Hi…I'm Renée! 

I'm a Journalism degree graduate (GO GATORS!), a proud (now retired!) Coast Guard wife, a former 2nd and 3rd grade teacher, a mom to two kiddos (a daughter and a son!) and I grew up never (EVER!) thinking I was creative, that is, until I became a mom.

For as long as I can remember, I've been searching for ways to calm my inner stress. Especially during my years as an elementary school teacher. 

After leaving my teaching job to be a stay-at-home with my kids, I became a Holistic Health Coach, an aspiring professional photographer and a Certified Creativity Coach. It was during this time that I FINALLY found my inner calm. 

I had spent years (10 to be exact!) trying to feel calm by trying to consistently do yoga, meditate, eat wholesome organic-local foods, walk slow in nature, get my sweat on from cardio, lift weights and swirl Chinese Medicine Balls in my hands all while continuing to struggle to FEEL calm.

Little did I know, that once I became pregnant with my first born, I'd have a huge inner calling to do something creative (learning how to take pictures with a DSLR and paint and color and doodle like a kid again!) and that THIS creativity would be my answer to finally FEELING the inner calm (and joy!) that I've so desperately wanted to feel, even though "I AM NOT CREATIVE AT ALL!" 

Nope...nowhere near it!

Even though I felt that way, I took the plunge anyway, and gosh, I'm sure glad I did.  

Because reviving my inner creative toddler/kid/teenage doodler through simple, mindless, creative activities with crayons, markers, colored pencils, paints and my camera, brought me more inner calm (and JOY!) than anything else I've ever tried in the past (read WHY here)! 

And, not only did it calm me, ignite my joy, and slow me down to SAVOR my kids, my husband and my life more, but it also helped me to SEE gifts and lessons that come from life struggles and stresses instead of continuing to view them as so horribly bad.

 And, best of all, I now say and believe that I AM CREATIVE!!! And, that YOU are, too! We ALL are!! We were ALL born with the CREATIVE gene inside of us! Oh yeah!! 

The more calm, joyful and present I felt through mindless-creativity, the more my passion (and my creative skills!) for sharing this feel calm through creativity message grew.  Which is why I share what I share here with you. 

Now, don't get me wrong...I'm not calm all day, every day.  My life IS stressful every single day, and I still have moments that make me want to run away and cry. But, the more I mindlessly-create, the less intense the stress in my life feels and the more I SEE and CONNECT to the gifts and the lessons that the stress in my life is bringing me.

And to me, that's truly what matters most...handling all of what life throws at me with a little bit more calm, a little bit more joy and a lot more presence and awareness. Right? Right! :)

OK! So You’re Probably Wondering, Why Mindless Creativity?

Because out of all the tools I’ve tried (that I mentioned up above!) to help calm the stress of my mind (my worrisome, anxious, negative and sad thoughts) and my feelings of burn-out and exhaustion from doing all the things that being an adult brings, this IS the #1 tool that I have found that has made my life SO much better when it comes to dealing with all my life stressors!

Doing something creative, that’s kid-like, hands-on, doesn’t require much thought, isn’t done for a grade or for a critique and is only done for FUN and without rules, gives me a much needed break from thinking about all of the responsibilities and to-do’s that fill up my life and leaves me feeling calmer, happier and more joyful and motivated to tackle everything that life throws at me when I’m done.

All the stress that’s in my life doesn’t feel so loud and so exhausting anymore. It’s amazing!!

OK…So Why Doodle Painting?

Because when you sit down to paint something you used to doodle in your notebook as kid when you were bored in history class when your mind is out of control with anxious and stressed-out thoughts that make you feel like your life sucks, you’re not good enough and that you’re going to have a panic attack…all of those loud, overwhelming, painful thoughts start to calm and aren’t yelling at you so loudly anymore and your “This is SO fun!” and “My life is SO good!” thoughts start to come through and take over.

And before you know it, all the things you were stressing about and all the things that were making you feel like you wanted to cry buckets about have been replaced with smiles and laughter and maybe even humming or singing your favorite song.

Yes, the stress will still be there, but it was feel so overwhelming as it was. The stress c a l m s!

