The Gift of Creativity For Chaotic Times

Creativity is bound up in our ability to find new ways around old problems. - Martin Seligman

As our world seems to be getting more and more chaotic, I am reminded of the way a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. After spining a protective cocoon, the caterpillar dissolves into a dark goo. Then specialized imaginal cells begin to move toward each other and band together to guide the restructuring of the goo into the butterfly.

It’s a great metaphor for what is possible when people work together from a common, inspired vision. I like to think that when we embrace our creative gifts we become imaginal cells for our culture or society. When we connect with like minded souls who want to make the world a better place, what problems can we solve? I just read about people who are harvesting and recycling the plastic clogging our oceans. That’s an inspired idea creating positive change.

What if the chaos we are experiencing in the world today and in our lives is actually an invitation to let go of the old ways and create something new. What if in letting go, even as we fear the unknown, we actually make room for the new to enter. Often when we give up trying, unexpected opportunities, beyond what we thought possible, show up in miraculous ways.

Chaos is at the heart of being creative. Creativity begins from a place of swirling possibilities. It can be messy. On the creative journey we often feel like we don’t know what we’re doing or where exactly we’re going. Yet as we take it step by step following the threads of intuition and inspiration, as we show up for the work we find ourselves guided along the way. We discover the process itself is deeply rewarding and has the capacity to change our world.

By bringing creativity into every area of our lives, it can help us transcend the chaos by reordering the world and our lives in new and inspired ways. Take a minute consider a place in your life that feels chaotic and ask “what newness wants to be born in my life?” Don’t think about it, just allow an idea to pop in, and follow your heart and knowing. Then see what one small act that you can take to start creating from this inspiration. Taking it one small step at a time helps to keep us from feeling overwhelmed. What if this is how we create a world that works for everyone?

How Creative Can We Be

It’s the end of the month and I am just getting to the January blog. Every time I considered the topic I came up blank. What finally came to me is the sense that we need to create from a more expanded place than we have ever considered before. As we move into the third year of the pandemic, most of us have had our lives shaken up and are probably wondering where can we go from here.

Consider asking the question, how creative can we get in response to all the changes in our lives and the world. How can we create, create, create. What wants to be born anew from old ways that have unraveled. I get the image of confetti being thrown into the air in celebration of the creative potential in all of us. It's time to leave behind the beliefs that limit us and embrace the creative beings we truly are in whatever form that calls to us.

So I asked my muse for specifics. What should I create? The answers didn't come all at once. Generally they came as flashes of insight while I was out on my daily walk that puts me in a meditative state where an idea arrives that excites and energizes me. Then I know I'm on to something.

Beyond that I got that we all need to be willing to be surprised. That we need to open up in new ways. We tend to limit our creations, whether in the realm of creative expression or in creating our lives, to what we already know or to a variation on what we have already done. We also limit ourselves by thinking we need to figure out "the how" of whatever we are inspired to create rather than trusting and allowing the universe to support and guide up step by step.

At this pivotal time in human history opening up to truly new ideas and possibilities is essential. To paraphrase Einstein, "We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them." So here are some questions to ask. Can we allow ourselves new thoughts? Can we start to see ourselves differently? Can we see ourselves as capable of more than we have imagined up until this point?

I am asking myself these same questions aware that there is a seed within me and all of us wanting to emerge. We don't have to go looking for our creations, they live inside us in the dark womb of our soul and imagination. We can open up to let them grow, leaf out and blossom. We can do this one little step at a time.

Why Is Having Fun So Important?

We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. - George Bernard Shaw

In our hectic modern lives and these crazy times, many of us focus so heavily on work and commitments that we never seem to have time for pure fun. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, we stopped playing. At some point we internalized the collective belief that play is only for children as well as the tendency to disapprove of adults who are having too much fun.

When we do make leisure time, we're more likely to zone out in front of the TV or computer than engage in fun, rejuvenating play like we did as children. But just because we are adults, that doesn't mean we have to take ourselves so seriously and make life all about work.

Play is actually essential to our health and wellbeing in numerous ways. An importance source for both relaxation and stimulation for adults, it's also a great way to feed your imagination, creativity, problem-solving abilities, and improve your mental health. If you are a parent playing with your kids will not only improve your own mood and well-being, it will make your children smarter, better adjusted, and less stressed.

When you take time to play, let go of all care about work and other commitments. Spend the time either on your own or with others in an unstructured, creative way. The focus is on being present to the experience of having fun and enjoying yourself. There is no goal, nothing to accomplish. You could simply have fun with friends, share jokes with a coworker, draw with crayons, put on some lively music and dance around the living room, go to a playground and swing, build a snowman in the yard, play fetch with a dog, or go for a bike ride with your partner with no destination in mind.

