Creativity would be what a person might think of as the Holy Grail, that which must be sought and that which is most elusive. And, yet in the actual seeking of this thing called creativity a person becomes most creative. It is almost like the very air you breathe; there, but not seen. Air with a chemical composition and yet the only time you feel it is when the barometer rises and falls and the air becomes wind, still unseen and yet now felt with one of your senses. Air that carries the scent of a neighbors barbecue, the fragrance of flowers and the mouth watering smell of brownies baking in your mother’s oven. But, still unseen.
Creativity is like that.
You envy people who are more creative than you are. You think, “Oh, if only I could do that I, too, would be famous.” Or, you think, with envy, “Oh, some people get all the breaks.” Or, you think, “I don’t have enough education.” finding excuse after excuse as to why you don’t have any creativity, or enough creativity.
We say what you have an abundance of is fear. It far outweighs the creativity you seek at the moment and, yet, even in your fear you are exercising your creativity. If you can imagine all the different ways you are going to fail you could also imagine all the different ways you can succeed.
We would like to level the playing field so that you feel you do have a chance to do whatever it is (within reason) that you’d like to do, so that you can at least try. And, we would also like to say that in trying there is more valor than there is in having wished that you might try.
How is that you define creativity? You might begin by setting it up against yourself. What is creativity to you? Do you see creativity as an artist using the paints in front of him or her and crating a wonderful work of art that hypnotizes those who look upon it? Do you think creativity is the genius behind the photographer who frames the perfect shot of a field of flowers and a woman who stands at the edge? Do you only think of creativity as a composer who creates a beautiful or haunting piece of music or the musician who plays that music with verve and abandon?
Do you think that creativity is not of yourself and is something to be caught or tamed?
Could you now think of creativity as the process a doctor uses to puzzle through a complex set of symptoms to help a person to heal? Or as a member of the clergy who reaches out to help someone who feels they are beyond help? Can you think of creativity as a teacher who seeks to capture the attention of a class who are wont to daydream in the slow and sultry midsummer afternoons? Could you think of creativity being used by a policeman who is able to make a neighborhood feel safer just by telling them what they need to do to be safe?
Creativity is used by all of you each and every moment of your living days. You cannot help but to use it. Your job, now, is to change what you think of creativity so that it is no longer an elusive thing, but something that you exercise all the time. Your job is to make yourself feel more comfortable doing what you would like to be doing. Your job is to no longer pay so much attention to what others expect from you or how they judge you. Certainly, constructive comments are welcome and you can always tell the person offering them that you will take them under consideration, but act upon them in your own time. If they seem valid to you at that point in time use them. If not save them for another time when you will be more ready to apply them.
Sometimes people who appear to accomplish a great deal, no matter what they do, are said to be extremely creative. It is as if people think that people who do a lot are also very creative and if they were not so creative they would not accomplish as much as they do. We however, would like to put forth the idea that it is not just someone who utilizes their creativity who has it, but everyone who has creativity. The difference between someone who does a lot and someone who does not do a lot is not laziness versus a sense of industry, but instead something deeper.
Choice is what it is. If you suppose that creativity is exercised every moment of your life then there really is no difference between the person who gets a lot accomplished and the person who is a born couch potato. They are just exercising their creativity in different ways. So, the excuse of the couch potato that they have no creativity is false. They have no excuse not to be industrious.
The challenge, then, is to find a way to encourage the couch potato type of person to become more industrious.
Sometimes having a sense of competition is of advantage. This goes back to the old saying of, “Misery loves company.” If you can find a group of people doing the same thing that you are doing you can all support each other. If there is no group in your vicinity there is certainly one available on the internet and you can still experience a group like feeling this way. Within each group the competitions and contest you look for to spur yourself onward in your chosen field of interest is there. In the community of bloggers you might find people who challenge you to utilize a specific vegetable to find an appetizing new recipe. In the field of writers there is the NaNoWriMo group, the National Novel Writing Month every November, where even as we speak, our channel has joined in 2006 to write and to channel more than she has previously. Not exactly a novel, but on the momentum of energy generated by 70,000 souls feverishly writing she has committed to a body of work.
Apart from finding like-minded souls there is also the idea that you might encounter, more likely will definitely run into, a psychological problem that in some way prevents you from moving forward in your chosen field of interest to the extent that you would like to move. Think of it this way and that is doing inner growth work is not something to do only at the times that you have what might be considered an obvious psychological problem that sends you immediately to your neighborhood psychotherapist, but instead is work that each and every one of you does during the course of your life. It’s what is called maturing.
Picture this: You are quite comfortable doing what you do day in and day out; nothing rocks your boat in any way. Your existence is predictable, it is ordered, it is normal, it is ordinary. You are held to be a couch potato by all and sundry. And, you have been happy doing it. However, now the itch to build a boat has struck you. Not a huge sea faring boat, but a tiny one; a boat in a bottle.
You’ve always admired models such as that. You’ve actually collected a number of tools over the years, but you never really did anything with them. Now, the itch has struck and you want to build a boat. You’re going to need to bring the focus of your attention toward building this boat. It doesn’t just happen magically contrary to a popular belief about people who appear to be endowed with phenomenal creative ability. They would work just as hard at building a boat as you, our gentle couch potato would.
Now starts the underlying psychological resistance toward moving farther along toward having a boat on your mantle. The first thing you might encounter is a feeling of fear. Enough fear to nip all of these grand attempts in the bud. Your job is to now follow the scent of this fear to its source and understand why you have it. Experience it again. Show the fear that you are an adult now and can handle it. Whatever that fear is.
Plan on being more sensitive as you embark upon your project. Look for areas of resistance. “Oh, my back aches.” There’s no real reason for your back to be aching. It is preventing you from writing, your chosen area of interest. Why now? Isn’t that an interesting little co-inki-dink? Our channel is laughing and that, we reserve to use occasionally as an editorial aside.
Be willing to be more observant of your own reactions now. Be willing to be open to ways of investigating old wounds and fears that prevent you from moving forward in your chosen field of study and investigation. Be willing to heal. And, we would remind you that healing means you feel better and that you are able to work easily.
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