Creating Archives - Page 3 of 3

Intentional Optimism: Be Bold

October 7, 2013 by Joycelyn Campbell 5 Comments

At the end of this video, Jason Silva asks a great question: Why shouldn’t we turn our lives into a work of art?

As he says:

I can decide that I’m going to see the world through rose-colored lenses. I’m going to be optimistic. I’m going to look for the beautiful in every possible experience.

That INTENTION, that agency, coupled with action…with editorial discernment…it creates a self-amplifying feedback loop. In other words, the INTENTION to be optimistic makes me stumble upon all these things that make me feel more optimistic and so on and so forth.

But that requires a boldness of character.

Yes, we all view the world through our own particular lens–and the lens through which we view the world has an enormous effect on what we see. Once we recognize that what we’re seeing is not “reality,” but a limited facsimile thereof, we can alter our perception. But wishing it or wanting it to happen won’t make it so.

The magic starts with creating an INTENTION.

Creating: Making Things Up

January 31, 2013 by Joycelyn Campbell 1 Comment

Sky Woman from Earth on Turtle's Back — Sky Woman from Earth on Turtle’s Back (Photo credit: patentboy)

We are all creative. We must be because we all create. We all make things up. Each day we create thoughts, ideas, meals, impressions, relationships, goals, deals, situations, and objects of all types, shapes, and sizes. We create sadness, happiness, love, peace, violence, and everything in between. We create order out of chaos and chaos out of order. Occasionally we create works of art. To an extent, we create ourselves: each of us is a work in progress.

Sometimes the acts of creation are haphazard and sometimes they are well-thought-out, well-planned, intentional acts. It’s a little bit easier to be intentional about creating when we know that’s what we’re doing. I think one reason we sometimes have a limited view of creation is because we think it only applies to such things as art or music. Maybe we assume you have to have some special ability to create things. Maybe we also assume there is always intention behind creation. But these thoughts or concepts just obscure the reality that we are always in the process of creating something.

Creation is essentially a form of communication. It is how we express our authentic selves in the world. There is a Native American view that each of us possesses original medicine, meaning that we each have something original to contribute to the world. If we’re willing to experiment, to make a mess, to explore both the inner and the outer world, we can better determine what it is that we have to contribute and how we might make our contributions.

Holding back out of fear, false modesty, or an unwillingness to make a mess doesn’t serve us or those around us. Moving forward in the middle of the mess, the uncertainty, and the lack of guarantees is just the way of being in the world, of fully participating. And, really, what else is there to do?

Creating

December 30, 2012 by Joycelyn Campbell Leave a Comment

Michelangelo is quoted as having said:

Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.

It’s unlikely anyone reading those words would conclude that Michelangelo meant there is an actual statue that already exists inside each block of stone that anyone who is really looking for it could discover. The statue he would have discovered in a particular block of stone would undoubtedly not be the same statue another sculptor—Rodin, for example—would have discovered in it. Not being a sculptor, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have discovered anything other than more stone inside the block of stone.

Michelangelo, an exceptional artist who created many exquisite works, was describing the way he saw the material he worked with. No one else saw exactly what he saw. No one else created what he created. He didn’t simply hack away at a piece of marble with whatever tool happened to be at hand looking for what he might find inside it. He did what he did with skillfulness, with attention, and with intention. He devoted himself to creating works of art that he wanted to create and that we still want to look upon.

We each have our own set of tools and materials—skills, abilities, talents, inclinations, experiences, passions, and drives—from which to create. We can use them to hack (or chip) away at life or we can use them with skill, with attention, and with intention.

We can either keep searching for a pre-existing statue inside our piece of stone or we can create something from the stone.

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