Chapter 7: Excessive Self-Criticism Seeks to Reduce and Restrain Natural Passion

Chapter 7 opens Part 3, Passion and Excessive Self-Criticism. In these chapters we will examine the relationship between excessive self-criticism, the part that is engaged in neutralizing the natural creative movement, neutralizing impulses, neutralizing passions, neutralizing growth, neutralizing development, and neutralizing spontaneity, and natural passion. This is a relationship we want to recognize, because most of the time we do not recognize it and we are not aware that we have excessive self-criticism that neutralizes positive passion, healthy passion, wild passion, meaningful passion, a passion that is very necessary for our lives. Only when we become familiar with this mechanism, with this relationship, and with the dictatorship that excessive self-criticism operates, can we change the balance and allow more freedom for healthy passion to exist.

We can relate to excessive self-criticism as a part of the personality whose job is exactly this. From morning to night, and even if we wake up in the middle of the night, it will immediately operate. From morning to night it is busy restraining our passion, and restraining human authenticity. It supervises, every single moment, how much freedom a person has taken for themselves to feel passion in a natural and authentic way. How much the person believes their passion, responds to it, acts according to it, and sees it as a meaningful source for inner guidance, for decisions, and for choices.

What excessive self-criticism does to a person, first and foremost, is to make them doubt their passion. It supplies them with a range of precedents and a range of explanations in order to move them away from following their passion. It makes them feel that their passion is dangerous, and that something bad will happen if they take the freedom to follow their passion, and even to feel their passion. Excessive self-criticism creates a mechanism that includes punishment and inner negative reactions that appear immediately when a person allows themselves to feel passion.

It is not by chance that different methods for releasing passion were created that begin with neutralizing excessive self-criticism. In fact, neutralizing excessive self-criticism is one of the most significant steps in order to discover natural passion, healthy passion. When we do not neutralize excessive self-criticism, when we do not pay attention to its influence, and when we live alongside it in a routine way and allow it to run our lives, a complex process develops. Passion is a natural force. It is healthy nature. It seeks to be realized in some way. Therefore, the more excessive self-criticism neutralizes natural passion, the more space is created for negative passion, passion that is connected to partial pleasure, passion that is connected to harm and to addictions.

In other words, this is not only repression of passion and the creation of a quiet, passionless state. The result of excessive self-criticism is that, even if it did not intend to do so, it pulls us into meeting, experiencing, and focusing mainly on our negative passions. Then we get entangled with them. A negative mechanism is created. We need passion, but because positive passion is blocked for us, we turn to negative passion. Following the realization of negative passion, pain appears, harm appears, damage appears, and sometimes addiction, and then this strengthens the voice of excessive self-criticism. It says, I told you. I warned you. Do not follow passion at all.

Then repression is created again, but the cycle continues. The natural force of passion rises again, because a person needs passion in any case. Therefore, in order for there to be any chance at all to know what my natural passion is, what it asks for, what it symbolizes, and where it seeks to lead me, I must focus first on recognizing excessive self-criticism and on the necessity to reduce it and neutralize it.

Because in Western culture there are many reinforcements for a mode of existence that includes excessive self-criticism, the bottom line is that many people live in alienation from their natural passion. They develop prejudices toward their passion. They learn mainly to be careful of their passions. They are afraid to feel passion, afraid to want in a big way, afraid to want in a wide way, afraid to get excited, afraid to fall in love, afraid to be carried away, afraid to lose control, and above all, afraid.

In this way a cultural ideal is created of the supposedly normal person, the supposedly logical person, the supposedly realistic person. And in the end the person does not feel passion, because supposedly it is not logical to feel passion, it is not realistic to feel passion, and certainly it is not normal to feel passion. If most people are under excessive self-criticism, most people get entangled with their negative passions and learn to fear them, and certainly they do not recognize their positive passions. Normal is determined by the majority, and therefore it has become normal not to feel positive passions. To a certain extent it has become normal to feel negative passions that lead to various addictions.

And so we find that every person has quite a few negative passions that they are addicted to. Where does this begin? It begins with the existence of excessive self-criticism that we allow to exist, without noticing its influence, and without noticing that it castrates healthy passion, natural passion, authentic passion. We allow it to exist, and then it reduces the natural passionate drive. From here the entire process continues, a process that traps the person in negative relationships, in relationships of alienation, in relationships of misunderstanding with their natural passion.

Therefore, the central message of this chapter is to recognize your excessive self-criticism. There is within you a healthy, vital, creative passion that seeks to push you toward growth, development, healing, revelation, elevation, and self-realization. It is there. It is ready. It has been ripe since always. But it is blocked. It is blocked every day, because every day excessive self-criticism is renewed.

Our task is to be aware of this criticism, aware of the doubt it creates within us, and aware of the hesitation it awakens in us in the face of healthy passion. We need to be aware of this and to change our position toward it, to challenge its excessive control, and to see that only when space is made available can passion appear. Passion will appear because it is already there, and it is waiting for space to be made for it.

Practice Questions (answer in handwriting or share in a practice group):

1. What feels “dangerous” to you about releasing your passion?

2. Which precedents in your life “strengthen” the assumption that passion can be “dangerous”?

3. Complete the sentence, “I am probably too careful with my passions because…” three times.

4. What inner feedback awakens in you when you try to realize a passion and it does not succeed?

5. What do you think will happen when the level of your excessive self-criticism around realizing passions decreases significantly?

Chapter 8: Reducing Excessive Self-Criticism Passes Through Legitimacy and Courage to Realize Passions

Chapter 8 is the second chapter in Part 3 of the book, which deals with the connection between passion and excessive self-criticism. In relation to the word excessive, it is important to say that it will almost never be too excessive to describe the degree to which excessive self-criticism restrains and interferes with a person’s ability to connect with their natural passion. This is a strong, ongoing, deep inner force that influences a person’s life far beyond what most of us are aware of.

