I’m all fired up from spending the afternoon with a friend yesterday and talking about creativity, writing, and books. I love hanging out with other people who are actively engaged in their own creative process, daring to live their lives, and daring to live their full creative potential! The energy that arises organically from a conversation between two people on this path is astounding. I left the conversation with renewed enthusiasm for two projects on which I’m working as well as clarity about some decisions I’ve been trying to make for a month about two books I’m writing.
Yesterday afternoon, I was doing some research online related to the decisions that I made in conversation with my friend when I ran across something that reminded me of a creative project that I had considered doing four years ago. I was in process of moving, settling into a deeper commitment in a relationship, and changing my work then, so the project got dropped, but for a moment yesterday, I got clear about wanting to pursue it again. Within two hours, out of the blue, I received a call from someone who invited me to do exactly the kind of project that I had been imagining. I love it when this sort of synchronicity occurs. I’ve seen it time and time again: getting clear about our intentions opens the door of possibility.
Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist, coined the term synchronicity and used it to describe meaningful coincidences. I could take up an entire blog entry writing about synchronicity, and perhaps soon I shall, but for now, suffice it to say that Jung felt that synchronicity was about a an alignment of unifying forces in the universe. The moments of my life in which I’ve spent following the slender threads of synchronicity in my life and work have proven to be the most meaningful, enlivening, and creative moments of my life. And it seems that the synchronistic events happen most frequently when I’m living my own creative potential and stirring up resonant energy with others who are on the same path.
As artists and creative people, we must learn to navigate all of the seasons of our creativity. I receive emails often from friends, colleagues, or potential clients who say they are creatively blocked or stuck in some area of their lives. I hear from some of these same people amazing ideas that they aren’t pursuing for one reason or another. I hear from yet others who are in jobs that are killing their spirits and wearing them down. There are so many resources available to us. There are countless articles, therapists, coaches, workshops, or classes that can help us to move through creative blocks, manage or break free from what holds us back, and support us along the path.
There are plenty of people out there who will whine and commiserate with you about the circumstances of your ambivalence, indecision, or staying stuck, and staying in those conversations will likely help you to more deeply feel the rawness of your inability to change. But there are also plenty of people who are choosing to move forward, to create changes in their lives, to walk toward what they love in the face of their fear, anxiety, and self-doubt, and talking with those people will help you to do the same. Life is short. Don’t spend your life stuck in the muck! Stop wasting your time on the Internet in superficial disconnected relationships, watching TV, or spending your days randomly doing meaningless things. Get clear about your intentions for your life, and spend your waking hours doing things that are congruent with your intentions. Spend time with like-minded people who are on the same path. Open the doors of possibility in your own life. Are you ready to begin living your full creative potential? What step can you take in that direction today?