Spark Your Creativity Via Your Intuitions
Worried that you're not creative? You are, but you may be out of
touch with it. Your intuition can lead you into a world of novel
ideas, experimentation, and brainstorming that will perk up your
work life and stimulate innovation and problem-solving.
Intuition training is not just for New Agers. Many executives,
business owners, and research and development professionals
attribute their successes to following intuitive clues.
Intuition is your internal information and feeling source. It is
an inner library of physical and emotional cues that can direct
you onto the right avenue. It is the composite of "gut feelings"
and perceptions unique to you. It is an inner way of knowing.
Too often, we are trained to discount or repress that knowledge
and therefore purposely neglect it, devalue it, or refuse to
recognize its message. Intuition is a tool for insight and
illumination. Can you recall a time when your intuition prompted
you to follow a different course and connected you to a result
you were looking for? Quentin recalls a time when his intuition
prodded him to take an unfamiliar exit off the expressway on his
way home. As he turned off, he felt foolish and almost turned
around. But he followed this country road and passed an
intriguing building with a "for sale" sign on it. He stopped in
amazement--this building fit his image of the gourmet shop he
wanted to open someday. Here was his dream in reality; the rest
was up to him. The creative process demands, like Quentin, that
you're willing to step into the unknown and see what happens.
Creativity is born of inspiration and your inspirations evolve
from your passions. So follow your whims and see where they
lead. These excursions will stimulate new thought patterns and
generate new paradigms for you. To help you to massage your
intuitive talents, you can try a series of exercises to evoke
creative prospects for you.
Exercise #One: What Inspires You?
What do you feel excited by or passionate about? What kinds of
books or magazines do you read? What kinds of people do you most
like to talk with? What kinds of interests/projects are you
drawn to in your leisure time? If you went back to school, what
would you most like to learn about? What do you fantasize about?
What are your aspirations? What kinds of activities stimulate
your creative expression? Do you long to paint or write or build
or organize or sing or play something? Write down everything and
anything that comes to mind. No idea is wrong or silly. What is
your internal voice urging you to explore/experience? Let this
exercise be the beginning of a creative journal. You may be
surprised at the wisdom and guidance stored for you in these
seemingly random thoughts.
To facilitate the new, it helps to clear away the past. Think
back to any regrets you have about lost opportunities. Kim
wishes she had studied engineering in college instead of
teaching. Paul had a chance to go into business with a friend
and turned it down as he was too scared. His friend is now a
millionaire who works part-time. It may not be too late for you.
Exercise #Two: What Creative Dreams Have You Abandoned and Why?
Make a list of all of the things you wanted to do, but didn't.
Then think back to what your intuition told you about this
option. Are you still interested in this path? What does your
inner voice tell you about this choice now? Note any patterns
that are still possible or an enduring vision that you want to
manifest.
You need to make peace with these cast offs. What can you learn
from these mistakes? Rudy learned that he hadn't been ready
until now to write his play. His vision just became vivid enough
for him to tell the story. So he was able to release his
regrets. Melissa, on the other hand, always wanted to become a
lawyer. Now at age fifty, she thought she was too old, but the
dream still beckoned her. This was a choice point for her. She
could either live the rest of her life with the sorrow of not
having become a lawyer or she could go to law school. Or she
could leverage her skills and become a lobbyist, a political
activist, a paralegal, a city official, or fulfill her dream in
numerous alternative ways. It was time for Melissa to move on.
Grieve what you must and then turn the corner and make room for
the next episode.
Learning to trust your intuition is the critical foundation for
creativity. Think back to the times when you were clear that a
particular choice was not a wise one. Your "gut" warned you
against it. Silvie, a billing consultant, recalls a phone call
she received from a potential client. The woman owned an antique
store and sounded stressed, disorganized, and demanding. Silvie
had a negative visceral reaction to the woman's voice. Yet,
Silvie needed more business and this was a big account, so
Silvie hushed up her intuitive radar and accepted the woman as a
client. A year later, the woman sued Silvie for malpractice.
During the legal proceedings, Silvie learned that this woman had
sued her last two billing agents and that lawsuits, not
antiques, were her primary source of income. Silvie swore to
heed her intuitive doubts in the future.
Exercise #Three: I Am Grateful to my Intuition for the
Following...
When has your intuition steered you right? Make a list of the
times when your intuition helped you to make the right decision
or prompted you to try something. What have you learned about
how it operates on your behalf? One of the greatest blocks to
creativity is fear. Fear keeps you from exploring new ways. Fear
of failure keeps you from enjoying an experimental mind set
where failure is expected and welcomed as new information. Fear
of being wrong or criticized also clips your creative wings.
