Group med Thursday. Escaping the Ever-Repeating Known
Creativity, conditioning, and cutting new grooves in the same old record.
Getting Stuck
One definition of insanity is repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
When our approach to life remains the same, it’s likely the results will, too.
When a NASA study was used to test the capacity for creativity and innovation among children and young adults, the results delineated a sharp decline in creativity starting at just 10 years old. While 98% of 5-year-olds scored at genius levels of creativity, only 30% of 10-year-olds, 12% of 15-year-olds, and 2% of adults hit that mark. Dr. George Land, who engineered the study, says that capability we had as 5-year-olds never goes away–it just gets buried under stress.
Meanwhile, it’s been estimated that by the time we reach our 30s, more than 90% of our behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, emotional reactions, habits, and perceptions are subconsciously programmed and run automatically like a computer, with only 5-10% of the conscious mind available to override it.
There’s a clear, observable pattern there—as we age, less and less of our natural creativity is available to us as more and more of it gets overridden by conditioning we’ve picked up over the years.
In a neuroscientific sense, we can say these programmed sets of behaviors are inspired by premature cognitive commitments—records of stressful experiences we’ve had, which serve to help us avoid similar situations in the future.
So as it were, almost everything we do, say, think, and feel is a pre-programmed response designed to avoid stress.
It’s no wonder that creativity feels like a remote possibility at this point.
Getting Unstuck
To be creative is to receive inspiration from nature, or God, or source, or the universe, or whatever fits your worldview—it requires the channel to be open, rather than filled with protective programming.
It also makes sense why some of the most profoundly creative people are often described as “a little off” or “out there”…because they’ve managed to pick up less of the conditioning which allows us to fit squarely into a square society, while preserving more of their inner child.
But here’s the thing—at every given moment, you have an opportunity to make a conscious choice to override that conditioning and make a new choice, forge a new path, try something new. And you’re almost guaranteed a new outcome.
If you’ve been feeling stuck, or stagnant, or like you’re swimming upstream in the river of the ever-repeating known, maybe a change of direction is what’s needed, rather than swimming harder.
But How?
One such opportunity is coming up this fall.
On October 18–22, The Baseline Happiness Project is offering a 5-day retreat at the beautiful Bamarang Bush Retreat center as part of the HERE In Nowra festival in breathtaking Nowra, NSW, designed to give you the time and space needed to break the cycle.
You’ll be immersed in the Australian countryside, tucked away with others like you who share the same mission to reconnect with their creative inner children.
You’ll practice rounding, an industrial-strength form of meditation combining yoga asana, breath work and Vedic Meditation.
You’ll be nourished with locally sourced, home-cooked Ayurvedic meals prepared from scratch by Chef Sabi.
You’ll hear talks from me and HERE founder Barron Hanson, two Vedic Meditation teachers with a combined 30 years of experience in the creative industries with iconic artists like Skrillex and Richie Hawtin and global brands like Audi and Red Bull.
And most importantly, you’ll cut deep, permanent new grooves into the record of your being that will set you on a path toward a new, more creative way of living once you emerge.
A holiday only lasts a week. The effects of a retreat last a lifetime.
Will you make the same choice you’ve always made, or a new one?
Let’s discuss these and other ideas during Collective Effervescence, our online group meditation series, this Thursday July 30th at 8PM ET. Drop in for meditation only (first 30 min) or stay for discussion + Q&A on this and other life topics from the Vedic perspective. Join the WhatsApp group to receive reminders 24 hours before each session, or click Subscribe on this page to have all upcoming dates automatically sync to your preferred calendar.