Expect creativity

 My mother’s husband, and good friend Swami Guru Sam, has a penchant for Vulcan logic that would put Spoc himself to shame. He has recently taken on the unenviable task of being my literary coach to help me through the creative minefield known as writing a novel. Yesterday Swami Guru Sam said to me “You possibly think of your creativity as something that just happens – but by constant questioning and visualisation you create an expectancy that you will be creative and you give your subconscious something with which to fulfil those expectations. Part of the process is that you never ever leave yourself with nothing to do – it is a process of constant creativity – so if you don’t have any answers today regarding what you did yesterday, then you get on with some other aspect (guided by what ever else there is to do). Eventually your sub-conscious kicks in and give the answers for that bit – but in the meantime you’ve loaded up more visualisations and put in place further expectations – so the process continues…”

Swami Guru Sam has a point about expectations. I’ve always seen my imagination as an arbitary product of daydreaming, something that could not be controlled, rather than a powerhouse which can regulated. This makes a lot of sense to me and by changing my attitude about the workings of imagination, I’ve already started to improve my ability to tap into my own. So rather than hoping inspiration will happen, we need to make sure it does. Expect creativity.

Swami Guru on the Mountain Top

My sister has a title for people who know everything - Oh Swami Guru on the Mountain Top. My family – all members of the Swami Guru on the Mountain Top assembly – has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to creative energy and so I dedicate this section to them, because without their little nuggets of wisdom and encouragement I could not continue.

Pay close attention to what those close to you are saying, because they might know something you don’t and believe it not they’re in a better position to evaluate your work than you are.

The first nugget comes from Oh Swami-Guru sister. She says “Write as though no one is watching and no one will read it, not even yourself. Write it and leave it for a week before reading it”.

Perhaps if I followed this advice I might not feel so self-conscious about seeing my own words on the page.