By giving yourself permission to play with the joyful abandon of childhood, you can reap many health benefits throughout your life. Playing can boost your energy, vitality and immune system helping you feel an increased sense of wellness and youthfulness. Play is also at the heart of being creative. It opens you to be more receptive to new ideas and those ah..ha moments.

What would it look like for you to bring more play to your daily routine, to the things you "have to do", and to your job. What if you brought the joy of the fun of being alive to work. Try it for one day. Focus on bringing more play and fun to your life. Focus on enjoyment, amusement, lighthearted pleasure or playful behavior. Focus on having FUN.

Even if you do this for just a short while it can lift you to new ways of being. See if you don't feel better. See if you don't feel more creative and inspired. Then follow those threads of inspiration to expand your creative life.

The Joy of Being Creative

It is in awareness that we bring everything to life that lives within us. There is no time like the present to give birth to creativity. - Kathleen Anderson

Learning to live in the present moment is part of the path of joy. - Sarah Ban Breathnach

Our own lives and the world could certainly use a bit more joy to help us through these challenging times. Engaging creativity can help.

I call my creativity coaching The Joy of Being Creative because that is exactly what engaging our creativity brings us. When we are really in that flow we are completely in the present moment which gives us a sense of joy and deep satisfaction. We can get this same feeling by really being present when we watch a sunset, play peek-a-boo with a baby or tend the soil in your garden to plant seeds. Anything that consistently brings us into the present moment, the now, allows us to naturally feel a sense of happiness and joy and peace.

If we want to know more abut what it means to live in the moment we only need to watch children. They bring a freshness and innocence to every experience. They find magic and wonder everywhere. A toddler can spent hours playing in a rain puddle, squealing in delight.

What would it look like for us to return to this state where we are free from the accumulations of past experiences and the ways we project them on the future. What would it be like if we didn't care if anyone thought we were silly or crazy or ridiculous. As adults we spend so much time censoring and judging ourselves, that we have lost our ability to be playful and spontaneous.

Reclaiming our innocence and a sense of wonder for ourselves and the world around us can really aid our creativity. Rather than thinking we already know what the tree in our backyard or the face of our spouse looks like what would it be like to look at them as if seeing them for the first time. What would it be like to come to every experience with a fresh eye and a willingness to really listen and be fully in the moment.

Like any change in our behavior, it takes awareness and practice. It's a lot like meditation where you have to catch your mind wondering and focus on being present. I've been practicing this myself, pulling myself back to the moment and the awareness of the beauty around me. Every time I do this I feel a peaceful and the joy of inspiration that has me sitting down to write a poem which leads me deeper into joy. Try it for yourself and see what ways you might want to express the inspiration that comes to you, creatively.

Falling in Love with the Creative Process

A lot of people think that when it comes to creativity, inspiration is the key. Yet those moments of insight or revelation never occur without the willingness to commit to the work and continue to show up. This perseverance is just as important. You get a creative flash. You show up to the work and what wants to be born becomes more clear.

Nobel prize winning Canadian short story writer Alice Munro once said, "I threw away all my early writings and it wasn't because I was the mother of three small children. It was because I was learning my craft and it took a long time."

It was the same with David Guterson who wrote the award winning novel Snow Falling on Cedars. When critics acclaimed that a brilliant new writer had just come out of the Pacific Northwest as if he and his book had arrived by magic, he responded "excuse me but I've written in the early morning hours for 25 years before going to my job." It took him ten years to write the novel.

Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning poet, Mary Oliver wrote for twenty five years before putting her work out into the world. She refused to take an interesting job because she didn't want to be distracted from her work. It was only a few years after she started publishing her work that she won the Pulitzer. Her perseverance clearly paid off.

One of the favorite essays I've ever written is 13 pages and it took five years to write. I started from a clear place of inspiration but then I had to do the work. I needed to do research. I needed to continue my writing practice. I had to put the draft away for a couple of years while I developed my skill as a writer because this essay was very complex and when I started it I didn't have the level of ability to finish it.

This is why as a writing teacher and creativity coach I teach people to fall in love with the process. It is true for any form of creativity. You show up, you start playing around and you find yourself in the flow where time stops and you taste of the joy of being creative. This allows you to persevere. Even when things aren't going well, you can find pleasure in showing up and being willing to play with what wants to be born out of your effort. This provides its own sense of satisfaction.

Keep Your Curiosity Alive - Journaling Can Help

For any writer who wants to keep a journal, be alive to everything, not just to what you're feeling, but also to your pets, to flowers, to what you're reading. - May Sarton

Keeping a journal or notebook to record not only your inner landscape but you observations of the world around you can make your life much more vibrant and alive. There is a long list of famous people who kept journals or notebooks. Anthropologist Margaret Mead, Charles Darwin, Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Winston Churchill, Franz Kafka and Virginia Wolfe are just a few. The great geniuses and innovators kept their child-like sense of wonder and curiosity alive. Keeping a journal can help.