A person learns at a very young age to be careful of themselves. To be careful of their authenticity, their uniqueness, their spontaneity. Out of a desire to adapt to the environment, to belong to it, and to receive what they interpret as the love, acceptance, or protection of the environment, they pay a heavy inner price. This price includes repression of their spontaneity, repression of their authenticity, and repression of their inner voice. Gradually, they learn to reduce themselves in order to emotionally survive within the framework in which they live.

At a later stage in life, whoever chooses can enter a healing process. A process of returning home, to their natural passion. This passion has been there since always, and fortunately it does not disappear and it does not get lost. It waits patiently for space to be made for it. The responsibility for making that space is the person’s own responsibility. This is their task. They are meant to choose the path of healing, the path of transformation, and to recognize that within them there is a healthy passion that signals to them from within, but is blocked.

When healthy passion is blocked, its place is often taken by negative passion. This is not a conscious choice, but an inner necessity. The force of passion must find for itself some channel of expression. Therefore, in this part of the book we relate to excessive self-criticism, which is the lot of every person in Western culture, as a force that prevents natural passion from being legitimate, from being present, and from being a positive, friendly, pleasant, supportive, joyful, and pleasurable part of the person’s daily life.

Chapter 8 deals with reducing excessive self-criticism through legitimacy and courage to realize passions. At its center stands one sentence: I allow myself to feel passion without limits. This is a sentence that seems simple, but when we look at it closely, we discover how difficult it is to truly connect with it, and how many fears it raises almost immediately.

What will happen if I allow myself to feel passion without limits? Will I go crazy? Will I lose control? Will I behave in an extreme way? Will I do things I will regret? These questions are a clear expression of excessive self-criticism. Usually they have no real connection to a healthy release of passion, but to the deep fear that was planted in us over the years toward the very freedom to feel passion.

Out of the habit of fearing passion, and out of repeated entanglement with negative passions, we learned to fear even the possibility of passionate freedom. We are mostly engaged in restraint. We do not notice that when we restrain our negative passions, we do this at the expense of restraining our positive passions. In this way a situation is created in which, out of lack of choice, negative passions fill the empty space. This is how healthy nature works.

If a person does not go toward the positive version of a trait within them, it is likely that they will encounter its negative version. This is a kind of painful inner reminder that signals to the person that this is not the path that is best for them. Pain, harm, and damage are signs that the current direction is not accurate.

At this stage of the journey we seek to cultivate tools that will allow us to reduce excessive self-criticism, the force that originally blocked natural passion. The purpose of these tools is to gradually release us from its control, to meet us more and more with healthy passion, and to enable a deep updating of our beliefs and opinions about passion.

Therefore I repeat and suggest that we stay with the sentence: I allow myself to feel passion without limits. Not as an external action, but as an inner stance. When legitimacy is given to a healthy trait to be present, the legitimacy itself creates an inner order. It stands opposite excessive self-criticism, which says in a sharp and arbitrary voice: You are not allowed to feel passion. It is dangerous.

Here a healthy inner competition begins to form. Opposite the constricting voice, another voice appears, an expanding voice. Even if right now it is not clear where passion will lead and how it will express itself, permission is given to it. It is my right to feel passion. It is okay to feel passion. It is good to feel passion. The expression without limits is chosen precisely because it challenges directly the excessive limits that criticism created.

In order to stand opposite excessive self-criticism, courage is required. As was said in the previous chapter, a kind of inner rebellion is required. Excessive self-criticism functions like an inner dictator, and opposite a dictator there is no change without rebellion. Just as the tyranny is excessive, so a clear opposing power is required, present, and sometimes even extreme in its intensity. Within this act of rebellion we will always find courage.

Courage is the ability to move through fear. Excessive self-criticism neutralizes our natural passion mainly through planting fear. This is an excessive fear, distorted, not proportional, not aligned with reality. It amplifies negative scripts and predicts catastrophes after an expression of passion, even when there is no real basis for this.

In order to meet this fear, courage is required. Courage to say to myself: I allow myself to feel passion without limits, and I have the courage to begin moving toward realizing my passions, even if I do not yet know how this will happen. Even if the path is not clear. At this stage we are not yet engaged in action, but in the space of consciousness. Fear operates in consciousness, avoidance operates in consciousness, and therefore healing also begins there.

When I tell myself: I allow myself to feel passion without limits, I create within me the courage needed to realize my passions. I allow courage to lead me, and to create for me inner tools for dealing with my excessive self-criticism. These are tools that can work when we give them trust and allow them to become part of us. Opposite the mistaken and excessive messages of self-criticism, new beliefs begin to be planted, and the more present they are, the more they allow natural passion to take step after step toward the beginning of its realization.

Practice Questions (answer in handwriting or share in a practice group):

1. How does it feel to say out loud, “I allow myself to feel passion without limits”?

2. What do you think will happen if you truly allow yourself to experience passion with no limits?

3. What do you think will happen when you stand with courage opposite your excessive self-criticism and firmly refuse to live by its demands regarding your passions?

4. What happens in your life when you find within you the courage to do what usually frightened you?

5. What do you think about a “passion rebellion” against excessive self-criticism? How does it feel to you?

Chapter 9: Adventurousness and Play Allow Passion to Leap Beyond Excessive Self-Criticism

Chapter 9 is the third chapter of Part 3, and it deals with a very central topic in healing passion, far more central than people usually understand at the beginning. This part deals with the connection between passion and excessive self-criticism.

