Using a System
The second path we will look at arises from the 2,500-year-old work the Yoga Sutras. The Raja Yoga path, or “royal” path, is for the psychologically inclined, who prefer a systematic approach to self-understanding and expression. If your best approach to making something happen is to do it, this path is for you. Raja Yoga is a systematic process of quieting the mind so that the ever-present, but still and quiet, inner truth can shine forth. The first three sutras, or “threads”, that weave the tapestry of the royal path loosely state, “Now we shall discuss yoga. Yoga steadies the distortions in our body-mind complex, then the true Self unites with the personality.”
The Yoga Sutras proceed to offer readers an eightfold system of cultivating enlightenment in everyday life. Through ethical and moral principles, movement, and steadying the breath, senses, and mind, each of us can discover the subtle bliss that is our true nature and express from that unending truth. In this chapter, I apply the Raja Path to the creative process. By following this eightfold systematic approach, you have the chance to access and unite with your inner creator and allow that quiet, sacred aspect of your nature to express creatively.
Don’ts & Dos
The first two limbs of the eightfold path give us lifestyle guidelines in the form of restraining (yama) violent actions and observing (niyama) pure ones. The very first thing it teaches is to restrain from doing harm through action, word, or thought toward others or ourselves. This principle of non-harm (ahimsa) guides the yamas, which also include truthfulness (satya), non-stealing (asteya), healthful direction of vital energy (brahmacharya), and non-coveting (aparigraha). Let’s look at these restraints in reverse order and apply them to accessing your inner creator.
As you strive to live a creative life, you may notice yourself wishing your work came out more like your vision of it or as good as another creator’s. Coveting abilities we have not cultivated yet or talents of another person causes us harm because we are focused on a sense of lack rather than appreciation and creative freedom.
Brahmacharya is sometimes translated as “celibacy” or “continence,” because sexual energy is very powerful. Think of it this way: there is an animating force flowing through us, what the yogis call prana. We only have so much vital energy to dedicate to our lives, which is one of the reasons we find it hard to pick up the pen or paintbrush after a long day getting the children ready for school, working, making dinner, cleaning up, and playing with the kids and pets. Our vital energy has been spent. When we consciously choose where to dedicate our energetic resources, not only do we not waste it on stress and overwhelm, but we are also able to mete it out more appropriately.
Non-stealing may seem obvious on the surface—you are not a robber!—but think about all the times you have stolen joy, rest, and creative opportunities from yourself, whether from choice, busyness, or fear. It does not have to be that way.
Truthfulness is another one most of us think we follow very well; after all, we are not liars. However, most of us have some trouble expressing our truth. We hold in our feelings, thoughts, requests to have our needs met, and other expressions of intimacy. Expressing ourselves creatively is an excellent means of practicing truthfulness, as our art expresses deep and even divine truths from our inner realms. You may further explore the first, guiding, yama in the following exercise.
Exercise: Facing the Habit of Inner Harm
We may not always notice when we create harm. Be gentle with yourself as you explore the next exercise.
Step 1: Think of a time when you created something and showed it to someone who did not understand. Perhaps this person judged you or your work harshly. He may have offered unsolicited feedback. Maybe she just didn’t get it. To get the most out of this exercise, choose a moment that still contains a little sting. As a result of that moment, what did you come to believe about your art or yourself as a creative person? For example, if the conductor of your grade school choir told you no one wants to hear you singing that loudly, you may have begun to believe that “No one wants to hear me” or “My voice is not good enough.”
Step 2: Work with this belief. Write a stand-up bit about that moment, a comic strip, or a movie scene. Draw it or sing it through a kazoo. Free your self-expression around that moment that may have genuinely shut down some of your creative instincts.
Step 3: Now consider what the opposite of that belief is. The Yoga Sutras Chapter 2, Sutra 33, teaches us that when a negative arises, its opposite is to be contemplated. To continue with our example, your opposite belief might be “I deserve to be heard,” “I give myself the freedom to speak my truth,” or “What I have to say is good enough.” Once you have formulated your opposite belief, phrased in positive language, write it on a sticky note and place it in an area where you work or create. You may post multiple opposite, affirming beliefs based on many past experiences in as many areas as you wish while you reprogram your self-harming beliefs. It is recommended that you change them somehow every two weeks or so, otherwise you will stop perceiving them in your environment and rather than being helpful tools, they become part of the background.
