Living From Your Creative Center

How to shift from productivity to creativity as the guiding ethos of your life and work

As we strive to meet the demands of our work, families, and communities, many of us understandably put our creativity on a “back burner” hoping to return to it someday, when things slow down.

But things never slow down.

Though keeping creativity “on the side” might seem like a logical strategy for limiting what is on our plates, the results are deeply painful, leaving us vulnerable to depression, disconnection, and burnout.

When we cut ourselves off from our creativity, we also become estranged from our deepest sources of aliveness, joy, and self-connection.

In this course, we try on a different approach: intentionally shifting our center of gravity to our deep creative core, so we can bring authenticity and aliveness to ALL we do - our work, art, activism, and care.

Yes, this is radical.

We are talking about opting out of the soul-crushing value systems that teach us to derive our sense of worth from relentless busyness and goal-chasing and/or sacrificing ourselves to the needs of others.

Putting our creativity at the center is not based on a narrow definition of creativity as “art making,” but rather an expansive definition of creativity as a way of being and doing that values deep, authentic, reciprocal engagements with ourselves and the world.

“This class was a truly amazing distillation of years of deep thinking. I love love love the questions you pose - the asking of them is a radical act in and of itself.”
- Jennie D.

This Course is for You If…

You are ready to let go of feeling guilty when you “indulge” in creative practice, play, or rest.
You are ready to shift from busyness and hustle to generativity and flow; from exhausted and fragmented to wholeheartedly engaged; and from relentless self-improvement to compassionate self-knowledge.
You want to re-center your life so that it speaks of your deepest values: caring connection, learning and growth, and making a creative contribution to the world.
You are seeking a new alignment of your purpose, time, and power.

“Sara and her teachings have had such a profound influence...if I had a bobble headed Sara I'd put her on my altar AND my car's dashboard.”
- Melissa W.

Our Schedule

This four-session online course meets for interactive live class sessions every other week:

Our every-other-week pace intentionally allows spacious time for the integration of new ideas, personal reflection, and experimentation with new practices.
All live sessions are recorded, and the slides are made available, so if you cannot attend them in person, you can still participate in the course.
In between our discussion sessions, detailed workbooks guide you through exercises that ask you to experiment with looking at the world through new lenses and applying new practices and mindsets that connect you with your core creative self.

Sign up to be notified when Living from Your Creative Center is next offered.

“I can’t get enough of Sara’s unique perspective and delivery when it comes to the subject of creativity and incorporating the whole person. I’ve found her classes to be so nurturing and enlightening, and I want to take in more!”
- Lauri M.

About Your Teacher

Sara Saltee is a complex creator who has been deeply immersed in the study and practice of creativity for more than 20 years. An artist, writer, teacher, adult learning specialist, curriculum designer, and certified creativity coach, Sara’s original tools and frameworks help creators of all kinds connect to their authentic impulses and make their highest contributions.

After teaching as Adjunct Faculty in Communication at Regis University and Front Range Community College, Sara served as a culture change and strategic planning consultant to nonprofits and public agencies in the Puget Sound Region. For the past decade, she has designed and facilitated dynamic online train-the-trainer programs for a global community of grassroots leaders as the Director of Leadership and Learning Programs for Riane Eisler’s Center for Partnership Systems.

“I am thankful for the gift of Sara’s work. It offers of a movement forward for those of us willing to listen to our creatively purposeful yearnings for integration.”
Angelah L.

What You’ll Do in the Living From Your Creative Center Program:

Through conversation, self-reflection, and hands-on activities, we’ll explore three threads that weave through all of our lives: Productivity, Creativity, and Care, and experiment with re-weaving this braid in a more humane and self-affirming way.

You will:

Learn how Productivity got normalized as the dominant ethos of our culture, and how it has shaped our beliefs about purpose, worth, value, and even our understanding of time.
Explore the key elements of the Ethos of Creativity - what are the beliefs, mindsets, and aspirations that creators share?
Discover how Productivity culture has limited and distorted our understanding of both Creativity and Care and embrace a more expansive understanding of Creativity as a coherent, life-affirming value system.
Find out how the extremes of Productivity and Care both require self-negation, and learn the warning signs that you are moving into the Danger Zones of self-abdication, resentment, and burnout.
Practice healthier, more life-affirming ways to interweave our commitments to work, family, art, and community.

Participants Enjoy

4 live, interactive lecture and discussion sessions
Interactive digital workbooks with activity and reflection prompts
Private online discussion space
Access to replay recordings and lecture slides

The Flow of the Course

Week 1: A Tale of Three Ethoses
A brief history of Productivity, Creativity, and Care.
How did we come to a place where care and creativity are seen as “on the side” of work, instead of being the most essential human work?

Week 2: Putting Creativity at the Center
Exploring the ethos of creativity and claiming your zone of creative thriving.
What changes about how we engage in care and work when we are grounded in the values and mindsets of creativity?

Week 3: The Dark Edges of Productivity and Care
Identifying the toxic extremes of productivity and care, and learning strategies for returning to center.
How can we find our way back home to our creative selves when life pulls us in other directions?

Week 4: Reclaiming Our Time; Remembering Our Power
Expanding our time vocabulary and expressing our intrinsic power.
How do creators experience time differently, and how might we use our power to advocate in little and big ways for the values we share as creators?

“Sara’s work has really expanded my awareness of how I am creatively showing up in the world (and not just thru artistic expression). She’s also helped me to see the mindsets (my own and the culture's) that have limited me.”
- Bella C.

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