Hello,
It's Jane.
And on this track,
I'm going to answer the question,
Is creativity always slowing?
And what's led me to do this one is because I've just had many questions and comments around feeling stuck.
I don't know whether you've ever felt stuck,
But what I want to say is you can never truly be stuck,
But you can be in a stuck state of mind,
Which is a low state of mind.
And it feels like to you and to me,
Because I also have experienced that.
I do experience it,
And it feels like I'm stuck,
But I'm not,
And you're not.
We're not.
We're not actually stuck.
What happens is when you're in that state of mind,
You're predisposed to stuck thinking,
Which means you'll feel stucker or more stuck.
I don't know that stucker is a word.
And it all seems so terribly real and very,
Very solid,
Like car tires spinning in mud.
Can you relate to that?
Because I absolutely can.
So,
What to do?
Well,
I read a piece,
I read a bit of research recently,
And it had a few ideas which made me think about what I wanted to add.
It's an interesting write-up,
And it shows a link between a productive state of mind,
Which is referred to as Che,
C-H-E,
Calm,
Happy,
And energized,
And a person's performance.
So,
It shows the link between a productive state of mind,
Which they refer to as Che,
And a person's performance.
But the solution offered to shift from a low state of mind to a productive one,
From their point of view,
Does require some thinking and mental effort,
The very things that are least appealing when in a low state of mind.
Anyone else notice that?
And I guess it depends how low the mood is,
Because there are some things that probably you would be happy to do,
And some things I know I just do not have the emotional bandwidth.
And that's really what it is.
When we're in that state of mind,
That low mood,
We just don't have the emotional bandwidth to do certain things.
So,
It's like a person sitting in a heated room.
They feel uncomfortably hot.
They get up,
And this person puts on a jumper,
And then a jacket,
And then a winter coat.
Do you think this person feels less or more uncomfortable with the extra layers?
More uncomfortable,
Right?
Yes.
That's how it can be for us when we're in a low mood.
Asking us to do things to get out of the low mood actually feels really heavy,
And actually just makes us feel more of in a low mood,
More stuck.
And as it happens,
And I always teach what you can test in your direct experience,
Which I think is really important.
So,
As it happens,
Our minds are designed to effortlessly self-adjust back to a state of clarity,
Creativity,
And joy when we leave our moods alone.
No mental hurdles required.
Leaving our moods alone means we don't judge the mood as bad.
We can see that we're in a low mood.
We don't judge it as bad.
We don't think about our thinking when we're in that kind of mood.
We simply feel.
And the reason why we don't think about our thinking in that kind of low mood is because that thinking is usually not worth paying attention to.
We'll just start a cycle of jumping on a particular thought train,
And it just makes us feel worse.
So,
When we're in the low mood,
That's a good sign that we don't really have to go into our heads at that point.
We just stay in our bodies.
So,
When we do this,
We don't judge our mood.
We can still perform well over our mood.
And as I've mentioned,
I call this staying in your body,
And I use it a lot throughout my work,
Staying in your body.
And particularly,
If you are highly feminine like I am,
Then you definitely,
That is definitely where you want to stay.
Eventually,
The mind slows down and our backed up thinking starts to flow again.
There is a space for a new thought to come through,
A fresh thought.
So,
When you take your attention off your thoughts of stuckness,
You may find yourself heading out for some air before a walk.
You might find yourself calling someone up for a catch up or for a chat,
Or you might find yourself taking a deep breath or taking a few minutes to pray or having a drink of water,
Or you may just get a bright idea.
And often,
This is just instinctive.
In fact,
I want you to,
Because I've asked you to test it in your experience,
I want you to see if you can notice when that's happening.
You're shifting out of a low mood because you've stayed out of your head,
And notice what kind of thoughts come through or what you find yourself doing.
So,
Instinctively,
You'll know what to do,
And it may simply be getting on with the job at hand while remembering that the experience is temporary,
Precisely because it's about your thinking,
And eventually,
Your head will clear.
And this might be an easier route back to calm,
Happy,
And energized than trying to do anything to change things.
And you only have to observe small children to see that play out.
You see they change from one state to another.
One minute,
They're kicking and screaming,
And the next minute,
They're skipping along with their best friend.
And you as the parent are looking at them and thinking,
What just happened there?
So,
In the same way that it happens to them,
It happens to us,
But we tend to judge the moods,
Low moods,
As bad,
And therefore,
That keeps us trapped there longer than we really need to be.
So,
To answer the original question,
Is creativity always flowing?
Yes,
It is,
Even when we feel stuck,
Because it's not an actual,
Real thing.
It's just that we are in a low state of mind,
Our thinking is backed up,
And just like when we need to go to the bathroom to empty our bodies,
Our mind needs time to empty itself out as well,
Particularly if we've been revved up with lots of thinking,
It just needs time to empty out,
And then we find ourselves back in that calm,
Happy,
And energized state,
And we don't have to try and do anything about it.
And in a low mood doesn't mean that we can't perform well,
We absolutely can,
But the key is to not go into our heads and just to stay in our body and to be kind to ourselves and not take too much on.
So,
In a low mood,
For example,
Someone might not want to go to a party,
It might feel too much of a burden,
There's just not enough emotional bandwidth to be able to handle that.
Someone like me,
I probably would go out to a social occasion because I enjoy those,
And that would distract me from the low mood,
It wouldn't take me more into the low mood.
So,
It is good to know yourself and know your limits,
But now that you understand what's happening,
Hopefully you will enjoy your day-to-day much more.
I'm passionate about this work,
I've studied the body from a scientific point of view,
Particularly with regards to food and health,
But I've also studied fashion and I've studied the form,
The body's form,
Particularly the female form,
And I just joined the dots.
And through my own personal study and spiritual exploration,
I can see this.
So,
That's why I always say,
Test it in your direct experience,
Because it can always be tested.
And I love people to have more agency,
More access to their internal creative resources,
And this is just another opportunity to embody a truth,
Something that you can see for yourself,
Test for yourself,
And then you will have more agency,
You'll have more peace,
And you won't get so worked up about things,
And also you definitely will never be bothered by a low mood,
And you won't judge it as a bad mood,
Because you just realise all it is,
Is your thinking is backed up,
And as soon as it starts flowing again,
You're going to be back to calm,
Happy,
And energised.
Thank you so much for listening.
Journey well.
