Review of 'What We Ache For' by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Aug 30, 2011
Susannah White

What We Ache For - Susannah White

Oriah Mountain Dreamer believes that creativity allows you to see the world with new eyes. She also thinks that creativity is the 'unfolding of your soul'.

Oriah Mountain Dreamer is a poet and writer who uses creativity as a spiritual tool. Her book, What We Ache For, explains how your creative work is born and how it can help you to 'see differently'. She also suggests that you sometimes need to simply 'be still' in order to discover new ideas and perspectives.

Slow Down and Pay Attention

Sometimes, you don't really see what is happening in your life. You don't notice the line of poetry that drifts across your mind. You don't fully appreciate the way that the dew shines on the grass. Creativity can encourage you to open your eyes to your surroundings and to explore your inner landscape. In order to reach this point you may also need to slow down and simply be still for a while.

Oriah Mountain Dreamer suggests that creative work is often born out of the small ideas and observations that you encounter every day. If you pay more attention to what is happening inside you and around you then ideas will arise. She writes 'Perhaps a melody line has been running through your head, or you noticed the way the light creates color around the pond at the end of the day'. Either of these things could become your starting point for creative work.

Overcoming Creative Blocks

Perhaps you feel blank and your creativity seems to be blocked? If this is the case then Oriah Mountain Dreamer's book provides various warm-up activities that might help you to 'find the end of the thread '. One of her suggestions is to close your eyes, sit quietly and then and try to picture the still, dark surface of a pond. Look deeply into the waters, as if you were sitting beside them. Once you have pictured this pond then imagine an arm rising up holding an object. This object is actually emerging from your own unconscious mind. It has arisen because you have slowed down, stopped rushing around and looked inside yourself. Such an object can provide inspiration for creative work.

Stillness

Oriah Mountain Dreamer suggests that creative work should be balanced out by empty time, without plans, tasks or scheduled events. In this time you can just sit or stand quietly watching what happens. She asks, 'Do you regularly provide for yourself a way to come to stillness, a way to touch that which is larger than you no matter what you call it ?'

Seeing Differently

Part of Oriah Mountain Dreamer's message is that slowing down and exploring stillness can help you to see things differently. She encourages you to carry a notebook and to jot down thoughts and inspirations as they arise. By capturing your observations you will be able to remember them more clearly.

She also suggests that a spirit of enquiry is helpful to your creative process. She states, 'Write down questions about the things around you.' She points out that in the shamanic teachings of the Medicine Wheel everything can be viewed from the four directions of the circle. She thinks that approaching a single theme from several different perspectives can make you aware of how you normally see things and of what you generally ignore.

Spiritual Practice

Now that you have gathered ideas for inspiration you are ready to start work. Oriah Mountain Dreamer suggests that it is best to set aside a special time for creative work. This idea reflects those explored by Julia Cameron who suggests that the morning may be the best time for such a practice.

What We Ache For encourages you to view creative work as a spiritual practice. This is why you should aim to do it at the same time every day. Oriah Mountain Dreamer explains that this will allow you 'to let go of fears about impending deadlines or worries that no one will ever be waiting or willing to receive what you are creating'. She suggests that you make your creative work part of your daily routine. It can be viewed as a form of meditation since it involves close observation and positive intention. Select your time and then arrive at the page.

The Creative Process

Now the creative process can move forwards. All you need to do is to focus on your initial idea and then 'keep your hand moving'. Another excellent book on creativity, Wild Mind by Natalie Goldberg, suggests a very similar method. Goldberg believes that if you don't keep writing or painting then you become critical too soon. In What We Ache For Oriah Mountain Dreamer writes 'keep your pen moving across the page or your brush sweeping paint across the canvas'. Begin with your image or object and write or paint whatever comes to mind. Refer to the observations, in your notebook, as necessary.

If you remember to slow down from time to time, to carry a notebook for observations and to follow these routines every day then you will soon build up a body of creative work which will enable you to reflect upon your life as it unfolds. Keep everything, even the scribbled ideas in your notebooks, because, in time, they might become part of a new project.