Step 4: Create a work in the same modality as step 2 that expresses this new, non-harming belief. Practice it regularly or post it where you are sure to see it often.
Typically, our self-harming habits arise from past programming: beliefs instilled in us from society, media, and caregivers. It is unlikely that anyone intended for us to create and carry life-long negative beliefs about ourselves; however, it is the nature of humans, especially young ones, to take others’ opinions personally and to hold on to the worst while discarding the best. As you continue to grow as a creative being, these old points of programming will emerge. Repeat the above exercise to support yourself in releasing this inner violence and opening a more creative approach to self-expression, unhindered by the echoes of judgment.
The process of eliminating these harmful core beliefs might also be seen as part of the second limb, the observances (niyamas). Just as nonviolence guides the restraints, so purity governs the observances.
Purifying our minds of negativity and judgment is an aspect of the approach, along with purifying our bodies through lifestyle choices and purifying our environments by keeping things clean and orderly. That’s not always an easy thing to ask of a creative. The following exercise gives you ways of working with your own organizational system.
Exercise: Purifying Your Environment
If you are a certain kind of creative person, you may function well in a chaotic environment. The thing is, even though it looks like a mess to others, you probably know exactly where everything is. This exercise helps you explore why you have chosen this organizational system and offers ideas about how to use your unique process to inform a purer workspace.
Step 1: Have a look at the space where you work/create. Are you satisfied with the appearance of this area? Is it conducive to your creative process? Do you feel inspired by it? Does it reflect who you are as a person and a creator? I am infamously messy. While I enjoy the freedom of no one telling me what to do, I also feel distracted and stressed by the disorderly stacks of all manner of papers, images, pens, and whatnot that encroach upon my workspace.
Step 2: Notice how you organize yourself. Are you a piler or a filer? Do you need to see everything or do you prefer to keep your materials and documents out of sight? Do you prefer to act on one task start-to-finish or dabble between various responsibilities? Write down what you notice about the organizational strategy (piles, cupboards, like-with-like, most urgent to nonurgent, etc.).
Step 3: As you observe how you organize your materials, you will notice that there is a comfort in it, even if it winds up looking messy. If you are unsure about how your approach may be comforting you, try doing the opposite and your discomfort will come up pretty quickly. When I purchased an organizational system for my office, it sat empty while I continued to strew my work on the desk and the floor. Eventually, I realized I was afraid that if I put things away they would disappear. A more rational way of stating that fear was that I would never find them again or would forget to work on them. (Guess what. Both of those things actually happened when I used the organizational system … a lot!) While it is true that I did not prioritize “purity” as much as I could have, it is also true that I needed to see my stuff and could not figure out how to solve the paradox of serving that purpose and putting my stuff away. Consider your situation: write down the fears, worries, or anxieties your organizational strategy may be soothing. Furthermore, what potential problems does it help avoid.
Step 4: Once you have some theories about why you are messy in the way that you are, think of how you can meet your needs and organize your area. This may involve stacking in- and out-boxes, alphabetizing or prioritizing your projects, or, as I did, getting a plethora of shelf and cubby systems and hiding them behind a single closing door.
This effort toward purity or cleanliness helps the mind rest, as each time we see a mess it lodges as a to-do in our minds and interrupts the freedom of creative flow.
The other four niyamas also support our creative life. Contentment (samtosha) supports us in accepting our situation as it is and welcoming creative impulses, no matter how the endeavor turns out. Effort (tapas) is important, as without disciplined action we do not progress our natural abilities and are often unlikely to finish the projects we begin. Any creative action could be an aspect of the fourth observance, self-study (svadhyaya), which is the study of uplifting works as well as obtaining self-knowledge. The practice of surrendering to a higher reality (ishvara pranidhana) is valuable as you explore your creative side because it puts us in the habit of accepting what comes our way, letting go of outcomes, and remembering that we do not always have a clear view of the grand design. We never know where our ideas may come from, how we might be able to use the unfortunate events in our lives, or how the pieces of our lives fit together to create a bigger picture.
