Using Nature to Ground Yourself: How to build a Morning Altar With Artist Claire Takahashi

Creative Earth Coach and Artist Claire Takahashi explains the practice of creating a Morning Altar or Earth Art from natural objects. She guides her students through the process of creative sculptures with grass, rocks, leaves, seeds, and petals found in a wandering process. 

Claire believes it is essential to realign ourselves with nature to restore creativity and live more colorful lives. Morning altars are a tool to tap into your imagination and what you're feeling in the present moment. Using petals, the gifts of the Earth, to build something.  

She refers to David Abrams b book, "Becoming Animal" in which he explains that we have lost our connection to this planet and have become isolated from nature. She advises listeners to engage in a morning practice of connecting with nature, whether through a brief walk, taking off our shoes and connecting with the Earth, or building a morning altar.  

Podcast host Christopher Miller explains the importance of calming practice before entering the art studio. It's in a ritual that we align ourselves with a Greater Power. 

Claire is a self-taught artist who shares her watercolor experience and its fluid characteristics. She often incorporates natural objects in her work and is attracted to the unpredictable nature of watercolors. 

Chris and Claire share their experiences with different paper and board mediums, including the difference between hot and cold press paper.  They advise the listener to be present and notice the difference in art materials. 

She shares her process for listening, which includes wandering in nature and noticing what is speaking to you, pausing in place, and then letting the site wander around you. Ask yourself, how is she (nature) smelling, tasting, and speaking? 

Next time you drive around, lower your windows, smell the air, and be more present. She cautions, "Nature isn't always comfortable, but nature is honest." 

Claire Takahashi is a Creative Earth Coach, meditative guide, and artist of paint, petals, and words. She is certified as a Wayfinder Coach and a Morning Altar Teacher.  

Through her 1:1 coaching, creative workshops and Earth art guidance, Claire helps other humxns to reconnect with the Earth in their bones, uncage their inner creatures, and live with more colorful and restorative creativity.  

Claire is also the host of The Mindful Creature podcast, guided meditations for reconnecting with our creature cousins and calming our inner landscape. 

Besides her coaching and workshops, she is working on her first poetry collection and the second season of The Mindful Creature. Claire lives in the Pacific Northwest on Coast Salish lands, and most days, you can find her spattered with soil, paint, fur, or all three! 

You can find out more about Claire or join her monthly creative creature newsletter at www.clairetakahashi.com or find her on Instagram @claire.takahashi