I taught the Heart of Writing classes for more than twenty years. When people ask me about the main focus, I will sometimes laughingly respond, "I teach people to loose their minds." If we are going to really engage our creativity and expand our possibilities, we need to let go of the rational mind's need to figure things out, and allow inspiration, imagination and intuition to inform our decisions and guide our actions.
Much of the time, we try to figure things out with our minds, hoping we will be able to find a way to make the changes we desire. We make up a daily to-do-list based on what we think we should do to make things happen. Yet things often don't work as well as we would like. Our rational, linear thinking minds can only draw on past experience, so it leads us to repeat variations of the same pattern. We feel frustrated because we "think" we should be able to figure out how to change our situation.
Yet, the linear mind really can't create anything new. It's not designed to comprehend spiritual or creative matters. That's the domain of our imagination and intuition which connects us to expanded ways of knowing and being. Our being is connected to the field of Oneness or all possibilities, so it can guide us to situations we would never have considered from the limits of our thinking mind. This is the place creativity comes from. This is the domain of inspiration. If you want create newness in your life you need to access this deeper way of knowing.
Intuition and inspiration usually come as a soft whisper or a felt sense of lightness in our bodies. If our mind is busy chattering, we can't pick up these signals. When we do pick up on the guidance, we often feel fear because we are being asked to step out of our comfort zone. Our mind tells us that fear is protecting us, keeping us safe. Our mind wants us to believe that worrying is productive. Yet, have we ever solved a problem with worry or have we just dug ourselves in deeper?
If we really want to live a life of peace, happiness, freedom and creativity we have to learn to quiet our minds. Meditation can help. So can yoga or a walk in Nature. Using our breath to be more present in our bodies can bring us into the moment and the awareness that wants to be revealed. We have to learn a new language. One that involves a felt sense of knowing, an openness to being pleasantly surprised, and an awareness of synchronicities, the way the universe supports us and reassures us we are on the right track.
If I need to make a decision and find myself stuck running a mental loop, I use the technique of free-writing or stream-of-consciousness writing to gain clarity. I will often start with the question, "What do I need to know right now?" Then I'll write the answer as fast as I can. If you write fast, your rational mind can't keep up and you tap a deeper knowing. I always get much better advice this way than if I tried to "figure it out".
From this place of knowing rather than thinking we are able to take inspired action that supports our deeper desires and goals and we can experience miracles as we open to the help of the universe.