Your Creative Process?

Recently I've been thinking a lot about the so-called "creative process," thanks to a couple books I've been reading: Gail McMeekin's "12 Secrets of Highly Successful Women" and Oriah Mountain Dreamer's "What We Ache For." Some people, and I might be one of them, claim that humans are innately creative beings. But I'm haunted by questions: why must we try so hard to complete creative acts if the creative impulse is supposed to come so naturally? And why are only some things recognized as creative while others are not?

Innovation and creativity are buzzwords in the current economy, and it appears that success depends on them. But only to a certain extent--if we actually unleash all our creative impulses, all order would disappear. With the current torrent of technological advancements, it's easy to think that our lives are becoming more mechanical and less creative. Yet, even though technology can seem like the furthest thing from creativity, it was born through a creative impulse, an inspiring idea.

For me, I struggle to come to terms with my computer; we have a love/hate relationship. Years ago, I realized how vast a resource computers can contain, yet how much a drain it was to constantly sit staring at their screens and typing on their keyboards, not to mention the other, more subtle aspects like radiation. Now, it's as if my whole existence depends on my computer, yet I often can't stand it--especially sitting there nonstop as if I'm glued to it.

Often I will have an idea that I would like to blog about, yet as soon as I turn on the computer, it's as if my creativity shuts off. I love the ease of typing but my mind shifts into another gear when I'm in front of the computer. It's difficult to maintain focus on writing alone. Then, when I try to write with pen and paper, I find the feeling so awkward, it's as if I've almost forgotten how; through all the years of typing, I'm out of practice to write by hand and the letters sometimes get mixed up as they're coming on to the page. Have I suddenly become dyslexic from all the scanning I do on the computer? I never had great penmanship to begin with, but now it's all the more worse for lack of use. It's become encrypted!

Nonetheless, my urge to contribute creatively to the world pushes me to keep trying--to strike a balance between new technologies and the primal need to document my perceptions of the world on paper or virtual page. Like the cavemen who created the first tools just so they could paint their walls with images, so too I seek to use the latest tools available to enable my feelings and thoughts to take some form beyond my own head.

I'd love to hear from you in the comments: How do you balance the benefits of technology with its costs? What's your creative process?

365 Lessons-Lesson 23: Nurture Creativity

My sister sent me this video yesterday. It was kind of what I needed to hear. The author of Eat, Pray, Love talks about nurturing creativity. I find it can sometimes be a hard thing to nurture and protect at times. Our passions can sometimes get squashed when the realization hits that we need to make a living and living our passion is somehow not going to be the way we do that. Life takes over, and sometimes, for me...remembering to nurture my creativity or in this case, my writing, which is my passion, is no easy task. It takes constant effort, but it is worth every step. Here's the inspirational video my sister sent just when I needed it:





Sometimes I feel like all the artists, dancers, and writers out there are known because they must be geniuses. I don't think so now.

(I painted this painting called Clear Fall Day in 2006 after a meditation course. I've never painted anything in my life on canvas before or since. This all goes to show that we all have this creativity inside us. We can do and be anything we want to be)

We all have amazing gifts to share with this world. We are all geniuses. If you are passionate about something. If you have a dream. If you are an artist, a mother, a dancer, a painter, a traveler, a knitter, a sewer, a trumpet player, a doodler, a whistler, a gardener, a whatever and you LOVE doing what you are doing, NURTURE IT! Believe in what you are doing and do it. If you feel happiness from what you are doing in life, that happiness spreads to all those around you. There must be something you do in life that makes you happy. Make that your priority. Protect it at all costs. When we are doing what we love we inspire other people to do what they love and it goes on and on and on like this. All of us have these gifts inside us. I am grateful for everyone I have met here because I see that you all are doing just that!