This talk explores the archetype of creativity—preparation, incubation, inspiration, production—and adds the dimension of Shadow. At each stage of the creative process, whether in writing, painting, science, or music, there are potential unconscious blocks. If we use shadow-work to identify the internal saboteurs, who stand as guardians of the creative unconscious, and learn how to observe them without following them, we can open the portal and experience more flow than frustration in our creative endeavors.
- Identify the steps of any creative project.
- Identify an internal creative block.
- Personify that block as a shadow character.
- Begin the exercise of traditional life review.
- Uncover a trait, talent, or dream that was banished to the shadow.
- Choose to reclaim that lost trait now.
Suggested Reading: The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul by Connie Zweig, Ph.D. (September, 2021) and Romancing the Shadow by Connie Zweig and Steve Wolf