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by Gail McMeekin
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.
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