HOW TO CULTIVATE CREATIVITY
Creativity: Hang On and Go With It
5 Reminders/5 Practices
We Are All Creative Beings
By following what you love, what you find beautiful, and what you fear, you begin to individuate. There’s a perceptible shift of connecting creativity, play, and imagination to the realms of spirituality.
Creativity as a Calling
The dimensions of creativity are vast. Massive. Spiritual. Mysterious. Adding to the ongoing cultural, and therapeutic conversation of creativity, I hope to focus the discussion by remembering and inviting simplicity: the everyday act of binding creativity to our bones.
By cracking open and growing through the broken places; seeing ordinary things as strange, wild, and unfamiliar; and following the pulse of life are the clarion calls of everyday creativity. Each day, you face the truth of what needs to be laid bare, and vulnerable. The launching of a continuous creative self is the call.
You are enough. You are your witness.
The risk is to do nothing.
Cultivating Everyday Creativity
As a child, do you recall your imaginative playful energetic self reaching out? Wholly, and wildly embodied, you were natural, and impulsive, as you explored the cross currents of your essential creative being. Somewhere along the way, answering the questions of self-expression becomes replaced with the many faces of fear.
These culprits of fear, willing to play the roles of critic, squash the rolling swell, and growing power of creativity. Creativity goes underground, organizing around the core belief of not being good enough, the fear of being vulnerable, or the chronic symptoms of depression and anxiety. It can be a traumatic experience to give up one’s ability to follow the impulse, and need to be creative.
We are creative beings.
Creativity as a Question
Creativity can feel elusive, hiding in the shadows, and in plain sight. We can guess what it is, and imagine what it isn’t. What is creativity, this natural force, this symptom of being alive? Certainly, it is a quickening of bringing forth something new into the world. We generate novelty through the imperative to create. We risk stability by inviting the unexpected. We hold the tools of imagination, empathy, and honesty. We understand mystery — how the psyche, and the collective experience — transform.
We are all too familiar with the natural forces of resistance, which drag the touchstone of creativity away from our tender grasp. We forget to stand in our own light, and we forget to explore how we stand in our own shadow. We often fear these impulses to intentionally wrestle with new ideas, meeting the spontaneity of creating from the heart, in answering the question,
“Who am I?”
Creativity as a Divine Force
The endowment of creativity, the omnipotent divine universal force, as it flows through and surrounds us, is a state of wonder and reverence. It’s the longing to connect, diving deeper into the well, where {mind, body, and spirit} reside as one.
By following what you love, what you find beautiful, and what you fear, you begin to individuate. There’s a perceptible shift of connecting creativity, play, and imagination to the realms of spirituality.
And, we are the conduits.
Curiosity is a beautiful way to begin.
Creativity as a Practice
The journey begins anywhere, at any time. Everyday creativity involves a shift in perception, and behavior: identify yourself as an everyday creative, and name the subtle, ordinary, and untamed ways your innate creativity flows.
Daily acts of creativity are tiny rebellions, advocating for your right to have fun.
