Last time we explored personal traumas and their effects, both positive and negative, on our ability to create. Now let’s take a wider view, this time exploring the reigning attitude of a culture and how it can either thwart or enhance the creative process. Remember, since the finite ego perceives itself as separate from the […]
Creativity and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Part III: Trauma and Creativity
When a trauma occurs in our life, it can either be a catalyst for growth or a glue for psycho-emotional bondage. In my last post we explored the difference between the finite ego and the absolute Self and how they relate to creativity and the creative process. To review, since the finite ego perceives itself […]
Creativity and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Part II: The Finite Ego and The Absolute Self
Since the ego perceives itself as separate from the world, it always feels a sense of lack or deficiency. By contrast, the absolute Self, which is the spark of divinity in each and every one of us, experiences the luminous interdependence that makes everything possible. The finite ego and the absolute Self In my last […]
Creativity and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Part I: The Leap from Lack to Creative Fulfillment
In 1943, psychologist, philosopher, and leader of the Human Potential movement, Abraham Maslow wrote a paper entitled, A Theory of Human Motivation, in which he produced one of the most useful diagrams for understanding the human condition, the now famous Hierarchy of Needs. It also serves as an excellent model for understanding the nature of […]
Consciousness and Creativity, Part X: The Holistic Benefits of Conscious Creativity
Despite the effort it takes and the challenges along the way, it is my heartfelt opinion that becoming a connoisseur of consciousness and applying it to your creativity is the most useful thing you can do with your time. Here are just some of the benefits: Since your consciousness processes all of your experiences, the […]
Consciousness and Creativity, Part IX: The Importance of Sharing and Community
As a follow up to my last two posts exploring both basic and more advanced practices for exploring consciousness as individuals, I’d like to shift our attention to our nature as intensely social creatures. With both consciousness and creativity, it’s important that we invite others to support, reflect, and help us in our explorations of […]
Consciousness and Creativity, Part VIII: More Advanced Practices for Engaging Consciousness
Last time we looked at some basic practices for engaging consciousness. Let’s up the ante a bit, exploring some more advanced practices for engaging consciousness, lighting a more ardent fire in the hearth of creativity, delving headlong into some of the deeper pools of awareness. Engage in fasts of various sorts, removing certain objects or […]
Consciousness and Creativity, Part VII: Basic Practices for Engaging Consciousness
Let’s further our exploration of consciousness, this time focusing in on how to better engage it. How do we begin to befriend the dynamic lens through which we see the world when we are looking through it all the time? How can we get any real perspective on consciousness when we are dependent upon it […]
Consciousness and Creativity, Part VI: The Mysterious Origins of Conscious Self-Awareness
We began this series on consciousness and creativity by pondering their mysterious beginnings some several hundred thousand years ago. Take a moment to put yourself in that unknown creature’s shoes. Imagine what it would have been like to go to sleep one evening with only your senses and instincts to guide you and wake up […]
Video: Deluxe Beachfront Yoga Retreat Center in Baja, Mexico, Creativity Expert and Architectural Designer, Austin Hill Shaw
Austin Hill Shaw is a creativity expert, author, writer, architectural designer, and mapmaker of creativity across art, science, and religion. He specializes in helping others tap into and utilize the creative life force in everything they do. He can be reached at [email protected].