Speaker #0You are an artist. Whatever it is that you are bringing to life through your regenerative work, whether you've not even begun yet but you're just starting to allow yourself to dare to imagine what might be possible, whether you're right in the messy middle of trying and failing and having to recommit to this work every single day, wherever you are in this process, you're an artist. Hello and welcome to Regenerative Work Life. I'm Alyssa Murphy. Before I get into today's topic, I would love to ask something of you. If you have been enjoying this podcast, if it means something to you, if you're learning something or in some way it's expanding or opening up things for you. It would mean a lot to me if you could take... few minutes to leave a review for the podcast. 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Okay, we're going to be exploring the relationship between creativity, specifically creative recovery and regenerative work, which I think is also a kind of recovery from a corporatized mindset, a sort of heavily capitalistic colonial way of being in work and coming back into a more nature inspired, aligned and life-giving relationship with our work and this idea for the podcast came because I have recently returned to The Artist's Way which is by Julia Cameron. I'm sure many of you have heard of The Artist's Way or you've perhaps even delved into it yourself and tried out some of the exercises. Interestingly for myself because I feel like I'm so so familiar with this book and with Julia Cameron's kind of philosophies and tools, I've never actually read the whole book. That's not um just given my personality type I am a bit of a skim reader and I do tend to kind of come in and get what I came for and then move on I'm not always great at seeing things through all the way but with The Artist's Way the reason I think I've never gone that deeply into it before is because right at the very beginning um Julia talks about doing morning pages writing morning pages which is three pages of free freeform free-flowing writing writing about absolutely anything doesn't matter whatever comes into your head just putting it on paper and doing that every single morning and you've probably if you've been around on the podcast for a while even heard me talk about my morning pages practice which has evolved a little bit um since then but it's absolutely rooted in julia cameron's practice which is one of her basic tools for artistic exploration and for creative recovery and doing Morning Pages was so transformative for me that I never really went much further in the book at the time that I read it that is what I needed that is what I was called to that book for and I won't go into all of that now but yeah I will just say that Morning Pages has been a really incredible deeply spiritual experience for me and is now very much kind of how I find guidance and wisdom and connect with something. more than myself. I do personally use the word God even though I am absolutely not religious, that word has just, I guess I've come into a new relationship with it, but I could easily substitute God for the universe or for nature and for me all of that, all of that work and that feeling and that co-creation is all very much intertwined. But I felt coming out of the summer, my kids have just gone back to school, I was really called to come back to the artist's way and this time kind of go through it more thoroughly and follow through on more of the exercises and really allow myself to explore creativity through the lens of my work here at Regenerative Work Life and my work with clients. and so I wanted to, I was sort of inspired to share because the first chapter is about creative recovery and the sections I'm going to read from you are about how to use the book for creative recovery and as I was going through and then actually I went back and kind of highlighted the sections that had really stood out to me, it struck me that the kind of paragraphs or concepts that I were pulling out were directly relevant to anyone pursuing and exploring a regenerative work life. And I think there's a really strong parallel between creativity and between between regenerative work or even regeneration and I'm I'm only just beginning to understand this for myself and I think I will probably come back to this in future episodes but you know me I like to do my exploration in public it's not natural to me to kind of come with fully formed um perfectly shaped ideas I like to think aloud and work this through with you and but what I'm understanding at the moment is what struck me so clearly is that Both creativity and regenerative work are about a relationship with something more than ourselves as individuals, a higher power, a larger connecting force. I really believe that co-creation is such a fundamental principle of regenerative work and that that means not only building things whether that's businesses, new economics, new farming practices, whatever it might be, doing that in community and with others and lifting others up and for others, but also doing that in connection with a power or a wisdom that is beyond ourselves, a kind of energetic life force which is one of the key things that Julia Cameron talks about in the beginning of this book. You'll hear me turning pages a little bit as I look for the quotes that I really want to share with you. So let's start with this one. Julia writes, the heart of creativity is an experience of the mystical union. The heart of the mystical union is an experience of creativity. And that