The Way of Nowhere: Eight Questions to Release Our Creative Potential. Nick Udall
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altogether something else to stop. Instead if we concentrate on something else, in this instance our unique talents, then we might forget about our cough and stop coughing. This is true in every direction of the wheel. We need to awaken our ally in order to diminish the influence of the distorted energy.
opposite: holding
wanting evidence the gardener nurtures each bloom with mindful care
The gardener nurtures each bloom
Another view of the East which may help to unlock the breakthrough question what is my unique purpose…? comes from the West, the opposite direction on the wheel.
It is difficult enough to admit to ourselves that our connection to our creative life force is not as vibrant as we would wish it to be or that we need to prepare ourselves for a new leap forward. It is even more difficult to do anything about it without some form of help or support. This is the energy intelligence of the West. It is the energy of holding a space open for ourselves and others so we can explore, express and nurture our uniqueness.
To hold this type of space means developing new ways of being with ourselves and others. We offer numerous examples of this throughout this book in the form of micro-skills and frameworks.
With the right process and the right preparation we can harness a natural power and come to understand that life is on our side. It wants us to access our uniqueness, just as the gardener nurtures each bloom. When we are in touch with our own uniqueness and bring it together with that of others, we can co-create a way forward that none of us would have thought possible.
neighbours: catalysing & presence
wanting evidence the gardener nurtures each bloom with mindful care
With mindful care
We can glean further insight into the breakthrough question by looking at the neighbouring directions – in this case the North-East and the South-East.
It is understandable, given the pace of modern life, that we want to dash on to the next thing without pausing to complete the last. Yet we are unlikely to gain an inspirational insight into our unique purpose without having completed the last phase of our lives. If there is something that is outstanding, its energy casts a shadow over our consciousness and we struggle to catalyse the energy required to access our intuitive selves. This is the energy intelligence of the North-East, which provides the integrity and vitality needed to free us for the next leap.
Meanwhile, the South-East invites us to stop our internal dialogue and achieve stillness and presence in the moment. We are unlikely to hear the quiet voice that whispers what the stars want of us whilst we are deafened by the thunderous roar of our own conversation with ourselves. It is the awareness of the present moment that allows the quiet voice of intuition to speak to us in poetry, symbolism and much more.
personal PurposeQuests
a Way …
To gain inspirational insight into our unique purpose, we often draw on a transitional process that has been used for millennia by different cultures. We have come to call this process a PurposeQuest – a way of enabling people to discover their uniqueness and stand in their magic.
The process has three distinctive stages: Recapitulation, Questing and Incorporation.
1 Recapitulation
Recapitulation is a process of severance and completion at an energetic level. Everything that has happened in our lives has been meaningful. Each situation, each challenge, each victory has helped us to develop into the person we are now.
What has been the significance of these situations and challenges? What insights do they hold about our unique purpose?
By recapitulating the detail of our journey so far, we create a turning point, a threshold, where this phase of our life can end and a new phase can begin.
‘What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.’ 3
From T. S. Eliot.
2 Questing
In this next stage, we shift our level of thinking and learn to call upon a different state of consciousness – our creative-consciousness (see page 21) – to catch glimpses of our higher purpose.
Creating the optimum conditions
Whilst neither a shift in consciousness nor profound insight can ever be guaranteed, we know that certain conditions hugely increase their likelihood.
Isolation (from four hours to four days, depending on the depth of enquiry)Spending time alone allows us to transcend the social and cultural norms that we continually reinvent whilst in the company of others.
A place of natural beautyThere are many places where the beauty of the Earth seems to speak to us in a language beyond words – places where we are reminded of the interconnectedness of all things.
FastingWe use meals as orientating points in the day. When we fast, time takes on a different quality. Digestion also consumes a surprisingly large amount of energy, which fasting releases and which can be used to maintain presence.
Nowness & HerenessAwareness of the present moment allows us to access more subtle levels of information and energy.
‘Journaling’ (see page 83)Our creative-consciousness reveals itself in symbols, emotions, feelings abstractions. Journaling allows us to capture this data for subsequent use.
Emotional and psychic energyThis work takes energy. We need to be in the right physical and mental condition to undertake it.
Holding a breakthrough question (see page 60)We do not enter the realm of the interconnected empty-handed. Rather we are armed with our intention to answer the question: what is my unique purpose…?
Secluded yet held, supported and safe. These are the optimum conditions which a personal PurposeQuest creates in order to maximize the chances that we will…
See a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour. 4
William Blake, 1757–1827.
3 Incorporation
When we return from Sacred Mountain (the traditional name given to the spot where we do a PurposeQuest), we help one another to learn from the experience in order to identify our unique purpose. We will know when we have it, because it will enter us. We will incorporate it (which literally means ‘to bring into the body').
Such an inspirational breakthrough has a certainty about it – a knowingness. It is usually characterized by its simplicity. We may feel that it is something that at some