It's easy to start. Get a bound blank book, or you can start with a cheap spiral notebook. Date your entries. Begin by describing your surroundings, the current state of your life as well as your hopes, dreams, desires or questions. Put down anything you are curious about or whatever wants to spill out on to the page. If you are a writer, this is a good way to loosen up.

Leonardo Da Vinci actually carried a notebook attached to his belt and recorded anything he was curious about, any image he saw that drew him, any ideas that popped into his head or any questions that came to him. He insisted that passionate curiosity about all of life was one of the keys to his genius and remarkable accomplishments.

Short-term memory only retains information for three minutes. Unless committed to paper, an inspired idea forever can be lost forever. You can use your journal to record all the ideas and inspirations that flash into your mind. Plus paying close attention to the world and asking questions actually invites the subconscious mind into play increasing your creative and mental capacities.

So try what Leonardo did. Keep a notebook with you at all times. It could simply be a small spiral bound one that fits in your back pocket. Do it for a week and see if it doesn't awaken your sense of amazement for the beauty and complexity of the world.

I've started doing this, making note of the reflection of trees on the surface of a pond, the hawks crying out as they circle overhead, the newborn baby asleep in a stroller rocking back and forth with the motion, and the power of horses racing across a field.

I've kept a journal for over 40 years. It's added so much to my life and my writing. Carrying one with me everywhere has me opening to appreciating the world around me on a whole new level and making connections I would have missed otherwise.

Cultivating Innovation

Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity - not a threat. - Steve Jobs

I call innovation one of the "i" words, like imagination, inspiration, intuition and illumination. It is a process, like creativity, that rises from an expanded state of awareness, where we find ideas and solution that come from beyond our rational, thinking mind. From this place we can do and be more than we ever considered possible.

Innovation is defined as introducing something new, be it a new idea, method or device. I remember hearing an interview with Steve Jobs where he described inventing the first floppy drive (remember those?); the way he spoke of trying lots of different strategies before it finally worked. Innovation asks for patience and perseverance.

Malcolm Gladwell, author of the Tipping Point, identified two types of innovators. The rare conceptual innovators like Picasso who burst on the scene in the early 1900s and revolutionized how we think about art. And the much more prevalent experimental innovators like Cezanne, who worked endlessly by trial and error to find the look that captured his vision.

Picasso dazzled the European art world as a young man with his sudden passion to show a new way to do things; Cezanne's masterpieces did not come until he was in his 50s and then they came in a rush when 40 of his most famous works were produced in a few years.

It helps to understand how innovation works. Like creativity, innovation is usually a process that involves trial and error as well as a learning curve. So many think that this is the domain of a select few rather than a possibility for everyone. 

Now more than ever the world needs people willing to exercise their natural ability to innovate. And it is not restricted to the arts or technology. The development of microlending to help people in the third world become self reliant is a kind of innovation. New strategies for gardening and growing food in very small spaces is another example. 

Asking the question what else is possible here when we need a better way to do something can open us up to receiving new ideas. We can do this in every area of our lives and let ourselves play with new possibilities from a place of curiosity. The challenges we face in the world today can feel overwhelming, yet the solutions to solve our biggest problem already exist. Can we get innovative in their implementation? Can we get innovative in our own lives. Innovation, like creativity, puts us in the flow, which always feels good.

Nature and Creativity

When I received the inspiration for the name of my business Creativity Goes Wild I was on a modern day vision quest in an extraordinary canyon in southern Utah that allowed me to really open to the flow of new ideas. Along with the name, I also got that the essence of the work included three different elements: Nature, creativity and the soul which are aspects we can connect to that can really help us live full and authentic lives.

I have long thought of nature as the original artist. If you spend any time in nature and pay close attention, you become aware of the beauty and design and patterns in both small things like the symmetry in pine cones and snowflakes or on a grander scale the patterns in the erosion of mountains or the movement of clouds across the sky.

At first glance nature might look chaotic or random or disordered but the more you observe and learn about the natural world the more you become aware of the elegance of design in every creation. We can draw inspiration for our own creativity from spending time in Nature, the same way we feel inspired by visiting an art exhibit, going to a play or watching a good movie.

Spending time in nature actually slows down our brain waves, taking us from the beta waves where our mind attends to daily activities into alpha waves which offer a naturally meditative state where we access the part of our mind that has new thoughts and ideas, flashes of insight, and more readily makes connections. This can help us with the essence of the creative impulse and process.

Whenever I find myself stuck on a creative project I will go for a walk in nature and it always opens me back up to the flow. Or if I am looking for a place to begin a creative work I will plant the seed in my subconscious mind and then go to nature, not to think about it, but to allow the inspiration to rise to the surface of my mind.