mystical union, from my understanding, is... essential to regenerative work and that doesn't I don't know I'm always I always feel like I need to caveat when I move into this more spiritual territory to say look it can also be super practical and you know and it can sustain you and it can be financially viable but I think the difference here and really if you're if you're seeking regenerative work you are seeking something more than a practical solution or you know something that ticks the boxes or something mechanical, I think you are seeking some kind of mystical union and you might not be someone who would ever use those words but whether for you that manifests as a feeling of deep connection with nature or a feeling of deep community or some kind of ancient wisdom or a relationship with ancestors, whatever it might be, I think there is a mystical union or a co-creation at the heart of regenerative work. That also means that we as people who are seeking that regenerative work, creative, those regenerative solutions, have the possibility to allow that energetic life force to work through us. So we don't always need to be the instigators, the problem solvers, we don't need to have all the answers. The more we can be in touch with that connection and be open to it we can allow ourselves to be conduits for that and one of the quotes that is peppered throughout the book is a quote by Puccini talking about writing Madame Butterfly and he said the music of this opera was dictated to me by God I was merely instrumental in putting it on paper and communing it Katie and communicating it to the public And there's lots of other quotes from artists and creators talking about what it feels like when you allow, many of them do use the word God, when you allow that flow to come from God or to come from something beyond yourself and flow through you. Interestingly Julia then goes on to talk about when you start to feel that connection what can happen. So she says, chief among these changes will be the triggering of synchronicity. We change and the universe furthers and expands that change. Now, I have seen that in my work with clients. I have felt and experienced that in my own life. When we start to open up to the possibilities of regenerative work, when we start to really kind of disconnect and detox from corporate and societal conditioning, things open up to us that simply weren't there before, or they were there but they were not available to us, we couldn't see them, we couldn't understand them and that's a really magical and really exciting process that I often see happening with clients maybe two or three months into working together that suddenly sort of you know the kernel of an idea that they've maybe been nurturing as that they really start to commit to that and trust it and believe in it opportunities start opening up to them conversations happen connections happen um things unfold just in a kind of slightly magical way and that's the synchronicity that Julia Cameron is talking about here Maybe one final point on this more spiritual side, she says, Creativity is an experience, to my eye a spiritual experience. It does not matter which way you think of it, creativity leading to spirituality or spirituality leading to creativity. In fact, I do not make a distinction between the two. And in the face of such experience, the whole question of belief is rendered obsolete. I love that last line so much, that in the face of such experience, the whole question of belief. is rendered obsolete. Look, I'm aware I'm going, I don't know, deeper, more abstract, more esoteric than I have done in the past on the podcast, but that is because this is what feels true to me and what my real experience has been of learning about, exploring and helping others to connect with a regenerative work life. That it is... a co-creation, a mystical union and that synchronicity or this feeling that you're not doing it on your own. Martha Beck describes this as co-creating with the universe and talks about what it feels like when it's like the universe is kind of there on your shoulder going yeah I love that idea let's do that here let me throw some opportunities in your way like good for you trying something new here let me help you along the way that's what it feels like. to co-create and when that starts to happen for you which you know it takes surrender it takes faith it takes resilience but when that starts to happen as it says here in the face of such experience the whole question of belief is rendered obsolete but it's not a straightforward process it's not easy as i've said it's it's bumpy because Better in the world? by and large doesn't work like this and if in particular if you're coming out of from a corporate background and even if you've not directly worked for corporate the world of work is by and large highly highly corporatized. The idea that you know the unfolding of your career the next chapter of work for you the business that you're going to create that that is a spiritual journey that that is a creative path that there is any kind of mysticism involved in there is just you know completely at odds with how the vast majority of us have been conditioned to think about careers which is so pragmatic and formulaic and kind of one step after another you know going up the ladder making smart strategic choices all the way and to say actually that isn't working for anymore and me anymore and I want to trust something else. I want to go back to those half-forgotten dreams that I've shoved in the back of the dusty