Creativity does not stop at the easel or keyboard, the potting wheel or writing table.  I know you know this but it bears repeating, even for this writer.  In fact, creativity is a flood of sparks of intuition and delight and wisdom that occurs in us throughout our day.  It requires us to be present and mindful.  Yes, I think I’ve mentioned that before too, but it also bears repeating.  Creativity requires us to stay present and trust that synchronicity and serendipity are indeed dancing all around us.

While your head’s down, gnawing on the bone that is yesterday, what are you missing?   Straining to see the distant sign posts that are tomorrow?  What are you missing?

“First it’s the whisper; then it’s the tap on the shoulder.  Do I have to wait for the 2 x 4?”  This is what someone said to me this week after a tragic accident in our family.   Often, these troubles are the 2 x 4s, drawing us up to the moment, getting our attention and allowing us to ask, what is the lesson, the message?  And then we need to give the reins over to our creative spirit and listen.

Everything else pales when faced with serious, life threatening injuries.  You know this too, right?  We all know these things to be true but sometimes we have difficulty internalizing them, stitching them     into our DNA.  It takes quite a leap of faith.  It requires putting down the bone, picking up your head and listening.

For instance, let’s take a look at that chunk of wood.  There might be a message on it, something like:  Stop, Look, and Listen.   It might say that your life is out of alignment with what your heart wants to create.

More questions, more answers…what next?

Often, the answers that arise are things we don’t want to hear.  They dredge up feelings of resistance and fear.

What if you could re-create that scenario?  Here’s an exercise that Coach Joel Remde (more on him next week) did with me when I was feeling a lot of resistance to something I needed to do.  Using his visioning lab technique he led me through a series of questions.

Think about the situation I was considering.  What did it bring up?  What emotions, thoughts; what was my physical reaction?

How would I rather feel and think?  What would I rather see and experience?

How could I reframe my thinking around the situation into something that would serve me better?

Using this process enabled me to go into the situation with a different mindset and to create the circumstances I desired.  It brought me front and center, kept me in the moment and allowed my words and actions to be in alignment with what I wanted to manifest.  It helped me trust that everything and everyone I needed would be coming to me at the exact right moment.

To me, that is the essence of everyday creativity.  That is the essence and power of the creative spirit that is in each and every one of us.  Try it. Trust me, it works.

photo courtesy of tungphoto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Native Americans have no word for art or artist.

Someone recently mentioned this to me.  I’m not sure I heard that before.  But I had been mulling over how I would describe everyday creativity; thinking about a succinct way to illuminate my view on this.  Because I really do think this is an area that could use some illumination.

Everyday creativity.  We need more of it and yet think we don’t have it.  We ache for it and yet box it away.  We teach and discipline it out of our children.  We preach it out of our churchgoers.   We think it has only to do with “art” and brush it off with an “I don’t paint, write, sing, dance, play the clarinet…”

Art is certainly a manifestation of creativity.  But, creativity is not only manifested in art.  You probably know all this.  You believe it to be true.  But how deep does that belief go?

Native Americans have no word for art or artist.

As I thought about this statement I realized that it contained everything I wanted to say.  For the early Native Americans the world was their canvas and life was their brush.  They were intuitive, mindful, respectful of nature, practical and spiritual.  Their “art” was utilitarian, innovative and made use of what was in their world.  These are all traits of highly creative people and yet they had no need of a word for art or artist.

Creativity was not meted out to a select few.  It is your birthright, a part of your deepest self.  It is in everyone at every stage of life.  It is part of the air we breathe.  It is the lens through which we view the world.  It is our unique way of approaching life.   It’s not necessarily a “skill” but rather a state of mind.

But sometimes it needs to be unearthed, dusted off, held up to the light.  It’s time.  Do you know where your creativity is?