Creative Adventure
http://www.refresher.com/mindfulnetwork/articlelive/articles/372/1/Creative-Adventurea/Page1.html
Jamie Walters
Jamie Walters is an inspired 'creative inquirist', transformation guide, inspiration catalyst, and "prophet of an emerging new economy of intelligent, caring, cutting edge entrepreneurs.She is the founder of Ivy Sea, Inc., author of Big Vision, Small Business the handbook for conscious SOHO/Solo enterprise published by Berrett-Koehler — and Leading at the Visionary Edge (forthcoming from ICFAI University Press). She is also the creatrix of Ivy Sea Online.
Jamie integrates her professional / business experience with her energy, shamanic, and Indigenous Wisdom training, to help individuals and organizations cultivate vision, intuition, creativity, and other innate and unique gifts, and apply them in the workplace and other areas of life.
This liberation of this innate 'genius' supports skillful communication, transformation, conscious business,and a meaningful, purpose-aligned way of being and working.
Visit Ivy Sea Online.
By Jamie Walters
Published on 12/11/2009
No matter how many times I've been immersed in the creative process, or found myself in that tense, creative transition-space between something ending and something new beginning, I've felt the tension and an almost unbearable restlessness in it. After all, creativity and stepping into the unknown take a lot of courage, along with a sense of heartful conviction and a strong vision. And we find all of these within us.
Creative Adventure
We don't always see tension or transition as an invitation to creative adventure, do we?
It can be hard when we're caught up in the stress of change or that place of creative tension, standing at the precipice of the unknown, to see the possibilities for something new and wonderful wanting to be born and experienced, and to give ourselves over to it.
No matter how many times I've been immersed in the creative process, or found myself in that tense, creative transition-space between something ending and something new beginning, I've felt the tension and an almost unbearable restlessness in it.
After all, creativity and stepping into the unknown take a lot of courage, along with a sense of heartful conviction and a strong vision. And we find all of these within us.
There have been times, in that 'unknown' place, when I've retreated to the known and seemingly comfortable. But sometimes, I've found the courage to wait there in that tension, step into the unknown, and let some new thing find expression through me.
When I've found my way to the latter, it's because I've immersed myself in inspiration.
Recently, I've found inspiration from the late Irish Poet, John O'Donohue, who wrote in his book, Beauty, that when 'we begin to awaken to the light of soul … we learn to befriend our complexity and see the dance of opposition within us not as a negative or destructive thing but as an invitation to creative adventure."
The 'light of soul' that O'Donohue speaks of must be tended, nourished, and brought back to life through regular inspiration.
These are often parts of ourselves -- inspiration, imagination, our wild and creative hearts -- that have been exiled in our focus on the 'business of survival', yet they're vital to our creativity, expression, authenticity, and deep meaning.
Yet when we heed their call and begin to reclaim them, we begin to feel whole again -- we feel the depth of inspiration returning to us, awakening our hearts so that we may bring our fuller selves into our relationships, our work, and all else that we do.
Between each of the stages in the creative cycle, we feel the tension and friction that gives heat to the creative process. It can be almost unbearable to wait in that place of tension, and we feel the pull to return to the familiar, the old.
Yet O'Donohue also wrote, in his poem 'For the Interim Time':
"As far as you can, hold your confidence.
Do not allow confusion to squander
This call which is loosening
Your roots in false ground,
That you might come free
From all you have outgrown."
If we have the courage and patience to wait, to engage that place of tension as 'creative adventure', something new -- something that has long awaited to finds its voice and expression through us -- can be born. And then, we find ourselves free, and rooted in 'true ground'.
If you would like explore personal, project, or organizational consultations, send along an email; I'd be delighted to speak with you.
You can also visit Ivy Sea Online for a wealth of helpful resources, upcoming audio- and tele-classes, PDF workbooks, and other treasures.
Wishing you very well!
It can be hard when we're caught up in the stress of change or that place of creative tension, standing at the precipice of the unknown, to see the possibilities for something new and wonderful wanting to be born and experienced, and to give ourselves over to it.
No matter how many times I've been immersed in the creative process, or found myself in that tense, creative transition-space between something ending and something new beginning, I've felt the tension and an almost unbearable restlessness in it.
After all, creativity and stepping into the unknown take a lot of courage, along with a sense of heartful conviction and a strong vision. And we find all of these within us.
There have been times, in that 'unknown' place, when I've retreated to the known and seemingly comfortable. But sometimes, I've found the courage to wait there in that tension, step into the unknown, and let some new thing find expression through me.
When I've found my way to the latter, it's because I've immersed myself in inspiration.
Recently, I've found inspiration from the late Irish Poet, John O'Donohue, who wrote in his book, Beauty, that when 'we begin to awaken to the light of soul … we learn to befriend our complexity and see the dance of opposition within us not as a negative or destructive thing but as an invitation to creative adventure."
The 'light of soul' that O'Donohue speaks of must be tended, nourished, and brought back to life through regular inspiration.
These are often parts of ourselves -- inspiration, imagination, our wild and creative hearts -- that have been exiled in our focus on the 'business of survival', yet they're vital to our creativity, expression, authenticity, and deep meaning.
Yet when we heed their call and begin to reclaim them, we begin to feel whole again -- we feel the depth of inspiration returning to us, awakening our hearts so that we may bring our fuller selves into our relationships, our work, and all else that we do.
Between each of the stages in the creative cycle, we feel the tension and friction that gives heat to the creative process. It can be almost unbearable to wait in that place of tension, and we feel the pull to return to the familiar, the old.
Yet O'Donohue also wrote, in his poem 'For the Interim Time':
"As far as you can, hold your confidence.
Do not allow confusion to squander
This call which is loosening
Your roots in false ground,
That you might come free
From all you have outgrown."
If we have the courage and patience to wait, to engage that place of tension as 'creative adventure', something new -- something that has long awaited to finds its voice and expression through us -- can be born. And then, we find ourselves free, and rooted in 'true ground'.
If you would like explore personal, project, or organizational consultations, send along an email; I'd be delighted to speak with you.
You can also visit Ivy Sea Online for a wealth of helpful resources, upcoming audio- and tele-classes, PDF workbooks, and other treasures.
Wishing you very well!