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Creative people are among our most celebrated historical figures, yet most of us treat creativity as an entirely optional pastime, especially if we see ourselves as “not a creative person.” We all know that gifted individuals such as Einstein, Kahlo, Mozart, Rowling, Socrates, and Edison, who gave life to their creativity, greatly impacted our culture and development. But oddly, unless we’re oozing talent (and even then) we often we view creative endeavors as too frivolous to warrant the expenditure of energy.
Creativity is one of our most unrecognized and undervalued abilities. Without it, our species would be unremarkable among the animal kingdom. We’d have no tools or clothes, no stories or music, no cooking or language. But because we have creative power we have innovated, and our lives are longer and richer because of it.
By definition, to create is “to bring into existence.” Consciousness flows through us, we shape it, and something Is brought into existence. Whether we’re aware of it or not, this is special. And it’s happening all the time.
Some of the most basic expressions of your creative power are the words you choose to speak and write, the ways you move your body, the work you engage in, how you dress and adorn yourself, the food you make, how you choose to spend your money, the affection you give, the plants you grow, the art you put on your walls, and how you choose to show up in your community.
You are living creativity. You can’t stop it. To be truly aware of this fact is to be empowered and inspired. It can become a spiritual practice. It can become a means of knowing and healing yourself. It can be energizing. It can be fun. It can lift you out of depression and despair. It can give you hope. It can change the world.
I’d love it if you’d reflect on these questions:
- What happens when I own my creative power?
- What changes when I become an active participant in the creating that I’m doing?
- What does it mean to choose my place in the universe as a creator?
- How do I feel when I let myself create?
- Can I tune in to the energy that moves through me and drives my expressions?
- What does it feel like?
- Does this power flow freely or is it impeded in some way?
- What happens when I relax and open myself to it?
Side note: the idea I’m presenting has sometimes been misconstrued by new age thinkers to mean, “You are the sole creator, and everything that happens is because YOU asked for it. So you must have unwittingly brought erectile dysfunction and cankles to the world.” This doesn’t make sense and it’s a recipe for guilt. If you’ve adopted this belief, I encourage you to let it go.
You share the planet with billions of creators, and you’re not in competition with them. However, most aren’t especially mindful of their creative power. Again, when we be become mindful of it, it’s inspiring and empowering. We’re more effective at bringing our chosen intentions into existence. And when our intentions arise from love (rather than fear), we’re more effective still.
The empowering shift I’m suggesting begins simply with mindfulness of the creative power you’re already exercising throughout your life. Gradually you’ll feel less like “life is happening to me” and more like “I’m an active creator in this life.”
Be well,
Peter
[post_title] => Creativity: It's Not Optional
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At a party some years ago I noticed a guy across the room with a big personality. Like a strong double-ended magnet, he appeared to either attract or repel everyone around him. Eventually someone introduced us. He was a successful and intimidating businessman, and for some reason he seemed to like me.
At one point he leaned in with a sly grin as if he were about to confide something in me. Then he said, “You know what I love to do at parties? I meet someone, find out what they believe in, and then I explain why they’re wrong about all of it. I systematically tear apart their whole worldview. They walk away like they just lost their compass!” He laughed like he genuinely relished those moments.
Although I was disgusted by this admission I also found it fascinating. Of course, it’s not unusual to witness power struggles for dominance – especially between men, between dogs, between couples, and between parents and children.
But most power struggles begin with a disagreement, and – on the surface, anyway – that seems to be the cause of the struggle. What was less common in this case was that this fellow was consciously setting out to dominate others he didn’t yet know and was looking forward to the satisfaction he’d feel when he “won.”
Though a psychologist might say the guy’s social behavior was pathological, in a way it was just a more obvious and one-sided expression of something many of us engage in on a routine basis.
When absorbed in a power struggle we may believe that we’re just righting a wrong, correcting a mistake, or doing the right thing. But if we were to stop and ask ourselves honestly where we’re coming from, the truth is often that we just want to win and/or that we can’t bear losing.
In the book The Courage to Be Disliked, authors Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga argue that rarely are our arguments about the topic we believe; mostly they’re driven by the desire to prove our power and make the other person submit. They advise that when we recognize we’re in a power struggle it’s best to step down without reacting.
“Admitting mistakes, conveying words of apology, and stepping down from power struggles – none of these things is defeat,” they write. “The pursuit of superiority is not something that is carried out through competition with other people.” The term superiority here simply means personal excellence, not superiority in comparison to someone else.
Kishimi and Koga (summarizing the work of psychologist Alfred Adler) explain that power struggles hinge on the belief that one’s stance on an issue makes them right. “The moment one is convinced that ‘I am right’ in an interpersonal relationship, one has already stepped into a power struggle. At that point, the focus of the discussion shifts from the rightness of the assertions to the state of the interpersonal relationship.” Then it’s no longer a conversation. It’s a contest.
Though he doesn’t use the term “power struggle” Author Vadim Zeland makes a similar point in Reality Transurfing. He describes the energy behind these struggles as “pendulums.” Like the giant swinging pendulum of an enormous clock, they’re fueled both by collective adherence or opposition to an issue. When you’re presented with a pendulum, whether you jump aboard in agreement or fight it tooth and nail, you’ve jumped aboard it and are being taken for a ride.
