You are given the ability to make the greatest leap in your own intelligence and the fullest expression of your own potential the moment you detach from grasping for these qualities. The very act of clinging to be more than who you are now is exactly what gets in the way of you from becoming who you would like to become.
The act of clinging to who you should be is at its root a rejection of life as it is, of oneself as a person, and of the moment. When one clings, one lives outside oneself, outside of the moment, outside of life, and instead lives anxiously inside the head. The full realization of creativity, intelligence, and self-expression requires us to be fully in ourselves, in life, and do so in the moment.
Every moment spent thinking “how long will it takes to create something,” “how smart am I,” “will I succeed” or “how will I appear” are mental distractions that take us away from directly acting on our creativity, intelligence, and self-expression for the sake of themselves. These grasping thoughts are all our external reasons, rather than internal reasons, to be creative, intelligent, or self-expressive. They are like old computer software bogging us down.
When I am engaged in exercising my creativity, intelligence, and self-expression for their own sake, I am connected to the internal reasons to directly act on them. When I am in this internal space, I have nothing to worry about. All the worries of my clinging mind do not matter, because I am so interested in creative self-expression in itself, or sharpening my intellect in itself, that all the external reasons for doing these things seem irrelevant, uninteresting, and purposeless by comparison.
As a human being, I go through cycles where I am more motivated by my clinging to outcomes, and today I still often find myself get lost in grasping thoughts. I realized the purpose is not to be in a perfect state of lack of grasping thoughts—the purpose is found in the process of moving from a state of clinging to a state of oneness with creativity, intelligence, and self-expression.
Each time, I gently find ways to bring myself into that wonderful space of intrinsic enjoyment. The key is not to force your creativity or intellect, or push away grasping thoughts. Be gentle to yourself, speak to yourself kindly, and provide empathy for your grasping thoughts and for being in your head.
Allow yourself the space to commit to doing what intrinsically inspires in this moment, even if they do not come. Make an inviting space for your intelligence and creativity, and though they may not show right away or quickly, with patience and an inviting space these initially shy little beings will feel welcome to show up if you show up and gently provide a space for them to breathe.
Intelligence and creativity need space and freedom to clumsily warm up, to first go the “wrong directions” before finding their orientation, to play around a little bit without feeling judged. None of these things are actually failures, but part of cultivating the process towards success. When we cease to believe perfect intelligence and creativity exist, that is when the clinging mind ends. Before you know it, you enter into an inner space where you are one with your creativity and intelligence and no longer in your head, and they will start expressing themselves fully with confidence and character, taking on a life of their own.
