I have written volumes on this subject, but for the sake of this article I will use a simple example that I experience daily: playing the piano. On most days, I go down to my studio, sit at my piano, and let the creative process take over. Generally I prefer to create something new, but if I am not in the mood right away, playing something that I know inspires me, can loosen me up and relax me. So begins the process of “letting go,” of allowing the “flow” to come through me. Yes, “through” me. Tapping into inspiration is not a mental process, quite the opposite. It is a process of letting go, of trusting that there is a force that comes through me that always, wants to evolve with something new.

Right away, I must mention the concept of “forgiveness” as necessary in order to be fully available to create. I see “forgiveness” as a letting go of the past in order to be fully available in the present. Inspiration is ALL in the present. In fact, the state of inspiration IS the state of presence. So in order to be present and allow the force of creation to flow through me, I have to let go of my judgements, my expectations, and my limiting attitudes about myself.

Again at my piano, I must let go of any ideas of what I feel I am and am not capable of and what I want my creation to sound like. Attachment to outcome will immediately narrow or shut down the conduit through which inspiration flows. I must then trust that if I surrender my control of the creative process, something will flow through me. I have found that something always does. What I end up with is not always something that I will keep or share, but it is ALWAYS something that connects me to my next creation, and so it has as much value as those pieces that I “keep.” There is no failure in the creative process. There is always curiosity, adventure, challenge, joy, and growth. There is also love. I feel that just as I am loved into being a creator, I am also loved into being in all moments.