The fourteenth revolution

[Externalising the internal; the power of the voice; creativity and expression; tools; frameworks; metaphors]

There’s a big difference between thinking something and saying it out loud. Saying something aloud allows you the chance to hear it for yourself; helps you to understand what it is you are trying to say; allows you to decide if what you have said is true to yourself, or if it needs tinkering; helps you to get unwanted stuff out of your body, out of your system; assists with getting in touch with your feelings.

Saying something out aloud to someone else (someone you trust, someone who cares for you) can be even more beneficial. This allows you the extra feature of looking at someone as they react to what you have to say, giving you the chance to see the importance of what you’ve said in the expressions on their face. This in turn gives you more opportunity to know whether or not you’ve spoken a truth. This is the power of having a voice.

Other ways to externalise the internal is to write a diary or a letter, either to yourself or a part of yourself or to someone else (or a part of someone else). Or to draw or to create something that represents what’s going on inside of you.

Consciousness is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to our emotional and psychological life. We also have an unconscious mind and unconscious processes, alongside many other minds and processes, some of which are in conflict with each other. It would be unrealistic and naïve of us to think that we can get through life simply by answering the questions that we’re able to answer, while ignoring the questions that are harder to understand – let alone attempt to answer.

So, in order to become aware of our unconscious life, we’ll need to dig deep – and that’s where creative and expressive interventions come into play. Being rational and logical will only get you so far in life. Add imagination and creativity into the mix and you’ll increase your knowledge and understanding of yourself dramatically.

Creativity: to use your imagination to generate and develop new ideas; the ability to express yourself and your ideas; to look at things from a different perspective; to find new possibilities, new ways to solve problems. Robert Sternberg, a professor of human development, considers creativity to be something original and unexpected, while at the same time having some kind of value attached to it.

Expression: to make known our thoughts and our feelings.

Imagination: the capacity to create something new, something that has not existed before; to be resourceful; an active thought made by effort rather than a passive thought. Imagination can be conscious or unconscious (as in dreams), cognitive, emotional, visual, sensational. Imagination can involve reality or fantasy, or blend both.

To help us on our revolutionary journey, we will now consider which tools will go alongside our skills. Here are some examples to get you thinking.

Stationery: Pen. Pencil. Blank paper. Writing paper. Graph paper. Tracing paper. Envelope. Art materials: Paint brush. Paint. Glue. Glitter. Clay. Stencils. Mathematical equipment: Compass. Ruler. Devices: Computer. iPad. Dictaphone. Mobile phone. Books: Notebook. Journal. Dictionary. Thesaurus. Scrapbook. Self-help books. Self Detective resources. Self-development books. Personal development books. Psychological and emotional well-being books. Information: Insights. Concepts. Quotes. Case studies. Self-awareness exercises. Time & space: Time out. A break. A change of scenery. A den. A study. A retreat. A journey. A move. Music & sound: Musical instruments. Radio. Music streaming. Songs. Records. Silence. Visuals: Non-fiction films. Fiction films. Plays. Art exhibitions. Support: A friend. A family member. A counsellor/therapist. Co-counselling. A life coach. A support group. Money. Mirror. Dance and movement. Evaluations. Questionnaires. Frameworks. Metaphors.

Let’s now slow down for a moment and take a look at the last two items on the list…

The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein believed that the way language works is by creating pictures in our mind. These pictures are not only useful when we communicate with other people, but equally important when we communicate with ourselves.

Having a visual (or actual) framework in which to contain our mission(s) can help keep our focus and our structure; keep us on track and keep us keeping on. Having a place to store and record all the stuff we unearth can help us to reflect and make sense of it, help us to make insights. A framework can also allow us to be more expansive with our work. This is where metaphors can come in handy, as they allow us to be visually creative as well as practical enough to contain segmented data.

Here are some examples of frameworks, creative frameworks and metaphoric creative frameworks.

Journeying: Going on a journey. Travelling from A to B. Progressing/moving forward in some way. Create your own road map. Or your own network (based, perhaps, on an underground Tube map). Drawing your own railway track to create a landscape that suits your needs. Or design a river, a river of your life, starting at birth and continuing to the present day (or into the future).

Threads: If you have a thread of inquiry, hold onto it for as long as you can, until you get to the end of it and discover what you need to know. The thread could be about yourself or it could be your relationship with others. It could be a long thread or a short thread. It could be tangled with other threads (which you may need to untangle). Or it could come with knots that you may need to untie.

Chains: Maybe you are feeling trapped by values and beliefs, by fears, by shame and guilt, obligations and duties, by societal norms, by the control or coercion of others, or by the fact that life seems to be passing you by. Could there be something to visually represent this? Something to do with chains and the process of unchaining yourself (like Harry Houdini)?

Space: When it comes to investigating yourself, you could use Planet Earth. The land, the sea and the air all represent different parts to you, as do the weather systems, the animals, the minerals and the topology. Yet when it comes to your relationships with other people, you may see that you need another framework. So you keep yourself as Earth, and you represent the significant people in your life as other planets (or indeed suns, stars, black holes, universes, multiverses, etc.).

Here’s an incomplete list of further structures for you to consider.

A line that starts at A and goes to B. Roads. Road signs. Railway lines. Railway networks. Junctions. Tunnels. Cars. Trains. A map. A guide. A murder scene. Scaffolding. An underground map. Mind-mapping. Info-graphics. Lists. Building blocks. Lego pieces. Stickle-bricks. Buildings. Factories. Architectural plans for a building. Aerial views of regions. A town. A city. Nations. The world. Planets. Orbiting. Universe(s). Black holes. The human body. Superheroes. Animals. Farm yard. Zoo. Mythical creatures. Arcade games. Board games. Card games. Dice games. Jigsaw puzzles. Venn diagrams. Equations. Symbols. Shapes. Graphs. Hierarchies. Colours. Filing. Periodic tables. Islands. Oceans. Fish. Fishing. Deep-sea diving.