My day at work yesterday started out very slowly and so I sat in front of my computer to do some random, intuitive writing. As I wrote, I was thinking that creative expression was such a source of self-nurturing for me. It feels like some kind of creativity is an important part of my daily mental and emotional health.
Creativity comes in the form of writing, doing collages, painting, making music, and my intuitive way of providing counseling for my clients. Others forms of creativity include: design, architecture, poetry, song writing, playing, movement and dance, crafts, the way we do our work and even the way we parent or communicate.
How do you express your creativity? I sometimes hear people say they don't have any creativity in them. My thought, when someone says they are not creative, is that they either are not listening inward to their desires or intuitive guidance or they somewhere along the way got that creativity stifled in them. It seems to me that being creative is innate in all of us if we just tune in or let it flow through us. Do you find that to be true or not?
I participated in a very unique form of creative expression this past weekend. On Saturday I attended a 4-hour Taiko Drum workshop and had fun learning to play drums with a group of people and later do a performance. Taiko drumming comes from Japan and is a synchronized form with a group drumming. If you get an opportunity to see a performance, be sure to go and enjoy.
Creativity can come in so many forms beyond the "arts." Good parenting takes creativity. Teaching takes creativity. Being a member of a work team takes creativity. Coming up with new and innovative ideas takes creativity. Getting a ball on the green can take real creativity when you are stuck behind a tree. Communicating successfully with others can be a creative adventure. Running a business effectively takes creative problems solving.
Creativity expressed always feels good because it is something you and I desire. Even if afraid of trying, you will find with very little practice that you can discover what in you wants to be expressed and explored. Try this: I invite you to take out a pencil and blank paper and doodle, write words that come to you, play around with different media, sketch, think of words that rhyme, get up and move to music, and see what gets stirred up in you.
Even something that is totally an abstraction from what you are wanting to express can be very interesting and powerful. I saw an Art Exhibit of Mark Rothko in Los Angeles as the Museum of Modern Art and his work although simple and abstract left me standing in awe for a very long time. The ability to inspire awe in others is in you if you allow what’s within to creatively venture out into the world.