Kim Hermanson's Blog, page 32

Procrastinating…. Or Just Tuned Into Something Else?

Organizational research has demonstrated that people who procrastinate are more creative than people who don’t procrastinate. Actually, the results show a bell curve…meaning that a degree of procrastination is helpful in facilitating creative ideas.

This is really not so surprising. If you’re someone who anxiously leaps into action to get every task done without giving yourself space to “let things percolate,” you’re not going to be coming up with creative ideas and insights. And on the other end of the spectrum, if procrastinating for you is really about not doing anything, well of course, you’re not engaged in creative flow.

At the University of Chicago, under the mentorship of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the New York Times bestselling author of Flow, I studied how adults learn in everyday life. And since the completion of my PhD dissertation, I’ve continued to study how adults learn and process information in daily life.

What I have found is that those who procrastinate on something are likely more aligned with Deep Creative flow. I define the Deep Creative as wisdom that lies under the surface of our conscious awareness. It’s pre-verbal; it’s our “gut.”

Let me give you a couple of quick examples from my own life. I have a routine way I typically market my classes—social media posts, a few articles, and so on. Business owners would call this a “marketing strategy.” But sometimes I don’t have time to market an event in this standard way. Unfortunately, my mind will spend the weeks before the event beating me up: “this isn’t going to be good” “you should be marketing” “you’re not going to get the numbers.” But then lo and behold, a week before the event I’ll realize that the event filled up on its own. I didn’t need to spend the time, energy and resources marketing it. I got the numbers I wanted without doing all that.

There are other times when I have a scheduled talk or webinar or presentation, and I haven’t had time to prepare for it. Again, my mind will be very worried: “Yikes! What am I going to do?” And then it turns out… fine. I didn’t need to spend time preparing for it. In fact, if I’d spent time preparing it would have been a waste of my time.

Of course this doesn’t always happen. I usually need to prepare notes before I talk somewhere and I need to market my work. But there are times when I procrastinate, or I simply don’t have the time, and I later find that I didn’t need to spend the time, energy and resources.

But there’s no way my thinking mind can know ahead of time what I need to prepare for and what I don’t. Instead, I’m aligned with something deeper than my conscious mind. I’m in Deep Creative flow.

Steve Jobs at Apple apparently never wrote up detailed business plans. Instead, he tuned into his gut and made decisions on the fly. This makes sense in industries that are rapidly changing. What’s true about your business model today isn’t going to be true in 6 months or a year. Or 5 years.

I have clients who have spent tens of thousands of dollars on training that they didn’t need, or hire expensive consultants that pushed them to do something that sounded like a good idea but wasn’t in alignment with their Deep Creative.

Tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours…wasted.

Our thinking minds are limited. They only know what they know. They don’t know what they don’t know.

But there’s a deeper part of you—a pre-verbal part of you—that DOES know.

If you’re procrastinating on something, let me suggest this possibility: The task that you’re procrastinating on either doesn’t need to get done, or the scope of it is going to change. Trust your gut and stay aligned with the Deep Creative.

On that note, I have an upcoming seminar that starts this Friday for entrepreneurs (and others) to align with Deep Creative flow. I’d love to have you join us! Click here for more details.

Unleash Source Energy: 5-Week Seminar for Visionary Entrepreneurs

Many years ago I sat on a stool in the Art barn at Esalen Institute painting a paper mache mask. I’d originally signed up for some sort of contemplative workshop, but found it too cerebral and ended up here.

I painted the mask magenta and then decided to paint a vine of flowers on the side. As I slowly drew a long vine down the side of my mask–getting into the feeling sense of the vine’s graceful, elegant beauty–I found my hand being moved by something Greater than myself.

I was no longer directing my hand, Something Else was. Something was moving me, brushing the paint on this mask.

We humans set goals for our lives and make all kinds of goals, plans, and schedules. We trudge along, continuing to believe we’re solely in charge of our destinies.

While all the while… Something Else urgently wants to move and express through us.

Don’t waste your precious time and resources on anything less.

 

I’m launching a 5-week experiential adventure on Friday. While our focus will be for those who know they’re being called to be ambassadors of a mission larger than themselves, you are all welcome. If you simply want to shift out of overwhelm, depression and confusion and live your fullest life, please join us.

We’re going to let Source Energy nurture, strengthen, empower, shift, surprise and move us.

You can live anywhere in the world and participate. Calls will be recorded for those who can’t make it live. Details below.

