What does it truly mean to trust the process?
Recently, I shared that I’m in a deep creative process with my latest endeavour…
THE CREATIVE FIELD: of art & horses
ORACLE DECK
Weaving the parallels of the creative process & journey alongside horses.
So far, I’ve got around 80 concepts that I’m actively sitting with, reflecting on, embodying, confronting. It’s a lot, but they are fascinating me with their nuances!
The guiding concept and symbol was inevitably going to be the labyrinth. It’s been something that has been in my awareness for years and has guided me through countless creative processes.
(What I didn’t expect was the image to become the logo of The Creative Field–– this labyrinth naturally resembled a hoofprint!)
What is a labyrinth?
A labyrinth is not a maze – it doesn’t try to trick you or frustrate you with dead ends and confusion. It’s a complete circuit leading you to the center, though you must trust the process to arrive and to exit.
Surrender to the path that is laid out before you.
To me, trusting the process is about following your gut, it’s about going with what feels correct in each next step. It’s like you’re being summoned, magnetized to your next position, if you begin resisting, second guessing, turning back around, things inherently will begin to get confusing and incoherent.
This is how I’ve always related to life (for better or for worse).
I had no fear, because I had no destination.
There have been very few times I’ve felt “stuck” or on the “wrong path” because I do not choose to live that way. I have always been delusionally optimistic about my vision for what “living a full life” truly meant to me.
For some years, it looked like being a trail guide riding horses by day, and wild sleepless nights chasing the high of the next stupid decision, swimming naked in a lake of stars, riding bareback and intoxicated. Every choice, setback, forward step literally lead me to picking up the newspaper article I found in a small shop while looking for a job, and in tiny print, a phone number for a workaway training horses. The next day, packing and driving 4 hours across the South Island in New Zealand, and landing in a small mountain town where I would meet my future husband.
After only knowing him less than two months, I would continue to trust the process and fly out to Scotland to live with him (and parents). Every country we traveled, every yes and no decision we made, gave us an eclectic array of experiences to add to our “life” repertoire. Ten years later, I have made a life here in Scotland.
I share this with a smile on my face, reminiscing about the ways that I didn’t question this way of living. It was the only way I would allow for myself. For all the fear people had for me about traveling to “dangerous” countries, I felt more afraid of being trapped or stuck. I needed that freedom and the choice to simply surrender to what surprises the universe had in store.
Many people called me “lucky” throughout my life– like when you drive 4 hours on a highway and the moment you pull into your campsite, your brakes completely crap out, only to meet the nicest woman who calls her husband, Papa Dan, over to have a look and he has the tools and skills to fix it that evening.
*But luck is different than trust.
Luck isn’t going out of your comfort zone and pushing your edges. It’s actually what happens when you’re in flow with life, when you’re bobbing and weaving, and riding the currents. Oftentimes, someone could think they are unlucky, but they’re actually just trying to hold onto a log when the rushing current of life is trying to get them downstream, but they have to let go! Surrender and trust. Easier said than done.
When you enter a creative process of any kind, you are surrendering to something you don’t have full control over (though you may think you do).
The creative process is never a straight path, you will inevitably hit bumps and blocks, you will question and doubt yourself (and sanity), you will probably want to throw it all away at some point and start over. There will be days of flow and days of drought.
With horses, this looks like a total understanding that the journey you are going on with them, is not one with a pure destination. There will inevitably be times of flow and ease, followed by pivot points, edges, and uncomfortable sharp turns.
TRUST THE PROCESS.
SURRENDER TO THE FLOW OF LIFE.
Follow along the creation journey of The Creative Field Oracle Deck in real time via my mailing list!
I’m completely Trusting the Process here and along for the ride!
