Using creative play to recreate oneself

 

A Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity discussion topic

Copyright 2006 by K. Ferlic,   All Rights Reserved

 
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Using creative play to recreate oneself
Understanding the influence of age
Determine existing judgments and biases
Determine new aspects of life
If we choose to recreate ourselves in any way
Fruits of the chaotic state of the creative process

Creative play is one of the most powerful tools and quickest ways to recreate an aspect of our life if not our entire life. Creative play makes it possible to create the freedom to sample a new area of life to determine what our initial reactions are to that new area without the internal and/or external influences, judgement and expectations. Or, creative play can be use to see and determine what internal influences and judgements we possess about that aspect of life, let alone sampling it.

Understanding the influence of age (Top)

Which ever way we choose to use creative play to recreate ourselves, we start with focusing our mind to create that playful state of a very young child to explore options. In doing so, what often arises are all the reasons why we are not free to enter that playful state. Simply exploring and working through that which arises often give us sufficient freedom to recreate many aspects of our life. In fact, dealing with what arises as obstacles to freely enter creative play is a sufficient recreation of our life. Many of our issue and problem go away in working towards creating this type and kind of play. A method of returning to creative play is provided in the topic, “A practical method for returning to a state of play

In any case, once we create the conditions to step into creative play, we can couple that play with clear intention and begin our explorations to recreate ourselves.

The “goal” we wish to achieve is the freedom to literally play with, and sample, all the aspects of an area before we have form any judgements about what is we are learning and experiencing. When in creative play, our focus should be allowed to wander to the most interesting thing or the next thing we need to experience. Our attention is drawn to the energy that is calling for attention at the moment to fulfill our desired intention. We need to remain free to be drawn to the next area as it catches our interest and are free to go there. No matter how good an option may appear to be that we discover, we need to be free to explore other options before we settle in on a particular option. Although the time that we spend in any one area or on any one aspect may be a while, we nevertheless must be free to bounce between many different areas settling on none. Then, over time, we slowly start to be drawn more and more to fewer and fewer areas. Finally we settle into, or rather focused on, a particular aspect of this unknown we were exploring.

We need to be aware of the primary difference between youth and age. In youth there is less fixed focus of our attention and awareness because we do not have a particular creative end in mind. In aging, we become fixes and rigid in our views of life and no longer explore life as that young child. We tend to focus in on a solution much earlier. When in creative play we need to be aware of this fact and allow ourselves to continually sample different options to see what is the best option. In time, we will being to see why one particular options is better than others. Often the option we end up choosing is not the one we would have selected earlier. We being to see how limited and biased our mind really was about what the solution should look like. One of the most challenging things to face in creative play is to keep the options open and not select any one option too early.

Determine existing judgments and biases (Top)

Normally the existing judgement and biases we have do not reveal themselves until we find ourselves in a situation that call us to response. Rather than being free to see the situation for what it is, normally we response with our judgements and biases. To explore and determine existing judgements we have the easiest way is to create some type and kind of metatheatric performance around the areas or aspects we wish to explore. The metatheatric is simply some type or kind of theater type performance were we creates situations which call forth our hidden response patterns. It is a meta-theater because what we seek lies beyond the theatrics we do. Rather we are seeking our response to the theatrics. In this way we can reveal almost any hidden pattern we desire. It all depends on how intense we make the theatrics.

One application of this approach is if we desire to move into some new aspect of life. We can then create scenarios which are similar to what we may encounter to see how we response and how we feel about what we face. We can then look at the feeling which are being generated to see if we feel an expansion or contraction within our being. If our feelings are generally expansive, the area we explore may be a good direction to go with our life. If however we feel contraction, we may wish to either consider other options or explore why we have the feelings we do.

Determine new aspects of life (Top)

A second way to use creative play to recreate ourselves is to explore areas of life that we have never considered either as options or did not know they existed. Here again, metatheatrics can be used. We can create scenarios for different aspects of life we have never explored and allow ourselves to explore in the theatrics. Use of simulations and the like can be very effective.

Or, rather than use created theatrics we can give ourselves permission to attended some limited training and/or opportunities for experience. For example, we may think we wish to be a fire fighter. It can be arranged to attended some field training with firemen to see if it is really something we may wish to do. Thinking fighting a fire is fun but having to dress up in all the gear and actually try and fight a fire can change our perspective very quickly.

Of course, there are many things we can get use to doing over time even when we initially don’t like them. However, what is sought here is where there is a natural draw and a feeling of expansion is present in what is done. When we are moving in a direction that aligns with what we incarnated to do, we will feel something quite different than other feelings. We simply know this is what we need to be doing or at least moving in the directing that is providing the feelings even where our mind tells us we are doing something it is not necessarily finding enjoyable.

