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Fate & Intention: A Cosmic Collaboration

Relentless rain and a Metro strike might usually be a recipe for a drab and stressful morning, but the atmosphere at Centro de Inovação da Mouraria told a very different story. Guests remained warm, dry and cheerful, enjoying the free coffee and breakfast. There was a great turnout for the talk, with the venue at full capacity.

Our speaker was Nana Martins, a Communication and Relational Coach who also runs the thriving Resvés Coworking Space. April’s theme was ‘Kismet’, which originates from Turkish and was a new word for many. Luckily Nana was on hand to give us her interpretation. As kismet is related to fate, she talked about how we can combine it with intention in order to access magic in our lives.

A likeable and funny orator, Nana managed to get everyone interacting in pairs, speaking about their experiences of synchronicity. The audience were enthusiastic to get to know each other and share their stories.

Nana detailed her own recent experiences which have mirrored her ideas on fate, intention and the magic of the universe. Setting intentions and being open to synchronicity resulted in various positive experiences for her (including being asked to speak at Creative Mornings!).

She also told us an incredible story about a difficult time while processing a breakup, which ultimately resulted in a great career move. She’d previously been keeping her coaching business small for various fear-related reasons, but a mystical experience in the countryside and a timely missed bus gave her the motivation needed to make big changes. She described the conversation she had with the ‘creative spirit’, and the helpful lessons she learned from Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, ‘Big Magic’.

After telling us her own inspiring kismet stories and how she guided her experiences with intention, she encouraged us to: “Do something, do your best, keep showing up, have fun,” and not to ignore the signs. She left us with a quote from Elizabeth Gilbert: “Curiosity is this faithful, steadfast, friendly and accessible energy that is never far out of reach.”

The Q&A section at the end was very lively and interactive, with audience members joining in to give each other advice. As things were wrapping up, the rain suddenly got much heavier and there was thunder in the distance. Fortunately everyone was welcome to stick around and indulge in some more coffee and breakfast before heading out into the world, inspired and open to synchronicity.

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Working at Being Playful

The year started triumphantly, with the first in-person event since before the pandemic. It was also the debut of our fantastic new host, Irina Konova, who kicked off 2022 in enthusiastic style. We saw the return of the much-missed coffee period, when friendly and animated guests chatted in anticipation of the main event. The mood was celebratory.

The global theme this month was ‘Free’. Here in Lisbon, Liz Melchor shared her inspiring journey of learning to be playful in her work. Liz is an artist as well as founder of Creative Monkey, the venue in which the event took place. It’s intended as “a playful place to explore creativity”, and as such was the perfect location for this talk.

Liz started by recounting an experience which reignited her urge to play and be free with art. She was drinking hot chocolate in Austria when, on a whim, she decided to draw a monkey using the melted chocolate. It was a freeing experiment, and while it only lasted around 15 minutes, it was in fact the result of 10 years working at reconceiving notions of talent and creativity. She began painting monkeys regularly throughout the pandemic, experimenting with materials and embracing the freedom of play.

A long time ago, Liz gave up on creating art when preconceived notions led her to believe she wasn’t talented enough. Her new perspective developed when, living in San Francisco, she started a course in which the students were told not to look at the paper (for several months!) Various activities encouraged the artists to detach from their egos and aim instead for what the teacher referred to as “the honest mark.” Liz found it hard, especially at first, but it ultimately kick-started her creativity.

During this time, Liz discovered the importance of embracing failure, which helped her to learn and grow in various areas of life. In terms of her art, it had the powerful result of giving her access to her talents. It was refreshing to hear someone speak openly about this process, and to show us images of her work that she was both happy and unhappy with. She’s now much more satisfied with the images she creates than when she began the process all those years ago.

At the end of this incredibly motivating talk, Liz summarised that every single person is creative, and there’s a way to work at finding your own creative voice. We were left with her galvanising words: “I encourage everyone out there to go out and play!”

Text by Alexis Somerville

Photos by Eglė Duleckytė and Nia Carvalho

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I’ve quit my job. Now what?

I had just joined the 3rd different company in my career. Still Finance. It was what you could call a good position.  I thought I’d have better hours. I didn’t. I thought the job would be fun. It wasn’t. I thought I’d like it better. I was wrong.

