Reconnecting to Your Creativity

Authenticity is a popular word these days, but what exactly does living authentically look like?  How can you break down the esoteric verbiage and bring it to life?  For me, it means living a life based on your creative zeal, on what gets you motivated, not on what your parents, partners, society, or fear has tried to dictate. Paint your life with broad strokes of passion and commitment.  Connect to that inner creative energy, that all of us are born with and let it bubble to the surface, let it breathe. Sophia Loren once said, “There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love.  When you tap into this source, you will truly have defeated age.”

Tapping into your creative energies will get rid of the doldrums and unchain you from boredom and despair.  Cast aside fear and your outer veneer, travel into the depths of your heart and discover what is lurking behind those buried emotions.  Do a sincere scan of what you want to do, rather than doing what you think is expected of you. Yes, this requires a bit of gumption, but it is the best way to shed the layers of repression.

Cultivate curiosity; human beings are innately inquisitive.  Watch a baby as it looks at a bird, a tree, a toy. From the second you were born, you had to navigate life through exploration, discovery. Recall the first time you traveled to a new place or saw a beautiful piece of art or read a book that makes you see something in a different way, those moments pique our interest, make us think and inspire creativity.

The origins of the word creative stem from the Latin word to make.  During the Renaissance, more genius artists and inventors such as Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and Patrizi described their work as something unique, different, original.  By today’s modern definition, this is creativity.  But you don’t have to be a genius to be creative. Whether you are a visual artist, an inventor, a dancer, a musician, or a seamstress, connecting to your creativity will help you live a life that is ever evolving, ever learning, ever imagining.  You’ll never stay stuck because creativity allows you to visualize and to see what is not there to make something happen.

Creativity helps your problem-solving skills, allows you to take risks.  Whether your studying acting or designing websites, cultivating a culinary career or writing poetry each requires ingenuity and a willingness to try.  Creativity gives you the courage to build tenacity and to attempt a different way of doing something.  It helps you re-negotiate to get back on that proverbial horse and ride into the sunset when you in a swamp.

Imagination and creative energy enable you to achieve your dreams and visions and to attain a goal that may have seemed impossible. Going back to college or living abroad or embarking on a new career comes from your creative capacity to envision what has not yet happened.

With the advent of corporations and big business, creativity has been shunned rather than encouraged. Schools also inadvertently squash or discourage creative thinking.  They want you to follow a curriculum or the rules, which yes to some degree we need.  Fostering your creative mind will unearth new perspectives, make you tired of the status quo.  Society often demands uniformity, but the truth is when you crush creativity, you stampede your uniqueness.  As Pablo Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist as you grow up.”  If you find that by thirty or fifty or ninety you are unhappy because you took a job out of fear, call upon your creative spirit, to free yourself from the doldrums.  It doesn’t mean that if you aren’t a painter, musician, or singer that you are not creative!  To the contrary, thriving start-up businesses are crammed with creative minded folks.

Creativity comes naturally to kids; they can be a prince or dragon in a matter of seconds, sticks become swords or a fairy’s wand.  If you have children take time to engage in a hefty dose of make-believe, not only does it afford your quality time with them it’s also a subtle way to help you understand their feelings. Engaging in play or some creative endeavor with your partner eases tensions and helps you to lighten up, to laugh, and to notice the beauty that you may have been blind to, such as the shadows of leaves as they dance in the breeze or the light of the moon on a dark evening.  When you partake in creativity you’re more connected with yourself and others.

Unpack that creativity box you abandoned in the closet and reclaim your imagination, dismantle the mundane and reclaim your birthright to being authentic, content, and yes, creative.