It is interesting how certain topics keep showing up and every time they show up there's a slightly different perspective. The current word that's showing up for me is resistance. Back in 2019 I was also considering this word and here's what I had to say about it then....
" I'm reading rereading the war of art. I'm looking at resistance. Where is resistance showing up in my art? One area is looking at creating bigger landscapes.
So what is the resistance here? It is a fear of the unknown. Being unsure whether I can technically pull it off or not, on a larger scale, especially the abstract elements.
Resistance to what the landscape is trying to tell me is also another form of resistance.
What does this mean?
It means I need to spend more time being with it, in memory before painting it.
It means being in a quiet space where I can tune into the resonance I know is within that landscape.
Another Avenue to explore in breaking down this resistance is channeling the landscape.
Question, who can help with this? - check out Jean Houston's exercise the Skill Masters.
You know the funny thing is that in relation to the last sentence about channeling the landscape, I'm currently enrolled in a course which is about learning to tap into my higher levels of creativity. And guess what? It's all to do with channeling i.e. learning to tap into one's intuition. and one of the topics that came up this week was that old friend resistance.
However, what was different now, was that being in resistance was not seen as a bad thing. I often tend to think when I'm involved in something that has any resistance around it, that this is automatically bad, that it is a hindrance. I now understand this is not the case, particularly in creative endeavours. In fact, it is quite the opposite., When there is resistance this becomes almost like a portal for creative ideas to begin flowing if I am in a state of Innocence. That state requires that I get out of my head and engage with the world in a
state of curiosity in the way a young child would. I make no judgements, I create no barriers, I simply allow ideas to flow from within me.
So what is my latest learning about the state of resistance? It is my friend and if I do not engage with it, my creativity will be dead in the water.