8 weeks was the time between deciding to quit and actually have the courage to do it. There were too many questions in my head, one of them being, “what I am going to do?”. This was what I had been doing for 14 years.

I had just become a certified Life Coach and had been intensively coached, so I was somehow feeling fearless. I had a few coaching clients, a growing page on Facebook and I was writing. I wasn’t quite ready to tell the world (or myself) that that’s what I wanted to be doing. Writing. So, I just started having a few coaching clients here and there. I did start writing about coaching and one thing led to the other. At first, a few texts for a startup. Then, volunteering as a blogger to CreativeMornings Lisbon. Then, another client. Things started happening without me really looking for it. It just happened.

On our last event, Nuno Mesquita told us a little bit of his own journey and how he quit his job to pursue something more fulfilling. Many people asked him “So, would you tell anyone who is unhappy at his/her job to quit?”. And that is such a hard question to answer. There are so many stories and they can be all so different. So, I’m telling you mine.

I might not be perceived as successful as Nuno’s. It has now been a year and  half and I am far from the results Nuno told us regarding his own businesses. I am currently what you would say “between jobs”. I have had clients who paid me poorly, I have had clients who never paid on time or never paid at all, my texts have been edited, my subjects have not been chosen by me, clients have dropped my service to get it from someone doing it for free. Doing what I like made me lose the perks I was having at a corporate job. I no longer have a salary at the end of the month, health insurance or an air conditioned place to work. I still have frustrations, but I have been resilient. More than I knew I could be. Every time I send a CV out I feel as scared as when I quit. “Would they find me too old, too bold or too inexperienced? Would they like my writing style? Am I really talented for this?”

On the other hand, I have my own schedule. I have the time to dedicate to a beautiful project as this one, CreativeMornings Lisbon. I am learning every day, more than I ever did in Finance and definitely more passionately. I’m meeting new people every day. And most of all, I have been writing. Sometimes getting paid to do it.

I don’t know what the exact definition of success is. Is it money, is it happiness, is it freedom?

All I know is that from time to time I receive a message, a comment or a mail from someone telling me how my text resonates with them. And that’s when I’m sure. I might not know where I’m going, but I’m on my way.

Elisa Baltazar

CreativeMorning Lisbon Host

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A confident journalist that she is, Catarina prepared this intro to welcome you to her lecture :)

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Sound - CreativeMornings with Rafael Toral

Last December, CreativeMornings brought us to Second Home, the brand-new creative space in Lisbon, located right next to the Mercado da Ribeira. Perfect venue, as one of their core missions is to give the conditions for creativity to flourish. Here we were, surrounded by books, plants and early birds ready for an exploration of music. 

The theme of December was sound, and we got the chance to listen to Rafael Toral sharing his vision, and his music!

Before we start, Rafael asked us to close our eyes. We were all set to hear something, as surprising as it can be, when he had an exquisite requirement: “Now, close your ears”. That’s when it became more complex. 

First of all, what’s a sound? For example, if a tree falls and nobody hears it, does it make a sound? Actually, it’s a vibration only, because sound comes from the brain recognition of this vibration. Taking into account the three dimensions of sound - frequency, dynamics and time - we are now able to understand the journey from sound to music.

When he talks about music, Rafael focuses on two key components: silence and space. In our society, saturated by sounds, he chooses to play with silence and explores how sound emerges from it. In this regard, he mentioned the experimentations of the composer John Cage, who further questioned how silence may incorporate sounds with his famous 4”33. 

Following on this reflexion, if silence can’t be free of sounds, how can we free the music? Music is often associated to freedom, but usually led by patterns. Can music overcome patterns? That’s what Rafael is discovering. His own musician path took him from jazz music, to jams sessions and now a unique kind of composition - By the way, did you know that jam sessions comes from “jazz after midnight”?

When many of us are searching for freedom in music, Rafael is searching how music can be free. Questioning sound, space and silence is fully part of this process. He creates a lexical of sounds and shapes. Focusing on how long is the sound. Should it be repeated? Should the silence be before or after. Shorter or longer?  What kind of articulation is there between sound and silence? Is it a long line? It’s very elemental and that’s maybe because he reminds us that the first harmony belongs to nature. Even if we focus on how the instrument is giving back and rethink the next steps, music is escaping.

That’s the magic of sound, and that’s why you should definitely join us next time for a Creative Morning on mystery.