Send Your Organizing Mind on Vacation

Dear Carina,

How do I stay open, and in that creative space... when it really really really seems like I have "too much to do"... do I remove things from my schedule? Make the "doing" of life simpler?

* * * * * * *

Dear Friend,

Thank you so much for your beautiful question, and for christening our new site! Blessings to you and to all.

You naturally have that space of creativity within you. It is what created you and what continues to create. In asking to be receptive to it, you are making space for it in your life. Your intention is there and is welcomed by the Divine. It wants to awaken to what it's capable of doing, to the magic and joy that's available. It loves to delight in itself.

This is to say, J, that you ARE CREATIVE SPACE, no matter what else is happening. If your outside circumstances look very full, you can still maintain the easy buzz of relaxed and spacious life.

The paradox is that the space may appear while maintaining a very full life.

One way you can play with this is to feel your inner body periodically throughout your day. You can feel within your torso, the bottoms of your feet, your fingers (hands and feet are usually pretty easy places to feel life flow). You can do a gentle scan and feel sensations in different parts of the body. This brings you right here, into the openness of the moment, into alignment with creative source.

Another thing you can do is shift your focus from objects around you to the space between the objects, and, at the same time, feel yourself within your body. Allow your body and being to recognize the space that it is.

You may find in time that the opening of space in this way naturally leads you to a schedule that feels less full. You may find that some activities you used to enjoy or feel obligated to do don't seem as important anymore. When spaciousness becomes a priority, space will open. Or you may find yourself balancing skillfully the world of inner stillness and outer production. Our friend Jeff Klein wrote an article in his blog Working for Good - Making a Difference While Make a Living about just this sort of thing.

And YES, you CAN take things off of your schedule! You can go inside and know how in alignment you really feel with activities and you can see where you might make some space available for yourself. If productivity is the goal, I personally feel much more productive when I listen to myself and rest and make space for rest when I need it. If I take a full day off, I'm ready the next day. Or, maybe I take off another day and rest some more.

Turn your desire over to the Divine itself. You need not will yourself to do anything differently. You need not feel pressured, even to create what you want to create. You can ask in prayer for what you want and allow the Divine to move you. We don't have to be in charge. Surrender, my dear.

If it's more space and creativity that we want, we can ask for it. We can send our organizing mind on vacation from having to figure anything out. Then our deepest wisdom has space to arise, speaking to us directly from that place of joyful creation, our true nature.

Much love and crayons,

Carina

p.s. At the risk of adding one more "should" to your world, may I recommend Julia Cameron's renowned course, The Artist's Way, for really digging into what your deep desires are and for exfoliating imposed tasks. Even if you do nothing else from the course, the exercise of writing daily "Morning Pages" can have a space-making and creative effect in surprising ways. You may suddenly find yourself picking up that guitar. Consider yourself warned!

I also recommend the 1910 masterpiece, The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles. This tiny and truly rich book reminds us to work steadily but never hurriedly. The rushing, says Mr. Wattles, is born out of fear of lack. He also trains us in always working with the "Supreme Power" which is that same creative source and space that you ask about -- and which is in us at all times. Says Mr. Wattles, we cannot fail.

If other questions arise from this writing, please email nowstayopen@gmail.com.