Creativity and Being in My Element

In my research over the past couple of months, I keep running into Sir Ken Robinson, who is known as an internationally renowned expert in the field of creativity and innovation in business and education.

According to Robinson, we have a very limited view of intelligence, and that we confuse it with academic ability. We have a tendency to place creativity and intelligence in two separate categories when, in fact, creativity is fundamentally linked to intelligence. “Education as it is structured today is geared towards the industrial era,” and in light of current economics, “imagination and creativity is what we will need more than anything else in today’s world.”

At every moment, we create. In order to create harmony in this world, we want to create harmony within our world. In order to create harmony within ourselves, we want to be in line with our true nature. Robinson calls this ‘being in our Element’.

To find my element, I pay attention to what inspires me, what makes me want to get up in the morning, what causes me to forget about time and what nourishes me. I also pay attention to my fears, hungers and justifications. More often, my fear has nothing to do with a lion running after me, and more to do with going out of my comfort zone because I am afraid of the unknown, afraid of not being accepted, afraid to fail, or perhaps to succeed. This is important to note, because it means my fear is something to harness rather than to run away from and hold me back.

To live in my element and create what I desire, I make intentions, and I keep my focus on my intentions as my guiding force, then I surrender to the creative process, holding on to my discipline, and at the same time, I ask myself, “am I having fun?” Because if the answer is “no,” I know to realign. The more I stay in my element, the smarter I become. Because when I am in my element, that is, in my own space, I love what I take in and what I share, and I retain everything and see different sides in everything. And it’s fun. In contrast, when I am out of it, my IQ, my EQ, and all of my other cues feel completely downshifted.  

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Creativity and Being in My Element

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 In my research over the past couple of months, I keep running into Sir Ken Robinson, who is known as an internationally renowned expert in the field of creativity and innovation in business and education.

 

According to Robinson, we have a very limited view of intelligence, and that we confuse it with academic ability. We have a tendency to place creativity and intelligence in two separate categories when, in fact, creativity is fundamentally linked to intelligence. “Education as it is structured today is geared towards the industrial era,” and in light of current economics, “imagination and creativity is what we will need more than anything else in today’s world.”

 

At every moment, we create. In order to create harmony in this world, we want to create harmony within our world. In order to create harmony within ourselves, we want to be in line with our true nature. Robinson calls this ‘being in our Element’.

 

To find my element, I pay attention to what inspires me, what makes me want to get up in the morning, what causes me to forget about time and what nourishes me. I also pay attention to my fears, hungers and justifications. More often, my fear has nothing to do with a lion running after me, and more to do with going out of my comfort zone because I am afraid of the unknown, afraid of not being accepted, afraid to fail, or perhaps to succeed. This is important to note, because it means my fear is something to harness rather than to run away from and hold me back.

 

To live in my element and create what I desire, I make intentions, and I keep my focus on my intentions as my guiding force, then I surrender to the creative process, holding on to my discipline, and at the same time, I ask myself, “am I having fun?” Because if the answer is “no,” I know to realign. The more I stay in my element, the smarter I become. Because when I am in my element, that is, in my own space, I love what I take in and what I share, and I retain everything and see different sides in everything. And it’s fun. In contrast, when I am out of it, my IQ, my EQ, and all of my other cues feel completely downshifted.  

 

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Being in the Process

I had recently completed 1000 days of two 31-minute meditations. What was really cool about embarking on this sort of commitment is that I couldn't focus on the finish line; it's just too far away. I took it one day at a time. There is so much joy and freedom in letting go of the need to get from point A to point B in such a hurry. I knew about the benefits of doing the two particular meditations, but what I did not know is that I would also receive this incredible gift of cultivating the ability to enjoy the process. The present moment. Yesterday afternoon, I slipped into a funk. I intentionally curled up into a ball under the covers and allowed myself to feel what I felt for exactly 10 minutes. I reminded myself to breathe in, breathe out, exhaling out the funk. When my timer beeped, I looked around at all of my blessings and smiled a smile of gratitude. Then I said, "what's next?" and I moved on.