In the big picture of our everyday lives, the first two limbs on the Raja Yoga path, Restraints and Observances, help give us a framework of intention and behavior. While the yamas teach us to restrain that impulse to harm (in its various forms), the niyamas impel us toward purity of the external and internal. If there is something to be said and we limit our self-expression, then by the nature of silencing ourselves we have caused harm. If we are living in a messy environment, our creative mind and being will also feel cluttered. Non-harm and purity guide the precepts of truthfulness, non-stealing, moderation, and non-coveting, along with contentment, disciplined effort, self-study. These guidelines for living create a climate where our minds are open and clear so that we are primed for inspiration and better prepared to carry out the creative acts.
Expressing through the Body
People often associate the third limb of the Raja Path, asanas, with the physical postures of yoga; however, we can elaborate this view to include our bodily health and relaxation. It is important to remember that the physical practice of yoga (asana) is much more than just poses.
Exercise: Learn to Communicate with Your Body
The body contains great wisdom and creative power. It can express. It carries feelings and insights. When we contemplate the many subtle ways we may harm ourselves, as we did in the previous section, we can see that not expressing ourselves over a long period of time can be a great harm. Holding in strong emotions can lead to a variety of physical complaints and even chronic ailments. The following exercise attunes you to bodily expression.
Step 1: Lie down in a comfortable position. If you suffer from a chronic condition, place your hands on an area of the body you associate with that issue. You may also touch a part of you that is acting up today or an area you wish to know more about.
Step 2: As you rest with your hands upon your body, feel yourself letting go. Imagine your tension draining away as your body surrenders into the support beneath you. There is nothing to resist; no parts of your body need to hold themselves up. No matter how much you relax, the ground beneath rises up to hold you.
Step 3: Focus the relaxation on your hands. The palms seem to expand as they let go of their tension. Feel your fingers soften. There is no effort in your hands, no work for them to do. They are completely open and receptive.
Step 4: Become aware of the places your hands are connected to the “trouble spot” on your body. Give yourself a few breaths to notice the contact points. You don’t have to do anything with it; just witness the connection between hands and body.
Step 5: From this relaxed, perceptive state, ask your body if it is willing to communicate with your hands. The answer will not likely come as a “Yes/No” but you will perceive some sense of an answer. It may be as subtle as a willingness or reluctance. If you perceive willingness, proceed to step 6. If you perceive reluctance, enquire, “What stands in the way of you wanting to share?” Respect any feelings, images, or random input to stand as the answer and proceed to step 8.
Step 6: If your body offered a positive sense, or willingness, ask the specific area beneath your hands to share more about its discomfort. You may imagine that your hands themselves are posing the question, with a warm, caring, open energy. Stay receptive to all thoughts, images, and feelings as forms of response from your body. You may ask follow-up questions and remain curious for as long as you can hold the connection with your body and it is responsive to your curiosity. When it seems the dialogue is drawing to a close, ask your body how it wishes to externalize the discomfort.
Step 7: Select an expressive modality that aligned with the kind of answer you received. For example, your body may have clearly let you know it wished to work in color and form, or melody and rhythm. If your body fed you an image, you may draw or paint it. If you felt something, you may dance or create a textile or sculptural work. If it gave you a memory, you might record a short film or write a descriptive paragraph. Do not think about it too much—let your body determine how it wishes to further express its held-in pain.
Step 8: Express from your visceral sense. Do your best to stay connected to your body throughout this process and let it use your hands (or whatever you are creating with) as its conduit. Allow your body to share its truth by unifying your mind with the process: not thinking about, analyzing, or planning what is happening; instead, letting a truth spill out of you, even if it doesn’t make sense or look pretty. You may repeat this exercise a number of times with the same area of the body or different areas in order to attune to what is happening within you and unite your body, senses, and mind.
The previous exercise helps tap you into your expressive capabilities beyond your thinking self. The later chapters in this section teach you to harness that thinking mind for the purpose of creation; however, many brilliant expressions can arise when we remove the mental processes from the equation. The following exercise elaborates the nonverbal creative skill and gives you an opportunity to create and express from a purer truth, beyond the limits of language.
Exercise: Connect to Nonverbal Wisdom
Even though it can be tricky to turn off the thinking mind, nay-sayers, and internal analysis, this practice gives you the chance to do all of that. Return to this exercise time and again to free yourself.
