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Getting feedback on your work and creations can be daunting. I've been there. The initial fear of exposing your work and imagination to scrutiny can feel excruciatingly vulnerable. Yet, to improve your craft, receiving feedback with an open heart and discerning mind is essential. 

We often hear that failure is not the end, but it might not be the beginning either. Maybe it’s just another point, much like success, along the journey. This can be difficult to accept because we all strive for success of course. We work hard, we learn, and we push ourselves towards our goals. Yet, I’ve realized developing a sense of peace around failure and creating an individualized strategy to greet it is crucial for personal growth.

A reminder to the child in all of us–please continue to wish upon the stars. Or as I recently did, into a phone at a magical booth. Sweet things often happen serendipitously. Last weekend, I found myself unplanned in the quaint downtown of Chester, Connecticut. Wandering through the streets, my eyes were drawn to a tall red booth with yellow stars. Turns out it is an art installation created by Christopher Owens, a local artist, encouraging people to dream and voice their deepest desires to the universe.

Being an artist and a creator is deeply personal. It’s about your passion, purpose, drive, and craft, yet it is also so much bigger than you. As you delve into the creative process, you tap into a vast array of both seen and unseen forces. To truly access this depth of creativity, it’s crucial to move beyond your ego, or to at least keep it in balance. This shift is not only essential for creating meaningful art but also for maintaining your energy and avoiding burnout.

Earlier this year, during a trip to Mexico City, I stumbled upon a delightful little bookshop, a few blocks away from a tattoo artist who I enjoyed chatting with and got temporary tattoos from. Amidst the mostly Spanish collection, my sons and I located only a few shelves with English books. Spotting A Little Bit of Angels by Elaine Clayton felt particularly serendipitous given a pattern I had been noticing lately. Since the end of 2019, while recuperating from a knee surgery, I’d begun randomly spotting 11:11 and 1:11 on clocks. At the time, I had no idea these numbers were referred to as angel numbers, believed by some to be a sign of spiritual guidance or reassurance. 

My favorite weather is the stormy kind with gusting wild winds and teasing gray clouds. Branches sway, leaves fly, darkness looms–always most exciting before the actual downpour. Have felt this overwhelming love for a good storm since I was a little girl in India witnessing the dramatic arrival of the monsoons.

Embarking on a creative entrepreneurship journey is like entering an expansive video game, where you need to continually evolve, switch roles, and adapt to new challenges. This journey isn't linear; it's dynamic and multifaceted, requiring you to channel different avatars at various stages of. Each avatar represents a distinct aspect of your personality or a skill set necessary for navigating the joys and perils of creative entrepreneurship.

Yep, that’s a cat on a kayak. Trouble, our first NYC cat and an unforgettable character, lived up to his name in the most zany ways. We adopted him by accident. It involves my husband’s colleague rescuing him from his Times Square residential  building & bringing him to the office with the intention of taking him to a shelter in the evening. But when the boss arrived stating the office policy of pets not being allowed, Trouble needed to be escorted out of the cubicles! That’s when Prashant came to the rescue —  volunteering to bring him to our apartment instead as he lived closest.

Embarking on a creative entrepreneurship journey is an exhilarating adventure filled with ups, downs, and everything in between. Along the way, you'll encounter all kinds of creatures who will play different roles — some easier than others. They will fall into two broad archetypes: the Flowers and the Greens.

So, you have a new idea for a creative project, and after spending some time with it, you still love it. That's fantastic! But what's the one crucial thing you need, whether it's for work, personal endeavors, or hobbies? You need headspace or mind space, often referred to as bandwidth. A friend of mine once told me that even a friend occupies a piece of your mind. This means you need to create space, not just in your schedule, but also in terms of your energy.

As we find ourselves midway through 2024, I’m reminded of the words I chose to guide me this year: Laughter and Beast Mode.

The Power of Laughter

Laughter has become a beacon for me. It's a powerful antidote to stress, a bridge to deeper connections, and a way to infuse joy into everyday moments.

I’m starting a new video series dedicated to fueling your creative life! Will cover everything from sustaining momentum on long-term creative projects; tips on enhancing the flow; to what it even means to be a “creative” in the first place from nature’s point of view. And so much more. 

