[Make sure to take a look at my new book Redesign Your Mind. It’s the perfect companion to your creative life!]
A person who is not curious about life is unlikely to create. Since we are trained in school to learn facts, rather than to stay curious, it is easy for us to lose our sense of curiosity over time and only want to know the equivalent of “What will be the test?” Having lost our curiosity, we also lose our creative edge. That’s the theme of today’s post from creativity coach Alia Thabit called “Curiosity: The Key to Creative Intuition.”
Alia explained:
I invite you to sit comfortably, look up from this screen, and orient–let your eyes move as you look around the room. Let them rest upon the things they enjoy. What do you see? Hear? Smell? Taste?
Take your time. Settle in.
Notice your breath (are you breathing?). After your next exhale, let the breath pause. Then let it gently resume. What changes?
Notice your body. The feel of clothes on your skin. Your seat in the chair, feet on the floor. Let yourself rest; feel the chair, the earth, supporting you.
Look inside your body. What is happening under your skin? Be curious. You may like to close your eyes, to engage your interoception–inner awareness.
Notice your heartbeat. is it fast? Slow? What other sensations come forward? A tingling somewhere? Rushing? Maybe an image arises. Heaviness. Lightness. Ease. Tension.
Our tendency is to do something, to push away or “fix” the uncomfortable. For now, allow yourself to simply observe, with kindness and curiosity. Find a place of ease and notice that. Your feet, supported by the floor. Your breath.
When you feel ready, open your eyes. Orient again to the present moment. What has changed? What catches your eye?
You may like to stand up, stretch, move. Very slowly, let your body move as it wishes; lie down, take a nap.
Then come back to this.
What is Creative Intuition?
Intuition is a feeling, an impulse, the voice that says, run! or wait! It brings our notice to something random that turns out to be important. It’s the flash that lights our way, the connection that makes everything fall into place, the vision of what could be. We’ve all been there.
But how do we get there–reliably?
The problem is that our intuitive connection is often blocked by doubt, anger, perfectionism, fear, those cruel voices in our heads. So how do we quiet them? Those voices tend to be symptoms of unresolved trauma. As we resolve our trauma, its symptoms resolve as well. And our intuitive voice becomes clearer.
What is trauma? Ever feel helpless in the face of danger? Normally, when mammals escape a threat, we shake it off and go on with our lives. But sometimes we don’t get to shake it off. We get stuck in fight, flight, or freeze. That stuckness–-is trauma. Trauma disrupts our lives by us reacting today to things that happened in the past–-things that were too big, too much, too fast to bear.
Even seemingly small things can be traumatic. And adverse childhood experiences result in myriad health problems, often later in life. It’s a problem. Trauma lives in the body, like a thorn, so we need a body-oriented solution—like tweezers, for the soul.
And when it’s gone? It’s gone. It may take time. But it can be done. You can do it. But will it take away our creative inspiration, even if fueled by our pain? No. Our creativity–and intuition–grow stronger, richer, and more connected. As we become our True Selves, we gain confidence, self-worth, and compassion, free of doubt, anger, fear.
How do we resolve trauma? Looking inside with curiosity and kindness is key. The exercise above introduces a neurobiological, body-oriented approach to healing traumas and other stress-related disorders. It restores the authentic-self with self-regulation, relaxation, wholeness, and aliveness. It’s gentle, and it works. Tweezers, for the soul.
Ready? Let’s go.
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You can visit Alia Thabit at https://aliathabit.com/somatic-experiencing
You can visit Eric Maisel at www.ericmaisel.com