JeanieMarshall  

Calmness and chaos are partners in the creation of life. Life expands by shifting from one to the other to find your balance.

Chaos is "stuff." Stuff is needed to create with. Stuff is also something to create in. Surely there are times when it seems most advantageous and appropriate to move away from the stuff of chaos, but I want to focus on staying right where you are and being creative and empowered in and with the stuff of the chaos.

Creative Arts Need Stuff or Raw Materials

It's perhaps easiest to illustrate the benefits of all this with the creative arts. For example, the potter, the dress maker, and the oil painter all need "stuff": materials as well as tools. The potter needs the clay; the dress maker needs fabric; the oil painter needs paint. Each potter, dress maker or painter may start with the stuff of others, yet each final creation is unique.

It's possible to create a mess or a masterpiece, all with the same basic materials.

 
Attitude is Key

If you're in a consciousness of enthusiasm or curiosity or wonder or calmness, you positively empower the creation in the midst of the chaos. If the act of creation is no fun, there is also no fun in the final creation. Just to get something "done" can be a relief, but to get something done while feeling good makes the experience more satisfying.

I've had a lot of experience helping people to find their place of calmness or strength in the midst of chaos or adversity. The truth is that it's important to know how to create this space again and again and again. Just because you have made it through one experience of chaos doesn't mean that you never have to do it again. That's why it's important to understand how, that is, to understand the process. And even understanding the process, won't guarantee that the next time it will look exactly the same, so you need to go more deeply into the principle and/or technique. It's important to pay attention.

TeleSeminar: Find Your Center in the Midst of Chaos
Wednesday, March 25, 2009