"The Undoing" by Ashely ForemanIt can be difficult to sort through all the feelings these days but it is clear that our world’s issues cannot be addressed through reaction or amplification of disturbance. Our time is special, and involves a sort of quantum approach – a sort of merger of thought & feeling, of personal inner work and external creative service.

When we don’t take a moment to clean our chalice, all we see and create is filtered through our pain.  It’s a sort of yogic act of parting veils, of reaching into the unknown and connecting with a higher intelligence, a higher creativity, and bringing through the gifts and treasures offered in this connection with our higher self.

I’ve found that when contemplating the state of the world, it is so easy to build up a sort of fog that filters our vision. For me personally, anger is the biggest block to authentic and creative expression. Yet it is the things that make me angry, the injustices of the world, that bring me the biggest call to action.

Discerning and understanding an appropriate action for this instinctual desire has become one of my most rewarding challenges. Anger, grief, & fear easily distort a good intention, and as sensitive people, it is so easy to absorb these energies and be affected by them. Yet we cannot release them if we do not respect that we feel them.

It is a sort of paradox, in which we have to feel it to heal it. A sort of Creative Yoga, where we accept that we feel shitty, release it in some medium, and then quickly move on. The resulting clarity from that release will actually provide the needed medicine; a mighty goblet of gnosis to soothe the fire instead of the fanning the flames.

They say “misery seeks company.” It is also proposed that we attract what we think and feel, that all the world is a reflection, and that this world is a big collective dream. That being so, I guess this is not surprising when you see that mainstream media seems to feed this inner turmoil and fog. Angst, fear, and despair seem to be the biggest seller, and so the businessmen just keep giving the public what they seem to want. However, it is not what we need.

What we need is Creativity. We need individuals who culturally influence creativity in every person as a means of healing and connection. We need healthy outlets for emotions and facilitators of Creative Recovery. I think that through our connection to our creativity, and through unblocking that which disturbs this flow, we find connection to our authenticity, a sort of omniscient peacefulness, a radiant happiness that the Creative Spirit can dwell within.

Memories of Oneneass by Ashely ForemanWe are but vessels of Spiritual Electricity. Our external view is nothing but the results of the information we are taking in, both actively and passively. Waves of intangible information are flowing over us, through us, from us, at all times — like beacons that both absorb and amplify, we radiate these vibrations and they filter our perceptions, experiences, and identifications.

If everything that could possibly ever
be imagined already exists “out there” somewhere in the highest levels of consciousness, filtering its way down into our physical reality, then through the refinement of our creative channel we will discover our genius, our muse. With that comes our ability to pull through new ideas in art & technology that can transform the world, but if this energy cannot flow through us and remains blocked by fear, anger, or resentment, then it will be filtered through those lenses instead. We will continue to engage with what we do not want, rather than become vessels for new and unforeseen realities waiting to emerge through us.

If there was anything I could synthesize from the recent cycles we’ve all been going through, it is that we must heal our pain in order to move forward. We must let go, let it die, & forgive. Only then we can move forward with our plans, goals, dreams, and creations.

I suppose this is where artists of all varieties are the pioneers of the coming age. But in this collective reality, how do we heal everyone’s inner-artist rather than idolize a few people that survived their sociocultural programming with creative wisdom intact? All people have an inherent creative genius just waiting to be fulfilled and unleashed.

So, I call upon you dear reader. I call upon you to show up in whatever your practice is, and to confront those fears, that anger, that resentment. Whether you choose a pen & notepad, or pencils for sketching, paint, dance, or whatever your form – I offer you this: Creative Yoga.

Show up for whatever it is, and utilize any medium of your choice. Let yourself feel it, release, surrender it,  burn off those accumulated stores of negative emotions if that is what is there. It is through integration, through acknowledgment, that you will be free of it. It doesn’t have to be pretty. It doesn’t have to become a masterpiece. It doesn’t ever need to be seen. And most importantly, it does not need to be right.

The resulting clarity will restore subtle & then profound changes to your psyche, and you will become a sharpened tool for creating the world in tandem with the essence of our true nature, Creativity.


The artwork above is the result of my personal journey… If you’d like to see more, please check out my website or go to my artist page on facebook <– a little love here would be much appreciated!

Also, 10% of sales from prints from this article will be donated to http://www.thesolutionsproject.org


Ashely Foreman

Ashely Foreman is a Northern-California based artist & writer, with a penchant for philosophy. Her work is influenced by a deep and profound love for Life & Nature, and a finely honed creative channel. Primarily a painter, she is currently living & working in Nevada City, CA. 10% of sales of prints from this article are donated to projects for defending & protecting water, or supporting 100% renewable clean energy - Send her a message via her website - www.thirteentwentystudios.com for more info.

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