Freedom Through Detachment: An Exercise in Creativity

Good day.. I hope that this week finds everyone feeling positive. Today I would like to expand more on the subject of creativity and how it relates to growth and self awareness. At last we spoke of the matter, I laid out the premise that we are creative beings and that everything we do is a an act of creativity and the desired outcome, at this level was to become more conscious of the process of being creative.

Becoming a more conscious creative being requires that we practice the act of detachment. Why? Because we need the space to be more aware. This is where the the virtue of detachment comes in.

What is detachment as it pertains to being and living more creatively? Detachment is the practice of not allowing what you know or think you know to interfere with the act of being.

Here is an exercise to help experience what I am talking about. Take a piece of paper and a pencil and take seat at a table. Take a few deep breaths and then just let your hand with the pencil just write all over the paper be it words, scribbles it doesn't matter. What does matter is that you do not think about what you are doing just let it happen.

Difficult isn't it? For most people in the beginning it is. If you are a musician try this:
Go to your instrument I'll say piano for now since that what I use for this exercise. Sit at the piano and raise your arms in the air. Count to 3 and then let you hands just fall on the piano. Most likely one of two things happened, either you freaked on the way down and forced your hands to land on some sort of chord you already know or you allowed yourself to do it and you landed on some combination of notes that sounds really strange to your ears at least for now.

Once your hands have landed allow your fingers to just play. Forget that you know any chords,scales, songs.. Just let your fingers move around the piano without allowing the intellectual mind and it's memory to interfere.

This is a beautiful exercise because what you will experience with practice is that the inner you will begin to guide you towards new sounds and organizations that you never knew existed in your instrument. Also what will happen is you will become your own best teacher because through this exercise your physical and intellectual limitations will naturally make themselves visible but this time without the judgment that we normally bring to the table.

The ultimate goal shall be that through learning how to detach from the mind, eventually this detachment along with your intellectual knowledge of whatever it is you do will gradually become balanced and begin to work together and it is from this space that your truest work will come from and you will begin to know what creative freedom really is.

Be Well,

Andrew Apollos