“I had this story come to me and I was inspired to write it. So I sat down and worked on it for about 15 hours straight.” -my friend, telling me about his latest creative pursuit
I want to start with a few words about what I mean when I say “creativity” or “creative self.” I love this definition of creativity from Brené Brown (in her book Rising Strong):
“Creativity embeds knowledge so that it can become practice. We move what we’re learning from our heads to our hearts through our hands. We are born makers, and creativity is the ultimate act of integration- it is how we fold our experiences into our being.”
I don’t believe that “creativity,” being “creative,” or the “creative self” have anything to do with a particular skill, art, or discipline. Creativity takes many forms. As Brené so eloquently describes above, it is ANYTHING that helps you fold your experiences into your being.
This article is my latest thoughts on why it matters to connect to our creative self, and a little bit about what stands in the way.
Nearly every morning it’s the same for me. I sit down at my laptop to do my morning journaling, offloading all of the psychic toxins that have accumulated between me and my creative self since the last time I sat down. Some days, it’s a matter of a few minutes and I’m ready to go. Other days, the process takes the better part of my morning.
Today was one of the longest days.
Sitting between me and my creative self today was, “Why am I even bothering to do this work? What does it matter? This is a waste of time,” and various permutations of that same persistent doubt.
After spewing a bunch of toxic stuff onto the digital page, I started to get back in touch with myself, and in touch with an answer to “what does creativity matter?”
Here’s how it matters to me:
When I create music, even when I imagine myself creating it, I feel my whole being light up. It’s like someone plugged me into an invisible energy source. Time goes away, and it’s just me with ideas, feelings, images, dancing in the moment.
I have an undeniable knowing…that I am exactly where I’m supposed to be, doing exactly what I’m supposed to do.
And I’m writing today because, when I write about this process, I have the exact same feeling. It feels like being fully alive. It’s the best feeling.
My best days are the days when I take the time to connect to my creative self. I am totally energized, and every other part of my day is elevated. I am happier, more helpful, and more loving.
So when I ask, “why does this matter?” the answer is that the process of creativity gives me my best days. Shouldn’t that be important? I sure think so.
What is NOT important: whether the things I create are “good” or “valuable” or “marketable” or “productive.”
Much of the creative work I do is never seen or heard by anyone else, and it still has the same positive effect on me. Sometimes I share it and no one says anything about it. When I share it and it has a positive effect on someone else? The feeling is magnified tenfold.
I wish with all my heart that I could go back to my 15 year old self and tell him that he should keep creating his music and share it with people, regardless of whether he had a viable music career ahead of him.
I find myself grieving. I regret those years and what could have been. All those years of leaving my creativity in the drawer, what I grieve is that I gave up so many of my “best days.” Who cares whether anything I created would have been good? It’s all the joy, all the “best days,” that I missed.
The chance to connect to my creative self is precious to me. Every day. I don’t want to miss any more of them.
It may be that, for you, the activities that resonate in this way are not something you have thought of as creative before. I can imagine, for instance, that it might be hard to think of exercise as a creative process.
However, I think that anything that helps us clear away the “psychic toxins” of unhelpful thoughts and internal self-flagellation must surely be a fundamental part of getting in touch with our creative selves, especially if we look through the wider lens of creativity that Brené Brown offers.
I am repeating her quote here, since it so beautifully encapsulates my experience of creativity:
“Creativity embeds knowledge so that it can become practice. We move what we’re learning from our heads to our hearts through our hands. We are born makers, and creativity is the ultimate act of integration- it is how we fold our experiences into our being.”
What are the practices that get you in touch with your creativity? What are the things that would be a part of your “best day” everyday if you could wave a magic wand?
I’d love to hear from you.
Thanks for reading!
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