Leap

10 Ways to Create a Quantum Leap in Your Creative Life

What is a Quantum Leap and why would you want to create one?

By Whitney Freya | Posted 8/12/11 | Updated 4/16/23

What is a "Quantum Leap" and why would you want to create one? "Quantum" refers to the "smallest amount of a physical quantity that can exist independently." Quantum physics has observed the quality of energy that enables it to instantly move from one space to another, without a visual transition — it leaps rather than progresses.

Since at our most basic level we are made up of energy, we also can make quantum leaps — creating a shift in energy within us instantly. This instant shift can result in new wisdom, new insight, new ideas, new breakthroughs, new beliefs, and new ways of doing things.

Think about the "leaps" we have made as a society, an economy, as a global community in just the last couple of years. Our world is at one of the most pivotal points in history on so many levels, environmental, economic, social, political…and it is going to be our ability to create change, and to do it quickly, that will be the greatest positive factor in our immediate future.

This change will occur at a quantum level. It will be a shift in energy at the core of our being, how we view the world, the role we play, our inter-connectedness and emotional patterns, that will be our next "new frontier." It is the shift from "I" to "WE" and it is the shift that will open each of our minds to the awareness that there IS another way. It is this pursuit of an entirely new, or perhaps just forgotten, "way" that is at the root of creativity and its significance for each of us at this moment. This is why we were given the ability to create, so that we could step back from the "way things have always been" and move confidently into the unknown to create solutions.

A new friend, Mark Roth, recently used the term "delusional thinking" to describe an inherent element in the creative process. A scientist himself, Roth was describing the ingredients necessary for the "ah-hah" moment — or the quantum leap — that leads to the creation, the solution, the new "way."

"Delusional thinking" is where we are able to make the leap into the unknown. It is the "what if" carried to fruition in the mind and, then, into our reality. We have the ability to delude our mind into thinking something may, in fact, be possible, when our logical mind, our history or track record, would say that "it could never work." Our ability to suspend this inner critic, the logical mind, is essential to every step forward, to every creative act.

Creativity is so invaluable to each of us right now because each of us, in the near future, if not already, are going to reach a point where very little looks familiar. The landscape is changing. The economy is changing. Structures that have been in place our entire lifetimes are crumbling, shifting. It is our personal creative ability that is going to give us a lens through which we can look hopefully into the future and move forward to create a "new way" in our own lives. This transition requires many quantum leaps in how we think, how we "do" and how we believe.

Following are my Top Ten Ways to Create a Quantum Leap to prepare you, get you mentally, emotionally, and spiritually "fit" to enter into this new world. Treat these like exercises to prepare you, to open you up, for more quantum leaps.

10. Call a friend

The leap is from an awareness of your own world to an immediate leap in awareness of your friend's world, where they are, what they are doing, thinking, feeling….The moment they answer your call, you leap.

9. Smell something

Our olfactory sense is the most powerful sense. With just a sniff you can take a quantum leap to a memory of a place, person, or thing. Or the scent will simply, instantly, trigger new thoughts, another leap in your awareness.

8. Play a song from the 80's (if you are old enough to do so)

I know you get this one — the leap from busy executive, mother of three, or any stressed-out adult to a carefree teenage version of yourself. Enjoy the leap!

7. Bring home a gift to your partner, mother, friend, etc.

Watch their eyes as they make the quantum leap from the routine they were in to the surprise of an unexpected gift!

6. Plug your ears into a bilateral soundtrack

The music oscillates between your right and left headphones, taking your consciousness into the deeper recesses of your mind, your subconscious.

5. Dance

Movement creates a shift in your awareness instantly. Download a Gabrielle Roth composition and move your body. The leap from "being in your head" to being in your body is powerful.

4. Focus all your attention on just one object

Leap from "monkey mind" to laser beam attention on a flower, a tree, a flame of a candle, a color, etc.

3. Make your mark

Grab whatever paper and marking utensil you have handy and doodle. Let one mark lead to another. Don't try to draw a "thing." Just let lines, squiggles and dots come out of your pen. The quantum leap is made from left hemisphere dominant thinking to right hemisphere dominant thinking, from logic to unlimited possibilities, from fear to love, from feeling separate to feeling connected.

2. Draw YOUR world

Replace the images or symbols that have been downloaded into your mind via the media, etc. with your own images. Don't worry about not being able to draw. Think of it as handwriting — we all do it differently. Draw whatever comes to mind when you read these three phrases: A GOOD DAY, YOUR FAVORITE PLACE, IF I COULD BE DOING ANYTHING I WOULD BE….

1. Paint

The #1 way to CREATE a quantum leap is to paint! Yes, you! Buy some paints, a canvas and the whole bit. To start, just mix colors and scribble them on the canvas, like you are just testing the color. The more this CONTRASTS your routine, in other words the more of a beginner painter that you are, the more this exercise will provide the quantum leap.

Paint I believe art making is a portal to our creative power. This power has been taken from us by the product-driven, economy based values that say that art making is only valuable if you could generate money from your product. That is like only believing in the tip of the iceberg.

The reason we painted on cave walls long before we created a monetary system or a written language is because we make art to CONNECT to that "delusional" side, the side responsible for, the source of, all newness — new ideas, new ways of doing things, new processes, new patterns, new systems, new structures, and NEW solutions.

By making this connection, making this quantum leap, you are preparing yourself to better make whatever leap you will be required to make as the world progresses and the existing structures continue to shake and crumble. Don't hear this as "doomsday"! These are exciting days, full of infinite possibility. You, quantum leaper, will spring into the "new way of doing things" as gracefully as a gazelle because you will have CREATED it! Go creativity!

Whitney Freya is devoted to helping people use art making as a spiritual practice. ...