As a psychotherapist and small business owner, I need creative energy to do good work. People deserve a therapist who can think outside the box. And because my services won’t be accessible to everyone, it’s important to me that I find ways to contribute to my community beyond direct services. The problem with creativity is, I don’t always have access to it. I’ve been a therapist for a long time now. I know some things! I have lots of ideas for blog articles, therapy groups, and therapeutic workshops – but ideas are just the seeds from which things grow. Yes, there’s quite a bit of labor involved. That can be a stumbling block as well, but having the time and energy to get the work done isn’t a replacement for having the creative energy to do good work.
When I started writing blog articles for my business, I committed to posting once per month. The algorithms suggest I should post at least once each week, but I knew for sure I didn’t have that in me. Even posting once per month can be difficult. Sometimes a seed sprouts and all I have to do is water it. I sit down to write and the words just come out. Other times, I sit with those seeds trying to get them to sprout and the conditions just aren’t right yet. Or… the seed sprouts, but it’s going to be some time before that sprout grows into what it was destined to become. This is where patience and permission come into play.
We’ve all had some experience of flow in our lives. I believe creative flow involves access to our own unconscious minds, and perhaps to some extent the collective unconscious. When my thinking brain gets quiet enough, my unconscious mind can guide me to create what I’m meant to create in this moment. My thinking brain isn’t entirely offline when I’m writing an article, but it does allow enough space for the words and ideas to flow. Or at least, that’s what happens when I have a successful writing experience. Patience and permission go hand in hand for me. I give myself permission to create when my creative energy is available, as well as permission to produce nothing when that creative energy just isn’t there. And I trust that just as that creative energy has been there for me before, it will be there again in the future, exactly when and how it’s supposed to be. It’s this trust that allows me to be patient with my creativity. My thinking brain or conscious mind makes space and gives permission for creativity to flow up from my unconscious, and I trust that the creativity will come when and how it’s meant to come.
I often sit down to write, do a little writing, and then leave it for awhile. When the writing feels too clunky, I know it’s time to stop. Blog seeds get written in a list of possible titles and article ideas. Sprouts are incomplete articles that I may or may not come back to later. I’ve created flyers for groups and workshops that look beautiful, sound great, but it isn’t time for them yet. I give myself permission to play with ideas, and permission to let things go. There’s certainly an extent to which it can be helpful to push ourselves. Quite frankly, I haven’t yet written a single blog article that didn’t feel at least a little clunky to me. I give myself permission to be imperfect and incomplete – a work in progress, changing and growing over time. What I know for sure is that the more I integrate both patience and permission into my creative process, the more natural that creative process becomes.
If you’re having trouble connecting with your creative energy, you may find the following exercise helpful. Choose a piece that you’ve created in the past and ask yourself these questions:
· What life experiences contributed to your inspiration for this piece?
· What was your goal or intention in creating this piece?
· At any point doing your creative process, did you enter a “flow state”? If you did, how did you get there and how did that impact your process?
· What stumbling blocks did you encounter during your process? How did you overcome those blocks?
· Reflecting back now, what have you learned about yourself or anything outside of yourself through this piece?
· How have you or can you apply that in a helpful way moving forward?
I mentioned the importance of creativity when I’m working directly with clients. This, of course, looks different from the role creativity plays when I’m writing or otherwise creating independently. In relationships, our creative energies interact to produce something intangible. The same reflections I may use to connect with creative energy for writing can also be used to connect with creative energy in relationships. If you’re looking to connect with creative energy in your relationships, try applying patience and permission to yourself first and then to the other person. Reflect back on relationship experiences and ask yourself the same questions posed above. What life experiences moved you to interact in the way that you did? What was your goal or intention in that interaction? Trust that you have what you need inside of you, and that the person you’re in relationship with has what they need inside of them too.
Comentários