This article explains how creative energy interacts with your own energy system and how you can work with this to find more creative flow for your business ideas.
What is Creative Energy
Creative energy is the desire to turn an idea into a reality. It starts as an inner curiosity and becomes, if allowed, an expression of individuality. “What if” is the question that accompanies the desire to transform a concept into form.
Creative energy is a part of being alive that is mysterious. It comes and goes, waxes and wanes. Sometimes it keeps you up at night and at other times it vanishes without trace.
And then there are the epiphanies and creative explosions that come out of nowhere.
We’ve all heard about creative downloads, maybe even experienced them when ideas burst out of nowhere that we must act on. They are a crucial aspect of any entrepreneur’s creative process – the universe seeding ideas that have exceptional potential to transform.
We aren’t in a random place in the universe. We live on an exceptionally creative globe spinning through space. If you have any doubt as to the innate creativity of the earth, simply visit any natural history channel to have those doubts instantly dissolved.
The energy that generates this explosion of diverse form and expression works through creative uploads.
Energy streams from the heart of the earth through all the animate and inanimate forms of consciousness that exist, sparking a desire to create.
“Creative downloads need to be integrated into your expression to be embodied. Creative uploads need to be embodied in your expression to be integrated into your actions. This subtle difference has a dramatic influence on the creative process”
This energy flows in a different direction to downloads and interacts with your body and energy in ways that change the shape of the creative process.
What is Creative Flow
Creative flow refers to the natural cycle of creativity which moves through distinct phases of articulation and expression.
The framework for this flow is represented by the elements of earth, air, fire and water which each bring a different dimension to the creative process.
Earth works with the available resources to create a solution, form or structure that is fit for purpose.
Air expands the options and opportunities by exploring how it relates to the nuances of your expression.
Fire is the direct creative, interactive, hands-on part of the process. It’s where you are in doing mode with clarity and focus.
Water is where the creative act links to your sense of self – past, present and future.
The cycle is a spiral that compounds over time increasing skills, capacity, ideas and self-belief.
This spiral moves through your energy system building the resilience to be expressed fully and with impact.
Creative Interaction with Your Energy System
The Chakra system is well established in general understanding of our energy system. Each chakra, or energy centre, is linked to different aspect of our humanity and expression.
Creative energy interacts with each energy centre as it moves down or up, shaping how you interpret and act upon it.
Creative energy in a download moves in from your Crown energy centre and flows down the spine to your Root energy centre.
Creative energy in an upload moves in from your Root energy centre and flows up your spine to your Crown.
At each centre, the creative impulses are shaped by your energy to become individualised.
The Unfolding Creative Story
The seven main energy centres all play a different role in interpreting energy and creative impulses.
The Root energy centre is intrinsically linked to your body and safety within your body. As creative energy moves into this area, your capacity to feel safe in new dynamics will always be tested. Creative impulses are anchored in innovation and invention, which lives outside the usual structures of our lives. If you do not feel safe, you will find a reason not to act upon the impulse.
The Sacral energy centre is sensory and expressive, often associated with creativity because emotions, senses and intuition play a huge role in your interpretation of energy. When energy flows freely, this is where you have fun with concepts. When it is obstructed in any way, it is where you feel disconnected from yourself because of the lack of creative impulse.
The Solar Plexus energy centre is rooted in self-confidence and motivation. As creative energy moves in, you will feel an overwhelming urge to act upon it. You may not know how or believe you have the ability, but the impulse will make itself known.
The Heart energy centre brings a softness that is not a weakness. It is compassionate and outward focused because energy that flows into expression has an influence upon the life that experiences it, outside of you. Heart energy brings accountability and responsibility into the creative act, ensuring that what follows is positive and beneficial for you and all life around you.
The Throat energy centre is the portal between the development of concept and the art of expression. Whether you express through movement, sound or action, the Throat brings your unique voice into play. We can spend so much of our lives trying not to ruffle feathers that this can be a tricky energy centre for many.
The Third Eye energy centre brings depth of perception and insight into the creative process. There is understanding of why you have received this inspiration and how it will weave into the webs of universal life to bring much needed energy. This energy centre requires a degree of stillness to access to prevent it being misinterpreted as fanciful, even though you can feel the truth of it in your bones.
The Crown energy centre is a transition point between your body and the universe where your reason for being makes sense as something beyond just your body. Here you will the affirmation of your creative focus and the reassurance that your spirit can reach as far as you wish.