attic of my experience and I want to open them up and see if there's still something in there for me and frankly I'm scared shitless to do so because it feels irrational and irresponsible and nobody really understands what I'm doing and I don't even know if I believe that I can do it myself and then to do it anyway. That is what it is to be an artist and I think that we are called to be artists in the pursuit of our regenerative work lives and Julia shares here what that can feel like when you pursue it and this very much reflects what I see from my client's experience. So she says remember that It's a spiral path. You will circle through some issues over and over each time at a different level. There is no such thing as being done with an artistic life. Frustrations and rewards exist at all levels on the path. Our aim here is to find the trail, establish our footing and begin the climb. The creative vistas that open will quickly excite you. I really believe that. It does open up very quickly but you have to do you recognize that this is not a linear progression and when she talks here about issues um the same issues arising over and over but we're going up that spiral the same things will come up for you if you begin this journey with a lack of self-belief as almost everybody does that that lack of self-belief is gonna it's gonna show its head it's gonna want to pull you back particularly as you progress forward, as you challenge yourself, as you try new things, as you move into uncharted territory. But the point is that you are spiraling upwards, even though you're coming back to that issue. And each time you meet that issue again, and you work on that issue again, you're releasing yourself, you're moving forward, you're opening up to something new. And that is really, really exciting. I don't know if you can hear this, but it is. It's really quite stormy outside as I'm recording this. There are dark grey skies, the willow tree outside my window is really being bent over and the rain is starting to really heavily pitter patter on the roof. You can perhaps hear that in the background and if not, that's just the backdrop for what I'm sharing with you today as we talk about those new creative vistas that are going to open up. for you. Okay, let's keep going because here she talks about, I mentioned that part of this work is revisiting those half-forgotten dreams that we've buried away somewhere and again, this is something, this is actually something that I get very emotional about and I think this is the real core of what I love to do for people. If I have an opportunity to work with someone to uncover a dream that they have pushed aside, buried under layers of real life, not believed in, not tended to. And if I can help them see that dream as a genuine possibility for them and help to nurture it and shape it in such a way that they can bring it to life and it can support them and it can be viable and it can... grow and benefit them and many other people. I mean that is just that's it for me. That is what I want to do with my work. So let's hear what Julia has to say about dreams. She says we begin to excavate our buried dreams. This is a tricky process. Some of our dreams are very volatile and the mere act of brushing them off sends an enormous surge of energy bolting through our denial system. Yes, such grief, such loss, such pain. It's true, it is very hard to recover forgotten dreams and that is perhaps why I feel so deeply connected to that process and why I think it's actually really important to have someone by your side and guiding you if that is what you want for yourself because it is emotional, it is a tricky process. It is volatile and you will constantly be kind of pulled back from it. There will be so many voices real and imagined telling you why you can't do it and it is my honour to be a voice telling you that you absolutely can. I often feel particularly in the early stages with my clients that my primary job is to believe in them far more than they believe in themselves. and then Eventually, as we move deeper into coaching together, that belief in themselves catches up and we move to this stage where we are both deeply impassioned by our belief for what is possible for them. Going back to Julia Cameron, she says, to effect a creative recovery, we must undergo a time of mourning in dealing with the suicide of the nice self we have been making do with. I could probably move into a whole nother podcast about this, these two sentences. But yes, there is a kind of grieving process that happens at the beginning. And maybe I'm going to expand that grieving and shedding, it's letting go of the person that we were before, it's letting go of the constructs that we thought served us, you know, many of us felt very safe within that kind of career ladder ideology, the idea that we were kind of contained within that there was a path that was set out for us and that we just had to work hard and hit those milestones and everything else would be taken care of and then it turns out that actually that just wasn't true at all and that the things that really really mattered to us don't exist inside of that restricted set of rules and that trajectory that was laid out for us, that there is something more for us, something much bigger, something... that is not only right for us but it is right for all life around us. That's a big deal and it does mean in particular letting go of the nice self or very often actually I find with clients that shows up as like the kind of the good girl or you know