Incubation and the Art of Problem Solving

"Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the ploughshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring."    -Henri Frederic Amiel

I think it is easy to become overwhelmed in the effort to solve all our problems. Our jobs, family life and personal life all cry out for our attention and care, but sometimes it is worth giving things a rest so that we have time to ruminate, reflect and be worked on by less wilful sources than our ego and overworked mind.

 Our soul is given a chance to speak in these fallow spaces which helps to foster integrity and authenticity. These fertile spaces of non-doing are among the most rich and rewarding experiences in life, for they affirm our deepest nature and keep us true to our deepest self. So, when you feel overwhelmed, perplexed or stuck remember to:

Breathe. Doing nothing can be one of the most effective things to do in such moments.

Be patient. When anxiety and worry are let loose they have a tendency to propell us into questionable actions that may do more harm than good. Give things time to sort themselves out and allow yourself to feel what you feel, drawing your awareness inward, breathing as you go.

Cultivate faith. This is tricky when times are hard, but succumbing to cynicism is a sure way to shoot yourself in the foot making your worst fears something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Journal. I know of no more effective way of dialoguing with my inner demons than through writing. 'Stream of Consciousness' writing in particular seems to cut through any tendency toward self-deception, revealing little nuggets of truth here and there. This is a powerful tool for moving through a situation with a certain amount of grace, rather than getting unproductively mired down in it.

Life seems to thrive more readily with a little thoughtful pruning here and there. This includes, at times, leaving things be. 

Fallow places are fertile places full of potential for almost anything. Create a little space in your life for doing nothing and see what happens.

Reading, Writing and Truth Speaking

I spend a lot of time reading. Books, in particular, have been a key source of inspiration and solace along my path in life--they are like friends. 

In the words of Miguel de Unamuno:

"... a new friend enriches our spirit, not so much by what he gives us of himself, as by what he causes us to discover in our own selves, something which, if we had never known him, would have lain in us undeveloped..."

This is what I value in a good piece of writing, that it has the power to put me in touch with parts of myself that I never knew existed and that it makes me more aware of my humanity--of qualities that I share with other human souls.

I have read many different types of books too, but the ones I find most helpful are the well-written, well-conceived novel. Often these are the classics in literature--Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Hesse--but others provoke thought and feeling as well--Milan Kundera, Bela Zsolt, Henryk Grynberg. These are stories of humanity that spring from diverse sources, but which all revolve around the large questions and preoccupations of humanity--love, suffering, justice, truth.

I particularly like the novel because it speaks to the reader on a variety of levels (literal, metaphorical, allegorical) and, therefore, reveals much knowledge both that which the authour intends, and that which he/she does not intend.

 Many self-help books, by contrast, claim too much in the way of secret knowledge, which if you but follow the prescribed recipe for success, will lead you to your personal Nirvana. Implied, and this is what I find most problematic, is that if you fail in your quest--by following the directions--you are assumed to be the failure and not the ideological recipe put forward by the authour. 

Good novels are more humane, more forgiving, more understanding and thus more compassionate. Perfection does not exist here because the human condition does not allow for that. We have and aspire towards transcendent moments, but the astute authour, like the astute reader, understands that truth speaking is an uncertain art. 

I don't mean to trash all self-help books, nor do I mean to glorify all novels. I mean only to point out that a good piece of writing will give compassionate voice to human inconsistencies, contradictions and fallibility-the truth more often as relative, not absolute.

Human suffering and fallibility are much of what makes us human afterall, they are also what puts us in touch with our capacity for empathy, compassion and love--other very human qualities. We need the former to transform us into the latter. It is a question of how we go about managing the inevitable dissonance that makes all the difference in what prevails.

My recommendation is to read much, expose yourself to all kinds of ideas and ideals, but always refer back to yourself as the final arbiter on what you have taken in. Again, no one's opinion or experience is going to be more relevant to your life than your own.

A good book is food for thought, a means by which to plumb our inner depths and get in touch with the truth, in one of the most pleasant of ways. 

It is communion with the Soul.

