complete the workbooks. This book is exactly what I needed to help me confront my fears and work through some of the blocks I have.
I made the commitment to myself to do the hard job of owning my fears, flaws, and distractions to successfully overcome them. While I am a work in progress, I've been faithfully completing the questions and action steps. I'm not quite finished, but wanted to write that I now have a better understanding of the connection between myself and the Universal Creative Flow.
I made the commitment to myself to do the hard job of owning my fears, flaws, and distractions to successfully overcome them. While I am a work in progress, I've been faithfully completing the questions and action steps. I'm not quite finished, but wanted to write that I now have a better understanding of the connection between myself and the Universal Creative Flow.
June 7, 2020
I won a copy of this in a Goodreads Giveaway. I entered the giveaway primarily because I was the most interested in seeing someone else's perspective on ways to break creative blocks. I was rather disappointed in the amount of spirituality present in the workbook - I felt like it would have had a better flow without that, and at times the sentiments felt very cloying. If you nix all that mess, and look at the exercises without it, it's a pretty solid approach to how to structure a novel. That said, there's more to creativity in general than writing and there's more to creativity in writing than novel writing, and I felt like this didn't explore any other aspects beyond approaching a novel. The title, as a result, doesn't accurately describe the workbook, and this definitely won't be for everyone. It was worth looking into, but it's not something that I'll actively use.
February 28, 2020
There are countless books on creativity with lots of advice on how to boost creativity, understand it, attain it and all the works, I was looking forward to learning something new in this book and I love the insightful approach the author takes in explaining the creativity journey- the ups and downs and guiding you through each point. It is a practical guide that any Writer can draw insights on- my favorite was the topic on emotions and how that affects my creativity- and mapping the negative emotions as well.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.
June 23, 2020
Told in a lovingly supportive tone, Martha Alderson’s Boundless Creativity is not only for those whose vocations are centered around daily creativity, but for anyone stuck and/or who seeks a deeper understanding of the creative process. A detailed guide, it serves as a workout companion that you can return to again and again; prompts tough questions that elicit rewarding answers, and an immeasurable connection with your ever-evolving “Universal Story,” your creative self.
March 22, 2023
I'm really enjoying this workbook.
I'm not new to this sort of practice, but there's something about the pacing that makes Alderson's approach really accessible. She's brought the hero's journey, the universal story, into focus for me. It's fun, it's not heavy, and it's reminding me of important aspects of my life, producing insights.
Definitely recommend this book.
I'm not new to this sort of practice, but there's something about the pacing that makes Alderson's approach really accessible. She's brought the hero's journey, the universal story, into focus for me. It's fun, it's not heavy, and it's reminding me of important aspects of my life, producing insights.
Definitely recommend this book.
June 13, 2020
This workbook was a gift for my creative soul. My writing sister & I did each exercise together & shared our responses. Goodbye inner critic - hello boundless creativity. I’m beyond grateful to Martha Alderson for her foresight to produce a workbook for all. Enjoy your ride!
May 18, 2020
Calling all creatives... this is the workbook you’ve been seeking! Amazing tools to help unblock and let the creativity flow!!!
So grateful for the workbook 🙏🏻💕
So grateful for the workbook 🙏🏻💕
October 20, 2021
Some of this was a bit too spiritual for me (lots of mantra chanting), but many of the questions, especially in the first couple sections, were very introspective and made me think a lot about important things. I thought it had some really good exercises and I'm tempted to buy a physical copy so I can reference it again and again.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews