Session 1888

Obstacles to Allowing a Free Flow of Creativity

Topics:

“Obstacles to Allowing a Free Flow of Creativity”
“Projecting Energy Is Doing”
“Incorporate a Distraction Strong Enough to Interrupt Your Concentration”

Sunday, December 11, 2005 (Private/Phone)

Participants: Mary (Michael) and Markus S. (Mikah)

ELIAS: Good evening.

MARKUS: Good evening.

ELIAS: And what shall we discuss?

MARKUS: Well, actually I don’t even really have no idea what we shall discuss because the question or the reason why I have scheduled the session about five weeks ago has sort of disappeared, so I just thought I have the session anyway and see what happens.

ELIAS: (Laughs) Very well.

MARKUS: I have quite an interesting year since we last talked. I moved to a new apartment, and that was a pretty amazing piece of creation. I was looking for a new apartment, and it took me about five weeks to get everything moved, to find the apartment, and to find someone to renovate the old apartment, and that was, I think, one of the big success stories of last year.

ELIAS: Congratulations.

MARKUS: Thank you. There have been a couple of other things that I did, which was I started oil painting. And that was quite an interesting experiment because I always had feeling that I had the talent for it, and the interest, but oddly enough, after two or three months I stopped with it because I had put myself under some sort of pressure, tried to force things. And maybe that’s a good point or something to discuss, because I’m not entirely sure what happened there or what went wrong.

ELIAS: At times individuals may move in the direction of allowing themselves to express certain types of artistic creativity and initially are expressing considerable enthusiasm concerning the project, and inspire themselves, and allow themselves initially to be experimenting and playful. But subsequently they begin to compare and doubt their own ability, and once the doubt begins, that creates a different type of energy in which the individual is not allowing a free flow of their own creativity. They begin to analyze what they are doing and attempting to generate more of a structure in how they are expressing their particular creativity, and that interrupts the playfulness with it, and it no longer is an inspiring, fun action, but becomes a chore that you struggle with rather than allowing yourself to merely express in whatever manner you choose.

Also, what frequently occurs is that you may begin to generate expectations concerning what you are producing, the volume that you are producing, the quality that you are producing, and that it must be within certain guidelines, for rather than being a fun, creative expression, it becomes an action to produce a particular outcome that also perhaps eventually can generate income. That creates another significant obstacle.

If an individual is generating an action such as painting, and allowing themselves to create that in a fun manner and an expression of themselves, and experimenting with different methods of painting, but not generating a concentration upon the outcome, rather allowing themselves to playfully enjoy the process of what they are creating and appreciating their own expression, that generates a type of energy that very easily creates an avenue for successfulness. Not that the individual is actually seeking successfulness in relation to the public or in relation to income, but the individual can generate that quite easily if their direction is pleasing to themself and a playful action that they appreciate and that they appreciate the process of. But as the individual begins to insert these different elements, and alter their perception, and move their attention in directions of concerning themselves with the outcome rather than the process, that changes the process, and it changes the individual’s perception of what they are doing, and in a manner of speaking, it loses the fun element.

MARKUS: Yeah, I think that’s pretty much an accurate description of what happened, especially in what I’d say is typical for me is to focus on the outcome, which may be related to my orientation being common.

What did irritate me there is that over the last year, last two years, especially since I found your material, I am creating quite an ease with almost any project that I’m starting. And with a project of painting and another thing that happened a few months later, what happened there is the fact that I’m not able to so easily produce or accomplish. It’s really quite a harsh contrast, then, and irritates me even more. Like painting would probably not have bothered me much five years ago when I wasn’t used to things going so easily, but now since moving to the new apartment, almost everything I start just happens automatically or effortlessly. Those few things that don’t do that are sticking out like a sore thumb and are really irritating me in a big way.

ELIAS: I am understanding. And the more you generate the irritation, the more they become irritating, for it becomes a circle, and you reinforce the irritation, AND you reinforce not accomplishing what you want, for you are generating an opposing energy. And in expressing an opposing energy, you do not allow yourself to accomplish what you want. In this, if you are paying attention to what you are actually doing, you can alter your energy. You can distract yourself, and therefore interrupt your concentration upon what you are NOT accomplishing.

In this, in any scenario—but we shall incorporate that of your painting as an example—in paying attention to what you are doing while you are engaging the action of painting, noticing how your energy is being expressed, not merely noticing the surface action of the physical action of painting or holding a brush or viewing your canvas, but paying attention to your body consciousness and what it is expressing, whether you are beginning to incorporate tension, paying attention to your other communications that you are expressing to yourself, if you are beginning to express tension, frustration, irritation, anxiety, questioning, it may not necessarily be expressions as overt as frustration. You may be expressing in other manners that may be somewhat more subtle, but they are expressions that you are incorporating and doing.