We spoke about the fact that excessive self-criticism has an internalized role to restrain passion, restrain enthusiasm, restrain creativity, restrain authenticity, and restrain uniqueness. At this stage we are not asking why this is so, even though many people who do not yet know excessive self-criticism may be surprised that such a mechanism exists within them, and may ask themselves why I would restrain these good things within me. This is another discussion, a discussion that can be entered when one learns more about excessive self-criticism. Here we only want to present the phenomenon, to present the phenomenon in which there is an ongoing mechanism that limits the expression of passion.

This mechanism also limits the range of realization that we allow ourselves, that we approve for ourselves. Sometimes we can imagine, and maybe we can dream, where natural passion can take us. It is like wings that we do not allow to open and fly us to higher places that are waiting for us. And who makes sure that these wings do not open, that we do not spread wings and fly? Excessive self-criticism, which creates excessive fears, worries, and skepticism. It makes us feel uncomfortable with ourselves if we try to realize a passion and it supposedly will not succeed. This is its role. To suppress this positive stream that begins in the belly, begins in the heart, and wants to move into the unknown through adventurous creation, through expressing who I really am.

In these chapters we begin to acquire tools, both of awareness and of coping, with the role of excessive self-criticism in restraining our passion. Healing natural passion certainly passes through this place. Chapter 9 adds two very significant tools: adventurousness and play. At first we spoke about recognizing that excessive self-criticism is always there and restraining. This is a tool of awareness. We spoke about the tool of allowing myself to experience passion without limits, to create inner permission and inner legitimacy. We spoke about courage that we want to mobilize within us in order to pass through the fears planted in us by excessive self-criticism. And now we add more tools.

Adventurousness and play. Excessive self-criticism does not stand well opposite adventurousness. It does not succeed in blocking us when we allow ourselves to be adventurous. In fact, excessive self-criticism is busy preventing us from being adventurous. Try to imagine yourself inside an adventure. Many times as children we read about adventures, we see films about heroes who go out on adventures, and this excites the imagination.

It tickles our inner passion for adventure, to go on a journey that has searching, experimenting, and surprises. Yes, within that journey there are also problems and difficulties, but we cope and we find creative ways to cope. This is an adventure. And through an adventure we grow, develop, discover, experiment, and expand. A person can go out on an adventure right now. An adventure is first and foremost a state of mind, an inner experience. A person can decide that they are going out of their home right now on an adventure, meaning that they are going out into uncertainty. They go out of the house and say, I do not know when I will return, and I will decide on the way what I do. I am going to surprise myself. I am going to look for ways and places that I do not know. I am going to behave in a way I did not behave before. I am going to approach people I did not approach. All these renewals, all this daring to experiment, and the experience itself, are what build the adventure.

This is also what brings creativity into the adventure. And what does excessive self-criticism especially not like? Free creativity. So an adventurous approach, and every person has their own version of it, an adventurous approach that challenges what exists, that is willing to play with what exists, and that is willing to experiment with more and more ways in order to discover more and more possibilities, is an approach that reduces excessive self-criticism and makes space for natural passion. In this way, when we begin to go out on an adventure, a passion rises within us for another adventure, and another adventure, and another adventure, without limits, more and more. This is an expression of natural passion.

How many times do we block that part in us that says it wants more and more? We think maybe it is a childish part, an immature part, an irresponsible part, a part without limits, a part that supposedly does not understand reality. But this is the power. This is the power of passion to choose each day new opportunities for growth and development.

It says more and more. And when will it say this? When it receives the possibility to be inside an adventure. To a large extent we can say that passion is an adventure, and that adventure is a way to connect with passion. Therefore it is so important to bring adventures into life, and to notice how much the adult person usually distances themselves from adventures, closes themselves inside routine, and reduces surprises within it.

So, you want your passion? Go out to your next adventure. With less planning. With more spontaneity. Allow your heart to lead you into an adventure, and it does not matter in which direction or in which field. It can be an adventure inside the home, outside the home, in cooking, in relationships. Adventure as a quality that we are meant to activate and initiate within ourselves in order to connect with passion.

And in addition to adventure, we bring here another tool: play. It is closely connected. Adventures are very connected to play. And play, when it is open, spontaneous, and flowing, is a kind of adventure. And how much excessive self-criticism does not like that we play. What are you, a child? Why are you playing now? On the other hand, we know well that everything connected to originality, creativity, and even genius, is connected to the ability to play.

To play with what exists. To move what exists into completely new places. To enjoy play. To play within cooking. To play within a walk. To play within a conversation. To play within work. How much do I allow myself to play?

The more we play, the more a passion awakens to play more. More and more. And here the positive stream begins to operate and to be released. Both adventure and play are things that exist in us as potential that can be activated. It is not complicated. It has never been complicated. The only complication is that we created beliefs and opinions around simple things and made them seem complicated.

It is not complicated to allow adventure. It is natural. It is childlike. It is pleasure. We do not need once a year to travel far away in order to experience adventure. We can go out on an adventure today, tomorrow, now, tonight, this evening, this morning. A person needs a spark of adventure. A person needs a spark of play.

And it is not by chance that people are drawn to workshops that allow them to experience adventure and play, because somewhere passion is asking, bring me these elements so that I may awaken. The message here is that it is wonderful to go to workshops and groups and classes, but right now, in this very moment, you can decide to go out on an adventure, or to approach a certain area of life with a more adventurous and playful attitude, and you will feel, after you experience this a few times, after you move beyond your excessive and distorted self-criticism, how passion rises.

And you will allow yourself to say the phrase more and more, without shame and without fear. You will be with it. Because more and more is a foundation of health. It is the foundation of daily creativity, of a person who keeps asking, what now? What now? More and more of my healthy passion. This is the way to heal passion.