A Gentle Plea for Chaos

The title for this post comes from one of my favourite gardening books, written by Mirabel Osler, who has an appreciation for the aesthetics of the wild when it comes to the creation of an outdoor space. Instead of trying to control the plants, she works with their nature and loosens her grip on the environment in the creation of a garden which is something of an ode to the chaotic in life--a beautiful space both feral and cultivated, where the daffodils are allowed to spread and the grass allowed to grow.

I am inspired by this approach to the landscape because it invites chaos to speak, gives it a little room for movement and expression, rather than trying to ban it altogether. Chaos is an essential component of creativity and yet we try to tie it down and make it behave, as though it were a rogue element in need of reform. 

I think we need chaos, difficult as it is to have in our lives. Change is often the challenge because it alters the status quo, removing mental and emotional security--or, at least, perceived security--leaving us facing the abyss of an unknown. But I believe chaos has a special beauty, one that needs to be welcomed into our lives, worked with, rather than against.

Chaos strikes me as a fertile ground from which new and interesting possibilities germinate. This is why I see it as essential to the creative process. It aids in unseating us from old assumptions, views and beliefs that are contributing to stagnation in our lives. 

Life is dynamic, in perpetual movement and I think the trick is to learn how to move with it, to improvise, to dance. I love the art of dance, particularly Argentine Tango. There is substance and structure to the dance, particularly when you are first learning it, but as with many arts, the more practiced you become the more you are able to transcend the rules and engage in a more free and improvisational way. 

This requires absolute presence in the moment and is a thing of beauty both to participate in and to behold. I think we need this kind of flexibility in the way we move through our lives, in the way we think about and process our experiences. We need to be open and receptive, present and aware--focused, but not rigidly obsessed.

Not to be schlocky, but we really do need to dance like no one's watching. Life is precious and tenuous, it begins and it ends. The time for living is now and I believe that chaos is an integral part of both life's beauty and nature--an element deserving of our appreciation and respect.

Slowing the Tempo

Gandhi has said, "there is more to life than increasing its speed," and I couldn't agree more. We have a choice regarding what tempo our life takes and I personally don't favour a fast-paced existence because  it robs me of opportunities for deep connection. I am not as present for my friends, I am less aware of the internal tenor of my life and the quality of my work is compromised.

I take some heart in movements like slow-cooking that place value on the exponential increase in the quality of both the food and dining experience when the pace for preparing and consuming food is tempered. The experience is what is important because at a deep level this nourishes us, give us pleasure and sustains us. Is that not worth slowing down for? 

The French are famous for prioritizing such experiences and have turned it into something of an art form. I take some inspiration from this. I believe the quality of our experiences are important and that by tempering the pace at which we move through our lives, we make greater room for the possibility of increasing the pleasure and joy to be had in it.

Slowing down means less will be done, which means that we need to be clear about what is important to us and what we want to prioritize. The benefits are that the quality of whatever it is that we are engaged in goes up. We make fewer errors in our work, we heighten our sensory awareness which increases our capacity for pleasure, and we deepen our relationship to the world and to ourselves. 

When life proceeds at a more leisurely pace our stress levels go down, we are healthier in mind, body and soul. What is life for, if not for the creation of unique and amazing lives that add to the quality of everyone's existence? To do this properly things need time to mature, there needs to be time for the attention to detail leading to a rich, full-bodied delicious life!

We are not here to race around impressing ourselves and others with how busy we are. Somehow being busy has gotten equated with being important and worthy, but I question this assumption based on what this sort of life produces at the end of the day--a society of drugged, depressed, anxious, stressed individuals who far from being happy are cynical and jaded. How can a cynical and jaded mind and heart make one happy and fulfilled? 

I think that simplifying one's life, clarifying one's values and prioritizing the handful of things that are most important to a person, can go far towards the end of slackening the pace of one's life and giving it a little room to breathe and to bloom. For me, this is worth taking the trouble to slow down for.

Breathing Space

I'm not sure that there can be any breathing space in our lives without contentment--without letting go of the grasping that fuels our essentially insatiable, ego-fed desires. We often go through our lives with agendas of various sorts, a list of things we feel we must do in order to be who we think we are supposed to be in order to get along in life--to achieve something. But all this ambition gets in the way of the one thing we often truly desire, which is the sense of repose, of ease, of equanimity that accompanies a simpler, more basic relation to life.

