Open the Door and Truth Shall Enter

Open the door to your creativity

I learned a fantastic meditation exercise today that may be helpful to some of you creatives out there:

Close your eyes and get in a comfortable seated position.
Focus on your breath taking in 3 deep inhales and letting out 3 long exhales.
Counting down from 7-1 imagining the color it corresponds to
7 Red
6 Orange
5 Yellow
4 Green
3 Blue
2 Purple
1 Indigo

Create a floor of your choosing. It can be wood, cement, carpet, etc., then give it a size.
Create walls to be placed on the floor. They can be your traditional 4 walls or you can divide the floor into different spaces. It doesn’t even have to square! Again, the walls can be made of any material you desire.
Create a ceiling of your choosing and rest it upon the walls.
Now, we have not yet stepped into our room so create a door, grab the knob or handle and walk in.
Create windows on one or all of the walls if you like.
Look outside and create the vista of your surroundings. Perhaps there is a body of water or a forest. Whatever you like.
Now that you have created this space have a seat in your room on the same seat you are on right now.
With your conscious mind look into your heart and say to your heart that this is a safe place and it is yours.
Remain in this room for as long as you like and when you are ready to leave, go through the previous countdown backwards.
7 Indigo
6 Purple
5 Blue
4 Green
3 Yellow
2 Orange
1 Red

What did you create? How did it feel?

This exercise was brought to me by a fellow Life Coach, Charles. Charles learned this meditation from a highly regarded spiritual teacher and meditation guru Jose Silva who we sadly lost in 1999, but whose teachings live on and live well. Jose’s teachings surround the belief that we are each able to attain the fullness of life through tapping into our Alpha state through meditation. the Alpha state is described as the place in the brain that lies between wake and sleep and is where true healing occurs and questions are answered. The process of counting down from 7-1 using the colors as a guide is meant to bring us to the Alpha state; indigo representing our highest consciousness and red representing our Beta state or waking consciousness.

My experience with this meditation was a beautiful one indeed. My room was an expansive, gorgeous ball-room-like place with huge light wood planks to make the floor, and the ceiling of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City was my room’s glorious capper. Outside of my window on one side was the Caribbean Sea. Along side the white-sand beach were lush palm trees. On the other side of my room was a vast rainforest with green mountains on the horizon. When I sat down on my couch in my room and spoke to my heart, the minute I owned the space, these amazing ivy plants starting growing from the ceiling down to the floor! My breath was taken away by the beauty of it all! And then there was peace. When I came to, I was left with a smile on my face and the peace of mind us New York City creative types yearn for each day. And that’s when it occurred to me…

If you are an artist, or highly creative individual, use this meditation to create a safe supportive space to work in. If you’re like anyone I know in NYC, you don’t have much space to yourself. You need this room! I imagined using the room I created as a place where I can bring actual projects I’m working on to reflect and receive inspiration. Or a place to bring in a project I’m stuck on and then ask for clarity once I’m there.

We have come up with all kinds of books and workshops and seminars to try to teach each other how to live our wildest dreams. Perhaps it is the dream that’s the problem! How do we know that we are going after the things we were meant to go after? I believe using a gift like meditation to tap into your truest self is a surefire way to find answers to that question. Create your room. See what’s waiting for you there. You might be surprised to find the truth.

Get Your Own Genius!

I am what some may call a Creative: one whose work involves making something out of next to nothing. I identify with this description concerning my work as an actor and life coach however, I do not feel particularly creative as of late. Anyone else out there?

I have not stepped foot on a stage, or in front of a camera, or in an audition room in quite some time but the call to action haunts me. It haunts me every time I watch a moving performance or I read one of the scripts sitting on my bookshelf and I cry for the loss of time.

My motivation needs a boost and yet I feel overwhelmed by the thought of what if the creativity I have been recognized as possessing doesn’t show up when I need it?

Why is it that so many of us are afraid to do the thing we feel born to do? I am gripped by this fear so often. It forces me into a dark corner of my mind where I feel utterly helpless. I think to myself, “what if it’s no good? What if I don’t move my audience to tears or to roaring laughter and then they don’t stand up and cheer ‘bravo!’ for me?” “I’ll simply die!,” is my response…too myself. Simultaneously, I feel the urge to do it! That’s when I was reminded of an inspiring speech given by the woman of the hour Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, at a recent TED Talk…

Gilbert talks to us about the creative genius and how, until now, most have equated creative genius with ultimate suffering; how so many of the creative minds we call geniuses of the past have been self-destructive in most cases. We can all recall the tragic ending of such people as Janis Joplin, Van Gough, and Chris Farley for God’s sake. These individuals have been called genius for their creativity and have died of it, suggesting that those of us who have within us intense creative passion will eventually go insane and die! Are you cool with that? I’m not. I like Gilbert’s suggestion of bringing some distance between the creative and his or her genius. She mentions the ancient Greeks and Romans who first called this entity Daemon and Genius. The Genius was described as an actual entity that lived in the walls of the creative’s space and would show itself physically in order to assist the artist with their work. Beautiful!! That is the distance we need. How much of a relief can you imagine that being? When things go well and everyone praises your name, you can’t get too proud because you had a little help (from Genius). And when it all goes to poop, you can’t take all the blame (your Genius sucks!).

Have you ever seen someone who is most obviously under the influence of Genius? You know what I mean. It’s that moment when that performance, or book,or painting is so moving it is almost spiritual in its experience. It is truly Genius and oh so inspiring and oh so unpredictable! So what a relief to say, “that was Genius coming to assist me and now it’s off to serve another.”

So, how do we invite Genius to help us? I like to look at it as a practical process: ask! When you are feeling trapped beneath your creative passion and at a loss for what to do, first ask yourself if you are in alignment with that passion. Ask am I in alignment with my intentions and values. And then ask Genius to come in and assist because it is waiting for your call. Then be still and wait. And in the meantime, “do your dance” as Gilbert says. Keep dancing, keep writing, keep singing, keep acting, keep doing the work even when you don’t feel it because that is what you were born to do and that is where Genius lives.