Practice Questions (answer in handwriting or share in a practice group):

1. What is the next adventure you can arrange for yourself?

2. In which areas of your life do you tend to be more adventurous?

3. In which areas of your life do you tend to be less adventurous?

4. What will happen when you bring much more play into the way you act, express yourself, and behave?

5. What will happen in your life when you become a person who is much more adventurous and much more inclined to play with reality instead of remaining with it as it is?

Chapter 10: Emotional Creativity Activates Passion and Is Nourished by It

Chapter 10 opens Part Four of the book, which focuses on the relationship between passion and creativity. Even in an initial contemplation of the word creativity, when we allow it to resonate within the spaces of imagination and experience, it is possible to sense that within the experience evoked by this word, an experience of passion is also awakened. Creativity and passion are deeply connected, and at times it is even difficult to separate between them.

The concrete and meaningful destination of natural passion is creation. Passion signals to the individual a direction worth moving toward in order to develop, renew, and grow. This direction is always creative. In this sense, passion and creativity are two elements that exist together, and one could even say that they are the same thing expressed in different forms. Passion is the force that precedes creative expression, and it is the force that drives it from within.

Because natural and healthy passion leads a person toward creative expression, and because in the public sphere there are many fears surrounding natural and free creativity, a situation has developed in which creativity is perceived as a rare, unusual, and at times even threatening trait. Fear of free creativity ultimately gives rise to fear of free passion and of natural passion.

Natural passion leads a person toward intuitive creation, emotional creation, and creation that does not necessarily have a predefined plan. At times this is creation that has an internal, hidden, wild plan, one that is willing to go wherever it may lead. This is the kind of creation that heals the individual. It is intuitive creation that leads a person to new places, and it is entirely driven by passion.

In the three chapters of this part, we will examine the relationship between passion and creation, and we will see how meaningful and relevant this connection is to the process of healing passion.

The psycho-creative space speaks consistently about emotional creativity. We connect these concepts because we view natural, spontaneous, human, and universal creativity as creativity that is driven by emotions. In fact, we see emotions as raw materials for creation. Every emotion, without exception, is a call or an invitation to transformation and creation.

Whether the emotion is positive or negative, pleasant or heavy and unwanted, all emotions are raw materials for a process of transformation. This is one of the central messages of the psycho-creative approach, which holds that everything we feel, long before we understand it, analyze it, or talk about it, is a call to transformation.

If there is anger within me, the anger is an invitation to transform it into creative expression that arises from the energy of anger. If there is sadness within me, the sadness is an invitation to transform it into creative expression that arises from sadness. This movement is meant to be continuous: emotion, creation, emotion, creation. This is how the concept of emotional creativity is born.

When the connection between emotion and creation is severed, a more intellectual form of creation emerges. This is creation that is often driven by goals such as success, aesthetics, money, recognition, or influence. In such a state, a kind of engineered form of creation arises, one that is not emotional but intellectual, and that often does not evoke pleasure, joy, vitality, or healing. This is one of the reasons many people distance themselves from creativity, because this is the image of creativity they have come to know.

Many people were not educated or trained to understand that their emotions are raw materials for creativity. Instead, they attempt to deal with their emotions primarily through conversation, often with limited success. In the psycho-creative space, the emphasis is on emotional creativity, on the direct connection between emotion and creative expression.

When emotional creativity finds expression through a variety of intuitive arts, such as intuitive painting, intuitive writing, intuitive movement, intuitive video, and more, and when freedom is given to move from the emotional space into the creative, artistic, and generative space, something very interesting occurs. Passion awakens.

Passion awakens through the movement of the brush, through the free typing of words, through the spontaneous movement of the body. It awakens and says, I was always here, I was simply waiting for the harmonic and spontaneous movement that would allow me to be expressed.

Emotional creativity is therefore a central tool in healing natural passion, because it both awakens passion and provides it with a safe and comfortable space for expression. There is something deeply moving about witnessing people engaged in intuitive creation and seeing how, through the act of creating itself, passion awakens within them.

People experience themselves as more energetic, more vital, and healthier, because in those moments they are living and breathing their passion. This is the same passion that previously did not receive broad legitimacy to exist.

When a person connects with their natural passion, they almost immediately connect with creative ideas. Passion leads them to a sense that many things suddenly feel more possible than before. A passion to move in multiple directions arises, to try, to explore, to expand. This is the expression of passion.

At times, in order to reach this experience of passion, one can begin from the opposite direction. One can begin with emotional creation itself, freeing the individual from excessive self-criticism and from intellectual and logical constraints they have imposed upon themselves, and bringing them into a state of free and spontaneous emotional creation. When this happens, creation activates natural passion, because this is how right-brain skills operate. They function in a circular manner.

In this sense, healing passion can give rise to emotional creativity, and emotional creativity can lead to the healing of passion. These two movements nourish one another.

I believe that one of the reasons people are drawn to emotional creativity and intuitive arts is the inner knowing that within creation, passion will awaken. There is nothing more intriguing, stimulating, and alive than engaging in activity that activates our passion in a protected and healthy way, within a supportive framework and with supportive boundaries.

If such a space exists, it is natural to want to enter it.

I will conclude the chapter by citing a statement I made years ago, when I first published the intuitive painting method:
The passion to paint is the greatest talent.

The very fact that a person has a passion to create is a sign that they have talent. Passion and creation are interconnected. Therefore, anyone seeking to heal passion, restore passion, or place passion at the center of their life is invited to practice emotional creativity. This is where passion celebrates, where it feels at home. This is its natural space, its language, and the place where healing passion can occur not only safely, but also easily and with pleasure.

