How to Cultivate an Endless ‘Well of Creativity’
Creativity as Birthing Process...A 'Soul Forge' offering
‘Living life as an artist is a practice. You are either engaging in the practice
or you’re not.It makes no sense to say you’re not good at it. It’s like saying, “I’m not good at being a monk. You are either living as a monk or you’re not.
We tend to think of the artist’s work as the output. The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world. ― Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being
A ‘Stable Bridge’ to The Muse
I rarely experience impediments in my creative flow, and cannot remember the last time I faced the hairy frothing beast commonly known as ‘writers’ block’. If anything, my biggest challenge at times is being ‘too creative’, and getting scattered.
It wasn’t always this way, as I have had times in my life when pouring out the creative juices felt akin to sucking down sand in an arid desert.
Like there was nothing except grit.
Although, I would say there is still room for improvement in my own life, today the juices of creative expression are more resplendent than they have been thus far in my life. I of course encounter periods when I must ‘rest’ from a particular form of creative expression so the channels carrying the flow may settle and consolidate, but I can typically create on demand.
Demand, may be too strong a word. More so, I have taken the time to cultivate a state in which I am in near continuous contact with the ‘muse forces’.
This can be cultivated.
I want to share with you some the ecological configurations that you can foster in your own life, to encourage a seemingly endless stream (provided we recover sufficiently), of creative capacity. It’s not easy, but it is simple.
In many respects, it entails ‘building a bridge’ through both our inner and outer worlds which leads directly to the ‘muse’ on a consistent basis, and encourages an ongoing current of inspiration.
While this list will not be ‘complete’, as this is only foundational. Foundations get you 80% of the way there. I find that most people are stifled by one of these elements more than others.
Creation as Sacred Responsibility
My favorite interpretation of the word inspiration is ‘To Breath with God’. What a beautiful sentiment yes? Like a flowing breath, to be inspired is to be moved by the rhythm of divine forces.
Consider how obvious this is: God/Divinity is the creative force of the universe, and when we are inspired to create, we become a surrogate for the divine to move through us into the world and help ‘complete’ creation.
A major part of the human purpose is creativity. Each of us carries within us a co-creative capacity that is a divine inheritance and the universe remains ‘incomplete’ without our direct engagement and willingness to be inseminated by inspirational forces.
To create is sacred responsibility.
1. Impregnation: Cultivating The Erotic
If we are both vessels and channels for birthing creative inspiration, then one can ask ‘how to do we become impregnated with this force’?
Through sex of course (I mean, we all know how babies are made yes?).
‘Sex energy is the creative energy of all geniuses. There never has been, and never will be a great leader, builder or artist lacking in the driving force of sex.’ — Napoleon Hill
What Napoleon Hill is referring to is not so much the state of being ‘horny’, or ‘lustful’ but more so the wild force of nature known as Eros and eroticism. This power grips and moves us as humans, and also draws forth the bee to the flower. Eros is a force that transmits aliveness, vibrancy, vitality, imagination, creativity, and carries a sense of danger, longing and risk.
So to clarify…
Within the scope of this piece, I refer not to the physical act of sex ‘necessarily’, but the state of being animated by the libidinal creative life force itself: to live an erotic life. For as Max Frisch says ‘there is no art without Eros’.
The more we can become swollen and pulsating with it, the better from the vantage point of creation; for is it not sex itself that creates a life in the first place? The more sexually and erotically alive we are at baseline, the more fertile soil there is to be inseminated by inspirational force.
We can cultivate this by:
Cultivate eroticisms: This can be done with lover/s yes (obviously), but also through raw ‘non sexual’ sensuality (absorption in scent/sight/sound/taste/touch), flow states in nature, psychedelics, the sensations of deep physicality, ecstatic states of meditation, trance states and shamanic journeys, energy work, toning and chanting.
Fill your life with inspiration: Enjoy articles, books, podcast, songs, videos and pieces of art that trigger feelings of inspiration. Work that really lights you up like a radiant night sky.
Prioritize your sexual vitality: It is one thing to ‘have sex’, and it is quite another to be sexually vibrant. We can all recognize this vibrancy in humans who shimmer with a glow of animal magnetism, but consider the intoxicating scent and colorful hue of the aforementioned flower that attracts the bee in the first place, or the wild beauty in the plumage of a peacock.
*For men interested in doing this, I invite you to consider The House of Vitality Materials.
Gestation: Nourish Yourself as Much as Possible
Creation is a somatic process moving through your biology. You cannot seperate it from the body. And no…sorry, but asking chat GPT to write an essay for you is not a creative act. Get real.
Real creativity is a liminal process by which we connect to the underlying fabric of creation itself, and act as a ‘womb bearer’ for the idea that seeks to be birthed into reality. We gestate it, and feed it without a spark of our essence, that it grow within us.
“If you have an idea you’re excited about and you don’t bring it to life, it’s not uncommon for the idea to find its voice through another maker. This isn’t because the other artist stole your idea, but because the idea’s time has come.”
― Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being
Creation is about birthing.
Because of this, it requires resources. While there are a variety of aspects to this, I find that one of the most overlooked is biological. Consider how many amazing artist rode waves of heroin, alcohol and cocaine to great heights only to crash and burn at a young age. We call them ‘creative juices’, because they are juices.
