July 21, 2021 | Categories: Articles

The Hero’s Journey starts with answering an inner ‘call’ that launches you into the unknown. The Jour­ney begins as soon as the commitment is made to go forward. Shortly after getting underway, some form of trouble, disruption, or distraction appears that tests your resolve. Such obstacles are a useful and necessary element of the adventure. These tests of focus, technique, and character show you ‘who you are now.’ These tests become the passage­way through which you become self-realized.

Challenge and change are inevitable parts of transformation. Both the practical aspects of your creative process as well as the personal traits of your character must be fully tested. These initiatory experiences are different in degree from the normal stressors and rhythms of Creativity that you learn to take in stride. These transformative ‘shocks to the system’ challenge and redefine your limits; their very depth and intensity is required to break you down, stretch you, and fuel your transformation.

As soon as you encounter any embedded pattern that stunts your creative development, you must act promptly to remove or address it. Left uncorrected, such behaviors can move beyond being minor an­noyances and become dysfunctional or destructive patterns. Such issues can render you ineffective, inefficient, or unproductive. If not addressed, you will fall short of what you are truly capable of creating and producing.

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, in her audio CD, The Creative Fire, puts it this way: “[there exist] obstacles to the free flow of creative force . . . we are called upon to do the hard work of seeking those out and overcoming them, of repairing those disruptions.” Ultimately, such obstacles are there for our benefit.

The vocabulary that creative individuals use to de­scribe ‘feeling blocked by obstacles’ reveals the pain that is felt: pressured, empty, anxious, depressed, dry, paralyzed, self-conscious, barren, confused, immobile, and so forth. These colorful descriptions of creative stagnation point simultaneously to what is not working in our outer-creative process and to what is not working in our inner-subjective reality.

Most of the individuals who attend my seminars or classes on Creativity, or who work with me privately, report experiences of feeling blocked, whether they are describing specific or generalized symptoms. When we examine their situation, we find that they are not blocked permanently, but are instead strug­gling in ways that can be addressed and overcome, if they understand what to do. You may need a guide to help you through.

* Photo by Bernard Gotfryd – https://www.loc.gov/item/2020733491/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=106961987