Coaching Creativity by Jill Badonsky, M.Ed. Creative Mentor, Humorist, Artist, Motivational Speaker, International Author of The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard): 10 Guides to Creative Inspiration for Artists, Poets, Lovers and Other Mortals Wanting to Live a Dazzling Existence. Resistance: Part Two of at Least Three or Four Parts copyright 2004 Jill Badonsky All rights reserved

"Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it. "

- Jane Wagner

Resistance to writing can be like a sickness. It keeps me from diving into my work. It drives me to computer games, TV and the refrigerator rather than a rendezvous with the joy of waxing creatively on the page. I don’t respect myself after a binge of resistance in whatever form it takes when it means succumbing to some activity less satisfying than writing.

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.

--Abraham Maslow

Resistance Antidote: In the process of dealing with creative barriers a little bit of craziness is in order mainly because creativity does not always respond to logic.

"Things may be strange, but hey listen, they are weird too. "

-Anonymous

For me, writing isn’t the only thing I resist. In order to fit in society I suppress being negative, being abrasive, being cranky and complaining. Suppression is another form of resistance. I resist these things even when I feel like I would be more authentic, at least temporarily, if I was negative, socially unacceptable.. like when I want to yell at rude people, or cranky. Let’s face it we cannot all exercise characteristics of the higher being all the time .. we are human, fallible and imperfect. In that imperfection is art.

"My words trickle down from a wound I don’t intend on healing."

Paul Simon

Do you notice artists and writers who are truly authentic have no problem standing in a corner and hissing at people if it’s what they feel like doing? So to break through some writing resistance what I do sometimes is take the side of the things I have to suppress. What this does is create a flow of freedom - resistance breaks down in this regard and then has a better chance of breaking down in regard to getting started.

Let me illustrate with a writing example. Rather than resisting being irritable in this piece, I make a case for it. It was a warm up and fueled me to keep going with the writing I was supposed to be doing. .. working on my second book.

How to Embody Angst

Slump. Not a slow staggering slump but a quick deliberate slump as if disappointed by a piece of unexpected bad news.. the plumber did not show up to fix your overflowing john, the part you need for your car to run still did not come in, you got fired by Donald Trump.

Feel the slump from the inside .. from every cell.

Accompany with slump facial expressions …eye brows furled, cheek raised and eye squinting on the left Both eyes should side swipe the upper right of your existence. Make a short forceful grunt almost like a cat expelling a hairball but very abbreviated. Then heave a heavy sigh.. live inside that sigh just as moisture lives inside a fog. Feed it with any anguish you can marshal. Cross your arms.. Wax melancholy with all your might .. filter optimism into irreconcilable doom, operate from your smallest self.

Also decline any consolation that would lift your mood. Harbor hardships in your port o pity. Rationalize the consumption of grand quantities of sweets and things with real cream in them. Banish any notion of having to be civil.

Isolate until there is occasion to share your angst state with those attempting typical facades of cheerful exchanges at restaurants, diners or nightclubs, at occasional parties, in lines at the grocers, waiting rooms in doctors’ offices (never at the dentist .. those people have enough misery).

Groan, snivel, throw cynical comments into the conversation pool. Scowl. Contradict, minimize and challenge the passions of others with overt dissenting dismissives and covert murmurs of nausea. Send out your angst pathogen to susceptible suckers within earshot’s contagion. Watch for responding slumps indicating misery’s acquisition of new company.

When alone again connect to the suffering of the human condition, the daily struggle that never seems to go away. Bills, taxes, unfair decisions, endless dirtying of the kitchen floor, unrequited love, traffic jams, stubbed toes, grease stains, poor radio reception, cellulite, shitty drivers, people who litter, holidays with dysfunctional families in denial, and lost keys.

Then find a surface with relatively few crumbs and write from the heart - express and celebrate the awe of liberated creative vigor drawn from the soul’s dark place that simply needed the fuel of attention for it to fester with brilliance, ingenuity, honesty and cunning.

Once completed stand on a chair in the kitchen and with the refrigerator as your witness : smile.

Assignment:

Make a case for something you ordinarily suppress/resist.

Send in resistance busters to share if you have some that work for you.

Resist writing for 15 minutes every morning .. then write with all your heart.

Art begins with resistance - at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor.

~Andre Gide

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