Bench outside Chapman elementary school in Portland, OR. What a wonderful message for students to receive as they enter the doors of their school. Play is so important in the creative process.
On 10/2/11, I delivered a 90-minute presentation at Imagery International’s annual conference. My topic was “Using Guided Imagery To Overcome Creative Blocks.” In it, I mapped eight stages of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey onto the creative process. To illustrate the eight stages, I shared a tale from The Odyssey, I discussed how each stage relates to the creative process, and for each stage I offered questions for reflection, and explained a couple guided imagery techniques that I find helpful. I will post a write up of my presentation in parts. Click here for the series of entries.
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Introduction to “Using Guided Imagery To Overcome Creative Blocks”
Nothing fascinates me more than the creative process. As a fiction writer and poet, I’ve experienced rich periods of inspiration and productivity, and devastating, soul-crushing blocks. I love working with writers and other artists in my hypnotherapy practice, in part, because it allows me to step out of my own experience and more objectively and compassionately understand the creative struggles of others. Of course, I also get to help facilitate and witness the breakthroughs, which is not only rewarding but also gives me hope for my own creative work.
The creative cycle in a nutshell is this: We get an idea, we begin to work on the idea, we encounter obstacles, at which point, we may be tempted to abandon the idea. We think that because the work isn’t coming easily that it must be because we are inadequate. “I’m not talented enough. Why should I bother? I don’t have what it takes.” When we’re resilient, we work through our inner conflict and bring the idea to fruition. Of course, as guided imagery practitioners, you all know how imagery can make us resilient.
Recently, while whining to my husband, once again, about having writer’s block, I blurted out a bit dramatically, “Writing is heroic. Writers, artists, all creative people, are absolute heroes.”
Now what did I mean by hero? When many hear the word “hero,” they think of war exploits, sports, and even comic heroes such as Superman, or Batman. In addition to being a hypnotherapist, I’m also a high school English teacher and taught a mythology class for years. When I think “hero,” I think Odysseus from The Odyssey; I think Joseph Campbell’s book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which explores the archetype of the Hero’s Journey as it appears in world mythology.
What speaks to me about the archetypal hero is the struggle. The archetypal hero experiences resistance, temptation, tests, and trials, self-doubt. The archetypal hero faces the shadow of the psyche, and hits bottom. I can relate to that! And I know I’m not alone. Based on my research I’ve come to think of creativity as almost always a struggle. Even Picasso, who said, “Give me a museum, and I’ll fill it,” went through a period where his life was in turmoil and he couldn’t produce.
In my high school classes, I have had students discover how perfectly the stages of the Hero’s Journey can be mapped onto the struggles they have encountered in reaching various goals, so it is a natural leap for me to map the Hero’s Journey onto the creative process. A Google search will reveal that I’m not the first to do so, though I’m not sure others have considered how guided imagery might be applied at each stage, which is a part of my presentation.
So we will explore the eight stages of Campbell’s Hero’s Journey that are most relevant to the cycle of creativity. (There are 17 stages in total.) To illustrate the eight stages, I will share a tale from The Odyssey, I’ll discuss how each stage relates to the creative process, and for each stage I’ll share questions for reflection, and explain a couple imagery techniques that I have found helpful.
I’m sure many of you have read or are familiar with The Odyssey, the epic story of the hero, Odysseus, who spends ten years fighting in the Trojan war and then gets lost at sea when the war is over. It takes him another ten years to find his way back home to Ithaca. The Odyssey catalogs his adventure.
I thought it might help to review Odysseus’ backstory. In his youth, Odysseus is a suitor to Helen of Troy—the most beautiful woman in the world. Helen’s father is in a bind, afraid that his daughter’s flock of suitors will riot if he picks one to be her husband. In an attempt to gain favor with Helen’s father, Odysseus gets all the men to agree that they will show life-long support of Helen’s husband, no matter who is chosen.
So much for siding with Dad. Menelaus is the lucky winner, and Odysseus moves on with his life. He doesn’t do too badly. He marries Helen’s cousin Penelope, who may not be the most beautiful woman in the world, but she does have wit and cleverness to match his own. He becomes king of Ithaca, and he and Penelope have a baby son, Telemachus. Life is good….that is, until his Greek neighbors show up with news that Menelaus needs them to make good on their promise. Helen has been taken by the Trojan, Paris. And so the first stage: The Call to Adventure.