Almost everyone can remember trying something fresh and new and
being chided. Therefore we learn to play it safe, cease taking
risks, and stop the flow of creative solutions. While most
people are educated in a school system that advocates one right
answer, today's workplace requires you to invoke new answers.
The beauty of the entrepreneurial mind set is that it allows you
to innovate and make up your own solutions. Fear of "getting the
wrong answer" halts your flow of unique ideas.
Exercise #Four: What Frightens You Most About Expressing Your
Creativity?
What is your fear about? What creative traumas from the past
still hold power over you? What do you fear from your internal
critic and others? What person(s) from your past criticized your
ideas and actions? Write this all down so you can see it. Fear
is a component of risk and risking is essential to creativity.
If you read about writers and artists and businesspeople, they
all acknowledge fear. You will never be free of fear but you can
minimize it and strategize around it. Just don't let fear keep
you from your true self. Whenever you accomplish something, you
become vulnerable to criticism. Leaders are often controversial
and therefore targets for someone's arrow. Are you living your
life for them or yourself? When I get scared to write, I pick up
a book called "Walking on Alligators: A Book of Meditations for
Writers" by Susan Shaughnessy (Harper, 1993). Writing often
feels dangerous to me and reading about other writer's similar
terrors helps me to forget my doubt and just start typing. You
need to find antidotes for your fear. Mentors, support groups,
classes, coaches, readings, etc. all offer support systems which
can undo the demons from the past. Figure out what solutions
will most help your fear to stay in the background and use them.
Another form of support for your creativity is a nurturing
environment. Where do you do your best thinking? Where does your
inner self feel most daring and alive?
Exercise #Five: Creative Stimuli
Describe the ideal environment for your creative process.
Imagine it in all of its detail. What distracts and what
stimulates you? Are you alone or with others? Is there music
playing? Are you outdoors? What tools do you need? Are you at
home or at a quaint inn? Knowing what sparks your creative fire
allows you to make that space. Lots of creative people talk
about having a studio or room of their own. Kay, a painter I
know, can paint anywhere that's light enough if she has her
female jazz singers serenading her in the background. Music is
her cue to let go and play with her colors. Trudie, a landscape
architect, built an office for herself above the garage. As she
lives in the city and doesn't have a view of trees, her office
walls are plastered with pictures of plants and trees and
gardens and she has silk flowers all over. Her rug of outdoor
carpet spreads out like a lawn and her desk is a table inside a
rickety old trellis with strings of vines and garden tools
attached to it. She keeps bags of dirt and peat moss in the
corner so she can smell them and pretend she's in the garden.
You know what business she's in. Even if you only have a small
space, make it your own and fill it with personal catalysts.
Sometimes when you have a business problem or feel stuck on a
decision, nothing seems to help. Sit quietly and ask your
intuitive guide for suggestions. You can also write yourself a
note requesting an answer and put it in a drawer and let go for
a while. Or you can change the format of your project or
question and see what happens. I often find drawing a picture of
what I'm trying to write about opens up new angles. Other
innovators try techniques like turning a project upside down or
sideways or miniaturizing it or making it into a story or
photographing it or discussing it with a child. These
configurations often cut through the haze. You've heard tales of
inventions that were actually mistakes or the result of a hair
brain scheme. Experiment with your dilemma and watch the
solution appear.
Comparisons are also helpful. For example, Brian's intuition
urged him to ponder how his decision about whether or not to cut
staff was like a tree. So he bundled up in his parka and went
out to look at the oak in his front yard. He finally realized
that his employees were the roots of his company; they held the
tree up. Cutting an employee was like chopping off a necessary
root, yet, he had to cut the payroll. So, he went back into the
house and began to draft plans for reduced hours, part-time
positions, and job sharing. Honor your intuitive messages and
allow them to help you.
Exercise #Six: Your Creative Saboteurs
Write down all the things, people, places, activities, or
thoughts that diminish your creative energy. What would you like
to subtract from your life that interferes with the clarity of
your intuitive channel?
Your intuition is a valuable asset; you can't afford to have it
compromised by clutter, other people's needs, or busyness. Even
if you only find the time to write in your creative journal or
sit quietly for fifteen minutes a day, you are connecting with
your intuition. Preserve the messages and insights. From the
above list, what can you subtract from your life to free up more
creative space for yourself? What life choices support your
ingenious energy? Honor your individual cravings and notions. Do
you thrive in tranquility or excitement? Diligently restructure
your lifestyle to cultivate your intuitive knowledge and its
creative offshoots. Enjoy the new and exciting adventures that
will result.