CREATIVITY – THE TEACHER

Creativity has been my greatest teacher, my biggest gift, the activation of my dreams and desires. And what I learnt is that it was (and is) so much more than learning how to take a great photograph – it was how to be the great photograph.

Creativity always has been and always will be an invitation of learning to trust in self, intuition and flow. It’s a receiving of imaginations, dreams, desires and ideas, an expression and unfolding of self, a gateway to whats possible and an access point to our potential.

My creative process is 80% being … imagination / vision, heart, soul, felt experience, intuition and energy and 20% technique and tools. But how many of us are actually really exploring that – moving beyond the doing and the logical process of creativity?

Whilst going through a mental process reassures our minds that we are doing all of the things, we can get so caught up in trying to logic our way through creativity that it becomes more about what we can remember to do, our tools and techniques verses the inspiration and information we are receiving – learning to listen too and trust in that, feel into that and how we create from this space of inspiration in any given moment.

I can remember when I first started out in photography going through the mental check list of lights, camera, action (sit here, stand there, foot this way, face that way) and whilst I learnt to master the skills of a craft there came a point where it felt very much like the remembering of a set of to do’s was more important than who I was being and what I was experiencing in that moment. Whilst that process kept me feeling safe and contained, (and as I was learning, a sense of certainty that I was doing all the right things) the flip side of being safe and contained is … it keeps me in my own box.

When we only focus on the logical and practical process we can move very quickly into a deprogramming of creativity, and we give all of our power away to the tools, techniques and processes and we stop experiencing ourselves as authentic creators and shut ourselves off to the wealth of untapped creative potential within us.

I remember being told to go break all the rules – let go of the process … but what did that actually mean, use a light differently? start to get clever with more processes? Buy more stuff. It felt so complicated and confusing and exhausting, doing more of the doing. So I let all that go and I started to move into flow. Learning how to get into flow, stay in flow and master flow.

The mind is a processing machine and all about solution finding, certainty. It bases its responses and reactions on what it already knows, on the evidence that is already here – creativity is about moving beyond that, collapsing the confines of the mind and learning to trust in the unfolding, the ebb and the flow, the nudges, the intuitions, the visions, the dreams and desires.

Flow … for me it’s part imagination realm and part energetic, Its felt, its somatic, its moving beyond the logical mind and opening myself up to listening, receiving, knowing … and then taking aligned and inspired action and creating from this space. The mental realm is just one part of flow, intuition and psyche are how we move beyond and experience more of that.

Receive – What does it mean for me to receive – sometimes receiving comes in the form of a vision, dream or desire, sometimes its in the heart space, other times a feeling, a knowing, maybe its downloads, or an opening, where my body responds to what I am sensing and I am open to it, I listen to it, decide if I’m going to chose it, respond to it, move with it and create from this space.

Resistance, confusion, uncertainty – If I’m growing I’m meeting all of this and more – every.single.time. Because the limitations of my mind is going to go into overdrive trying to keep me in old beliefs, identities and patterns when creativity is asking me to be more – more of myself than anything else.

 

Creativity isn’t just an invitation for me to create something … its also about who its asking me to be.

 

Am I match for the inspired thought that I’m receiving? If not … am I willing to grow – go within, grow, become more of who I already am in order to rise up and meet the vision, dream, thought or idea and make that my new reality by taking the aligned and inspired actions?

Creativity is expansive, so much more than the logical mind can understand and when we try to bring it down to meet the confines of the mind the challenges and frustrations appear. And it’s those challenges and frustrations that become our opportunities to grow.  The deprogramming of who I think I am and the remembering of who I really am.

And once I realised that THE QUESTION IS NOT HOW CAN I BE MORE CREATIVE … IT’S HOW CAN I EXPRESS MY SELF MORE? Creativity took me on a whole other journey, a deeper journey that went beyond the camera, the lens, the light, the formula, the mind and took me deep into my heart, soul and every space in-between. It brings all parts of me together in a way that feels right, that makes sense of me and helps the world make sense to me

Structure – structure brings me peace. As a hot mass of creative energy I can be fizzing all over the place, and without structure and order, creativity can so easily become chaotic and overwhelming. A structure that works for me creates more creative freedom for me.

Creativity isn’t just about an output, its about the input – what am I putting of my inner self into my creations (be that how I live my life, the art I create or the way I lead business), and theres a vulnerability here, courage here, because if I am putting a part of me in then I am expressing that part of me out for everyone to see – what if they don’t like it? What if I’m not good enough? What if I get rejected or ridiculed … but every time we try to fit in we reject ourself and ridicule the most authentic expression of our creative self, and every time we do that we train ourselves to not trust in ourself or believe in ourself. Making ourself wrong and everyone else right.

Purpose – without purpose I have no direction. I am a sail without a ship. Purpose is the anchor that keeps me grounded, growing, contributing, focussed.

Plan – where I move from being swept up by life to the creator of my life and I take the aligned and inspired action to make it happen. Life becomes a choice. Destiny by design.

Passion – it is my fuel, it is the meeting place of my mind, body, energy, heart and soul, it is the expression of who I am when I am fully in alignment – it feels real and connected

Energy – energy is my key. It’s how I communicate with my Self, others and the world around me. It’s how I experience the expression of creativity and how I create experiences of creativity. When I feel into the energy of how I desire my creations to feel and create from this space it takes my work to a whole other level … and it makes no difference what that work is – whether thats an image, an experience, a space or event, my business, my life – this is how creativity flows freely through me, it is the language of creativity that I understand, it is the expression of creativity that becomes expansive and shows me the way. Where my energy goes … creativity flows.

Listening – we are so busy doing that we are more often than not in our heads thinking about what we should be creating that we forget to listen to what is being asked to be created. The spoken is creating with what it already here, the unspoken is the breath of possibility, the seeds of creation, and when we hear these whispers through the body, inspired thought, intuition, knowing, felt sense we are able to access a whole other level of information and inspiration and create from this space.

Relationships – we can only take creativity as deep as we are prepared to take ourself. Creativity is about our relationship to Self, our blocks, our potential, our value, our dreams, desires, money, wealth, abundance. Our reality. Are we creating from our limiting stories, from fear, scarcity, judgement, guilt or shame or are we creating from whats possible, our next level, our potential?

Choice – its about choice am I choosing to create from the space that I already know or am I willing to step into the unknown and create from this space? I found freedom here, permission here, to let go of control and permission to fail as much as anything else.

Stop limiting creativity to your creative practice. Your creative practice is just one way for you to experience the power of creativity. Every time we create something we deepen our trust in our ability to create … but what if it was more than a picture, what if you could learn to apply creativity to every area of your life – what then?

Creativity is about all of this for me and so much more. And what I know for sure is that if you want to unlock your creative potential then you’ve got to stop giving all the power away to the equipment, the programmes, the tool and techniques and remember that the power is so much more than that … the power is in you and of you, that you are power full, and the moment we take responsibility for that creativity becomes a frequency that we operate from and the way we create becomes a connection point, a communication and conversation, an experience, a language, an authentic expression that becomes our signature, our seal … our magic.

What is creativity asking you to create?
More importantly who is it asking you to be?