Friction: The Abrasive Nature of Creativity

Einstein said; “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” I’ve never heard anybody say that they were seeking imagination yet we all seek knowledge in the form of information. We want to appear knowledgeable in our field of study. We want to be well-informed before making a decision; to have a sense of knowingness so as to mitigate risk, and therefore to avoid harm. And what is this harm we are so intent on trying to avoid? Is it the severe mental, and therefore physical, discomfort from being pulled out of the familiarity of what we know to the point of feeling overwhelmed. Panic, anxiety, and depression are the trinity of anti-change. They are the indicators that we are onto something; that we’ve tapped into a vein of significant meaning. Nothing new can be created from the familiar. We all seek a sense of contentment that seems so coveted yet elusive. It is from imagination that newness is born. Yet, it is in taking action that change is made manifest. And here is where life happens, or doesn’t. 

The radical act of creativity is not so much a bringing forth, but rather a destructive force that tears down everything we thought we knew so that something new can emerge from the remnants. The friction and tension that must take place within an individual to break free of the familiar is a staggeringly uncomfortable process of transition and transformation. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 300 million people worldwide suffer from depression, and that it is the world’s leading cause of disability. And, what is disability? Dis-ability. To shun the ability to take action. The internalized fear of change. To turn inward and remain stuck in the recurrence of self, with the knowledge that we’ve become paralyzed in the shame of not taking action to move in the direction of creation by letting go of the known and familiar. Let’s face it; change is scary. It is the re-creation of self, and the dismantling of that which we’d known ourselves to be. Then there is the shame born of the self-judgement of the disability, which only adds a further hinderance. 

One in thirteen people, worldwide (7.3%), suffers from anxiety, with the highest rates in the U.S. at 40 million people (18.1%). Can we agree that anxiety is a prolonged state of panic that can lead to depression and the inability to act? And that inability to act is the disconnect between our imagination envisioning a state of creation from where we are capable of becoming, and the falling back into the routine of the familiar. This state of impotence is where depression lies. So in the end, risk-avoidance offers a guaranteed pain in the suffering that comes with self-judgement, as opposed to boldly leaning in the direction of change. Hellen Keller said that “Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.” The friction that is inherent in the abrasive nature of creativity is the husk being torn from the corn. If we want to eat we must get under the skin.

What Do You Think?

We often become overwhelmed as we try to figure things out. It's not uncommon for life to hand each of us a challenge from time to time, and sometimes those challenges seem to be more than we can handle. Especially when we are tasked with making decisions that seem so monumental, and provide no guarantee of outcome, that our emotions cloud our ability to assess the situation clearly. Like many other times in our life, when asking for other's advice or opinions, we will ask them the same question that they will ask us: "What do you think?"

Let's step back a moment and acknowledge the inherent misconception of attention here. The question itself directs us away from where the answer we seek resides. This question is more appropriate for us to ask of others than for others to ask of us, which is where the lapse of awareness lies. The only answer that others actually can give us is to tell us what they think of our situation - and when they tell us what they think we should do, what they are telling us is what they would do; and even more correct is to say that they are telling us what they'd like to think they'd do if they were in our situation, based on who they think they are, not being in our situation. It's easy to get lost in the gap between who we are (if we wish to define who we are by what we choose), and who we'd like to think we are.

The more accurate acknowledgement would be to ask ourselves, or for others to ask us: What do you feel? And herein lies the conundrum; everybody else can tell us what they think we should do, or what they think they would do, but it is only us, and we, ourselves, alone, who feel the multitudes and layers of our conscious and un/subconscious thoughts which register as emotions and sensations in our body. The entirety of our existence is holographically imprinted in each of our cells and the most liberating, and terrifying, realization is that nobody else has our answer. So, that is in itself an excrutiatingly beautiful solitude. We are invited to put down the worry and asking-of-others so that we can relinquish ourselves into the personal space of solitude where the answers we seek are waiting to be found. It is a sobering realization that although we can often find resonance in the opinions of others when they reflect back to us what we already know but do not yet see, it is when we come to a place where we can, even briefly, recognize and acknowledge the divine moment of stillness within ourselves that we can invest our faith in the answers we find, with knowledge that the stillness within us resides in a timeless place which we are blessed enough to access and have pass through us, like a radio station signal picked up by the antenna of ourselves. The station is always broadcasting if we will only tune in.