He advises stepping back (mentally) and disengaging, imagining you’re like a ghost – so the swinging pendulum doesn’t trigger you or affect you in any way. It just swings right through you.
I encourage you this week to notice the power struggles and pendulums in your life. What happens when you engage with them? What happens when you attempt not to engage? Are you able to? Is there a part of you that desires the conflict? Does it feel disappointed if you step back? If you engage in a power struggle and “win” how does this feel? If you notice a power struggle between others, can you witness the energetic conflict beneath the words? Do you feel called to bring light to it? What happens if you do?
Be well,
Peter
[post_title] => Our Curious Urge to Dominate Each Other
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Early in my practice, people told me I should choose one area of medicine to specialize in, but I was resistant to it because of the lack of variety. Also, it seemed that the natural specialization for me would be pain since I have a knack for treating it, and that sounded, well, kind of boring.
But I gradually began focusing in that direction, and over the years my understanding of pain broadened. I became interested in the whole human experience of suffering, which was like finding a loophole because it’s a pretty vast spectrum.
Suffering is fascinating.
As much as humans hate suffering, we have a curiously complicated relationship with it. We watch movies and read books about it for entertainment. We ache when we see others suffer, but we kind of like the ache. We try it out intentionally (ghost peppers anyone?) and we’re compelled to learn the graphic details of a tragedy just so we can feel it more richly. Often we simultaneously generate it and resist it. And sometimes, we turn it into an incredible, life-changing blessing.
To an extent, it seems that when good outcomes happen after a period of suffering, it's evidence of healthy adaptive mechanisms that help us make the best of a bad situation. But occasionally the suffering appears to be a kind of magic ingredient that provokes an evolution (or a revolution) that wouldn’t have otherwise occurred.
Few people would ask to suffer, but studies show that when they look back on how suffering ultimately facilitated a great favorable change, most say they wouldn’t change anything.
Well, maybe one thing.
If only they could have trusted, they reflect, it could have been a different experience.
On top of the discomfort of suffering we often add an additional dimension of discomfort in the form of resistance (which is often triggered by fear). When the resistance stops – because we just can’t keep it up any longer, or through a conscious choice to trust and relinquish the resistance – this is when something else enters the equation. What do you call it? Grace? Clarity? Insight? And the suffering becomes a portal to a new way of being.
Today, when you encounter some suffering – maybe it will just be a little micro-suffering – what happens if you don’t resist it? What happens when you say, “I choose to trust” and dive into it?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this (in the comments section below). Have you had experience where suffering facilitated something good? What was the pivotal point, when it turned from suffering into grace? Did that change your relationship with suffering? Do you trust more? Why or why not?
Love,
Peter
[post_title] => From Suffering to Grace
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Creative people are among our most celebrated historical figures, yet most of us treat creativity as an entirely optional pastime, especially if we see ourselves as “not a creative person.” We all know that gifted individuals such as Einstein, Kahlo, Mozart, Rowling, Socrates, and Edison, who gave life to their creativity, greatly impacted our culture and development. But oddly, unless we’re oozing talent (and even then) we often we view creative endeavors as too frivolous to warrant the expenditure of energy.
Creativity is one of our most unrecognized and undervalued abilities. Without it, our species would be unremarkable among the animal kingdom. We’d have no tools or clothes, no stories or music, no cooking or language. But because we have creative power we have innovated, and our lives are longer and richer because of it.
By definition, to create is “to bring into existence.” Consciousness flows through us, we shape it, and something Is brought into existence. Whether we’re aware of it or not, this is special. And it’s happening all the time.
Some of the most basic expressions of your creative power are the words you choose to speak and write, the ways you move your body, the work you engage in, how you dress and adorn yourself, the food you make, how you choose to spend your money, the affection you give, the plants you grow, the art you put on your walls, and how you choose to show up in your community.
You are living creativity. You can’t stop it. To be truly aware of this fact is to be empowered and inspired. It can become a spiritual practice. It can become a means of knowing and healing yourself. It can be energizing. It can be fun. It can lift you out of depression and despair. It can give you hope. It can change the world.
I’d love it if you’d reflect on these questions:
- What happens when I own my creative power?
- What changes when I become an active participant in the creating that I’m doing?
- What does it mean to choose my place in the universe as a creator?
- How do I feel when I let myself create?
- Can I tune in to the energy that moves through me and drives my expressions?
- What does it feel like?
- Does this power flow freely or is it impeded in some way?
- What happens when I relax and open myself to it?
Side note: the idea I’m presenting has sometimes been misconstrued by new age thinkers to mean, “You are the sole creator, and everything that happens is because YOU asked for it. So you must have unwittingly brought erectile dysfunction and cankles to the world.” This doesn’t make sense and it’s a recipe for guilt. If you’ve adopted this belief, I encourage you to let it go.
You share the planet with billions of creators, and you’re not in competition with them. However, most aren’t especially mindful of their creative power. Again, when we be become mindful of it, it’s inspiring and empowering. We’re more effective at bringing our chosen intentions into existence. And when our intentions arise from love (rather than fear), we’re more effective still.
The empowering shift I’m suggesting begins simply with mindfulness of the creative power you’re already exercising throughout your life. Gradually you’ll feel less like “life is happening to me” and more like “I’m an active creator in this life.”
Be well,
Peter
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