Expanding, stretching, creating, fulfilling your life, utilizing your talents…living with passion, loving with all your heart, feeling completely integrated as a being…
All truly awesome forces.
And all a part of our innate nature.
Nature is actually our most powerful creative force- outside of us and even with us. Our bodies are brilliant creative machines fueled by energy and inspiration.
But if everything is so open and “create-able” why do a lot of us get stuck with soul-crushing jobs or no jobs (!), relationship problems, unfulfilled dreams, money droughts and even body “stuck-ness” as well?
Have you been itching to create something new, toy with new idea or even expand your career in ways that are unique, perhaps a bit “crazy” seeming in a great way? Are you sure of yourself yet terrified to begin? Are you treading water hoping that one day the starts will align and you will have an opening, a perfect opportunity, to express yourself?
After leading few hundred people through Julia Cameron’s amazing creative-unblocking book The Artist’s Way (and leading myself through it 9 times alone!) there are a few themes that emerge time and again. These are just a few of the very logical and rational reasons we give ourselves to stay small, stuck & blocked from all we know we are supposed to be doing:
This is not practical. I have a real job and I’m not a teenager any more.
This isn’t the way the world works. I just can’t “change” the way things are.
I don’t have time for this.
I am “not that kind of person” who just does things that are artistic.
I’m not talented.
I can’t stay motivated because I have too many demands on me from my real life.
These are all another way of being very rational about fear. The unknown is scary.
FEAR IS AWESOME & IT MEANS YOU NEED TO TAKE AN ACTION.
In his uber-classic book” The War Of Art” Steven Pressfield writes about the fear phenomenon mixed into the glory of creative self-actualization:
“Are you paralyzed with fear? That’s a good sign. Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.”
LOGIC IS ANOTHER WORD FOR LIMITATION.
Logic is a process that relies on what you know to draw conclusions based on what you know. So, you are limited by what is known if you value your logic mind.
You might be insatiably grasping for knowledge to help you make broader “logical” decisions. Still, you are limited.
But… if you can integrate logic with the highly illogical and yet very rational creative impulse… you get Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein… the innovators, the trailblazers, the world-shapers.
Idea for the week: make a picture or a painting or write a story about what your life would be like if you could take the lid off of your creative nature and let it flourish. What does that do for your lifestyle? Love life? Money? Home? Is it logically worth facing fear to get to the other side of a block?
Let me know what you come up with. The willingness to even look at this subject often creates enough of a spark to move forward a bit in this direction…!
This year, I’m dedicating myself to giving you everything under the sun moon and stars of value to break free of blocks and expand your creative life wide as well as deep. A large part of this is a conversation. So email me or leave your thoughts and feelings below! xoxo Dana
Yes. Just yes. This is a huge kick in the pants as I have made it half-way through The Artist’s Way…once. Not to say that this defines my life or anything, but it is certainly an indication for me that there are some things I’m just not dealing with honestly. As for how this relates to feng shui…I am wondering if there are alterations I can make to my living space that will help to release the fear that blocks the creative life, or at least help to bring it into focus in order that it might be dealt with. Thanks for all you do!
Yay! I’m glad to hear that. I’ve made it a bit of the way through that book many more times than I completed it. Honesty is a good word to hear. You have your way in now to find the way through! And this has everything to do with feng shui my way…! Your space is a mirror of your life. Everything needs to be integrated! In fact, the first part of the year will kick off a workshop course I hope to run a few times a year that goes very wide and also very deep into space, creativity, habits, energy & action.
This is so amazing. I am going to buy this book and kick so much creative booty in 2014. Thanks, Dana!
Hi Dana… this workshop – will it be online so someone in Copenhagen, Denmark (like me) can join? I hope 🙂 Thanks for your effort and for giving so much! You are doing what I´m just learning (at age 43 ;)).. serving, every day. You are a rolemodel. Thank you. Helena
Yes its all online! And we are all just learning at every age. I’m so thrilled to hear you are finding things that move you here in new ways!!! xoxoxo Dana
Dana,
I love that you are going to focus on creativity. All things creative nurture your soul, and I love the creative aspects of my work. My challenge is to structure my day so that there is space for creative thought. I am looking forward to being inspired by you!
Maureen Goldman
Maureen, this makes me so happy to hear and I’m thrilled to share everything I can in the year- and many years- to come! We are changing as beings- recognizing more of what we all uniquely have to bring to the world- and now the world is catching up to all our power and valuing that contribution more and more. just about everywhere i look there is creative innovation…. so this will be VERY exciting!!! xoxo