Issues we face in using our internal compass to guide our creative endeavors

 Becoming mindful and aware of what we think and what we feel

Being open to feeling

Being able to discern an energy flow created by an intention

Freedom to surrender to an energy flow

Being free to explore what we feel

Free to explore the unknown

Knowing how to use the nonlocalized aspects of our being

Moving past sexuality

 

In opening ourselves to feeling to use our internal compass to guide our creative endeavors, the following issues have been observed to interfere and/or distract us from keeping focused. They are: becoming mindful and aware of what we think and what we feel; being able to discern an energy flow created by an intention; freedom to surrender to an energy flow; being free to explore what we feel; freedom to explore the unknown; being open to feeling; knowing how to use the nonlocalized aspects of our being; and moving past sexuality.

 

Becoming mindful and aware of what we think and what we feel  (Top)

 

At first glance, becoming mindful and aware of what we think and feel looks as though this is about learning to meditate. Although meditation techniques can be used to become mindful and aware of what we think and feel, it is really something slightly different. It is about moving out of being occupied by thinking to just watch and observe what passes through our mind and in our body. It is to simply observe. It is to observe as if in slow motion. Most of us have seen a times lapse photography of a flower blossoming. This is the reverse. It is to slow down our mind to simply watch what is before us and inside of us.

 

The goal in becoming mindful and aware of both what we are feeling and the thoughts we have in any given moment is to be able to pull the string on any given thought or feeling we have. It is to look to the origins of the thought and the feeling we have to see from where the thought or feeling arises. There are two reason for this. One is obviously to see which thought and which feelings are directing us into the direction we wish to go. The other reason is that we need to be aware of when insights arise and break through the "background@ thoughts and/or feelings we have because of what we are doing. These insight are like flashes of lightening that seem to come from out of nowhere to light our path. We need to learn to be attentive enough to recognize them no matter what we are doing and be able to capture the information they contain. If we are attentive and aware, when the flash of insight occurs, we can see the path we need to take before us.

 

Following our internal compass can be difficult.  One reason is the needs of the mundane world keep interjecting themselves to capture our attention.  Here the assistance of another in our life can be most useful to both observe us in our actions and to query us as to what we are thinking and feeling to help us to learn to pull the string on any given thought or feeling.

 

The answer to stay focused seems to be to go and learn to stay focused with some type and kind of discipline. The discipline is not as important and just knowing how to discipline oneself to develop and keep a single point focus.  The discipline could be learning a musical instrument, learning martial arts, learning to meditate. However, learning discipline comes with baggage. That is, whatever we use to develop the discipline tends to become the end in itself rather than the discipline becoming a tool to use to simply remain focused.

 

What is not understood is mind will generate thoughts based on its belief structure. In learning a discipline, any discipline, what mind learns in learning the discipline reprograms the mind. In reprogramming the mind the thoughts mind generates from the energy it experiences in life becomes different. That in turn causes the mind to direct the individual more toward the philosophy of life behind the discipline they learn rather that keeping focused on the feeling they wish to create.

 

To create a life around a feeling we wish to have is to enter the unknown and requires us to stay focused on the feeling wherever it leads. It is not about following any approach to life or the thoughts we have. It is to stay focused on the feeling and becoming true to the feeling in all ways and all that we do.

 

If we want to live life in freedom, we need to stay focused on the feeling of freedom in all that we do and grow a life around that feeling of freedom. Similarly, if we want a orgasmic life, we need to stay focused on the feeling within the orgasmic experience and not become distracted by sex or sexuality where most find the orgasmic feeling.  What people don=t understand is the blossoming of our own creative spirit is an orgasmic experience and we can experience an orgasmic life if we so choose and remain focused. However, to stay focused on a feeling is very difficult to do for there is so much we feel in life and about life and we are continually distracted by the mind and all that thoughts it has.

 

What takes us away from staying focused on creating a life based on a particular feeling is the mind and all that distracts mind. So the issue becomes how do we train mind to keep focused. Or alternatively said, how do we reprogram mind so that the thoughts it generates tend to be supportive of what we desire to create. This then takes us to the need for a different perspective about life. In particular, a perspective about life that causes thoughts to be generated that support the life we desire to live.

Learning to meditate seems to be the best answer to develop the necessary discipline for it does teach an aspect of becoming mindful and aware of what passes through the mind. But becoming mindful and aware is not about learning to meditate. Meditation can be used to learn to sit and observe our thoughts and our feelings but its usefulness ends there. Meditation itself is a distraction as to what needs to be learned and accomplished for two reasons. The first reason is that any mediation that is taught tends to come with a philosophy and an approach to life. That philosophy and approach to life then takes over as the point of focus and the individual gets pulled of the journey they originally set out to take.