Shift into Your Fullest Creative Potential

5-Week Summer Seminar for Visionary Entrepreneurs

Fridays June 29 – July 27 

10 am – 11:30 am PDT (1 – 2:30 pm EDT)

$269, includes recorded sessions and an individual Doorway session with Kim

CLICK HERE to REGISTER

For those with a calling to do depth-oriented work, the path is rarely linear. Your soul’s gift is unique—- there are no pre-existing models or “6 Easy Steps” for how to get it out there. The process of developing and launching it is a sacred journey and those of us who take this journey are pioneers, creating our path as we go.

See the synergy between what the world needs and what you are here to give
Tap into potent creative energies to launch and expand your soul calling
See inner resources & possibilities that wouldn’t be revealed any other ways
Get clear about your mission…take actions focused and on fire

During each group session we’ll enter into Source Energy and activate its power, allowing it to vibrationally shift us. You’ll receive great clarity and insight on whatever you’re addressing.

Week 1: Connecting to Source Energy

Week 2: Growing a Form Nourishing of What You Want to Create

Week 3: Clarity, Language & Direction

Week 4: Money & Abundance: Making it, Enjoying it

Week 5: Sharing Your Voice & Your Work, Marketing

Let’s bring Something bigger than ourselves…into form.

CLICK HERE to REGISTER

“Not since Carlos Castenada’s books 40 years ago, have I had such a strong reaction. Kim’s work is pioneering.” ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, New York Times bestselling author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

“Your work is powerful and ‘the Door’ stays open. Insights and shifts keep happening after the call ends.” ~ Diane P. Coffey, PhD

“I’m blown away with this work! I’m amazed at how easily the energies open up understanding and bypass my conscious mind.” ~ Marcia Atkin, MA, Artist

“I’ve been involved in Jungian therapies for 40 years and worked with many world-famous teachers. None of them were able to bring my soul’s images to me, as you did. You have a special and unique gift.” ~ Joan Green, Consultant to the Assisi Institute

Experience Joshua Tree Retreat! June 15th – 17th

 

I’m excited to be presenting a workshop and leading an intensive at the Experience Joshua Tree Retreat in June. I would LOVE to meet you in person. The entire weekend is going to be rich, deep, mystical, and truly magical. Info below.

 

3 days of experiential seminars, workshops & outdoor ventures for healing, health & habitat.

Sacred Community * Plant Medicine * Mindfulness Soul Journeys * Meditation * Cacao Ceremony * Fireside Oral Traditions

Special Guest: Toko-pa Turner, Award-winning author and authority on dreams

Weekend Pass $225 • Day Passes Available

ACCOMMODATIONS & CAMPING STILL AVAILABLE ON SITE

To REGISTER online: http://jtrcc.org/xjt/

For more info, call JTRC at (760) 365-8371 or email: contact@jtrcc.org

Workshops and intensives by…

Toko-pa Turner, “Courting the Dream.” Toko-pa’s work focuses on restoring the feminine, tending to our reciprocity with nature, beautymaking, grief, and ritual practice. Take a deep look at some of the core practices in Toko-pa’s approach to dreamwork.

Kim Hermanson, “Indigenous and Tribal Soul Energies.” Connect with your own sacred lineage of ancestral and tribal soul energies …energies which urgently want to be known and expressed in the world.

John Steele, “The Soul of Plants.” Learn a trans-disciplinary approach to smell and fragrance drawing on John’s background in archaeology, anthropology, English Literature, memory research and Eastern mindfulness traditions.

Catherine Svehla, “The Healing Power of Myth.” In times past, people turned to their myths and shared stories for guidance and healing. Evening Story Circle: “The Persian Tale of Abu Kasim”

Kylee Muchenje: Mindfulness as a Daily Practice

Neysa Griffith: Soul Meditation & Closing Cacao Ceremony

Please join us for this special, unique, magical journey into mystical spaces and places!

To REGISTER online: http://jtrcc.org/xjt/

Radically Deepen Your Work Experiential Training

This Saturday April 28th, I’m offering a special 3-hour training tele-class for eco-oriented practitioners, therapists, coaches, healers, and change makers.

 

To REGISTER: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07ef1wgxj2d9a8ac2d&oseq=&c=&ch=

NOTE: This event will be recorded. If you can’t attend, you can still sign up to receive the recording.

