Capacity for creativity

By resting and listening to our bodies we beat the flu and found the capacity to get out for some creative exploits. Time to change the narrative that expects us to be on the top of our game always.

We arrived at the Potted Glass Studio early on Friday evening for June’s First Friday’s creative experience. Mandi and Cathy were in the final throes of setting up. Cathy was stirring the Thai vegetable soup, Mandy laying out trays and boxes of seashells, glue and round hardboard disks with small mirrors.

The fact that we were there at all on a particularly cold evening said that we had some capacity to get out, be with others and oil our creative juices. At last. After weeks of flu collapse it was good to get out.

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Creative capacity

We nourished ourselves with the spicy soup and homemade bread while others started arriving to do the same. Then we settled in to design our mirror.

“Make sure you lay out your design first before you start glueing,” warned Mandi, gathering faux pearls, ivory scallop shells and other interesting items around her. The potter of the Potted Glass duo, Mandi has an eye for design and the delightful.

Matthew suggested starting with mussel shells, fanning them around the mirror. Chantal grabbed anything with colour and laid them in the gaps. When Cathy placed a box of abalone shells on the table the mussel shells were summarily moved to the side so we could play with the more delicate, ivory coloured shapes.

“Make two mirrors,” urged Mandi.

But we didn’t have the energy, the headspace, or the capacity for one each. We were happy to collaborate on a single mirror.

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Cathy (left) and Mandi, the creative duo who enable others to find their creative capacity.

Collaborative capacity

Eventually we had something we were happy with. Layers of shells, buttons, bits of hard coral and shell edging covered our board and surrounded the mirror. We liked what we had done, it was full, bright and textured. The thought of removing it all to start glueing was a little bit overwhelming, even with the photo we had taken of it.

“I know,” said Matthew, “Grab another board and mirror and let’s reproduce what we have there on it. Removing the shells as we need them.”

It was a great idea, with our limited capacity we were forced to be creative in another way, and that’s what we did. The adhesive we started with was thick and hard to work with. It posed a messy problem until we changed to wood glue. Then we worked together.

Matthew glued while Chantal picked out more colourful shells and shell fragments off the tray. Purple, deep blue, gold, pink, green and mother of pearl pieces grew in little piles that Matthew took from to glue into place.

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Our aloe hedge flowers attract many nectar-loving birds and bees during the winter months when other food sources are limited.

The way we feel makes a difference

We listened to the chatting and gossip in the background while we focused on our design and got into a flow. Mandi had put on some catchy beat music and we swayed and bopped as we worked.

Finally after a good two hours or so we were done. In more ways than one. Although still quite early, it was time for us to go home. We were not quite out of the sinus woods yet and our bodies were telling us to retire to bed.

On our way home we reflected over the evening.

“We could never have done that this time last week,” remarked Chantal, “The chatter, the music, the clutter, the mess, it would have been too much for our senses.”

“It really does make a difference when you are not feeling well, how over sensitive your entire body is,” agreed Matthew.

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The early and evolving stages of our shell mirror.

Not normal, natural or healthy

So much about the way we show up, are able to engage, work and think, is built on how we feel. When we are not feeling physically well it has a particularly marked impact. Modern life, however, often does not tolerate taking time out to recuperate, expecting us to be up and about in a day or two.

The work environment is also suspicious of ill health. Do not dare be off for too long, but also do not come to the office full of sniffles, coughs or sneezes. It is a double edged sword if you are not psychologically strong and confident enough to take the time needed to get properly better.

If you are a single parent with little support structure it can be even worse. You have to get up and make breakfast, dress the kids, get them to school, run the household and earn your salary.

In his book, "The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture", Gabor Maté says:

“... much of what passes for normal in our society is neither healthy nor natural, and that to meet modern society’s criteria for normality is, in many ways, to conform to requirements that are profoundly abnormal in regard to our Nature-given needs—which is to say, unhealthy and harmful on the physiological, mental, and even spiritual levels.” p. 7

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Our Super power programme this week was a refresher. An opportunity to revisit the powers of moving, breathing, listening, touch and sight.

So what do we do?

So what do we do? What, as a society, can we do to support each other to better health and well being? In the face of an overwhelming leaning towards the white coats and pharmaceuticals on the one hand and a superhero complex on the other, it is clear that society and humans would be better off creating a new story for themselves.

For one thing we need to change the narrative that being on the top of your game is the norm and an expected outcome always. Only humans who think they are “superior beings”, and primarily rely on their cognitive ability would think that this is acceptable.

A case in point is a recent speech by Roger Federer, widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players to grace the court. In his speech, he shared a telling statistic: he won only 54% of all the points he played in his singles matches—and he played 1,526 of them!

If someone like Federer won just over half the time, then surely we, as lesser mortals, can take the foot off the accelerator a little more and allow ourselves to “lose some points”.

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Apparently we also grow cats in our veggie garden!

Create a new normal

Everything is cyclical: days, months, seasons, tides. Nature works in cycles with time for growth and abundance, and time for slowing down, rest and hibernation.

The creative process involves sparks of inspiration, swathes of activity, then moments of quiet reflection, backing off to observe and process. Music is created because of the spaces between the notes.

Coming out of our head and into our body and listening to the language of our heart is what we are consistently asked to do and yet we don’t. It is only when we are sick that we might be forced to and even then maybe not.

We need to let our children play freely again. Let them run and play with no expectation or outcome. They need to play with other children, face to face and not through a screen. This is where the process of learning to listen to how we feel begins.

As Gabor Mate says in the closing pages of his book:

“It all starts with waking up: waking up to what is real and authentic in and around us and what isn’t; waking up to who we are and who we’re not; waking up to what our bodies are expressing and what our minds are suppressing; waking up to our wounds and our gifts; waking up to what we have believed and what we actually value; waking up to what we will no longer tolerate and what we can now accept; waking up to the myths that bind us and the interconnections that define us; waking up to the past as it has been, the present as it is, and the future as it may yet be; waking up, most especially, to the gap between what our essence calls for and what “normal” has demanded of us.” (p. 497)

We need to create a new normal, for ourselves, our family and our communities. Bravely, courageously, wilfully. Not because it’s some new fad but because we need to so that we not only survive from day to day, but create the capacity to thrive—consistently.

Until next time.

Yours in feeling,
Matthew & Chantal

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