This evening I had a private conversation with one of my Warriors. During the 100 Day Warrior we do 4 workouts a week, we meditate daily at home and/or our workplace and we see each other once a week. We stay connected through Facebook and I try to feed them with thoughts by writing these posts. The private interviews are part of the program: life coaching by yours truly is included. But it is also a way of getting to know each other better.
I feel very happy with the niche I have chosen. By working with talented individuals from the creative industry it is kinda guaranteed that my participants are interesting and smart people. My only problem was that I wasn’t sure if these people would like me back. Well, I still don’t know but so far so good.
To meet the needs of my Warriors I want to give them something to reflect upon. Here goes: do we really challenge our creativity?
We have two common approaches to work: filling the space so there is no room for the creative process or being afraid of the creative process and therefore unwilling to embark on it. These are to examples of the coward’s approach to work. By filling the space instead of letting be and letting the creative process develop, the coward automatically imposes the next clue on our awareness on what is taking place. This is because we are afraid of a gap, which would allow us to look back and see our basic origin. It is very disturbing for the coward to see it’s own nakedness, which brings a sense of defeat. Therefore when you this open space, you become afraid of embarking on any further creative process that might reveal that space again.
Excerpt from “Work, Sex, Money” by Chögyam Trungpa
Now does this go for us, aspiring Warriors, recruited from the creative industry? That would have grave implications; it would mean that creative people are killing their own creativity. Well, the implication of the previous paragraph is that all people are killing their creativity and that is of course a shame. But for the one’s who are identified with their creativity it might come as a shock and an eye opener.
For a long time I was thoroughly identified with my talent for ideas. That means it was part of my mask, my identity. I liked to be seen as smart and creative and I covertly and not-so-covertly looked down on uncreative people. What I didn’t know yet was that I was afraid (terrified!) to be revealed as not so special. So as every other coward I would avoid nakedness. In a way my creative talent was just a gimmick, a part of my self-defense mechanism. I happened to have developed a knack for inventive solutions that others considered outside-of-the-box thinking. But in fact it was just my way of avoiding the feeling of being inadequate that I developed in early childhood.
Can we truly upgrade our creativity from the coward’s level, where we apply it as an instrument that offers us safety, success, money and identity, to the Warrior’s level, where we allow ourselves to see our nakedness and even transcend that?
In the Warrior’s world the spiritual journey and the creative process are closely related. To not allow space to filled up by filling we need the courage to fight busy-ness. An overflowing agenda is the perfect excuse to not give ‘the gap’ a chance. If we acknowledge this pattern we must give priority to the creation of gap-time. If we don’t make a structural effort to get naked we are not truly creative; we are just repeating habitual patterns and trying to suppress our fears as good as we can..
I just realized that creativity is connected to creation and therefore related to sex. It is an intimate interaction that something new and unique can be born from. Creativity comes from being in relationship with what is. There is a kind of fluid communication going on between you and the world and when the coward doesn’t show up to interfere with the process magic can be conceived.
The creative Warrior does more than come up with creative solutions to other people’s problems. He allows himself to be born again and is not limited by structures, not even when he built them himself previously. His actions come from being in natural and spontaneous communication with reality. There is no separation. For him the creative process is not work; it is the juice of life.
Do you apply your creative talent as a way to solidify yourself or as a way to transcend yourself?
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This is episode 37 in a series of 100 blog posts that will be published daily during the 100 Day Warrior, a unique program around physical strength, inner wisdom and meaning. All posts are written by Atalwin Pilon, founder of Basic Goodness and creator of the 100 Day Warrior. For requests for motivational speaking, in-company workshops, online coaching and mindfulness training click here. If you would like to join our international community of brave and inspiring human beings or just follow this blog and receive updates, please click here or sign up on the right side of the page. Atalwin specializes in coaching smart and creative people, both groups and individuals. If you are interested in a free coaching session click here.
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