When we perceive beauty, an “integration of self” takes place. ~ Arleen Hynes
Facilitating Creative Breakthroughs
When we perceive beauty, an “integration of self” takes place. ~ Arleen Hynes
Carl Jung spent the entire second half of his amazing life dedicated to understanding the “myth” he was living by. He called it his “task of tasks.” Myths are the instruments that we use to make sense of our life events. The problem is, it’s hard to see the story when you’re living it. We don’t have the birds’ eye perspective…
Over twenty years ago I was critically injured in a head-on collision. I fractured T-12, displaced my spinal chord by forty degrees, and had paralysis from the waist down. The doctors gave me less then five percent chance of ever walking again. Perhaps because I fully recovered, I don’t talk about the accident much, but it definitely changed the course of my life. The insurance money I received gave me the means, incentive, and motivation to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, which I wouldn’t have considered before the accident. More importantly, it gave me the means to deeply explore creativity in life, something I didn’t know would be my life journey.
Before Christmas, I received an unexpected phone call from someone who asked me to speak to a group of successful business leaders. The topic? Creativity. Two days later, I was in indescribable pain. I had fallen, re-injured my back, and for the first time since the accident, I was paralyzed again. The connection with the accident and my life path was not lost on me. At the same time, I fretted about how I was going to present anything to anyone in my condition. After two weeks of intense physical suffering, on the day before the big event, I was nearly pain-free and could move again. The presentation went great.
It seems obvious that we’re all living a story–our own individual, unique, amazing story. My story has something to do with the importance of creativity in life. This story was important enough to nearly kill me when I was in my 20s. The story literally stopped me cold so that I could hear its message and follow its path. And the story was important enough to speak loudly and clearly 22 years later. And still, it’s a mystery.
The poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote, “Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.” All I can say is that I’m listening.
One of my favorite quotes about learning is from Donald Oliver, who writes in Education and Community (published in 1976, it’s been out of print for years): “Knowledge, treasured as the gift of education, is really only useful as a catalyst for the active use of the student’s creativity. Not used for this purpose, knowledge simply amounts to inert ideas.” Learning is a process where we become more of ourselves, shedding what doesn’t fit and moving into what does.
To read more go to my book, Getting Messy. A discussion of Oliver’s quote and others is in Chapter Two.
The coolest thing about publishing a book is the community and connections that happen. I didn’t know it would be this way. Many years ago I had a vision of plunging into a dark abyss. It was scary of course–we never know what’s going to happen when we plunge into dark abysses. In fact, our minds usually come up with something quite frightful to keep us on safe terrain. But in the vision, what happened was quite the opposite. Rather than being eaten alive or some other horrible fate, I eventually landed at the bottom of the abyss, which was a brightly lit room filled with interesting, passionate, joyful people. All of a sudden, brighter possibilities than I could ever have imagined were in front of me. I was grateful I’d had the courage to take the plunge. (Interestingly, that’s what Getting Messy is all about…taking the plunge.)
Writing and publishing Getting Messy has been like plunging into that dark abyss. I had no idea what would happen to me or the book. Since I’m working with very limited financial resources, each thing that happens has been amazing and at the risk of sounding sappy, has brought joy to my heart. (I’m even tearing up writing this…) One of the true pleasures has been hearing people’s responses, thoughts, and reactions.
So in that vein, I’m going to share a response that I received from a friend after an author event at Pegasus Books in Berkeley last week. My friend’s analogy about the Blind Men and the Elephant has continued to stay with me. Here’s what he wrote:
I wanted to congratulate you on last night’s meeting. You were there in front of the unknown, and you walked the talk. Right from the beginning you upped the chances of educing collective wisdom from the group by setting up the chairs in an oval, rather than the serried ranks that were presented to you. Sometime in the middle of the group you said something like, “I like it when people speak up and contribute, it gives me something to work with”. That fits in with the oval set up ..namely, when you have a truly interactive group that goes into unknowing with the support of the leader… then creative discoveries and learning are inevitable… and, as you pointed out.. each person learns what they need to learn.
Reminds me of the Blind Men and the Elephant metaphor-story (which I have been using when teaching psychotherapists-in-training). We all have our idea of reality .. and reality is much bigger than any of us can apprehend. So therefore it makes perfect sense that we interact with curiosity and openess and with a sense of unknowing in order to better learn about reality.
Wowie.. I had never taken that metaphor that far.. into the area of how to best teach. And it is in the process of writing to you that that new connection emerged.
We’re all here connecting with our own piece of reality. Thanks to each of you for sharing your piece of reality with me.
When Getting Messy is a Good Thing is the awesome title of a new review on the San Francisco Examiner about my book. The reviewer, Asandra Lamb, wrote that Getting Messy “is an excellent book for anyone exploring their creativity. It is clear that Hermanson knows the necessity of making a mess during the creative process. She encourages the reader to be unafraid to do the same.”
My upcoming workshop at Esalen Institute has also been in the news lately. Click here to read more.
Finally, I’m going to be interviewed about Getting Messy on KPFA (94.1) this coming Monday November 23rd at 3:00 PM. The program is Cover to Cover with Denny Smithson. If you miss the program, you can listen to it on their archives: http://www.kpfa.org/
Thanks everyone! It’s been great hearing from you all!”