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Communication for Pure Presence

At Pure Presence, between me, Tricia & Jenilyn, we had agreed to post weekly. So far we've posted one this month, thanks to Jenilyn, and the topic that we've dedicated for this month is Communication. None of us have called each other on the missing posts. Isn't that a riot?

Once upon a time when I worked in corporate, one of my fellow associates shared with me the story about his daughter who hid her report card from him in fear of the consequences. He said to her, "the sign of maturity is in one's ability to share bad news." To this day, I have carried those words with me, and they have nudged and guided me, because I really want to be mature, most of the time.

For me, I find it challenging to share even good news, like the gifts I see in others. Have you ever tried expressing to another person your acknowledgment or gratitude for him or her?

What is hard to communicate is revealing anything that let's another person in. Usually it's the thing that makes me really uncomfortable and offers me little idea where this risk is going to take me. It makes me fear death of some sort because the feeling is, I am not going to survive this. Yet paradoxically, when I can pull away from my drama and witness what is really going on with me, I see that this very act of communicating brings me to life. I go into Pure Presence, and obstacles begin to dissolve. Even if the result is not what I hoped for, I feel fully and everything is flowing inside of me.The Universe takes over and gifts me with blessings my analytical mind could never conceive.

Tricia- you're up next week.

 

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Food, Space and Hunger to Experience Fully

If I have an addiction to anything, it is to food. I love to eat.

Yoga says silence awakens us to what is in our subconscious. Silence is Space. This is why many of us have noise continuously turned on in the background- music, television, white noise, anything. Just don't bring on the subconscious-- it freaks us out to know what's there. The news is much more palatable than our own buried thoughts.

Our own Jenilyn took a week hiatus from words, which include reading, television and radio. Talk about creating space! An empty stomach also creates space. If you are anything like me, television has no power over you.. it's food. Not surprisingly, I am a grazer.

Try not eating. The space and the clarity that comes from it is POWERFUL. And the dullness, the maya (illusion) fades. You are left with inner voices of Truth that prompt change. It can be so scary, the urge to eat will likely come. Or, as with any other addiction, you will find other distractions. Drink anyone? Shopping? Recue others? 10 mile run?

What is the clarity I am hiding from? Perhaps I ought to find a way to directly satiate my hunger. I hunger to matter, to be loved, to make a difference, to be touched. To experience fully. Yeah. I can do that. Can't I?

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Healing, Passion and a Cure to Stress

A friend just forwarded me an AWESOME article called: the suck factor of life balance, + passion as a cure to stress by Danielle LaPorte.

LaPorte says: Getting "balanced" is not the remedy to stress. Passion is. 

Here are my favorite parts of her article:

If consensus is overrated, I think balance is too. I have no interest in living 
a balanced life. I want a life of adventure.
- Chris Guillebeau

In the end, the quest for balance is bogus. Love your burdens. Love them hard. And when your loves knock you down or your weak ankles trip you up, stop worrying about balancing - 'cuz you're not - and bounce.
- Kelly Diels

Life balance. Low fat cheese. Walking shoes. Small talk.
Life balance. The term makes me feel bloated and late for my own party.
Life balance. Stressful.

The pursuit of balance makes us juggle. It puts us behind (always behind,) makes us guilty, neglectful, imbalanced. It's as useful a concept as original sin. You can never get it right.

If you want to do great things, striving for balance is a losing game. I don't think remarkable artists, scientists, activists, entrepreneurs, or generous souls set out on their giving journeys with the aim to be measured and harmonious. Meeting your potential is inherently full of tension (creative tension.) Trying to be balanced about it is onerous and futile.

This is not a balanced life. But it works. And the more I pursue my passions, the more uncomplicated my life gets, actually. There's not much in my life that I resent. And if resentment builds, I'm swift to get it off my plate. It's not the imbalance-ness that stresses me, it's doing meaningless things that aren't taking me where I want to go.

When passion is a priority - passion for family, vocation, for meaning - your energy intensifies. And when your energy is more focused, more, "aimed", you begin to care less about the things that don't really matter. You avoid crappy jobs, you stop over-controlling your kids, you nag and complain much less - with everyone. You get the help you need to pull off the important things - whether you're a CEO or an aspiring freelancer, and that support takes the form of a house cleaner, a VA, or a friend or mentor to jam with.

