In the cruelest and darkest of times we are inspired by any signs of creativity, imagination, sensation and sensitivity that we observe arising in others.  Sometimes they seem to be reminders of the best of humanity, as indeed they are. When we see these arise in others, we make room in ourselves for them to arise, consciously or unconsciously.  We are an evolving species, not relegated to cruelty or ignorance or separation.  Instinctively we care for those who need support. Some in power try and hold humanity back from these instinctive ways of being.  They cannot.  WE, the one soul of humanity, will ultimately not allow it. 

This is one of those time periods when we must actively take back these capabilities and capacities and restore them to their rightful place in ourselves and in our societies.  We will allow the cultures and habits of separation and dullness to fade away or be thrown away.  We will live in the restoration of creativity, imagination, sensation and sensitivity with joy and exaltation as they thrill our souls and our bodies.  This restoration will require some action on our part, both personally, with others and as a citizen of our country and our world. Why should we take the time and energy to restore these capabilities, these capacities?  How will our lives be better or different if we take the time to restore them?

First, let’s look at what these are generally defined and experienced and then how you might define them for yourself.  So, what are these capabilities of creativity, imagination, sensation and sensitivity for you.  How do you grow them more within you?   Creativity can be described as our capability to imagine and act differently, to put elements together differently in art, in song, in gardening, in clothing.  Imagination, Sensation and Sensitivity are the elements of our sentient intelligence which is our internal messaging system from our body to our brain. This messaging system is aware of everything occurring internally in our bodies and around us. It tells us what is life-enhancing and what is life-defeating.  It is experienced as emotions, energies, sensations, even word arising.  It originates in our gut brain also known as our enteric nervous system.  It sends messages via the vagus nerve to the brain to inform us what is occurring.  At the point that the sentient intelligence information enters the brain, the astrocytes of the brain take in that information and seek to link it up with networks previously experienced.  We can call this an interpretation of the meaning of the sensation/information based on previous experience.  What results is that your present moment sensation or sensitivity gets assigned an historic meaning.  Often as small children, when we are powerless, such a sensation messaging from our gut brain may have resulted in actions to protect ourselves, to shut off the flow in of this data in order to survive.  Such historic definitions of a sensation, if continued into adulthood, can limit us instead of protecting us.  For example, I had a client who noticed that every time that he tried to enjoy something, a part of himself started to keep him from enjoying the moment.  He was frustrated as he couldn’t even receive a compliment fully.  So, he decided to use a technique that many spiritual traditions use to redirect our brain/body from old patterns to new ones that fit our life goals better.  Native American spirituality, Taoism and other spiritual traditions believe that your organs carry a different animal energy or different personalities.  These ‘personalities’ believe that they are simply doing the job assigned to them when you needed protection, etc.  On order to give that part of you a different ‘job’, one of the strategies is to negotiate with that organ/area of the body. The negotiations are similar to a Q&A session in your head, written or verbally where you find out what that part’s considers it’s job to be (my client found out that that part was just trying to keep him safe), then is the part willing to do something else, what else, and then the negotiation for a new definition of its role is created.  This negotiation is carried out with respect for all that they have done in the past for you. My client followed this strategy by first looking for the location in his body where the sensation originated, in this case where did that sensation of contraction occur when hearing a compliment and not taking it in.   In his case, there were two areas, it was part of the brain and the solar plexus. For others, these source locations could be anywhere in the body.  Ultimately, he negotiated that it help him have more fun & play in his life and it renamed itself.  This renaming helps the individual to continue to be in conversation with his internal part so that its interpretations of sensations and sensitivities keep aligning with what my client wanted in his life. On the physical level, this kind of negotiation changes the astrocytic network that were part of the original reactive response to the sensation/information and now are part of a new network where fun and play are part of the response pattern. 

Another way that you can redefine patterns/words where you experience reactive behaviors or thoughts is to write the Templates three and four of the Language of Creation.  They are ‘Craving what X is for me is’ and ‘Craving what being X is for me is being’.  Writing these templates and their observings allows you to create definitions of how you will be in the world when you experience X or when you read/hear the word X. The definitions of a word or state may not fit you, may not be how you want to be in the world. So Templates 3 & 4 in their structure taking you from intial craving to an embodiement help rewrite your astrocytic networks in a very specific way. Couple the writing of the craving with the observing a few days later and you have the best of worlds. The craving defines the astrocytic network and the observing brings you present to what is actually occurring. Observing keeps you in the present moment, which is where we make our best steps forward.

What is important to understand here is that nothing in the world is static.  Everything is always changing.  What a sensation/sensitivity means to your system today may not be what your body is trying to tell you tomorrow about what is occurring.  That is why your capacity to be the observer is an important part of this process of being more creative and being in a present moment with your sentient intelligence.  The observer pays attention and asks, what does this sensation/sensitivity mean for me today?   If they have done one of the previously described strategies, they will not be reactive but will be giving themselves time to observe and respond to the sensation/sensitivity information in the moment.  That is how we come to be present in the moment. That is how we choose a behavior based on the current moment, the current conversation and not on historic meanings.  Problem solving in this mode is creative, relying on what is occurring in the moment and not on old patterns of solving similar problems.

Now to two questions that I asked earlier in this article.  Why should we take the time and energy to restore these capabilities, these capacities?  How will our lives be better or different if we take the time to restore them?  I believe that humanity’s original design was for a Being with much more capability to be in an interactive mode with our natural surroundings and with other Beings on the planet.  Humans have been dumbed down over the last centuries separating us from our connections with ourselves, nature, animals and plants.  If we refocus on being present to our body’s messages, we can then be present to what those Beings have to tell us about our interconnections with their world.  We can then co-create an environment that serves everyone – humans, animals, plants, creatures of the waters and air.  That is our birthright and that, I believe, is our responsibility,

There is no question in my mind and heart that our lives will be immensely richer after we become consciously connected with our own bodies and with nature etc.  We are part of an interconnected whole anyway.  Isn’t it better to be conscious of what our actions do to ourselves and others?  Isn’t it better to make changes in the way that we behave to create healthier relationships with ourselves, with other humans, with those less fortunate?  Isn’t it better to see ourselves as part of a whole then exist somehow cut off from such a rich world of sensation and connection?

Take the first step and write your own definitions of what words, and concepts mean to you.  Get to know your own sentient intelligence and shift those astrocytic networks to work for you as you seek to respond to what is occurring in your life and in the greater world around you.  More of this kind of consciousness is what serves humans best. Yes, lets do everything that we can in encouraging creativity, imagination, sensation and sensitivity to grow in our own systems, in our communities and in the world.