It’s easy to commit creative energy to something you believe is worthwhile. It’s not as easy to redirect creative energy between ongoing commitments, self-care and unfinished passion projects.
The middle ground between these two aspects is where you really feel the squeeze of unmet personal expectations around what you love to do, mixed up with the stress of deadlines and drudgery of plugging away. This sometimes challenging, unstable energy can push projects to the wayside for a bit while you regroup. It’s a natural part of being a creative at heart and exploring your path, but it doesn’t mean it’s not frustrating!
The true challenge is making sure it’s not a permanent fate for passion projects and soul callings.
While it helps to check in regularly with yourself, energy level, self-care needs and to-do’s, the unexpected aspects of life can throw you a few curve balls. What once seemed easy enough to complete lingers unfinished, or the passion you once felt for it evaporates.
I find that each change in seasons offers an opportunity to reflect and review the inner and outer aspects of life more deeply. After three months at a certain pace, it’s good to clear the air, harvest what’s finished and release the rest.
However, the creative energy of new ideas, goals and projects is so much more exciting than cleaning up loose ends or plodding along on a long-term goal. For one, it’s more fun and inspiring. Two, it’s not always easy to let things go, or even admit you want to move beyond certain ones.
To redirect creative energy where it’s needed most, do a quarterly review of three essential things – personal promises, commitments to others and stalled projects. It’s in the space of reflection you allow clarity and honesty to join forces and begin to shape a new perspective on what makes sense right now.
Review Personal Promises, Commitments and Stalled Projects to Successfully Redirect Creative Energy
There are a few things I want to clarify for the purposes of this blog post.
I feel a promise is something you make to yourself. It’s a deadline, agreement NOT to do something, a decision to follow your heart or passion etc. It’s a declaration that something specific will come to pass for you. A promise involves a level of commitment to come full circle, but it’s only an aspect of a promise.
I feel a commitment is an agreement you’ve made with others who are depending on you in some way. It’s a show of integrity, dependability and fulfillment.
These two aspects of life can become very entangled because we are emotional beings in a constant state of evolving. One of the biggest challenges is how to separate these two parallel energies and honor them as different aspects of our life in equally important ways.
A seasonal shift in energy always offers a unique invitation to pause and reflect, offering a time to get clear, grounded and manage unfinished business from a mind, body, spirit perspective. It also helps you rethink the level of energy and integrity you are offering yourself in comparison/addition to others in your life.
To help direct reflection time, take an idea, promise, commitment or project and put it through these 5 reflection steps:
- Revisit
- Revise
- Revive
- Reap
- Release
Taking a look at what’s in your life in this simple way, you tap into how you feel about something in the present moment. Then it’s much easier to redirect creative energy to the next phase. An aspect of your life or a project may need to go through all five, or skip ahead to the next step.
With a little effort, soon you will notice how the promises you made to yourself now have more depth and clarity. Commitments to others can be stronger and more grounded as you become more aware of what to share. Personal fears stalling you become more apparent so you can begin to move past them. You become inspired to put the final touches on something and follow it through to completion, just like the moon does every month.
When you decide what is still worthy and take action to move it forward, you actively redirect creative energy in a positive way. On the flip side, you are no longer burning energy on fighting the guilt, frustration or disappointment you feel for any number of reasons. This clears your mind and gets you more grounded in what’s needed to move forward and support it in a healthy way.
The Power of Revising and Releasing from a Grounded Perspective
After dealing with health challenges related to my teeth and neck since end of last year, I had to get really honest about what was on my plate. I worked through the 5 reflection steps above to reserve my energy for what honored my sensitivities and ability day to day, despite what I wanted to achieve in my mind.
I fought it for a while, feeling angry and frustrated with the fact I had to make concessions and work around personal needs. Ultimately my physical challenges and lower than normal energy level reminded me of the importance of using my 5 “check-in points” as a way to be more mindful in honoring promises with myself and commitments to others.
I also become recommitted to my self-care, shifting to the changes I needed in the short-term to be stronger and better in the long-term. So far so good, and things are on the upswing!
What have you promised yourself? What needs to be harvested or released for good? Where are you headed in terms of staying committed to your own dreams and ideas? Are you being dutiful without being connected to your true creative self? Are you stuck on some perceived limitations with a particular project? Are they still true?
When you can be honest with yourself about these aspects of what you need and want vs what you can physically and emotionally manage, something beautiful happens. You build a clear path to redirect creative energy where it’s needed most for the greatest benefit and joy.
Want a little extra support to help you get clear on your path forward? Let’s do the 5 reflection steps together in a coaching session. Looking for additional reading on a similar topic? What Motivates Your Creative Voice? 5 Ways to Find Out. You can also check out my podcast Flirting With Enlightenment to hear additional tips on tapping into your inner wisdom.
Happy fall equinox in the U.S. this week! 😀 Have fun reflecting, reaping what you’ve grown and releasing the rest!