M01.19 The End of War

Elliot was 5 years old and he loved plugs. And cords, sockets, wires – anything that carried a current. I took him to the zoo – all day he kept inspecting the plumbing. Giraffes, elephants, lions – he wanted none of that. Just show me where the water taps are… At home, I built him a panel full of electric sockets. I went the hardware shop and bought him three extensions cords of different lengths. The glee on his face as he opened the packets - 1 metre, 3 metres, 5 metres - salivating at all these new possibilities. For hours he would happily run his wires around my apartment – I could see no rhyme or reason to it, but he didn’t care about that. Then, when he thought I wasn’t looking, he would start shaking his hands as though he was willing his creation to kick into a life of it’s own. Creativity is a natural state. Initially I opposed Elliot. “No, this is dangerous. I can’t encourage this – what happens when I am not watching you? What happens if you start using the live sockets?” My fear starts, our war begins, creativity is smothered. Where are you are war with you? War is a strong word, but war is any thought that bullies you. Usually it is accompanied by a language of “should, must, have to” followed by guilt when you fail to act. As this is going on, you feel your motivation dissipate: your room gets messy, you miss messages, you forget things, and all of that makes for more guilt, more worry, more slowing down. How to get out of that? End the war. Forgive your Self for not being who you imagined you should be, who you imagined you must be. You do what you can, you do your best – love your Self for that. Kindness begins with you. The end of this war will be the beginning of life for your creative, unstuck mind. The joy of living, the motivation to act – this is what you are left with when you end your war against you. All those voices that say “You can’t. You don’t. You aren’t” are brutal. They crush the uprising of creativity better than flotilla of tanks. As teachers of Alexander's Discoveries we know this: good use is not what we seek. We seek co-operation with nature. Perfection is not something to be found, it is what you are left with when your war ends. And creativity, the energy to act: this is our natural state. This is what children do every day. Even the war, in its own way, is perfect. It is life’s way of waking you up. End the war against you, and all your work is done. After that, there is only fun, joy and – if you are Elliot – wonderful, glorious electric plugs, cords and sockets. Elliot is now one of the youngest, most well paid experts in the IT industry in Australia.