the head boy or the high achiever or the one who who had it all figured out. You have to let go of that. You have to let go of the identity that comes with being whatever your senior position is at whatever prestigious institution and however many years of experience and I felt that myself it was really hard and again you probably know I haven't worked inside a corporate but In my own startup, I was so closely identified with the title of CEO and founder. That gave me so much, I suppose self-importance is how I see it now, but validation, recognition. I felt really good leading with that when someone said, hey, what do you do? Oh, I'm the founder of this company or I'm CEO of this company. I don't have that anymore. I'm just me. I'm just Alyssa and that's humbling and it's beautiful and it's human but it's quite a process to go through. Okay I think I will finish up on these beautiful principles that Julia shares which I could probably go into in a lot more depth and I may well revisit in a future episode. Do let me know by the way if this exploration, these parallels with the artist's way are resonating for you. You know, if you're someone who has already done the artist's way or you're part of that journey, I'd love to hear if this is helping you to connect this through to regenerative work. And if you're perhaps completely new to Julia Cameron, like, are you feeling inspired by these ideas or is this kind of a confusing exploration? I'm open to all feedback. I'd love to hear your thoughts. You can always reach me by email Alyssa, A-L-I-S-A at regenerativeworklife.com. Okay, so let's look at these final, how many points do we have here? Six points that I want to share with you. And this is like what I would really love for you to kind of embody and, you know, maybe repeat to yourself, maybe write down and live with in the week ahead. So in this section, Julia is talking about recognizing that you may be creatively blocked. So for you that might be that you are blocked in building the work life that you want for yourself, in committing to the business idea that you have or the new career path that you are feeling kind of blocked, stuck, frozen in that area. And this is the advice that she has if you recognize that in yourself. Stop telling yourself it's too late. Now you may have heard a couple of episodes I talked about the relationship between age and regenerative work. I could not agree more. It is never too late. That is just a lie that we tell ourselves. Go and check that episode out if this is one that gets in your way. Second principle, stop waiting until you make enough money to do something you really love. Okay, again, I have talked a lot about How to make money doing regenerative work, how to think about money and regenerative work, but whatever you do, just don't let the idea that you cannot make money do regenerative work stop you from even trying. I understand we need to make money, there are other ways to do it, get that taken care of, allow yourself, enable yourself, resource yourself to pursue regenerative work. Stop waiting for that piece. to be in place to do this work that you really love. Number three, stop telling yourself, it's just my ego, whenever you yearn for a more creative life. This is a really interesting one. I suspect people who feel like this are not people I often have conversations with because they probably aren't allowing themselves to even kind of listen to someone speaking about regenerative work life because they're probably going about their nice self, their head boy, their overachiever lives, you know, going through those milestones in their conventional career and just quietly wondering why it doesn't feel right to them and why the work that they're doing isn't making a contribution and how things could be different. But they then tell themselves well that's just ego, who am I to think like that, who am I to think I could make a difference. Who am I to think I could make change happen? Who are you not to? That's what I would say. Who are you not to try? Who are you not to make change happen? Who are you to leave those dreams packed away somewhere? Like you don't know what might happen when you unbox those dreams and when you breathe life into them. Stop telling yourself that your dreams don't matter, that they are only dreams and that you should be more sensible. How strong is that voice for you that you should be more sensible? I often hear this coming up very strongly, particularly as people get closer to actually investing in their dreams, that they start thinking it's not a good time, you know, I really need to build up more savings. before I do that I think I should have some consultancy work in place first. I'm really not sure I can commit to this right now, I've got a lot of other responsibilities, it's just not a good choice, it's not a sensible choice, it doesn't make sense in my life right now. It may never make sense and it's almost certainly never going to be sensible but does that mean that you shouldn't pursue your dreams? Number one, two, three, four, five. Number five, stop fearing that your family and friends would think you crazy. This, you know, this is again, something that is really very common that people feel. I would say it's less a fear of people thinking they're crazy. That's probably not even the right way to put it anymore. A bit of a dated way of describing it. I think What people fear is being lonely. People fear that they will be doing this all by themselves, that nobody really understands what they're doing, that