By: Jennifer Quarrie
“Man is but the product
of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.” — Gandhi
All matter is made of energy. Energy forms new thoughts, thus generating reality. Materialized thought determines
neuronal activity and growth - expanding or strengthening brain pathways. In sum, the thoughts we choose to think
direct energy toward specific physical outcomes. Thus, it is critical to begin the pursuit of any goal with
clear and deliberate intentions.
Energy is one of the most important elements to balance in
order to achieve goals while maintaining wellness. Choosing how to spend your energy, as well as how to gather it
into your life, determines your path.
One of the best tools to help achieve that balance is creativity. Employing a deliberate creative process
to clarify the vision, goal or problem at the outset helps to direct energy
into solving or achieving it. When
dedicating your energy to any goal, there are five guidelines to keep in mind when
spending your precious resources.
Set Intentions
Consciously setting intentions is a powerful way of
directing and conserving energy. As
processes, creativity and wellness are most powerful when they begin with
intention. From building a vision and
ensuring you are solving the right problems to selecting the right tools and maintaining
an open mindset, intention is pivotal throughout creative problem solving.
Likewise in wellness, approaching habits proactively
through intention – the food we eat, the way we
move, the people we include, and the rest we enjoy – empowers our ability to achieve and maintain them. Further, our intents help our minds and
bodies determine how to process everything we take in. For example, one’s emotional and mental approach to eating directly impacts
how the body physically digests food.
Meditation and
mindfulness, which pervade over all areas of wellness, center on
exploring life force and mentally directing energy through attention and
intention.
Exchange Energy
All interaction involves energy exchange. This flow of emitting and absorbing
energy is the biorhythm that allows release and nourishment in wellness, as
well as expression and stimulus in creativity. The goal is to ensure this energy exchange does not stagnate
or overwhelm your system and instead remains in an active, fluid balance. In wellness and creativity alike, this
means remaining mindful of what fuels and drains your reserves, and adapting as
that changes over time.
Prana Ancient philosophies have
emphasized the importance of energy flow and exchange for millennia. Some call the personal energy or life
force ‘prana’
and emphasize that it not only runs through our bodies but also links us to
others. The concept of prana, and of having clear flowing chakras –
energy loci throughout the body where energy channels intersect – is considered by some to be critical to personal wellness
and creativity.
Universal
Unconscious Similarly, Carl
Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious is a repository of
shared energy, ideas and experiences, and some believe that this shared energy
fosters creativity through building on past concepts and intents. Our minds and bodies strive towards
goals both consciously and unconsciously.
By setting a clear intention, we maximize the personal resources
dedicated to achieving it and increase the likelihood of doing so. Further, expressing an intention enhances
this effect. By sharing a goal
with others, you are inviting them to put energy towards assisting you. In wellness, this is clearly seen in
the way that finding a supportive network or environment enhances personal
wellness achievements. In creativity,
this is demonstrated through the power of group problem solving and the ability
of a diverse group to consistently generate more novel and useful solutions.
Intake While intentions customarily
relate to the way we spend our energy resources, they are just as important for
how we take energy in. As a
result, being as thoughtful and deliberate as possible when choosing an
environment or other collaborators can help us to achieve our goals. Wellness reiterates that we can
deliberately empower ourselves simply by choosing supportive energy – after all, we are what we ‘eat.’ We can choose social avenues that
foster growth, eat raw plants, or meditate on a resonant topic to take in considerably
more energy than alternatives might provide.
Embrace Possibility
From a quantum standpoint, our energy holds limitless
potential. A multitude of future possibilities
simultaneously exist, and it is our intention that helps determine to which
path we dedicate our energy. In
creativity, as in wellness, we have the ability to develop ideas and build upon
what is there in a way that highlights a previously unnoticed path. Becoming aware that these unknown paths
exist gives us freedom to step out of the well-worn paths that no longer work
for us, and creatively find new ones that fit our needs precisely.
Follow Curiosity
Curiosity is a form of motivation and intention, an energy
that draws people to investigate new things, absorb new information, and, in
the process, make new associations on the way to potentially building novel
concepts. What may not be as
obvious is the role of curiosity in wellness. A 2002 study showed that “the
degree to which people are curious actively influences their personal growth
opportunities and the level of intimacy that develops when they meet someone
new.” By helping to
foster social relationships, positive experiences, and intrinsic motivation,
curiosity plays a crucial role in wellness.
Curiosity also plays a critical role in forming and asking
the right questions, thus honing intention and ensuring that energy is invested
most effectively. Curiosity-based
thinking methods like appreciative inquiry, problem deconstruction and problem
finding are important roads to creative thinking; however, they are also key to
pursuing personal wellness.
Curiosity not only assists in identifying needs, but supports an
open-minded approach to trying new means of fulfilling them. Further, once curiosity helps overcome
inertia, energy naturally builds and gathers momentum along the vector of
intention. When it comes to
creativity, building on the energy of other thoughts propels the resultant
ideas into a much more novel space.
Do in Order to Be
Wellness is sometimes referred to as well being. Being infers
a state of existing. But in truth,
wellness actually centers more on well doing. Wellness is not passive; it is an energized state of continual
change, adaptation and action.
Just like our bodies and environmental rhythms, maintaining and
improving wellness is an ever-present effort. Wellness is not a plant you water once a week; it needs
constant tending. The same holds
true for creativity. Like
strengthening muscle with regular exercise, practicing creative thinking skills
throughout each day strengthens and grows your abilities as well as fosters
wellness and self-actualization.
Wellness and creativity ultimately come down to directing
and exchanging energy in specific ways to obtain specific outcomes. Understanding more about our personal
energy and the energy systems of the world may foster our abilities to pursue
both wellness and creativity.
Learning how to more deliberately set intentions and direct personal
energy is a critical wellness and creative habit that helps achieve goals. The choice on how you manage your
energy is the key to how your future will form.
“We either live
with intention or exist by default.” - Kristin Armstrong
References:
Berger,
W. (2014). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough
ideas. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Donovan,
P. (2002, December 16). Study finds that curiosity is key to personal growth in
many spheres, including intimate relationships. University at Buffalo SUNY.
Retrieved from http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2002/12/5996.html
Gandhi,
M. (1968). Ethical religion. Navajivan Publishing House.
Goleman,
D. (2013). Focus: The hidden driver of excellence. London, UK:
Bloomsbury Publishing.
Goswami, A. (2014). Quantum
creativity: Think quantum, be creative. Carlsbad, CA:
Hay House.
Hever, J. (2012, July 1). Plant Base Nutrition: Julieanna
Hever. TEDxConejo.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgCSunBfREQ
Puccio, G. J., Mance, M., & Murdock, M. C. (2011).
Creative leadership: Skills that drive change (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage Publications.
Ross, S., & Rosewood, O. (2003). Happy
yoga: 7 Reasons why there's nothing to worry about.
New York, NY: Regan Books.
Image
source: http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/09/27/this-is-the-world-of-quantum-physics-nothing-is-solid-and-everything-is-energy/
Bio:
Jennifer Quarrie is a dynamic innovation strategist and creativity
expert with a visionary outlook and a knack for metacognition,
facilitation and listening. With a BA in Cognitive Science from the
University of Virginia and an MSc in Creative Studies from the
International Center for Studies in Creativity (ICSC) at SUNY Buffalo
State, she incorporates budding areas of mind and creativity research
into all of her work. As a leader and speaker she inspires wellness,
fosters transformation and emboldens self-actualization.
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