Try it. Whether you like to sit in the garden or go for a walk among the trees, see if you don't find that connecting to nature doesn't open you up to new ideas and possibilities.

The Power of Creating in the Moment

Be Here Now - Ram Dass

Boredom is a sign that you are not being present. - Eckhart Tolle

I find myself, more and more, really called on a deep level to live in the moment; letting go of all worry about the future or regret about the past and to trust. Mystics have long encouraged us to be present to each moment, each breath. And now quantum physics tells us that in the moment exists all of time: past, present and future. This explains why the moment or the Now is the only place we are able to create anything, a book, a painting, a solar panel, our life. This is where are are able to create a new world for ourselves on both a personal and global level.

The more you practice being in the moment the easier it is to create. Our breath is a greatest tool since it calms our mind and relaxes our body which makes it easier to be present to what is. If we are worried about the future we can take a deep breath and ask is everything okay in the Now. The answer almost always is yes. When we calm our mind we have greater access to the guidance and wisdom of our own deeper knowing and inspiration can flow in.

My two greatest teacher for living in the moment have been creativity and Nature. What I have always loved about being creative is that it automatically makes you present to the moment and something greater than your everyday self. Whether I am dancing, doing photography, singing or writing there is a joy and satisfaction that arises out of showing up and being present to what wants to happen. When you hit the zone or the flow it feels so good. It feels Divine. I have a similar feeling in Nature where everything, rock, plant and animal is clearly in the Now being the essence of what they are meant to be. This helps me to just be.

Like many of you I've have done a lot of personal growth and healing work seeking to transform old patterns into new more satisfying and abundant ways of being with myself and the world. Recently I've felt a real shift in this and have come to the realization that there is nothing to fix. That nothing is wrong. If I embrace and accept everything in the moment free of judgment then things naturally shift and I am more open to new possibilities. Experiences that I deemed challenging are from the vantage point of the moment the experiences my soul needed in order to reach this point of understanding. When we live in the moment we have access to the wisdom and intuition that comes from our hearts.

A few days ago when my mind started to run away with me and the tools I usually use to calm the flame of worry didn't seem to be working I was guided to simply stop, take a few deep breathes, drop into my heart, and claim being in the moment. Peace immediately washed over me and clear sense of the next right action to take came to me.

We think we have to think through problems, that we have to figure everything out with our minds. Instead if we connect to our own inspiration and guidance in the moment we allow solutions to come intuitively and we experience synchronicities and miracles, little and big. In truth, the moment is the only place we can connect to higher wisdom and knowing. This is true for our creative projects as well as the course of our lives where we find ourselves living in the flow. This can help us be more actively creative on a daily basis.

How Surrender is Critical to Being Creative

We can’t force creativity. We know this intuitively. If we told a painter that we wanted a masterpiece by five o’clock tomorrow, they would look at us like we were crazy, that we clearly didn’t understand what being creative was all about.

An important part of being creative is learning to surrender to the flow of the universe, allowing something greater than our everyday self to move through us. It’s not something we can figure out with our linear mind.

Of course, if we want to paint we need to learn how to work with our chosen medium and studying the work of the masters can help. If we want to write it’s really valuable to read widely and deeply, to show up daily to put pen to paper and perhaps take a workshop on the form we want to work with.

Yet at the heart of being creative is letting go and allowing the ideas, the inspiration to move through us. This is where practice comes in. As Flannery O’Connor said of her writing experience, “I show up at my office everyday between 8 am and noon. I’m not sure that anything is going to happen but I want to be there if it does.”

I recently sat next to a young man in the park who had a set of watercolors laid out on a table and quickly produced a couple of small paintings that were quite lovely. We spoke of creativity and how so many people think you either have it or you don’t. “Yeah,” he said, “really it’s a muscle, you’ve got to use.” He went on to say “No mater how lousy I feel, if I do even a couple of little paintings I instantly feel better."

I feel the same way about writing, even if it’s just a page of free writing where I let the words flow out of the pen. Being creative feels good and lightens our mood because we become more present to the moment, quiet our chattering minds, and allow for the awareness of our heart and knowing to do the work. In the surrender we find ourselves in an expanded state of consciousness were we can do things we didn’t think we could.

In whatever way creativity calls to you, make a habit of showing up up to play with it. Let you self be guidance by what excites you. Surrender to what brings you alive.

The Art of Creating with Flow

Well, you're right in the work, you lose your sense of time, you're completely enraptured, you're completely caught up in what you're doing, and you're sort of swayed by the possibilities you see in this work. . . . - Mark Strand, poet

I've been reading Steven Kotler's The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Performance. The book focuses on the state of flow where the miraculous and seemingly impossible can happen. Kotler defines flow as "an optimal state of consciousness, a peak state where we both feel our best and perform our best." It is a state that anyone can access under the right conditions.

