Kim Hermanson's Blog, page 38

FREE TELE-CLASS! Opening Creative Space: Metaphor & the Symbolic Domain

All of us contain a vast reservoir of untapped creativity. Visualization is considered by many to be the most powerful way to cure illness, make more money, give a great performance, and so forth. But when we focus on visualization techniques or particular images, we have not honored the potential of the symbolic domain. There’s something else that wants to be known—-the space within which those powerful images lie. In this workshop, you will experience and feel the presence of sacred, symbolic space where you can see creative movement metaphorically, before it is manifested in the external world.

This tele-class is for the untapped creative potential that is within you. You will enter rich, metaphoric terrain where you will meet new resources, new possibilities and new answers that you wouldn’t get in any other way. What shows up for you will likely surprise you.

Thursday, November 6th 5:00 pm - 6:15 pm PST

To register send me an email.

I will be sharing brand new, cutting-edge material that I haven't shared before. I hope you'll join us.

Kim Hermanson, PhD is an expert on metaphor and it's role in catalyzing creative breakthroughs. She is on the faculty of Pacifica Graduate Institute, Meridian University, Sofia University and has led workshops at Esalen Institute. She is the author of Getting Messy: A Guide to Taking Risks and Opening the Imagination.

Plugging in to the Creative Juice

For years, music has haunted me. I play some instruments and sing with a band, but there was always some ephemeral thing I couldn’t “get to.” I had a deep yearning that I didn’t think I would ever realize; I wanted something but I didn’t know what it was. Then a few weeks ago I picked up a friend’s bass guitar and started plunking on it. It rocked my world. All of a sudden, I had my instrument.

I couldn’t see this path ahead of time. If someone had told me three months ago that I’d be a halfway decent bass player by the time summer was over, I’d tell them they were crazy. A door had opened that I didn’t know was there. I couldn’t see it. That’s how the creative works—we can’t understand it ahead of time. Our world changes when we step in to a place inside ourselves where we see possibilities, resources, answers and opportunities that we hadn’t seen before. That’s what happens in Doorway sessions.

Playing bass has plugged me in to a creative juice that I wasn’t plugged in to before...and that creative juice is changing everything—-my relationships, work, my outlook on life. Being creatively plugged in to what we love transforms everything else because when we create—-in whatever form—-we’re expressing our love. We have new channels for expressing joy that we didn’t have before.

While we might believe we need to spend our time ‘fixing’ whatever isn’t working in our lives through goal setting, better discipline, support groups, therapy…what if all we needed to do was express our passion for something? What if that healed everything?

Creativity isn’t linear and your interests and inclinations might not make sense to you. Just because I’m passionate about playing the bass doesn’t mean that I’m starting a new profession as a rock musician. Our minds need to make sense of everything (especially how we’re going to make money from whatever-it-is). But our hearts need to feel and express love.

I know what it’s like to have something creative nagging at you, to feel the pain of thinking that you’ll never find a way to express it, that you’ll die without birthing it. There are people I know who have amazing creative work that wants to come through them and I don’t know that they will ever write those books or produce those songs because they don’t take it seriously. They just live with the nagging voice while they attend to other things that they think are more important. I hurt for them, but I hurt more for the creative work. The loss of having their love be unexpressed in this world. Creative work doesn't have to be 'hard.' It's about feeling in to the love that is already there, and letting yourself express that love.

The world needs your creative passion. You need it too. If you’re ready to step into your creative gifts in a whole new way, please join me for a Doorway session. I'm offering a 10% discount for a single session thru the end of October.

I’m doing a free tele-seminar this month, click here to get details or click on the Events tab above.

The art of not knowing what you're doing

Twenty-five years ago when I was a first year PhD student, a friend talked me into attending a creative writing workshop. Since I’d never done anything like that before, I had no prior expectations…but I was totally unprepared for what happened. We were given some topic to write about, I put my pen to the page and I found myself writing a weird fantasy-fairy tale about a comic strip character who was clearly on acid. It was the strangest thing I’d ever seen.

So many of my clients think that they need to know in advance what their creative work will look like. But when we open up the creative, we don’t know what we’re going to get. By definition, creativity is about bringing something forth that you haven’t seen before. It’s NEW. You’re not going to KNOW what it is beforehand.

People get confused about this. They think they need to figure it out ahead of time, have a 5-year plan for how they’re going to complete it (and earn an income from it) and have all their ducks in a row before they begin to write, paint, dance, make music. I get emails that sound something like this, “Every day I think about a written book, so I know it is coming. However, I need clarity in order to bring it into manifestation. I have no idea what the finished piece will look like.” The creative process doesn’t work that way. You're not going to figure it out ahead of time.

