To clarify at the very start, this article does not offer a short term quick fix on how to be creative. What I am all about is how to get to know yourself better and improve your living for the long run. If you’re up to build a permanently stable relationship with your inner genius, keep reading.
Since I can remember I was a creative person. As I can recall I was a very creative child. And I don’t mean that my drawings were spectacular, or that I had quite some curious hobbies. I was collecting napkins and stickers, creating imaginary lives for families I would cut out of a magazine or catalog. But I also remember being carefree and creating at the moment whatever my mind would come up with. No longing for achievement, no doubts, no shame, no feeling inadequate. Maybe just fear that my childish mischief would get discovered by adults and found inappropriate.
Separation from creativity starts way before
As children, we are mostly taught the way of adults. Adults who have by mistake of their own elders been conditioned to forget the joy of creation for its own purpose, when our natural creative outlets, experiments, and curiosity were labeled with terms such as childish, frivolous, unnecessary, dangerous, unreasonable, or even stupid. When young, we humans have a tremendous sense of conscious or unconscious affection and trust for our caregivers. So much that we eventually start trusting them more than we trust ourselves.
This is where separation begins. Separation from the infinite well of possibilities, creativity, and magic that we all get born with, and that actually never, ever leaves us. It is us who leaves the joy thinking there is something more appropriate, something bigger, more important, more necessary, and safer.
A few years ago I thought of the word ‘love’ and how it has become misused in global internet communication. Love became a synonym for many superficial actions, terms, and appearances, and it seemed as everyone was using it for everything. It felt as though it’s worth started to fade. Sometime after, I thought the same way of the word ‘universe’, ‘energy’, and among others, of ‘creativity’.
What does it mean to be creative?
To be creative is to use the unique set of skills and abilities that are given to you as an individual for your own expansion. It is a virtue that separates us from other living forms on Earth, and it is a direct channel to God, the Universe, to the Source.
Being creative is not how good you are as a designer, artist, photographer, or marketer. It is how you deal with and solve problems. And by problems, I mean how you handle challenges, how you find solutions to completing tasks that occur in your life. This could be as simple as cooking a meal out of mud, or as complex as the theory of relativity. It is the same.
Creativity is the direct reflection of God in a human being, for we are born to be creators. With every thought, word, action, and lastly a habit that comes as a result of repeating those three, we literally create our own realities. This is what it means to be creative. A creator.
This virtue or ability is what we can transform into any form of art, hobby, or interest.
Life is an empty canvas
Imagine your life, or current situation you are in, or the next project or task that needs to be done as an empty canvas. You are standing right in front of it and are about to start painting. If you start thinking about the outcome, a level you need to reach or enter self-doubt, you put yourself in the mental space where creation does not come from. Creation comes from the gut, from the heart; it is the drive, the invisible force of why you want to create in the first place, and this is what needs to be satisfied in the creative process. The heart is the path even if we don’t know where we’re going, and the head is for how to get there. The heart is the tool, and head holds instructions for how to use the tool.
The thing is, you cannot be non-creative, for this is who you already are. You may have wrapped up layers of what you think you should be around yourself. And the solution is to strip it down, to be naked in front of yourself, with yourself. To tune in and listen to that inner voice that keeps finding ways of communicating with you through thoughts, ideas, dreams, symbols, nature, occasions that occur in your life, and people that you encounter with. If you don’t hear it and if you don’t pay enough attention to it, it can turn into a dis-ease or dis-comfort of any kind.
So, how to be creative?
My answer to the question How to be creative is to let go of everything that you are not. Let go of the fear of any sort, let go of doubt, let go of expectations, attachments, and outcomes. And when letting go does not work, for it may not work sometimes, keep creating despite all odds, for it is the inevitable journey of personal growth. There is no getting to it for you already are where you need to be, and so it is in every moment of your life.
This applies to life in general as much as it does to any creative process you might be in right now. Whether you are creating a business, a photo shoot, a video, a painting, a strategy.
You are a creator of your own reality in every single moment and you were meant to use your authentic set of goods for your own personal growth. You are the creator, the healer, the teacher, the student all at once.
I hope you liked this article and that it may have brought any new insights or ideas to your life experience. If so, don’t hesitate to reach out, share with your friends and connect with me on Instagram.
Love,
Marina
