ChickSpeak

Author, artist, speaker and life-lover extraordinaire SARK encourages big dreams, bright colors and boisterous behavior.As a self-proclaimed recovering procrastinator, nap advocate, imperfection celebrator and avid tea drinker, SARK inspires millions to follow their dreams and live out loud, with purpose and vigor.

She wrote her first book at age 10, which was later published at age 35. She is now a best-selling author of 15 books and the CEO of her company, Planet Sark. She resides in San Francisco in her beloved “magic cottage.”

ChickSpeak had the wonderful opportunity to speak with SARK about everything from underwear to the DMV:

ChickSpeak: Why is it important for everyone, but for women in particular, to follow their creative dreams?

SARK: Because if they don’t, they get dry and cracked, which is the opposite of living juicy.  In my book “Succulent Wild Woman,” I talk about succulence. You know, a succulent is a plant that gets its nourishment from the inside. It gives itself what it needs. People, or women, who are not giving themselves what they need are not are not following their creative dreams. Every person has a creative dream. And the wonderful thing about creative dreams is that they don’t go away. 

A lot women in their 20s and 30s feel like they’re rushed, that they’re not doing them fast enough. They think, “I’m getting older, I’m working some kind of job.”  It’s important to realize creative dreams will not go away, and you’re feeding them every day.

ChickSpeak: How do you accomplish that on a daily level?

SARK: On a daily level, to really love oneself.  Most have been taught that we should love our selves. Even the Bible says “Love thyself as you love your neighbor.” But no one ever talks about how to do that. And it’s starting to be talked about, and I’m thrilled. We need to be examples of self love, living examples.

I often talk about becoming and being a full cup of love, that way you can spill out and feed people’s half-empty cups. A lot of people are empty, and they try and fill that by text messages or cell phones or whatever it is.

ChickSpeak: One of the things you talk about is how it’s not all puppies and cupcakes, that you have problems too. Can you speak to that?

SARK: Everyone has an opportunity to turn grief into a positive. I’m working on a book called “Glad for the Grief,” that talks about that. Grieving applies to everyone, and everyone has an opportunity to do that transformational work.

My work has long gotten a reputation for being so happy because of the bright colors, and the hand-writing, but for those who read the work, they know it’s more of an integration of the dark and light. With age and more experience, I’ve been published for 20 years, I’ve had a lot more integration of the shadow material and the dark side in my books. It’s much more of a blending now. I’d say I don’t have dark days, now, as I have dark moments.

We need to go there, but we don’t need to spend so much time there.

You mentioned the puppy, and that’s a good metaphor. Having a puppy, as you know, is the most exciting thing to come home and have a puppy. And you love the puppy and you can’t imagine life without the puppy. But the puppy whines at the door, and the puppy needs to be housebroken. But soon, you love the puppy again. Life is like that. Every single thing is made up of both. We all know that, but a lot of people try to ignore the positives.  Everyone needs to work with the shadow material.

ChickSpeak: How do you do that?

SARK: The other day, I was at the DMV office and there was a woman who was trying to get a parking permit. And she didn’t have her VIN number. And she’d taken off work, and taken a bus to get there and she was extremely upset and said, “I came all the way here, they didn’t tell me that on the phone.” And I leaned over and said, “Do you realize you can call your dealer and have them fax the VIN number over?”

So she did that, and she was standing there saying, “This place is such a drag, I took the bus all the way here. I can’t believe that this kind of thing always happens to me.” So I told her, well, I have a different perspective. Number 1, I leaned in and told you what you could do. Number two, they let you go ahead of the line, you got your information faxed. It took a little longer, but the whole thing worked, so why are you upset? You met incredibly kind people. She was just shocked.  I was telling this woman, “Why aren’t you doing the transformational work?”

People collude with negativity. No one likes the DMV. We don’t like the linoleum floors; we have stand in line and sit in plastic chairs. Everyone there is mean and is behind glass. Well, first that’s not true. I had a wonderful experience because I asked the man “How are you?” which apparently people don’t do. So yeah, it’s not the environment we want to spend our time in. I don’t want to run back and spend the day there. But how do we find the gifts in the painful or ugly or uncomfortable? How do we live with all of it? That’s the challenge.

ChickSpeak: What five things should every woman do every day?

SARK: First off, stop saying should.

Engage in self love practice, and that starts with hugging yourself. Hug yourself every morning before you get out of bed. You love you and you love you for this wonderful day you have. It will change your whole attitude before you even get out of bed. And it will feel like you’ve been hugged by 10 good friends.

Some sort of meditation or a could be a walk in nature.

Physical movement of some kind, which could be rolling around on the floor.

Spontaneous play, adventure. It could be as simple as changing anything in your routine. If you wear socks, don’t. Or wear two different color socks. Or go out the door backwards, or carry your keys in the other hand. We often do the same things every day and that leads to habituated responses.