Creatives and innovators are quite familiar with this capacity. As a writing teacher and creativity coach, I have long worked with ways to help my clients access flow states and help them grasp that flow is at the heart of being creative. When working on a creative project, I will often feel like I don't have any idea what I am doing or how I am going to accomplish the task. Yet if I just start and keep going, I move into a state of flow where I suddenly know what to do and I am excitedly dancing with the work. This is a common experience in finding and working with flow.

While creatives have long had an awareness of flow, the group of individuals who have pushed the boundaries of human potential most dramatically in the past decade have been action and adventure sports athletes. People, like Laird Hamilton, surfing one hundred foot waves, snowboarders and skateboarders making impossible jumps and rock climbers constantly expanding what they believed to be possible. The only reason extreme athletes are surviving pushing the boundaries is because they are in flow so they provide incredibly valuable insights into how flow works.

At the same time there have been extraordinary advancements in neuroscience including the development of small, portable instrumentation for studying what is going on in the brain in states of flow, for both creativity and these extreme athletes. We now know what part of the brains are being activated and the brain chemistry involved.

I felt incredibly energized as I read Kotler's book, the way one does when your higher self is nudging you, saying yes pay attention to this, it's important. In the middle of reading, I went for a walk and encountered a red-tailed hawk sitting atop a twenty foot pine just to the side of the path. I stood in wonder and asked the hawk what it wanted me to know. I have a long history of visitations from hawks, so I suspected she had a message for me.

She then launched into the air glided down to the grass next to a small creek with water trickling through, then walked down into the creek bed. I had never seen a hawk do anything like that. As I stood awestruck she leapt into the air, flashing her rufous red tail, as she sailed across the meadow and out of sight.

As I turned to continue up the path, an awareness flooded my mind that the hawk had been affirming my interest in flow. The hawk and the running water, metaphors for aligning with cosmic forces, with the flow. This encounter felt as the universe itself was conspiring to affirm the importance of my interest in flow.

These kinds of synchronicities are common occurrences in flow. One of the things that all the adventure athletes talked about was their experience of a connection to the Oneness with all things or something greater than themselves when they are in the flow.

We can learn to access this power of flow in any area of our lives including business and problem solving. From this expanded way of knowing we can bring the constructive changes so needed in our lives and the world at this time.

Coming to Our Senses

The instant trivial as it is
is all we have, unless. . .unless
things the imagination feeds upon
the scent of a rose, startle us anew.

William Carlos Williams

When I started to work on this article I had originally intended that the title "Coming to Your Senses" would refer to how important actively using all our senses (sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste) is in engaging our creativity and imagination and accessing inspiration for our lives. Being present to our sensory experience helps us to live from the moment where we can more readily access creative flow. 

Then I flashed on the fact that the phrase is also an idiom that refers to someone who has been doing something that is clearly a mistake and finally realizes it and begins to act more in alignment with what is right for them. This has me wondering about the origins of the expression and the true value of really occupying our senses.

Jean Houston, one of the founders of the human consciousness movement suggests, "that enhanced human capacities begin with what we generally think of as our most concrete reality, our own body." And opening more fully to experience all our senses can help us inhabit our bodies and the knowing, wisdom and "gut instinct" that it holds for us.

People who are highly creative tend to have a vivid sense memory. Memories of things we delight in can actually help us develop our senses. Remember biting into a ripe, juicy peach with the juices running sticky down your chin. You can do this for all your senses. This exercises your imagination as well.

Try it now in your imagination: Feel the soft velvet of a dog's ears; taste the exquisite flavor of your favorite food; gaze upon a beautiful sunset; listen to the birds singing at sunrise; smell the deep perfume of a rose.

For many, the use of their senses has largely atrophied. Western culture especially values concepts and ideas over direct sensory experience. We are overwhelmed by the input of all the technology filling our lives.

I was lucky enough to grow up within sight, sound and scent of the sea and throughout my childhood we often went camping so I developed a closeness to the natural world where opening your senses to fully experience the world is a delight.

So spending time in Nature, enjoying a good meal or taking a hot scented bath can really help you more fully embody your senses which in turn gives you access to your creative gifts and more of your full potential.

Here's a poem that came out of engaging my senses in an experience in the natural world that connected me to a sense of spirit.

Spiritual Practice

A flock of bluebirds flutter
across a fallow field,

their cheerful chirps
ring the air like a temple bell,

calling me out
of my thought-churned mind,

their azure-blue back
burnt-orange bellies,

holding me,
in the moment.

- Suzanne Murray

Working with Creative Anxiety

I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible:
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance,
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom,
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.