These are doing elements also, for projecting energy is doing, and what is influencing how you project energy is what associations you are generating. You may be generating a moment of disappointment—a stroke, in your perception, is wrong and now it has ruined your picture. No, any stroke can be altered and can be manipulated into a different direction. Paint is very flexible and is easily manipulated, but if you are being rigid with it, and you are generating a moment of disappointment, or a slight anxiety, or even apprehension that the picture is not forming fast enough and is incorporating too much time to accomplish, these are indicators to you as to your energy and how you are generating obstacles, for what you are doing, first of all, is projecting an opposing energy. What you are also doing is not appreciating the process and appreciating your own expression of creativity. You are beginning to generate impatience, focusing upon the outcome.

MARKUS: I think impatience is one of the factors here, because I think that I’m… there are definitely many factors involved, because in many of the cases I have been noticing that I’m starting to question the results, that I was beginning to compare with other artists, that I was focusing on a certain outcome before I made the first stroke, or that I wanted things to go a lot quicker. Especially with oil painting, you have to sometimes just wait for the paint to dry to be able to apply another layer, or make more precise strokes or something like that. It went in some sort of a vicious circle, like noticing things just made them worse, because I technically would have known what I should be doing, like relaxing or distracting myself, but what happened—and this is typical for many things I do—is that they sort of become compulsive, and I just can’t get away from them, and they’re taking up more and more time. Or I’m investing more and more time where I just, probably, for example, should just go to bed and try the next day, and I just can’t stop. And it’s been a quite frustrating experience, that combination of things. It’s like watching yourself driving headlong into an accident and not being able to do the right thing.

ELIAS: I am understanding. In this, distraction can be a valuable avenue. I am understanding that initially that may be challenging and even difficult, but let me express to you, at times when you are expressing in this type of manner, and you are concentrating your attention so rigidly, that blocks your creativity. It also blocks inspiration, which does not allow you to generate an efficient expression or to generate inspiring ideas that shall allow you more of a free flow.

Recognize in this what you are actually doing. You do recognize that you are, in a manner of speaking, blocking yourself, and you are frustrated for you are not accomplishing what you want. But continuing in that direction is not accomplishing what you want either; it merely perpetuates it.

MARKUS: Yeah, that’s the frustrating thing, because I basically know that I have to give it a break, and it will probably flow more easily when it comes back. But I don’t know why I’m doing that, and that’s pretty similar to the other portion which comes later, in which you mention in this session that I just can’t seem to turn away.

ELIAS: In this, perhaps you are not offering yourself a strong enough counter action. You expressed to myself rather than continuing to concentrate upon painting, you should merely go to bed and reengage it in your next day. That type of action is not a strong enough distraction, for in generating that type of action, what you are actually doing is continuing in the expression that you have already created. You’ve already created the frustration or the anxiety and the impatience, and generating an action such as that does not actually provide a distraction, for you continue to concentrate upon the frustration, and may even incorporate that in your dream state.

MARKUS: Definitely, definitely. I go to bed and I know that I would concentrate on things during sleep or half sleep or not really being able to sleep anyway, so I might as well stay at the canvas.

ELIAS: Yes, but that is not interrupting or breaking your concentration. This may be what has been another source of frustration, not recognizing what to do to be actually interrupting the concentration.

Your concentration is strong enough that it is somewhat necessary to incorporate a distraction that is strong enough to interrupt that concentration. Therefore, incorporating an actual physical action would be more efficient, such as generating turning away from your canvas and leaving your home. Incorporating a walk or visiting shops or incorporating visiting a friend—some physical action that shall interrupt your concentration entirely, in which your attention shall move in another direction entirely, and you shall not be incorporating the frustration of the painting, and you shall not be thinking about the painting. You shall be incorporating an entirely different action, which shall interrupt that concentration.

That allows you to change your energy, to relax, and it allows for new creativity and inspiration to flow. Subsequently, when you return to your canvas, you may actually view it differently, and you may incorporate new ideas as to how to proceed, which shall also re-spark the encouragement to be appreciating the process and generating more playfulness with the process, rather than incorporating this seriousness of the task.

MARKUS: Yeah, I think the seriousness may one of the core points there, because rather than so much focus on the outcome, even the process of painting, which is quite hard with painting anyway, because painting has to go through what you might term imperfect states to be able to achieve the perfection, if it is achieved. I probably selected a field or a hobby there that was—and probably intentionally—that was quite challenging to the way I approach or project such projects.

ELIAS: (Chuckles) Perhaps to engage an action that shall challenge you in a manner in which you can apply certain concepts and experience them in association with patience and flexibility.

MARKUS: (Chuckles) That may be necessary.

ELIAS: Ha ha! (Recording ends)

(Recorded session ends after 27 minutes.)

© 2005 Mary Ennis, All Rights Reserved


Copyright 2005 Mary Ennis, All Rights Reserved.