Beautiful + Necessary
Muse 3-3-24
BEAUTIFUL + NECESSARY
Distinguish between what is beautiful and what is necessary.
If you are creative for a living whether a writer, visual artist, musician or performer chances are that the finished works you create are often incredibly beautiful and profound. Many of the Creative Professionals I work with through Mentorship are well past what Malcolm Gladwell popularized as the 10,000 hours rule. An idea that originated with a paper appearing in American Scientist over 40 years ago, written by Herbert Simon and William Chase. The theory is that with talent and aptitude it generally takes an average 10,000 hours of doing something over and over again to create a level of expertise that begins to enable rather than prohibit the process.
I have found this to be true, not only from working with a variety of creatives, but also from my own experience. Personally, these 10,000 plus hours have shown up more in my creative process than in whatever final result I might be seeking. After creating something from nothing so many times, one begins to let go of the worry of not being able to create something new. My days of wondering whether or not I will ever have a new idea are long gone. And this isn’t so much a feeling as it is a result. If I look at my creative process from a scientific perspective I can see evidence of just how many times I thought I had nothing, only to create something. This is not to say that the process wasn’t without blocks, pauses, ups and downs. I run a lot of energy to keep my creative process aligned and in motion and away from stagnancy. But the scientific evidence is there for me to take a deep breath and know the creation will come no matter how much things slow down. And chances are the final result is going to be pretty good.
As we reach a level of expertise in our field and a deep knowingness of our creative process the editing necessary around the work shifts. Often dramatically. Mostly because the ideas we bring to fruition are much better than they were. More refined. And mostly beautiful in words, harmony, or movement. Instead of removing ideas that are less than, the editing process for any cohesive body of work becomes about removing what is not necessary, but most likely also beautiful.
This can be a challenging endeavor.
As we become more skilled at our own editing process and seek the help necessary to gain perspective, in many ways letting go of what is not necessary and distracts from the cohesion of the work, becomes less emotional. We have trained our critical eye, relied on the skill of comparison (I love comparison and think as artists it is a necessary skill - you can listen to artist Lisa Solmon and I chat about it here) and can more easily see and hear what doesn’t fit. It becomes more obvious and less personal. This doesn’t fit because it is not good. So we exclude it, for now or forever. It either dies on the vine or sits and waits until we receive the message that the time is now to revisit.
As we become more skilled in our craft the pieces that are excluded get more and more refined. They are better. More beautiful. And this means we need to be more careful.
We must distinguish between what is beautiful and what is necessary.
Beauty is seductive. Something we create might be beautiful and we are taken by it. Wooed by the words, the sounds, the movement. It moves through our body and process with ease. The final work is what we hoped for. But this refined, lovely and successful work can be beautiful and not necessary to the larger body of work or task at hand. The decision to exclude such beauty can be heartbreaking and is often hard to make alone. In fact I do not recommend making it alone! It is challenging to get space here. Neutrality is needed, and yes, running energy helps create this clarity and neutrality, but still don’t rely on yourself to make the decisions alone.
A sign that you are including something beautiful but not necessary is when you find yourself working really hard to include it. Usually this shows up as making changes to what already exists so what should really be excluded makes sense in the body of work. Or adding in new pieces to hold it all together. Subtraction instead of addition is often the wiser path here.
Time and space can be important when it comes to making editing decisions about what is necessary and beautiful. Even an hour helps. Ideally you have all the time you need to let ideas marinate, get clear and gain some perspective. But those ideal conditions exist for hobbyists, not pros.
It is hard to rush the creative process. Yet, it can absolutely be harnessed and guided to work in a way that works for you. We all have deadlines and time constraints that must be met. A large part of the Mentorship work I do is help creatives keep their process bright, charged, alive, and moving in order to meet deadlines and cultivate their genius so the creative process works for them. With them. As Chuck Close says, “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.” Yep.
xxx
LAS
SOLAR TRANSIT
3-7-24
Gate 22
Gate of Openness
On March 7, the sun gracefully traverses Gate 22, known as the Gate of Openness. During this celestial transit, you're invited to embark on a deeply introspective voyage of self-discovery. This celestial journey encourages a profound exploration of your inner realm, focusing particularly on offering grace to yourself and others.