I love film director David Lynch’s comment to Terry Gross when she interviewed him on NPR’s Fresh Air a few years ago. She asked him something about his work and he said, “You know Terry, when I’m making a movie, I don’t know what I’m doing.” The sculptor stands in front of his marble slab and the image of what wants to be created is likely already there, but hidden in a dimension that can’t be seen. The sculptor just needs to show up, and intuitively “feel in” to where he’s being led to start carving.

One of the biggest misnomers about creativity is that we need to have clarity about something before we begin. Of course you don’t know what the finished piece will look like. Creativity is about NOT knowing. You aren’t going to know. All you can do is value the creative process enough to allow yourself to be “pulled” by something. Trust that if you devote your love to it, you will be led to a door that you didn’t know existed. Once you open that door, something amazing will come. It always does.

Successful Social Change Opens Space in New Places

I recently met someone who is an international expert on social change movements. Over breakfast at my favorite café we talked about how successful social protests open up space in places where we think there isn’t any space. The conversation fascinated me because I’ve spent the past two years writing a book about metaphor and the creative process… But what I’m really writing about is space. Creative change happens when a certain kind of Space is opened. That’s what I do in Doorway sessions---my client and I open doors to something that we didn't know existed.

Even though the space (or ground) is what allows transformation to happen, our focus is typically on the figure---or what is happening within a space. In his book Stillness Speaks, Eckhart Tolle writes: “Most people confuse the Now with what happens in the Now, but that’s not what it is. The Now is deeper than what happens in it. It is the space in which it happens.” We have not yet developed ways to see the “space in which it happens.” We might say, “I feel good when I’m in that person’s presence” or “I always have amazing insights in that teacher’s class” or “That person has great energy” but because we have no other way to understand it, we go on about our day and forget about the fertile, creative space that had been opened for us. It stays unseen and unknown.

As a culture, we focus on glamorous Hollywood stars and action heroes. In the fairy tale Cinderella (or at least one version of the tale) Cinderella steps into the pumpkin-turned-stagecoach, and she becomes a beautiful princess. Although we all adore Cinderella, she’s really just a pretty young girl who was transformed into a princess for a night. The pumpkin is where the true power lies. Being able to offer sacred, creative space is more important than any action that happens within that space. But the pumpkin is the ground and not the figure, so we focus on Cinderella and forget about the pumpkin. After all, the pumpkin hasn’t really done anything to our eyes. Opening imaginal space is subtle, it can't be seen with regular eyes. 

Techniques for working with images have been around for a long time, likely long before Carl Jung coined the term active imagination. Visualization is considered by many to be the most powerful way to cure illness, make more money, give a great performance, and so forth. But there’s something else that wants to be known---not the tool or technique of visualizing, but the space within which those powerful images lie. The potential of transformative change lies with a particular kind of ground. After all, the creative process is always in movement---individual images are always shifting and changing into something else. If we really want to understand how creative change happens, we need to explore the terrain where those potent images live.

The transformative wisdom of the fairy tale

One way to enter into the deep symbolic language of our soul is through a fairy tale. When we write a fairy tale, the words “Once upon a time” opens up a portal to another world. We step into shamanic terrain. I have used fairy tales in my groups, classes and individual sessions for years. They never fail to reveal something unique and interesting, offering a perspective that seems both profound and simple at the same time.

For example, here is a fairy tale that one of my students wrote:

Once upon a time, way up on a high hill, on a grassy spot surrounded by tall trees, there sat a young girl. She had eaten all the fruits off all the trees surrounding this grassy spot and now there was nothing left to eat. And that was OK, it’s just that she was so used to looking for rich, juicy red fruit, that she didn’t know what else there was to look at. And so she just needed to sit there, until her vision readjusted to this new inner and outer place and she could see with fresh eyes again, all the beauty in this world.

Every fairy tale is psychologically significant. The narrative and images that show up are metaphorical, not literal. Through the metaphorical images that show up in the tale, we are able to "tune in" to a deeper place within ourselves. These  images are powerful because they’re working on all levels at once. They reveal perspectives that we wouldn’t have seen in any other way. When you enter into this metaphoric terrain, an expansion happens. Space is opened up and you naturally see other options and possibilities that wouldn't have occurred to you otherwise. Your brain starts firing in a different way.

Our creative process isn’t linear. It will make leaps, and your left brain may judge what you're writing and want to shut it down. Let go of your attachment to what you think this fairy tale should be. Welcome and write down anything that comes. Let the images that show up write the tale and simply record what they have to say. And they do have something to say to you.

If you come to a place where you feel stuck, write the words “…and what I really want to say is…” and see what happens. Those words will help drop you down into a deeper level of wisdom and insight.