Practice Questions (answer in handwriting or share in a practice group):

1. Have you ever created something new and healing using the energy of your anger?

2. Have you ever created something new and healing using the energy of your anxiety?

3. Can you now deeply sense your natural passion to create, expand, and change? Describe how this feels and where it is moving you at this time.

4. Have you experienced moments of awakening natural passion during creation? If yes, describe them. If not, imagine that this may happen one day and describe what you see in your imagination.

5. How do you currently feel about the expression “natural passion”? What does it awaken in you? What does it invite you to explore further within yourself and beyond?

Chapter 11: Passion Leads the Creative Course into New and Surprising Places

Chapter 11 deepens the exploration of passion and shifts the focus from creativity itself to the role passion plays as a system of inner guidance. In this chapter, passion is examined not merely as an emotional or motivational force, but as a language. A language through which the individual receives information, signals, and directions regarding their inner world and their movement in life.

In many cultural contexts, passion is perceived as something that needs to be restrained, regulated, or controlled. Passion is often framed as impulsive, childish, dangerous, or irresponsible. As a result, many people learn from an early age to mistrust their passion. They learn to silence it, suppress it, or replace it with external expectations, rational calculations, or socially acceptable goals.

However, when we observe passion from a psycho-creative perspective, a very different picture emerges. Natural passion is not chaotic. It is not random. It is not arbitrary. Rather, it is a highly sensitive internal system that responds to the individual’s emotional state, developmental needs, and readiness for growth.

Passion speaks to us continuously. It signals attraction, curiosity, excitement, and inner movement. It draws attention to directions that hold potential for expansion, healing, learning, and self-realization. In this sense, passion functions as an internal compass.

Many people are accustomed to asking themselves logical questions such as: What is the right thing to do? What is expected of me? What makes sense? What is realistic? These questions are not inherently wrong, but when they are asked in isolation from passion, they create a life that may be orderly yet emotionally disconnected.

Passion asks a different set of questions. It asks: What draws me? What excites me? What awakens energy within me? Where do I feel alive? These questions operate on a different level of consciousness. They are not analytical questions. They are experiential questions.

When passion is allowed to function as a language of guidance, the individual begins to notice patterns. Certain directions consistently evoke vitality, curiosity, and engagement, while others evoke heaviness, boredom, or contraction. Passion provides immediate feedback. It does not require lengthy analysis. It communicates through sensation, emotion, and inner movement.

This is why passion is deeply connected to the body. Passion is often felt physically before it is understood cognitively. It may appear as a sense of expansion in the chest, warmth in the body, a forward movement, or a subtle inner pull. These sensations are part of the language of passion.

When a person ignores this language repeatedly, the signals may become quieter or distorted. Passion does not disappear, but it may express itself indirectly or through frustration, restlessness, or compulsive behaviors. In such cases, passion is still speaking, but the person no longer understands the language.

One of the central aims of psycho-creative work is to help individuals relearn the language of their passion. This does not mean acting on every impulse. It means learning to listen, to recognize patterns, and to distinguish between natural passion and distorted expressions of passion that arise from suppression.

Natural passion is aligned with growth, vitality, and creativity. It leads toward experiences that expand the individual’s sense of self and capacity for life. When passion is heard and respected, it tends to organize itself. It does not spiral out of control. On the contrary, it creates coherence.

This is why healing passion is inseparable from developing trust in one’s inner guidance. The individual learns that passion is not an enemy to be fought, but a language to be understood. Over time, this understanding creates a sense of inner stability and confidence.

Instead of constantly seeking external validation or direction, the individual begins to consult their inner signals. They learn to ask: What is my passion telling me right now? Where is it pointing? What does it want me to explore, learn, or experience?

This process requires patience. It requires attention. And it requires willingness to remain present with uncertainty. Passion does not always provide a full map. Often, it provides only the next step. But when that step is taken, new information emerges.

Thus, passion functions as an ongoing dialogue between the individual and their inner world. It is not a single message, but a continuous conversation. Learning this language is a foundational skill in the psycho-creative approach, and it restores passion to its rightful place as a trusted inner guide.

Practice Questions (answer in handwriting or share in a practice group):

1. In what areas of your life do you tend to ignore or mistrust your passion?

2. How do you usually decide what to do next, through logic, external expectations, or inner attraction?

3. Can you recall a time when following your passion led you to growth or learning, even if the path was unclear at first?

4. How does your body signal passion to you? Where do you feel it most clearly?

5. What might change in your life if you began to treat passion as a legitimate source of inner guidance?

Chapter 12: The Passion for Creation as a Foundation for Growth, Development, and Healing

Chapter 12 addresses a central phenomenon in the psychology of passion: what happens when natural passion is consistently silenced, restrained, or invalidated. Passion, as a vital life force, does not simply disappear when it is suppressed. Instead, it seeks alternative paths of expression.

From a psycho-creative perspective, passion is a form of energy. Energy requires movement. When natural pathways of movement are blocked, energy is redirected. This redirection often leads to expressions of passion that are partial, distorted, or harmful.

Many forms of compulsive behavior can be understood as attempts by passion to find expression under conditions of suppression. When a person does not feel permitted to experience passion openly, creatively, and expansively, passion may appear through repetitive behaviors that offer momentary relief or stimulation, but do not lead to genuine fulfillment.

This is not a moral failure. It is not a lack of discipline or willpower. It is a natural consequence of prolonged suppression. The psyche seeks balance. When natural passion is denied, the system compensates.

This is why excessive self-criticism plays such a significant role in the distortion of passion. Self-criticism does not eliminate passion. It simply forces it into narrower and often more destructive channels. The individual may then experience shame or confusion regarding their passion, further deepening the cycle.