Doodle Painting easily melts away all the heaviness of life away! And it especially melts away the heavy, negative thoughts that replay in the mind over and over again, all day, every day.

Every time I do it, I always feel like I just walked out of the spa…rejuvenated, energized, calm, happy and uplifted!!!

And, Why Cursive Writing?

I don’t know about you, but my mind can get stuck in all the negatives of my past, the wrong things that are happening in the present and all the worrisome fears I don’t want to happen in the future.

It’s SO easy for my mind to think of all the negative things of life.

When I first started connecting to my inner, creative self, I felt called to write uplifting words in cursive.

I would trace the word over and over again and I would immediately feel a shift within me. A calming shift. And uplifting shift!

A shift, that I saw, had me coming out of my negative, cloudy haze and into my bright, sunny, happy clear sky (or shall I say self!).

I realized that when I write a positive word in cursive (or in hand lettering), my mind shifts from thinking about the negative to thinking about the positive.

Writing uplifting words in cursive lifts me out of my negative funk and into my calm, happy and positive self!

The more I wrote them, the more I slowed down (because cursive writing is powerful like that…I write SO much slower in cursive than I do print…and my print is awful because of how fast I write) and the more I started SEEING the word in my mind when I was back doing my adult life work and the more I started FEELING what the word I wrote in cursive felt like when I thought about it.

Tracing a word written in cursive has become one of the best ways that I absolutely love to calm my mind with.

When I don’t have much time and I’m feeling overwhelmed with my to-do list, I’ll write a word that makes me feel good and uplifted in that moment (and most of the time it’s the same word because I don’t have much time to think and I just want to feel calm as fast as I can) in cursive and then I’ll trace it over and over and over again and immediately I’ll feel less stressed-out than I was before starting.

It’s one of the easiest ways to calm the stressed-out and overwhelmed mind when there isn’t a lot of time to sit down and mindlessly-create.

And, Why Hand Lettering?

The more I was writing uplifting words in cursive, my inner, creative self started coming out more.

It was opening the flood-gates to more creative ideas within me that I wanted to try. Before I knew it, I was starting to learn how to hand letter and I fell in love.

I still do my hand lettering similar to my cursive writing, where I trace the word over and over, but, I’ve been able to figure out how do it in a more hand lettering way that feels good to me and it’s been so fun.

I first started out just doing the word in black ink (like I do with my cursive words), but then I felt even more called to add color to it. I felt called to add watercolor to them and when I did, JOY was ignited with me.

I always knew writing uplifting words was so helpful in keeping my head above the negative clouds, but when I started adding the color to it, not only was calm but I was HAPPY and smiling!

Writing and tracing the word calms me and adding the color ignites JOY in me!

But, most of all, I’ve always felt like hand lettering and cursive writing keeps me high above the dark, negative clouds that my mind likes to get stuck in.

Writing and tracing these words are like how when a plane takes off, you’re first flying through the clouds and then all of sudden the clouds are gone and you’re up above them with the sun and the clear blue sky and you can’t help but smile and feel good as you look around at all that light and color!

Lettering and cursive writing keeps my head above the dark clouds and centered around the smiling sun! And they keep me uplifted and flying way above all the low-level energy that life can bring me (pretty much every day!). If that makes sense?

And, Why Photography?

Ahhh, photography! I absolutely love it!

The one thing I’ve always said is that the painting and the lettering connects me to my INNER world, my inner self, my high power, my uplifting, powerful and helpful thoughts…basically God, spirit, my angels, my spirit guides, whatever you like to call it, once my mind starts to calm.

It’s like portal…a door opener to my higher self. And once that beautiful door is opened, I can SEE and FEEL the beauty that lives inside of me.

Well, photography…my camera lens…no matter what camera I’m using, my DSLR or my iPhone camera, makes me stop and connect to ALL the beauty that is in my OUTER word. It allows me to truly SEE and FEEL all the beauty that surrounds me every single day.

Instead of just walking by that beauty and glancing at it real quick and then getting back into my to-do list head, my camera makes me stop…see it…feel it and capture it. My camera allows me to truly SEE and FEEL the beauty that makes me stop, has me smiling big and is filling me with happy tingles from head to toe.