One Breath Away...

It's easy to become overwhelmed with the voices of the many. A person can devote a lifetime to seeking an answer that comes from anywhere but within. Granted, it is an acknowledgement that resonates when we hear without what we recognize within, yet in seeking that mirror to reflect back what has been clouded out by our own disengagement from self, we seek workshops, therapy, lectures, books, classes, blogs, and the opinions of experts, to provide us with that which is quietly known all along. We are all just one breath away from turning the mirror inward to a terrifyingly solitary, yet clarifyingly liberating, place where we can sit calmly in nature, aligned with what we already know, being that if we simply embrace all there is, as it is, in this very moment, that there is nothing more to learn, no more running around to do, no other opinions to seek, and no validation necessary that will see us in the way we just need to see ourselves. We have already arrived if we will just allow ourselves to be here, now. Even for a moment. And that is all there is. This moment.

Although change so often feels like death itself to those of us who resist it, we need not relinquish everything we've been up until now in becoming some new, as-of-yet, not-fully-realized version of ourselves. Rather, who we've been will lay the foundation on which our renewed selves can build and thrive. Faith is the space between what was, what is, and what will be. Even if it all exists simultaneously, it is only where we place our attention and how we choose to breathe that will allow us to let go and truly relax into the now that we always are.

How might we feel if we just slowed down in this very moment, right now? What would happen if, for ten minutes, we just let go of thinking that we had to do anything more than just relax into our own being? Let's close our eyes as we breathe in and out through our nose. Let's simply drop our shoulders, relax our jaw, relax our hands and our toes. Let's soften our eyes. Let's just turn the mirror inward and calmly see what we see. In this lifetime of our existence let's dedicate these next ten minutes to just being still.

Who Are We?

We must always question what we believe so as to become more than who we think we are. This is not a comfortable proposition. We live in a culture where we are taught that we must know who we are if we are to be strong. The question becomes: How do we define who we are? We all have many feelings, thoughts, and emotions. We identify who we think we are mostly by how we feel. Our emotions are so strong that we create not only firm opinions about ourselves, the world, and our place in it, but we then create a personality and identity around those feelings based on beliefs we invest in which we defend at all costs. Our very personhood feels threatened when our beliefs are challenged, and we'll often panic rather than breath into the possibility that what we believe is a choice rather than a fact. More than feelings, thoughts, emotions, and even beliefs, it is worth considering that what defines us the most is actually the actions we take. We can learn a lot about ourselves when we witness how we go about making the decision to take action and, ultimately, it is the action itself that can reveal to us what we believe rather than what we think we believe, or what we'd like to think we believe. What would happen if we removed judgement from both the process and the outcome? Who are we when we are not being who we think we should be based on who we think we've been.

Let's take a moment now and just breathe as we let go of trying to figure out what we should do based on who we think we are. We will end up making whatever choices we eventually make, so the best choice we can make is to be here right now and just breathe into this very moment. That is the key that will unlock the door to ourselves.

Let's close our eyes and sit up comfortably. Breathing in and out through your nose, feel your belly expand and release. Let your jaw relax. Soften your eyes. Relax your scalp. Drop your shoulders. Relax your hands. For five minutes just breath and love yourself enough to be right here, right now. Everything else will take care of itself later if we take care of ourselves now.