In this state, passion is no longer experienced as a guiding force toward growth. Instead, it is experienced as something compulsive, embarrassing, or dangerous. The person may feel controlled by passion rather than supported by it.

The psycho-creative approach does not seek to eliminate these alternative expressions of passion through force or suppression. Instead, it seeks to restore access to natural passion. When natural passion is allowed to re-enter the system, distorted expressions gradually lose their intensity.

This restoration begins with recognition. The individual learns to see their behaviors not as flaws, but as signals. Signals that something essential has been denied expression. This shift in perspective reduces shame and opens space for curiosity and compassion.

As natural passion is gradually legitimized, given space, and explored through safe and creative channels, it begins to reorganize itself. The individual experiences less inner conflict. Passion becomes less fragmented and more coherent.

This process takes time. It unfolds through repeated experiences of permission, curiosity, and exploration. Emotional creativity plays a key role here, as it offers a non-threatening space in which passion can move freely and be observed.

Over time, the individual may notice that behaviors that once felt compulsive begin to lose their grip. This does not happen because they were forcibly removed, but because they are no longer needed. Natural passion has found a healthier path.

Chapter 12 thus emphasizes a core psycho-creative principle: healing passion is not about control. It is about restoration. It is about reconnecting the individual with their natural capacity to feel passion, to explore, and to create.

When passion is restored to its rightful place, it no longer needs to shout, hide, or act through substitutes. It becomes clear, communicative, and aligned with life.

Practice Questions (answer in handwriting or share in a practice group):

1. Can you identify areas in your life where passion may be seeking alternative or indirect expression?

2. How do you usually respond when you notice a compulsive or repetitive form of passion?

3. What emotions arise when you consider the idea that suppressed passion seeks expression rather than disappearance?

4. Can you imagine offering your passion a safer and more creative space for expression? What might that look like?

5. What might change if you approached your passion with curiosity rather than judgment?

Chapter 13: Intuition Speaks Through Passion

Chapter 13 opens Part Five of the book, which focuses on the relationship between passion and intuition. This is a deep, subtle, and at times elusive relationship, because it touches one of the most difficult areas to define and understand through logical thinking.

Intuition is one of those phenomena that is almost impossible to define fully, primarily because when we attempt to define something that logic cannot grasp, we quickly encounter walls, misunderstandings, and obstacles. Logical thinking tends to place a clear sign in front of us: “I do not enter here.” “I do not understand this.” And quite often it will also say: “This does not exist.”

From the perspective of logic, if something cannot be explained, defined, or framed, and if it does not meet the criteria of proof or agreement within the physical world, then it does not truly exist. But the human being is far more than their logical mind.

Intuition is wisdom. One could say ancient wisdom, higher wisdom, infinite wisdom. It may be called spiritual wisdom, creative wisdom, emotional wisdom. In any case, it is wisdom. It is an infinite reservoir of knowledge, a reservoir that a person can access, draw upon, and enjoy. Yet in order to do so, one must be equipped with tools that are not purely logical. One must develop emotional, spiritual, and creative tools, and find a way to form a covenant of trust with one’s intuition.

Beyond that, one must find a way to practice the implementation of intuitive guidance. Only then can intuition truly be known, relied upon, and increasingly accessed over time. This is where passion enters the picture.

What helps a person connect to their infinite intuition, to the higher wisdom that exists close by yet is inaccessible through ordinary logical tools, is passion. Passion functions almost like magic, like a rule of thumb, like a door that opens into infinite and valuable information, even into hidden treasures of knowledge. This is how passion operates when it is in its clean, primary, and pure state, when it is free of fear and free of excessive interference by the logical mind.

If a person wishes to know what their intuition is offering, how it is guiding them and directing them, they must ask themselves a seemingly simple question: What am I passionate about right now? Quite often, almost miraculously, people receive intuitive answers when they follow their passion. In this sense, passion is a form of guidance that is more practical and clearer than intuition itself. It can be seen as a kind of interpretation of intuition.

The central question here is the degree to which a person is capable of believing in and trusting their passion. This ability cannot be developed all at once. It is built only through repeated practice. How much can a person believe and trust that their passion arises from a source of higher wisdom, one that seeks to advance them, support them, and help them grow toward better places than where they currently stand.

One could say that intuition is an inner capacity to perceive reality in a much broader way. At times it is experienced as the ability to see several steps ahead, almost like seeing into the future, though the future is always presented in a vague form. Intuition does not provide explanations. It does not justify itself. It does not offer reasons. It presents a recommendation to move in a certain direction, even when one does not know why it would be beneficial to go there.

This is how intuition works. It provides signposts through passion, inviting the person to move toward places they cannot yet understand logically. Only when a person develops an internal relationship of trust with their intuition, and with passion as its spokesperson, and only when they allow themselves to practice this trust in action, by taking certain risks and acting on what passion recommends, can they truly deepen their connection with intuition.

In this sense, one could say that there is a direct invitation here. If you wish to be more connected to your intuition, listen to your passion. Here a double gain emerges. In order to create more space for intuition, I must give more space to passion. And when I give more space to passion, I also heal my passion, and receive the many gifts it brings with it, such as creativity, increased self love, and a reduction of excessive self criticism, as discussed in previous chapters.

Intuition speaks through passion. It never comes through logical requests. It simply arises from within. It comes from the belly, from the body, from the hands, from the shoulders, from the legs. It comes from deep sensations. Suddenly, you know that you know. This experience is accompanied by passion. You know that you should do something, try something, enroll in a certain course, take a certain trip, or buy a particular book. You know that you know, and passion is connected to that knowing.

