The art of being yourself | Caroline McHugh
Caroline speaks eloquently and passionately about the link between finding out what you’re good at and showing up authentically in the world.
Reflection Questions
How might you support yourself in engaging in your flow activity when you are feeling superior or inferior, as a way to bring yourself back to, what Caroline refers to as, interiority?
How might it be to have “spectacular disregard for where [your] abilities end”? How might that affect your willingness to show up authentically and to allow yourself to engage in activities you enjoy?
Your elusive creative genius | Elizabeth Gilbert
Elizabeth Gilbert speaks beautifully about showing up, doing your job authentically, allowing creativity to flow through you, and letting go.
Elizabeth talks about the daemons or muses in ancient Greece that were considered responsible for the gifts of creativity that came through humans. The word, “eudaemonia” is am amalgamation of the words, “eu” (good) and “daemon” (spirit). Connecting with Caroline’s notion of superiority, inferiority and interiority, Elizabeth speaks to how the daemon belief protected creatives from feeling superiority or inferiority because they were not responsible for their particular gift of creativity – it came from their daemon.
Reflection Questions
Have you had the kind of experience Elizabeth talks about where you are offered a creative gift you while you are in flow doing something like gardening or driving? How does it feel to remember the mystery and grace of that gift?
Elizabeth talks about releasing the responsibility for being someone and accepting the gifts we are given, allowing them to be things that flow through us, that we are sometimes having. How might it feel to release the responsibility for some of the ways of being that feel burdensome and consider that you are sometimes having these gifts, and sometimes you’re not?
The ‘flow state’: Where creative work thrives
This article explores flow and its cousin, mindfulness.
Reflection Question
The articles states, “If you’re struggling to achieve flow – or just worn out by its intensity – you might aim for mindfulness instead.” Does it feel more accessible to plan for mindfulness practice in your day rather than flow practice in your day? How might you plan to practice a bit of both in your week?
Somatic Self-Compassion Community on Facebook
You can see articles to support your study and practice on Flow here and on Hedonic and Eudaemonic Wellbeing here on our Somatic Self-Compassion Community page on Facebook.