“To be creative means to be in love with life.”
 ~Osho
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We all create, and the taste of creativity is sweet and deeply satisfying.

It might be a craft project, a piece of writing, a painting, music, a recipe, a new organization system for that messy bookcase, or any project in which you are fully immersed in what you are doing while you are doing it.

You might be so involved that you don’t notice the passage of time and look up to discover that an hour or two has passed without your awareness. You are in the flow and it feels great. That’s the creative process.

Did you know that you are channeling Source energy when you do this?

In the process of creating you are bringing the creative energy of Source through you and into whatever project you are working on. You are loving your creation into being.

The process of creating can be like eating the most delicious dessert imaginable.

Afterward, each time you think about, look at or utilize your creation you can re-experience that sweet delight because creativity is love expressed and expressing. The love continues to express and is shared with others through the energy you imbued into your creation.

“Creativity is contagious, pass it on.”
 ~Albert Einstein

When I love the process of cooking, taking my time and enjoying the chopping, the measuring, the stirring and mixing, usually the resulting meal is eaten with appreciation. Everybody seems to enjoys it more, even our pickiest grandchild will at least try what is on the plate. I believe that what they respond to without even realizing it, is the love that went into the creation.

There is a marvelous movie, Chocolat. It tells the fictional story of a woman who opens a small Chocolaterie in a  French village. She creates her chocolates lovingly, passionately, and the lives of the townspeople who eat them are affected in fascinating ways through the energy she imbues into her chocolate creations. 

“I think careful cooking is love, don't you? The loveliest thing you can cook for someone who's close to you is about as nice a valentine as you can give.”
-Julia Child

Then, there are those special cooking shows that are all about love - love of cooking, love of food, love of family and friends. The chefs actively appreciate and savor the ingredients, smelling them, admiring their texture, color and freshness. They love their dishes into being as they create them. Then they share that love with family, friends and community. I find them a delight to watch because the love is palpable.

Creating in this way isn't just about cooking. We can all create with this sweet focus and love, imbuing whatever we create with the energy of Source.  It doesn’t matter what it is that we are creating. It could be a dinner party for friends, or it could be a new morning routine. What matters is the energy and the love with which we create. 

​“A state of appreciation is pure Connection to Source where there is no perception of lack.”
-Abraham-Hicks

Have you ever received a compliment from someone and deflected it? It might have sounded like this,

A co-worker says, “That was a great presentation!” You answer, “Thanks, but I totally messed up the last part.”

Just as it is possible to deflect a compliment so that you don’t receive the good feeling it might give you, it is possible to deflect the good feelings of an evening, a day, a month, or a lifetime thereby putting a limit on your happiness.

We do it out of habit, out of training from childhood, or maybe because we think we don’t deserve to feel so good.

We do this by focusing our attention on negative thoughts, thoughts of denial, thoughts of judgment towards ourselves or others, thoughts of criticism of self or others, thoughts of what went wrong, what should have happened, all the things that should have been different.

What we accomplish when we do this is to bring ourselves back to our habitual emotional set-point that feels more comfortable.

In his book, The Big Leap, Gay Hendricks describes this behavior as hitting our Upper Limit for feeling good. Check out my post, “Is Bliss Too Scary?” for more detail about Gay Hendrick’s Upper Limit Problem and an example of how I  hit my Upper Limit for feeling good just recently.

How is it possible that feeling negative, feeling bad about yourself or others or the situation you find yourself in, could be more comfortable than feeling good?

The answer is that comfort in this case is about a familiar and seemingly safe emotional set-point.

We are used to feeling a certain way. At some point in our past, we came to associate feeling like this with safety. This became our emotional set point, our comfort zone. So, we make sure to always return to this same emotional set-point.

If we get to feeling too good, we come up with worries, judgments, criticisms, fights, arguments, and negative events to bring us down emotionally and bring us back to our set-point, all so that we will feel safe. Seems contradictory doesn’t it?

Yet we do it.

What can we do to change this?

Awareness of our Upper Limit for happiness is the first step to change. Once we become aware that we are falling into the pattern of critical and judgmental thoughts, or irritable, argumentative behavior we can choose a different focus of thought. We can choose to focus on gratitude and appreciation.

We can remind ourselves of all that we are grateful for and appreciate in whatever situation we are in.

For example, you and your spouse or friend had a wonderful day out together yesterday. Today you find yourself getting irritable and argumentative with them. 

Why? You hit your Upper Limit for happiness.

Instead of allowing the negativity to escalate, stop. Catch yourself and refocus your thoughts on the good stuff.
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Think of the enjoyment of your lunch out yesterday, the sweetness of your laughter together. Look out the window at the cloudless, blue sky and listen to the bird song drifting in through the window. Feel the goodness of your life as it is right now. Breathe in those feelings of appreciation.  
 
Regularly focusing your attention on gratitude and appreciation will reset your emotional set-point to that of positivity and feeling good, allowing happiness to be your default setting.

Appreciation is a tremendously effective tool for lifting your energy out of negativity into positivity and raising your happiness limit. Today's Spiritual Toolbox can show you how.