There is a musician out at Downtown Disney who's music makes me want to dance and write and feel joy.
The truth is, we are all creative beings and to be in total balance we need to have a way to express that creativity, whether it’s by profession, or on a Saturday afternoon out in the garage. The problem is, I hear far too frequently…
“Oh I don’t have a creative bone in my body.”
First, I would say – Untrue!
Second, I would say people who lack creativity, are simply suffering from not having exercised that part of themselves. It’s a sign that your sacral chakra is either shut down or out of balance, but what’s fabulous is
that you don’t have to understand the first thing about chakras to fix this.
What you have to do is be willing to look at the issue from a different point of view.
If your desire is to truly live a well-balanced, full life, then you need to make peace with creativity, not talent, just the ability and desire to create something.
I think a big part of the problem is how busy we are in life. Too often, unless we’re forced to stop and do something fun, we don’t. The other part of the equation is that our modern technology makes it far too easy to use our free time in ways that aren’t all that creative… Candy Crush, Angry Birds… Farmville at least gave us all the chance to be creative, but seemed to go unnoticed by most. I can’t tell you how many people’s “farms” I saw where they just had all their animals and crops lined up in a straight row piled on top of each other… so why were you playing that game again? I never understood that part, if you weren’t going to design a farm, what was the payoff?
Okay, so imaginary farms aside, what do you do that’s really creative?
When was the last time you let the joy or pain of your soul flow forth into something expressive and tangible? Because really that’s all creative expression is, the showing or revealing of a person’s emotion and feelings through works of art. These include paintings, writings, theater and music just for starters, don’t forget dance, hobbies, crafting, writing… the list literally goes on and on. The point is to find something you connect with, then make time for it.
Writing for me is an expression of my creativity, but so is my art, dancing, and the gardens, homes and meals I make. It’s not that difficult to find a place to express your creativity, I just think we’re so medicated in life right now that we don’t even notice it when inspiration hits. When the spark bites you.
There’s a building up the street from me, it’s not much to look at, and it’s sitting empty, but something about it speaks to me. Every time I see it, I want to create a building similar in the Sims3 and jazz it up. That’s inspiration and more often than not, I shove it aside. I don’t have time to build a house in the Sims… I’m building an empire in real life!
Right?
I know the tape. The kids need this or that. I promised to volunteer at such and such. My boss expects all these details by this time and I’m so far behind I don’t know how I’ll make it.
Look, life is crazy busy. We are under demands and stress that no other generation in recent memory has ever seen, but let’s be honest, just because the demands, expectations and responsibilities are real, doesn’t mean they take precedence over your soul.
The real challenge here is whether or not you can stand up for yourself and what’s right. Can you draw lines around your life and say the demands can come in this far, but no father? Can you carve out niches that are just for you? I say creativity is a fantastic way to try and start.
Find a craft class, a place that lets you paint pottery on your lunch break, take up ballroom dancing or go to a lecture on Mozart, whatever speaks to you. Bring the creativity into your life and be on the lookout for inspiration. It’s subtle. Maybe it’s that tug you feel every time you see the Arthur Murray billboard on your way to work, or maybe it’s that moment in the grocery store where you see the great buy on plantains and you feel an urge to buy them, not knowing what you’d do with them.
When it strikes, go with it.
Don’t talk yourself out of it.
I want you to stop saying “Don’t be silly. What would you do with plantains?”
I want you to say, “I wonder what I can create with these.” While you’re putting them in your cart!
I remember back before I ever got published, Toby Keith’s Whiskey Girl used to make me want to write a story and I thought to myself, what are you going to do with a romance novel? Good god, if I hadn’t allowed myself to follow that tiny bite of inspiration, I don’t know where I’d be right now.
You don’t have to be good at something to enjoy it and the enjoying is that part that matters. It’s the part that feeds your soul. It’s the part that will help balance out your chakras and breathe into your life something vital that you may be missing now. Inspiration is everywhere around you, you just have to learn to recognize the tugs.
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