Use Your Cravings to Boost Your Creativity

We all know what it’s like to have cravings and impulses that we can’t resist. The list of indulgences is long and familiar—from substances like alcohol, cigarettes, and food to activities like doom scrolling, binge watching, and daydreaming. 

What all these actions have in common is that they are ways we look for something outside of us to fill an emptiness we feel inside. Each time we feel that emptiness, a force we call Part X (think of this as your inner enemy or simply as your entrenched habits) whispers to us that we can fill that emptiness with one of these behaviors. 

As you’ve noticed, it doesn’t work. 

In addition to leaving you feeling physically, mentally, and emotionally spent, indulging in these false solutions also means you are not focused on the positive and uplifting things you want to do with your life. 

Many people believe if they can just summon more willpower, then they can white-knuckle their way through resisting these temptations. While willpower can be useful sometimes, the problem with this approach is it keeps the focus on the outside world as the source that’s going to fill you up when you feel empty. Perhaps willpower will help you control the impulse in the moment, but you will still be left with a gaping, empty hole inside. 

EMBRACE THE EMPTINESS

What would happen if you gave up on the idea that anything in the outside world could ever fill you up? What would it feel like to turn away from the outside world and instead look inside and pay attention to the emptiness that you’re trying to fill? 

“If you can stare into the empty void and stay calm, the nothingness will turn into somethingness that can actually fill you up inside.”

You’re probably not sure because you’ve avoided looking at it your entire life. Strangely enough, this is where the magic happens. If you can stare into the empty void and stay calm, the nothingness will turn into somethingness that can actually fill you up inside. The dark, barren, dead zone will light up with life.

The Tool to help you do this is The Black Sun. Throughout history, the sun has been a symbol of energy, creativity, warmth, life, and abundance. Since these are the qualities that are obscured when we experience the feeling of emptiness, we use the image of a sun at a moment of total eclipse. All that goodness is still there, but it’s being eclipsed. You keep trying to reveal the sun with whatever it is you tend to indulge in, but that just keeps the eclipse in place.

DEPRIVATION BECOMES CREATION

The Black Sun Tool gives you a way to encounter the emptiness you feel and transform it back into the blazing light of infinite creativity and giving. Instead of living your life trying to pull things in, it releases you from your cravings and allows you to put something meaningful out into the world. 

Here’s how it works. Let’s say you want to indulge in something but instead of acting out, you turn inside and feel the feeling of not having what you want. You see a black sun—all your brightness and creativity is obscured—and you imagine this sun rising. 

As you face the discomfort and don’t turn away from it by indulging in whatever it is Part X is telling you to do to escape these uncomfortable feelings, the eclipse passes, and the sun shines brightly again. 

“What are you going to do for the world with all that Life Force?”

What comes pouring out of you is a surge of energy, a pure, white light of infinite giving. The question then becomes: What are you going to do for the world with all that Life Force? 

Having a way to reverse the energy of deprivation and turn it into the power of creation is a potent tool. When you practice it repeatedly, you will start to look forward to your impulses. Not because you’re going to gratify them, but because you know that if you turn inside to feel the deprivation of not indulging, in under a minute you can turn that feeling into something empowering—a limitless resource for creativity, forward motion, and generosity. 

TRY THE BLACK SUN TOOL

Try it for yourself. Here’s a recording of The Black Sun Tool that takes you through the process in just 90 seconds. Download the recording and keep it handy—you’ll want to use it every time you feel the impulse to indulge.

As you practice, you’ll be able to use the Tool quickly (in a matter of seconds), without the recording, but don’t let Part X talk you out of using it. 

Using The Tools is a way of life. You encounter a problem, you use a Tool to change the way you respond to it, and you feel a little better. Two hours or two weeks or two years later, the problem comes back and you use The Tools again and you feel better again. There’s a cyclical quality to it. Each cycle has the potential to take you higher than the cycle before, so stick with it and you’ll be surprised at how much you can free yourself from your compulsions and generously give something back to the world.