Joy of Jam Jars

I was feeling pretty stuck in the mud with my creeative work.

By chance it was the monthly call with creativity coach Sam Bennett that I’m lucky to get as part of being a member of her 365 Club with her company “The Organised Artist.” 

I’ve been a fan and student of Sam’s for many years and she has got me out of many a life and work funk. 

So yesterday in the chat box of the monthly Q & A call I asked her about how to deal with the sense of hitting a limit that you can’t break. This has been bugging me even to the point that even my computer was all quaky and doing that spinning rainbow wheel thing. It felt like I was at a barrier on many levels.

Sam’s reply was totally inline with her creative approach to everything. “Close your eyes right now” she said. “Imagine your slightly future self and ask that slightly future you what do you need to know now.”

Anyone who has studied anything in mindset will have come across exercises like this. What I loved about this version of Sam’s was the word “slightly.” It was this one word that shifted everything for my over-achieving wound-up self that was feeling blocked. 

My “slightly future self” was craving a bit of simplicity and completion rather than the constant sensation of never appreciating small wins because there was always something new on the horizon. 

This slightly future me just wanted the gift of a daisy - that flower that could not be more simple or more loved for its association with childhood and summer. 

It was a three minute visualisation that gave my intuitive side the chance to have its say against a mind racing with rational reasoning. 

Sam shared her memory of a party where she had wanted to keep it simple and put daisies in jam jars.

I’m a big jam jar fan - I love the way when you wash an empty jam jar it then gorgeously catches the light on the window sill. 

How does this directly shift that sense of limit and barriers?

It doesn’t directly at all. Yet indirectly I tapped back into something homely and hearty that put any limit into perspective. 

Isn’t it amazing how the presence of another who is lovingly willing you on can so beautifully nudge one on? To me it’s invaluable to have such guidance from time to time when rationality presents no obvious answers. 

Deborah Claire Procter