Creative Path is a Life Path, The

Creativity is a journey with lots of ups and downs, twists and turns. To be creative, one cannot watch from the sidelines. Cathy Wild suggests that there is no set formula for the creative process; there are no steps 1, 2, 3, or A, B, C that guarantee a successful outcome. Each of us is unique, and Wild believes that creativity is our natural state, our birthright. Here she talks about the need to deeply understand ourselves as more than a mental activity. She describes her own process: “Doodling. I do a lot of doodling. [I do] anything that is process oriented that uses the body, that circumvents the thinking mind. . . While there is a period of discomfort when moving much deeper into the body memory, ultimately there’s an incredible sense of freedom because we’re making space in the body and in the mind for something new, because that memory or that experience that was unprocessed was taking up space and there is not an infinite amount of room. As we get older all these [unprocessed] experiences are stacked up in the body and they accumulate like dark smoke that inhabits the body, and there’s just less and less light, less and less room. And eventually all this unintended energy begins to form a block and gets in the way of healthy expression.” She goes on to talk about what to do when resistance comes up, as well as ways to honor our limits. She gives an example of how she turned “lemons into lemonade” when her publisher backed out of the commitment to publish her book. (hosted by Justine Willis Toms)