I make a point of engaging in foreplay often:
while waiting in line at Trader Joe, stuck in traffic on I-15, and especially when waiting on hold.
It gets me excited for what's next.
I also use foreplay quite often with my clients. They love it too. It’s not only one of my favorite coaching tools but one of the most effective as well
I’m talking about CREATIVITY Foreplay™, a tool designed for Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching. You may know it as daydreaming, but keep reading for a more directed use as a rather pleasurable remedy for the following maladies:
- Resistance or avoidance of your creativity
- Getting stuck and losing the creative juju.
- Procrastination, hesitation, lazyation (< Made that one up – means not wanting to do the work).
- Susceptibility to being distracted away from your creative passion.
- Doubts, fears, objections that you have about your creativity.
- Any of those sound familiar?
Here’s what we often do when we at the mercy of one of those very common creative deterrents:
- We focus on being stuck and the fact that we are not getting to our passion.
- We berate ourselves.
- We may not say something specifically to ourselves, we just feel disappointed or frustrated with ourselves.
- We feel disillusioned and may give up or postpone.
Those things are turn-offs. And the more we focus on them the more resistance, avoidance, procrastination, doubt we feel because we give them energy and they grow.
When you focus on the sensual details of your passion, positive experiences you’ve had with your creative process in the past, how it felt to be in the flow, the feeling of finishing things, the touch, visual, auditory rewards < you get turned on by creativity. This builds a desire to go further and an inspiration to begin or return to your craft. That’s Creativity Foreplay.
Creativity Foreplay is a valid part of the creative process because creativity requires incubation, expands when we allow ourselves to daydream, and when we focus on it -- oils the subconscious gears of connection, association, and desire to get started. And it really can be done anywhere so if you claim, "I don't have time to get to my creativity," try doing it while driving, showering, waiting for the kids. You may start effortlessly MAKING time to get to your creativity.
If it sounds easy, it is, it’s just not where our ego mind defaults to so you have to create the situation for yourself. A little music and soft light can help.
For instance, a client who’s a potter was putting off getting to her ten orders from customers. When I asked her to describe in detail what she loves about ceramics I could hear the passion in her voice: The feel of the clay, the way it transforms, the way it’s a surprise as it develops, the way you paint on something ugly and once it’s fired, it’s beautiful, the organic nature of how it looks, having a finished product to share.
As she described it, I was getting excited too and wanted to make some slab pots as well. She couldn’t wait to get off the phone so she could get back to her craft (the craft that she was resisting prior to the call).
How about a little foreplay. Juice those gears:
- Describe what you love about the creative process you haven’t been getting to.
- How’s it feel when you’re in the flow?
- How’s it feel when you complete something?
- Use all your sensations to describe it.
- How is your craft seducing you?
Practice safe creativity.
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