One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: the tidal flow of creation

A free feature for you to print off and read. By Kathleenruth

 

EVER noticed how sometimes it seems to be one step forward, two steps back? We experience an idea, feel enthusiastic about it, maybe write or outline a few plans… and then what?

Well maybe that part is different for each of us depending upon our experience of creating. What if, during that first flow of creative ‘juices’, in our excitement, we talked about our ideas with everyone we met and then, just as the creative tide is on the turn, and we experience the first ebb, the first element of doubt begins to creep in. Someone might say to us: ‘that’s a stupid idea’ Oh oh! Now what? Do we continue? Do we rest a while until the flow picks up again? Or do we give up completely?

I know I have done all three. Many times over. Which has led me to observe something about my own creative pattern. I seem to experience a huge leap forward. A quantum leap. I am filled with ideas, enthusiasm, energy, inspiration, it seems to flow, flow, flow, and then… nothing. I now believe this is the most important phase of the creative process which I now call my gestation or germination phase. Imagine those seeds of creation are just floating through the universe, drifting on the breeze. They probably land in more than one mind at a time and begin their inspiration. (Ever noticed that things often get ‘invented’ by more than one person at the same time, like television?) So here are our seeds of creation drifting through the ‘breeze’ of the universe, in the universal consciousness, and they are received by more than one mind. The receiver then puts his or her unique ‘spin’ on the idea. Never worry that your ideas seem the same as someone else’s, because it is what you do with it that counts. Each received idea becomes an expression of that person’s uniqueness. The ideas, energy, and inspiration that arrived with the seed give it its initial momentum.

And then there’s a resting phase. Nothing appears to be happening. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. The initial seed has joined with an individuals creative intention. There has been a union. There has been a conception. There has been a union between the seed of ‘what if?’ and the individual intention: ‘I will do it’ or ‘I will make it happen’ or ‘I desire this’ or ‘I will bring this forward into the world’ Choose whatever words work for you, but you get the point. There has been a union between idea and intent.

There is no accident that I am using an analogy here with reproduction: fertilisation, conception, pregnancy, birth, and then nurturing the young until he or she can stand alone. These are the 5 essential stages of creation. Whether you are painting a picture, writing a book, starting a new business or creating a relationship, you will be able to recognise these 5 stages.

Using this analogy we can see just how important the gestation period, the pregnancy, is! Did you know that athletes no longer train every day? They now alternate between different kinds of training because it is on the resting days, not the training days, that the body builds muscle. Did you know that if you have had surgery and you have a wound that is healing, your skin cells will heal and reproduce much more during the night while you are sleeping? If ‘nothing’ ever happened during the winter, where would spring suddenly come from? Never underestimate the germination period. It is wonderful to experience the initial energy of creation: the ‘orgasm’ of union, the active phase of creation that leads to fertilisation of our ideas and allows them to take root. Yet the so-called passive phase where we are not consciously creating is where so much of the growth happens. It is where we have handed the project back over to Nature.

We do our little bit. We set the intention. Then we co-operate with Mother Nature and allow her to do her work. Then we step in later, to do our bit again, when we are next called to do so. We will know when that is. Nature will invite us. We will feel the energy surging back again and we will just know the time is right to return to a particular project. Like every good Midwife, we step back and allow Nature to do her work but always keep an ear open for when we are called again.

"When we take that one step forward we say to the Universe:
Yes! I intend this, and I am willing.”

WE can so easily lose heart when nothing appears to be happening, yet if we can see it as a phase in a perfectly natural creative cycle it takes on a different perspective. Look at some of your current creative projects. What stage of the creative cycle are you in?

• fertilisation (orgasm/energy/excitement)
• conception (initial planning/outlining ideas)
• pregnancy (gestation/germination/ resourcing/networking)
• birth (launching the project)
• nurturing your project/business until it no longer needs you working in it (Overseeing what needs to happen to allow it to eventually stand alone).
  

Every project I have undertaken has followed this same pattern: from writing books to designing a website to building a business. There is the initial thrust. Then that quiet phase, the ‘doldrums’, when it would be so easy to give up. When nothing seems to be happening. When I could so easily question myself: “Am I doing the right thing here?” Yet at the same time, that is when I am probably making the right connections, gathering all the right information, and I am probably unaware of it for the most part.

Nature is doing her part and sending me precisely what I need. Before I know it I have all the resources in place to move forward and it feels so easy. I wonder how I ever could have doubted myself. And there is a clue. It is not my ‘self’ that is doing it. It is when we believe we are doing it alone that it all feels so overwhelming, because on one level we experience a universal truth that we couldn’t possibly do it alone. Imagine feeling as though we had to ‘do’ something during pregnancy for our infant to grow? We would be exhausted, and we need our strength for the birth: the launch of our project! We need to trust that holding the intention and taking the first steps to initiate the project are sometimes enough, then we need to be able to relax and read the signals that Nature sends us, so we know what to do for the birth!

When we learn to trust the creative process: that Nature will step in and do her bit, and all we need to do is wait for the right time, and listen out for the signals, then Life really can flow easily. Hold your intention and let Nature show you the ‘how’. One step forward, two steps back: we take one step forward to make our commitment with Nature. That is our part of the agreement. We are showing a willingness to step into our Life purpose. When we take that one step forward we say to the Universe:
“Yes! I intend this, and I am willing.”

Then we need to take 2 steps back: one to invite Nature back in to do her part, and 2, to get out of our own way and allow her to do it! One step forward, two steps back. Life’s creative dance. Are you dancing with your Life yet?

Kathleenruth Hadikin
October 20 2005

To recieve more articles like this from Kathleenruth Click HERE to join our mailing list

Click HERE to arrange an introductory coaching consultation