Unlock the secrets to nurturing your inner creativity, especially when you feel blocked. What truly reconnects us to our creative thinking might just surprise you.
“We seek outside the wonders we carry inside us.”
Rumi
Creative Thinking & Demons
For entrepreneurs and creators, there are few things more isolating than being unable to know what we truly think or access our creative thinking. Being incapable of putting the puzzle pieces together to form a cohesive, comprehensible, whole idea, framework, or work of art.
We are desperate to knit the thought strands into a tidy tapestry that speaks on our behalf, plants an energetic flag, and manages to move minds and souls.
We can spend weeks and years trying to articulate just what it is that burns through us. The frustration of having a collection of unruly, cryptic concepts (that refuse to lean into one another and form a throughline of any sort) can take us to a place where we doubt we know what we are doing.
That we know anything at all.
We can sneak right up on clarity only for it is disappear on the horizon like a mirage. In response, the omnipresent productivity lore emanating from all corners of culture starts to gain a foothold: Stay at your desk, soldier. Work more. Deny yourself rest, pleasure, things that connect you to your soul.
It doesn’t take long for the demons to emerge and encircle us. Further stifling our creative thinking.
There’s a cauldron over the fire. Our brains shout above the roar to give up and jump in the pot.
It seems that nothing can save us.
Or maybe we’ve just been overlooking the most ubiquitous, sweet remedy: going on a walk.
Creative Breakthroughs
Years ago, I read a brief post on Austin Kleon’s blog that reminded me of what I already knew to be true—”demons hate fresh air.”
Going on a walk can soothe our most chaotic, emotional states and reset our entire central nervous system. The simple act of putting one foot in front of the other returns us to a rhythm of balance and lucidity. Slowly, mile by mile, the demons put down their torches and return to the dark corners of the forest.
We are taught that solutions and breakthroughs require exorbitant costs of time and treasure and effort. Our loyal subconscious minds, though, have never left our side. Snoozing like a faithful golden retriever at our feet, our Creative Backchannels wait patiently for us to rise from our chair, leash in hand.
Once in motion, reconnected to our essential nature, and plugged into the alchemy of nature, our subconscious knows that our overbearing, executive brain will soon take a nap. When the coast is clear, our intuition offers us access to a room filled with delicious discernment, new insights, and quantum leaps in our creative thinking.
This is when having our pocket journal and pencil handy is imperative. Do not hesitate to stop midstride and write. Capture it all. Consider any idea or blurt from your mind to be relevant, important. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t all make sense in the moment. Your creative thinking may need more marinating time. More miles.
For a quick journal exercise about creative energy check out this blog!
I fully believe that we all possess creative thinking power and brains capable of cracking through the most dense and thorny challenges. We forget, though, that our divine, expansive souls need to be immersed in an environment that mirrors its own.
By placing ourselves gently in the buoyancy of wonder and Beauty and movement, we cross The Threshold into connection to our creativity as the demon exodus sets us free.
