Stuck? Shift the Energy!

The painting shown below, titled Adventure, arrived on my easel after I subjected the canvas to several uninteresting starts. It was finally inspired by a principle I uncovered years ago while coaching corporate leaders. Its utility to both executives and an abstract painter suggests wider usefulness.

The principle is this: When stuck, shift the energy.

The principle recognizes that we humans have access to four kinds of energy – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual – and that when we are stuck, it is most often because we are caught in a form of energy that will not help us move forward. The most common example is “over-thinking.” I did a fair bit of that trying to make something of the painting.

Physical energy is expended when we use our bodies. It involves how and when we move, working or playing, or arranging objects in our environment. Mental energy is the activity of the mind. It shows up in ideas, evaluations, memories, plans, and ruminations. Its structure is logic and science. Emotional energy shows up in feelings. It often rushes along beneath the surface of awareness, occasionally breaking through whatever defensive crust we may have erected to suppress it. Spiritual energy arises from our beliefs about the unseen forces that shape reality and about our relationship to those forces. It concerns the divine, spirit, and soul. It is sometimes accessed through prayer or meditation, or exposure to nature or music. It is the source of our impulses to create and is most evident when we are inspired by service to others.

My approach with clients was to help them shift from whatever energy they were stuck within to a more productive energy. Here is a story to illustrate an energy shift:

A woman who, while working for a large corporation, laid the foundation to start her own business. She did a market analysis, created a business and marketing plan, and otherwise engaged in the mental gymnastics that a successful start-up normally requires. She also sorted out with friends and trusted counselors all the hopes, fears, and worries that come with such a venture. But still she hesitated. She had asked and answered questions of physical energy, such as, “How will I spend my time?” She had asked and answered questions about mental energy, such as, “What is my marketing plan?” And she had asked and answered questions of emotional energy, such as, “What fears are in my way and how might I overcome them?” Still, she was stuck. Her breakthrough came when I asked a question intended to draw out spiritual energy, “Why will this new venture be a good use of your life?” She answered that she had something to offer that could not be accomplished within the constraints of a large company. She had more to give. With that admission she realized that in immersing herself in the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of starting a new business, she had lost touch with the spirit that was at the center of her venture. Her hesitation vanished as she reclaimed her higher purpose.

When I retired from my consulting practice, I metaphorically packed away my tools, including that of shifting energy, without realizing I had done so. I never gave it a thought until I worked on the painting Adventure, which appears above. I began the painting by applying acrylic paints to the canvas with a two-inch house painting brush - prussian blue, dark red, white gesso – spraying the paint with water, letting it run and mix. It became an unappealing mess. I walked away to let it dry, unsure of what to do next, thinking it might be irredeemable.

I returned after the paint had dried and began trying to make something of what was already on the canvas. Maybe a bit of blue here, or red there, maybe a splash of white somewhere. But it was no use. Then, in a fit of utter frustration, I grabbed a pallet knife and began slashing across the canvas. Swinging my arm in long stokes, I slashed again and again. These were angry slashes. I suspect that if a box cutter had been at hand rather than a pallet knife, I would have destroyed the canvas.

When my pique was spent, I stood away from the easel to inspect what I had done. There was Adventure, and it met all of my criteria for a finished work. My frenzied scraping removed the most recent layer of paint, revealing the first layer in a series of strokes. I liked it then, and I still do.

Adventure was the result of an energy shift from mental energy – overthinking – to emotional energy; my slashing action was driven by frustration. The shift was spontaneous. That experience gave rise to a style of painting that relies on emotional energy, which I have pursued for ten years. I have learned that I do not need to reach the point of frustration to access emotional energy. There are many ways to access it; to get “in the zone.” Music is often helpful. Janice Joplin, Mississippi John Hurt, and Sting have been favorites to play as I paint. Many of my paintings in that style now hang in homes across the United States.

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P.S. If you are an artist who wants to paint more loosely, listen to Janis Joplin’s Cry Baby as you work. Crank it up!

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