Crooked Cedar Collective

What is Creativity? How does one access it? It seems as though it is this elusive light that you try to grasp with your hands, but it leaks through the cracks and dissipates faster than your hands fold together. The struggle with creative blocks is a real one, and can be a real source of frustration in everyone’s life, not just that of a “Creative”.

To me though, creativity is embedded in the gratitude of our everyday life; in the way we go about our day. It’s the way we express life that births creativity. The beautiful thing about this is that it looks different for everyone!

It can start from the beginning of your day. There is beauty in the everyday, but are you enjoying it? Are you noticing the smell of the coffee? The way the morning light makes your home feel different before you turn on artificial light. The silence before the day starts.

During the day, do you practice grounding? Really noticing your environment, the environment that has become so monotonous to us, but is full of life. Be an observer of your life. The sounds, smells, and feelings that are all synonymous with where you are, is it a calming feeling? Or is it energetic and full of life?

Deepak Chopra says, “Gratitude opens the door to … the power, the wisdom, the creativity of the universe.” 

Regardless of your beliefs, who your God is, I believe this to be true. Our brains are incredible organs, and our society spends so much time filling them with noise and nonsense. What are you doing to get outside of that? To let your creativity, your voice, through?

In our house, one way we express creativity and release stress is by turning off the day, turning up the music and dancing and being silly. Afterwards, everything that felt so important, so burdensome, is gone. It’s just us, in that moment, being totally free. That is creativity. 

So, how do we release our minds from the stress, and the what-nows, and the feeling that we constantly have to be doing something?

1. Journal – get all those thoughts out. I find my mind is more willing to relax when my to do’s aren’t bouncing around in there, and they’re safely on paper. I also find that when I write out my worries and my stresses, they get smaller. As a child I used to practice this – I would get upset, journal about it, and then come back and read it a few days later and wonder why I was so worked up about it all. Now, journaling is a way for me to access my creativity, to ask myself questions that I might not have the answers to, but one day, I’ll find it.
2. Shake it up – literally! Do something so silly. In the privacy of your home if that’s what you’re comfortable with. But do it until you stop feeling embarrassed, do it until it starts to feel comfortable and you can really enjoy it. Do it for you, and not for who might be watching. My “dancing it out” looks totally different when the boys are with me than when I’m alone. With the boys it’s funny and goofy and always makes us laugh. By myself, I really get into feeling the music – no planned movements, just going with the flow. If someone were to see it they might think I’m going crazy (and maybe I am?), but all I know is it is an excellent form of expression. 
3. Meditation – whatever that word means to you – prayer, quiet time, something constant that you enjoy where you can get into your “zone” (have you seen the movie Soul yet?! So good!!!). For me it’s all of the above. I was given a “plan” for my meditations that totally changed my outlook on meditating. I thought it was just practising quieting your mind, which is nearly impossible for me, but it’s so much more than that! If you’d like more information on the meditation that I do, please let me know and we can talk. I don’t meditate everyday in the strict sense (even though I would like to), but I find meditations in moments of my day.
4. Reach out to loved ones – create connections. Meaningful ones. Listen. Ask. Be curious. Take away the need to be seen and heard, and be that for someone else. You’ll be surprised how it comes back to you. The connections that we make and have in this life are so important. Whether there are a few meaningful ones, or many that keep us on our toes, the community that we create can either feed us, or drain us. Which one are you choosing?

All in all, creativity is hardest to find when actively searching for it, in my experience. When I needed to create (a real need that I experience), all I could do was look for inspiration elsewhere. There is nothing wrong with that – art inspires art! But creativity on my own didn’t come until my mind was settled. And that is a very new and exciting thing for me, something that I want to share with you. Hopefully that’s what you get from this space.

As always, if you would like to connect and ask questions, I’m here. I don’t have all the answers, but I promise I will help you search. I’m here for your journey, just as you’re here for mine. This journey has no real destination. It’s more about appreciating everything along the way.

If you want to dig a little deeper, these are two excellent articles:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/creativity

https://www.creativityatwork.com/what-is-the-connection-between-creativity-and-gratitude/