To read this inverview you also can visit: https://styxme.de/true-journey/
Wiebke Tasch from Styxme.de in Berlin interviewed me a couple of months ago. I really enjoyed to go into her questions and I could find many realizations in answering. Wiebke Tasch is an author and editor. She wrote several books where she transmits skills and insights about living a more fulfilled life. If you are interested check out her website.
Our interview:
Name: Ute Behrendt
Occupation: Psycho-spiritual inquiry coach, mentor and educator. Facilitator – Sacred Plant Medicine – Shipibo Tradition / Peru Integration Coach
Questionnaire
1. What is art for you?
Art for me is the manifestation of an inspiration, a vision, a dream, a thought or an idea.
Art brings something into the world of the senses so that it can be shared with other people. Art is brought into existence to express a dream or to inspire other people in their imagination.
Art is a kind of bridge between imagination, dream and the physically experienced world. Art connects different worlds, it is limitless and often experimental. Art is open and opens doors of imagination and perception.
Living life presents itself to me as art. A life in which one can create „artistically“ and inspired. A life flow, which one navigates in an open and curious way. One can see life as a dance, in which we are dynamic in creating and being.
We humans are multidimensional beings who can experience being beyond our physical limitations. Many people have forgotten this and live very limited lives within of a predetermined box of rules, entrenched beliefs and adopted rules.
Art of life, is the art of living, to create an individual living space and life fulfillment, in which one can expand and give own being a freedom to explore and to BE in own potential.
I do not say that „the art of living“ is a simple art.
2. Is everyone an artist in your opinion (or at least has what it takes)? What is your perspective?
That’s up to each person him or herself, what he allows him or herself to be. Is it about a concept where I want to fit in or is it about allowing self to have multidimensional experiences, experiencing the miracles as they happen? How open am I? Are you able to let go of predefined concepts? Then you are a life artist for me! Because only then you start fully to create out of your own source of being. We ourselves are the only ones who are responsable for our development and our creations in life. I like the word „artist“ in the sense of „a creating person“. In this sense, every person is an artist, at least a part in him. It gives me a playful, open and confirming feeling to see my life as my personal piece of art. Being human in itself, is a creation. From „nothingness“ into the „human body“ and then she/he creates and recreates his life. If you see it from this point of view, man has no other choice, he/she only can create.
The human brings his thoughts, ideas and conceptions into existence. He transforms his „being“ into a „something“, he manifests and creates all the time. Consciously and unconsciously.
I try to encourage or remind people that they are responsible for how they respond to life and what they create.
To create an inner free space to create consciously needs an individual clear decision and commitment.
Art and creation lies within every human being. We are creators, we have an energy of creation within us and there are infinite channels of how we channel this from within to the outside.
3. What are creations for you?
Creation can be externalized, which means it is perceptible to the outside world. Creation can also take place in the subtle realm. I can create a thought or a belief. I can also create patterns of feelings or emotions. These kinds of „inner“ creations, are the seed for manifestations in the environment and in turn give impulses in the outside, which triggers further creations. For me, creations are not necessarily linear chains of connections, they can be non-linear connections of stimuli, impulses, expression and exchange.
Likewise, it is interesting to examine from what source am I creating? What feelings, what thoughts, what intentions are bubbling in the primordial ground from which my creations come. Is something being created consciously or unconsciously? Am I creating with a purpose and purposeful intention? Or do I create as if on autopilot and unconsciously?
Am I creating something out of inner abundance? Or am I creating something out of an inner lack? These are significant differences! Creations are unlimited and go on and on. Decisive is the origin, its source!!! This is an individual responsibility at the core of each person, and for me it is important that we remind each other to stay aware as best we can of what we are “ boiling together “ and sending out of us.
4. What does creativity mean to you?
Impulse, process, receiving, sending, exchange, interaction, doing, not-doing, phase of being active, phase of leaning back, space, time, flow, intensions, unconscious and conscious participation.
Mysticism, alchemy and connecting different dimensions. The exchange and flow between subtle and material fields.
5. How do you create things?
(There are no limitations, whether it’s cooking, gardening, singing, crafting ..)
I create consciously when I have an intention. It involves navigation and it involves inspiration. My compass and my guidelines are my values and what I consider my integrity. This can be a dance, this can emerge linearly or not. Depending on what I want to create. There can be an open space, I can be more attuned to receive and then when something bundles up and becomes clear, I look for a channel to bring it outside. It is a dance between the feminine principle (trust, observe, surrender, give space) and the masculine principle (focus, purposeful focus, attentive hunter, will directed towards implementation and doing).