As long as a person maintains an unhealthy relationship with their passion, as long as they block their natural passion and replace it with destructive passions tied to addictions, they also develop a negative reputation toward passion itself. In such a state, the path to intuition is also blocked.

What is offered here is learning, and it is indeed a learning process. At first, it may not fully succeed, because the person is still drawn toward destructive passions. Yet even so, the learning is to trust passion more, and to begin experimenting. Small experiments in embodying passion through initiatives, choices, actions, calculated risks, adventure, and play.

The more a person allows themselves to follow their passion, the more an intuitive learning process opens within them. This learning flows through movement, through action, through the very act of embodying passion. In order to become someone who knows more, understands more, sees more, and arrives at insights more quickly, one must listen to their passion.

There is something magical in this path. The person receives psychological and bodily signals through passion. They are invited to move toward them. They have the choice to agree or to refuse. And if they agree to move with passion, even when it is unclear where it will lead, even when it initially appears to be a mistake or a failure, and they continue to try again and again, then their infinite wisdom begins to unfold.

This wisdom reveals itself through movement. It clarifies itself gradually. In hindsight, the logical mind also joins in, connects the dots, reaches new understandings, and develops. But contrary to common assumptions about learning, this journey does not begin with thinking. It begins with listening to passion.

Before I think, before I calculate, before I attempt to connect the dots, I must move with passion. I must act through it. And through movement, action, play, and experimentation that arise from trust in passion, knowing arrives, knowledge arrives, intuition arrives, and wisdom arrives.

For all these reasons, it is deeply worthwhile to continue moving along the path of healing passion.

Practice Questions (answer in handwriting or share in a practice group):

1. Do you feel that sometimes your passion “speaks” to you and tries to tell you something?

2. Can you recall a situation in which moving in the direction of your passion revealed things you would not have discovered otherwise?

3. At this very moment, try to trace one central passion that is encouraging you to step into a specific adventure. Do you recognize it and its voice?

4. What do you think might happen if you follow that voice in the near future?

5. What do you understand today, that you did not understand in the past, about your passion and your intuition?

Chapter 14: The Passion for Change as a Marker of Intuitive Messages

Chapter 14 is the second chapter of Part Five, which continues to explore the relationship between passion and intuition. In the previous chapter, we established that there is a deep connection between passion and intuition, and that passion often functions as a call to action. It is a call to movement, to initiative, to adventure, arising from intuitive knowledge about where it is beneficial for a person to go.

Intuition delivers knowledge into passion, and passion translates that knowledge into guidance for action. At this point, a very significant crossroads appears in a person’s journey. The question becomes whether the person is willing to step into an adventure guided by passion, and thereby allow themselves to see, experience, and recognize the knowledge that intuition seeks to offer.

At this crossroads, the person has a choice. They may agree to move into the unknown, even without clear explanations. Or they may choose not to. They may hesitate, fear, or delay themselves. This is a legitimate choice. It is entirely acceptable for a person to decide not to embark on an intuitive adventure at a given moment, because at that time they may not feel they possess the emotional resources required.

However, when a person does choose to follow passion and intuition, they provide themselves with a deep path for healing passion. From there, the relationship with intuition strengthens and expands over time, as practice deepens and trust grows.

Eventually, the person begins to ask themselves, sometimes daily and sometimes multiple times a day, a simple yet profound question: What now? Where is my passion guiding me now?

This is where we aim to arrive. At a point where this question becomes habitual. Where the person recognizes the importance of continually observing their state of passion, their emotional condition, and their capacity to embody what passion is guiding them toward in the present moment.

When a person chooses to live this way, they gradually become more creative and emotionally healthier. They reduce excessive self criticism, increase self love, and experience a growing sense of meaning in life. This happens because they discover more and more layers of their authentic self, layers that manifest through listening to passion.

Here we add an especially important dimension: passion for change. Passion, in its pure and fearless state, is always ultimately a passion for change.

The beauty of passion as a desire for change lies in its ability to help a person know themselves more deeply. A person is constantly changing. This is a universal truth. We are always in motion. The question is not whether change occurs, but whether we join it, experience it, and participate in guiding it.

When a person resists change, it still happens, but it is experienced as forced, surprising, or threatening. Human reality is inherently dynamic. Thus, passion for change does not necessarily imply dramatic upheavals or radical transformations.

Rather, it describes a way of life characterized by continuous renewal, creativity, and movement, reflecting what is already occurring within a person, even without conscious awareness.

When a person connects with their passion for change, they experience an ongoing call for renewal. This call provides mental energy that heals emotional stagnation and shifts the person from stuckness into motion.

In emotional transformation, which will be explored in Part Six, passion plays a central role. Transformation means moving a person from the illusion of being stuck into the realization that they are capable of renewal, creativity, and growth.

Passion conveys intuitive messages that guide this movement. Intuition sees beyond what the logical mind can grasp and seeks to share this knowledge. Passion becomes the channel through which these messages are delivered.

Practice Questions (answer in handwriting or share in a practice group):

1. What is the most urgent change you feel a strong inner pull to make in the coming month?

2. What is the most meaningful change, in your eyes, that you would like to make over the coming year?

3. What is your response to the idea of a day that includes at least five changes? How do you imagine that would feel for you?

4. What is your response to the idea of a day that includes at least twenty changes? Do you feel you could handle this and allow it to happen?

5. In which area of your life do you most clearly identify fear or resistance toward change? What do you believe is the reason for this?

Chapter 15: Passion Is a Form of Knowing That Must Be Learned to Be Trusted

Chapter Fifteen closes Part Five, which explores the relationship between passion and intuition. In this part, we have attempted to gradually build a new understanding, a new language, around the way human beings receive inner guidance, knowledge, and direction for their lives.