Radically Deepen Your Work: Experiential Training Teleclass for Eco-Oriented Therapists, Healers, & Coaches

Saturday April 28th 9:30 am – 12:30 pm PDT (12:30 pm EDT, 11:30 am CDT, 10:30 am MDT)

$48 includes audio recording

To register: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07ef1wgxj2d9a8ac2d&oseq=&c=&ch=

This experiential, interactive seminar is for ecologically-oriented coaches, therapists, healers, workshop leaders and cultural change-makers who feel called to reconnect our cultural ways of knowing with the natural world.

“Radical” means to go to the roots. In this seminar, you’ll learn a method for connecting with shamanic earth energies that are under the surface of consciousness, and can’t be perceived in a traditional way. Participants may use this training to learn a practical technique, as well as inspiration and a foundation for developing their own unique methods and visionary work.

tap into potent Source energy to launch & expand your work
develop your own methodology for working in harmony with the earth and earth energies
connect with inner guidance to clarify next steps
refine and clarify the broader vision for your work
connect with others who are collectively “pushing the wall”

While this training is oriented toward those who identify as eco-therapists or eco-psychologists, anyone who wishes to learn methods for deepening their connection with the natural world is welcome. If you identify with being part of the collective shift of consciousness and wish to engage with Other world energies in a visceral way, please join us. This is an opportunity to participate in a unique, low-cost training experience.

 

“Not since Carlos Castenada’s books 40 years ago, have I had such a strong reaction. Kim’s work is pioneering.” ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, New York Times bestselling author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Upcoming Experiential Event at Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA!

 

 

Hi folks, Next Saturday, April 14th, I’m doing an experiential class at Book Passage in Corte Madera and I’d love to see you there! Here’s the info and link to register:

The Power of Metaphor to Unlock Creative Genius

Saturday April 14th. 10 am – 1 pm PST

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd. Corte Madera

$75

Click here to REGISTER

Metaphor takes us ‘under the surface’ of our everyday consciousness, into a Deep Creative realm that lies beyond the linear mind. In this experiential class you will directly tap into your own metaphoric imagery and symbolic language.

Metaphor is the basis of our cognitive system, which means that all of us view the world through a metaphoric lens. In this class, you will discover the ways in which metaphor is currently influencing how you see the world, your life, and your creative work. And, you will also discover the metaphoric imagery that the Deep Creative wishes to express through you.

You don’t need to be a writer to benefit from this class. Artists, teachers, organizational leaders, coaches, therapists, and others who wish to expand their ways of learning and knowing are welcome.

I hope to see you there!

Acts of genius or dramatic breakthroughs can only affect the world order when they’re joined by a powerful metaphor. Indeed, establishing the metaphor itself is the act of genius and entry into new areas of knowledge is its consequence.

~ Richard Shiff, Guggenheim recipient

Click here to REGISTER

Finding Your People…to Guide You Home by Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018)

Photo credit: The Guardian

“ Home isn’t Mom and Dad and Sis and Bud. Home isn’t where they have to let you in. It’s not a place at all. Home is imaginary.”

“Home, imagined, comes to be. It is real, realer than any other place, but you can’t get to it unless your people show you how to imagine it—whoever your people are. They may not be your relatives. They may never have spoken your language. They may have been dead for a thousand years. They may be nothing but words printed on paper, ghosts of voices, shadows of minds. But they can guide you home. They are your human community.

“All of us have to learn how to invent our lives, make them up, imagine them. We need to be taught these skills; we need guides to show us how. Without them, our lives get made up for us by other people.”

Soul Harmony: Tapping Core Shamanic Energies Experiential Teleclass – February 8th

We humans have a deep need to live in harmony with the natural world and this has never been more true than in our current turbulent and divisive political climate. Lying beyond your conscious thoughts there may be a gut sense that you’re “out of balance” “overwhelmed” or ”pushing too hard.”

On the other hand, you may have a gnawing discomfort that you have gifts and skills that would bring healing to our planet, but you’re confused about how to begin or move forward.

In this experiential class we will realign and set the tone for this year to one of peace, productivity, and healthy alignment with the deep creative. You will somatically experience deep Source energies that will not only change your vibration, but shift the way you think about your life. Join us for hope, inspiration, guidance, and nourishment as we collectively reconnect with the magic and power of core shamanic earth energies.

Discover the core image that wants to be set in motion
See the synergy between what the world needs and what you are here to give
Tap into potent creative energies to launch and expand your soul calling
See inner resources & possibilities that wouldn’t be revealed any other way
Take your next steps focused and on fire

This teleclass will serve as an introductory class for a 6-week Ecopsychology training program. (Registering for the 6-week program is not required.)

