We ARE Creative Process
The more I learn about the philosophy behind Focusing (the work of Eugene Gendlin), the more I understand that being alive and being creative are really the same thing.
Living organic process is always creative. We can never know quite what the next step will be. No two leaves are alike, no two trees, no two people. This inexhaustible creativity is all around us, woven into us, all the time.
We can tap into this creativity most directly by approaching the present moment freshly, holding lightly any concepts or labels about it, ready to find new metaphors to express what is here now.
THIS felt sense, the one you are having right now, is not quite the same as any felt sense you have ever had before. When you get interested in THIS one, how it is unique, you are encountering yourself as creative process.
And Creative Process is Us
People who do anything which is called “creative” — artists, sculptors, writers, dancers, poets, actors — all know the felt sensing process, probably knew it long before any of the rest of us. Being able to sense when a creative work is “complete” vs. “incomplete” is one example.
This is not the same as evaluating whether something is “good” or “bad.” Evaluations come from another place, and are notoriously culturally dependent. But the sensing of whether a work of art is complete, or needs something more, needs to come from inside, and often cannot be explained… without doing some Focusing.
I remember from the days many years ago when I wrote poetry, the difference between waiting until the next line felt really right, vs. tacking on something just to get it done.
Now I can come back to Focusing, and bring with me this insight from how it felt to write poetry: I know I have to wait for what feels right, even when something in me is impatient to go on. It isn’t going to work to stick something in there and call it good enough. There are many right possibilities, and many more that are wrong. It’s the inner process that knows, and no matter how impatient some part of me is, the inner process takes the time it takes.