Purpose

How can we align purpose with our intentions so that our actions move us forward in the direction of our vision? There is a distinction to be made between activity and action. Activity will endlessly fill time yet not necessarily lead us in the direction of making manifest the desired vision we hold which would bring us closer to the engaged sense of contentment we seek. Activity is action without intent. For the sake of efficiency and personal success, how can we identify the distinction between keeping busy, and moving the needle closer towards the life we want to live? If we can future-vision ourselves already living the life we want to live, then we can reverse engineer the steps that lead us there. With each choice we make we are either moving in the direction of our dreams or we are not. Movement is always happening, and it is our choice in which direction it takes place. When we are anxious or concerned that we are not where we should be we tend to make choices based in fear and comparison. What would happen if we calmed ourselves by turning inward towards our imagination and breath as we envisioned where we want our choices to lead us? If we can take a moment to infuse our actions with intention we will rediscover that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

Let's sit up straight and close our eyes as we spend five minute relaxing into our breathing while we envision how we wish to feel in the life we want to live. Let's experience that future feeling now so we will recognize it when we arrive there later. And in so doing, we will make the later now. Let's become familiar with who we already are instead of waiting another moment to become ourselves. We are who we are later, now. Just ask the acorn!

That Feeling. Yes; that One!

What is that feeling you are trying to ignore? You know. That uncomfortable one. The one that is nagging and pulling at your sleeve (trying to get your attention while you turn your gaze to everything else); everything else that feels familiar, and easier, and certain. Do you find yourself keeping busy running around from one thing, and person, and situation, to the next? Isn't it in those in-between moments when that uncomfortable sense of questioning starts to arise? It seems that we will do anything to avoid being uncomfortable, yet when we try to escape, in whatever ways we do, we find that uncomfortable feeling lurking in the background, laying dormant, and starting to creep back to the surface after the honeymoon period of newness starts to diminish. A question worth asking is: Are our feelings dependent on our outer circumstances? What would be the honest answer if we asked ourselves if we would feel the same way we do no matter where we were? We all seem to want to be happy all of the time, yet the expectation of that is exactly what keeps us from experiencing being content. Contentment is about embracing where we are and what we feel. We may think we are seeking the outer validation that often comes from achievement, but aren't we more fulfilled with the contentment that comes from an inner sense of purpose? If we can calm ourselves down right here where we sit, perhaps the very feeling that demands our attention, like a child needing its parent's acknowledgement, is asking us to follow its calling into the revelation of the present moment.

Let's sit up straight right now. Breathe in through your nose for a count of three. Take a moment to feel your lungs filled to capacity. Now breathe out for a count of six. Let’s close our eyes and spend a minute doing this together while we make friends with what has been that uncomfortable feeling which we've tried to ignore. What would happen if we welcomed that feeling into our home with the same embrace that we would give those we love. Let's see...

I.O.I.

Intention. Optimism. Integrity. This trinity is the foundation by which the best of our visions become manifest. Before investing in any thoughts, uttering any words, or starting any endeavor, we would do well to ask ourselves if each of these aspects is aligned within us and with each other. The very awareness of the relationship we have with these aspects of our being is success inherent, and whatever goal we set for ourselves is sure to be obtained if this is how we set sail. Even if the winds shift, and unforeseen elements come into play, the fact that the port from which we set forth was built upon the I.O.I. foundation assures that every leg of our journey is worth the discoveries we find along the way. The goal becomes less of a destination and more of a signpost that marks the passage and arc of our quest, having passed through each way station on our adventure that was a destination in its own right, imbued with presence and authenticity. Each moment is a teacher if we are good students who are paying attention to where we are instead of where we are going. What vision do you hold that gives you passion and fulfillment? What journey are you willing to take that is worthy regardless of when and if you ever reach a final destination? What life do you envision for yourself that would make the experience of I.O.I. not only necessary, but natural? The journey is who you are, and our intention, optimism, and integrity are the winds by which we fill our sails. Let's begin...

