Creative Awakening Series (Ajna): Creating Intuitively, Artistic Lives

 Welcome to the seventh segment of the Creative Awakening: Integrating Art & Spirituality series.

Check out my blog for the first six posts writing about teaching at the Creative Arts Center.

What is intuition, what happens when we don't use it, and what is its purpose in relation to our logical, left-brained way of thinking and creating? But most importantly, how does it impact our ability to create?

Background

Throughout our journeys in the chakras and discovering our creative selves, we've spanned the gamut from our ancestors to our voice to our dreams. We've explored the purpose of religion and other systems of thoughts in helping provide direction and make sense of an inherently unknowable world. We've talked about the responsibility of every individual to apply self-compassion and extend that nurturing to others, even when they disagree with their points of view (especially when they disagree).

And now, we're delving into our intricate connection system to the Universe: our intuition. 

It's curious that intuition exists and yet is so rarely emphasized, harnessed, and prioritized in most civilized societies. When we lost our connection to nature and the cosmos, we lost our connection to both because we ARE nature and the cosmos. 

Particularly, how patriarchal aspects of society and our knowledge has devalued our creative, intuitive, feminine side, leading to the creative blockages we exist in.

Focus Point: The Guidance of Intuition

What does intuition mean and why is it important? According to Dictionary.com, intuition is:

• the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning
• a thing that one knows or considers likely from instinctive feeling rather than conscious reasoning.

Carl Jung, a renown Swiss pyshiatrist, psychotherapist, is famous for a lot of things, but one of them is his deep study of the unconscious and the integration of the human psyche and spirituality into psychology. To him, the collective unconscious is a compartment of the unconscious mind that contains ancestral images and memories that impact how we perceive and interact with the world.

At a high level, here are the elements of the Third Eye Chakra explored:

• Third Eye Chakra (Ajna): The third eye chakra is a symbolic gateway to higher consciousness and enlightenment.
• Focus: Intuition, foresight, clarity, and wisdom.
• Color: Indigo
• Location: Middle of forehead
• Areas of Life Explored: Ancestors, Creativity, Dreams

Third Eye Chakra (Ajna) Affirmations

• I see only the truth.
• I think clearly.
• I am focused.
• I release doubt.
• I embrace truth.
• I trust my intuition.
• I trust myself.

The Discussion 

We've talked about the origin of humanity quite a bit and how creating is an inherent part of our nature. But how do we know what to create and to what purpose? In defining intuition, we started building the connections between how we are able to tap into our inner selves, as well as what happens when we don't. How does this pertain to art? Beause creating art that moves people requires that we listen to our inner nudges and move ourselves.

Here's what we came up with...

The power of intuition:

• foresight
• gut feeling
• trusting
• often second guessed
• awake
• the assumption is everyone has it, but not everyone uses it
• energy
• Universe's guidance
• downplayed in society
• can't be proven but exists
• requires presence
• provides answers and guidance
• leads us to peaceful decisions
• subconscious 
• promote unity
• represents beauty
• leads to safety and expansion
• leads us to our own path

Without starting with a formal definition of intuition, we ended up creating a fairly robust word map of what it meant to us. The connection back to unity is a theme we have covered in each discussion. But now we have created a bridge between the Big Bang and the beginning of the Universe as we know it, and how all of us have been theoretically equipped with listening to this subconscious messaging system.

Okay, so what happens when we don't use our intuition? Here's what we came up with: 

• We stay shallow
• We make bad choices
• We're closed off
• We follow others blindly
• Disempowerment
• Lack of self-trust
• Anger/hate
• Don't trust others
• Chaos
• Divisiveness
• Creations stop
• Destruction
• War
• Dampens our individuality 
• Programmable
• Continue path we've been given "robots"
• Status quo
• Misalignment

This continues the pattern we've been discussing in every energy center. When we are connected and open, we flourish because we're following an intelligent guidance that connects us to something greater than ourselves, thereby emphasizing that unity in what we create and do.

But when we're disconnected, chaos and disruption ensue. It's like a bunch of Teslas driving around without their guidance systems being turned around — there is no direction in that movement.

Reflection: Can you think of times when you didn't follow your intuition? What happened? What did you learn from your experiences? How can you start to apply your intuition to your creative pursuits?

In every single class discussion, we always end up talking about unity and how love has the power to transform even our most heartbreaking experiences. 

Why is that important?
Because when we create from a space of love, we create:

1. to awaken (make them see something)
2. to move others (make them feel something)
3. to serve (our gifts)
4. for unity (and interconnection_

Reflection: What have you learned so far about the purpose of art? What experiences have you had when consuming others' art when they're not grounded in a place of love? What types of art inspire dislike, hate, anger, fear in you?

 Artistic Growth Challenge

For our closing commitments, I called on my students to use their intuition for the next week as they asked themselves questions on what to do on small tasks (e.g., which way to go at the grocery store) and learned to follow themselves. The premise being, when you learn to trust yourself on small decisions, you create capacity to trust yourself on larger decisions.

Here are some book suggestions to further your studies of intuition and our dreams: 

What's Next?

As we move into the next part of this series, I invite you to reflect: What does your own intuition feel and sound like? What decisions have you made that have made no logical sense but felt like a strong yes in your gut? For our final session, we’ll explore how the Crown Chakra helps us become one with ourselves, humanity, and the Cosmos in service of creation.

Dra. García out!