Tag Archives: creativity

Soulbytes

Soulbyte for Tuesday October 27, 2020

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Strengthen the mind with positive affirmations so that the voices of old may recede and without issue no longer hold sway. Remind the mind that there are other things to think about besides the old patterns of thought, that there is creativity and magic, that everything is possible. Remind the mind to turn away from that which is negative and harmful to that which is positive and healing. The mind is pliable and weak, but the spirit is strong and flexible. Leave the old mind behind and join the spirit’s cause, to bring you to a new level of profound mystery, within and without.

Sending you love,

The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Jan's Blog

A Day in a Life: Life As Art Form

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I seek to achieve balance, all the time... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
I seek to achieve balance, all the time…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

As an artist and writer I fully experience my creativity. When I am creating something I am totally focused on what I am doing; I am in the zone. Everything else slips away and life is just me and what I am working on. Creative energy runs through me and I willingly go along for the ride.

I have a deep need for creative perfection, but I’ve also learned over the years to recognize when a piece is done, to instinctively know when it’s time to stop, to put down my tools and release myself from the creative surge and to also let go of my attachment to the work I have done. There is deep satisfaction in both the creative time and the release from it; there is balance.

I recently listened to a segment of The Moth in which a New York Times reporter ventured to Afghanistan after the ouster of the Taliban in 2001. He went in search of art. All forms of art had been banned while the Taliban ruled, everything from painting to poetry and music. For five years no one was allowed to produce art, to sing, to act, or even own a musical instrument; to do so would have meant arrest or even death.

By a series of synchronistic events the reporter met a man who was painting miniatures in the traditional style. He asked him why he wasn’t painting something new, expressing the energy of now and the future that was looming before him and his people. The artist told the reporter that he could not paint the future until he had completed the past, that his people were not free to move forward if they did not fully know their past. It struck me. The artist knew the value of recapitulation; only in fully knowing where he had been could he go forward with any sense of release or contentment. He knew he had to recreate what had been, as perfectly as possible, but he also knew that a time would arrive when he would leave the past and move on.

I have recently been pondering my own process of creativity. I notice how that need for perfection is so honed that it takes over. I become totally focused on what I am doing and often the rest of my life goes unattended. I do the minimum, but only what absolutely needs doing. I am often reluctant to stop at the end of the day, to have anything interfere. There have been times in my life when I was able to totally live the creative life, but as much as I loved it I now know that it was a life out of balance.

Needling thoughts that I must attend to the piles of clutter, to the unattended that gets forgotten after a while, had been stirring all through the winter months. I’d look around and tell myself that I had to attend to this pile of stuff and that pile of stuff. When I’m done with this, I’d say, when I’m done with that. Now it’s almost summer. I’ve been making inroads into clearing the clutter, into clearing also the energy stuck in that clutter, making a concerted effort to get rid of what I no longer use or need and to organize that which has value so that my life can flow better. My need for perfection is seeping out of the dedicated creative time into all the time now. Life, I have decided, is my new art form.

I still seek a certain kind of perfection, not to be perfect because I know I am not, but to achieve the impeccability that I have mostly assigned to my creative endeavors. Where before I might leave dishes in the sink to do later while I head off to do something creative, I now finish the kitchen clean-up before I turn to something else. I do it with impeccability. I want to walk into a beautiful kitchen later in the day, to feel good in my home, to experience a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that is energetically fulfilling. In so doing I learn the value of completion of one task before beginning a new one. This is what the Afghani artist was telling the reporter; one must fully complete if one is to be fully energetically available for new creative endeavors.

I saw this heart shape in the floor tiles, an almost birdlike and beelike form flying past like freed energy... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
I saw this heart shape in the floor tiles, an almost birdlike and beelike form flying past like freed energy…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

I’ve noticed that even in clearing out my cluttered closet I achieve a sense of renewal. The more I clear, the more space I create, space in which energy can finally flow freely and naturally without obstacles or blockages.

In clearing, I create a new reality for myself, more balanced and in alignment with the energy of the universe. Each time I clear something I feel myself become more energetically alive and available for what life has in store.

Try it; it really works,
Jan

The story I heard on The Moth: A Time of Hope

Messages from Jeanne

#649 Innocence Through Creative Expression

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Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Over the past few days you have given us three important words of guidance as we do our inner work: Patience, Perseverance, and Kindness. I see that these words apply equally well to the world outside of us, and that even as we do our inner work it is also up to us to change and act differently in the outer world. I believe there is a tremendous desire for meaning. I don’t know why now seems to be a more spiritually oriented time than ever before, but that’s the way I see the world, as full of people searching for meaning. I see the success of the film AVATAR as a perfect example of just how desperate people are to understand, perceive, and experience life as deeply spiritually interconnected and driven. I believe that everyone truly does seek a connection to energy beyond the self, whether it is called God, Goddess, or any name that, simply translated, means: unconditional loving compassion.

That being said, how do we, as spiritually seeking humans, no more connected than anyone else, do our inner work while we also spread our awareness of interconnected energy outside of us? How do we really connect, on a purely energetic level, without fanfare, ritual or hocus-pocus so that our world can more fully envelop and accept, without question, the kind of energetic interconnectedness exhibited in AVATAR? Many people already experience and tap into this energy, but how do we find what we really seek: a world interconnected, fueled by universal energy, spiritually based, everyone feeling, breathing, and acting from the same energy source?