REFUSE TO BE BALANCED
When you refuse the banality of balance and go for full on life (which includes full on productivity and full on stillness,) you'll see the inevitable mess of it all as something more beautiful and purposeful - full of peaks and valleys - an adventure. The climb can be rigorous, grueling sometimes, but the air is cleaner, and the view will blow your mind. The fruit you'll find on your own tilted path is so much sweeter - and there's so much more of it to share.

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On Health

When it comes to health, there are so many modalities, so many thoughts on this topic, so many ways to define it.
All I know is that when I am happy because I take care of myself and show up in my life -not for anyone else, but for me- then I tend to be less injury prone, less prone to become victim of circumstance, and less prone to get sick.
If I had to get to the core of what boosts immunity, I would say that it is in devoting to a practice that develops a high level of trust in knowing that everything is taken care of, offers a nurturing discipline to consistently show up for myself, and allows for a sense of humor that I not take anything too seriously. 

And to take long, deep breaths...

To good health, Everyone!

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what we do when no one is watching...

Download now or watch on posterous

Movie 355.mov (20120 KB)

...and nothing else is flowing.
(you can only laugh with us, not at us)

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Speaking of love... and my 1000 days

Many of you know that I am getting close to the end of my 1000 day meditations: Sodarshan and Sat Kriyas. It ends April 19. Already, I plan to continue on with Sodarshan because it is helping me through the critical transitions that I am currently going through in my life. It is grounding me in my own space. At this moment, the Sat Kriya is kicking my ass; it is difficult to get through and I can hardly take the physical sensations I experience as I practice it. How I know which kriya is doing what I will never understand, but I do.

Today, the Sat Kriya is once again blowing my heart wide open. The elevation is remarkable. The feeling of love overwhelming. Love of what? Everything. If I had to guess what it felt like to be on ecstacy, this might be it. But not really. The experience is pure, profound and expansive. It's not all joy, however. There is a small element of pain infused into it. Nothing devastating, just this feeling of connection to all that exists in this world. I don't know what to do with this energy, but it feels safe and grounding.I suppose the idea is to just let it flow and allow it to become a part of me.

My very first sensational experience since I've started the 1000 days was this heart-opening that I just mentioned which happened around day 120. Subsequently, as these meditations began to work on a different level, a different aspect of me, I literally felt myself "walking through" a door or passage into the next part of myself that was to be cleared, or worked on. It's been a while since I've experienced this walk-thru. Here it is now, the explosion- my circle back perhaps for A-prime. Could it be an accident that my son comes home with a song to practice for a school performance from Whitney Houston called "The Greatest Love of All [is happening to me]," a song I haven't heard in how many years? "I found the greatest love of all inside of me." I've run into a number of energy healers and lightworkers lately and the message to me is "take care of yourself," "nurture yourself." I've been doing that, yes. Partially. But take it to a whole new level, and I don't think I've even scratched the surface.

I feel more vulnerable and at the same time more in my power. I have never felt more at a pivotal moment in my life than I am right now.

My request to the Universe is to keep sending angels my way that will support my growth and love me in a kinder, more gentler way.  

Sat nam.

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Love and Tennis

I looked up the word love, and there was another definition besides deep affection towards another person. In tennis, love is a score of zero, or nothing.

I love that.

In yoga, there is this word suniaa, which means nothing. Zero point. This is what we, in our practice, strive for. And upon reaching this zero point, all at once we become everything. Within this nothingness, we create a new pattern of being, of greatness. It is at this point that we step into our highest potential.

In love, my ego, my boundaries, disappear, and I become One. With this world, I become We. When I am in love with a man, and he loves me, he and I become We. Time no longer exists and creation under the purest form of engagement, or ultimate pleasure, erupts. From what? From a simple desire to be touched, understood, seen, loved. And from a natural desire to expand, becoming nothing and everything.