- Dawna Markova

With anxiety and fear running high in the world these days, I wanted to share how we can make friends with these feelings and use them to our advantage. Anxiety and fear can prevent us from being creative or living a life we love. To live and create fully be must be willing again and again to step out of our old comfortable life and into unknown territory. This always feels scary. Many years ago I read the self-help book Feel the Fear, And Do It Anyway which presents the premise that just because we feel a sense of fear about a project or moving in a new direction in our lives doesn't mean we are supposed to stop ourselves from proceeding.

More recently I've been fine tuning my understanding of what this really means and feels like, how to best use it in my life and creative work, and how it fits the idea of following my internal guidance of my intuition and heart to bring my soul and creative gifts into the world. Any time I stretch in a new direction in my writing or my personal and professional life I have to step out of my comfort zone which gives rise to a feeling of anxiety. I've found it's important to learn to distinguish between the kind of anxiety that represents our bodily intuition signaling a real threat (like don't walk down that dark alley or that new relationship really isn't good for you or that's really not the best art project for you to pursue) versus the kind of anxiety we feel when we step out of our comfort zone in a way that stretches our capacities, capabilities and sense of self. The anxiety that is genuinely trying to warn us off feels heavy with fear whereas the anxiety that simply marks stepping out of our comfort zone has a sense of exhilaration to it.

When I'm at my desk writing and I start to feel a lot of resistance, if I make myself sit in the chair and keep writing, (even when I desperately want to get up and make phone calls or clean the refrigerator), I find that I will usually move through the anxiety into what I really want to say and find myself very excited by the work that results. The same is true every time I do anything new in my life that feels like a stretch. I feel nervous and excited whenever I push past the feeling of fear and take action to make the new idea or vision happen.

When you are trying to decide what the fear or anxiety is trying to tell you, just take some deep breaths and get clear on the exact quality of the feeling in your body: whether you feel contracted or expanded by the thought of what you desire. If you feel expanded then you need to "feel the fear" that comes with it and begin to take action however small toward achieving your desire. Also new neuroscience shows that the simple act of naming or labeling a negative emotion like fear calms the brain which makes it easier to get clear on what to do.

Creating the New Year from Creative Flow

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. - E. M. Forster

Recently I heard about a study done in China to determine what helps people weather the isolation resulting from the pandemic. Researchers found that those individuals who were able to engage in activities that allowed them to be in the flow had the easiest time.

Flow is the expanded state of consciousness that occurs when our attention is fully absorbed in an activity. We lose track of time and have a heightened sense of possibilities and well being. Whether we are writing or painting or dancing or cooking or gardening or skiing or countless other activities, anything that engages our full attention can put us in flow.

The past year has been pretty crazy. So much of our lives and how we do things has been shaken up and reset. The benefit of this is that we have an opportunity to find new ways to be with each other and the earth. When we commit to getting creative and expanding our awareness of what is possible, beautiful solutions can come to us.

If we live our lives from the place of heart and knowing about what really matters to us and brings us alive the more we will find ourselves in a creative state of flow and a state of grace. A great place from which to create a happy new year.

Creating a Hopeful Future

I know many of us may be focused on the Covid 19 crisis and its economic and political fallout, I wanted to share a sense of hope and possibility about an ultimately larger area of global concern: Climate Change.

David Attenborough, award winning nature documentary filmmaker, now at age 93 has produced his crowning achievement in his film,A Life On Our Planet (streaming now on Netflix). Calling it a “witness statement” for the environment, he highlights the beauty and wonder of the earth, then goes on to show how steeply the health of the planet has declined in his lifetime including some disturbing predictions for the future. In the last part he offers hope.

While the problems we face are immense, we already have the knowledge and skills to halt and reverse the damage. Attenborough insists that we still have time to do this. The solutions that he details in the last 30 minutes of the film involve our need to work with nature instead of against it. They are completely doable. 

By the end of the film I felt a deep sense of hope in my heart for what is truly possible. It has me considering the role creative people can play in helping make the shift to a sustainable future. We can draw inspirations from a number of film available now. When you are tempted to throw up your hands and exclaim “what difference can a single person make”. Watch the movie Forest Man that documents one man in India who planted an entire forest all my himself.

Another beautiful film of hope is Kiss the Groundwhich shows how innovative regenerative farming practices can heal the land returning excess carbon from the air back to the soil and produce much healthier food in the process. Implementing these strategies can help bring about a shift in climate in just thirty years.

We can all contribute in some small way to shifting things in a positive direction. Each day ask “what can I do to contribute to the earth today” and see what occurs as you go about your day. Try talking to a tree or a plant. Use your imagination to just pretend that they respond to you. Creating a new or expanded relationship with earth can fuel our inspiration as well as feeding our heart, soul and health.

Using our creative talents and voice to bring awareness of the possibilities available can make a huge difference. We can write, sing, dance, paint, draw, photograph, film, teach, or get creative in ways we haven’t even considered. Let your creative imagination flow with ideas and inspirations for creating constructive change and a hopeful future. 

