I have fortunately never been at a loss for a new project. Being raised in a creative home by a single mother whose conversations were always steeped in color and composition, I learned at an early age the importance and viability of living an artistic life. It is this kind of thinking that shaped my view of the world and reinforced my desires, not only to make a living as an artist, but to live life creatively. My personal challenges lay in a different area, which I will reserve for a later posting, but for now, I want to acknowledge the incredible gift that I was given, and hope to pass on the same inspired message to anyone who struggles with finding their passion.
The following article landed on my Facebook wall the other day, which was (not so coincidentally) reposted by another creative roll model from my childhood. It sums the message up so very nicely, I just had to share it.
Unlocking Your Creativity
Nothing sparks your enthusiasm as swiftly as a new passion or project; nothing is more important, in terms of your total fulfilment, as finding your creative expression; and nothing so effectively triggers a series of subsequent inspirations other than the, until then, clandestine gifts of connection (both to yourself and this crazy world around you), than the liberation unleashed when immersing yourself in a creative endeavour.
Choosing to create in any sense, be it through music, dance, painting, writing or making the best shapes in the sand (or whatever expression makes [you] happy), takes you out of your normal day to day reality and into a place where you’re communicating from the deepest part of yourself; especially if – for optimum pleasure – when the act of the creativity is its own reward, as opposed to creating for the sake of a final product.
To truly conjure something from deep in your soul, you have to truly crave and embrace it from start to finish. You can’t paint a picture unless your heart’s truly present in the process… as aside from the high chance of it being not the Mae West [best], you’d have been short-changed by the very idea of creativity – the entire conduit.
The idea is not so much about waiting for fabulous ideas to be magically bestowed upon you, but to open yourself up to the natural creativity that is available to everyone. All you need do is show up at the page/canvas/dancehall/kitchen… Let every brief entry strike the flint in your imaginative Zippo, even if at first it sparks nothing but a daydream, for dreaming in the first step in manifestation. Every manifestation, creative or otherwise, starts out as a thought. That seed may be all it takes to generate a new or rekindled passion that heals.
You don’t even have to feel creative to be creative; lift up a pen and see where the literary release takes you, or caress canvas with a paintbrush and slip into that moment where your muse sets you free…
The fundamental attraction that ignites and inspires a continual relationship with all things creative – once you make that outpour an ongoing aspect of your life – is the moment you are freely expressing. It may not happen immediately, it may not even happen at all (especially if at the time, the pursuit doesn’t suit), but the nano-second you realise you are communicating from a deeper part of yourself; sooner or later the inconsequential insight precipitates a quantum leap of inspiration that is both your muse and motivation to create more…
[Unlocking Your Creativity via Jo's Blog]
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