By Whitney Freya, author of The Artist Within, A Guide to Becoming Creatively Fit
What is a “Quantum Leap” and why would you want to create one? “Quantum” refers to the “smallest amount of a physical quantity that can exist independently.” Quantum physics has observed the quality of energy that enables it to instantly move from one space to another, without a visual transition—it leaps rather than progresses. Since at our most basic level we are made up of energy, we also can make quantum leaps—creating a shift in energy within us instantly. This instant shift can result in new wisdom, new insight, new ideas, new breakthroughs, new beliefs, and new ways of doing things.
Think about the “leaps” we have made as a society, an economy, as a global community in just the last couple of years. Our world is at one of the most pivotal points in history on so many levels, environmental, economic, social, political…and it is going to be our ability to create change, and to do it quickly, that will be the greatest positive factor in our immediate future. This change will occur at a quantum level. It will be a shift in energy at the core of our being, how we view the world, the role we play, our inter-connectedness and emotional patterns, that will be our next “new frontier”. It is the shift from “I” to “WE” and it is the shift that will open each of our minds to the awareness that there IS another way. It is this pursuit of an entirely new, or perhaps just forgotten, “way” that is at the root of creativity and its significance for each of us at this moment. This is why we were given the ability to create, so that we could step back from the “way things have always been” and move confidently into the unknown to create solutions.
A new friend, Mark Roth, recently used the term “delusional thinking” to describe an inherent element in the creative process. A scientist himself, Roth was describing the ingredients necessary for the “ah-hah” moment—or the quantum leap—that leads to the creation, the solution, the new “way”. “Delusional thinking” is where we are able to make the leap into the unknown. It is the “what if” carried to fruition in the mind and, then, into our reality. We have the ability to delude our mind into thinking something may, in fact, be possible, when our logical mind, our history or track record, would say that “it could never work”. Our ability to suspend this inner critic, the logical mind, is essential to every step forward, to every creative act.
Creativity is so invaluable to each of us right now because each of us, in the near future, if not already, are going to reach a point where very little looks familiar. The landscape is changing. The economy is changing. Structures that have been in place our entire lifetimes are crumbling, shifting. It is our personal creative ability that is going to give us a lens through which we can look hopefully into the future and move forward to create a “new way” in our own lives. This transition requires many quantum leaps in how we think, how we “do” and how we believe.
In my next post I am going to sure with you the top ten ways, in my experience, that you can use to create your own Quantum Leap!