In Chapter Thirteen, we focused on the idea that intuition speaks through passion, and that in order to receive guidance, direction, and inner signposts from intuition, a person needs their passion. Intuition itself speaks a language that the ordinary logical mind finds difficult to understand. Passion, however, already translates intuitive messages into a more practical, more tangible language, one that allows a person to begin acting, even if they still do not understand why.

In Chapter Fourteen, we expanded this understanding and spoke about passion for change as a marker of intuitive messages. Passion, in many ways, pushes a person toward the next change, and the change after that. It does not allow a person to remain static for long. A way of life in which a person follows passion toward the next change, again and again, is often a life that is easier, more flowing, and more productive. At the same time, for someone accustomed to excessive control over their life, for someone accustomed to knowing in advance, understanding in advance, and planning in advance, such a way of life can sound threatening, confusing, and even impossible.

Chapter Fifteen seeks to touch the heart of the matter. Passion is a form of knowing. Intuition is knowing something without being able to explain it. Intuition is knowledge. Passion reflects this knowing, and it does so in an experiential, bodily, emotional, and sometimes spiritual way. Yet this knowing is of no use to a person if they do not learn to trust it. In order to make use of passion, a person must learn trust.

A person has no absolute tools to ensure that the guidance of passion is always correct, precise, or worthwhile according to the logical terms they are familiar with. There will be no proof in advance. There will be no complete explanations. There will be no certainty. Here, a very fundamental choice stands before a person. Either one chooses to trust their passion, or one chooses not to trust it. This is not a question of right or wrong. It is a basic human choice.

This choice is part of the agreement of being human. Within this agreement lies the possibility for development, expansion, upgrading, change, and movement toward a higher version of oneself. But this possibility does not realize itself automatically. It depends on a person’s ability to trust their passion more and more, and to learn how to trust it in practice. Trusting passion does not consist of an inner statement such as “I trust my passion.” Real trust is tested in the ability to take action following the guidance of passion.

Such action will always involve a certain degree of uncertainty. It will take a person into an area of perceived risk, or at least into a space of not knowing where this leads. There is an element of adventure in this. There is an agreement not to know. There is an agreement to meet the possibility of mistake, failure, and embarrassment.

In such a state, a person must learn to trust their guide, and that guide is passion. When a person follows a guide, they do so because they trust them. They agree to allow the guide to lead them to places they wish to reach, even though they do not yet have the tools, knowledge, or experience to get there on their own. Without trust, this relationship cannot exist.

Thus, an ongoing relationship is formed between the person and their passion. A relationship that must be nurtured, deepened, and expanded on a regular basis. To what extent am I able to believe that my passion works for my benefit. And to what extent, from this belief, am I willing to move in its direction and take risks in relation to where it is leading me.

It is important to say this honestly. There will always be risk involved. And sometimes, from the limited and logical point of view of the person, it will not succeed. And even then, the learning is to continue exploring the movement that follows passion, even when it initially appears as a mistake or a failure.

Here lies a deep lesson that goes beyond the topics of passion and intuition. This is a lesson about the relationship between a person and the higher parts within them, and some would also say about the relationship between a person and their God. To what extent do I trust that I am on the right path. To what extent do I trust when inner signals arise asking me to change direction, to challenge what exists, to touch something I never imagined I would touch.

Do I trust this inner impulse that asks me to rise and change habits, choices, and ways of life that until now formed the foundation of my existence. This is the heart of the matter. A person cannot be intuitive without this emotional and spiritual dimension of trust.

Therefore, someone who relies excessively on their logical mind will find it harder to connect to their intuition, at least at the beginning of the journey. They will find it difficult to follow their passion, because doing so requires trust, an adventurous state of mind, and a willingness to take risks. It also requires a willingness to make mistakes and to fail.

If a person seeks to move only in safe ways, only based on what has already succeeded in the past, it will be very difficult for them to discover their passion, and through it, their intuition. In contrast, one who repeatedly practices movement following passion, and accumulates experiences of development, transformation, healing, joy, creativity, and realization, gradually learns, even on the logical level, that it is worthwhile to follow passion.

Trust in passion grows through experience. The more a person experiences, the more they become a friend of their passion, the more they learn to see it as the interpreter and the one who brings their intuition into the world. And still, even then, the agreement remains the same. The next step that passion points toward will always be a step of renewal toward a place that is not yet sufficiently familiar.

This is the beauty. This is the excitement. And this is also the challenge. Here lies the point of human development and transformation. The willingness to move even when there is uncertainty, even when there is risk, even when the possibility exists of making a mistake, failing, or feeling embarrassment.

This experience does not disappear with time. That same excitement, that same sense of adventure, will always accompany passion. It will always be the next step, the next threshold, the next leap. Therefore, it can be said that passion is a form of knowing. A knowing that must be learned to be trusted.

And there is no shortcut to this learning. It is acquired through practice. Through repetition. Through another leap, another risk, another adventure. Gradually, it becomes a habit, and then a way of life. And thus, and only thus, does a person heal their passion.

Practice Questions (answer in handwriting or share in a practice group):

1. Give an example of a situation in which you trusted your intuition “with your eyes closed.” How does it feel to remember this?

2. Which passion within you is present, alive, and felt, yet you still find it difficult to fully trust?

3. How do you feel about the expressions “trust,” “to rely on,” and “to follow”?

4. Give an example of something you know deeply, “in your bones,” without doubt, yet cannot explain or prove.

5. How does this experience of deep and meaningful knowing feel, knowing something without the ability to explain or define it? Describe the general sensation that accompanies this experience.