How to cooperate with the process and find joy
I recently saw this quote from author Steven Pressfield; “the more important a project is to your soul’s evolution, the more you’ll resist it”.
This really caught my attention and it was very true for me. Why so true? I have been writing a story (for a book or screenplay) for many years and I find I spend most of the time resisting instead of actually writing. So I began to look at what is really going on with me (and perhaps others), in relationship to resistance.
When I was much younger I struggled with patience and the step by step process often required to produce things. It is said that you often teach what you are here to learn. I have been teaching productivity seminars for many years, so I could learn the art of the step by step process of getting things done. I have worked on my limiting beliefs, and attended writing workshops, and yet, I still have this creative project in front of me and incomplete.
I am not resisting the writing of this article and therefore I know I can write. However, if Pressfield’s perspective is really true for me, I asked the question, “what do I do to handle the resistance of this big project?”
The answer was swift and bold…You don’t handle the resistance, you surrender to it!
Really? Surrender? That is the answer?
Then I remembered what a very wise master once told me. He said there are really two types of writers. Those that can sit down and just write and those that write a little, then go off and live, learn and grow and then come back and write some more and then go off again and live, learn and grow and then come back and write again. He asked me which writing would be richer? The second type of writing.
When I reflected on my important project, it really has evolved in an amazing way over the years I have been working on it. I wrote at different times and enjoyed many months of living and growing throughout this time. I know that it would not have been anywhere near as rich, if I had rushed it. I do believe that it is tied to my soul’s evolution and as I grew the story grew with it.
At some point I will finish it and so I am surrendering to that, letting go that it is supposed to be different than it was or is. I am cooperating with the process and finding the joy in it. The key here is joy. I read a great book on this called ‘The Surrender Experiment’ by Michael Singer.
I have had this vision of the ‘great doors to creativity’ opening outwards and they can’t open unless I step back and allow them to open towards me.
The opposite of resisting is surrendering. So if you have an important creative project that has been in your life for awhile, maybe there is a reason why it is taking longer to mature and manifest. Perhaps it is important to your soul’s evolution and will reveal something to you about yourself. Surrender and let it unfold gradually.
and as they say…
Originally published at medium.com