Coaching The Artist Within

Have you ever wished you had a professional coach who could encourage your creative pursuits, help structure your efforts, and cheer you on? Coaching the Artist Within is the first book to explain the techniques that creativity coaches use to help their clients survive and thrive in the arts. Designed to help any person become more creative, this book offers a complete program for developing the habits that make creating an everyday routine. The book’s twelve lessons and numerous exercises are at once inspiring, practical, and fun. To spice up the lessons, Eric Maisel shares anecdotes about his clients, including painters, actors, screenwriters, novelists, dancers, and poets. Best of all, Coaching the Artist Within will teach you to be your own coach, and the results will transform your relationship with the creative process.

In Inside Creativity Coaching, 40 creativity coaches from around the world describe their work with creative clients in this first-ever case study examination of the art and practice of creativity coaching. Curated by one of America’s foremost creativity coaches, these rich narratives examine how creativity coaches work with writers, painters, musicians, craftspeople, and other creatives on issues such as motivation, procrastination, blockage, and performance and career anxiety. Packed with concrete tools and techniques, the book draws on inspirational success stories from across the globe to help coaches better understand and serve their creative clients. It will be a valuable resource to creativity coaches, coaches interested in developing a specialty, and creatives and performing artists looking to overcome their challenges. Covering a diverse range of disciplines, Inside Creativity Coaching is a must-have book for both aspiring and experienced creativity coaches, and anyone interested in helping creatives.

"Eric Maisel is one of the most elegant creativity coaches on the planet. The beauty and simplicity of his work are clearly illustrated throughout Secrets of a Creativity Coach, in which he shares real life examples of his work with various clients. He exemplifies the delicate mastery of an Aikido Black Belt and allows even the novice coach to see how effortless it can be to empower people to fulfill their desire to create "-Dr. Rosie Kuhn, Founder, Transformational Coaching Training Program ** "Eric Maisel's book provides an honest portrayal of the joys and rigors of coaching the creative spirit. He zeroes in on core issues with admirable precision, and provides students of the creative process, and artists alike, with a useful road map through the twists and bends of creative work."-Dr. Louisa Foster, founder The Center: Creative Arts Therapy, Mindful Living & Psychotherapy. ** "When I read Coaching the Artist Within I felt like Eric Maisel had reached inside me with his wisdom and guidance. With his new book, Secrets of a Creativity Coach, I'm bowled over by the power of his work. It's thrilling to read these expert interactions with clients and to see my reflection in the their artistic struggles. I've learned so much about coaching by reading Eric's simple and heartfelt responses. It's like riding shotgun with a master. Reading this book, I feel encouraged to be better in everything I do."-Steve Harper, TV writer, playwright, actor, and founder, Your Creative Life

As a therapist and creativity coach, Eric Maisel has worked with thousands of creative people. He knows firsthand the struggles that writers, musicians, artists, dancers, and actors face and has helped them find balance in their lives while pursuing their artistic endeavors. His new book presents a comprehensive approach to the much-misunderstood life of the artist. Creativity for Life offers practical ideas as well as exercises and inspiration to nurture growth as an artist and as a person, exploring such subjects as: Establishing your creativity practice Obscurity and stardom Blocks The artist’s personality Moods and madness Artists in love Craft The rewards and perils of isolation Social interactions and community

Employing anecdotes and real-life case studies, a renowned therapist explains how he has helped people achieve their true creative potential by pushing past everyday resistance, restoring lost meaning, recovering from dashed hopes, and more.

Writers, painters, singers, filmmakers, musicians, craftspeople, and actors confront daunting challenges every day. It is hard to produce new work, find success in the marketplace, manage relationships, and keep spirits up. Many doubt that solutions to these very real problems exist, but they do, and world-famous creativity coach Eric Maisel has compiled them in this book. You will learn how to:* make sense of the challenges of your personality, the challenges inherent in creative work, and the challenges of culture and marketplace* quiet your overactive mind* increase motivation and avoid blocks* engage in practices that create and reinforce meaning* align self-talk with goals, avoiding negative loops that block creativity* identify stressors and implement stress-management techniques designed specifically for artists* maintain emotional intimacy and healthy relationships in the midst of the creative process* claim your identity as an artist* rekindle passion for your art and feed that flame during dark days and dry spellsIntended for professional artists and those aspiring toward professional status, this book offers the nuts and bolts of sticking to a successful and fulfilling life in the arts.

Award-winning creativity coach and therapist, Eric Maisel, offers the A Little Every Day Deck series to help readers develop a more centered, creative, intelligent life. Each card in the series presents a single idea and a simple exercise to try every day. Readers can use the decks in a variety of ways. They can: • Read through the 30 cards in the deck, pick one that resonates, and try the simple exercise the card suggests. • Use the cards as a 30-day program, practicing one message and exercise a day. • Shuffle the cards, cut the deck, and let a random message speak. • Find a favorite message and exercise, repeat it until the message is taken to heart, then go on to another card in the deck. Each deck is designed to work with the others to help readers grow in profound, even unexpected ways. Everyday Creative provides 30 ways to awaken the artist within. Each card helps build a more creative life: undertake new creative projects, live life more authentically, and manifest a true artistic nature. Cards invite readers to acquire new confidence, allow for fortunate accidents, embrace mystery, reduce anxiety, and more. Mystery is the artist’s territory. We know. And we don’t know. Grow creative by embracing mystery. Intending is more powerful than wishing. Intend to create. Hold the intention in your heart and in your belly. Grow creative through powerful intention. No desire, no creativity. Burn to create. Fall deeply in love with life. Grow creative through passionate desire.

In his decades as a psychotherapist and creativity coach, Eric Maisel has found a common thread behind what often gets labeled "writer's block," "procrastination," or "stage fright." It's the particular anxiety that, paradoxically, keeps creators from doing, completing, or sharing the work they are driven toward. This "creative anxiety" can take the form of avoiding the work, declaring it not good enough, or failing to market it -- and it can cripple creators for decades, even lifetimes. But Maisel has learned what sets successful creators apart. He shares these strategies here, including artist-specific stress management; how to work despite bruised egos, day jobs, and other inevitable frustrations; and what not to do to deal with anxiety. Implementing these 24 lessons replaces the pain of not creating with the profound rewards of free artistic self-expression. * Practical insights and proven techniques for overcoming the challenges and fears that plague creators of every kind * Teaching tales that convey effective approaches to creating fearlessly and abundantly