I’ve spent a lot of life working on IQ.  In recent years, I’ve learned the value of increasing your EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient).  Today, I invite you to increase your SQ or Spiritual Intelligence Quotient – the CORE of your power – knowledge of the real you.  Increasing your SQ is the only way to call up and sustain creativity. 

When you're always busy, there is little to no time to connect with your core and infinite creativity.  Buried by the details of the physical and emotional struggle to survive, we make logical plans, put forth tremendous effort and drive to conquer our calendars and to do lists.  In spite of the consistent level of anxiety and exhaustion this way of life produces, let alone the its spiritually numbing effects, we defend our commitment to over-functioning.  We’re practiced at resisting intuition; skilled at ignoring the leading of Spirit – the energy that animates and inspires us.  We divert or dam up the flow of creativity, save a trickle every now and again.  

You are more powerful than you know.   Every word you speak, every thought you think, every feeling you have creates.  Whatever you’re experiencing now – mentally, emotionally, materially – you have created.  You are naturally creative. 

You can intentionally reconnect with your creativity and release the less-than-satisfying, unconscious, haphazard happenstance of your life – the stuff that leaves you wondering who you really are and how your life got to be what it is today. 

The secret is going inside of yourself – into your interiors where goodness and the gold lay; where  your creative ideas await your presence and attention.  It’s really not scary in there.  It’s a quiet, gentle, protected space.  It’s a space rich with unexplored possibilities and new adventures.  

Start by understanding the difference between your personality and your inner being – your spirit.  Your personality is guided by thoughts and plans – primarily those given to you by others.  It's about thinking, struggling, trying, selling, pushing, pulling, begging God, trying hard, planning.  Your inner being is guided by feelings.  Your Spirit’s way is to create by listening to your inner wisdom and guidance.  Over time you’ll feel creativity flow effortlessly, minus the strain and stress your personality believes is necessary.  Spiritual guidance – your SQ – feels natural, you feel at ease, more peaceful.  Your job is to simply listen and follow the next logical step as it presents itself.  Resources show up just in time, ideas come through clearly.  

Then get clear about your desired future.  Get excited about what you desire and image – what you’re dreaming up and setting into motion.  As you focus on your future, attend more to how you want to feel instead of the specifics of what you want to have.  Emotion is a powerful source of creativity.  The Law of Attraction contends that if you hold a pure, positive thought for 17 seconds you’re on your way to making it happen.  If you hold it for 68 seconds, you will make it materialize even more quickly. Don’t just write down goals, emote and feel your way to your future. 

Do less and be more.  Give in to fewer and fewer distractions.  Focus on communing, communicating and living aligned with your purpose.  Spend more time pleasing your Self.  Practice feeling good and you’ll do good – spreading yourself thin less often because you’ll choose more wisely what you give your time and attention to.  The Universe responds to vibration and energy, not words.  Be selective about what you allow yourself to think and feel.

Act, do and try less.  Muscle less.  Strive and push less.  Use your will a little less.  Relax and receive more.  Your real work is to align your feelings with your thoughts and ideas.  Creation is simpler than we know – every spiritual tradition teaches us so, but our society says differently. Traditions teach us to ask from our hearts, believe with all our might and receive the gift of dreams come true.  Your dreams are whatever you are giving your mental and emotional energy to.  Both are required to be truly, powerfully, creative.

Move and meditate.   Mediation differs from prayer.  Prayer is asking and offering.  Meditation is listening and being opening to receive.  Tune in to your Self – your inner being, your Spirit, your divine nature; the part of you that knows how to BE and receive.  To open blocked energy, meditate to get quiet and listen – slow down your hurried, hassled pace.  Be still.  Interact with the teacher – the wise woman within.  Honor Her.  Write down what She says.  When you meditate, you may hear something or not.  Sit anyway.  Einstein meditated.  Napoleon Hill, author of the best-seller “Think and Grow Rich,” sat for ideas.  He would wait to see what showed up.  Harriett Tubman meditated to know when to get her underground railroad moving to safety.

Get behind your decisions.  Commit.  Stop waffling.  Waffling is conflicted energy.  It’s you working against yourself.  Conflicted energy leads to conflicted results.  Use the authority you embody – the creative power of your focused and aligned energy and intentions – to make choices that support conscious expression of your creative capacity in this and every moment. 

Be content with the present and excited about the future.  Complain and criticize yourself and others less.  Appreciate all that you’re blessed with – even that which you no longer want.  It has served you and helped you clarify what you prefer now.  Intentionally practice feeling good about where you are right now and dream with excitement about what is to come – what YOU are creating. 

Your inner being is always broadcasting to you, trying to get your attention. Your Spirit wants you to join in the fun and truth of who you really are.  You are a Spirit of Purpose with the capacity for infinite creativity.  You are complete, whole, ever-expanding, growing and expressing.  Creativity is your birthright and current calling.