Contentment seems to me the by-product of putting an end to all this endless ego-driven striving. It also seems intimately connected to our ability to accept life as it presents itself when we stop for a moment and just appreciate whatever is, without making it 'right' or 'wrong'. 

The small things in life have a chance to speak to us more clearly without the distortion that comes through the filter of our discontent. 

Living a simple life wherein we claim few possessions (mental or material) and are clear about what constitutes enough, is fundamental for creating the conditions under which contentment arises. Life is to be had all around us if we but take the time to really be aware and let it sink in. 

Freedom from ego-driven desires never comes by way of attempts to gratify them--that just turns us all into addicts of various descriptions. Contentment graces our lives when die to misguided desires and ambitions and realize that life, on some level, is enough just as it is. 

When our actions arise in resonance with a heart grounded in this tranquil space, our creations transcend the anxious, narrow confines of the ego and are more an authentic expression of life itself. In essence, our creations are integrated with the whole of life, are an intimate extension of it, rather than an artificial construct imposed on it. 

This produces a much different feeling experience, one that does not require a 'fix' because it is rooted in life itself, in concert with its true nature, and not any twisted, self-serving conceptions of it, that require constant reinforcement or propping up.

I am by no means an expert here, but moments of clarity and freedom seem to come more frequently with practice. It is a work in progress, like anything else, and locating contentment has been key--appreciating life at its most basic, being satisfied with 'enough'. There I find freedom to move, create and be.

Passion and the Poetic Life

I am facing a juncture in my life and have been mulling over my options for the future, the funny thing is that I have only been thinking about this future in very limited terms--practicality. Practicality has its place, of course, but so does passion. If we are not living here fully engaged and fully alive, then what are we doing here at all?

One of my favourite writers is Thomas Moore, of Care of the Soul fame. He writes about living passionately and soulfully, about living life as a poetic act. I like the feeling that gives me, it turns the project of life into a more liberating and creative act that fills me with enthusiasm for the future, rather than luke-warm interest, or worse, no interest at all. The importance of living authentically, in tune with one's strengths, values and purpose, cannot be overstated. 

We need to define success for ourselves, rather than be towed mindlessly along by societal definitions which often serve questionable ends. Imagination is important here, we need to have a vision, we need to know a little of what we are about and what we might be capable of. Most of all we need to know what turns us on vs. what makes us feel like throwing in the towel--something about the nature of our passion.

Locating passion is not as difficult as it might seem at first, but you have to listen closely. What are we listening for? We are listening for our heartfelt responses to all the activities we expose ourselves to on a daily basis--the way our heart beats a little faster when we hear a piece of music resonant with something in our soul, or the way our mood shifts when we detect a scent evocative of a special moment in our lives. 

It is often from this place that a joy for living is discovered that may take us in unexpected, but rewarding directions. Inspiration can also be found in books, films, magazines and in the lives of other passionate people. Living from a base of passion requires more than just self-knowledge and inspiration, however, it also requires support.

If we want to live passionately and creatively we need to cultivate our surroundings carefully. It is imperative that we connect with people who are living with enthusiasm and personal integrity, people who are dedicated to 'taking the road less travelled'. 

Living with originality and purpose requires that we locate people of like mind who can help inspire, motivate and keep us on track. There is little room for nay sayers here, if we want to succeed we need to be clear about what success means to us, so it is wise to limit exposure to people whose vision of life is stained with negativity or whose view of us is small, narrow and compromising. 

We need to expose ourselves to people, places and experiences which resonate with our soul's deepest longing. In short, in order to cultivate the best in ourselves, we must expose ourselves to the best.

The hard part comes in acting on our passion's dictates. This requires a willingness to be vulnerable, to make a mistake, or to be found in error. I don't think this is so bad in the end, but hypothetically it has the power to immobilize us. Take heart.  

Remember, a mistake is good information in the end that we can use to revise a course of action, or move in a different direction. In a way there are no real mistakes, only a failure to utilize experiences of all varieties to positive effect.

Passion is the vitality of life, it is what keeps everything going and I believe we have no bigger responsibility to ourselves than to maintain a lifelong connection with this elixir of poetic possibilities.