Unfolding Creativity - Ritual and Routine
Living as an Unfolding Creative involves conscious ritual and routine. This is especially with regard to how you start your day, and by that, I mean how you consciously start your day. Most people start the day unconsciously. They wake from sleep and fall into the sleep of the separate sense of the personal self.
Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most. – The Buddha
Why Morning Ritual Matters
Nothing is more important than committing to a ritual and routine that grounds you at the start of the day. Such ritual practice will enrich your life, and it will expand your consciousness. Let me begin by sharing with you your present routine that I am 100% sure you follow, one which is the cause of most of your unnecessary suffering in the life that you lead.
Immediately upon waking, you switch on the radio. This is not the radio that broadcasts news or music. This is the badly tuned radio that is the voice in your head. Most people never wake up to the fact that they have a voice in their head that broadcasts static most all of the day. They then connect to one of the transmissions, which is usually negative and while on the outside nothing dramatic is happening, inside, they are off being upset about something that might happen six months into the future.
This is what we call thinking. It is the servant running amok in the Palace of Presence that is your BEING. The modern spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle writing in The Power of NOW refers to this as “the normal insanity.” Switching on this radio transmission happens in an instance on awakening and it runs in the background until you go to sleep, unless it continues, and you experience insomnia.
This drama creating voice in your head is your most established unconscious routine. It is the routine that deprives you of any real Peace of Mind and is the reason you find you have no energy. It’s like having the head headlights of the car left on and you come back to a flat battery.
You don’t have to believe every thought you think. – Byron Katie
Taking Command of the Inner Voice
This voice in your head is not your friend. Thinking is a great blessing, but it needs to be conscious. You need to be able to choose to think when thinking is needed. Better than this is when you live your life allowing the Divine to think through you. The first stage of unfolding creativity is to take command of the mind and the voice in the head. If you were to listen to this voice as a recording it would shock you. Recognize that when you choose to take command of this voice in your head you will find great resistance.
Real freedom is being conscious in your own mind. – Tara Brach
Becoming the Witness
Do not try to stop this never ending stream of thought that is like clouds racing across the sky. It can't be done. Practice what is called “witness consciousness.” Become a witness to this never ending stream of thought. In this way you learn the first essential of living a fulfilled life. Secular education doesn't teach you this essential life skill. Religion is intended to teach you but rarely does. This teaching is the realization that you are not your thoughts. If you can observe your thoughts, you can't be your thoughts.
This is a premier teaching in all wisdom schools. In Buddhism it is called detachment. In Christianity it is the instruction from the Master Jesus when he says, “Watch.” – Matthew 13:37 (KJV). He's not telling you to watch the sunset. He is telling you to watch your thoughts so that you become established in the practice of “Give no thought.” You learn to engage with the paradoxical power of silence, and commune with the Divine, who then thinks through you. This will enrich you in ways presently unimaginable.
You are not the thought. You are the awareness behind the thought. – Mooji
Begin this practice of watching your thoughts each morning for 20 minutes. The 1st 10 minutes is a kind of madhouse. This is your mind that you think you are in command of, but which simply happens as it will. This is a sacred endeavor because this witnessing is a gateway into the silence beyond thought where you begin the magical journey into the experience of being thought through. You as the finite are in communion with the Infinite.
All of man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone. – Blaise Pascal
Becoming Open to Being Thought Through
If I were to sum up the intention behind this Unfolding Creativity newsletter, it would be to ensure that you become the witness or the watcher. Beyond this witnessing of the dark cloud of thought is the blue sky of the Infinite. This is the meaning of the phrase “Out of the blue.” Creative thought arrives out of the blue of the mind that is still. You tune into Big Mind, which can then pour through you. You're open minded. You're awake in a conscious way, ready for another day of living the life that Love has designed to pour through you.
Before getting out of bed, spend 20 minutes witnessing the antics of your mind without judging and without trying to stop such antics. Simply lie in the yoga pose savasana. In time, you recognize that the first 10 minutes is usually fairly rough. There come moments of clarity and Peace of Mind. Make your mantra, “Give no thought” and begin to unfold the magic that is being open to being thought through. This is foundational to living as an unfolding creative.
Conclusion: A Morning Ritual that Awakens the Soul
Each day offers us a new threshold—an invitation to live not from habit, but from Presence. To begin your morning not in the static of unconscious thought, but in the silence where the Divine whispers. This is not a small shift. It is a revolutionary act of reclaiming the temple of your own awareness. You are not your thoughts. You are the witness. You are the space through which Presence moves.
When you choose to begin your day with conscious ritual, you step into alignment with the sacred rhythm of life itself. You move from being thought at to being thought through. You remember that the blue sky is always there—vast, clear, and waiting for your return.
Awake at dawn with a winged heart ready for another day of loving - Rumi
This Unfolding Creativity invitation is here to walk with you on this journey. It is for those who long to begin again—not just each year, but each morning. For those ready to reclaim their mornings and return to themselves. If this resonates with something deep within you, then this is your invitation. Subscribe to A Yoga Life and receive weekly reflections that root you in presence, reconnect you with soul, and realign your life with the quiet wisdom of the heart. Begin your day differently. Begin your life anew. The blue sky awaits.