Here Nor There

As we observe the world right now there seems to be an elevated level of stress based on people feeling that the new normal isn't exactly...normal. We fear being out of control, and react with worry, and even physical pain, based on our need to define ourselves and our situation while we obsess over an outcome that we can't predict. We wonder if what we are experiencing is temporary, or if we've wandered into some unknown land from which we may never find our bearings or our way home. When we shift out of the comfort zone where we had created a familiar identity, two things happen: we scramble to try to get back to what we know, like a swimmer caught in the currents of a rushing river who struggles to grab onto a solid landing on the shore, or we project into the future some upcoming time when things will 'settle down' into a better version that, in retrospect, will have been worth the elapsed sacrifice to our peace. We cling so hard to needing to define who we are within a narrative we understand, that we often lose sight of surrendering ourselves into the process of life, and thereby limit our potential opportunities. Who are we when we are in the midst of transitions, not yet having arrived where life is leading us, but no longer in the busy habits and routines that we had taken for granted before they were suspended due to unforeseen circumstances? Who are we when we are not the we we had come to know? What would happen if we practiced sitting still with everything exactly as it is today, right now, in the perfect, present moment. Let's close our eyes and sit up straight. Take a deep breath in through your nose, and let it out through your mouth. Let's do that for a minute. Now, let's close our mouth and allow our breathing to take on its own pace and rhythm.

How does it feel to just sit still in this moment and let ourselves experience what it's like to not have to fix anything? Just surrendering into being in this moment, with nothing to do, nothing to accomplish, nothing to prove, nowhere to be? Just right here, right now.
Let's find out...

Response-Ability

We seem to take our life-philosophy for granted when things are going well. It is only when life challenges us in ways that force us out of our comfort zone that we have a chance to experience the difference between what we think we believe, and how we really feel. Isn't how we feel a habitual series of emotional reactions from which we create the narrative and memories on which we base our identity? True choice seems to come from our ability to take responsibility from a place of creation, as opposed to defending our survival from a habitual state of reaction.

Responsibility. Our ability to respond. Response-Ability: A cultivated, creative force within us that grants us access to take action beyond the limits of previous definitions of our personality. Isn’t our personality just the narrative we've created based on our past experiences, as opposed to taking responsibility for who we choose to become?

Where in your life do you feel challenged at the moment, and how can you take responsibility for responding in a creative way which is not limited by who you used to think you were? True growth, freedom, and transformation are born beyond the box of our self-definition. All options are available, including the ones we’ve never considered choosing before. For fun, why don’t we identify one area of our life where we can choose to break the habit of reaction. Let's take a deep breath right now and consider taking the risk of putting down our fear so that we can find out what might happen if we took an approach we have never allowed ourselves to take before. As an experiment, let’s try that. Ready...go!

Expectations

Isn’t the only question, really, ‘How do I choose to feel in this very moment?’ 

It seems that it takes some more questions to explore an answer to that: 

Let's consider that fear is our loudest invitation to love. When we're scared, why do we think that suffering with worry and anxiety are our best answers to alleviate our underlying terror of being out of control? What would happen if we breathed into the not-knowing? Who are we when we let go, for a moment, of all the judgement and energy that it takes to constantly live up to who we think we’re supposed to be to ourselves and others? How would it feel to be less attached to the narrative of who you think you are? Let's take a breath right now and let go of who we think we're supposed to be. All we need to do is tune into this present moment, and the rest will just fall away on its own. It's really that simple. The rest of it will be there to pick up again, if we so choose, so why not put it down for a moment. Really, what do we have to lose, except the illusion that we are in control of everything? Let's luxuriate in the relaxation of this present moment. Just because we can choose to, if we want. So let's...

What if?...

Are you more attached to an outcome, or how you plan to get there? Is the process of getting there an excruciating obstacle or is it an intriguing journey? Are you allowing yourself to be happy now where you are or do you think that your ability to relax and enjoy your present moment is on hold, awaiting for your outer circumstance to look the way you think it should before you can let yourself relax? What would it take to luxuriate in where you are right now, in this very moment, as we surrender to the thought that there is no place else to be even if we wanted to? Let's consider that the best way to achieve everything that we think we want is to be right here, right now, in the potency of this very moment. Let's sit still and sink deeper into a state of relaxation for just three breaths, as we temporarily suspend our belief that there is something more we can do in this moment that would bring us any closer to where we want to be. Let's close our eyes and just take three deep breaths in through our nose and out through our mouth and spend 30 seconds just sitting still. Let's see what happens. Ready...relax.