We know it exists. We know it is possible. Why is it only in fantasy that we allow ourselves to accept such an idea? Why can’t we get beyond the veils that won’t allow us to cross over into speaking our beliefs? I know these are a lot of questions, but what they really come down to is this: Why are we so stuck?

My Dear One, your queries are fully accepted. Though you ask quite an array of meaningful questions, and I feel your frustration, I must boil it all down to one word. This one word is the reason for the dilemma that you describe in the world and this word is at the root of every human being upon that earth, but it has been lost to many. That word is INNOCENCE!

Until innocence can be revisited, accepted, made acceptable, and claimed as the most necessary aspect of life upon that earth (in balance with utter clarity of the reality of life of course), the great interconnectedness that you speak of and so desire will not arrive. This is the fourth word I give you as you do your inner work. Though you do not ask for it in quite that way, it is a most necessary component of your process. For, without innocence, how could you ever allow for the truth of energetic connection to be spoken? How could you admit that you have felt and allowed the self to explore the interconnected energy if you could not access your own innocence?

What is innocence? I do not speak of innocence as unknowing or as naive thinking or acting. No, not at all. Innocence is utter knowing. It is the inner voice, the stone-cold sober voice within each one of you that says, “Come on, you know what to do! You know the truth. You see the way things are and the way they will become! You see the truth!”

This voice is inside you. You were born with it. You have heard it your entire life. You have also probably chosen to ignore it for a great part of your life as well, to push it down and tell it to be quiet because you have not been ready to listen to it. You have perhaps responded to it by saying: “That’s ridiculous!” Or you have feared its straightforward talk, for it frightens you to have to confront the challenges it presents you with.

So, My Dear One and All My Readers, in order for your world to truly tap into the greater interconnected energy that your creative ones develop into elaborate films, books, artwork, music, poetry, and even expressions in physical form of movement and dance, you must seek what they have tapped into: their innocence! You must learn to trust it, to trust that it is real.

As an artist and writer I know what you are talking about. As a very young, extremely withdrawn child I was often afraid that I would be ridiculed for my art. It was, however, the only way I could express myself. Although I was often dismissed as strange, unusual and eccentric, far more often I received understanding and heart felt reflection in return for my young daring to express myself in words and pictures. People actually thanked me for my creative endeavors to express something that they were unable to tap into except through my work. I know that it is often hard for people who haven’t tapped into their creative side to find an outlet for their innocence. How can they do that?

They must first get beyond the idea that they have no creative energy or talent, for it resides in everyone upon that earth. It is the one hidden jewel, the gold at the end of the rainbow that all seek. It is the buried treasure and it is innocence itself. Denial of innocence is denial of creative energy, and that is the first great uncovering that must take place in order to tap into it. The very fact that you are human, that you are comprised of energy, means that you are a creative being. Your personal creative energy will be expressed in a very personal manner. Accept this truth of creative energy inside you: It exists!

The next step in releasing it, in accepting it into your life, is to remove all conventions of expression. There is no structure that houses your creativity, no format already in place, no barriers except those imposed by the world around you. Your creative energy burns inside each one of you, seeking outlet. You must ask your self: “How has my creative energy been expressing itself? In good ways or in destructive ways?”

You must ask your self what it feels like. Is it angry? Is it happy? Is it known, or unknown? Is your creative energy a part of your life in a large way or a small way? Is it so disguised that you do not recognize it, for it comes out in costume, sneaking out in the dark of night or in coveted secrecy? (I felt that Jeanne was speaking of dreaming in this statement, as well as any other meaning that might personally apply. -Jan) Does your creative energy push you to do outrageous things, simply to let you know it exists? Is your creative energy so stifled that it rumbles and makes itself known in disgruntled fashion? Or is it simply bored to death and has gone to sleep until you finally ask it to wake up?

You see, My Dears, none of you will live in an AVATAR world of spiritual awareness until you allow your creative energy, your innocence, to become a part of your current world; your inner world expressed in your outer world; and this is how you must seek to bridge the two worlds: through innocent creative expression. Know that all need this, that all have this, and that all will reciprocate your own daring expression with an inner awakening of their own creative innocent self, though they may not admit it or recognize it at first. Your creative expression, based in the innocence of truth and knowing, will awaken some recognition in others, and this is how your world can truly begin to change.

In order to turn from the darkness one must be able to find the light. The light is within each one of you. Your creative energy is stirring right now, seeking expression. Do not be afraid of it. It is your innocence seeking a means of communication with you and, through you, with all beings. Become a conduit of this creative energy. It is what will connect you to the greater energy outside of you, not separate, but the same.

You are all creative beings and you are all innocent. Every one of you. Seek it within and you will find it. Express it without and you will achieve connection. And with such connection you will enact change, but it will be change based in spiritual energy, universal and personal at the same time. This is how you will change the world.

NOTE: I realized, as I typed this message, that this channeling is my creative innocent self in full expression. I sometimes feel afraid of putting it out there, even as I once did my early art work and poetry, but mostly I have gotten beyond that. So, I offer it to you, some of my creative energy in expression, so that you too may dare to find your means of expression and connection. Imagine how different the world would be if everyone was out there being creative, in a positive way! From personal experience I know that creative expression really does work as a means of changing who we are and how we connect with the world. Tomorrow, look for Chuck’s creative expression in his next blog! And good luck with your own!