The Power of Transition and Change – Crossing the Void

I am myself experiencing the transition of pregnancy and preparing for a new family; adapting to the needs of a remarkable new life gestating inside me preparing to be birthed into the world. My husband Davide and I are about to begin the awesome journey of sharing our universe with another being - one that will demand our love, patience, fearlessness, creativity and vision and so much more. And yet this is but one in the many series of transitions that will continue to pepper our lives and indeed yours, until death, the greatest transition of them all.

It is the ability to adapt and change as easily, elegantly and creatively as possible, which is the real survival skill of today. Managing the change and transitions that arise unexpectedly or otherwise in our personal lives is key to thriving rather than merely surviving, especially as so much is changing all around us so quickly.

Not only are we exposed to an overwhelming array of changes in domestic and national politics and economics everyday, but we are painfully aware of the increasing burden and threat of our way of living to the survival of humankind, our children and our children’s children. With increasing awareness of the continued levels of conflict across the world, the focus on fear and disaster in the media, we have lost much faith in the powers of humankind to co-create a world that is an inspiration and wonder to all. Within that loss of faith in the idea of progress we’ve also discarded the notion of the meaningfulness of the transition processes in our lives. In a world when the only thing that remains constant, is change, we have become blind to the sacred nature of change and transformation in our lives and its relationship to the larger patterns of transition in nature all around us.

We no longer hold a firm sense of the inner, underlying and natural unfolding process of change – the process of transition from one state to another, which is causing such distress, confusion and pain in our lives and for our loves ones. We are out of touch with the rhythm of our own lives and the natural process of transitioning from an old situation to something new; of dissolution and reintegration, disorganization and reorganisation, of destroying and rebuilding an identity. Throughout nature, growth involves spurts of acceleration and stagnation followed by dissolution and then re-growth and we are the same.

There are actually three very clear phases of change or transition, whether it be the dissolution of a life partnership, a change in career, an impediment to your health, your children growing up and becoming independent, the onset of retirement, the move to a different country or location, having a family or getting married. They are:

1. The ending of something

2. A period of confusion, chaos and disturbance

3. The beginning of something new

What makes it so difficult for most of us is that we do not fully and consciously complete the transition process so that we find ourselves in a constant state of personal transition – where much is left incomplete, unsaid, unresolved, unhealed. These unresolved feelings of regret, guilt, disappointment, resentment, confusion and their accompanied imaginings and shattered dreams then leak unconsciously into our new projects like a subtle poison. We try to start again, to build something new without real success – our projects can never really be fresh and rich with new possibilities because our foundations are so weak and spoiled. Without always knowing it, we are dragging the past around with us like some huge stone weight tied to our left foot. And then we wonder why we reproduce the same feelings, circumstances, patterns of relationship, over and over in our lives. Unless we can begin to really understand the process of transition and change and relinquish the past; realising and taking responsibility for our part in it, we remain disempowered and wounded. We are unable to express and live our true potential with utter aliveness and wonder.

It was this recognition of how I was myself repeating limiting patterns of behavior that made me so curious to explore the field of personal development and transformation, beginning 21 years ago. It was also one of the reasons that I was so drawn to pursue Life and Performance Coaching, later as a vocation, having realised so many amazing gifts, talents and life opportunities in my own personal transformation.

See my next post to learn: The Three Part Journey of Transition.

The Kaleidoscope of Creativity

Creativity is not a simple phenomenon – or rather it was when we were children - for who hasn’t observed the ways children endlessly invent, creating new scenarios, words, descriptions, characters and imaginings? It ‘s quite another matter for us adults, conditioned and educated to be responsible, respectable and take life seriously. Our natural ‘play’ muscles have very often withered and died and our ‘fresh’ and ‘lively’ approach to life, with it.

It is through the creative act that the self is ‘renewed’. To be creative requires that we shake off our inhibitions and preconceived notions of what life holds for us and those we love and instead we become an adventurer. We literally venture into the unknown to discover something about ourselves and life.

And yet despite living in the most abundantly creative era in history, where we have greater access to products, information, experiences and ideas, than ever, many of us feel constrained, weighed down, confused and wasteful. There’s certainly more ‘stuff’ in our lives but we no longer have any meaningful part in its creation, other than purchasing it. We have let the ‘specialists’ create it for us - and what with global markets and cheap resources and labour, it doesn’t make ‘economic’ sense to even attempt making it. As familiar and predictable as it sounds, we’ve become the passive consumer and surface observer of life, never really getting down, deep and dirty. The service economy, clear, logical and highly organised, has become the pristine, centralising force in our lives here in the West and many of us have been left with a feeling of sterile emptiness. The irony being of course that the more ‘we have’, the less fulfilling our lives seem ‘to be’; stuck in the game of constant searching for more and never being satisfied. We trick ourselves into believing that when we have more of the something that is perceived as desirable, then we’ll be happy. For most, it is the mantra ‘when I have more money, then I will be happy; money perhaps representing freedom and opportunity or proof of value and success. We constantly forgo happiness right now, in the belief that it is only attainable in the future.

