Your Creative Life

Fear of Change

I recently conducted a workshop at my local community college. I had designed and subsequently presented said workshop, titled "What is Getting in the Way of the Life You Want?"

The purpose of the workshop was to take time to notice habits that no longer serve and are causing unnecessary pain. Six participants actually showed up. As did I.

I don't know if the workshop changed lives and I can only hope that the participants came away with something.

What I gained from the experience was what each participant brought. The common thread was that each was experiencing some kind of change in their lives and were looking for some answers about how to negotiate the change and ease the pain.

At 64 years in retrospect the constant has always been change and how to survive it.

Begin Again

   April First seems like a good time to get back to blogging. Once again I've been away and will blame it on marriage and adjustment. We bought a new house and had to sell two houses to make things work. Well, things worked out fine, so now get back to work.

   I'm reminded of meditation practice where I wake up to find myself caught in the story of my life. All I have to do is say, "Oh," and return to the breath. How wonderfully simple.

A North Star

   Thanks to the miracle of the Internet, I was able to take another look at Scott Peck's classic, The Road Less Traveled. (All my books are in storage, as I patiently wait for two houses to sell so we can purchase a newer, better house - typical.) This book was tremendously important to me because it indicated that there is something to spirit and spirituality. In first reading this book, I think this is where I actually began living a Life in Spirit.

   Surprisingly, Peck talks about discipline. For the past 3 years I've been practicing sitting meditation, thanks to Shambhala Training and to the Centerpointe program of Bill Harris. I've come to appreciate the close connection of the Practical and practice. This morning it came to me that a life in spirit also provides direction, as if I have my own North Star.

Beyond My Wildest Dreams

Somebody asked me the other day if I'd played any golf recently. I responded that I hadn't played any this year because romance had gotten in the way. . . And I have the picture to prove it.

Phyllis and I were married on November 6 aboard the Carnival Elation before it set sail for the Bahamas. In attendance were Phyllis's two daughters, son-in-law and granddaughter and my two daughters, two sons-in-law and granddaughter. I think there is something wonderful and remarkable about our two granddaughters being able to see their grandparents getting married.

So, maybe there is something to be said about being in this generation that is experiencing living longer than previous generations.

Be Quiet and Still

Since it's so difficult to be still in this overly stimulated culture of ours, I've chosen to be still as if my life depends on it. A practice and the practical apply.

Here's more from the How to Listen to God pamphlet -

These are the conditions:
- To be quiet and still
- To listen

So, with these basic elements as a background, here are specific
suggestions on how to listen to God:

I . Take Time

Find some place and time where you can be alone, quiet and undisturbed.
Most people have found that the early morning is the best time. Have with
you some paper and pen or pencil.

2. Relax

Sit in a comfortable position. Consciously relax all your muscles. Be
loose. There is no hurry. There needs to be no strain during these minutes.
God cannot get through to us if we are tense and anxious about later
responsibilities.

3. Tune In

Open your heart to God. Either silently or aloud, just say to God in a
natural way that you would like to find His plan for your life-you want
His answer to the problem or situation that you are facing just now. Be
definite and specific in your request.

4. Listen

Just be still, quiet, relaxed and open. Let your mind go "loose." Let God
do the talking. Thoughts, ideas, and impressions will begin to come into
your mind and heart. Be alert and aware and open to every one.

Being Present

BE GRATEFUL TO EVERYONE

Without this world, we cannot attain enlightenment. Without this world,

there would be no journey. By rejecting the world we would be rejecting the

ground and rejecting the path. All our past history and all our neurosis is

related with others in some sense. All our experiences are based on others,

basically. As long as we have a sense of practice, some realization that we

are treading on the path, every one of those little details, which are

seemingly obstacles to us, becomes an essential part of the path. Without

them, we cannot attain anything at all -- we have no feedback, we have

nothing to work with, absolutely nothing to work with. So in a sense all

the things taking place around our world, all the irritations and all the

problems, are crucial.

  From "Point Three: Transformation of Bad Circumstances" in TRAINING THE

MIND AND CULTIVATING LOVING KINDNESS, pages 88-89 by Chogyam Trungpa.

Being present in the world is a good place. We only conjure that it is not.

Don't Be Afraid of Who You Are

With the practice of sitting meditation, I'm able to begin to have some comprehension of this slogan that is presented in Shambhala Training and written by Chogyam Trungpa.

In meditation I'm able to sit and be with my thoughts, observe how they come and go and are replaced by another thought - a constant stream. This is all there is and I don't have to be afraid of who I think I am.

Attitude

What is it that I wish to impart that I've learned over the past couple of months? The first thing that comes to mind is that attitude is everything. My emotional state, my mental attitude, determines how I view and experience life.

If I notice or become aware that my attitude is negative, then I must change it to a positive one for the sake of my sanity, literally. What I find so remarkable is that I can change my attitude. I am not ruled by it, rather I rule it.

One technique I use to change my attitude is to replace any negativity with gratitude. Another one I learned through Shambhala Training. It's called Raising Windhorse. It's similar to, but not the same as gratitude. Try it, you might like it.

Flow and Meditation

   In The Creative Spirit by Goleman, Kaufman and Ray, the authors say that when creativity is in full fire, people can experience what athletes and performers call the white moment. Everything clicks and our skills are so perfectly suited to the challenge that we seem to blend with it. Everything feels harmonious, unified and effortless.

   The white moment is what some psychologists call flow. The one requirement is that our skills so perfectly match the demands of the moment that all self-consciousness disappears.  If our problem-solving skills are not up to the challenges we face, we experience anxiety not flow. When skills and challenge match, then flow is most likely to emerge.

   By emptying ourselves of our smaller, individual mind, and by losing our intense self-consciousness, we are able to tap into this larger, more creative, universal mind.

   This is where meditation and creating meet and why meditation is so practical.

Creativity or Creating

   I was reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Finding Flow when it occurred to me that there seemed to be something missing in the empirical studies he is presenting. He says: "But because almost any activity can produce flow provided the relevant elements are present, it is possible to improve the quality of life by making sure that clear goals, immediate feedback, skills balanced to action opportunities, and the remaining conditions of flow are as much as possible a constant part of everyday life."

   He says further in Creativity that creativity does not happen inside people's heads, but in the interaction between a person's thoughts and a sociocultural context. It is a systemic rather than individual phenomenon.

   As I write this, I get a little bit clearer about the distinction between creativity and creating. Indeed creativity may be a state or condition. Creating is what goes on inside people's heads.

   What I'm trying to say here is that maybe we are awash in energy that is benevolent and our thinking, our discursive thoughts keep us from connecting with this energy. When these habitual patterns of experiencing our consciousness is pierced, we are better able to create.