 

Sacred moments are those that bring surprise. If we already know what’s going to happen, we’re not in a sacred moment. When we write a fairy tale, we are entering a sacred space where we don't know what's going to happen next. The more you realize that this fairy tale is a real place with real wisdom that you can tap into, the more it will reveal to you.

For more on fairy tales, as well as a process for you to follow when writing your own fairy tale, a short video:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAVbcKlbDB4

Metaphors allow us to live new possibilities

Mythologist Michael Meade describes sacred occurrences as those in which the "seal that separates the worlds" is broken and Spirit enters through that break. In Doorway sessions, clients go through a portal into a sacred, interior place where they tap into their own metaphoric inner wisdom. The messages from this realm are clear, direct and immediate. Once we've received an image, there is no further analysis or thinking that we need to do.

Valuing My Time: How a Metaphor Instantly Shifted Things

I've often felt uncomfortable setting limits and boundaries on my time with people. I've struggled with feeling that I was being callous, or it was my ego. But in a Doorway Session I saw fruit falling off my tree...and the fruit was my time. My tree was producing fruit and if I didn't take care to harvest that fruit, it would hit the ground and be wasted. I had been acting like I had unlimited time and the image clearly showed me that I don't. My tree won't be producing fruit forever and it's my responsibility to harvest it now.

After this image showed up, I had no energy about this anymore. Metaphors put an end to the stuckness, we're no longer in our heads analyzing the various sides of the issue: "Is it better for my business if I do this or I do that?"  Instead, we experience immediate truth. We all have such metaphoric inner wisdom available to us for any issue that we struggle with.

I have two upcoming Doorways groups starting in March. For more information: http://aestheticspace.typepad.com/aesthetic_space/workshops.html

Our hearts drive our curiosities

I have a client who loves history. Before working with this client I’d never thought much about history. I like watching historical movies, but I disliked history as a subject in school and I always did poorly in it because it required memorizing information (names, dates, places) that felt dry and dead to me. But when my client talks about history, it’s anything but dry and dead. For him, history is alive—it’s something he engages with, something that challenges him, something that has continuing wisdom to share. Listening to him talk about it, I wanted to see what he saw. I wanted to experience that. And now history has started to come alive for me as well. Being able to see what he saw was a gift that he gave to me. I believe we each open these spaces for one another.

I’m reminded of a story by Robert Romanyshyn in The Metaphors of Consciousness about two men—a geologist and a botanist—who are walking together through a forest. They are both walking through the same forest, but the botanist notices the flowers and trips over the rocks…while the geologist notices the rocks and steps on the flowers. Each of them has a clear experience of being in the forest and are certain about what they have seen. There is only one forest, but the two men see very different things and have different experiences of it.

Romanyshyn’s story brings us back to the heart, because it is our loves and passions that drive our curiosities and subsequently, what we notice. The geologist loves rocks and doesn’t see the flowers. The botanist loves flowers and doesn’t see the rocks. It’s the heart that moved the botanist to be passionately curious about flowers and the geologist to be enamored with rocks. Rudolph Steiner said, “Unless I love something it cannot reveal itself to me.” Romanyshyn’s story beautifully illustrates how life is a creative process and we each participate in it in a unique way. Our hearts govern where our gifts lie and how we can contribute to others, because our hearts shows us what we see.

Metaphoric wisdom: Stripping away the gobbledygook

One of my clients just completed a graduate degree and was

feeling stressed about his career path. He needed to earn an income to

support his family, yet he wanted to stay true to himself. He talked about needing to cross a “bridge”—to find work aligned with his heart. However, in the metaphoric realm, things shape-shift, and in this case, the bridge wanted to transform into a

bowl of soup. With this new image, my client immediately got an “ah-ha,” realizing he didn’t need to “go

somewhere else” to find his right work. He already had everything he needed to

offer his gifts (bowl of soup) to others. He said with a chuckle, “I’m ready to

serve.”

Another client just turned 80 years old, and lives alone in a

home she’s been in for over 40 years. She talked about being at a “crossroads” and facing the unknown and many decisions, including her son's desire for her to sell the house and move. When we tapped into the metaphoric level during our session, the crossroads wanted her to know that it was a spacious place. It was a place where she could gather with friends and family, rest, and celebrate beauty (she's an artist). It said to her: “I am the crossroads. I’m a safe place; you don’t have to go anywhere... I see you wondering about the larger questions—health, money, your home and living situation. What I would like you to do is be here now, and celebrate this spacious place.” The spacious crossroads and its wisdom immediately calmed her, giving her strength and clarity to make decisions that

were aligned with her heart, rather than with fear or other people’s demands or

expectations.

