Have you noticed how many of us are having similar experiences? You have an idea or a thought and in minutes you hear someone expressing the same thought? Or you’re going through a particularly challenging passage in your process and suddenly every other person you meet is experiencing something similar. This reminds me how much we are one organism, one mind, one heart.
Every week I have a creative conversation on skype with my friend and colleague, Joey Walters in Scotland, who is founder of Women at the Heart of Leadership. And this week we were talking about how states of expansion and contraction are intrinsic to the creative process. Expansive states are wonderful yet we don’t only expand – expansion is followed by contraction. Think about it, there would be no in breath without an out breath, no birth without strong contractions, no orgasms, no summer without winter.
For many people expansion – feeling free, inspired, connected with all dimensions, open and loving – is seen as “good” whilst contraction – feeling stressed, tense, fearful, suffering – is to be avoided. Since contraction is inevitable, how can we learn to welcome it, nurture ourselves through it and receive its gifts?
I’ve recently emerged from several particularly intense weeks with lots of obstacles impeding my forward movement, and I wonder if this has been happening in your life too? It was very challenging but every day I was asking: what is the opportunity in this? How can I become more skilled in the creative process? When is it necessary to push through obstacles and when is it time to surrender and let go? When time is whizzing by so fast, what is really important? What is this telling me about my spiritual path?
Holding the creative tension
The creative process has an intrinsic tension within it, it’s inevitable. Creating anything worthwhile will always stretch and grow us. That’s why it’s so exciting and compelling. When you hold a big vision – like the creation of a whole new world – there’s a huge gap between the way things are and how we know they could be. And we hold that tension within our being as we move forward step by step. We have to, because if we don’t, the vision collapses.
How do you take care of yourself in challenging times? When you’re really driven or you’re starting to doubt if all your efforts are getting anywhere and you’re under-resourced, what really makes the difference for you and helps you to shift back into a more expansive state of mind and being?
The first thing that comes to mind in answer to this question is conversation and co-creation. I feel very blessed by the friends in my life who I talk with regularly for mutual nurturing and inspiration. I also regularly create opportunities for co-creative group interactions and deep community and I participate in other global learning communities too. This is the number one source of inspiration and sustenance for me and that is also my vision for A Whole New World: a global community of inspiration, co-creation and mutually supportive connection.
And then, for me, there’s writing. At its best, writing is like a meditation, drawing all the threads of my being together into one focused whole and connecting me with my deepest wisdom and creative excitement. It helps me make sense of life by creating integration and coherence. And each time I hear how words I have written have touched others I know all the effort involved is worthwhile.
Seeds for A Whole New World
I’ve been putting the finishing touches to an e-book, Seeds for A Whole New World, a collection of blog articles written by me and Woods Elliott over the last four and a half years, which I am offering as a gift to give you a better idea what A Whole New World is and can be. The inspiration in these writings coming to me from another time in my life spoke to me and uplifted me.
Creating the new culture is a long process which has its own timing. I strongly believe that we all need inspiring role models and encouragement and the intention behind A Whole New World is to offer just that. It’s a reminder that each one of us makes a difference and together we can do what seems impossible. We’ll be uploading this free e-book to the website very soon but if you’d like your copy now, please write to me, I’d love to know what you’re up to and how A Whole New World can support you.
And of course, nature, beauty and a sense of spaciousness are essential too, so much so that I’ve chosen to live somewhere where the beauty of nature is the permanent container and landscape of my life.
What all of this points to is the necessity to connect deeply and creatively with self, with each other, with the Earth, and with spirit. When I get stressed I know I have ceased to be present to life and ceased to experience the sacredness of life. This week I stopped and asked the question: How can I reconnect with the sacredness of life? And the answers came immediately.
For more about living A Soulful Life, see my ebook of that name here: http://www.awholenewworld.net/shop/ebook.html
Have a loving and peaceful week.
Rose Diamond
October 7, 2012
Photo: The Dance of Love by Jerrie Thornton
