Struggle to create another piece?

I bet you may face a situation where nothing works.

Many people spend days attempting to generate what is required, but the right idea eludes them.

This makes us:

·        Self-doubt,

·        Frustrated with ourselves,

·        Lost trust in oneself.

These factors contribute to anxiety, which is counterproductive during a creative shutdown.

Creativity is closely tied to a crucial aspect we should be aware of.

If you’re feeling stuck in the process, don’t force it. Productivity and creativity don’t always go hand in hand.

When it comes to creativity, a different approach is necessary. Let me share the secret of moving forward, as known to sages.

Most are familiar with the psychologist Abraham Maslow and his renowned hierarchy of human needs.

While Maslow never explicitly outlined a hierarchy, his work touched upon a core concept that is widely acknowledged: the direct link between creative capabilities and psychological safety.

In survival mode, it’s nearly impossible to learn, ponder corporate objectives, experience aesthetic joys, or reach scientific conclusions.

Nowadays, the business world is abuzz with discussion of the importance of psychological safety as a tool for enhancing employee creativity and innovation.

Employers establish a foundation for psychological safety through a lack of judgment, transparency, teamwork, encouragement, and mutual trust.

They do it following Maslow’s suggestion that to attain psychological safety, we must first address our fundamental needs, such as physiological and social.

Nonetheless, some individuals still seek safety and security, but the origins of these needs differ from the fulfillment of basic ones.

Sages, artists, and entrepreneurs found psychological safety through shortcuts without needing to excel at the lower levels of the need hierarchy.

Quoting The Gift of Sensitivity:

However, many chef-d ’oeuvres are achieved in poverty, and sages grow by rejecting material comfort, proving independence of self-mastery from material security.  Entrepreneurs were ready to work in their garages without food and sleep, building ideas with enormous energy and challenging dependence on physical abilities from external energy sources. It was a passion that drove them, the highest emotional engagement possible. This creative energy goes through all barriers in the same way spiritual people prove the absence of limitations in the material world. All these people feel fulfilled and live happier moments when most of us have been connected to their core straight, without graduating from lower needs in the hierarchical order.

Sages did it intentionally through meditation, connecting to inner reality.

Artists and passionate entrepreneurs enjoyed the pleasure of the side effect of being highly emotionally engaged.

They demonstrate that psychological safety is not a direct reflection of outside reality but a perceived quality.

In other words, what is outside doesn’t matter; you can get to a psychological safety level without any special arrangements.

The world is individually perceived; some people find it fantastic, yet some can barely cope.

Perception is a key to creative flow and is hugely dependent on our inner psychological state, which is a product of our emotions.

When we are emotionally engaged and full of passion, we perceive ourselves as psychologically safe. Please, don’t mix passion with obsession.

We are “all in” only if we are emotionally engaged.

During my student days, university professors advised me to take a break when I felt stuck with my creations.

Similarly, corporate managers create psychologically safe environments.

While beneficial, too much safety can hinder creativity. Harvard Business Review’s article “Too Much Team Harmony Can Kill Creativity” by Darko Lovric and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic points out that when teams and organizations enjoy too much harmony, they will gravitate toward inaction and complacency.

Let’s think differently.

Have you experienced how falling in love transforms the world into a colorful, adventurous place?

It feels like a magic switch is turned on, right?

Ideas flow, tasks are managed efficiently, and unique solutions are found in half the time.

This is the power of emotional engagement – when we engage in one area, others follow suit.

Therefore, get emotionally involved instead of relaxing or taking time off for creative shutdowns.

Don’t relax; energize yourself with emotional engagement instead.

Academic research confirmed that a good mood and energy resurfaces within 72 hours.

Creativity will follow immediately.

That’s all for today.

We’ll talk again in two weeks.

If these words make you feel a little better, please share your thoughts with Your Emotional Capital Newsletter readers: we are happy to hear from you!

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Find me on LinkedIn, Medium, or a website. Send me professional inquiries at Kirkus ProConnect.

1. The Gift of Sensitivity Book saves your precious time summarising 8 years of research & personal journey. Take a copy to discover your own sensitivity, transforming it into a superpower for a future with extraordinary faculties such as creativity, originality, innovation, intuition, flexibility, and inclusiveness in times of technological acceleration.
2. Your Emotional Capital Newsletter informs you with a mosaic of perspectives and insights on how emotional depth can fuel transformation, expedite learning, and activate greater cognitive capacities. Here, vulnerability meets strength, and sensitivity is recast not as a liability but as a potent asset.
3. Notes of Sensitive Resurgent Practical Guide encourages you to share your story and/or questions. It is a practical “how-to” guide that aims to help you understand and experience what’s possible when we tap into our innate abilities. Let’s grow together!