About me and why I created this course
Just over a decade ago, I was coming out of one of the biggest depressive breakdowns of my life. I’d moved to a new city, found a little flat I could hide in while I recuperated, and started to remember who I was before the decades of illness. I did this in two ways; I started pursuing an energetic path back to wellness, and I brought back my art.
I believe as humans we need creatively active lives, because creativity is a path to freedom. It frees us from old patterns, from limiting beliefs, from the things that make it hard to relate to others with real authenticity.
Touchstone is packed with lessons I've learned over the past ten years about living creatively in the way that suits the uniqueness of you, because I know from walking the path myself that it’s possible
You can live a life so richly and deeply creative that there is no distinction; it’s what you do, who you are, how you think and behave, how you express yourself. And it's easy. {Not without challenges, but intrinsically easy, because you are just being yourself.}
There are no quick solutions or step by step blueprints here; I’ve found they tend not to lead to anything that truly fits and lasts. But I can guide you towards a place in yourself where clarity, ease and confidence are always available to you. And once you set up home there, you’ll be able to do the creative work you came here to do, and reap the rewards of joy, purpose, and fulfilment, while offering that back out to the world in ways that feel easy and natural to you. If I can do it, you can definitely do it. :)
Embracing an inherently creative life can but doesn’t necessarily mean making a living from it. You can absolutely lead a rich, fulfilling life in which you delight in your own creativity every day in all sorts of ways for the sheer joy of it. For the way it connects you with children, with other active creatives, with yourself, with the world around you.
Touchstone is about starting to build a real and solid foundation for your creative life so you can stop trying and start thriving, in whatever way that means for you.
It’s about shifting from ‘trying to fit it in’ to making it a natural and integrated part of your life. It’s also about getting to know yourself really really well and so understanding, recognising and developing your own process and your own unique art.
It’s the course I would have liked to have taken when I was just starting to bring back my art and floundering in a sea of inspiration, not knowing what was mine, and being buffeted about by the winds of fear, doubt, procrastination, and all the other delightful challenges that come with being an actively creative person.
This course is about being more connected with life as a rich and joyful creative experience.
Note: If I’ve painted a picture that feels impossible to you right now, know that I still hear the mean voices, I still procrastinate, and I still have fears and doubts! It’s not that I’ve found some secret that eliminates all struggle; it’s simply that there is a big difference in how I respond to it now. It’s a mindset shift ultimately, not about eliminating the things we think are causing us to ‘fail’ or that ‘shouldn’t’ be happening.
"The Touchstone course was probably THE most important move toward self-improvement I made this entire year. I used to shy away from calling myself an artist, let alone calling myself creative, but Tara's kind insight and guidance (which is very intuitive), has allowed me to express myself in ways I didn't really realize were possible."
Christa Clark, buttonlove.ca