Thursday February 8th 1 – 3 pm PST

NOTE: If you can’t make the actual event, the class WILL be recorded.

$31 early bird rate until January 31st, includes recording

$39 after January 31st

CLICK HERE to REGISTER

“Not since Carlos Castenada’s books 40 years ago, have I had such a strong reaction. Kim’s work is pioneering.” ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, New York Times bestselling author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

You just have to begin

One of the biggest misnomers about creativity is that we need to have “clarity” about something before we begin. The other day I received an email that read:

Every day I think about a written book, so I know it is coming. However, I do need clarity in order to bring it into manifestation. I have no idea what the finished piece will look like….I will contact you when I am ready to proceed.

This particular person (bless her heart) has been talking about writing a book for years. She hasn’t started writing, she just has a vague yearning to write a book. OF COURSE she doesn’t know what it’s going to look like.

We’re never going to be able to “figure it out” ahead of time. We “create the space” for it, put the pen down to the page….and we see what wants to be written.

You aren’t going to know what you’re doing, you just have to BEGIN. If you DID know what you were doing, it wouldn’t be “creative”; it wouldn’t be something NEW. By definition, creativity is about bringing forth something that you haven’t seen before.

The creative process is about being SURPRISED. When we create, we’re working in partnership with Spirit…and Spirit brings surprise.

How delightful is that?

I’ve worked with the creative process long enough that I know I can trust it.  What does trust look like?

It means I have no idea what a particular project is going to look like, I just notice that I’m feeling pulled to create in a particular area. So I create time and space to sit with my muse and see what shows up. I know that Something will be born from my love and devotion.

At its most basic level, creating anything is about expressing our love. And when we share our love, amazing things are born.

You just have to begin.

Working with symbolic & metaphoric images

We live in a metaphoric world…meaning that we live immersed in the energies of the Deep Creative. But because we’re taught to perceive and learn about the world through our thinking minds, most of us aren’t consciously aware of how these powerful energies are “working us” in our day-to-day lives.

Symbolic images show up in our speaking when we say something like, “I feel like I’m drowning” or “I’m overwhelmed” or “I’m so happy I feel like I’m floating.” (When I was falling in love, I felt a clear feeling of “falling.”) They show up in our dreams, and in synchronicities we can’t explain. And they also show up in our everyday lives as animals, weather patterns, plants and other elements of nature crossing our path. However they show up, these images come from Source Energy and we can engage with them for profound guidance, creative shifts and healing.

Our human brains learn early how to “name” things in the world around us, and they do that with images as well: “That’s a tree, gosh darn it!” They don’t have the patience to allow the intuitive part of ourselves to feel into something, because they think they already know what it is.

But just as we can’t know a person by merely looking at a person’s physical features, we can’t know the meaning of a powerful symbolic image by merely visioning it or logically analyzing it. When metaphoric images are alive, they hold an energy and we can feel that energy…just like we can feel or sense the energy of a person standing behind us. This energy is not esoteric, it’s simply a way of knowing that has been overlooked in our culture.

Have you ever driven in your car and felt moved to look to your left and found the person in that car is looking back at you? How did this happen? There’s a part of you that can sense and feel energy. We share an unconscious yet-very-real energetic language with the world around us… and it’s time for our culture to learn this language.

When I work with clients, I guide them in a short interior journey to reveal a Soul image. Very rarely but occasionally, someone will share an image that has been manufactured by his or her thinking mind. This often happens when they’re struggling with some big question or decision, and their minds want to answer that question in a particular way. But when an image/answer comes from Spirit, we have no idea what we’re going to get, it’s a surprise. The Sacred brings surprise, and the solution to a dilemma rarely lies at the level of the “problem.”

Because I’ve been working with this energetic field for many years, I can tell when an image has come from the thinking mind…. there’s an energetic feeling sense of “nothing there.” Have you ever stood next to a dead body? I stood alone, next to my father’s dead body at the funeral home, desperately wanting to get one last sense of him. But there was nothing there. When the Soul has left the body, you can physically feel the absence. That’s the way manufactured images are–they have no life. (Of course, I can still tune into my father’s energetic presence in other ways, but it was no longer available to me through his body.)

