Each of us can foster sustainable connections within ourselves through creativity. Wait a minute – if you are about to choke up or flip away from this entry because it talks about creativity, hold up. You’re doing okay, and you may want to keep reading. Pablo Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” I don’t think it’s a problem, but I do think we all have the opportunity to harness our creativity. When we get into creative things we get into ourselves, and that’s a cool way to go.
Think about it! Inside of you right now is a journal, or book of sketches waiting to spring out! There is a phenomenal dinner dish that nobody has ever thought of rolling around your brain. Your hands are waiting to build an awesome shed in the backyard. Reorganizing your room, painting, drawing, writing, dancing, baking, writing stories, dreaming up a new movie, taking pictures, all of these things and so many more want to come out of your Heartspace to move you closer to yourself. What an awesome opportunity!
Almost all of us started creating when we were young. Surrounded by fantastic worlds of play, a lot of kids design elaborate games and scenarios where they learn the world through creativity. Drawing pictures of cars, buildings, mountains, and trees helped us understand different objects in the world, while fantasy games of princesses and swords and ponies and hunting helped us see learn how we interact. Creativity drove a lot of those young lessons. What happened to those days? The great Maya Angelou once explained, “We are all creative, but by the time we are three of four years old, someone has knocked the creativity out of us. Some people shut up the kids who start to tell stories. Kids dance in their cribs, but someone will insist they sit still. By the time the creative people are ten or twelve, they want to be like everyone else.”
However, this blog is not remorse for days gone, or wistful thinking about recovering something we can’t. This is about being engaged in the world within us as we are, right here and right now. It is about being who we are, and being sustainably connected with that person.
Take some time to get into your own creative side by simply picking up the tools of creativity. Let yourself play in the kitchen, or dig in the dirt, or paint on the canvas, or write in a notepad. Go through your memories of the creative things you’ve done before that you’ve loved, and revisit those. If you can’t remember creativity in your life, look through the canvas out the window and simply do whatever calls to you. Carve marble, mold clay, and weld. Create characters, divine poetry, and sing the blues. Do what you want to. Once you’ve started down this road, you’ve started following the road of creativity towards personal engagement.
11 Ways To Personal Engagement Through Creativity
We can all get engaged in ourselves through creativity. Here’s a list of different ways that can happen.
- Go to new places, or go to old places and see them new. Look for creativity in crevices, alleys, empty lots, and places other people might think are boring.
- Make crazy lists of all the things you’d do if you could do anything – and then do those things.
- Record everything that comes to your brain for a day. Then keep a journal and record all your big ideas after that.
- Make mind maps by connecting ideas to ideas, and other ideas to those ideas. Then start over and do it with other ideas.
- Spend time creating things outside your usual routine – consider how this makes you feel, explore that, record it somehow, and think about the imagery that comes with it.
- Talk with friends about things you never talk about, like art or science or childhood memories or anything, and see where that takes your imagination.
- Listen to new music, including jazz, or classical, whatever.
- Find creative people to be around, and then connect, share, and explore with them.
- Practice and develop your skills more, and make mistakes.
- Do different creative things until you find something that gets you happy, and then do more of that.
- Read books, look through coffee table art books, and check out magazines. Let non-inspiring things inspire you.
Adam F.C. Fletcher 