Step 1: Commit to not listening to your mind. No “Where should I draw this object? … What am I trying to convey? … Is this graceful enough? …” This exercise is directing you to a pure experience through the body, beyond the thinking mind.
Step 2: Select a nonverbal modality such as visual art, dance, or music. Place your dominant hand in the small of your back and allow your nondominant hand to play in the realm you have selected. If you are moving, be sure to lead with the nondominant side of your body. Do your best to stay connected to how you feel throughout the process.
Step 3: As you continue to create from this nondominant and hopefully nonverbal space, you may notice your mind trying to “help” by offering suggestions, feedback, insights, and other commentary. You may not be able to stop it from doing so; however, you do not need to listen to it. Disregard the words in your mind and continue creating from your body sense. You may be surprised by what is stored beyond the realm of language within you.
Any time you notice your thoughts or programming getting in the way of your creative process, let your nonverbal wisdom shine through. A simple path to quelling the nay-saying thinking mind is to lead creation from your nondominant hand.
Pranayama
Breathing, the fourth limb of the eightfold path, is about the vital force that is carried on the breath (prana). By focusing on, controlling, or elongating the inhales (puraka), exhales (rechaka), and pauses between each (kumbhaka and sunyaka), we gain mastery over our own vital force. The breath is the bridge between mind and body. When you breathe deeply, your nervous system responds parasympathetically—in other words, you relax. Besides, a relaxed nervous system translates through the emotions and mind, soothing you and slowing your thoughts. In this relaxed state, we are better able to shift perspectives, gain insights, and receive creative inspiration. Although it is beyond the scope of this book, I highly recommend you seek out research on the relationship between relaxation and mental/emotional processes. For now, you can take my word for it. Feel welcome to practice the following exercise, or variation thereof, before settling into any creative endeavor.
Exercise: Breath Practice for Inspiration & Stillness
This practice is simple and powerful in its ability to clear the mind and set the stage for creation. Practice it anytime you feel dull, closed, or uninspired.
Step 1: Come into a comfortable position, sitting or lying down. Without trying to change anything, notice your breath. Does it flow smoothly or stutter? Is it deep? Can you feel it in the front and back of your body? Accept how it is moving in this moment, without trying to change it. If you practice this exercise regularly, you will come to realize how the movement of the breath reflects various internal states.
Step 2: Begin to focus on the inhale and the pause between it and the exhale. Gradually elaborate that pause.
Step 3: Focus on the stillness that rests between the breath phases. As you retain the inhale (kumbhaka), notice a sense of fullness. You may connect with an intention and imagine yourself breathing in that quality, holding and distributing its energy as you retain your breath. Remember that what we focus on in practice becomes stronger within us.
This energizing breathing practice elaborates your connection to stillness, improves cognition and concentration, and stretches you from the inside. Perhaps it also helps invigorate you and creates space for fertile ideas.
Calling the Senses to Their Source
The next step on the Raja Path is “Sense Mastery” (pratyahara). Since our sense organs only offer us limited perception, it is best not to put too much stock in them. On the other hand, as creatives, what we see, hear, and feel is important to our process and how we are able to express ourselves. The yogis teach that the senses have the power to disrupt the mind if we believe them too deeply.
Pratyahara is the process of calling the senses back to their source and drawing them into our consciousness, the way a turtle draws its limbs and head into its shell. By stilling the senses, we know a deeper stillness in the mind. The true Self shines through that mental stillness, as it is often our busy thoughts and fleeting emotions that stand between us and authentic inner connection. The following practice helps quiet sensory overload. (For more practices for the senses, see Chapter 10.)
Exercise: Refining Your Senses
This practice helps harness your sensory power by exploring creative media through various sensory foci. It might be best to do a different step each day for five days. Enjoy the process below and use it as a springboard to your own sense-training practices. Be creative in everyday life as you experiment with how your senses, and by extension your mind, interact with the world around you.
Step 1: Listen to one instrument in a song. Let the sounds of all the other instruments simply wash over you as you continually return your attention to the instrument of choice. When that instrument is not playing, enjoy its silence.
Step 2: Gaze at a beautiful scene. Allow your eyes to take in the entire view at once, rather than focusing on any specific thing in the scene. Feel a sense of broadening and relaxation in your eyes, your mind, and your perceptions. If something specific catches your attention, just zoom back out so you are perceiving the whole scene again.