Wow. I heard the crickets at night, and felt my heart beating in my chest. I noticed all the nuances of this present moment that we often take for granted and barrel over. How did it feel to pay attention to being present where you are? Consider that you have the choice in any moment to shift your attention, and by doing so can notice how your outer world can reflect your chosen inner state of being. What would happen if we took one minute each day to do this? What do we have to lose by finding out? Who would we be if for one minute each day we didn't define ourselves by what we were supposedly accomplishing. What if?...

Later Is Now

What is it that you are waiting for? You know; that thing you want; that life you want yours to look like. The life that you'll get to. Later. When is later? Is waiting for that opportune time moving you any closer to it? How does it feel to wait? Where in your body does that feeling register? What if you were to take a breath right now, in this moment, and joyfully feel what it would be like to have the life you want as if it is already yours? Don't we try on clothes to see how they fit and how they feel before we buy them? What if, just for a moment, we put down any fear or doubt, and just take three breaths being in this present moment imagining and inhabiting what it feels like to already have the life we want to live? What do we have to lose by trying that? Anything, really? So, why not? Okay. Let's pause right now and just sit up straight and close our eyes and relax as deeply as we can - take a deep breath in and sigh as we drop our shoulders; relax your jaw. For just three breaths let's imagine and experience how it feels to have the life we want, and to be the person we want to be; the person whose needs are all met. Let's begin...

How did that feel? I can say that I just felt totally at ease, and confident, and at peace, and experienced a calm inner-smile, like I had arrived home within myself. What would happen if we practiced this daily until we were inspired to take action? Let's talk about taking action soon. For now, let's experience how it feels to already be where we later see ourselves. Because, really, later is now, if we allow it to be. Let's start allowing it.

Change

How does change feel to you? Where in your body does that feeling live? Is there a difference between your desire for change, and the actual experience of being in the midst of it?

How we experience change is a very clear window into how we really feel about life and our movement through it. Of course, there is the change we proactively choose, and the unexpected change that seems to happen 'to' (for) us. It is the latter that is the great reveal regarding our character and sense of self within our worldview. It speaks to our feeling out of control and the vulnerability that comes with that. Do we see ourselves as a victim of circumstance or do we see ourselves as having the opportunity to grow and respond in a way that grants us the potential to lean in the direction of our better and best selves? Before we can let go into what we may become we need to let go of who we thought we were. And really, wasn't what we were just something that we had become after having let go of something else before that? So we've done it all before. The picture changes but the core of our being, who continues to grow and evolve, remains constant. We've totally got this! 

Take a breath and enjoy surrendering to all the possibilities that life has in store. Choice is the action of remaining open to all the potential of what we may become. And happiness and peace are the byproducts and birthright of all on that path. Let's begin now...

Facing Fear

Our bodies know the truth. And the truth is that no body likes feeling uncomfortable or tense or stressed. What even is stress? Isn't it that sensation of tension that is so overwhelming that we try to ignore it, but by attempting to do so seem to lock in, even more deeply, that very sensation that we are trying to alleviate, allowing it to become worse and heightened? What is the fear that keeps us from stopping and facing our stress. And isn't the sensation of stress born of the thought of fear, itself? So, rather than asking ourselves what it is that we are afraid of  - oh, you know: loss, lack, abandonment, isolation, death - isn't it more prudent to ask ourselves what actually is Fear? Is it possible that the answer to that question is that fear is the thought that reality will turn out in a way that is beyond our control, for which we believe we are incapable of handling? What would happen if we took a deep breath - like, right now, for instance - and considered the possibility that if we truly let go of our attachment to outcome, and surrendered to the belief that, regardless of how any situation develops, we possess, within us,

the capacity to allow an innate intelligence to flow through us that can aptly atune itself to any situation and move through any circumstance with impeccable grace and fortitude. Who would we be if we stopped trying to define who we are?