Consciously creating is a process in which I keep a balance in which I allow different parts to play out. There is space for a plan, structure, free flow, open space, my gut feelings and my intuition.
In the same way, we unconsciously create all the time and everywhere. Belief and emotional patterns, which we allow to be confirmed again and again on the outside. We unconsciously create what we believe deep inside. Some belief patterns often remain hidden and thus let us unconsciously create – what appears to us. For my perspective, it is our work and our responsibility to get more aware about these dynamics.
6. Where do you get your ideas from?
Mmmmhh… do I create ideas consciously all the time? Or are they also created on a deeper ground ? This also brings up the question „do we have free will“ or „do ideas and thoughts come from a deeper source which we don’t consciously control?“
This is discussed a lot and often, for me it is a mixture. Through my consciousness I navigate and learn to process useful and not useful inner material.
What pops into my head, often just pops up. Most thoughts and ideas, come faster than I can choose them. It is then up to me how I filter them, use them or let them pass.
The best creation for me in life is life itself. The healthiest flow of life and therefore the fullest and most fulfilling creations are holistic and inspiring for the inside and the outside.
My intention is to give and create from a being state and space of love and compassion. It is a space in which I want to be honest, transparent and true.
When I keep this space for myself, can be there in acceptance, meaningful creations come about for me.
In those moments, I feel connected to „the source.“
7. How do you work most creatively?
I love to be and create an undisturbed space for myself, with quiet and lots of time.
Pressure blocks my natural flow. This is just how it works for me!
A loving intention from the heart, in alignment with my being and something I want to „give“ and „share“ helps me to focus.
The start and the alignment need for me an inspiration, a deep inner urge, an inner call, which my energy is following in a natural way.
8. What do you need to be in the flow?
Trust.
To be able to let go.
The inner feeling of safety.
9. Which three people inspire you?
This changes depending on the present moment and where I am. I know many people who inspire me at different times in different situations. My friends inspire me in different moments on different occasions, that´s why they are my friends. Honestly, also my parents had or have moments when I experience a spark of inspiration.
10. What does inspiration mean to you?
Inspiration to me means being connected to a true part of myself. To feel a resonance and an excitement for something that enlightens and enjoys me.
By true part I mean when I get in touch with something deep inside me that is beyond programs, dynamics, mechanisms and belief patterns that I have learned in the course of life.
This true part in me I can only feel when learned programs make so transparent for me that I no longer identify with it.
To feel one’s natural essence, to come into contact with this, means that one is connected to source, which for me means to be able to let true inspiration flow.
We then speak of being „in-spirit“, which gives me a deeper meaning and significance.
Creations, ideas, desires from this source often give people the feeling „I would do everything for that“ or „when I am dying in bed, the thought about that gives me a warm feeling that it was absolutely worth it“. This is for me and many others the goal in life.
Inspiration for me is the engine for a fulfilled life, the spirit that guides me on the track of my true being. That spirit and energy brings me into alignment and connection with true essence.
11. What is your purpose? What are you willing to give us through your art? What is your Dharma?
The call I follow is to offer people a space for their personal healing & learning process.
It is my desire to accompany people to realize deep responsibility and power within themselves.
I love to wholeheartedly explore with people their different experiences and also to look beyond the purely psychological.
For me, psychology and spirituality are not separable. We understand our psychological patterns, we illuminate and transform them. In doing so, we create more space within ourselves and thus experience greater freedom in our lives. This in turn leads to deeper experiences of being. We experience forces and inspirations that let us experience the present moment and our own being in context with the universe in a new way. Therefore, psychology and spirituality belong together for me, however we experience it on a subjective level for us personally.
Accompanying individuals to connect with their inner power and source holds for me the potential for transformation to a more purposeful and meaningful life.
Also mentioned the most important part of the journey to experience and unfold oneself more truly is the integration into everyday life.
Consciousness is a great art, all existence is soaked and painted with it.
It is my highest interest, joy and inspiration to combine modern psychological knowledge with „ancestral healing knowledge“.
One of my greatest “ fortune “ in this context is that I have been allowed to learn and work with Shipibo shamans in the Peruvian Amazon for 6 years.
It is my art to hold space to remember that we are ONE with everything.
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