Deep Creativity: Seven Ways to Spark Your Creative Spirit

by Deborah Anne Quibell, Jennifer Leigh Selig, Dennis Patrick Slattery, Thomas Moore (Foreword by)

Overview

Nautilus Award Winner

A deeply intimate exploration of the "7 Ways" to creativity led by three authors whose collaboration provides meditations on the creative process as well as practical and reflective exercises.

Reignite your creative spark with accessible meditations and practices developed by three experts on creativity and collaboration across three generations. Whether you’re a filmmaker, writer, musician, artist, graphic designer, dabbler, or doodler, all creative people face the challenges of myriad distractions and pressure to produce. Devoting space for the creative spark has become increasingly difficult. Deep Creativity is a call for making that space and an invitation to intentionally and introspectively engage with the creative life through seven time-tested pathways, available to you right where you are. The authors’ novel approach includes fifteen principles of creativity that not only inspire but also set you up for a lifetime of self-expression. This highly resourceful book offers practical guidance as well as deep reflection on the creative process.
 
For more information, visit www.deepcreativity.com.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611806762
Publisher:	Shambhala
Publication date:	03/26/2019
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	1,119,868
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Deborah Anne Quibell, PhD, has taught healing and meditation for over fourteen years and holds a PhD in depth psychology. She studied under Master Choa Kok Sui, the founder of modern Pranic Healing and Arhatic Yoga. She has published in academic journals and top online publications and authored Soulbird: Poems for Flying. She is a senior instructor for the Institute for Inner Studies and teaches pranic healing, yoga, and meditation in Europe and the United States. She is regularly invited to speak at international conferences and festivals and has made television and radio appearances.

Jennifer Leigh Selig, PhD, spent over thirty years in education, where she was known for her innovative and cross-disciplinary approach to curriculum and program development in literature, humanities, and depth psychology. She travels the world teaching courses on deep creativity, including deep memoir and deep vocation. She is the author of dozens of newspaper articles, book reviews, journal articles, three screenplays, and is either the author, editor, contributor, or publisher of over sixteen books. She is a frequently invited speaker to national and international conferences, symposiums, and workshops.

Dennis Patrick Slattery, PhD, has taught for over forty-five years, most recently at Pacifica Graduate Institute, where he is faculty emeritus. He is the author, coauthor, editor, or coeditor, of twenty-four books including seven volumes of poetry and a novel, and he has published over two hundred articles. A frequent guest on radio talk shows, he offers “riting” personal myth retreats across the United States, Canada, Ireland, and Switzerland. He enjoys working with a wide variety of audiences interested in using writing and drawing to explore the mythology that moves within them.

Table of Contents

Foreword Thomas Moore, PhD ix

Introduction 1

Fifteen Principles of Deep Creativity 7

Part 1 The Way Of Love

Breathing into Love 11

The Gasp: Falling in Love with, the Particularity of Things 14

Love, Death, and a Loaded Gun: Meditations on Creative Immortality 28

Creating Love through the Love of Creating 40

Breathing Love Out 49

Part 2 The Way Of Nature

Breathing into Nature 55

Understanding Sea Turtle: Moving toward the Spirit of the Depths 58

"A Creativity We Cannot Fathom": Hallowed Be Nature's Name 71

Creativity, Nature, and the Field of Play 84

Breathing Nature Out 95

Part 3 The Way Of The Muse

Breathing into the Muse 101

Amidst a Sultry City: The Muse Is Not Only in the Meadow 104

The Ones Who Light Our Way: Honoring Our Muses 116

Inspiriting the Muses and Musing the Spirits 128

Breathing the Muse Out 139

Part 4 The Way Of Suffering

Breathing into Suffering 145

The Rupture Within: Releasing the Soul-Bird 148

To Create Is to Re-Create: Repairing and Restorying Childhood Suffering 160

Suffering the Story into Being 174

Breathing Suffering Out 185

Part 5 The Way Of Practice

Breathing into Practice 191

The Creative Practices: An Imaginal Dialogue with the Voice That Moves (and Blocks) Me 194

Strategies to Survive the Flood, Land the Plane, and Get the Kernel to Pop without Mortifying Oneself at 4:00 in the Morning 209

