The Paradox of Passion – Stirring Your Creative Juices

December 19th, 2018

For the last week I’ve been high. Not from any artificial stimulant or even a wonderful experience. It’s simply from having the space to express my passions and finally seeing that expression manifest in the physical world – an expressing that will touch the world in a positive way.

Now, after a week the high is coming back down. Not that it will be replaced by a low as with so many artificial highs or even the after effects of wonderful experiences. This high has come about simply by letting the energy that is ‘me’ flow out into the world, from which I know there is an infinite source.

So where does true passion come from?

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You Can’t Initiate True Passion by Imposing Will On It

For the past 2 years I’ve been writing a book. It’s been a dream of mine ever since I was first asked the question, ‘What would you like to be when you grow up?’ — to which my answer was always ‘An author.’ Now, there are a number of ways you could look at this – firstly you could notice that 2 years is a heck of a long time to be working on one project, and I would agree with you. There have been times where it’s seemed like a marathon task that would never be completed. However, if you see that there is only ever this moment, then I can reflect to you that it was never a chore because it flowed when it needed to.

There were parts of it that I didn’t enjoy, for example the endless edits to eliminate errors and make sure the thing actually made sense. However, I only ever did this when I was feeling willful and motivated. The point that I’m trying to make is this: There is so much talk of passion and commitment that you’ll be forgiven for judging yourself when you don’t have it. But the truth is, trying to force these feelings only leads to the opposite feeling and thus, to procrastination.

Trust me I know.

I had months of deep inner processing – my personal journey seemed to coincide with the book, forcing me to live what I had written about. In these periods I did nothing towards the book. And that was okay. However, if you allow your passions their fun when they arise, then you’ll find that commitment, will power and focus arise as a natural consequence. Thus, one feeds the other in a continue loop, stoking the fire. That’s the paradox – you can’t initiate passion by imposing will on it, only from surrendering to the flow and then allowing commitment and will to naturally arise.

Start Somewhere!

Like any act of true creativity, self-publishing a book can seem like a mammoth task. Honestly, I had little to no clue how to do it when I started out on this journey. It was a steep learning curve but I quickly found out that the flexibility it offered (as opposed to traditional publishing) allowed me greater self-expression and thus a more free-flowing movement of soul. Yes, there’s less security and more investment of energy, but I’m sure everyone reading this is aware that these are the fires in which the soul is forged!

For anybody who’s interested in writing and self-publishing a book, there’s a wealth of information out there. However, as I always found personal reflections more interesting and useful than generic lists, here are a few pointers:

Start somewhere – if you have an idea, even if it’s just a vague one, but you have no idea what to actually write about it, then I would advise you just to start writing anything. For me just writing the initial idea onto a piece of paper led by itself to further ideas, which lead to an initial outline of what I wanted to do, which led to writing my own story in accordance with the main theme of the book (change). One thing naturally leads to another, and if it doesn’t then stop and come back to it another time.
Research the process of self-publishing but don’t get too bogged down in the details. For me, I needed information but I found that over a certain point I was becoming tight. There is so much advice and information that it’s easy to get overwhelmed especially when a lot of them are posted as ‘the thing you must do to succeed’. Honestly, it’s only after finishing the process (and not doing half of the things I apparently have to do if I don’t want my book to ‘fail’) that I’ve realised how basic the process is when you simply do one thing at a time.
Here was my basic process – write the book, edit the book, send off to a professional editor, send to proof reader, format the book (or send to a pro), get the cover designed, publish on Amazon. When you see it like this instead of all the many sub-steps each basic step will require then it’s really okay (especially when stretched out over a long period of time).
Give yourself time for everything. The beauty of self-publishing is that there is no pressure from a publishing company.

Awakening Through Change

If you can balance having enough will power and commitment to keep at it, but enough surrender to allow those in-between periods and not put any undue pressure on yourself, then you’ll give yourself the best chance at having that high feeling when you see a physical book – your creation – coming through your letter box.

So, what is my book actually about?

‘Awakening Through Change: A practical guide to self-discovery and liberation in times of transition’ will show you how to embrace the flow of your soul and the universe as a whole and discover yourself in the process. Many of us experience identity loss in times of great change, or we know that change is needed but are afraid or have no idea how to go about it. ‘Awakening Through Change’ shows you how identity and attachment are created, how to step beyond them into the light and fire of your soul, and finally how to live from that place.

With love,
Richard

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About the author:

Richard West is a carer, psychologist, spiritual facilitator and writer. After a life of much change, both wanted and unwanted, he decided to embrace all aspects of change, and be a reflection of this for others. Today Richard is a spiritual facilitator at Openhand. He offers services in Spiritual Facilitation and Conscious Dying on his website ‘Back to the Source’ and writes regular articles on his blog.