193: Curate Your Container

“The magic happens when we’ve created a container around it.”

- Nick Onken

Hello, fellow earthlings — welcome back to another episode of ONKEN RADIO (formerly NION Radio), the podcast where we explore the world of creativity, consciousness, and everything in between to help you alchemize your life to its fullest expression! 

A Creative Alchemist is someone who alchemizes their inner world to create a more creative expression of their outer world — and to do that, they have to be dedicated to living a life in full-color. In this podcast, I want to share some concepts on how to activate that Creative Alchemist that’s inside all of you. Together, we will distill complex spiritual practices so that you can deepen your creative flow and create beautiful things. 

What I’m going to share with you today is something that I’ve been practicing for many years, and I’m just now becoming aware of what it actually means for the creative process. It’s a method I call “curating your containers.”

We have so many containers in our lives — health containers, relationship containers, money containers, etc. When we’re intentional about curating those containers, they yield the best results for creative output, allowing us to live our lives in full-color and with intention. 

But first, let’s start by discussing what living life in color truly means —

Create Your Moments by Tapping into Masculine and Feminine Energies

Living with vibrance and radiance is such a huge piece of living fully and getting the most out of the human experience. I started a hashtag a few years back called #createyourmoments, and since then, I’ve been thinking a lot about what that phrase truly means. 

Life is filled with moments, but how many of those moments are creatively and intentionally crafted? When we create moments with intention, we create more moments that are meaningful, deep, and life-changing — these moments are what truly define the human experience.

But how do we experience more of these moments? How do we transcend the mundane and start creating life in a higher reality? You all know that I love to talk about masculine and feminine energy, and I think it applies to the creative process as well. We all have masculine and feminine energy within us — it’s just a matter of how it’s balanced. When we learn how to balance the masculine and feminine energies within ourselves, we become more creative and productive individuals, living life with intention.

A lot of men embody the masculine energy of “hustle, hustle, hustle.” It’s about creating with intention and making everything work together in order to achieve results. If I'm doing a photoshop for Nike, I’m going to intentionally bring in the elements that I want to bring — location, hair, makeup, etc. That’s an example of operating from a place of masculine energy. 

Feminine energy has a different flow — instead of “hustle, hustle, hustle,” it’s more about going with the magic of the moment. So after intentionally organizing the elements of the photoshoot into a container, I allow myself to feel the magic of the container that I’ve created. I tap into my feminine energy and focus my attention on what I’m creating. 

This can be applied to every aspect of life — not just photoshoots. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, illustrator, or physician, you can curate your containers by flowing between your masculine and feminine energy. It’s a balance between hustling with intention and enjoying the creative process. 

But how do we do this effectively? How do we actually apply this information to our lives? 

Three Ways to Curate Your Containers and Creative Experience

#1: Think of the Results

Before you begin the physical creative process, take some time to intentionally visualize the emotions, philosophy,