Actions

Actions define our intentions. As with the body, whose ailments can be described as the loudest request for attention for that which is not fully attuned to the harmonious flow of our integrated thoughts and philosophies, action is what separates living from the seeds of imagination. All actions start as an impulse. It can be said that thought precedes action, but what, if anything, proceeds thought? Without speculating on a spiritual realm of origination, we can, at the very least, perhaps, agree that we all experience emotional rumblings of discontent within our bodies which inspire us to seek relief of the symptoms of discomfort by actions that are often not fully equipped to be inherently well-positioned to actually alleviate us of our suffering. Intent can only come into focus when we squarely face the very source of our discomfort, as it becomes ever more clear, through our collective experience, that action without intention does not grant relief, and it certainly does not invite the transformational opportunities that inherently contain the capacity to carry us through to the other side of our suffering, where we can utilize that energy as momentum that could not only reinstate equilibrium, but can also offer us the capacity to transform our angst into joy. Joy. It is only with the freedom of Joy that fear based on lack of clarity can energetically fill space with all potentiality to be free from the habit of our past selves, so as to move forth with abundance and creative potential for all things that serve our best self. The pain or confusion

you may be feeling is actually an invitation to turn and face the very obstacle that is waiting to be your vehicle towards transformation.

Breathe, turn, and face what seems to be in your way, and your wall will become your path through itself.

The In-Between

What is that moment before the intake of the next breath and, also, before the release of the one just taken? The thing the empty and the full have in common seems to be the extreme moment of faith. That empty space where the cycle pauses and we assume that it will regain its momentum. Like when we go to sleep at night assuming we will naturally wake up in the morning. So far we've always been correct. There is only one inevitable time when we will be incorrect in that assumption. That space where the identification with identity breaks down. The dreamtime where the boundary between what we think we are and what we are blurs. Those micro-moments of eternity where we are neither here nor there. The in-between. Where are we then? Who are we then? What is then? Isn't it exactly in those moments where all potentiality lies? Where the mystery resides? Isn't that where anything is possible? Where we forget; and by forgetting open ourselves up to remembering something more than who we thought we were. Isn't it percisely in those moments where we must embrace the unknown if we have any chance to grow beyond the boundaries that we had called ourselves? That is where conception lies. Where birth begins. At the still-point between the empty and the full. Who are we there?

Torn

What is it to be torn? Torn. The space created, uncomfortably implied, by the force of tension between what we want and what is. The first thing to tear is the communication. The communication with self. Perhaps it is first, only after the tear of the ego thinking the mind knows better than the body. And there's the irony, no? That we sometimes believe that the body isn't as blatantly honest as it is. That we can bend it to the will of our ego. The body is resilient. We are resilient creatures. We can, and do, find our way through. Sometimes under, or over, or around. But in the end, always through. It is that tear, that is the crack, perhaps, that Leonard Cohen sings about--and yes, still sings--even now. Forever singing--"There is a crack, a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in." The tearing is the veil torn away from the habit of ourselves. The habit of perception. The habit of identifying with perception based on who we used to think we were until, there is a tear, a crack, from the tension between looking back and moving forward. It is that moment when the bridge can come apart and we tumble into the cravasse of the present moment. Forced to choose by not having chosen. There is no way through, but through. And where else is there to be, anyway. To be ever moving through. To become the action of leaning into what is becoming without knowing what it is. Might it feel liberating to just take a breath and let go into the present moment, since that is ultimately our destiny, anyway? Is there any place else to be, really? Didn't we try? Isn't that how we became torn?

To be torn is ultimately disarming. And the vulnerability of faith can be a liberating place to reside. Even the journey of attempting to mindfully reside there by trecherous and constant remodulation of attention and perspective is a liberating journey. The journey becomes the destination. And the destination is now. Breathe into it. Surrender. Relax. Let go...