The Bright Way. Diana Rowan

skill and your magic is a major piece of your puzzle. While skill is self-explanatory, magic by its nature is more mysterious. Yet you can discover and cultivate your magic deliberately. Our journey will show you the way, along with helping you elevate your skill.

       Skill and magic must come together in order to create meaningfully.

      As I got a firmer hold on how to create in the real world rather than just in my hopes and dreams, disasters stopped happening. I could handle low-key performances such as providing background music for cocktail hours. But what about the higher-pressure stuff, such as the master’s program recitals that I couldn’t avoid? Those still felt terrifying. Slogging along, I experimented with every solution that crossed my path.

      You name it, I tried it: therapy, off-label beta-blockers, yoga, Alexander Technique, the Feldenkrais Method, exposure therapy, meditation, research into the history of performance practice worldwide, sports psychology, commiserating with others in the same predicament, tricks such as picturing the audience naked, and spiritual practices of many paths and eras. Staring at the Berkeley Zen Center’s blank wall, legs numbing under my hard little cushion, I questioned if all this was actually working, meanwhile trying not to picture anything funny in that roaring silence. And over time, I found that my experiments were paying off, albeit in a two-steps-forward-one-back fashion.

       The Bright Pattern

      In my early thirties at this point, I noticed a pattern emerging from these experiments. This pattern turned out to be stunningly simple. I shouldn’t have been surprised, given that I was drawing from so many wells of wisdom across cultures and throughout time. When I was a child, my parents got rid of the television as soon as they realized we kids were becoming addicted to it. So my siblings and I took charge of our entertainment, and my parents’ wondrous library of art and history books and records was a regular port of call. In those stacks (which are still growing!), we were privy to the confluence of art and history: looking at ancient Egyptian art automatically meant learning about that culture’s philosophical practices. We learned how Ireland kept the flame alive during the Dark Ages via illuminated manuscripts. We heard Enlightenment attitudes crystallized in Mozart’s music. The Great Truths are universal, and the primacy of the creative urge is right up near the top of our human truths, as the outpouring of creativity past and present attests to. It makes complete sense that there would be a known pattern for manifesting human creativity, albeit not always widely known.

      The pattern revealed to me was this: there are simple ways to access and follow through on creativity. These simple ways are ready to break their hermetic seal so all can know them and live joyously by their truths. These truths are embedded in the Five Bright Way Steps you’ll be taking soon. While it may seem startling that reigniting your creativity and following through on it can be boiled down to a mere five steps, I’m here to assure you that many others have achieved this, and you can, too. Let me share a little more about how I came to distill down to this level of simplicity.

       Sharing the Bright Way

      Tentatively, I started to share my findings with my students. One by one, using these discoveries, they achieved performance breakthroughs to such a degree that I had to discard any belief in innate talent. I’ve witnessed too many seemingly miraculous revelations of artistry, expression, and inspiration coming out of the blue, even from supposedly hopeless cases. I’m utterly convinced that all people are creative and, further, that we must express this creativity in order to be fulfilled as human beings.

       Lessons Learned

      I remember one teenage student who always played with a staggering lack of expression, even after two years of dedicated work together. I tried my best, yet I have to admit that some part of me had given up hope. Then suddenly, one day she walked in, sat down, and played gorgeously. I was stunned by her transformation. Remorse hit me for believing there were limits to her abilities. For a brief period I debated internally whether I should continue teaching, given the immensity of my mistake.

      Pulling myself together, I swore on the spot to never again judge anyone’s level of so-called talent — and I highly recommend that you insist your mentors embrace this same perspective. From then on, I would share the message that growth is always possible and that every single person has creativity inside them, waiting to be set free. I’ve witnessed amazing turnarounds many times since that fateful day. This wasn’t a fluke; it was a revelation.

      Both personally and from the standpoint of being a teacher, I’ve experienced the massive impact mentors have on our creative lives. It is important to pause here and reflect on the mentors in your life, because they play a significant part in your creative journey. People in these sacred roles include teachers, coaches, instructors, and guides and represent intimate relationships not to be entered into lightly. You’ve seen how my mentors affected me. As you move forward on your creative path, allow me to share my recommendations for selecting your mentors so that you both flow in Sacred Reciprocity:

      1.Mentors are growth-oriented at every moment; move on immediately if you feel any type of constriction or negativity coming your way. I don’t mean constructive criticism here! Constructive criticism is both positive and necessary in order for us to break out of ruts and habits and to see past blind spots. Accurate, even somewhat bracing, feedback is absolutely fine (and often the trigger for a breakthrough!) if it is delivered with discernment and love.

      2.Mentors are highly skilled at what they teach; they demonstrate their ability to do and understand their subject.

      3.There is chemistry between you and your mentor. Trust your intuition. Mentors have such a grand impact on our creative lives that the entire skill-magic trajectory must be honored. While your mentor must be skilled, there must also be magic between you. Hold your mentorship relationships to the same high standards you would your intimate relationships.

       BRIGHT WAY ACTIVITY

       Review Your Mentors

      Review all your past and present mentors. Do they fit all three recommendations above (they’re growth-oriented, they’re highly skilled, and there’s chemistry between you)? If so, detail how they fit and what effects that had on you.

      Conversely, if they didn’t fit, what effect did that have on you? Please don’t get distressed during this activity: many of us have endured nonideal mentors, myself included. As composer and producer Emma said, “It was an enormously healing step for me to acknowledge the impact of traumatic mentors and that I actually had some creative trauma. It felt really therapeutic for my creative reclaiming to journal it out and not dismiss it.”

      Review your list, and meditate on this: you have just drafted the job description of how to be your best mentor. Relish the rise in confidence you might feel as you step into this role more and more.

      From this place of small yet mighty actions, growth mindset, and Sacred Reciprocity, it’s time for you to take the Bright Way Readiness Quiz!

       The Bright Way Readiness Quiz

      Our journey together will ask some things of you. It will ask straightforward questions to spark and guide you. More deeply, it will ask you to look inside and act on this Great Work. In the state of body-mind-spirit wisdom we’ve cultivated so far, please ask yourself these questions:

       Am I ready to lay aside old ways of seeing and doing things in order to try out this new path wholeheartedly, at least temporarily?

       Am I ready to sit in the unknown and allow the known to come forward in its own time, without rushing it?

       Am I ready to tolerate some possible confusion, even frustration, as this new way of seeing