Step 3: Go somewhere far outside the city, burn incense, hold a fragrant flower/herb, or diffuse essential oils. Sit in a relaxed, upright position, close your eyes, and focus on the nasal passage and beyond. Notice, but do not get attached to, the movements of the mind. Allow the aroma to fill your nostrils.
Step 4: Set aside a half hour to spread lotion over your hands, feet, limbs, torso, neck, and face. Take your time with the motion of rubbing it in, using different pressures and qualities of strokes. Be present with the sensory information that your body sends as the touch moves through different qualities and areas. You may also experiment with touching different textures in your home, such as steel, wood, silk, cotton, water, pets, stucco, etc.
Step 5: Set a small morsel of food in front of you. Ideally this is three to five wholesome ingredients in a pretty form. Eat it very slowly, beginning with licking it or putting it in your mouth and rolling it around. Wait before you chomp into the food, allowing yourself contact with the essence of its flavors and how they combine. Chew slowly as you indulge in this morsel. Notice the nuances of flavors that come through, how they change over time, along with how it seems to taste different on different parts of your tongue.
Use a step from this exercise anytime you feel that the busyness and overstimulation of the world is pushing too hard against you.
By learning to master your sensory input, rather than being heavily influenced by external stimuli or even your own thoughts and emotions, you clear your mind and set the stage for upliftedness and pure creative expression. The next step of the eightfold path arises naturally from pratyahara.
Mental Focus
When we focus the senses inward instead of letting them lead the mind into the outer world, we become more self-determined and focused. This mental strength is the next limb of the eightfold path: dharana, or concentration. Concentration is simply a commitment to set the mind on one idea.
The nature of the mind is to jump around very quickly; like a curious puppy, it wanders here and there exploring all kinds of things. However, just like a puppy, we can train the mind to “stay.” In order to practice dharana, set your focus on one thing, such as the task at hand, your breath, or an uplifting word or phrase, and every time it wanders away, bring it back to the point of concentration. After a few days or weeks of practicing focus, your mind will become much stronger and better trained. The next step on the eightfold path arises naturally from this.
Meditation
Contrary to popular culture’s verbiage, the seventh step of meditation (dhyana) is not something we “do.” It is a state. When we calmly focus the mind for a time (step 6, dharana), consciousness shifts. Similar to how we move from waking to sleep, so concentration shifts to meditation. In meditation our brain waves and physiology alter. This relaxed state of heightened perception is observable when we are caught up in our art. Many of the exercises in this book may elicit a meditative state if you focus on them completely. If you wish to understand your meditation type and establish a daily practice, check out Meditation for Your Life by Robert Butera.
Since you likely don’t have the technology to prove when you have shifted state, let a sense of general well-being be your benchmark. If you get so swept up in something you lose track of time, that is another simple measure that you likely shifted consciousness. Meditation (dhyana) is also notable in the everyday reduction of stress and ability to view most situations from a higher, more peaceful, or more creative perspective.
Superconsciousness
As the brain establishes an open pathway to meditative consciousness, it gradually deepens its spiritual interaction with life. In time, prolonged interaction with states of meditation (dhyana) lead to the superconscious state of samadhi, or enlightenment, our final step in the eightfold path. Remember that there are many levels of enlightenment; an entire chapter of the Yoga Sutras is dedicated to this state. Simply realizing there is such a thing as enlightenment makes you a part of it. The suggestion is to not get too caught up in whether you are or aren’t experiencing samadhi. Acknowledge the moments when you feel peaceful, connected, and completely well. Spend more time doing things that cultivate that flavor and associate with others who are also interested in feeling that way more often. Do good works in the world: see a need—meet the need. These are the everyday ways of practicing enlightened living. We discuss this more in Chapter 14.
When we restrain harm (yama), cultivate purity (niyama), move in healthy ways and relax ourselves (asana), breathe well (pranayama), don’t believe everything our senses tell us (pratyahara), and still the mind (dharana), then we shift consciousness (dhyana). When we live in that shifted consciousness, we’re living from the soul or creative Self. Then we are living in samadhi, the superconscious state. Those are the eight steps of Raja Yoga that align us with who we truly are. That’s the path of the system. The next chapter discusses the path of the heart, Bhakti.