CHAPTER FIVE
SURVIVAL VS. CREATION
In the last chapter, I purposely used the example of my writing to
illustrate my point about transcending the Big Three, because when you
write, you are creating words (whether on the physical page or in a digital
document). The same creativity is operating when you paint, play a musical
instrument, turn wood on a lathe, or engage in any other activity that has the
effect of breaking the bonds that the Big Three hold over you.
Why is it so hard to live in these creative moments? If we focus on an
unwanted past or a dreaded future, that means that we live mostly in stress
—in survival mode. Whether we’re obsessing over our health (the survival
of the body), paying our mortgage (the survival need for shelter from our
external environment), or not having enough time to do what we need to do
to survive, most of us are much more familiar with the addictive state of
mind we’ll call “survival” than we are with living as creators.
In my first book, I went into great detail about the difference between
living in creation versus living in survival. So for a fuller explanation of this
difference, you may want to read Chapters 8 through 11 in Evolve Your
Brain. In the pages that follow, I’m going to briefly outline the difference
between the two.
Think of life in survival mode by picturing an animal, such as a deer
contentedly grazing in the forest. Let’s assume that it is in homeostasis, in
perfect balance. But if it perceives some danger in the outside world—say, a
predator—its fight-or-flight nervous system gets turned on. This
sympathetic nervous system is part of the autonomic nervous system, which
maintains the body’s automatic functions such as digestion, temperature
regulation, blood-sugar levels, and the like. To prepare the animal to deal
with the emergency it has detected, the body is chemically altered—the
sympathetic nervous system automatically activates the adrenal glands to
mobilize enormous amounts of energy. If the deer is chased by a pack of