In the third, and final, post on my Stories of Gold conversation with Talia Dashow, we talk about the connection between creativity and spirituality. (Go to part one.)
Absolutely. I remember a simple moment when I realized that instead of being my biggest critic I could be my biggest cheerleader.
You listen to people’s stories and it sounds like people have huge epiphanies and something happens when you make a 90 degree turn in your life. And my experience is that it doesn’t happen that way that you make a one degree shift. Over time, one degree can put you in a very different place across an ocean. If you’re one degree off of where you meant to go, you’ll land in a different country.
So it’s like, Oh, I could be nicer to myself. I could notice the things that I’m doing right. Oh, I could realize that I’m human, and therefore will never be perfect. I can still appreciate the effort that went into it, even if it didn’t work right, right. Oh, I could focus more on the process than on the product. Oh, I could realize that my insides and my outsides don’t match, and other people looking at me aren’t going to realize how much of a mess I feel.
I had this conversation in college where a friend of mine said to me, you know, I wish I were as together as you are. I thought, I wish I was together as you are. Both of us turned and looked at this guy next to us. And we’re like, well, he’s, he’s got it together. He looked at us, and said, Me? I wish I had it together.
If you change just one degree in where you’re headed, over time you land in a very different direction. That reminds of a quote I found in the New Testament, where it says, large ships are benefitted much by very small helms.
You use creativity in order to help people get in touch with their spiritual side. What’s the connection between creativity and spirituality? And does that relate to the imposter syndrome.
When I am walking in the woods, or when I’m by the ocean or when I feel connected to the life force of the universe. When I say that it feels like that is that is being spiritual that is that connection to something bigger than me.
I feel like this is the way the universe whispers in our ears, and we have to make space to be able to hear it. If we’re too busy telling ourselves that we’re no good, we’re not going to be able to hear those whispers from the universe. This is how the universe gets their ideas out through us. When we can be receptive in those spaces of creativity and playfulness, we’re given a chance to hear something that’s more guidance than Gremlin. A chance to actually listen to what feels really resonant to us.
I’m reading the book, Alone Together, which is collection of all these different writers and their experience in COVID-19. As I’m reading this, I’m just struck by how each writer has their own experience and their own expression of their COVID experience. These writers have found their voice. How do you find your voice? Another way I think about that is in relation to musical expression. I have a friend who’s very animated when he plays the piano. Then I have my wife who’s more formal in her musical expression. They each have a different voice.
I think there’s a lot of room for emotion in music. My dad’s a professional musician, and he didn’t move a lot when he performed, but you could feel the emotion coming through the music.
I actually like an analogy to dance because I took some dance classes in college. I already knew I was a brain but I wasn’t sure I was a body. I decided that rather than taking an honors thesis I would take a dance class. I was hard. It would be hard for me to. But there was something about the energy of the dance that you could be technically perfect, but if your hand just went so far then the energy stopped at your fingertips.
But if you can have the energy stretch out past your fingertips, the energy moves through yourself, through the room, through other people. That was where the magic happened.
Wow, that’s a really great analogy. It reminds me of when I took Tai Chi, where connecting with the chi, the power of the univers, harnessed so much more power.
I am reminded of some studies by Amy Cuddy, who did a really neat TED Talk about your how your body and your emotions both feed each other. If your face is naturally in a frowny face, then your body thinks you’re upset, even if you’re not. You can trick your body into feeling like it’s happier by smiling at things. I was like, this feels stupid. Going out on my walks and finding things to smile at. Oh, there’s a bird singing. I’m going to consciously smile, because I hear the bird singing. After a while I found my walks were full of joy, and I felt so happy.
She also talks about feeling more confident through superhero poses. If you do that pose before a job interview, you can come across as more confident and more likely to get hired. You can hack your yourself in these ways. It’s a one degree shift that makes a difference in how you feel.
Those little one degree improvements can really turn things around.
We do things like progressive haiku where three different people will get the different lines of the Haiku. Or bad poetry prompts where somebody puts prompts in the chat and then everyone picks one and has to write a really bad poem about it. We doodle a shape on the page, and now it’s a map. Or maybe it’s not a map, maybe it’s a flower. We’re drawing and writing and doing a little bit of improv. All things we can do on Zoom, and it’s just for fun.
What makes for a richer story?
What makes for a richer story. I feel like my life has gotten richer, the more compassion I have for myself and compassion for other people. Coming at things from a place of compassion has made my story, my life, feel a lot richer. Before it was this is right that’s wrong, no possibility of crossing the line. That’s pretty dry. There’s not a lot of growth and change available there.
How are you adding richer stories to your treasury of stories.
Well, you know, COVID put a halt to a lot of things. But then my stories were in didn’t want to stop, which is why I started the creativity club. You know, I find, I’m always looking for ways in places where there’s a tribe of people that like my kind of quirkiness. If I shine enough of my light, they can find me, and I can look for their lights, and I can join them. And then we can make a richer story together than we could individually.
Another fantastic answer. Thank you for sharing your light with us today and for our viewers. Remember, each week, at noon Eastern 9am Pacific, we have these Stories of Gold conversations where we bring in an expert like Talia, in order to share their lights and help us to tell a richer story and reach our desired destination. Until our stories meet again, be the bright light in someone’s dark night.
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