Being creative is not only about thinking: it is about feeling. … Feelings, hunches, subconscious perceptions and intuitions can all play a central part in creative work, and not only in the arts.*
Ken Robinson

In which areas of your life are you still holding back until you feel like you know what you’re doing?**
Oliver Burkeman

I’d rather stay in here, thinking,
Then be out there, feeling.

People get hurt out there all the time.
Sometimes they never recover.

Perhaps missing out on possibility is a price worth paying,
But is this life?

Maybe this is the greatest quest of all,
Outside of myself,
In the endless undiscovered?

Perhaps that was the real guest of this adventure, the infinite quest for connection with everything, everyone, everywhere, always – the quest to let down my barriers, let go of my agendas and expectations, and simply be open to who and what may come, now and next.^

Karen Armstrong assures me there are three outcomes to this stepping out of myself,
This experience of ekstasis,
And they are:

(1) to recognise and appreciate the unknown and unknowable; (2) to become sensitive to over-confident assertions of certainty in ourselves and other people; and (3) to make ourselves aware of the numinous mystery of each human being we encounter during the day.^^

It feels like this could be quite a day.

A simple exercise to try:
At an appropriate moment,
Stop what you’re doing,
Take one step forward as a physical expression for stepping outside of yourself.
Whether you are looking upon a natural or human scene,
Allow it to come to you without preconceptions or labels.
Simply be curious,
For a moment,
And see what happens,
Or wantS to happen.

*From Ken Robinson’s Out of Our Minds;
**From Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks;
^From Brian McLaren’s God Unbound;
**From Karen Armstrong’s Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life.