Integration and Embodiment of Creativity
Creative energy flows through each energy centre being shaped as it goes.
Safety, creativity, identity, compassion, voice, perception and meaning are the stories that define the interpretation and translation of the energy from an inner experience into an outer reality.
The direction of the creative flow – download or upload – has a big influence on how you integrate and embody the creative process.
Downloads come in through the Crown, moving through thought, perception and voice first. This insight is integrated into understanding and then needs to be embodied following the flow downwards. There can be a huge rush of energy that fills you up, inspires you and then hits a road block because maybe you don’t have the self-belief to take it any further, or perhaps it leaves you feeling so unstable that you can’t take the final step to act upon it. Embodiment of downloads challenges you to accept and adapt to the energy which can be difficult but will feel grounded.
Uploads come in through the Root engaging safety, creativity and identity first. The energy is embodied and intuitively engaged but is not integrated into thought and understanding until it flows into the upper energy centres. This process can be blocked from the outset if it challenges your security or overwhelms your creative capacity. If it flows all the way to your voice, you will discover what it fully means by working with the expression. Only then will it begin to be woven into your articulated understanding.
There are a couple of examples that stick out for me. Many years ago, sitting in meditation, a phrase dropped into my mind. The only way I can describe this download was that it flew in from the heavens, I could feel it dropping in. I had no idea what it meant or what I was meant to do with it. I spent a long, long time exploring it mentally before it gradually began to work its way down my energy system to become a part of my entire process of working.
On another occasion, a phrase worked its way up. It encouraged me to start something that I had never entertained before. I chose to act on it straight away and three years later I am still working out the many nuances that explain the relevance and importance of the work.
One started in my head and took time to embody. I understood it intellectually from the outset but not what it meant to become it. The other was instantly part of my creative approach but took time to put into words and form.
By understanding the difference, you are in a position to flow with creativity rather than force it.
Applying Creative Flow Principles for Business Growth
Creative expression finds freedom by following what comes next and allowing space for the process to flow naturally.
This runs very much against the hustle mindset of action all the time, but if you force creative expression, it will always feel hollow. The roundness and wholeness of the expression comes from the full journey through your energy system to be sculpted from notion to form.
We all have a folder or drawer of ideas that went nowhere because we pushed them or lost faith because they didn’t feel substantial enough.
These ideas weren’t wrong, they didn’t follow the flow. You know how it can go wrong because you have the proof.
To support your growing business with robust, resilient creative processes that make the best use of your time and energy, follow these simple rules.
Don’t put a timeline on it.
Creative expression has no use for artificial timelines. Sometimes it will move quickly, sometimes slowly but always faster than trying to rush it.
I have learnt through my own experience and that of my clients that pushing destroys the connection you have to the idea itself. When you push to feel capable, aligned or articulate the energy will dissipate rapidly. But a gently flowing stream of energy builds in strength as it moves.
Creating space and removing time pressure means you make fewer mistakes and expend far less energy on execution. It’s a big win for your time.
Notice Your Frustration
When the idea lands, there is so much enthusiasm and excitement but after a little while, you may begin to feel incredibly frustrated that things aren’t ticking along as they should.
When this happens, pay close attention to where this frustration is coming from. Either listen to your body or listen to the doubts that are seeping into your inner monologue. This will tell you where the energy is sticking in your energy system. If you know this, you also know what is needed to resolve it. You might be able to do this yourself, but if you need help you will know what sort of help. Too many entrepreneurs disconnect this intuitive lifeline and end up shelling out money to resolve problems that aren’t the issue. Save yourself time, money and energy by listening to yourself first.
Benchmark Your Downloads and Uploads
Entrepreneurs live in their heads in order to keep things running. We have to be logical, sensible, coordinated, disciplined, organised to ensure the health of our businesses. It can become a default setting that keeps you awake when you should be asleep, obsessing over details and chasing perfection.
Meanwhile, we have this extraordinary sidekick just waiting to get in the driver’s seat.
Intuition.
If you ever want to know if an idea is right for you – let your intuition tell you. Step away and switch off. The process of disconnection will instantly activate your intuitive radar. Either you will be drawn back to the idea or you will take a different direction. The knowledge, insight and understanding we all hold in our bodies far outstrips that of the mind. Trust it to be your benchmark and follow the next step in the sequence.
Before you know it, your creativity will be on fire and your business will be flowing into growth effortlessly.