Loving June’s energy already - momentum, multi-passionate hustle. Frenetic (yet fun!) last few days juggling cousins, aunts, nieces, nephews & friends visiting from India. They all happened to land at the same time for different reasons when on the work front I was also prepping for literary agents & a return to broadcasting - moderated a panel for Times Now on the Indian diaspora & the Indian elections. So, between chatting & catching up, school concerts, BBQs & figuring meals, people trooping in & out of the house, kept sneaking away to make & take calls, and converted our backyard into my office so green grass could keep tingling my feet while I continued spots of research between socializing.

Travel Tales: Find it both fun and challenging (and always rewarding) to push our understanding, to dive a little deeper, and to rethink our views of the mysteries of life, nature, history, and mythology that we often take for granted, even if we don't & often can’t arrive at neat conclusions.

What makes you feel clean? Generally, the answer might be a refreshing shower or a perfectly organized space. However, for me, cleanliness goes beyond the surface. It's about achieving a sense, however brief, of purity and tranquility both externally and internally. In today's fast-paced world, finding that feeling of being genuinely clean can be a transformative experience. Here are a few things (in no particular order) that help me cleanse not just my body, but also my mind and spirit. Hope you find something here that helps you too! 

“Transformation in the world happens when people are healed and start investing in other people” - Michael W. Smith

Was reminded of this at a Ford Foundation celebration in Manhattan of a decade-long study on the impact of their global International Fellowships Program (IFP) that supported 4,300 fellows from 22 countries completing graduate or postgraduate degree programs.

“The weekend can be its own vortex” texted my accountability buddy, the wonderful + wise Esther Ban (an amazing nutritionist with the warmest laugh) as we exchanged notes on our goals.

When your partner travels for a stretch, that vortex can get even more…shall we say, intense? Especially if it also involves a frenetic sports schedule for two very-lovely-and-funny-but-sometimes-much-too-squabbly-boys.

Discovering time and time again that peace + power while juggling ANYTHING lies in the intentional use of small tools + tapping into community.

Had so much fun chatting with the lovely folks at Canvas Rebel magazine on creativity, writing a novel, my learnings and experiences along the journey and so much more. You can read it here-

Here are some excerpts from the interview- https://canvasrebel.com/meet-natasha-israni/

Nature is the greatest, highest, most creative designer by far (Numero Uno!) - I kept thinking watching all of Spring’s many dazzling pop-ups.

Looked up nature from the inspiration-design point of view and found a gem of a thought from Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO, linking highest creativity not only with inward inspiration, but with outward observation. I couldn’t agree more.

Do you as an adult occasionally read children’s books?

Not only to your kids or because you’re a teacher, but for your own sake? Here’s why I recommend it and do so myself once in a blue moon; a habit started during the pandemic:

There is a certain playfulness we lose as we get saddled with a slew of adult responsibilities + worldly angst and immersing in spots of childlike wonder can be super refreshing, a mini recharge!

“Any framework, method, or label you impose on yourself is just as likely to be a limitation as an opening.” - @rickrubin

The creative process as Rubin reminds us in his beautiful book The Creative Act: A Way of Being is non-linear. It may have an overall form we can’t always see or sense, but it doesn’t always have a firm structure and it certainly doesn’t come with a map. It morphs, reshapes, circles, spirals.

Many reasons to love Frida Kahlo. I love her for what she taught us about pain.

Polio at age 6, leaving her right leg shorter. Terrible bus accident at 18 that left her with lifelong spinal issues. Throughout her lifetime, often bedridden, she wore tedious iron corsets to support her spine, underwent countless surgeries, eventually even an amputation, and yet she channeled her many struggles into vibrant art that broke rules, and serves to expand the human spirit even today.

What’s your land ethic? Do you have one? Should you?

While I’ve been a nature lover since a kiddo in India, drawn to conservation early on through my Himalayan summer hiking experiences with my grandpa, an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer, and eventually going on to explore & appreciate wild parts all over the world, I have *not* been a direct steward of my own land. Living in apartments & tending plants on windowsills doesn’t count I’m guessing! :)

Grinning under a fierce Mexican sun to celebrate and say thanks to what most of us take for granted - legs.

Over 25 years ago, I was told I needed to have my left leg amputated because a malignant tumor throbbing near my knee might spread to my chest and kill me. Instead, it taught me incredible lessons about intention, imagination, trust, rooted love of life & self, and the power of tapping into joy and gratitude no matter what the circumstances.

Slim, square, feather-light. Easy to carry in your bag, lovely to pick up in a spare minute. Hefty ideas caressed in the palm of your hands. Read a para, a thought, a poem, even just a line. Pause, linger, breathe. Let those thought forms sink in. Here are a few I’ve enjoyed lately-