Paradoxically, the reverse seems to be true. It’s only when we get clear about who we want ‘to be’ in the world and the values and vision we want to embody moment to moment, can we then efficiently access the resources in the world in support of who we really are. So instead of working ‘to have’ experiences and things that might make us ‘feel’ happy or content when we’re not at work on something, we work at what we want ‘to be’ and ‘stand for’ in the world, all of the time. I’m talking about congruence; rediscovering and honouring our values, being flexible and imaginative, resourceful and co-creative with one another. As our own recent governmental elections have highlighted, it is a time of change, flexibility and cooperation – of liberals and conservatives. Could it be a time for a new style of innovative government altogether, with greater accountability to its peoples?

And yet in the business world the need for innovation is well understood. Business leaders are frequently heard stressing the importance of creativity and innovation for the future of their companies. Never has there been a time when resting on your laurels - doing the same thing but just a bit faster or cheaper, been more hazardous. Overnight a competitor can sweep your clients away with a dazzling technical innovation, creative partnership or innovative delivery system. Not surprising then, that there is a profound recognition that the creative, entrepreneurial spirit must be nurtured and encouraged for business to thrive, let alone survive. Business is being called to transform itself from a creature of steady, methodical progress to one of bounding insatiable adventure. Of course tv programs like the Dragon’s Den and Alan Sugar’s Apprentice have gone some way in educating and Inspiring the public in the ways of successful, strategic and innovative business enterprise.

However the creative vision for business is not reflected in our schools and colleges where much emphasis in the curriculum, especially secondary education, is still on the Left brain logical, language and numerical ability of its students. Although more creative learning is being suggested, such as ‘Independent learning and research’, many students in my experience of secondary education, just log onto the internet and do a web search to get their material. They may stretch out of their comfort zone and read a book or magazine stocked in the school library but more active research on the streets, face to face, with family members, neighbours, local business owners, community organisations and friends is rare. Traveling outside the local area to visit specialist educational institutions to delve deeper, on their own initiative, is rarer still.

The left and right brain

Most of us are aware of the left and the right brain and that they have different evolutionary functions. As is commonly known the left brain controls the Logical functions of our intelligence, ie the ability to contrast and compare as in analysis, language, numbers, lists and relates to linearity and sequential ordering and structuring of information. Consequently it’s often known as the ‘academic’, ‘intellectual’ or ‘old business’ brain which deals with the compartmentalising, storing and recollection of precise information. The right brain activity in contrast is intuitive, holistic and artistic. In particular it governs rhythm, imagination, spatial awareness, dimension, colour and the ability to see the ‘whole picture’. It is this ability to grasp the ‘whole picture’ and imagine new scenarios and ways of doing and being that is the gift of the creative brain in any field.

Recent research has confirmed that our ability to excel in one intelligence or another is learned and habitual. Therefore if we are trained in say, the right brain intelligences that relate to creativity, a person’s skill and strength dramatically improve in that area. However the additional insight that grew out of this research is that by improving a person’s aptitude in the right brain intelligences, their left brain intelligences also increased. So for example if you were to study painting and learn to drum, you would find that your logical and academic abilities would also improve…..What’s more, by combining the elements of the two hemispheres, amazing increases in overall performance are achieved. 


We have been conditioned to think that the ‘creative’ is similar to the ‘mad scientist’ living in chaos and disorder, chancing upon their creative discoveries. Having met many hundreds of creatives from every field of the Arts I’ve found quite the opposite. The most successful creatives are those who have the ability to imagine and daydream AND then refine and sort through their ideas so that they can actually manifest them on the physical plane. Simply put – they get their projects off the ground because they have learnt to direct their left brain faculties to support and complement the right brain creativity.

This research supports my belief that everyone is creative and capable of expressing something profound and beautiful about life, which we can then see mirrored in ourselves. Whether it be prose, music, dance, calligraphy or any other of the many decorative and performing arts, or taking a creative approach to gardening, cooking, decorating or dressing up, we can all express ourselves uniquely. Whether it is the way we physically touch another, speak our truth or simply wash the dishes we can express ourselves creatively. Each of us can become creative in our own way continually inventing and seeing the world afresh.

It is for this reason I am so passionate about creativity and the wonderful spectrum of colour and life it has to offer us. It is why I proposed teaching the power of sound and movement as creative catalysts at the Sunflower Retreat Centre, Italy in June. It is why I co-facilitate the Creative and Vision Quests here in Hampstead.

When you become creative, when you allow creativity to happen through you something of the beyond comes in contact with you. The small thinking, protective, self-conscious self disappears to reveal something more radiant, alive and free. You are in harmony with the natural rhythm of the universe. You are in harmony with your nature and thus all of nature. Which is why the path of creativity is so rewarding and nurturing of the spirit. It is why it is simply a joy to create, creating consciously, in and of the present.

That does not mean that you have to restrict your creative urges to a strictly ‘creative discipline’, rather it is an attitude that one embodies. If one is creative in the day to day stuff of life we are excited, open and receptive to life. When we introduce an attitude of being creative and inventive in everything that we do, life transforms - it becomes a loveable adventure. Work becomes play instead of a labour. When we see the beauty and mystery in even the most mundane of activities we are fully alive and in love with life. As it is said, life is made up of the small things and when we learn to love the small things, the small activities, everything becomes sacred. As the familiar proverb goes ‘’ before enlightenment, chopping wood, carrying water, after enlightenment, chopping wood, carrying water.”

