Creative Leaps

As I write this we are transitioning from summer into Autumn, and this always feels like a great time to reflect on the year just gone and think about what we might want to create and experience in the year ahead.

The slipper socks are on, the blankets have come out of their summer hiding place and there is that slight chill in the morning air, inviting us into the season of falling leaves, slowing down, letting go, and of the harvest.

I am reflecting on a busy summer full of family and friends and new experiences which have been so rich and heartwarming. It has also had lots of ups and downs of energy and emotion which reminds me that this human journey we are all on is so diverse and varied and teaches us so much - and it is so good to experience all of it.

Speaking to friends and clients there has been a theme emerging over the last week or so, about endings and beginnings, personal and professional and this question about when do we know when its right to start something new, or take the next step?

A friend was telling me about their experience of starting new things. Both she and her husband are entrepreneurs. She was sharing that they both have very different approaches to starting things. She does her prep and researches what she is doing and then before she is ready she just takes the leap. Her husband does lots of preparation, and more preparation, and then some polishing, and she would say perhaps procrastinates. Some might say he does a series of creative lunges - still requiring effort and trying on for size - but stopping short of a leap. Of course, he does make the move in the end, they just have different ways of doing things. She would also say both of them have the usual excitement/fear/imposter syndrome that is common when we do something new, but it doesn’t stop them taking the final leap.

This resonated with me. I can think of many things I have done over my life where I have not been fully prepared, or trained, or experienced but I have just taken the leap. (with the corresponding butterflies in the tummy!) There have been other things where I have definitely procrastinated, sometimes this has drained all the life out of the project (and me) and it never happens, other times (with hindsight) I was right to take my time, limber up and do some creative lunges, before making it happen.

It is also true that if we don’t ever set the intention and go for it, we won’t ever know. And this is the message that keeps coming through at this time, for me and those around me. It’s also ok to leap or try things out (lunge) and then decide its not for us, because the only way to really know is to feel it and experience it.

This is a really important distinction - the difference between thinking about it, and taking a leap in our heads - versus - jumping in and trying it on for size with our hands and our hearts and seeing how it feels - is an important thing to recognise. The former is not reality. The former is an imagined reality. You could also say it is a form of visualisation, which can for some be a very powerful thing - but we still have to take action to bring it to life. We cannot possibly know what it is like to take the leap by just pondering it in our head. Yes we can do research and weigh things up and do a pros and cons list etc but we cannot possibly know. The future only becomes the present when we step into it and act. The present is where knowing really happens.

The future only becomes the present when we step into it and act. The present is where knowing really happens.

When we step into the future and take action with the whole of our being, head, heart and hands (if you are a painter especially!), we tap into all our senses. This brings us intelligence and feedback from many different sources. This feedback is vital, and provides us with a much better sense of what is working and what is not and we can adjust and flex what we are doing in real time. This is a much better predictor of success than just logic and reasoning alone. As I write that, I am sitting with the power of this reminder.

So some people ask - how do I know what I want to leap into? I just don’t know what I want to do next.

There are a couple of things that might be helpful with this.

Firstly, (and I know some of my clients do this as a regular part of their practice), it is good to tune into where you are. Not where you think you are - but where you actually are. This time of year is a great moment to do this:

• making space to reflect on the year that has passed, what has actually happened?

• reviewing what has gone well, what you have loved,

• what hasn’t perhaps gone as you have planned,

• what you have learned etc

• what are you celebrating, (and yes this can be as small as mastering keeping a tomato plant alive!)

But also and crucially, tuning in and asking yourself: -

• how it has felt to live life along the way - the ups and downs, what do you notice?

• what have you loved that really energised you and you want more of?

• what has drained your batteries and you want less of or might do differently?

And most importantly tuning in to how you feel now, in this moment:

- What feels present for you? What ideas, feelings, creative nudges are calling you?

- how is your body feeling? What would they like you to know?

- what are you drawn to do instinctively? Slowing down? taking action? making soup? scaling up?

- what do you need to let go of? How might you create some space for the next step?

Sometimes when projects have finished or we have purposefully allowed things to come to an end, a space appears - often the space we have been craving. And then something funny happens. We get an urge to fill it. Rather than enjoy the space, look up and out, rest in the quiet and ease of the moment - we get busy trying to fill it.

This can lead to us gathering all sorts of things - or trying on lots of new roles and projects to fill the void. Sometimes this leaping about is helpful and we hit on something that is the perfect next thing for us. Sometimes not so much! It is good to have eyes for this - are we leaping from a place of uncomfortableness or fear, or are we creating something new and fresh and leaping into something that aligns with what we would love to do next?

How can we tell which it is?

We will know in our body, it will speak to us, it will give us clues. Does this feel easeful and effortless or does this feel tense and require lots of working things out in our heads? Recognising that we can simply “await further instructions”, is a great thing to see, providing our system with the perfect opportunity to rest, play, explore and enjoy what is present until insight taps us on the shoulder or we find ourselves doing the next thing.

Insight can occur at any time, and, if we have a very full mind, we are limiting the opportunity and space for fresh thoughts and ideas to reveal themselves. So taking the pressure off and recognising that generally speaking if we knew what “it” was, we would be doing it - we can let the “must work it out” thoughts go and just leave some space.

The other piece that I have found helpful with this is something I have picked up on my creative journey which is the idea that “inspiration will find you working”. I have found this super helpful. When I have finished a series and I have so many ideas bubbling that I don’t know what is next, I remember these words and just make sure that I am working on something (lunges again!). Inevitably in the process of working, playing and experimenting, ideas form and inspiration comes and at some point I know where I am going next.

Wherever we are on this cycle of creativity, whether personal or professional projects, we can be sure we have been here before. We have taken leaps, we have practiced our lunges, we have taken a pause and we have found ourselves creating something before our minds even had a chance to interfere. Because of this, we instinctively know what each of these responses feel like - this will guide us.

So whatever way we like to create, from avoiding the leap, through to leaping before we are ready and everything in between - we’ve got this. There is no wrong way - no failure - just a beautiful intelligence that is coursing through us in every moment, that knows just how to respond, re-callibrate and realign us with what we are meant to create next.

Happy Creating!