There are times when we truly have our heart set on a plan unfolding just so, down to the sequence of events and every imagined emotional high point in between. It’s scripted in the mind, felt in the body, feared and rejoiced over, perhaps even celebrated before it’s appeared in the physical. This sends the body through a whole course of emotional and physical responses that can help with focusing intention on a desired outcome (depending on what you are thinking and feeling), offering the extra inner encouragement we all need to take a leap of faith.
Connecting to the feeling of something — how it will feel to achieve, reach, overcome, experience it allows you to get a better understanding of how being in the creative flow feels. Just like you are drawn in by your favorite foods or repelled by others, the experience of how it feels to eat them helped you shape an understanding of how you feel about them. As you grew up and expanded your horizons, your feelings about food changed too. I’m sure I’m not the only one who hated certain foods as a kid only to like or love them once I got older and my palette was expanded by experience.
To truly allow the creative flow to move through you, it’s important to suspend belief that an exact plan is the only sure fire way to success or happiness. Letting things unfold (aside from allowing things to get dangerous) to present you with new avenues and opportunities for expansion and help you move out of old, stuck, one-track beliefs is the real essence of creative growth.
And being creative has to start with the way you flow with what’s showing up in the present moment. Only then can you connect with new clues, hints and observations that offer the best inner guidance that’s in alignment with your true creative fulfillment and purpose.
So be open to plan, B, C, D even Z. Willingness to engage possibilities as they show up is the true meaning of living in the creative flow, in all areas of your life. Otherwise you are absolutely choosing to work with an outdated manual for a much older version of your car when you just bought a brand new one. Instead of being stressed about something not working according to a time line or plan, be thankful you will be getting new insights or the extra time to refocus and try something different.
After all, why keep coming at something in a pre-scripted way when you already know it’s not working, just because you are unwilling to bend to the new creative flow that calls? I heard somewhere that’s the definition of insanity : )
What’s usually the tipping point for you? When do you finally open to new creative approaches?