Creating From Higher Consciousness
Creativity abounds from our being when our bodies, emotions, and minds are in balance and harmony. When our stress response of fight, flight or flee is not active, our brain stem or reptilian brain is not receiving signals we are in danger. The bodily and survival needs are met. This, in turn, allows attention and intention to be directed to higher functions and consciousness such as insight, empathy, connection, abstract and symbolic thinking, and intuition. When we have complete access to the highest functioning part of our brains and being, we have the capacity to perceive subtle energy, knowings, and inspiration. Living in this expanded consciousness, we express ourselves in our daily life through healing, teaching, writing, inventing, painting, relating, or loving. We have access to our genius, which is a unique expression of our essential divine nature.
How Do We Cultivate This Creativity?
One way is to recognize times we are in a stress response and reverse it by activating the relaxations response. How do you know you are stressed? What are the signs in your body? Your thinking? Your habits? Your emotions? Your behaviors? Get to know your particular reactions to stress so you can notice them when the first begin. What caused your stress response? Recognizing your triggers can lead to preventing them from tripping your reactivity and give you the option to observe and choose to respond rather than react out of conditioned habit. When you notice your stress responses and triggers you can develop your capacity to observe without getting caught. Then you can CHOOSE to begin a transformative practice and reverse your over aroused nervous system and begin relaxing and directing your attention and intention back to higher consciousness.
Transformative Practices
Transformative practices are designed to center, quiet, and still the mind-body and focus attention and awareness in the present moment. They can focus on the body, the mind or the heart simultaneously or one at a time. Body, or somatic practice, includes such activities as yoga, tai chi, qigong, walking meditation, progressive relaxation, autogenic training, and biofeedback. Examples centered on the heart include prayer, loving kindness meditation, journaling, sitting in nature, guided imagery, and chant. Mind practices include reading sacred text and poetry, study of koans, myths and symbols, observing or witnessing consciousness, use of metaphor, contemplation, ritual, self-hypnosis, affirmations, artistic works, and concentrative meditation.
Transformative practices accelerate the natural unfolding process of human development, expanding consciousness toward revealing and living as one’s true nature. They can have many purposes. According to Schlitz in her book Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life, they can:
. . . quiet the mind-body, heal old wounds, shed false beliefs, cultivate intention and attention, promote insight, and expand capacities. The heart of these practices is their ability to bring you into direct contact with the numinous, open your eyes and heart to the sanctity of life. They assist one in realizing the abundant, ever-present, and surprisingly accessible deep meaning that is present in every moment of every day.
How Does Higher Consciousness and Creativity Connected
In addition to transformative practices, we keep pathways to our higher consciousness open and growing by recognizing structures, beliefs, self talk and constrictions that no longer serve our expression of genius. These can be found inside ourselves as well as the world we choose to have around us. Are there old tapes playing in your head that insist you are undeserving of greatness, or you are flawed in some way? It is time to hit the delete button. Are there relationships in your life that deplete you? Are you spending time doing activities you “should” do but do not serve your highest expression? Time to re-evaluate your choices. When we say NO to that which diminishes us, we open space and time to develop our creative expression into the world.
Did you know that scientists have learned we actually grow new brain cells and develop new pathways by what we focus on and what we give our attention to? Imagine what will develop as we extract our attention from drama, trauma, and chaos and give our attention to that which makes our heart sing. We literally expand our capacity for higher consciousness, integration, and creativity by living and creating from our passions and purpose every day.
As Jalaludin Rumi so beautifully articulated in his poem Another Dimension:
The hidden world has its clouds and rain, but of a different kind. Its sky and sunshine are of a different kind. This is made apparent only to the refined ones- those not deceived by the seeming completeness of the ordinary world.
Read my other blog post Your Ultimate Guide to Cultivating Intuition.
Check out my book Living From The Center Within: Co-Creating Who You Are Becoming
Here’s to having an extraordinary life!
