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What is one of the best-kept secrets of highly effective, creative men and woman?
They know the secret of the Creative Break, and how to utilize it to optimize their performance.
They know that the Creative Break is a key step in the creative process. It replenishes our ability to think and act creatively on an ongoing bases without experiencing "burn out"?
A Creative Break is a time to shift our inner state, stop focusing directly on the problem at hand with the analytical, linear mind, and surrender the problem to that dimension of the Self from which all creativity and breakthroughs arise. It is this dimension that gives us direct access to the intuitive, non-linear part of ourselves from which our true knowing arises.
A Creative Break may last only a few minutes, and take any form --- meditation, reverie, a nap, a walk around the block or other physical activity, or simply occur when you take bath or a shower. Whatever allows you to access the creative intuitive state and open you to receive will work. Often it is the simplest of practices.
Albert Einstein once asked, "Why do my best ideas come when I'm shaving?"
"Daydreaming" can be a spontaneous access to this state of Being. Children often take this path, as it is a natural way of developing their imaginations and their ability to wonder about the world. Unfortunately, most formal systems of education do not take this dimension of learning into account. Students are repeatedly told, "stop daydreaming, and do something!" by both teachers and parents.
Whether your Creative Break is a few minutes in duration, a couple of days (the weekend), a couple of weeks (vacation), a few months or a year in length (a sabbatical, for example), it goes beyond merely the physical act of taking a break from what you are doing. The power and effectiveness of a Creative Break requires that you also take a break from what you are doing mentally.
The regular practice of taking a Creative Break from the doing-ness of action opens you to receive a gift of knowing, of inspiration, or of realization given by the silence of Being. This is what enhances, nurtures and expands your creative power and effectiveness. It happens the moment there is a shift of focus from Doing to the realm of Being ---the realm that is the Source of all creative action.
A Creative Break allow us to pause and drink from the infinite well of creativity, from which all ideas, visions, and possibilities arise. In that realm, there are two basic instructions:
1. Be silent
Most of the well-known breakthroughs in science, art and other fields of expression have come when the scientist, writer, artist, entrepreneur, etc. has tapped into this creative dimension, either intentionally or spontaneously.
The great American inventor, Thomas Edison, well understood the secret of the Creative Break, and utilized it daily. Whenever he would get to a place where he was stuck in his work on developing the phonograph, the moving picture, the electric light, or any of his other many inventions, he would sit in a specific armchair he had for the purpose, close his eyes, let his body relax, and intend to open himself up to receive whatever idea, insight or image would forward his work. Then he would release his attention from it, and go into a deep state of reverie or meditation. He would hold a handful of steel pellets in one hand over a metal bowl, so that if he went too deeply into his reverie, and slipped into sleep, his hand would release the pellets, and the subsequent clatter of them hitting the metal bowl would bring him back to conscious awareness. Edison would return from these daily inner journeys refreshed, with a new perspective or insight, and a sense of the next steps to take in manifesting his ideas and visions into reality.
Given that Edison was one of the greatest and most prolific inventors of his time, it is interesting that his main method of tapping into ongoing creativity is not taught to students in most schools. When I was in high school, all I was told was that Edison "took alot of naps," and would wake from them with new ideas. But the actual method, and why it worked was never pursued. This is not surprising, since the emphasis in most of my classes was on learning facts and answers, not on learning the ability tap into the creative realm. I knew better than to suggest to the teacher that we add naps to our classroom curriculum in order to better emulate Edison.
Sometimes, a Creative Break takes the form of a dream. The English writers Rudyard Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson both utilized the dream state to access the creative realm on a regular basis. They considered this practice the key to their success. Both of these authors stated that they did not write their books, as much as they simply wrote down what they received in their dreams.
Stevenson, particularly, described his technique in detail. Before his would go to sleep at night, he had a strong intention to use his dreams to tune into his creative dimension, and be open to receive. He took it on faith that the Biblical statement, "Ask and you will receive," was true. Then leaving a notebook and pen by his bedside, he would fall asleep, turning over the problem he posed to what he called "my brownies." He imagined them to be much like the elves in the fairy tale, "The Elves and the Shoemaker," who made the shoes while the shoemaker slept. In the morning, he would often awaken with the whole plot and dialogue of a book clear in his mind, as if already written. Then he would, as he said, "Merely take dictation." He insisted over and over again that he never had to figure out any of his stories or wonder what to write. He would turn it over to his "brownies." All of his stories and books, including such classics as "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," and "Treasure Island." came to him in this way.
Sometimes a Creative Break is designed for a longer period of time ---a few months or a year. At the university where I taught, it was a regular policy for faculty to be given a six-month or year sabbatical every seven years (probably inspired by the Biblical statement, "...on the seventh day He rested."). Many companies have set up similar polices in recent years.
