Part 1: Welcome or Welcome Back to Saguaro Sunday

Saguaro Sunday is our weekly opportunity to slow down. It’s a chance to practice gratitude, celebrate what went well, acknowledge where we can grow, and reflect on what we learned. It’s also a time to look ahead and ask ourselves: 

“What do I want to learn this week? How do I want to bloom a little more?”

My hope is that as you read, you’ll also reflect on your own week. You can open up your Notes Notes app on your phone, or better yet, open up a physical notebook/journal!

If you’re comfortable, I’d also love for you to share your reflections in the comments so we can continue learning from one another!

Part 2: This Week’s Gratitude

I am grateful as always for my family, friends, job, home, and Coco. 

This week, I am especially grateful for my health. I have been having some late nights with editing Reels/TikToks followed by my mind struggling to settle back down for bed.

That’s why I’m grateful that my body is healthy and able to keep me going through the week. I know that as I keep figuring out the rhythm of working on this Blooming Saguaro project while balancing work and just life in general, I will stop beating up my body. Thank goodness for this long weekend! I was even able to get a perfect sleep score last night.

Part 3: This Week’s Bloom: Creativity, Play, and Reconnecting with Your Younger Selves 

Earlier this week, my sister and I were talking about the “mini cucumbers” that we were eating with our dinner. They were larger than usual, almost pickle-sized, so I said, “They’re more like teenage cucumbers instead of baby cucumbers. It’s wild because I want to take out my phone and make a video with one of these ‘teen cucumbers’ and an actual ‘mini cucumber’ where they’re talking to each other.” She said, “You unlocked the creative brain.”

And it’s true. All week long I’ve been walking around looking at things like, “How can I capture this moment?” Or narrating what I’m doing and trying to imagine how I would turn it into a story. I’m so tired from staying up late editing videos, and my back hurts from sitting at my computer like a shrimp, but I just can’t stop. I feel like I have almost endless energy for this right now, and I’m starting to understand creativity and that elusive “flow state.”

I grew up with two very creative people in my home. One was my mom, who has always been a crafter, a maker. We spent so many late nights together working on my school projects. She made sure that they were as close to perfect as they could be. She can really make anything, and if she doesn’t know how to, she will research and work at it until it’s just right. The other creative person was my sister. She has been drawing probably since she learned how to hold a pencil. I used to look at them and wonder if the artistic gene skipped me, but now I’m sure that it’s been there for me too, as I’m sure that it is for all humans because deep down, we all yearn to create.

As I’ve been thinking about “the creative brain,” I stumbled across a TikTok that used an audio clip from one of John Cleese’s talks on creativity which he gave at Video Arts in 1991.

Although I highly recommend you watch or read a transcript of this talk, I want to spend a bit of time summarizing some of his key points, then I’ll finish with a few more of my thoughts of my own.

In his talk, Cleese first explains what creativity is. He defines it not as a talent, but as “a way of operating” and that anyone can step into this mode and tap into their natural creativity. He further explains people who are in this mode, “as being childlike. For they were able to play with ideas… to explore them… not for any immediate practical purpose but just for enjoyment. Play for its own sake.”

Cleese then explains how to step into the creative mode. He says that people are either in an open or closed mode, and that “that creativity is not possible in the closed mode.” 

In the open mode, we’re more relaxed, playful, curious, and even humorous. However, he also says that there is a time and place for each mode, “We need to be in the open mode when we’re pondering a problem but once we come up with a solution, we must then switch to the closed mode to implement it.” Later, once you have executed your plan, “we should once again switch back to the open mode to review the feedback rising from our action, in order to decide whether the course that we have taken is successful, or whether we should continue with the next stage of our plan.”

After defining the open vs closed mode, Cleese then gives the five things you need to help you move into the open mode: space, time, confidence, and humor. 

Space, of course, means having a space where you are undisturbed. 

For time, it’s time that is set aside to play. But remember, it’s a special time because play doesn’t last indefinitely. Cleese recommends an hour and a half because that allows your mind to let go of the other little tasks that we feel we have to do and finally move into creativity and problem solving. He describes it almost like meditation.