One Writer's Insistence on Resistance 221

Breathing Practice Out 235

Part 6 The Way Of The Sacred

Breathing into the Sacred 239

Art as Sacrament: In Holy Dialogue with the Divine 242

All That You Do Is Sacred: Everyday Reverence as Attitude and Act 255

Knocked from Your Horse by the Creative Spirit 267

Breathing the Sacred Out 277

Part 7 The Way Of Art

Breathing into Art 281

Alas! The Sky Is Blue!: Using the Art of Color to Inspire Our Creativity 284

Breathing In, Breathing Out: The Ekphrastic Response 296

Origin and Originality; What Spurs Us to Create? 308

Breathing Art Out 319

Examples of the Fifteen Principles of Deep Creativity 321

List of Reflection Questions and Creative Practices 326

About the Authors 339

Editorial Reviews

Deep Creativity will live on my favorite bookshelf, alongside The Artist’s Way, Bird by Bird, Flow, and Big Magic, all books that inspire the creative spirit. What Deep Creativity adds is inspiration for the creative soul, diving deep as the others fly high. The authors, three voices from three generations, draw the reader into an open-hearted, open-ended conversation. They share personal stories and universal struggles, then invite us in to creatively examine our own thoughts, feelings, memories, and dreams as we explore and deepen our own creative potential.”—Cheri Steinkellner, corecipient winner of four Emmys, two Golden Globes, a Writers Guild Award, and multiple other awards for writing and producing Cheers and Teacher’s Pet

“Deep Creativity is a call to acknowledge each person’s originality that inspires their creativity. The authors tell us that if we are faithful to our own idiosyncratic gifts and ignore the voice of the critic, desire and love will fuel our creative fire. What inspires me most about this delightful book are the stories told by each author about their unique creative process and the reflections they offer the reader at the end of each chapter to spark our creative spirit.”—Maureen Murdock, PhD, author of The Heroine’s Journey

“Deep Creativity is an appeal, reminder, and summons to engage the autonomous “Other” that resides within each of us, just outside the range of ego intentionality. The authors appeal to our innate desire to create the world around us and to reclaim our coauthorship of experience that seeks incarnation in the world through us. Through examples and precepts, they lead the reader into a new experience of what is oldest in each of us.”—James Hollis, PhD, author of Living an Examined Life

“The title alone calls one to reflection and adventure. The chapters propel us deeper while the topics assist in our soul’s singing when engaged in the art of creativity, an act that makes us all feel alive. These three muses touch our souls in ways only poetic writing can, while simultaneously providing the inspiration for the reader to reach for a pen, brush, instrument, or their creative method of choice. The readings are like medicine, with a probable side effect of propelling others to be creative.”—G. Kwame Scruggs, PhD, founder and director of Alchemy, Inc.

“For those whose creative life could use a boost as well as a grounding, reading and engaging with Deep Creativity offers a warm breeze of inspiration, as if from the original Altar of the Muses in Athens. This unique work combines probing essays into both the madness and euphoria of making art with a range of practices designed to rekindle the love and attentiveness needed for soulful self-expression.”—Phil Cousineau, author of Burning the Midnight Oil

“This is a must-read for anyone looking for insight or inspiration into the creative process. Learn from the master teachers.”—Selden Edwards, author of the New York Times best seller The Little Book

“Deep Creativity is a joy to read. Its creative format combines meditations to enhance seven creative gifts, providing essays on how each of the three authors—notable scholars all—experience each path. My stereotypical expectations about the creative life were continually upended by surprising, delightful, and unexpected twists and turns. I never before thought that a meditation book could be a page-turner. This one was, for me.”—Carol S. Pearson, author of Awakening the Heroes Within

“The practices within this book are like portals into which one enters a deeply creative and healing space. Without much effort, and in a myriad of ways, we are led closer to the creative force that calls to each of us. The poems, images, stories, and contemplations in Deep Creativity stir even the dimmest of embers within the reader, and page by page the creative fire is reignited. Thank you to Deborah, Jennifer, and Dennis for weaving a path that leads us back to the creative life. Your collaborative voices in Deep Creativity make a sum much more generous than its parts.”—Kim Krans, creator of The Wild Unknown

From the Publisher