A feeling (love as an emotion) becomes expression (love as action) and everything is permanently altered. The attachment, the oneness, the energetic connection is forged, both joy and pain infused together in playing out this day to day drama that is a part of life as a human being. From this point, the work towards balance as we seek wholeness within ourselves while supporting it in the other person is critical, lest suffering continues. I can feel him even when he is not with me because there is a connection. His pain becomes mine. His joy mine. Same with my children. Same with this world.

Love, in its quest, is human. Attained in its truest form- enlightenment. May we all engage in pursuit of this power that denies no one and could only bring joy and healing to us all. Breathe it in fully. Exhale it out, offer it back to the world, completely. Recalibrate. And play some Tennis with a capital T.

 

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JK Rowling: The fringe benefits of failure | Video on TED.com

This TED Talk has been recommended to you by savitreekaur@gmail.com from TED.com.

Note from sender:
Tricia, ur blog & the close of our topic on prosperity ties beautifully w/ this. Rowling says "it is impossible to live w/o failing at something unless u live so cautiously that u might as well not have lived at all. In which case, u fail by default"

http://www.ted.com/talks/jk_rowling_the_fringe_benefits_of_failure.html

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Did I say No Fear?

It has been a while since I've last written here. I've grown some since then. I still hold to what I've said... except for one thing. I said, "Bliss is a state in which one feels connected to one's true sense of Self, which is authentic, simultaneously grounded & high, clear from hurt, resentment and fear and at One with everything." I take back the part about being clear from hurt, resentment and fear.
As long as I am on this planet, I am here as a spiritual being having a human experience. My desire is to continue to grow into my greatest potential until I take my very last breath. To do this, I must play in this world as fully as I can. Play requires risk, going into the unknown, being willing to get hurt, make mistakes and be messy. Fear is a natural emotion that comes up in play, and it is a guide that tells us to fight & conquer or flee. As I accomplish more in my life, the risks get larger, and my fear seems greater. I have learned that I don't have to be clear from hurt, resentment and fear. I just need to embrace them, which means acceptance. Which takes me back to Bliss. But I have to say, I am not even looking for it. I am just happy to be exactly where I am... most of the time.

My Truth... My Mission

Over the last 10 years, I have practiced yoga & meditation in both the Hatha & Kundalini Yoga traditions, as well as Macrobiotics, Ayurveda and general natural foods cooking. I also dedicated my life to living according to my own nature, journeying into conscious awareness of the cause & effects of my actions. It was my desire to turn everything I did into a living meditation, having full presence in my NOW moment, doing what I do with purpose, love & integrity.

It was scary and I went through hell.

But this journey has taken me to a place I was not sure existed. This place is Bliss. It is a grounding sort of place in which one feels totally connected with oneself & the world. It is a high sort of place in which one feels totally ecstatic. It is a secure sort of place in which, regardless of the situation at hand, there is a knowing that everything will work out.
Of course, there are still days that are better than others. But my funk now looks totally different than my funk several years ago.

It is my mission to share the tools that have helped me conquer my world, hoping to guide others to their Bliss, their Truth.

Bliss is a state in which one feels connected to one's true sense of Self, which is authentic, simultaneously grounded & high, clear from hurt, resentment and fear and at One with everything. Imagine this as a continuous state of Being.

I offer this through the combined practice of Kundalini Yoga & Meditation as taught by Yogi Bhajan, the principles of Ayurveda, the Universal Laws of Attraction & Allowing, Sound & Mantra and Homecaring as a Spiritual Practice, those basic activities that make up daily life of breath, sound and food. I teach with more emphasis on the experiential over intellectual because I believe that one gets there* faster when practices are embodied rather than consumed. There is profound wisdom to be had in the midst of silence and conscious action.

To be, to be...

You are what you eat.
Your power is what you speak.
Your strength is what your manners are.
Your prosperity is based on mutuality.
Your relationhship is based on service.
Your trust with people is based on your purity.
Your impact is in your identity.
Your happiness is in your royalty and reality, mixed together.

"To be, not to be" -- forget it.
Go from this course: "To be, to be," and then let the world follow you.

That's my word for the day. Thank You.

--Yogi Bhajan.