If we choose to recreate ourselves in any way (Top)

If we choose to recreate ourselves in any significant way and/or access and release our unlimited creativity, we will enter a chaotic state in our life. This state is symbolic of the mythical phoenix burning itself in the fire of its own nest. In essence we become the Phoenix. For those not familiar with the Phoenix Myth, the Phoenix was a mythical bird that would consciously consume itself in flames to be reborn new from its ashes. It is discussed in the topic “The Phoenix

If we surrender to the chaotic state of creation and allow ourselves to be with the chaos, over time we will gain a focus with this state. Within this focus we will have a unique understanding and experience of the unmanifested realm within the Source of Creation and what it means to us. Yet, as discussed in the topic, “The problem of mind and the experience of the Source of Creation - the trap of mind” although we experience the Source, we will not be able to effectively communicate what we experience to another. If we let go all that mind thinks and believes we will find ourselves creating a new creation based on our own unique understanding and experiences of who and what we are.

This seemingly chaotic stage is as thought we are the scarab sampling, eating and digesting all that is laying around us only to metabolize this material into our being and out of our being flows a new creation, a new life. When we figure out what we need to eat from life that really sustains our being, we focus in on that activity and spend less and less time exploring. Again as the phoenix, we rise from the ashes of the understanding we have gained in the destruction of our enculturated self, that nest we build representing who we think we were that we found so much comfort.

The deeper the exploration of the unknown, the longer the chaotic process seems to take for there is so much to explore. However, usually what happens is that our mind enters the picture. We begin to judge or place expectations on our efforts rather than to explore in pure play for as long as it takes. By having to meet the deliverable that our mind or an external influences places on our actions, we never find what is the natural and preferred focus for any situation or area of understanding.

Fruits of the chaotic state of the creative process (Top)

To fully understand an unknown, we must be allowed to play in that unknown as that young child being drawn to whatever arises as the next item if we are truly going to understand what that unknown has for us. The only role mind really needs to play is to hold a fixed and unwavering focus on why we entered the creative state in the first place. That fixed focus will guarantee that we do not get lost in our exploration and we will recognized what we need when we find it.

Two things get revealed in this seemingly chaotic exploration process. One is that what we finally focus on within the process tells us a lot about ourselves and what lies within our being. It reveals to us as to how we have channeled our energy such that our the outer world reveals our inner choices. That fact that we do not stay wondering around endlessly in this chaotic state is because of the conscious and nonconscious focus we hold. We need to realize that it is to what we are eventually drawn, tell us about the deeper composite intention we carry. Our conscious intention is not normally the only intention we carry. We normally do not wander in this state of chaos endlessly. Eventually we do end up focusing. We can use that on which focus to reveal our deeper desires. We then, of course, need to iterate the process as we reveal our nonconscious intentions. We can continue to peel the layers of our nonconscious intentions if we wish or simply go with that on which we finally focus.

What is interesting is when our mind wants to find focus but the intention we hold keeps us in the chaotic process exploring. It is here we feel we will go, or are, crazy. Yet, in the end, it is only a prolonged exploration of the unknown. When we do find what we seek in the chaos, life will fall into place. Until then we can expect to remain in the chaos. On this point, we need to be careful for what we wish because it is our wish and desire that may be keeping us in the chaos until we can find out how to create what we desire.

This particular fact is the main reason why the conscious journey to explore creativity which gave rise to the Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity material ended up taking so long. It was initially thought the second half of the journey was completed after approximately nine years. Yet it continued until the minimum set of experience necessary to meet the initial intention was met. The topic, “
Why the second half of the journey took nine years” discusses this aspect and the illusion of mind and the story it creates about what unfolds in our life when we do not have the minimum set of experiences to understand what we experience.

Another way of saying this is that we are multidimensional. Some aspect of our being will remain in the chaos of creation for as long as it takes us to get the minimum set of experience to understand how to create what we desire where as other aspects of our being may appear to be completely normal. Sometimes the chaos will switch from one aspect and/or dimension to another or spill across affecting our entire being. In essence, some aspect of our being will be in chaos until we understand how to create what we desire.

The second is that we do become focused within the chaos. In understanding that we have become focused we can see the reason for that focus and that reason lies within our being. We being to see how we created the focus that we have and how and why we have removed other options from our life. We begin to learn how we have created our experience.

The final point of which we needs to be aware is how safe we feel to be able to explore. For a child, a play room is quite different than a living room, a kitchen or some other type of room. As children growing up, we become aware we have a different range in the permission that is given to us to explore depending on where we find ourselves. So too with us when we attempt to enter a creative state. Different environment provide quite different permission for exploration. Where that permission comes from is another question. It may come from an external authority or own past as to what we are, or are not, allowed to do and/or where we have, or have not, be injured and/or harmed. What we need to understand is what is keeping us from being free to explore is whatever we are drawn to explore.

Related topics
A practical method for returning to a state of play
Future lives - be careful what you wish for
Why the second half of the journey took nine years
Ultimate goal of our journey into play

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