Читать книгу The Way of Nowhere: Eight Questions to Release Our Creative Potential - Nick Udall - Страница 22

wanting evidence

the gardener nurtures each bloom with mindful care

Wanting evidence

While the allied energy in the East of the inspiring-innovation wheel is inspiration, the distorted energy that holds us back is attachment.

We meet this aspect of ourselves when our knowledge of a particular subject or our perception of our social position prevents us looking at life with fresh eyes. ‘Expertise’ is great when it informs what we are enquiring into and supports those with whom we are working. Yet the energy of the expert can also be deadening. Instead of being able to play with possibilities, the expert may want evidence that conforms to a pre-existing pattern of thought and very quickly dismiss anything new. So we become attached to what we know or who we think we are and unconsciously fearful of the unknown. Ultimately, we become attached to an ego-driven view of ourselves in which we see ourselves as superior to others because of our very expertise.

When we become attached to a particular view of ourselves, we often seek to reaffirm our position by surrounding ourselves with like minds and come to only really value their opinions. Thus our attachment keeps us separate from people who do not share our worldview.

In this mode we tend to shut ourselves off from non-analytical information, take on an air of aloofness and struggle with emotional contact with others. Instead of becoming more connected, we become isolated and retreat into ourselves, hanging on to our ‘expertise’, our rigid worldview, with ever-greater degrees of desperation.

When we allow this distorted energy to dominate, our life tends to lose its magic. We fall into the trap of doing what we have always done and are increasingly dismissive of anyone who suggests another way. Yet this is often what is most needed.

One way of overcoming this energy is to learn to recognize when it arises. We can learn how it feels to be ‘wearing’ it and familiarize ourselves with the situations that trigger it. We then have the choice to take it off by calling forth our allied energy in this direction – our uniqueness, our intuition and connection with the creative life force.

And this is a valuable aspect of the wheel. It is much easier to invite a new energy to arise within us than to stop being overcome by a distortion. It is very easy to say, ‘Stop coughing,’ but it is altogether something else to stop. Instead if we concentrate on something else, in this instance our unique talents, then we might forget about our cough and stop coughing. This is true in every direction of the wheel. We need to awaken our ally in order to diminish the influence of the distorted energy.