Feeling creativity inside of you

Where do you feel creativity in your body?

A recent vulnerable encounter that belittled of my own generative, intuitive and creative energy forced me to acutely feel where creativity resides within this body of mine.

For me, creativity abides in the center of me from chin to navel. It is the very hub of my spiritual and emotional center.

In my pain, in my desire to hide myself away and protect my essence, I had the instinct to scoop out that center, set it to the side and try living a life without vulnerability, without creativity.

It was a fantasy born of pain and betrayal.

Once I applied the cool compresses of self-love, mourning and friendship, I realized I could never remove my creative parts, because I would no longer be me. 

I am who I am.

Creativity lives in my body. It always will.

But once it is expressed, it is out of me, and it can become something other people deride or devalue. But that’s not really my business.

Art’s purpose is to make people feel – all of the things, or nothing at all.

– Me

I have spent much of my life – especially recently – trying to be an example of how creativity has value in the world. I felt so strongly this was part of my role. I wanted to be a model that proved it. Made it bankable, ironclad. Show them.

I felt fiery and determined and leveraged to shoehorn space in the world for this idea.

And lately, I’ve been struggling to prove that (by traditional measures) this is the case.

I felt like I was failing.

But here’s the root of the root: value is in the eye of the beholder. There are those who do not understand the resonance or impact a well-crafted message from the soul can have.

There are many people who are bewildered by the idea of listening to their intuition, who are too busy to incorporate art or artfulness into what they do, who are so focused on the numbers they cannot see the numbness that accompanies that fixation.

There are many who are at a loss to say what beauty adds to their work, to the people around them, to their business, to their soul.

I AM NOT ONE OF THEM.

But I am also not here to convince anyone of anything.

Integrated creativity is the practice of removing internal and external barriers to unite creative playing, thinking, doing with your approach to life and work.

It’s an idea some will value, and others will not. That’s OK.

I have been fortunate in my work to collaborate with and serve people who gave me a chance to guide them to more integrated creativity in their lives.

These are people who saw my creativity as worthy, as invaluable – even magical.

They have paid me to add visual or experiential art, finely honed language, performance, or productive structures to their impulses to express and create.

Those are the individual people who have been changed by the work I do.

They have been seen and validated.

They have healed a part of themselves.

They have unleashed a whole new way of thinking, of living, by bringing together separate parts of themselves. Together, we put into words something that was only felt or experienced and never articulated. In turn, they have made something that added meaning, resonance and beauty to their lives.

Sometimes those things go on to create value in the world (I mean money) and sometimes they enrich the value of living (I mean happiness, satisfaction, purpose, intentionality).

But they begin and end inside of each of us.

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To help you tap into your creativity, subscribe to my every-other-week delicious word and visual morsel. Called Thought Cookie, this love note will feed your creative soul, spur you to think, give you an intentional moment of connection with a like-hearted friend. If you’d like to sign up, you can do so here. When you read Thought Cookie, my intention is that you feel comforted, inspired and soulfully seen.