Stepping into your creative genius - Kelsey Stratton

Kelsey is working on a book that discusses both conscious-consumption and how to change reality from the inside. In this episode, we discuss creativity, perception, meaning, conditioning, circumstance, and how all these come together consciously and unconsciously to create our reality. Kelsey also shared some ideas from her upcoming book: “Mood Food.” You can find Kelsey on Instagram @luscious_alchemy.

(1:32 – 2:51) The nature of reality; how our senses create reality, and how our choices, conditioning, and circumstances, in turn, influence how we perceive reality.

(4:42 – 8:25) What a trip to Thailand taught Kelsey about how we can use our creative abilities, as human beings, to create an inner fulfillment that transcends experiences, whether good or bad; how seeking to create meaning in this way, as opposed to compiling a bunch of experiences is the key to this fulfillment. (Pro-tip: Getting good at it requires a fine balance).

(8:50 – 15:22) How circumstances and conditioning create unconsciously unhealed wounds; trapped emotions and damaging inhibitions, especially as it relates to personal growth and creativity; how our conditioning creates narratives that keep us limited to certain behavioral patterns; suppressing our natural forms of expression; some techniques we can apply to dissolve these behavioral patterns.

(16:27 – 19:38) The nature of being; what is being? What is the purpose of life? Is there a true purpose? How do we integrate the fact that we don’t actually know nor are we required to do any of the things we actually do as a society, save issues dealing with direct survival? How do we interpret emotion in a world that isn’t entirely objective? What does this mean for our ability to navigate and influence our experience in life?

(19:40 – 23:14) Realms of reality; The various levels of consciousness that human beings experience, and how we can use this to grow through our pain.

(23:14 – 28:37) Alchemy; the history of yoga; how the east inspired Carl Jung’s spiritual system; how culture moves through space and time and creates rifts among us when we see its practices as being more than what they are.

(28:45 – 40:20) Kelsey shares themes from her book; how it was influenced by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs; how we can navigate the path it charts (in no particular order) to better and more aligned states of consciousness and being; both in an individual sense and at a collective level.