What does it mean to let go creatively?
How do I show that?
I so agree that talking about it falls short – yet how do I show it? I know I support it… but I can feel there is something more that could happen.
Excellent food for creative fodder – how do we let go in our own processes? I’d love to hear suggestions or stories of how you let go creatively… I want to do it through the body, through dance, through making noise… but that is, of course, only one way.
Retreat time is in full swing – time really is relative. The comments of "We did that just this morning? It feels like it was two years ago" and "How long have we been here?" We are doing council in the morning and after dinner this year, with the morning council being short and more about practices to support the day and the evening council being check-in, how are you, what’s shaking? It worked well yesterday.
Highlights so far (working backwards):
Linking Heart Math to affirmations.
Walk to the cross early this morning to say a prayer for Linda and all our amazing brave writers.
One participant with altitude sickness recovering.
Perfectly crispy bacon.
Magpies.
Making a drawing / painting I really like.
Someone in council last night saying it was one of the best days of her life and she never thought she would be surrounded by people like herself i.e. creative, alive, spiritual out there women.
The nurturing desert.
Life being lived fully.
More tomorrow!
8 responses so far ↓
1 Marilyn Jul 31, 2006
Sometimes dreams can be a gateway to letting go. Because they’re uncensored by our inner critic, they can expand us in new ways…if we listen to them and pay attention to the messages.
2 Mark Silver Jul 31, 2006
I find it useful to remember a teaching from my own tradition of Sufism: “The only power the self has, is the power to obscure the Truth.” What this means is that our own will power doesn’t have the power to ‘let go.’ From our wills, and I’ve found this to be completely true for me and my clients, when I act, I can only block things.
But, I can take the time to be in remembrance, prayer, meditation- connection to the Oneness. And, in that connection, things are ‘lifted’ by grace. I was reading just recently a story where a man died and got to the pearly gates, and St. Peter met him there.
“Okay,” St. Peter says, “Tell me about your life, and you’ll get points for what you did. If you get 100 points, you get into heaven.”
“Great!” says the man. “Well, I stayed faithful to my wife for 50 years, loving her tremendously, and never cheating.”
“That’s wonderful,” said St. Peter. “Two points.”
“Uh,” said the man, somewhat disconcerted, “okay then, I spent 10% of my income on charity. And I prayed faithfully every day. And … and…”
“What wonderful goodness you’ve done. You’re up to about six points.”
“Six points! At this rate, it will only be by the Grace of God that I get into heaven.”
“Exactly.” said St. Peter.
—
I think it’s the same thing. We do things that are very helpful- and then there is an acknowledgement that some things only happen by grace- they are totally outside our conscious control…
3 Laura West Aug 1, 2006
Hi Jennifer,
I have a friend who is taking your workshop. I love your posts about what you all are experiencing. I feel like I’m getting a taste of her experience.
If you get this comment, please give Beverly a hug for me!
4 cindy Aug 1, 2006
letting go creatively, to me, is: creating without expectations, creating without wanting results, creating just for the sake of creating. cindy
5 Dinah~ Aug 1, 2006
HI Jenn and All,
Just wanted to share a little about what has recently worked for me. Of course it’s very simplified and will do my best to be as clear as possible.
I was trying to create the core content of my work to better serve the women I have attracted and to create more passive revenue streams. I have always taught other people’s work and found a very easy time of it.
I have notebooks stacked four feet tall from putting my ideas to paper for many years and knew that my block wasn’t about being ready or having enough.
I kept bumping up against a lot of resistance. My energy would drop, I would get into overwhelm, then there would come the usual – “There’s something wrong with me or my process” thought.
I then would always go looking for some kind of an expert to help me. It NEVER worked. I was at a dead end and feeling very helpless and angry.
After doing some of Mark Silver’s work of going within with some questions, I had some revelations. They were that if this is what working at a business felt like, I wanted no part of it. It just wasn’t worth it no matter how much I knew I could help others.
So I quit working at a business! I gave up that particular orientation to what I was doing because it would always get me into a very serious mood which would block my creativity and flow.
Another insight was that the core reason I wanted to do this from the beginning was because I LOVE to create. I love to create because it is a lot of fun. Spirit want me to have fun and play! I have to REALLY TAKE THAT IN.
After all, I named my business Midlife Fairy Godmother Enterprises ™because I wanted a reminder for why I created the business in the first place.
I have always seen myself creating the content for my workshops etc. in the same way that I create my flower gardens, outdoor sanctuaries, even designing my own home. I saw myself weaving my content together like a tapestry and then using my creative presentation skills to deliver it.
So I asked my Soul after using the Rememberance exercise ~ “What’s the difference for me in designing my content and the rest?” The answer came back ~ “This involves money and other people being interested in it or not while your home etc. is only for you.”
I proceeded to take money totally out of the equation for now and look at others as friends who join in and like my stuff or not. Who comes, comes and who doesn’t doesn’t and that’s that.
Then I wrote out the natural process I go through when I create and applied it to creating the content for “Midlife Magick” ~ my fun new name for my signature program. It seems to be working because I am doing it to satisfy my need to create vs. anything external OR for anyone else AND because I am following my own crazy, fun, magical process for creating and not someone else’s formula on how I’m SUPPOSED to do it.
Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing your most intimate journey with so many.
Daina (Dinah) Pudoziunas
6 Victoria Aug 1, 2006
Jennifer,
Wish I was there to make that walk to the cross. That altitude is a kicker, cuddles to your unwell camper.
Creative letting go, for me usually happens after 10 p.m. in a quiet dark house. I light prayer candles, turn on the computer, strip down to my favorite night shirt, and let my hair and my barriers down.
All the little night creatures come out and we do the Lemur dance.
Vixx
7 Thomsen Young Aug 1, 2006
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P.S. I couldn’t find your email address…so I left a comment
Great site too.
8 denise Aug 2, 2006
letting go creatively does mean dance for me
it means meditation and release
i was thinking about my process of painting the other night
how i’ve listened to inner critics.. and OUTER critics as well
and that has never served me well
when i create… it comes in different forms
words, collage, photographs and paints
each process holds its own unique qualities
i used to beat myself up a GREAT deal for going thur lulls
not painting for 2 weeks.. not writing for a week…
then i realized.. its all interconnected.. one muse slowly feeds the other
without capturing myself or others with a camera
my paints wouldn’t look the same
without interacting with people.. my words would be empty
without writing.. my collaging wouldn’t speak so loudly
it all works hand in hand and treating myself gently thru the process
of understanding its inter-connectivity is totally empowering for me
my paints are the area where i let go the most
where i lose time and space
where i don’t hear.. don’t react.. i just DO
i just BE
the other night i started a painting.. and i never paint with expectation
i never paint with direction.. i allow my soul to speak
someone had asked me what my process of painting looked like
so i was trying to consciously note what i was doing
after about an hour i thot… what brushes do i use?
and then i realized
i hadn’t picked up a brush.. that my hands were covered in paints
that this canvas over 50 inches was FINGERPAINTED
and i realized… that i was a FINGERPAINTER
and it gave PLEASED ME TO NO EXTENT
reminded me of my playful soul and my playful spirit
and how CONNECTED i am to paints — that they are merely and extension of myself.. and my body.. and how much LET GO that is!
this was my grand scale fingerpaintings first steps:
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=195091930&size=o
allowing yourself to play with your muse.. without expectations is the greatest blessing their is! i’m so happy you mention this over and over