Creativity takes time and nourishing in order to develop it.
The trouble is that so few people know what steps to take to unlock the journey of self discovery.
They feel that life is a scam due to fear of criticism and negative self talk.
Recently, I discovered a book by Julia Cameron on how to bring back the magic called: "The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity". The book contains a 12 week plan to bring back your creative self.
The book suggests that creativity is connected to inspiration and that so often, people are not inspired about their daily work.
Rather, some poor souls see their job as a means to an end rather then a career that is a fulfilment of that life.
The book infers that we need to have a metanoia (a complete turn around) of our thought processes and our actions in order to release our creative talents.
We need to become creatively well-rounded through expanding our interests.
The expansion of our interests can occur through developing our curiousity.
So...How do we reengage our creativity?
According to Ms. Cameron, we need to get over our fear of success or failure, be more confident, and release past failures.
The ancient Greeks had a wonderful phrase that said: "Know thyself". It was written in order to get us to rethink the opinions of the few real or imagined critics and decide for ourselves who and what we are.
One of the strongest weapons against these internal or external critics is to live through example. The books suggests that we need to write a daily journal using a stream of consciousness approach through writing whatever comes to mind without self-censorship.
Through writing, one will clear away the pebbles in our thinking and what will remain will be pure gold of self-knowledge and discovery.
Meditation is also essential to lowering stress and realizing who we really are. With self-knowledge comes personal power and confidence. With confidence comes effort and with effort comes creativity.
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The effort, of course, is in taking the journey and going through Julia Cameron's 12 step program as laid out in her book.
The Artist's Way suggests that you need to regularly take yourself out on what Julia Cameron calls "artist dates". The object of these dates is to go out, by yourself, to a place where you can redevelop your "play instinct". Locations could include an old movie, an art gallery, an aquarium, etc.
Below is a link to more location ideas. Don't go until you have finished this article.
In John Grey's book "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus," the author suggests that women, in times of need or comfort, should go to their inner well for rejuvenation.
As individuals who want to stimulate our creativity, we also need to return to our well through developing our curiosity and focus on life and those around us.
We need to surround ourselves with stimulating imagery, positive experiences, and, most importantly, positive people.
Through focusing on negative people or on what they say, we become more like this negativity and our total life experience decreases.
Anthony Robbins said:
It's not what's happening to you now or what has
happened in your past that determines who you become.
Rather, it's your decisions about what to focus on,
what things mean to you, and what your going to do about
them that determine your ultimate destiny.
Change yourself....Change your world!
Read Julia Cameron's book "The Artist Way" and start seeing magic in your life today!
This thought provoking moment was brought to you by Jonathan Hull Magic.