I'm presently taking a summer sabbatical from presenting Core Wisdom courses and Mastery Classes. While I continue to meet with LifeCoaching clients on a limited basis during this time, my main focus is elsewhere---creating new drawings and sculpture, meditating, walking in nature, reading, mastering various modalities of energy healing, and appreciating the gift and miracle that life is. While I am not focused on Core Wisdom classes during this sabbatical, I remain open to receive.
This past week, new and exciting insights and ideas for expanding the power and effectiveness of the Core Wisdom programs have been appearing spontaneously. Changes in the design and structure of Core Wisdom that allow it to be even more impactful, accessible, and transformational for people are arising. That which is not necessary falls away. That which is essential is illuminated. Exercises and practices that allow participants a deeper, powerful, hands-experience of accessing their own Core Wisdom float to the surface of my awareness. I observe these gifts of creation with gratitude, wonder, and awe.
The Creative Break is not a human invention. All of nature can be our teacher in understanding the power of the Creative Break if we stop and observe the cycles of the seasons. Winter is the season when it looks as if nature is asleep, as if little is going on. Nothing could be more deceptive. In both the animal and plant kingdoms, winter is the season when all the work of creation is taking place in the invisible dimension, below the surface. There, unseen, creation is replenishing itself, preparing for the manifestation of creativity that bursts forth in spring. All the forms that later manifest in spring are already there in dormant, latent form. Winter is a form of Nature's Creative Break.
In spring, the formless is given form, its energy bursting forth in an explosion of colors, shapes, smells, and births of manifested creation. Summer is that part of the cycle in which the creative forms are allowed to grow and mature to their full outer expression. Fall is the aspect of the creative cycle where we can observe Nature following the route that Buddhists call "non-attachment." All that has been created is released back to the formless. In letting the past go, Nature makes room for a new cycle of creation.
Without the Creative Break that is winter, none of the other cycles of creation could exist. From the invisible realm, the visible arises and then returns. All forms are transient. It is the formless, timeless Source from which all form arises that is our essence and the true reality.
The four seasons of the year are the cycles of creation in action. In the mystical Kabbalah, the dynamics of these four cycles can be found in The Four Worlds of Creation. Every wisdom tradition has a vocabulary for this cycle of creation. When we operate consistent with its laws, our creativity continues to flow. When we know that all things pass, and allow room for the next cycle of creation, we are in harmony with the universe and with ourselves.
When we do not understand the cycle of creation, we become arrogant, lose our bearing on reality, and become attached to the already manifested cycles of creation----believing that we can have spring and summer without winter. That is like wanting to have a baby without going through the stage of pregnancy. Or like expecting the stock market to keep going up, as if the cycles of Fall and Winter are subject to our whims, greed or attachments, and can be permanently put of hold.
For human beings, the cycle of creation can occur many times a day. Each project we have, each vision we create, as its own dynamics, and is in different stages of the cycle. Within each creation, there are mini-cycles going on. When we are aware of this, we can stop and consciously and intentionally generate a Creative Break through meditation, reverie, dreams, etc. A Creative Break is a mini-Winter when we can go within and connect with the Source of our creativity to replenish ourselves and create anew.
Useful Tips for Short Creative Breaks
Short creative breaks are essential for maintaining your creative edge during the day. Here are some practices you may find useful:
1. At work, take a creative break a minimum of two to five minutes for every 60 minutes.
2. When you take a break, move your body, even if it is just to stand up and stretch, particularly if you have been sitting at the computer or your desk without getting up. You are giving your body a break, and allowing energy to flow rather than stagnate.
3. Uncross your arms and legs, close your eyes, and take three slow, deep breaths, relaxing fully as you exhale. Let yourself be in that relaxed state for a few minutes (even a couple of minutes can make a difference!).
4. Don't forget to release what you have been working on mentally. Even a couple of minutes of letting it go, can allow you to see it with a fresh perspective when you continue again.
5. If you are doing close work, where you are focused constantly only a few feet in front of you, look out a window so that you can focus on something in the distance. Whether it is a tree, a cloud, or a building, take a few moments to "get out of your head," and BE with that object. Notice its color and shape.
6. Walk over and touch something that is physically real (a flower, a wall, the grass, the rug, anything) and be aware of its smoothness, roughness, hard or softness, smell and temperature. Don't think about it! BE with it! You are allowing yourself to be fully in the present.
7. Meditate a minimum of 10 to 20 minutes a day. This could be in the morning, at lunch or in the evening. The advantage of the morning is that is sets up a context to operate from for the rest of the day, but anytime of day will work. If you like sitting meditation, do that. If you would rather walk than sit, do that. Trust your inner wisdom to know what works for you. Those of you who have participated in Core Wisdom can do the "Create the Day," and/or the "Complete the Day" inner practices.
-- Hal Isen
From Core Wisdom On-Line Number 20 - Jul. 22, 2002
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