Boundless Creativity: A Spiritual Workbook for Overcoming Self-Doubt, Emotional Traps, and Other Creative Blocks

by Martha Alderson MA

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684034994
Publisher:	New Harbinger Publications
Publication date:	05/01/2020
Edition description:	Workbook
Pages:	242
Sales rank:	498,298
Product dimensions:	7.80(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Martha Alderson, MA, has been exploring and writing about plot and creativity for more than thirty years, and helping writers develop plot and structure, character transformation and change, and pin down universal elements and dynamics in stories and life. Her work supporting children and adults with their writing quickly evolved into plotting a course of action for anyone looking to enrich their lives through embarking on a spiritual odyssey to higher creativity. Author of The Plot Whisperer, along with several other books of fiction and nonfiction, Alderson works with bestselling authors, New York editors, Hollywood directors, artists, and performers from all over the world. She also leads transformational workshops, book groups, and retreats for people privately and through her popular online program, where she helps people enliven their creativity, tap into inspiration to uncover their ambitions, and better envision imaginative solutions as they work toward realizing their goals. Alderson lives in Santa Cruz, CA.

Table of Contents

Welcome to Your Best Creative Life Through the Universal Story 1

Phase 1 Know Yourself

Step 1 Dreams and Desires and the Value of Living a Creative Life 21

Step 2 Opposition to Your Creativity Goals 30

Step 3 Internal Opposition and Strengths 38

Step 4 Dreams into Reality 47

Step 5 Separation 58

Phase 2 The Sea of Creativity

Step 6 Energy and Emotion 63

Step 7 Your Emotional Set Point 77

Step 8 Subplots and Secondary Characters 93

Step 9 Self-Awareness, Lessons, Skills, Knowledge, and Experience 103

Step 10 The Need to Recommit to Your Creative Goals 116

Phase 3 Dive Deep

Step 11 Isolation and Creativity 128

Step 12 Motivation 139

Step 13 Dark Emotions, Blocks, and the Death of Your Vision 150

Step 14 The Abyss and Emotional Wounds 159

Step 15 Repacking and Crossing Over 172

Phase 4 The Prize

Step 16 Forgiveness and Gratitude 184

Step 17 Tribe of Supporters 194

Step 18 Outer Fulfillment 204

Step 19 Inner Fulfillment 211

Step 20 And the Cycle Begins Again 223

Acknowledgments 233

Interviews

Alderson resides in Santa Cruz, CA.
 

Editorial Reviews

Open-minded individuals looking for a road map to realize their creative potential will find this and more within the pages of Boundless Creativity. Prepare for a deep dive within to answer questions about personal fears, misbeliefs, and the origins of self-doubt that may be holding you back, and then learn how to let go of it to live your best creative life.”
—Angela Ackerman, coauthor of The Emotion Thesaurus

Angela Ackerman

For the last twenty years, Martha Alderson has created invaluable, popular tools to help writers understand the essential components of plot development and storytelling. Now, in Boundless Creativity, she brilliantly applies the principles illuminated in her breakthrough book, The Plot Whisperer, to the creative process. In this clear, inspiring workbook, Alderson lays out the spiritual voyage to higher creativity—illuminating a clear path to inspire and guide anyone with even the hint of a creative dream. If you want to successfully navigate the highs and lows of living a creative life, you’ll want this book as an essential companion.”
—Laura Davis, coauthor of The Courage to Heal, author of I Thought We’d Never Speak Again and Wholehearted, and founder of The Writer’s Journey workshops

Laura Davis

A brilliant, thought-provoking resource that serves not only as an inspiration for creative projects, but also as a meditation for writers, filmmakers, and artists ready to dive deep, overcome challenges, and produce their best work. The Plot Whisperer has done it again!”
—Hallee Adelman, PhD, author of Way Past Mad, and producer/director of Our American Family

Hallee Adelman

In Boundless Creativity, Martha Alderson offers an inspiring, much-needed pattern for realizing our creative goals. By aligning our planning with the steps of the Universal Story, she guides us through the pitfalls and triumphs we artists experience as we travel down to the dark caverns and up to the light pinnacles of our creative dreams. Not only does the author share her own revelations, she coaches us through the fears and triumphs we all face while planning and executing a work of art. A workbook to prize, useful for creatives and workshop leaders, as we aim toward personal and professional fulfillment.”
—Gini Grossenbacher, MEd, award-winning author of Madam of My Heart and Madam in Silk; editor; speaker; JGKS Press publisher; and director of Elk Grove Writers and Artists, an AWA affiliate

Gini Grossenbacher

Martha Alderson’s new book is an indispensable creative coach whispering, ‘Keep going,’ on every page.”
—Holly Lynn Payne, novelist, screenwriter, and founder of Booxby

Holly Lynn Payne

Boundless Creativity demystifies and normalizes the highs and lows of the creative lifecycle. Through a transformational program that Alderson compares to alchemy—‘A ritual of subjecting base metals (the imperfect individual) to scorching fire (challenges and change), burning off the dross (burdens and flaws) and transforming into gold (the fully realized individual)’—she guides us to identify and defang the demons that suck us into that familiar tar pit of self-doubt and creative paralysis. No matter your medium—driftwood, paints, musical notes, flour/flowers, words—Boundless Creativity will lead you back to your belief in the miraculous. Back to your belief in yourself.”
—Elaine Taylor, founder of the nonprofit, The Grief Relief Project, for people poleaxed by loss; and author of Karma Deception and a Pair of Red Ferraris

Elaine Taylor