They are primal yin waters.
Most people treat themselves like shit. If you want to be creative, treat yourself to the best degree you can possibly stand.
Eat a deeply nourishing diet (and take supplements)
Prioritize sleep and periods of silence
Get movement you can relish in consistently
Expose yourself to nature daily
Get massages (or give yourself massages)
Meditate in some form or fashion regularly
Fill your life with things that bring you joy
We could add way more to this list, but these are ‘basics’. They are obvious for a reason. Do the the obvious. Treat yourself like you would a dear friend, lover or child.
This helps prepare the womb space.
*From an energetic anatomy perspective, the actual womb space that gestates your ideas is in your abdomen (whether you are male, female or anywhere in-between). Paid members, remember you have access to the abdominal cultivation course.
3. Delivery: Clear The Channels of Expression
Energy moves between phases of storage, and expression. The creative act by it’s very nature is ‘expressive’, meaning that is a ‘yang’. Yin energy moves inward and condenses but yang energy moves outward and expands. You have to be willing to ‘get it out’.
Gestating the infant within is like a rain cloud gathering and swelling with the ‘yin of water’, while ‘getting it out’ is the lightning, rain and winds that release the built up energy.
What begins as a liquid yin process of primal incubation, becomes a deeply yang act of bringing forth something from inside you and ‘delivering’ it to the outer world. This occurs through an ‘opening or channel’.
‘Channels or openings’ in this regard can mean a variety of things.
Let’s focus on two.
Opening Inner Channels
Inner channels are the ways in which we relate to the creative energy seeking to emerge through us. If we stifle it or block it, then we have an ‘obstructed labor’. Clearing inner channels has a variety of elements.
To keep it simple lets focus on three.
Embodied: This is about how energy literally moves through your body (or doesn’t). Is your physical body open enough to channel energy? If it is not, then you are going to eventually run into trouble. Either the system will feel overwhelmed, take ongoing damage or simply shutdown to protect itself.
Disciplines like bioenergetic therapy, dance, qi gong, tai chi, yoga, mobility, movements culture and stretching all aid. Paid members see the Embodiment Module.
Fear: This is bit more fraught with nuance because it has much to do with how you perceive the creative act, how it ‘should’ be and your role in it. In this regard, the most common impediment in our culture is ‘perfectionism’. We are afraid of creating garbage, making a mess, being judged, not getting it right, not being seen and trying but failing.
-Find some set of psychosomatic tools that allows you to release the fear, triggers and memories feeding a fear of creating, being seen or needing to be perfect. I have my own in depth methods for doing this (which are beyond the scope of this article), but some useful methods are EFT, NLP, or hypnosis.
-Purposefully create large amounts of low stakes work on a consistent basis for a period of time. Example: wake up every morning and write out 3 pages of absolutely whatever comes to mind. Share it with no one. It is about clearing out the pipes not getting a Pulitzer. Get use to creating with nothing on the line.
Conceptual: To be truly creative requires us to engage in an uncertain process, that by it’s very nature will eventually create a mess. People will judge you. You will be seen. You are putting yourself out there. It’s dangerous, euphoric, anxiety producing, challenging, rewarding and more. It’s fucking ‘labor’. Accept it, embrace it, or don’t and forget about being creative.
Opening Outer Channels
Outer channels are the actual pathways that your creative flow takes to move into the world of form and substance.
This is craft.
Most of us are much more creative than we realize or ever actualize in part because we have never taken the time, effort and energy required to establish outer channels.
Go wide before going deep: Explore different fields of expression for god’s sakes. be like the butterfly that flits from flower to flower, tasing of the nectar before settling on the one’s you like. Write. Dance. Sculpt. Make love. Learn to flow with steel maces. Engage in martial arts. Create podcast. Make video. Do graphic design. Draw. Sing. Trade in the stock market (yes it’s a form of creative expression). Cook. Tell stories like a bard.
You may find hidden talents just waiting to be expressed through a vehicle never would never had thought was for you. Often, your soul level gifts can take on a variety of different outer expressions once it’s internally owned.
Find your crafts, then go deep: Once, we have sufficiently explored the diverse landscape of potential creative acts, then it’s time to refine and deepen that ones you do enjoy. Practice your skill. Learn about it. Study it’s in’s and out’s. What’s official ‘good practice’, and what is not? Then, rules be dammed, break them on purpose. Learn from those experiments, keeping what is useful and letting go of what is not. Try different styles, formats and formulas. Keep iterating. This is how you track the spirit of creativity.
Get into flow state (the zone) with your craft: whatever your craft is, get into flow with it on a regular basis. Establish the parameters required for flow state. Ask yourself what routines, practices, conditions and crafts facilitate flow more reliably for you. Prioritize it and do it. Simple. For it is in flow that we unlock possibilities we did not know existed: creativity.
When we do this, we create a river that never runs dry.
‘A river of material flows through us. When we share our works and our ideas, they are replenished. If we block the flow by holding them all inside, the river cannot run and new ideas are slow to appear. In the abundant mindset, the river never runs dry. Ideas are always coming through. And an artist is free to release them with the faith that more will arrive.’ - Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being