Gate 22 tasks you with the opportunity to contemplate the significance of grace in your life and relationships. This transit invites you to explore how you extend grace to yourself and others, and the impact it has on your overall well-being and fulfillment. This gate perceives the world as a magnificent tapestry, brimming with beauty, abundance, and love, woven intricately through every emotional experience.
Yet, Gate 22 wrestles with a sense of unworthiness, denying oneself the beauty, love, and grace abundant in life. This can manifest as emotional repression, reactive behavior, and a tendency to shun responsibility for one's emotional state through blame, victimization, and fault-finding.
To transcend the constraints of Gate 22's lower frequency, it is imperative to engage deeply with one's emotions, including the often overlooked emotion of shame. By embracing the wisdom inherent in each emotion and allowing them to be fully acknowledged and processed, individuals can transcend the limitations of Gate 22, fostering profound self-awareness, acceptance, and grace in their lives.
Here are some journaling prompts to deepen your understanding and engagement with this transit:
1. Reflect on moments in your life where you have experienced grace, either from yourself or from others. How did these experiences shape your perspective on grace?
2. Consider any areas of your life where you struggle to offer grace, either to yourself or to others. What barriers or beliefs may be contributing to this challenge?
3. Explore how cultivating a practice of grace can enhance your relationships and overall sense of fulfillment. What steps can you take to incorporate more grace into your daily life?
4. Reflect on the concept of self-compassion and its relationship to grace. How can you extend greater compassion and kindness to yourself during this transit?
Gate 22 encourages a deep exploration of grace and its transformative power in our lives. Embrace this celestial passage as an opportunity to cultivate greater compassion, understanding, and acceptance, both for yourself and for those around you.
NEW PROMPT!!
Do you know about Tapping? It can be an effective addition to energy work and nervous system regulation. Many of my Mentorship clients include Tapping as part of their daily ritual. You can learn more about Tapping and how to do it below.
EFT - Emotional Freedom Technique Tapping Prompt for this transit.
“Even though it is hard to trust my worthiness, I now choose to acknowledge my havingness and deeply and completely love and accept myself.”
THE CREATIVE
Welcome to The Creative. Twice a month I will be sharing quotes from the books, Art is the Highest Form of Hope and The Creative Act. I find perspectives on the creative process to be so meta when it comes to life. We are a creative process and everything we do is subject to the same rules. Creation is non-linear. It's messy. It moves forward and backward. And also gets stuck. Oftentimes we do not realize the purpose of a singular creative process until years later. Creativity likes to surprise us.
“My studio is in my head.” - Fred Wilson
One of the greatest challenges of the artist is to recover from the disappointment of what resides in the head will never exactly match what is created in the physical realm.
While we often get close, there is a part of every creative process where we must surrender the exactness of our intention. I argue that it is at this moment where the deepest level of creativity reveals itself. The oceanic feeling, as Marion Milner calls it. Flow. Peace. When we enter into conversation and start listening rather than only dictating.
I’ve often struggled with this whether while in the process of creating something or when intending to be inspired by something specific. Keeping a tight grasp on either can interfere with the process, which of course impacts the result. The idea of the studio being in the head speaks to these thorny parts of the process and also the beauty of all we see, hear, and experience residing in our head to be integrated and shared in a new way. We cannot really decide whether the book we read or the museum exhibit we saw will have a greater impact on our process than a television commercial or a conversation we overheard on the bus. This is why as creatives it is imperative to the process to get out there. Be in the world. Allow yourself to fill the studio in your head. While what results will never match the original idea of intention exactly, I think that’s kind of the whole point.
