Argghhh! Creativity!

I saw this cartoon on Facebook a while ago and I thought of all those ‘creatives’ who go through this process.  I say creatives as some people think of themselves as creative and other’s not.  I’ve many friends who work in the creative fields and have witnessed most of them go through this painful cycle.

I used to be one of these people who said that I was not creative.  I shall never forget the day my teacher told the eight year old me when I proudly presented my picture of a seagull that maybe I shouldn’t bother to do any more paintings.  I was crushed and so was my creativity.  That comment labelled me (in my mind) as not creative for many years.

It was only when I lived in the ashram and took some art classes in using charcoal where the teacher said ‘just play with light, add light and add darkness and see what comes out of the mix’ did I get a new perspective on creativity and art.

Creativity is what we make it mean for us

Nowadays I know that we can be creative in many ways, creativity is getting into a flow of inspiration – whether it be through art, cooking, writing, singing, story telling, building something, finding solutions, in fact you can be creative in anything.

In the last few months I have been lucky enough to be part of a choir and we have been preparing for recording of a new musical.  It is such fun and not only that but when I leave and come back to computer I feel ‘in the flow’, inspired in other creative ways.

So why do we sometimes struggle as this graph depicts?  One thing is that we can be so judgemental of what we create, or how we create it.  We are taught to look at things with a critical eye.  Now it may be useful to be able to have discernment about things but when we start the creative process the over critical eye does not help.

When Walt Disney and his creative team were coming up with ideas for their wonderful animations that were so far ahead of any other studio at the time they had three ‘rooms’.  The first room was the visioning room where no critique was allowed at all.  This was where all and any ideas were allowed to flow.  How often in your creative process do you simply create and not critique?  (If you want to know the other two rooms drop me a line.)

As we create we are putting our heart out into the world, we want it to be perfect, to be beyond judgement by others and that can feel so hard to do it.  But the key is to relax into the creative process and not try to create perfection first time round.  Instead allow creativity to be a process.

This also applies if you are trying to create changes in your life.  We are often paralysed – the red bar on the graph – simply by the idea of change.  We will fight it until we reach the inevitable; life feels so bad that we have to change!  It is like being squeezed out of where you are so you have to change.  Then because you have held back for so long it makes it even harder.  The key is to take action when you hit the red bar, before you hit the panic, to pre-empt this painful type of creative process and have it be easeful instead.  Then you can find out what your heart wants and have so much more time and space to create it.

If you feel you are somewhere along the red bar and resisting creating the changes your heart wants, then let’s have a chat soon.  I can help you go through the creative process in your own time without having that looming deadline.  And it can be fun too!  You can call me on +44 (0) 203 239 6155 or drop me a line now.