Metaphoric images that are alive have an energetic shape…they occupy space, just like you do or just like a redwood tree does. Of course, we can’t see the back of a tree or the back side of a person standing in front of us…we can’t know the shape of something by merely looking at it. So too, with metaphoric images. Just as we humans carry gifts that can’t be seen on the surface and just as we can’t know a human by merely looking at him or her, images carry gifts that can’t be seen on the surface.

But through the amazing shamanic powers of imagination (which are very real and not “make believe”), we can enter the energetic space of a metaphoric image and receive guidance, shifts and healing from it.

In order to begin to enter into this energetic field, I start by getting a sense of how the image occupies space. So…instead of LOOKING AT it, I BECOME it. Becoming the image takes me beyond my linear mind, into a powerful field of shamanic energy.

Becoming the image is trippy for the mind–it makes absolutely no sense to it–so it’s not surprising that my clients have difficulty grasping this idea. When clients receive an image and I ask them to become that image…they typically visualize themselves inside of it, because that’s what makes logical sense.

For example, looking out the window right now, I see a white truck. If I were going to BECOME the white truck, I wouldn’t see myself sitting INSIDE the white truck. Instead, I would notice what it feels like to have a metal body, I would notice how the front of me is heavier than the back because that’s where the engine is located. I would notice what I’m resting on…my body is resting on the chassis or frame. I’m dependent on my wheels for movement. I would notice what it feels like to have this frame supporting me.

Let’s say that in a dream you receive an image of a castle. You might start by noticing the features of the castle—it’s doors, walkways and other features. But to work with this image’s deep metaphoric energies, try this… let your vision go soft. It’s no longer a castle, it’s now a shape–a 3-dimensional blob. This shape has an outer edge, it has a perimeter.

I begin by letting the outer perimeter of the image guide me. I feel how big I am, how I take up space. I notice whether I feel solid or rigid or tight, or whether there’s part of me that feels wiggy or mushy. I notice whether I want to expand or maintain a particular shape. All healthy humans have good boundaries, and an image’s message might be about needing boundaries or containment in a particular situation.

If it’s alive, the image often wants to get bigger (even if the energy and message of the image is to hold your boundaries.) Just like we humans are in a growth process and we want to keep evolving and growing, images want to be as big as they can be.

However, you might also notice…is there any part of the image that feels closed or shut down?

Because the image is alive, we’re feeling/sensing for movement. It has a direction and purpose and a way it wants to go. It has something it wants to reveal to you energetically through that movement (…even if the movement is stillness).

Finally, this is shamanic terrain, so…does the image want to shift or change into something else? These images can shape-shift into something else at any time.

Being a BEGINNER is absolutely necessarily in working with images, because images are coming from another realm (they’re not speaking to what we humans think we know.) For example, one client received an image of seeing herself standing in a rectangular hole in the shape of a coffin in the ground. While her mind was freaked out about “being buried”, the energetic qualities of this image were quite the opposite of death. The energetic message was for her to allow herself to be planted in the soil like a seed. She was on a path of fresh, organic growth.

As is probably clear by now, the most important thing is to let the image’s message emanate from the beauty of the image itself, rather than be manufactured by your thinking mind. Its’ message will feel expansive to your physical body and heart…even if the message of the image is of grief, there will be an expansive feeling of deep peace. It will feel like a deep “ah” as you finally allow yourself to settle into deep truth.

Stepping into this energy, we feel bliss… as we connect to something much larger than ourselves

14 ways to be more creative… in the next 10 minutes

1. Be Authentic. Where are you out of integrity with yourself? Our creativity flourishes when we’re in alignment with our loves, passions and true desires.

2. Make Connections. At its most basic, creativity is about making connections between things…connections that no one else has yet seen.

3. Be Something Else for a Moment. What does the breeze blowing through the cherry blossoms feel like? BE the breeze and see what the breeze has to say about your creative dilemma.

4. Add Space…a Pause. In all creative modalities, the “negative space” is what creates the art, as well as engagement with the audience. For example, in music, the space between the notes creates the melody—the beauty is found in the in-between space. Where can you give your readers, clients, students…a pause?

5. Borrow From Other Artistic Arenas. If you’re a writer, use principles of artistic design to guide your writing. How can you make your words…visual? For example, you could try writing in geometric patterns. If you’re a visual artist, how might dance, cooking or poetry inform or inspire your work? The cross-pollination might be literal or metaphoric.

For more detailed information about all 14 ways to inspire creative thinking, click here for my free PDF download: 14 ways to be more creative…in the next 10 minutes