Creativity and Spirituality: the Enduring Path: inner critic

12 January 2014

Who Am I Really? We Define Ourselves Through the Distorting Mirror

A great deal of what we think about our self, how we view our self in the world and whether we think we are "good" or "bad" people, sensitive or insensitive, successful or a failure, compassionate or selfish is defined by viewing our self from the outside looking in. This includes the self-defining stories that arise out of family and culture; they are the creation of ego, whose home base is fear.

When we define our self through these distorting mirrors... and they really are distortions...we see our self from the outside looking in.

Once you begin to ask the questions, the outer world, ego-view of self begins to take second place.
“Who am I? Who am I really? Who is the me beyond the mask, beyond the thought, beyond the roiling emotions, beyond family, beyond culture, gender, race and religion,? Ask questions such as these and the outer world, ego-view of self begins to take second place.

There isn't a person alive who doesn't view herself or himself through a distorting mirror, to a greater or lesser degree. The heart, the soul and spirit call us to turn from this distorting mirror, if necessary to smash it with the sword of the Spiritual Warrior, and walk into the embrace of the one you truly are.

06 December 2013

How To Use Writing To Support Your Inner Journey

You don't need to be a novelist or even keep a journal to use writing to support your inner journey. There is something transformative and freeing about putting pen to paper and allowing your feelings to flow through the pen. Something magical happens.

Wisdom often shows up. Surprising creativity abounds. The key is to allow the flow to happen without your Inner Critic rising to the fore and questioning your ability — even your right to write!

How Does Writing Support Your Inner Journey?

Writing opens deep knowing. It releases unexpected wells. It offers you insight into a you who you may not even suspect existed.

Writing on the Spiritual Journey Can Be Used for Many Things:

Finding Your Life's Purpose

Memoir

Writing to Heal

Connecting to the voice of True Self

Prayer

Wisdom

Hearing your heart speak...

"Thank you, Emily, for the step into magic shadow world of the me who can write about things she does not know she knows and then be amazed at all she can learn from herself." ~Jen Simson

Explore Emily Life Coaching

02 December 2013

Why Creativity Is a Journey Into the Dark!

In Hamlet, Shakespeare said, "Nothing's either good or bad but thinking makes it so." So tell your Inner Critic to put that in his pipe and smoke it when next it tries to stop you from following the passion of your creativity!

Creativity is a labyrinthine journey that takes us deeper and deeper into our self. With every twist, turn and seeming two (three and four!) steps backward for every step forward, we learn more, let go more, fear, love, cry and dance for joy.

Creativity is a journey into the dark and it must be.
Why? Because as creators, we are manifesting the unmanifested.

Where is the unmanifested found?

Where are seeds found?

What gives birth to dawn?

From where does the butterfly emerge?

What is the warm, encompassing darkness that gives birth to every living thing?

The answers are all around us.

Creativity is BIG STUFF!
Don't underestimate the power of the journey! And if you feel at times, and we all do, that you're not up to the task, think of this: if you don't risk the journey, you risk even more.

Explore The Cycles of Creativity

24 March 2008

Labyrinth as a Metaphor for the Creative Journey

Each of us has a Minotaur caged inside us.
In the ancient myth of Ariadne, her half brother, the Minotaur, half-man, half-beast, is imprisoned at the heart of the labyrinth and fed the brightest and most promising youth of Athens in sacrifice each year. It is Ariadne, muse and guide to truth, who gives Theseus the golden thread that leads into the labyrinth, where he slays the Minotaur and then follows the golden thread back into the light.

Each of us has a Minotaur caged inside us. We, too, feed this beast the best and brightest of our creativity. In the workshop, we will use writing and other creative methods as Ariadne's golden thread!

Using the image of the labyrinth is a bridge into the deeper mystery of self is a powerful creative experience that shifts our relationship to self and allows us to hear our true voice.

"Back into the labyrinth, where we are found or lost forever." ~W.B. Yeats

22 February 2008

Guidance for the Inner Critic

Love and honor yourself always and you will do fantastic work.

Here is a letter that Irene Kessler wrote to her Inner Critic. I was so moved, I asked if I could reprint her.

Dear Inner Critic,

What you have said to Irene is not reality and harsh and there is no reason to be harsh. The best things happen when you come from love.

Love and honor yourself always and you will do fantastic work. You have it in you and you see that in bits and pieces of writing you have already done.

Before you write, love yourself. Fill your being with compassion for yourself and the world. Shine a light on yourself and the universe. Know they are there to help and guide you and that is the strongest force there is. Nothing can override it. Go and write my child, and be happy.

21 February 2008

The Inner Critic and the Creative Unconscious

The Inner Critic is terrified of the creative unconscious because it is the home of feelings, emotions, images and it is chaotic and unexpected.

The Inner Critic likes order and loves the status quo, which is antithetical to the creative unconscious. That's why if you "fall down the rabbit hole" the Inner Critic won't follow you! Free of the Inner Critic, you have the possibility of experiencing real creative freedom and passionate stories awaits you.

Only then can the creative dance begin!

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