My creative ability
In this context, the term “creative” doesn’t refer to being an artist in the traditional sense. We are all engaged in the process of creating our lives at all times, and that’s the meaning for creativity here. My life is my own unique creation, constantly evolving with each response I choose and decision I make. Regardless of what it’s been or is now, the possibilities for what it can become are limitless. I am always capable of creating something completely new and different. Every person is creative by nature but few of us are aware of our potential, let alone fulfilling it.
We’re too busy chasing distractions for creativity to blossom.
Gone are the days where childhood was spent outside immersed in nature and imaginary play. Children are often just as over-scheduled and overstimulated as adults.
When we feel busy, overwhelmed, over-scheduled, and consequently stressed, our bodies react by producing increased levels of cortisol and adrenaline, preparing us for fight or flight: a biological condition that actually shuts down the creative parts of the brain.
When my body is reacting to the world by preparing itself to fight for survival, my only conscious thoughts are about finding an exit strategy and getting out “alive”.
Most of us are too busy and overwhelmed with life’s pandemonium to find time to keep up with emails and healthy self-care, much less find creative time to day-dream and ponder.
Creativity demands downtime, time to simply think, contemplate, and daydream.
Science shows that being bored actually increases creativity. Einstein instinctively knew this, spending hours floating in his sailboat, contemplating the wonders of the cosmos and integrating his brilliant ideas that revolutionized our understanding of the ways in which the world works.
In order to be more creative, we need down time, time to stop and get off the perpetual motion machine and to wait for the epiphanies – the “downloads” from our Muse – and the right timing to share what we’ve discovered.
“Right Timing” (aka Divine Timing) is not about testing, punishment, or withholding – they’re synonyms for BEST timing, as in what is best for ME. Roast chicken is delicious and sustaining when it’s ready to eat, but if I remove it from the oven and eat it while it’s still raw, it’ll make me sick instead of giving nourishment. Right Timing guides me to satisfaction and fulfillment, which is why I have my own inner ability to know it – as long as I maintain the connection with myself and my body that allows me to feel it. Waiting helps me cultivate that ability.
When people first learn about their circuitry design, the most common questions they have about their Strategy is about waiting. Why do they have to wait? How long? What will they do while they wait?
All Types have to wait to a certain degree.
Projectors have to wait for the right invitation and recognition. Reflectors have a rich and practiced relationship with waiting and experiencing the energy around them. Initiators have to wait for inner timing. Alchemists and Time Benders have to wait for their “gut” (Intuitive) response. I’ll learn more about this in my Strategy section, but I can start noticing and developing my responses any time: Using My Intuitive Center.
We wait because it’s a vital part of remembering who we are.
I am the same pure and perfect soul expression who was born into this life, an eternal divine spark living in a human story. My every breath is sacred. Conditioning makes us forget who we are and how we are designed to engage with the world. Waiting helps me reconnect with the learning curriculum (life) my soul planned so I can better serve the world at my highest level. (Even if I’m not certain this is true, part of doing this experiment is to invite the universe to prove to me that it’s true and to be open to seeing the evidence that presents itself).
Sometimes we think that spirituality is a separate part of our lives, something that is somewhat intangible and reserved for retreats or quiet moments spent in meditation and deep contemplation. We forget that the entirety of our lives – all the rich, complex, and juicy parts as well as the boring and mundane aspects – are all “spiritual”.
I am a permanent soul experiencing consciousness expressing through a temporary human story.
Every part of my human story is vital and spiritual. Doing laundry is no less spiritual than meditating and watching the sunrise.
The entirety of my human story is a cosmic gift. Deliberately steering my life and crafting the narrative of my life, in partnership with the universe, is the purpose of my life. That partnership may or may not involve dramatic spiritual events such as the visitation of an angel or a kundalini experience, but it will definitely involve exactly the events that I need.
The experience of the “rightness” of my unique life story is in the sensual alignment with what feels good, correct, and aligned. When I’m living the true expression of my authentic self, I experience a wave of joy, harmony, and sweetness. Subtle as it is at times, it lets me know I’m headed in my “right” direction – towards whatever it is I need to experience next in fulfillment of the narrative that is my unique story and part of my personal cosmic journey. This is the purpose of waiting.
Waiting is essential for the de-conditioning process.
Our conditioning around “doing” is so powerful that waiting seems like torture and a direct antithesis to getting things done in the world. There is fear and tension around the idea of waiting. How long? What if nothing happens? What if I “miss the boat”? Where will the money come from? How will anything in my life happen?
The root of this worry is really about our self-worth and the artificial value that society confers upon us when we’re busy. Who am I if I’m not “doing”? And what is my value in the world if I’m not busy “doing” something? The very real and tangible benefit of waiting is that it gives us time to heal our self-worth, to divorce our value from our “doing”, and to remember that we are inherently valuable simply by virtue of our existence. We wait so we can remember who we are and to find the path back to our irreplaceable and vital role in the cosmic plan that only we can play.