I regularly tap into metaphor to resolve my own issues as well. This has been an amazing year for me, but with all the good things that have been flowing in, I’ve also felt increasingly stressed about not having enough time for everything. The healing metaphoric image that showed up was that I was learning how to “bounce the ball.” The image told me that I get tired of bouncing the ball, and sometimes I hit it too hard (overwork) or too soft and then I “lose it” for a day. I’m not used to having to bounce the ball consistently. When I looked further, I saw that learning how to dribble the ball consistently was self-care. It was an act of love and tenderness to be consistent, not pushing too hard or too slow.

The shift that occurs from stepping into healing metaphors is visceral, not cognitive. We feel what it’s like to be a tasty bowl of soup, a spacious crossroads, or to be steadily bouncing the ball. The transformative metaphors that come up during sessions are always specific to you. The metaphor is exactly what you need right now, and it’s always something that has a synaesthetic (all-sensory) feeling that your body can feel. These metaphors are not created by your thinking mind. Indeed, your rational mind would want something much more slick and polished! A bowl of soup and dribbling a ball are simple and lighthearted, far from being “hip” or "cool." But the truth is, the most profound shifts are simple…because all the gobbledygook that our minds create has been stripped away. That’s the wisdom of metaphor.

Creativity tip: How can you make it strange?

Creativity happens when we make unusual connections…making what is familiar “strange.” We presume that certain things automatically go together—boat, duck, and water, for example. When we put unusual things together, we are in “creative” terrain. (As a silly example, ham sandwich and hair jell don’t go together…it’s a creative combination.)

When we put two paradoxical words like ham sandwich and hair jell together, the tension between the two creates a third space. Pairing two paradoxical things is also the closest way that we can express ineffable things of any sort. In his book Beauty, the poet John O’Donohue writes about the limitation of rational thought and linear language:

It is impossible for language to

express this nearness for in the end every thought is an act of distance, a

separation with the Divine. Even words like “nearness,” “intimacy” or “love”

still indicate separation. Only the strained language of paradox can suggest

the breathtaking surprise of Divine closeness. God is breath-near, skin-touch,

mind-home, heart-nest, thought-forest, otherness-river, night-well, time-salt,

moon-wings, soul-fold.

In my Psychology of Creativity courses, I go even further. I

want my students to leave their rational minds behind and let their

imaginations take over. The only way to do that is to intentionally give them

something confusing. One of my favorite and most powerful exercises is to have

the students speak gibberish to one another. The mind can’t comprehend what is

being said, so they’re forced to step into a “third space,” an “imaginal”

space, where a new language comes to them through mental images, story and

metaphor.

My goal is take them out of their element in whatever way

that I can. When we’re confronted with something that our very smart

left-brains cannot even begin to figure out—that’s when the magic happens.

That’s the moment we have a space for the imaginal.

Creating is about questioning our conventional way of seeing

the world—seeing the world as if it could be otherwise…and connecting the

unconnected. Making impossible juxtapositions highlights distinctions and

alerts us to things we would have missed otherwise. Pull out the things that are surprising or paradoxical.  

What doesn’t make

sense to you? Start there.

Creativity Tip: How Can You Make It Strange?

Creativity happens when we make unusual connections…making what is familiar “strange.” We presume that certain things automatically go together—boat, duck, and water, for example. When we put unusual things together, we are in “creative” terrain. (As a silly example, ham sandwich and hair jell don’t go together…it’s a creative combination.)

When we put two paradoxical words like ham sandwich and hair jell together, the tension between the two creates a third space. Pairing two paradoxical things is also the closest way that we can express ineffable things of any sort. In his book Beauty, the poet John O’Donohue writes about the limitation of rational thought and linear language:

It is impossible for language to

express this nearness for in the end every thought is an act of distance, a

separation with the Divine. Even words like “nearness,” “intimacy” or “love”

still indicate separation. Only the strained language of paradox can suggest

the breathtaking surprise of Divine closeness. God is breath-near, skin-touch,

mind-home, heart-nest, thought-forest, otherness-river, night-well, time-salt,

moon-wings, soul-fold.

In my Psychology of Creativity courses, I go even further. I

want my students to leave their rational minds behind and let their

imaginations take over. The only way to do that is to intentionally give them

something confusing. One of my favorite and most powerful exercises is to have

the students speak gibberish to one another. The mind can’t comprehend what is

being said, so they’re forced to step into a “third space,” an “imaginal”

space, where a new language comes to them through mental images, story and

metaphor.

My goal is take them out of their element in whatever way

that I can. When we’re confronted with something that our very smart

left-brains cannot even begin to figure out—that’s when the magic happens.

That’s the moment we have a space for the imaginal.

Creating is about questioning our conventional way of seeing

the world—seeing the world as if it could be otherwise…and connecting the

unconnected. Making impossible juxtapositions highlights distinctions and

alerts us to things we would have missed otherwise. Pull out the things that are surprising or paradoxical.  

What doesn’t make

sense to you? Start there.