Timothy Long“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” – Pablo Picasso
Do you have a nagging or anxious feeling that something is missing in your life? How joyful and fulfilled do you feel? Many people don’t realize they are seeking satisfaction in ways that never really fulfill them. We all have urges toward creativity, although many of us have not learned to recognize those urges and instead channel our energy into other places that do not truly satisfy us. We may find ourselves stifling our creativity with distractions like going shopping, turning on the TV, watching a movie, surfing the internet and social media.
I have often been aware in my own life that I feel real joy and satisfaction when I create something or express myself freely. Sometimes it is when I write poems, others times when I dance, or when I draw or paint. Even when I cook, but not just the usual cooking, when I am really creating and innovating, using my creative-intuitive energy.
Just lying in bed before sleep or upon waking and making sounds and music with my own voice, experimenting, playing freely is very satisfying and deeply relaxing. Have you ever tried it? I also do this sometimes when I am having trouble meditating or I am under stress, I just hum, make sounds and sing notes at random, sometimes while moving and dancing like a crazy, happy child. Why not? Why not allow yourself such freedom? It is amazing how just a few moments of this can change your mood, shake off stress, free up your mind and body.
Often when I suggest to a client to try drawing or painting they say, “I can’t do that, I can’t draw!” This is the most common response. I always challenge it as not true. Everyone can draw. If you can move your body you can draw, paint, sing and dance. Only if you are judging yourself and measuring yourself against others can you make such a statement as “I can’t draw or dance.” This is not about doing it in a certain way or trying to be like anyone else, in fact that goes against the whole point. True creativity comes from within, is individual and authentic. It needs to be approached freely, intuitively and experimentally.
What happened to the free child in you, the freely expressive creative part of you? How did he or she get squashed? Why are you ignoring your creative free self? It is this self, if freed again that will bring you so much joy and fulfillment. There is no stress supplement, anxiety or anti-depressive medication in the world, nor special exercise, yoga or even meditation that can bring you the depth of joy and fulfillment that your innate creativity and freely expressing your heart and soul can bring to you.
We were all created in the image and likeness of God. God the Creator. I highly suggest finding the creator in yourself and giving him or her free expression. It may not be easy at first, but don’t give up. Once you free your inner creative self and give yourself freedom to express your heart and soul, you will experience a very deep satisfying joy and fulfillment, and you will satisfy a very deep need you might not know you even had.
People with an active creative practice find their health and relationships vastly improve. Blocked creative energy will create illness and havoc in people’s lives. The doctor of the future will be diagnosing blocked creative energy as one of the number one causes of physical, emotional and mental disease.
One very good book that has helped many people recover their creative self is The Artist’s Way, written by Julia Cameron.
Enjoy!