For me Intentional Creativity is a way of being. As we move through the world, whether we are conscious of it or not, we are creating our own experience.

From the day we were born, we have experienced the world and given those experiences a meaning.  Some of our meanings are our own creation, some we have learnt from others, and all are based on our perceptions of the world.  These are our unconscious stories; the stories we create and live by. They shape our values and our actions; the context on which our internal compass guides us.  

How conscious we are of this?  Do you know what your stories are?

The day we realise this, is the day we wake up.  It is the day we realise we have a choice. We create our world and everything in it, so now, we have the opportunity to work at a higher level of being. Becoming fully aware of who we are and how we move in the world.  We can then consciously and intentionally create our world.  Imbue it with meaning and purpose that serves us.  And the world around us.

But often we are stopped by fear.

When we wake up, we experience realisations… We realise our wounds and our fears.  We realise we are carrying around disempowering stories that keep us separate and alone.  We realise we are making choices based on stories that just aren’t true.  In an effort to protect ourselves, we often make things worse with numbing, blame and shame.  We don’t feel we are enough or that we even belong.

So how do we dig through the layers of wounds and misunderstandings?  How do we unravel the hidden stories?  How do we discover what’s in our blind spots?  There are many ways to take the personal journey.  As Thich Nhat Hanh says, “The longest journey you will ever take is the 18 inches from your head to your heart.”  For me, it is ideas explored with the pen and the brush; journaling and painting is my path to understanding, peace and self-expression; it is what sets me free.

The “pen & page” and the “brush & canvas” are the tools of Intentional Creativity that sets my soul free.  It is the movement of energy and feeling that my soul craves, it is the portal to transcendence.  It is where colour and chaos combine to ignite my creative passion.  This self-expression is the key to healing the past, living fully embodied in the present and creating a magnificent future. Divinely inspired by our souls, specifically for each of us.

Intentional Creativity is the inspired deliberate action of creation based on intuitive wisdom, vision and expression.  The path to accessing within, the language of the heart. Within this journey, there is a shift in consciousness, that leads to a liberation of the soul and a transformation of the human spirit, into a being of potential with courageous purpose; to rediscover who we really are.

We can apply this to any area of our lives.  Choosing conscious, transformation and meaning.  

It is about fearless belonging: to yourself; your family; your community; our planet and your souls purpose here on earth. Knowing this, we need each and every one of us to bloom.  We each have a unique gift to offer the world, simply by being here.  What are you here to cause and create? 

For now, I am here to cause and create freedom from suffering through the healing art of coaching, with creativity in the form of the Intentional Creativity Method® as applied to painting feminine images on a canvas.  This begins with an intentional invitation to know ourselves more deeply through inquiry; using visioning to discover colours, symbols, images and words, which creates a bridge from the internal world, through the portal of the canvas, to the external physical world, thus our art.  I believe it’s sacred work – because when you take an ordinary thing (like paint or pen) and add intention and love, it becomes a sacred act of creation.

From here, we can bear witness to who we truly are.  

As we create, we become more aligned and alive, as we ignite our own Divine spark.  Becoming collaborators of human potential and enhancing the experience of the collective, with Intention and Creativity.  Henceforth, truly rocking our world!

By Melanie Jane

Rock Your World

Intentional Creativity as Stated by the Intentional Creativity Foundation & Musea

www.intentionalcreativityfoundation.org

“CORE TEACHINGS WITHIN INTENTIONAL CREATIVITY

Intentional Creativity is a framework, a chosen approach, a viewing window and a portal of inquiry. Here is our essential operative vocabulary as seen through the framework of Intentional Creativity, meaning there is a lens through which you are viewing the words. Each word serves as a linguistic abstraction that can be applied to any medium, including thought, movement, art and sound – anything you make. And especially if you do it with love and or a sacred intent. 

Intentional Creativity does not necessarily refer only to painting or writing, rather it expands on a philosophy of being, living, and falling in love with our lives, one another, and creation itself. There are, of course, 13 core teachings based on chosen conscious transformation. These are the practices of those in our tribe and the practices employed in every class or experience using Intentional Creativity.

These remain conceptual until brought into form, hence the reason we call ourselves the Guild of Intentional Creatives. We are makers and collaborators with quantum potential. We all contribute our ideas, dreams & curriculum to the greater community as we develop ways of working and self discovery. Here’s the amazing part, when we create with intention, all of these are somehow active at once without us needing to name them at all. Separating them out as words simply helps us take a better look. It’s rather like trying to lasso the mystery. This kind of thinking has been around since the beginning of time, it’s nothing new, but we may be new to it. The idea of working with image and word together as a path of intentional inquiry was sparked within the framework of our Intentional Creativity Lineage in the 1930ies by Lenore Thomas Straus and passed to my teacher, Sue Hoya Sellars, and in collaboration with my mom, Caron McCloud on to me. ~ Maestra Shiloh Sophia

13 CORE TEACHINGS OF INTENTIONAL CREATIVITY 

CURIOSITY – Enter into the space of inquiry inspired wonder

ACCESS – Journey and establish pathways of connection with your heart and soul

AWARENESS – Inquire within, you are not who you think you are: ‘who lives in here?’

CONNECTION – Claim that you are a co-creator in the greater circle of sacred life

INTENTION – Activate quantum consciousness through mindful creations

INVITATION – Allow discovery, and being your own witness to enter into your processes

CREATION – Alchemize your content across the veil into form, and practice regularly

CATALYZE – Choose to continually move out of default settings into possibility

COMPASSION – Lovingly collaborate with the collective through your offerings

AWAKENING – Explore and expand the infinite palette of your many senses

COHERENCE – Create alignment between your gifts, your Source, and Creation

BELONGING – Choose to be embodied, and belong to a tribe of creatives

CEREMONY – Design experiences which both mark transitions and celebrate!

 The primary questions of my legendary teachers are…

‘Who lives in here?’ - Sue Hoya Sellars

‘What are you here to cause and create?’ -  Shiloh Sophia

‘What ancient knowing lives within these hands?’ - Lenore Thomas Straus”