their immediate circle of family and friends don't even kind of speak the same language that they do in terms of kind of regenerative thinking. And, you know, that's really hard when you're doing something that's completely new, when you're treading a completely new path. And you're having to take real leaps of faith not to have other people around you who are like-minded, who are coming from the same soulful place and the same sort of understanding of the realities that we're dealing with. This is part of why, well no it's not part of, it's the whole reason that I created the Regenerative Work Life Cafe which is a community gathering. It's actually online but we like it to feel like you're just kind of coming into a cafe full of people who are on a similar journey to you and you can just casually come in, connect, listen into conversations, make contributions. It's a really, really beautiful gathering. If you've never been before, come along. You are so welcome. Yes, you. There is no entry criteria. You just need to be in any way interested in what we're talking about here and you are welcome at the community. You can sign up on the website regenerativeworklife.com forward slash. community and you will get notified next time there's a gathering coming up. Okay the last principle, stop telling yourself that creativity is a luxury and that you should be grateful for what you've got. Okay so let's just replace the word regenerate, well let's replace creativity with a regenerative work in that sentence so you can really see the parallels here. Stop telling yourself that regenerative work is a luxury and that you should be grateful for what you've got. Regenerative work. is a privilege, yes. It's not a luxury. I recognise that there are some people who do not have the choice, the capacity or the means to pursue regenerative work. For those of us for whom it is a possibility, I do not believe that it is a luxury. I feel that it is an obligation, quite frankly. Yes, you will find work that is personally deeply fulfilling. That brings you joy, that brings you satisfaction. But this is the whole point of regenerative work. It will also bring life to those around you, to your community, to people around you, to the natural world around you that we are all part of. That is the whole point of regenerative work. It is reciprocal, it is co-created. You cannot help but to give back. When you are pursuing this kind of work, that's not a luxury, that is essential. That is how it should be done. And we have an opportunity to be those first explorers. We have the opportunity to be the people who are brave enough to try and maybe fail, and try and maybe succeed. Okay. Well, this turned out to be a longer episode than I was planning. There is so much richness in... This is literally the first chapter of The Artist's Way. There is so much richness here. I invite you to embrace creativity within what you're doing. I invite you to allow yourself to see yourself as an artist because you know what? It really... helps. I remember the first time I was asked to think of myself as an artist and when I say I was asked I mean that I was doing my morning pages, one of the basic tools that Julia Cameron teaches right at the beginning of the book, and when I do that process I often essentially am, I guess, given insights, given instructions that for me are coming from God, again, God, universe, nature, higher power, flow, whatever you choose, and I was told Stop thinking of yourself as a business person, which was my identity for 15 years. Think of yourself as an artist. And I felt so squirmy about that. I'm like, I'm not. An artist! I'm not! I can't, how can I call myself an artist? Maybe you feel the same way and I believe you can call yourself an artist. What you are doing is an act of creation. You are bringing something to life and when you think of yourself as an artist I think that allows it to be messier, it allows it to be more emotional, more playful, more experimental. We don't expect an artist to sit down with a canvas and just gone this perfect linear process of creating the perfect painting you know we know that there are half finished sketches and color boards and like canvases that just didn't work at all and got thrown away and we expect that artists get better over time and that their artistic expression is honed and that it's a process and i invite that for you too you are an artist, whatever it is that you are bringing to life through your regenerative work, whether you've not even begun yet but you're just starting to allow yourself to dare to imagine what might be possible, whether you're right in the messy middle of trying and failing and having to recommit to this work every single day, wherever you are in this process, you're an artist. This is a creative journey. It is joyful and magical and It is a gift to me to be sharing this journey with you. Thank you for listening, thank you for allowing me to imperfectly explore this idea. I will probably come back to sharing more about The Artist's Way as I go through the book, as I go more deeply into the tools and again I'd love your feedback on Whether this is connecting for you, whether it resonates, what questions it throws up, it's so important to me that this podcast is a two-way conversation, not just me speaking at you. So I'd really love to connect. Again, that's Alyssa, A-L-I-S-A at regenerativeworklife.com. Thank you for listening. Allow yourself to go and have a creative experience with your work this week. And I'll see you back here next time.
