How is consciousness expanded? How do we become something more tomorrow than we are today? How do we tap into feelings, thoughts, inspirations, and dreams that previously were unavailable to us?
Every once in a while a book comes along that quietly points the way to a new understanding, opens a door that was previously closed. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron has been around for awhile but it still holds its own. (check it out) This is not a “how to” book, but a book about being, about trusting your inner voice. It is not about being a painter or a sculptor, but about finding the artist inside, that is, connecting with that energy that is pure creativity. When we learn how to listen to our own voice, the process of becoming our own person begins and we move toward the things we love to do and that make us feel whole.
No matter what your age or life path -- whether you are thinking career, hobby or dream -- it is never too late, or too selfish, or too egotistical to work on your creativity. Each one of us is like a DNA print -- unique -- and when we are doing what we are meant to do we are in the “flow” and our life has meaning.
Being in the flow is effortless. It’s when we forget time. Sometimes in sports, often in sex -- there is a sense of timelessness. We are totally at one with what we are doing, completely at ease in the moment. This is when true creativity comes. It just flows. It is the opposite of effort. Effort is self-conscious, manipulative, forcing our will. When we are in touch with our creativity, things just work.
In “The Artist’s Way," Cameron talks about a spiritual path to higher creativity, the creative discovery and recovery process. Sometimes she uses the word God. What she is talking about here is creative energy -- Mind, Universe, Higher Power, Infinite Source -- it does not matter what we call it. What does matter is that we acknowledge that a form of spiritual energy exists. We may not know how electricity works but we use it. We know it’s out there and available to us -- that’s all we need to know.
Now if this power, this source of creative energy, is available to us all, why aren’t we all functioning at the height of our creativity and doing what we love?
Living a life is synonymous with dealing with the creative blocks -- and we all are blocked to a greater or lesser degree. “The Artist’s Way” confronts these roadblocks by teaching us to accept life as a process and that process as an adventure that takes us deeper and deeper into our true selves. We need to be brave enough to go there. The ever-changing universe will continue to unfold in fits and starts. Rather than lament the inevitable, we should delight in a source that continually reveals new and challenging aspects of ourselves.
The process is not for the faint-hearted. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to follow your dream and make it real. (To be continued)
Comments