Cleese explains that confidence is also needed because, “The very essence of playfulness is an openness to anything that may happen. The feeling that whatever happens, it’s ok. So you cannot be playful if you’re frightened that moving in some direction will be ‘wrong’ — something you ‘shouldn’t have done.’” 

Finally, humor is also key because it’s one of the quickest ways to move from the serious, closed mode to the open mode.

One other interesting thing that Cleese mentions is finding people to play with and where you can step into creativity together. I love that. He does specify that to play with others, there has to be trust. You can’t shoot others down because then that trust is lost and creativity goes away. Basically, it sounds like the “Yes…and” improv approach where you go along with what others say or suggest things to them in a positive way. Some phrases Cleese suggests we use when playing with others are:

• “Would it be even better if…”
• “I don’t quite understand that, can you just explain it again?”
• “Go on…”
• “What if…?”
• “Let’s pretend…”

Being able to play with others in this way is so rare and special. I hope we can all find and cherish people in our lives with whom creativity can flourish.

There’s still so much more that can be said about creativity, and I’m sure there are many more studies and articles that I still need to look into, but for now I just have one more thought about it that I’d like to share. 

I have heard that to become more creative, we need to reconnect with our younger selves, and with the way I’ve been operating lately, I completely believe this to be true. I’ve naturally been gravitating toward the things that I used to love as a kid and teen. I’ve been asking myself, “What did she like? What did she want to learn? What did she want to become?” 

My answers:

Little Pam wanted to be a writer. Teen Pam wanted to be a psychologist. She wanted to be a DJ and discover new music and talk about music. She wanted to help people and volunteer. And since she was little and until the end, Pam has always wanted to be a good person.

Listening to my younger selves has been part of what’s guiding me lately, and it feels so good to feel like you’re on the right path. I know what I’m saying might sound like I’m in a manic state, but I promise I’m not (says the manic person, lol). I really do feel calm and grounded. It just feels so good when your actions are aligned with your values, with your sense of purpose, and (if you’ll allow me to get a little spiritual about it) like they are aligned with a higher power and its divine plan for us to discover ourselves and each other.

Ok…if you’re still with me…thank you for listening!

Part 4: This Week’s Wonder – Rapid-fire Edition! 

Here’s a list of things I’ve learned or been thinking about this week:

• Zillenials
• California banned “sell by date” labels on food
• How to build habits
• How much money the last three presidents made during their time as president
• How Freedom 250 was funded
• You can use a felt hanger to remove deodorant stains??
• Biotechnology is a thing? Powering things with plants?
• I can embed TikTok/Reels here on my website and my friend(s) who don’t use social media can still watch my content 🙂 

Part 5: Next Week’s Growth 

A list of things I want to focus on this week:

• I really, really want to make my Resources Library. I want it not just for others, but for me. I need an external brain. I need somewhere to keep all the things I think about and reference. I HATE when I’m like, “Agh I was just watching a video about ___” or “I was reading this one article about ____” and not being able to find it. 
• I need to learn how to schedule posts in social media
• I need to figure out how to make templates in Capcut, for example, for the intros and the end of my videos so I’m not having to remake them all the time. 
• I need to get better sleep! I love what I’m doing, but editing has been taking up a lot of time in the evenings. Like tonight. I wanted to film a video version of this blog post…but looks like that’ll have to wait now.
• I need to take care of my back. I need to be mindful of my posture and wear my back brace for the moments when it’s hurting more than usual. (Curse you, scoliosis!).
• Coco basically mastered roll over and spins. I need to look into what’s next for her.
• I want to practice the piano at least twice this coming week instead of just once.
• I want to figure out a way to track my progressive overload with my workouts. 
• I want to watch a documentary. Not sure which one yet (open to suggestions) but something!

Now it’s your turn!

🌵What are you grateful for this week?

🌵 What did you learn?

🌵 What’s something you’ve been wondering about lately?

🌵 How do you want to bloom a little more this week?

🌵 Question of the Week: What are some things that your younger selves loved that you feel you might need to revisit?

I’d genuinely love to hear your reflections. Thank you again for spending part of your Sunday (or whatever day it is when you’re reading this) with me.

I’ll see you tomorrow for Motivation Monday over on my socials!

Until then…

Learn a bit each day. Bloom a little more. 🌵