 

The second issue with meditation  is that what one will come to see is that once we are able to discern and capture any particular thought or feeling to pull the string on its origins, we will have to surrender to where pulling that string takes us. That means moving internally or externally as pulling the string requires. Many are quite surprised at where pulling the string on a thought or feeling takes us. To attempt to stay in a meditative posture when pulling the string will break the string. Pulling the string requires surrender.

 

Being open to feeling  (Top)

 

Being open to feeling is to realize we have raised the threshold on what we feel because of the experiences we have had in life.  It is to go back and release the pain of the past much of which centers on how we lost our ability to be in a state of creative play.

 

To be open to feeling means we must go back and understand how and why we have raise the threshold on what we allow ourselves us to feel. In particular, we need to ensure the response patterns to life we develop in response to that pain serve our creative needs. 

 

The process we all follow is that our creative play becomes thwarted for one reason or another and we experience pain in some way. We then develop one or more response patterns as a child to protect our creative spirit and prevent us from experiencing such pain again. However, rather than protecting our creative spirit, we create a cage of our own making and hold it captive rather than allowing it to flow freely.  Additionally, we often develop fears around the conditions which thwart the free expression of our creative spirit and these fears continually haunt us during our creative endeavors unless we learn to address the real hazard we perceive in the fears.

 

As such, we need to explore our past to look and see where and how we do not allow our creative spirit to be free. Otherwise, we will be unable to create what we desire. This process can be done in one of two ways.

 

The simplest way is to address whatever arises during our creative endeavors as it arises. This includes facing the fears and haunting from the past. We need to be mindful and aware to be able to see how we are responding to what arises to look to see if our response pattern is really serving our creativity and we are holding our creativity sacred. More often than not, we need to replace our childhood developed response patterns with more adult patterns which better serve our creativity and allows us to hold our creativity sacred.

Relative to facing our fears, we need to remember, we cannot fear the unknown for we do not know what to fear. What we fear is having experiences that cause us to experience pain as we experienced in the past. In facing fears, we need to look at from where the fear arises and do a hazards analysis to understand the real hazard in the fear and then institute appropriate compensatory measures.

 

The more complex way to deal with opening ourselves to feeling is rather than facing issues as they arise, we look at the overall freedom of our creative spirit. This approach  is to realize that we have put our creative spirit into a cage of our own making by how we have learned to respond to life and we need to we need to set it free. This process begins by exploring in parallel our past to see where we may have shutdown our creativity and enter our creative imagination  to see what we can and can=t freely explore in our own creative imagination. For whatever limits and barriers we impose on ourselves look to find a perspective on life that allows us to step past those limits and barriers and free our creative spirit. In doing so we will find ourselves becoming much more open to what we feel.

 

Additionally, in exploring where we have thwarted the free expression of our creative spirit, it is recommended we do some type and kind of body work to explore the depth and breadth of what our body feels and how it feels what we do.  The goal is to learn to use the awareness of the body and to use the awareness which lies in feelings.

 

It is also recommended that rituals, ceremonies, and metatheaters be used to play out transcending the types of limits and barriers we experience in our creative imagination  and/or to explore changing a childhood response pattern.   Performing a ritual, ceremony or meta-theater reinforces in our own mind the desire and need to move past our self imposed limits and barriers. Performing "'not doing@ exercises and an exception way of breaking through many of these limits and barriers.

 

Being able to discern an energy flow created by an intention  (Top)

 

The issue here is about being open to feel and lowering the threshold of what we feel to learn the subtle difference in what we feel. Being able to discern the energy flow created by an intention start with the realization that we create our reality by how we focus our attention and awareness to create an intention. That focus or intention then directs our creative life energy to flow such that it creates an experience of that on which we focus or intent. 

 

Realizing we can feel the energy within our being, we need to understand we have an internal compass in being able to feel the flow of energy for that feeling will guide us to where that energy is flowing.  It is much like following a the flow of the river. If we stay in the main current, we will go where the river flows.  However, because there are many things we feel we need to calibrate our compass to know which feeling are which  Then, in being able to discern the different feelings we feel, we simply follow the feeling that corresponds to what we desire to create.

 

However, the process is not quite this simple. We need to be able to discern what we feel and the subtle difference in the different feelings we have. To do so, we must be open to feeling. Being open to feeling was addressed in the previous topic. As we become open to feeling it only takes practice to being to discern the subtle feelings in what we feel to be able to discern the different types and kind of energy flows that we are sensing.