Find a way to share and give love to other people. As cliché as it is, it’s as simple as looking out for people who might need help and giving it to them.

ChickSpeak: Where do you gather your inspiration?

SARK: From you, Allison! Literally from everything. I’m a story magnet. I hear stories, I tell stories. Stories are always coming to me. I look for ways to interact with the world.

I’m constantly playing. I leave notes for people, on trees, asking them to invite me to tea. All the ordinary things are filled with inspiration. When we engage with the world we find that. You know, I talk to the mail carrier.

The other day I was walking down the beach and these guys were playing football and I dove in the air and caught a football! And the guys were just astonished. We ended up being in a whole conversation about women being afraid of footballs. I’m just really inspired by life.

ChickSpeak: What is one question people never ask you that they wish you would?

SARK: I don’t know. I think I’ve been asked everything. I love questions. When I teach classes, I always tell my students “Come up with a question I can’t answer!” and they never can. I’ve been asked everything, even “What kind of underwear do you wear?” I think it’s important to note that I don’t. Wear underwear, that is. I think it’s so important to ask questions. I am endlessly fascinated by curiosity and how that manifests itself in different people.

ChickSpeak: Take me through a day in your life.

SARK: It was way more dramatic when I was nocturnal. I was nocturnal for about, 50 years or so. From when I was 7, and I stopped about 50, so how ever many years that is. For all those years I was nocturnal, I stayed up all night and slept all day. It was an extreme alternative lifestyle, and it sounded really amazing.

People would say “What do you mean, you’re nocturnal?” But I changed my diet and exercise and now I’m a morning person.

I start off with self-love practices. All the things I talk about I’m practicing and doing. I by no means have it all figured out. I go into practicing mediation, and exercise. I then enter a period of creating and communicating with the world. I do a lot of fooling around. I do a lot staring. I like to stare at leaves and clouds. I go on a daily walk, usually in nature. I change plans all the time, so I’m very mood-based. I’m very organized and meticulous, so I have to be spontaneous to balance that out. I’m pretty much an eccentric.

I’ve been involved in a wonderful love relationship, with my girlfriend on the East Coast, so I go out there quite a bit. Thanks to technology, I can get my work done and it doesn’t matter where I am.

I’m a big fan of certain television. I also read more than anyone I know. I read newspapers, memoirs, children’s books, magazines, anything. I read very fast. I have a huge appetite for reading. I do a lot of playing. I play games, make up games. I go on spontaneous treasure hunts.  I surprise people. I invent things. I’m always creating some kind of adventure.

ChickSpeak: How should you create adventure and play if you, say, work in a cubicle?

SARK: Do something to the cubicle, and I don’t know what that is. I think they should let people turn the cubicles on their sides or upside down. There needs to be something that changes daily in the cubicle. I don’t know what it is, whether it’s a message board or whatever, it should change daily.

I think that getting out of there is important, too. You know, I’m a rebel. I’m a rebel in the sense that I think all employers need to be open to different work environments. I understand that sometimes work has to be done from a cubicle, but I ask for a review of the cubicle.

ChickSpeak: What songs do you have on your playlist right now?

SARK: Dave Mathews! I love Leonard Cohen. I have hundreds of songs on my iPhone and 90 percent of them are from the 60s and 70s. It was an incredible time for music, I just love that era.

ChickSpeak: What do you dream about? What was the last dream you had?

SARK: I have crazy dreams, and I write them all down. The last wild dream I had was that I found F. Scott Fitzgerald’s typewriter. It was all dusty and old ad I was afraid to touch it. But I did, and the second I started typing on the keys, all the sides fell down and it turned into a sports car and I drove away in it. I’m not sure what it means, but I like it.

ChickSpeak: Tell me about your new journaling program.

SARK: Writing in general, is just so important. I like to tell people to write their lives so that other people can be illuminated. You cannot know how important your story is until you write it down. People say my story doesn’t matter, my story’s really tiny. But it can travel so far without you ever knowing it.

I was profoundly impacted by Maya Angelou’s story “I know Why the Cage Bird Sings.” She was such an inspiration, and I later met her, she became a mentor to me, and I could have never known any of that.

So, I’ve created this wonderful e-book, Juicy Journaling: A Nourishing Adventure to Start Your Day off Write. It’s self-paced, comes through the computer, and has a daily lesson. I’ve also started the Thriving Artists program, if you feel like you can’t afford the program. It’s so good and so important. We are all writers and artists of life. How do we share that? One of the way we share that is through language. 

For more information, juicy products, interviews and inspiration, check out SARK’s Web site at planetsark.com

Allison Casey is a recent graduate of Appalachian State University, where she forgot about school work in favor of working as an editor for the campus paper, The Appalachian, and serving as the program coordinator for the campus Women’s Center. She goes on frequent adventures in her 30-year-old station wagon and signature lime green shoes. She is currently writing a book, but has no idea what it’s about.