Wishing you all well and many blessings this holiday season.

Imagination Can Transformation Our World

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
- Albert Einstein

Imagine all the people living life in peace . . .
- John Lennon

Consider that your imagination is real. It is a creative force. Our bodies can't tell the difference between an actual event and one that is imagined. If you have a fear of heights and lean out over the railing to look down on the Grand Canyon your body will begin to feel a sense of panic, dizziness and butterflies in the stomach. Close your eyes and imagine the same scene in detail and you will feel the same visceral reaction to a fear of falling.

With the world in tremendous flux we have an opportunity to create a world of peace and harmony that works for everyone. "Just pretend" that it is possible. "Just pretend" is another way of saying" imagine", because when we use our imagination we feel we are just making it up and that it has little to do with "what is real". But what if imagination is more than that. What if through the force of imagination we can be the creator of our lives and our world. What if now is the time. What do you want to create for yourself, your community and the world at large. You can start with "just pretend" to begin to access your imagination and deeper knowing.

Start to see what you want in your mind's eye or feel it in your body. It can be as simple as I am the experience of joy, love, and freedom from the place of your heart. What would that look like for you? What is calling to you from that place of your heart and your joy. What do your want to choose. What we put our focus on is what we create. Intentionally using your imagination for creation helps you focus on what you want and bring it into being. Imagine we can all be the agents of transformation in the world. What would that look like?

Here's a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke (likely the great spiritual poet of the early 20th century) that feels to me like it was written for just the time we now find ourselves in.

All will come again into its strength:
the fields undivided, the waters undammed,
the trees towering and the walls built low.
And in the valleys, people as strong and varied as the land.
And no churches where God
is imprisoned and lamented
like a trapped and wounded animal.
The houses welcoming all who knock
and a sense of boundless offering
in all relations, and in you and me.
No yearning for an afterlife, no looking beyond,
no belittling of death,
but only longing for what belongs to us
and serving earth, lest we remain unused.

- Rainier Maria Rilke

Imagine how you want to serve the Earth, how do you want to be used.

Do You Censor Your Creative Self

I think the best way to perform is when your unconscious is fully available to you, but you're still a little conscious too. - Yo-Yo Ma

I have taught the creative writing process for more than twenty years, working in part with a technique known as "freewriting" where I encourage participants to "just let it rip". We don't worry about punctuation, spelling, grammar or whether it is good. We suspend the censor and let our first thoughts spill out onto the page. People new to the class are always nervous about this kind of letting go. Since I write and share my own raw writing with the group I was rather nervous when I first started teaching the classes but found that by maintaining a safe and sacred atmosphere of unconditional acceptance for whatever wanted to come forth it really calmed the fear for everyone.

We learn quite early to fear making mistakes. We all have a well developed censor that confines us within the limiting parameters of being socially acceptable. Neuroscientists have identified a part of the brain, the dorso lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) that is closely associated with impulse control. It keeps us from embarrassing ourselves or saying the wrong thing to our boss or spouse.

Young children create so naturally because their censors don't yet exist. The DLPFC is the last part of the brain to fully develop. Around 4th grade it engages and children lose interest in making art in the classroom. If we are worried about making a mistake, saying the wrong thing or doing something poorly we often end up doing nothing at all. The censor has us holding back our latent talent.

In a study by a neuroscientist looking at brain activity in jazz musicians engaged in improvisation, research subjects showed increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain associated with self expression, while at the same time the DLPFC or censor appeared to deactivate. At this point there is a surge of raw material coming forth but rather than being random or chaotic it is organized or structured by the rules of the form. In the case of jazz musicians they naturally improvised in the right key and tempo.

I have noticed this tendency in my freewriting workshops. Students bypass the censor yet they also naturally wrote in the form that seemed to most call or appeal to them. Individuals drawn to poetry and who read a lot of poetry had the raw writing take on a poetic quality.

The same was true with fiction, memoir or non-fiction. It's why I always tell people that reading the kind of writing you want to do is one of the best things you can do to improve your work because when you let go and let the creativity flow, your brain then has a sense of how to organize it. When we let go we have access to the vast storehouse of the unconscious mind.

I really encourage creative play and practice, free from the expectation that we have to produce something, as a way to opening up to our creative gifts and talents. Learning to let go and create an atmosphere of inner permission, acceptance and allowance can really help us more fully express ourselves creatively.

Now is the time to really let our creativity fly in our own lives and the world.

Finding Inspiration

You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club. - Jack London

Recently a new writing coaching client emailed me to say, "I haven't been writing. I just don't feel inspired." I immediately shot a message back explaining that "You can"t wait for inspiration. If you get nothing else out of our coaching together, this awareness will make a huge difference in your creative life.”