The only recommendation made here is to realize we each are a unique creative being. Each of our bodies are different. What we sense may not be what another senses and no one will perceive creation as we do. It is imperative that we do our own experiments to become awareness of  what our body feels and what we are able to discern and not discern within our being. We need to understand the language of our inner world and how  our creative spirit communicates to us. No one an do this for us. It is a journey we each must undertake ourselves. Practice and experimentation are the best ways to develop the ability to discern what we feel.

 

Freedom to surrender to an energy flow  (Top)

 

The freedom to surrender to an energy flow is about understanding how our intention creates a flow of energy and if we are able to detach from our attachments to become a detached witness and step out of mind and follow that flow. The main issue we face here is the need for our mind to control. To enter a creative endeavor is to go where mind cannot effectively lead us. Rather than freely stepping into the unknown, mind will do what it can to remain in control at the expense of thwarting our own creative efforts. Unless we have an exception passion to create what we desire, mind will continually interfere with surrendering to the energy flow giving rise to our creative endeavor.

 

Finding the freedom to surrender to an energy flow starts with being mindful and aware of where we are not free to surrender. We then need to face the reason for the lack of freedom in ways similar to that used to address our childhood response patterns or fears.  Often it is helpful for another to assist us in our efforts by looking to see where we are withdrawing for whatever reason we may have. They can help bring to our attention and awareness to ways we shy away without realizing we do. 

 

Being free to explore what we feel  (Top)

 

The issue of being free to explore what we feel is really about being able to move past our pain to realize the gift in pain. Is it obviously easy to feel the total pleasure of our being at each and every level and aspect of our being. However, most shy, if not run, away from pain. In many ways pain has kept us from understanding the true nature of Creation and how to access Heaven or Nirvana.

 

Being free to explore what we feel  is to not withdraw from pain. Rather, it is to move into it to understand its origins and what our nonconscious mind is communicating. It is not about not medicating the pain for finding some way to relieve the pain. We can do that but we cannot do it blindly for we then either miss accessing important information within the pain and/or risk developing an addiction. However, before we try and address the pain we need to at least focus our attention and awareness in a way that allows us to see and explore the origins of the pain.

Being free to explore what we feel to move into the pain to finds it origins starts with a perspective about pain such that we can begin to see the gift in pain. The recommendation here is to explore the topics on pain and then ask our intuitive guidance the equivalent, "From where is this pain I feel arises and what is it trying to communicate to me?@  Then be open to what is provided realized mind may not have the minimum set of experience to properly characterize what is being communicated. Nevertheless, it provides a starting point to pull the string and explore the origins of the pain we feel.  The topic "Pain@ provides a list of available topics on pain. 

 

Free to explore the unknown  (Top)

 

Being free to explore the unknown is really about having a perspective about ourselves and the unknown such that we can stop projecting the fears, wants, judgments and expectations of the mind into the unknown. If we truly understood we are an individualized point of consciousness of the consciousness within, or behind, Creation, as described in the Creation Story for the Creativity Perspective, we can understand that all that lies before us is our own creation/Creation. Exploring any aspect of Creation and any aspect of the unknown is only an exploration into the infinity of our own being. It is to realize there is nothing that can ultimately harm us even if the body dies for one reason or another. This is difficult for our human mind to believe and even more difficult to live our life from this perspective. Nevertheless it is the goal we should seek to obtain if we desire to become a conscious creator of our experiences and as the creator of the reality we experience.

 

Gaining such a perspective and the ability to live our life based on that perspective starts with finding creative  freedom in our own creative imagination . Then, having the freedom to explore options we can use the concept of  complex integration to bring back into our physical world what we discover and access in our creative imagination. It is also being open to explore what we feel in whatever way we need to feel and follow those feelings to wherever they lead. Again, "not doing@ practices are very useful for stepping past the limits and barriers we impose on ourselves.

 

Knowing how to use the nonlocalized aspects of our being  (Top)

 

The real issue in learning and knowing how to use the nonlocalized aspects of our being is that we will come to know things we would prefer not to know. Knowing how to use the nonlocalized aspect of our being is to refocus our attention and awareness.  It is to realize the energy that gives rise to who and what we are has a localized portion reflected in our body and a nonlocalized portion that is always permeating the totality of Creation.  Similarly, we have a localized consciousness in the from of our current mind and transcendental mind and a nonlocalized portion that spans all that we consider outside ourselves.