The Birth of the Money Matrix

In July of last year, 2009 - towards the end of my study for an MA in Fine Art, I discovered a Carnival Arts course; the Championing Artists Creative Leadership program designed and hosted by leading carnival arts organisation, Kinetika. What attracted me onto the program was that I had the creative freedom and artistic license to design and make a major Carnival Arts character. Having committed so much energy in launching the London Art Car Parade I felt that learning about the carnival arts would put me in a stronger position to develop the 'Spectacle' side of the parade in future years.

Money - The Square Mile

Our brief as artists was to select and research an area of cultural interest in and around Hackney. Given the financial chaos of that year here in the UK and labelled the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 30's I chose to create a character that represented MONEY....After all, I walked past the cascading glass edifices of the square mile at Liverpool Street everyday to their premises at the Brady Centre. It would be a chance I hoped of raising in people's minds some of the many unquestioned and unanswered issues concerning money, including the power of money to seemingly underpin our very existence. It seems that we in the West are allowing the moral fabric of our society to be eaten away with fearful and self-defeating thoughts such as that without the capacity to generate lots of money a person/tribe/society/country is worthless. That without the financial markets, Britain would be worthless.

The Causes - Bubble and Squeak

The collapse of a global housing bubble in the States in 2006 precipitated high default rates on sub prime mortgages whose initial easy terms expired and homeowners suddenly found themselves with mortgages they just couldn't pay. The low interest rates and huge influx of foreign investment had financed a housing construction boom and encouraged debt financed consumption. The situation of spiralling consumer debt was similarly prevalent here in the UK.

The second string to this rising economic crisis was the part played by the shadow banking system; the investment banks and hedge funders which have far less stringent regulatory boundaries. Like some of the commercial (depository) banks they took on this higher risk of sub prime mortgages but additionally exploited the derivatives market to the full, selling Derivatives at such high leverage that a small movement in the underlying value caused a huge difference in the value of the derivative.

In 2008 then, the bubble burst and 2009 in particular saw unprecedented moves by government here and in the US to use taxpayers money to bailout a number of financial institutions. There was outrage that the US and UK governments having given into previous demands were effectively being held to ransom by the market. The first £500bn bail-out and unseen interest-rate cuts by 6 central banks failed to pursuade investors that the global economy could avoid a recession.

The government then pumped £37 billion of taxpayers money into three UK banks in one of the UK's biggest nationalisations. The government so far has spent £1,121.55 billion thus far (nov 2009) to engineer financial stability.

Obviously these moves have shaken things up, raising controversy and uproar in all quarters. What appears to be glaringly apparent above all else is not merely the layers of deceipt, lack of transparency and responsibility, recklessness and greed, but the sheer lack of creativity and visionary social thinking when it comes to money.

One of the most inspirational figures to my mind who speaks about money is the global activist and fundraiser Lynne Twist. she passionately and eloquently discusses how money can be a vehicle to fulfill our highest ideals in life and give up profound meaning in our lives. Her brilliant book, The Soul of Money reminds us that when you consciously trace and follow where and what it flows to, you discover what you really care about. That we have choices in distributing these limited resources in more creative and just ways.

In her book she clarifies the 3 toxic myths that most people carry around Scarcity:
1. That there's not enough which means that we define our world and ourselves as deficient in life. We live from a sense of lack and conduct our lives creating systems and institutions to control any resources that we perceive as being limited and valuable.
2. That More is better which drives a competitive culture of accumulation, greed and acquisition and distances us from experiencing the deeper value of what we already have.
3. That's just the way it is, which keeps us feeling hopeless, helpless and unresourceful. We are resigned to our history, to the so called story of human 'greed' and 'prejudice' and fail to see that we are all responsible.

Similarly another of my favourite authors on the topic of money is David Boyle of the New Economics Foundation, who points out that:

1. There is a fundamental moral problem about the way we use money: it isn't immoral, but it is amoral – it values very unimportant things (McDonald franchises, foreign exchange, hedge funds) very highly, and very important things (families, communities, nurses) very low.
2. Because of this, it tends to drive out what's good in society, and what's vital for our lives. Big currencies drive out variety, diversity and creativity leaving just money behind. And if you don't believe me, look at Jersey.
3. Money seems to be running out – at least for the vital things in life – because useless but lucrative investments where money breeds on money suck it all up, and we find that the money for reality gets whittled away.

I am inclined to agree with the conclusion he makes, that there is no wealth but life and the very apparent danger he outlines that people who want to produce books or grow barley or sell food now have to do so through the gaps, and with the crumbs that are the by-products of speculation, of the financial roundabout that booms above them and produces nothing real. Soon, it may be impossible.

I have no doubt that People of every age have confused money with real value, and they probably always will – but we is it not time in 2010 to step up to the challenge and educate ourselves and our young people of what the traps are and their consequences?