No writer or other artist waits for inspiration before showing up. Painter Chuck Close said, "inspiration is for amateurs - the rest of us just show up and get to work." Flannery O'Connor, the noted Southern writer, described her habit of going to her office everyday from 8am to noon, “she wasn't sure if anything was going to happen but she wanted to be there if it did.” 

Most writers just start writing and find inspiration along the way. John Steinbeck would always end one day's writing in the middle of the page, so he could pick up the thread the next day. He insisted that "In writing, habit seems to be a much stronger force than either willpower or inspiration.”

Research in the neuroscience of the brain shows that creativity is activated when we are in the brain wave states of alpha and theta which are associated with meditation, intuition and information beyond our conscious awareness. This is why a writer often needs to write a page of what feels uninspired in order slow the mind down and hit the zone. 

This is true of all acts of creativity. We have to show up and begin to play with the process to access the place of inspiration. The more we commit to our creativity through our intentions and actions the more our creativity flows and the more juiced, excited and inspired we feel.

Now more than ever we need to play with our creativity in whatever way that calls to us and see where it leads. Even small creative acts can help lift our spirits and energy as we face the many challenges we see in our world. Exercising our creative muscles can open us to new possibilities and inspiration.

Creativity is Critical to Our Well Being

Expressing our creativity is as vital to our well being as a healthy diet, exercise, fresh air and sunlight, and a good night’s sleep. At this point in our history, embracing our creativity is also essential to the well being of our world.

Just as deep conscious breathing infuses our body to healing energy, when we are creative there is a vital life force energy that moves through us that enlivens our body and spirit. The word inspire, meaning to breath in or inhale, originally referred to taking in spirit or divine truth. When we are inspired to be creative we connect to a source greater than our everyday self, we feel expanded and present in the moment. When we repress our creative urges It actually hurts.

The good news is that all of us are already much more creative than we think. We know that it feels good and uplifting to play with our creative ideas and impulses. The idea that we are not creative, is simply a story we bought into somewhere along the way, often from our schools and society at large as well as the people close to us who didn’t consider themselves creative.

To embrace our creative self we need to let go of what we think creativity is. We need to be willing to let go of control and let the flow carry us. There are infinite ways to be creative. Make something, dance more, doodle, play with an idea or project without attachment to outcome, question everything. Ask “hey can this be done a different way” or “what else is possible here”.

Getting creative with how we ask questions can expand our possibilities. Rather than asking how do we fix climate change, ask how do we live in harmony with the earth or how do we bring more love into the world. Expanded questions invite creative solutions.

When we feel our spirit inviting us to be more creative we have to be careful that we don’t let our mind talk us out of acting on the ideas and intuitions we receive. Living from our minds has us on autopilot drawing only on what we know from the past. To embrace our creativity we need to be willing to understand less and play and intuit more.

What if the challenges we face in our live and the world today are an invitation to be more creative. To allow this medicine for our heart and soul to feed our overall sense of well being and creative positive change in our worlds.

Creating a Whole New World

The day will come when after harnessing the ether, the winds, the tides, gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And on that day for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire. - Teilhard de Chardin

I know most of us are feeling wobbly with all the changes and challenges in our world. Some of us have lost loved ones. Some of us have lost our livelihood. Now in the U.S. we add serious social unrest to the mix. All of have lost our relationship to the world as we once knew it. Many of us intuit that there is no going back to the old ways, the old normal.

As unsettling as the chaos in our personal lives and the world can be, what if the unraveling of the old offers us an opportunity to create a new world. One that works for all. A world where everyone’s basic needs are taken care of and we take care of the earth in the process. Critical to this shift is the need to move from our heads to our hearts. 

In the words of Doc Childre at the Institute of Heartmath, Our minds may be different based on beliefs, upbringing and life situations, but our hearts can find harmony with each other in a shared existence . . . It’s in the heart that we access the core qualities of love, compassion, care, kindness, forgiveness and appreciation that lift us above separation, judgment and blame. What if we can create a new normal out of this feeling that elevate us to who we really are at our core.

Many of us have felt more heart centered as the need to stay at home has brought us back to the basics. We have spent more time on an inner reflection as well as appreciating and caring for our friends, families and neighbors in new ways. We have discovered that we can be happy with less. I find deep satisfaction watching birds out the window as I play with writing a poem. We are being invited to travel light, help each other and find joy in small pleasures. How creative can we get with all this.

In this time of crisis where the challenges seem staggering, creative expression is more important than ever. Creative activities help us process what all the change mean to us, our society and our future. Getting creative can help us envision what a better world could look like and provide the creative solutions that can get us there. Engaging our creative gifts connects us to the new level of thinking that allows us to open new possibilities for our lives and the world. Being creative brings us into the present moment and helps to open our hearts. Each of us has gifts the world needs now. How can you open and express yours