The second root of this worry is really about learning to trust the universe – the limitless Source of everything that exists. It’s hard to wait – even terrifying to wait – if I don’t trust that I’m fully supported by the universe.
But waiting bears tremendous fruit if I sink into it and allow it.
For farmers, the growing season of the year is a time of enormous tension and waiting. The plants are unfolding and blossoming, and there are baby fruits emerging on the vines and in between the leaves. Farmers are eager and anticipating the harvest, but there’s work to be done in the meantime. They have to protect the plants from pests, make sure the plants get enough moisture but not moldy from overwatering, train the vines to grow in the right direction, and tie up the tomatoes and eggplants so that the weight of their bounty doesn’t cause them to topple over and break off.
Waiting is a gift.
It helps me prepare. It allows me to evaluate my narrative and decondition it, to look at my old “stories” and assess whether I want to continue using these old words to define me or whether it’s time for an upgrade, time for a new story that creates a stronger, more aligned template for what I want to bring into the world as the full expression of my potential.
Waiting also affords me time to heal my body.
When we push too hard, too fast, too much in the wrong direction, using our vital energy to hold up masks and maintain facades that demonstrate to the world who we think we “should” be in order to be loved, valued, or successful, we burn ourselves out.
We use our life force energy to try to be someone we’re not, saying “yes’ when we want to say “no”, denying our connection to life’s intelligence trying to express itself through us. We burn out and we can’t connect to the energy necessary to implement our creative ideas.
Having a lifetime of being told it’s not okay to be who I am or how I am, even if the advice I’ve received about “fitting in” and “being successful” was well-intended, my body and spirit experience it as trauma. Any event, experience, or perception that has caused me to lose connection to my value and my right place in the world is traumatic to some degree.
The trauma of a lifetime of being told I can’t be who I am and that who I am and how I am is somehow “wrong” keeps my body in a constant state of adrenalized preparation for a fight for survival. I react to life as a result of the adrenaline and cortisol “high”. I lose my ability to create consciously, deliberately, and in alignment with my true potential, failing to activate the beauty of the human story I was born into.
Lastly, the process of waiting and coming into alignment with the cosmic pause that our designs invite us to embrace makes us more receptive to life’s intelligence reconnecting us to our inherent creative essence and positioning us to activate elegant solutions to challenges for ourselves and our community.
Waiting invites me to reclaim my natural inventiveness.
Actively scheduling time to think, reflect, and experiment into my days, putting reasonable boundaries on my use of passive tech, varying my routine and my company, getting out for more long walks, resting, regenerating, playing – all these things serve to help me connect more deeply with my innate creativity.
The next time I wrestle with waiting, I can choose to think of it as a gift from the universe, an invitation to allow for more, to awaken more deeply, nurture myself, and deepen my relationship with my inner voice and inspiration. Waiting prepares me to take my irreplaceable and vital place in the cosmic plan so that I’m ready to do my unique part of making the world a better, more loving and supportive place to be.
Contemplations:
-
- How much do I trust in Right Timing?
- Do I trust that I am supported?
- What needs to be healed, released, aligned, and/or brought to my awareness for me to relax and trust in Right Timing?
(This question is designed to put out into the universe as a request to be shown answers. It’s a good one to ask before meditating or going to sleep). - Am I ready for what I’m intending?
- What might I need to do to create readiness and to be prepared for what I’m wanting to receive?
- What do I do while I’m waiting? Does this sustain me?
- What needs to be healed, released, aligned and/or brought to my awareness for me to become more patient?
(This question is designed to put out into the universe as a request to be shown answers. It’s a good one to ask before meditating or going to sleep. Tapping on the center of my forehead while I ask the question(s) will help provide a physical signal to myself of my intention to process this while sleeping).
For these and all contemplation questions: Journaling is great to do during this experiment, but I don’t need to worry about figuring out or verbalizing “answers” for these questions. I can think about a question and then write (or just draw/doodle) whatever feelings come up. If journaling doesn’t feel good to me, it’s not necessary. I can talk into a recording app instead. Recording is just to engage areas of the brain that activate during external expression, which doesn’t engage the “looping” that can happen when expression is solely internal.
I can delete the recordings when I’m done expressing, unless I want to reference them later and see how far I’ve come. The same is true for anything written: I can choose whether to discard or keep it according to what feels good to me. External expression about questions is simply a method of healthy processing and self-discovery, not about right or wrong answers or conclusions.
If nothing comes up to express (written or spoken) for a question, I can ask it before I go to sleep and see what comes up in my dreams or when I wake and then express it. I’ll learn more about how to use contemplation questions in other experiment sections.
If I want more insight, I can always request a message from the universe.