Moments of Challenge
Creativity is a hallmark of the human spirit that echoes who we are and who we are becoming. It is also a source of deep personal fulfillment, whether expressed in the arts, science, business, or for personal pleasure. Such creative venture is fueled by our creative passion, the degree to which we seek out and can openly embrace our creativity--in mind, body, and spirit. When we are at our creative best, we experience intense joy, excitement, hope, and satisfaction. At such moments, with or without full awareness we have thoughts that promote our presence and engagement in the creative process. These may reflect optimism, surprise, self-compassion, and realistic expectations about the creative journey. Similarly, while we may experience some degree of tension in our body, it is both manageable and energizing. Positive emotions, non-judgmental thoughts, and positive physicals states interact with each other to help us expand our thinking, embrace the moment, and maintain creative momentum. Taken together, these reactions reflect a positive "mind-body set" that helps us to meet those distinct moments of challenge that arise during the creative process. Such mind-body states further support our creative passion.
In contrast, creative pursuit can also lead to a variety of mind-body states that compete with and inhibit our willingness and capacity to stay engaged in such pursuit. Thus they undermine and reduce our creative passion. With and without full awareness we may experience fear, anxiety, guilt, and even shame. Our thoughts may be predominantly self-critical and self-doubting as we maintain expectations of perfection or unrealistic fantasies about how easy, consistently rewarding, or organized the creative endeavor "should" be. On a physical level, again with and without full awareness, we may experience discomfort in our gut, our breathing, or in our muscles. Unfortunately, these are the distinct moments of challenge that have the greatest potential to make us retreat from creative engagement. When not effectively managed, the tension aroused by such moments leads to self-betrayal and renunciation of living authentically.
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Inhibiting Themes
Such moments of tension are marked not only by the natural tension associated with being creative, but also by the influence of uniquely personal "inhibiting themes". These are tendencies we have internalized based on our past experiences. They are predispositions embedded in our body and mind regarding living authentically and being creative. The major inhibiting themes include the following.
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1. Fear of failure (often masking fear of rejection,
as well as an attempt to avoid feelings of inadequacy
and shame)
2. Fear of success (based on fears of failure,
rejection, abandonment, feeling overwhelmed, guilt,
and shame)
3. Variations of guilt
4. The need to elude shame shamed strivings
5. Fantasies that get in the way of our dreams
(especially those we maintain regarding creativity)
6. Autonomy versus dependency conflicts (that may
undermine self-discipline as well as openness to
learning and flexible thinking)
7. Discomfort with solitude and self-reflection
(whether alone or in a crowd), and
8. Fears of losing one's identity
Recognizing and reducing the impact of these inhibiting themes is a major strategy for managing the tension the surfaces during creative moments of challenge. The following discussion identifies how one strategy can help meet the familiar challenge of initiating creative engagement.
Meeting a Challenge
For many people, both initiating and reengaging in a creative venture are often the most frequently identified moments of challenge in the creative process. Overcoming inertia is the major task of this specific moment of challenge and is essential for sustained creativity. It requires that we experience positive energy in our thoughts, emotions, and in our body, energy that fuels creative passion toward engagement rather than withdrawal. The challenge at such moments is to arouse a mind-body set that is most conducive to creative flow. As such, any strategy that can arouse positive emotions, open and non-judgmental thought, and overall positive physical energy, enhances our capacity to overcome the tension of such moments.
The following exercise offers one approach for effectively managing such.
Exercise: Either imagine yourself taking that initial step in your creative venture or place yourself in a real situation of initial engagement. Sit at the computer if you are writing, behind the camera or looking at your photos if you are a photographer, playing with your musical instrument, or about to offer an idea to your fundraising group. Spend five to ten minutes attending to the task. Immerse yourself in the details of the experience.
Now, shift your focus of attention from the task at hand to your internal reactions. Take time to reflect on and recognize any inhibiting thoughts, emotions, and physical states that you experience during this moment. Do not analyze them. Rather, just observe what you are experiencing. Do any of your thoughts reflect inhibiting themes$%: Do they reveal perfectionism, discomfort with being alone, underlying guilt for feeling self-indulgent, or a feeling of deprivation as you choose to ignore other activities for the moment$%: What sources of physical tension are you experiencing$%:
Now visualize engaging in your creative endeavor while you consciously and assertively identify and focus your attention on what is most rewarding about your activity. Focus your attention on past or anticipated moments that you most associate with the intense satisfaction being creative. Lose yourself in the details of that creative moment. If it is writing, perhaps your satisfaction arises when identifying the one word or phrase that seemed to best capture your idea or concept$%: If you are engaged in creating music, it may involve the physical excitement of hearing the patterns of notes and chords that so acutely resonate with the sounds in your head and the sensations of your body. Perhaps it is the distinct moment when looking through your camera lens, you observe an image that truly echoes the meaning you intend to convey when observing it. Focus on actual positive experiences that you have had, or those that you anticipate will be the most rewarding.
Shift your attention and reflect on your mind-body states that are aroused by such engagement. By purposefully shifting your focus of attention to the most rewarding aspects of the creative engagement, you will form a mind-body set that is more open to and encouraging of creative engagement. By practicing this strategy you will increasingly experience a choice in promoting a more positive mind-body set when beginning the creative venture.
When using this strategy it is also helpful to remind yourself that while you may be focusing your attention on beginning the creative engagement, you are really already engaged. Our creative passion is always residing within us long before we mindfully choose to call upon it when we begin a creative venture. The task in being creative is to effectively manage the tension of those distinct moments of challenge so as to mindfully embrace that passion.
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