My camera is the door opener…the portal…to SEEING and FEELING all the beauty that God, spirit, the angels, the spirit guides or whoever you like to call it, has provided and created outside of me, here on planet Earth.

My camera allows me to stop and savor and focus on all the good that LIFE is!!

And, Why Food?

I AM a lover of food! And, I AM a lover of cooking and baking food. And when I make something that made me FEEL JOY, I LOVE to share it!

Cooking and baking is one of my favorite ways to stay connected to my inner, creative self and I believe it’s a GREAT, creative way, to help me get out of my head and into the present moment.

Ever cook or bake in a quiet house? It’s so magical and SO meditative!

Before connecting to my inner, creative self, I became a Holistic Health Coach. I was always into nutrition (since I was in 8th grade to be exact!) and it’s always been an important part of my life. I absolutely love to cook and bake and I absolutely love making my own seasonal foods at home. I AM a lover of real ingredients. Ingredients I can pronounce and ingredients that aren’t a mile long on the back of a package.

Because I AM a Holistic Health Coach, I view the body and mind as one. So when I found my inner, creative self, I realized she was the missing ingredient to taking care of myself.

Because, before I found her, I was only focused on food and exercise and some self-care, but, once I started painting and coloring and taking photos and connecting deep with my inner, creative self, I soon realized that, yes, (I agree with my Holistic Health training!) my body needs the nourishment and love from wholesome, balanced, make-my-body-feel-good-foods, but my mind needed more loving nourishment beyond food, which was through mindless, hands-on, right brain enhancing, creativity.

Because even though I was eating wholesome, organic and nutritious food, my thoughts were still pretty negative and my energy was still pretty low.

And, yes, I was exercising as well (and still do!).

So once I found my inner, creative self, and my thoughts and energy were starting to become more energized and positive, I found both the food and the mindless-creativity to be a double whammy in helping my life FEEL better!

So when I’m not painting or lettering uplifting words, you will always find me in my kitchen cooking and baking something that my body feeling good and my mind saying, “MMMMM!! YES!! THIS IS SO GOOD!! I LOVE THIS!! I NEED TO SHARE IT ON MY BLOG!!” Ha!

And, I absolutely LOVE food photography!! So it’s another way I like to use my camera to stay connected to my inner, creative self and not get pulled down into the negative funk that life absolutely loves to bring me from time to time…or, shall I say, daily, thanks to all those fabulous news outlets out there…ugh! Ha!

But, seriously, my camera also allows me to stop and savor all the beauty and JOY that food brings me…because, yeah, when’s the last time you truly saw the beauty food brings? For me, it can be awhile, because being a parent and feeding my kids has me rushing around like a crazy person most of the time and I’m eating standing up and not even looking at what I just shoved in my mouth as fast as I could. Shhhh! Don’t tell my Holistic Health Coach friends! Ha! :)

Because Mindless Creativity Is Truly Awesome Stuff!

It’s SO very powerful and it’s the reason why I AM so motivated to share about it here, on my blog!

If you’re feeling worried, anxious, depressed, sad, angry, unbalanced, overwhelmed, frazzled and just burnt-out from everything life has you doing…once you start mindlessly-creating…picking up a crayon and coloring like you did as a kid again, or picking up a paint brush and painting all over the white page with different colors and being SO proud to show your parents, your teacher and friends what you created like you did when you were a kid OR pulling out your camera to take a picture of a moment that makes you stop, smile and has you FEELing happy from within, you’ll soon find, too, that doing just that, easily c a l m s your mind, ignites your JOY and SAVORs your life!!

And your life won’t feel as stressful and exhausting as it’s been.

I always say, if my mind isn’t calm, then all the moments that I love in my life will keep passing me by because I’m more focused on the stress in my life than the JOY.

Creativity changed my life for the better, and I hope that with me sharing that here, maybe you’ll be inspired to connect to your inner, creative self, too (because YOU are CREATIVE!! WE ALL ARE!!) so you can reap the powerful, positive and life bettering benefits creativity provides.

If it’s made my life better, it’ll make your life better, too!

Promise!

Thanks for being here and if you'd like to read my longer, more in-depth story about how I found inner calm through kid-like, creative fun, even though I am not a professional artist and have absolutely no artistic skills whatsoever, you can find my personal creativity story here.