unleash the GENIUS

I once saw a supremely interesting Ted Talk by Elizabeth Gilbert. Elizabeth is a renowned author, who is well known for her global success, her memoir called ‘Eat Pray Love’. The book was even adapted into a film starring Julia Roberts that many of you might be aware of. There was one story that Elizabeth shared, that was the premise of her talk, which stuck with me. She spoke of a certain belief that was held by the inhabitants of ancient Greece and ancient Rome. People there did not believe that creativity came from within human beings. They believed that it was this divine spirit that came into human beings from this distant source for unknowable reasons. The Romans called this divine spirit of creativity a genius. They did not believe that ‘genius’ was an excessively clever individual, but that ‘genius’ is a magical divine entity that would live in the vicinity and would come by to assist artists to create a genius outcome.

She spoke of this American poet, Ruth Stone, who shared with Elizabeth, the story of how Ruth would know what poem to write. It was as if some sort of power from the universe would come down to her, like thunder, when she may or may not have chosen it at that very moment, but the universe had chosen to give her the power exactly then. The power would pass through her being and go away in just a few seconds. It is within those seconds that she would have to capture it into words. God forbid, if she did not have a pen and paper right then, she would have to just run and find the means as soon as it was physically possible to do so, to pour out the power into words, before it escapes her. Elizabeth was quite amused by this phenomenon, because for her it was about sitting down before her laptop for laborious hours before she could find the inspiration to create something that was even close to magic. However, she said, that even she would sometimes encounter supremely creative ideas from a source that she felt was unidentified.

I’d like to share a bit of my process here. I would wake up in the morning. On most good days, I would have taken the decision the previous night, that the next morning was a morning to write. My morning process always, every single day, involves brushing my teeth, followed by meditation and a powerful visualization of how I can be the best version of myself during the day. Now the process of meditation and visualization, puts me in a state of zen (on most days). If it is a writing day, then I sit in a particular spot with my phone / laptop open (depending on the mood), and pour out the moment the notes app or the word doc flash open before me. Some people ask me how that is even possible - To open the document and just pour out. Doesn’t it take some thinking, planning, making some notes, doing some research on what you want to write about? Well, the answer is, ‘No, it doesn’t!’. It just happens. Well, this is even possible because it is with great difficulty that I have worked at ‘dehumanising creativity’.

Let me tell you about the struggle before I reached the ‘it just happens’ epiphany.

It all started with a plan. I will write 3 times a week. Mornings work best for me. I feel zen and find my inspiration before the day throngs into action. I may even plan on the 3 articles I want to write that week. Look up some reading material that may form a strong foundation for my thought process. Do the entire meditation and visualization process and finally sit before my laptop. And …Nothing. Can you believe it? All that planning, research and morning process for WHAT? As it would turn out… for nothing!

Now for someone who wants to write, not being able to find the inspiration to do so can be extremely daunting. It is all about the inspiration. Our logical mind may fool us into thinking that it’s about the plan, the research, the structure of the article / book. Hell, no! It isn’t. Writing is a creative process. In order for it to be most effective, it really has to come from within, from a place that we are unable to recognize as a tangible source of wisdom, because it is intangible.

When things don’t go my way (meaning when I don’t find inspiration), and I give way to my logical mind, I tend to think that I haven’t planned enough, or maybe the research has not been thorough. Which naturally leads to fretting about these tasks, and trying to lay them out into daily activities, all of this so that inspiration strikes. Like it does for Poet Ruth Stone in Elizabeth’s story. A few days of this freakish planning and remote controlling for inspiration to strike and then one hits fatigue. Yes, fatigue! When one imagines that they can bring about inspiration by controlling the factors that they think lead to it, the only place that you are led to, is a place of absolute and relentless fatigue. Now the good thing about fatigue is one realizes that, "I am not able to work this out, I will need to exercise some level of ‘letting go’. Now that is indeed difficult to do. But, when you have done your best, all that your logical mind has guided you with, and still things don’t go your way, fatigue teaches you to ‘LET GO!’

Epiphany! It is at this moment when I realized, that I do not have a choice but to surrender to the universe. Here is where I completely relate to the lady who had to capture the power that came into her before it went away, back into the unknown! Any amount of planning or research is not going to result in bringing out the best form of writing. It has to come from inside. While I may still work on a plan, which gives me the illusion of control and that I am in charge, well; after all it is only an illusion. What is actually in control is the universe. The moment of truth is when I surrender to this power and see what unfolds. Of course, there is a process to get to the place of surrender. My morning meditation and visualization enable me to get to that state. But once I am there, I have no option but to let it happen, rather than make it happen.

This, my friends, is when I started producing the best pieces of writing. It just gave me a sense of what can I say - ‘peace’ – that I don’t always have to make inspiration happen, I need to let inspiration happen. My process still remains the same – some planning and research, my morning rituals, the meditation, the powerful visualization, sitting with my beloved cup of beverage before the laptop. The only change is that instead of the looming worry of whether I will write my best today, I close my eyes and focus on letting the universe take over with the faith that whatever gets written today is meant to be’.

Isn’t this the essence of life?