Reunite with your creativity

Commitment to Creativity

Your Journal Prompts for this week:

Where in my life do I get to use my creativity, or where in my life do I allow myself to be creative?

What does it look and feel like for me to be creatively fulfilled? Where do I see this in my life (if at all)?

What does it look and feel like for me to be creatively unfulfilled? Where do I see this in my life (if at all)?

Where can I make room for more creative fulfillment?

As you can probably guess by this week's topic, I finished reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert! I typically use those colorful sticky tabs to mark passages of a book I'd like to come back to, and I feel like I put a sticky note on every other page of this book. It's crazy.

Finishing this book and doing lots of my own reflection led me to share the above journaling prompts with you. I'm in the midst of examining these questions for myself, and rethinking how I work in order to make more room for that which I desire more of: creativity, curiosity, ease, magic, love, sacredness, and devotion.

I recognized something about how I operated in the past, and I'm sharing this in case you have experienced something similar. When I set aside creative work in favor of getting a "stable" job, I searched for jobs that would allow me to "use my creativity." Of course, all the companies I worked for told me how much they loved and encouraged creativity.

But inevitably I'd get into the job and realize the company had a system and a hierarchy. My role was to be of service to those above and to get the job done as they saw fit. I would do my best to bring new, creative ideas, which would often be tabled or rejected because there wasn't enough time to do anything beyond the day-to-day operations. It was not until my bosses got stuck or someone above them asked for new ideas that I would suddenly be asked to turn my creativity back on, when it had been long out of practice. It would take twice as much effort to bring it out and dust it off. And what was later used or shared would be a very watered down version of what I'd envisioned.

This is another reason why I chose to work for myself, but even as my own boss, the habit of saving creativity for later nonetheless remains. It's similar to people saying "I'll be happy when X or Y happens" but instead, I've been saying, "I want to be creative, but I'll be creative when I finish X or Y." (And you know there's always something that needs to be finished, whether it is a work project or a pile of laundry.) 

So I've decided to make this a turning point for me: I will no longer let my creativity sit until all the other work is done. 

It's not just about stopping everything I'm doing to go do a creative project, though that could certainly be a part of it. I want it to also be about infusing creativity into what I already do, rather than making it so separate. I've kept it separate out of habit, maybe even out of a need to protect it, but it doesn't have to be that way.

If this sounds anything like your own inner dialogue or experience, then I invite you to join me in making the shift from "I will be creative" to "I AM creative." Do your best to embody your creativity, to let it be a part of you in any moment. We won't be perfect, of course, but the goal is to catch this as much as we can and then take baby steps to reconnect with our creativity.

Let me know what comes of your inquiry and examination into your relationship with creativity. I always love to hear your thoughts!

With much love & gratitude,
Marcy

Practice with me anytime with the free Embodied Reading Yoga & Journaling Series or try the Honor Your Pace Yoga & Journaling Series.