Pain pushes until vision pulls

​What is the Creative Impulse, and how does it show up in your life?

[Note: This article is based on an excerpt from my live workshop “Activating the Creative Impulse,” based on my book, where I talk about the Creative Impulse that lives inside each of us.]

Years ago, I told a friend of mine, out of the blue, that I was going to leave my job.

I turned around, wondering who said that. I realized it was me who uttered those words.

Once I recognized that this was me, my inner being, that was making this declaration…

This surge of energy and a breath of fresh air filled me.

I was invigorated and I was feeling things that I hadn’t felt for a long time. And it was just so weird.

I thought, “Oh, my God, I feel like this is what I need to do.”

And yet, even though I didn’t know where I would go, I knew that I couldn’t lead these two separate lives anymore.

My life in current job was really holding me back, and I needed to step more fully into this other way that was calling me forward.

This is what I mean by what the Creative Impulse is.

It’s that inner nudging inside of you.

There’s a yearning.

There’s something that feeling inside of you that says, I gotta change it up. I gotta do something different.

Sometimes it shows up as pain, like the pain of my stress and the pain of my sickness.
And sometimes it shows up as a creative spark.

One of my spiritual teachers, Michael Beckwith, the founder of the Agape International Spiritual Center, says this powerful quote:

“Pain pushes until vision pulls.”

Read that quote again.

“Pain pushes until vision pulls.”

Pain usually shows up as feelings of unease or dissatisfaction, where you may have been living your life, happy as a clam, and then wake up one day suddenly to realize that something feels different.

You’re feeling a call for a change.

Outside of you, it might seem like nothing has changed, but inside, something has changed.

And it’s demanding that in your life, something has to change.

Unless you deal with that inner unease or dissatisfaction that’s calling for you to change, then usually that pain grows and festers.

And just like it did with me staying in my stressful job, that festering starts to impact your health, your relationships, and your sense of your well-being.

Until you actually do something about it, this gnawing feeling continues to eat away at you.

Pain also shows up as those things that you tolerate in your life.

They’re the job or the relationship or the clients or whatever who are so-so.

They’re average, not great, but they’re not bad either. (Read my article on The Infinite Did Not Create You To Be Average.)

And then pain shows up when you decide to play small.

Or when you hide or when you know that something else is calling you forward, and you don’t do anything about it.

That’s the pain side of pain pushes because it’s pushing you. Pain is urging you to get out of where you are now.

On the other side of pain is vision.

Vision pulls you.

Vision cheers you on and encourages you to start changing it up because there’s something great for you that’s waiting here for you to explore.

Vision is your heart calling you forward, urging you to show up more fully, regardless of whether you feel ready.

That’s what the Creative Impulse is.

It’s both the pain pushing and the vision pulling inside of you, inspiring you to express more as the creative and vibrant you that you are.

What is the Creative Impulse within you wanting you to know this day?

If you're interested in purchasing the recording of the entire workshop, click here.

Abundant Blessings and Namaste.