You have many creative selves. Do you know what they are?
Connecting all your creative selves sounds like a fancy art film title, right? Abstract and intriguing. Bold and courageous. Unpredictable and gorgeous. Kind of like you. Except most people don’t even think they’re creative at all, let alone have various creative aspects within themselves to play with at any given time. In fact, it’s these diverse aspects that help make up the “creative you”, allowing you to experience life as something more than one-dimensional. The question is, are you ready to take a look at them?
Move Past the Black and White Creative Definition
Most people identify themselves as creative or not, or creative at just one type of thing. In reality, creativity is a way of thinking; the approach we use to move through life and all that is set in front of us. Yes, some people are more inclined to express themselves in an artistic way (which is how many define creative) but we each have a unique set of creative selves within us that offer something to shape our perspective on everything.
The creative selves within you have formed based on your experiences in life up until this moment, combined with learned behaviors, fears and challenges as well as learned protective defenses. The true creative space within us can be delicate and strong, happy and frustrated, genius and confused and endless combinations of many more things at any given time — but they are never fully one type of expression permanently. In fact, it’s confusion around having to express creativity in a singular way that often gets people blocked or keeps them from fully recognizing the depth of all the creative selves.
Personal Connections Offer Clues to your Creative Selves
Each time you connect with another person who does something you are fascinated by, pulling you into their orbit, they are giving you an opportunity to connect to that same creative power within yourself. For example, if you love looking at photography, are friends with lots of photographers or spend time taking pictures on your phone when you are out and about, I would venture to guess that one of your creative selves is a budding photographer.
Besides being a writer, some of my other creative selves are a photographer, poet, beader, idea generator, compassionate deep listener, healer, animal mama, band namer, music lover, tie-dyer and budding cook. It’s definitely worth taking some time to think over your interests and what you do just for fun, as well as what some of your friends and connections do professionally or as a hobby. It’s just a different way to look at things from a broader perspective using your different inner personas.
How to Practice Opening up to the Fully Dynamic Creative You
So now you have some tips on what to think about, here are a few some simple ways to practice opening up to your full creative dynamism.
- Turn that perspective within to see all of the creative selves living within you right now. Start a list on your phone or in your journal and jot down ideas as they show up, using a word that best describes that creative off-shoot. Do that for a full week and then review your results to see all the dimensions of the creative you that often go unacknowledged.
- Take an inventory of the things you have but don’t use. Is there an old hobby now neglected or a passion that went nowhere? If you are still interested, make dedicated time for it and see how it eases you into more creative awareness in all aspects of your life. If not, donate it or give it to a friend or family member.
- Pick something you have always wanted to do but were afraid to, and try it. Give yourself a deadline of one-month to complete it. The hope is that you have an amazing new experience and learn something. If you bail, that tells you even more about how much you value your own creative spirit and if you may be keeping yourself blocked.
These are just some suggestions to start. The hope is that beyond the doing, you will begin to see all of your creative selves with more compassion, while at the same time, how they can sometimes play off of or interfere with each other. When you allow all of these aspects within you to merge, the more your perspective deepens. Creative flow opens into new nooks and crannies, filling you with ideas and the drive to look at everything with fresh eyes — even what currently seems stagnant.
So do you know all your creative selves? What are some of yours?
Photo credit: Terry Bain