Acceptance is Leads to Creative Poise

Our compulsive thinking is throwing us off balance.

To be truly creative, we must understand the reality we find ourselves in. It makes no sense to run if we are in the water, or swim while on dry land.

True acceptance is a realignment with reality.

It’s easy to push and struggle against what is, without fully acknowledging or becoming aware of, what we’re actually struggling against.

Destructive thought patterns have a habit of reinforcing themselves.

Becoming angry at the creative work that isn’t working out. Furious because the words aren’t flowing. The brush strokes we make misbehave despite our best intentions.

The mind and body seem to be split, pulling us in different directions.

In these situations often the most transformative, empowering thing we can do is to learn to slow down enough to become aware of what our body is experiencing. Not wishing for something different in our mind, or numbing ourselves to the point of temporary delusion.

It’s easy to project our thoughts onto reality. To see what we expected something to be, to hold valiantly onto a vision of what we had hoped to be experiencing in this moment. The idea that we can wield this level of control with our thoughts has an intoxicating quality to it. But it’s ultimately futile.

We’re taught to blame and deflect, to give away our ability to respond. Instead of becoming curious, we assign responsibility onto things outside of ourselves, while simultaniously clinging to the idea that reality should match the castles we’ve created in our heads.

Being locked in this pattern of inner tension is similar to being immersed in water, and forcing yourself to breathe. Acting as if the water were air, because that’s what we would like it to be, and then wondering why we keep choking up.

Once we realise we’re under water, the path becomes obviously simple. Perhaps swimming to the surface requires effort, but no amount of wishful thinking will help you breathe.

Yoda said it best, “Do, or do not. There is no try.”

Thinking is trying.

Acceptance brings us into the present moment, pulls us out of our trying mental loops, and allows us to act from the knowing that arises with full awareness.

Responding to what is here, right now, frees us from the false reality of imagined scenarios.

Acceptance leads to presence, and presence is the only place where creative poise and the true power that allows us to respond to life reside.

Even if only for a moment, can you truly be where you are, right now?