Cultivate with Joy to Grow Creativity

While planting grass seeds to grow grass for my dear kitties, putting fresh soil into the pot with water and gingerly covering the tiny seeds, an analogy to cultivating artistry occurred to me.

Having been an artist in several disciplines for over 20 years, I've found that staying positive in whatever project I'm working on or venue I'm working in is definitely beneficial (to those around me as well, which is still a self-benefit in the more spiritual sense). Yet I've found that "positivism" is not quite satisfying. It's like striking a match in the dark to light your way and others, as opposed to bringing down the purer energy of joy to myself and allowing that to shine like a sun. And those who do it better than I are truly a joy to be around.

If we view our creativity, that "dear one" that lives in simple purity inside of each of us, like a seed-- it's clearer what it needs to thrive. And it's not just thriving on what we perceive to be "clean", like sunlight or water. It also requires dirt and fertilizer, which can consist of many things which we think of being "filthy", "inappropriate" or even "nasty." This "dirt" CAN be your most negative thoughts, memories, regrets, fear, anger, hatred, feelings of abandonment-- you get the picture. Believe it or not, those energies are needed somewhere! The "dirt" just needs a bit of processing to become the "fertilizer" that is beneficial to your "seeds." And the process consists of several steps:

1) Stand or sit or lie down on your back, close your eyes, take a deep breath and "growl" as deeply as you can into the base of your abdomen-- visualizing that you are literally BOILING through the liquids in your abdominal region until certain "nasties" begin to appear in your mind. But don't stop the boiling. Take additional breaths to continue it until all of these collected "nasties" begin to vanish behind a steamy haze and/or begin to disintegrate. [If they begin to retreat back into darkness or from your mind's eye, continue the boiling until they bubble forth and vaporize.]

2) Exhale with passion (no sound is necessary) until the resulting "steam" evacuates your body completely. You may find your body trembling and folding in the middle. That's good-- just take additional deep breaths, which will straighten you again, and continue blowing out the "steam." You may envision this "steam" to be yellow or some shade of brown.

3) If you end up sweating, crying or releasing liquids from any other orifice-- let 'er flow. Take care of it as you need. But let it out. At this point, DO NOT go back to "boiling." This round is done-- congratulations! And take all the time you need-- until you feel LIGHT again.

4) Drink a large glass (8 oz.) of purified water (the more alkaline, the better).

5) The last part is your choice. Bottom line-- RELEASE, LET GO. These "dirties" need to drop away from you back to the earth. Suggestions: State "I let you go, GO", jump up and down then take a shower. Or envision these "dirties" as bratty little wood sprites that you need to return to the woods, keep telling them so until you can actually get to some woods, field or park (grass is crucial), and once there fling them from you-- "Let go, I let you go!" These are just ideas-- but you will feel lighter and fresher. A shower afterwards is always a good idea, though.

The "processing" is done. You are left with rich fertilizer. Visualize placing it onto your creative center, your loved one, as a nutrient or a fuel if you will. If it helps, find that image of yourself as a child again in your mind taking a shovel and bucket of this "fertilizer" to wherever you most want to cultivate and using the " fertilizer " to plant whatever you most want to plant.

It IS important now to put your hand or mind to creating something (even just an idea) very soon, staying focused on the GROWING of this "seed" that is happening now with the help of this rich "fertilizer." As you go through the "mechanics" of creating, this growing seedling can feed you and even guide you.

All this, I have found, leads to a real joy-- a greater contentment in creating. Just as there is yin and yang, there is sunlight and dark, positive and negative, "don't forget your sun block" and "don't forget your vitamin D everyday." Joy comes from becoming one with all of our strengths and weaknesses, our happiness and sorrow, our kind side and cruel side-- yet always, like the plant, reaching upwards and outwards for the LIGHT.

These are ideas. And I invite you to try them (or at least visualizing yourself trying it)-- and see how you feel. Think of the vast richness it can bring to your artistic expression-- and maybe your life in general.

"Thinking gives off smoke to prove the existence of fire. A mystic sits inside the burning. There are wonderful shapes in rising smoke that imagination loves to watch. But it's a mistake to leave the fire for that filmy sight. Stay here at the flame's core."