Creativity

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Reflections on Creativity

It seems that as humans we are all born with the urge to create.

Personally, I was frustrated for most of my life by this very urge, because I felt I was not creative at all. I couldn’t think of anything I had created. In my workshops I often take a poll among the participants asking who among them thinks he or she is creative. The results are always the same—like myself, the majority do not consider themselves to be creative.

I now believe deeply that creativity is released and expressed when we begin to experience and claim our personal power. To possess personal power is to be connected to the ultimate source of creativity, the Great Mystery that created everything we see around us in the cosmos.

Once empowered, we can experience the rewards and feel the joy of creating in countless ways, not merely in what are called the "fine arts," such as painting, music or writing. Whether at home or at work, it is surprising how many opportunities we have to create. I had the good fortune recently to have someone who cares about me point out several ways in which I express my own creativity--ways to which I had previously been blinded.

There is a myth—perhaps commonly held—that creativity just grabs or consumes certain individuals, whether they consider themselves to be creative, or not. This is the image of the disheveled, sleep-deprived painter who cannot rest until her inner vision is wrestled from within by some unseen something or someone.

However, for most of us creative expression is not nearly so dramatic. Most of us have to claim it, rather than wait for it to claim us. Actually, I have come to realize that—whether or not we know it, or even accept it—every one of us is creating a major piece of art, and we are working on it every day. That is, our own life.

I like to refer to the process of creating our life as “Walking the WHSP3R Wheel.” This involves creating our own unique experience of happiness and freedom, while seeking a balance among seven life values: Wealth, Health, Spirit, Passion, Purpose, Play and Relationships. So we are all artists after all, and our pallette is our own daily life.

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Author Amy Tan talks about the creative process