Creativity is Your Birthright

Creativity is your birthright. Yours, mine, and everyone else's. And by withholding the creative gifts in your life, you are limiting and even blocking the flow of your life force energy. One of the biggest blocks is the erroneous belief that you are not creative.

I recently started painting. On canvas. And it has sparked a number of powerful conversations with friends, clients and family.

I've always viewed myself as "a creative". I feel so much creativity flow through me on a daily basis, and if I don't create it, write it, play it, make it, say it, sing it, chant it, I'd probably explode! Anyone who is very close to me and has witnessed the non-stop creation process in my life can attest to that. But this recent endeavor of painting on canvas has brought forth new conversations.

I've always loved painting other things. Especially the walls in my home. I've painted, repainted, changed colors, changed whole themes, completely changed the entire decor, many many times over the past ten years. I've done that with every home I've owned since my early twenties. My home has been my primary "canvas" if you will. My home is my sanctuary, the place from which all other visions spring forth, and it has always been incredibly important for my home to be filled with tons of sunshine, beautiful colorful flowers, art that evokes emotion, smells that enhance joy, great music, fresh colorful food and laughter.

I've written poetry since the fifth grade, and played musical instruments since second grade. Piano, flute, and in the past several years, harmonium and drumming. Another powerful expression of creativity.

Food. I've created over 1,000 original plant based recipes in the past few years. Enough for ten cookbooks. (No, I'm not publishing a cookbook). Those creations emerged forth from my family and my clients' desire to eat clean, eat plant based, and thrive. I attempted to find something "already done" and purchased countless cookbooks and scoured countless online recipes. But nothing quite fit. My family is picky. My husband still says "the only thing you ever made that was awful were those black bean brownies." That was YEARS ago. But, it was the only recipe I had ever actually followed. My family just won't go there.

So, I created. A LOT.

In our home we view life as an ongoing creation, each of us as individuals and our family organically together. Childbirth being the most literal creative expression... birthing two unique beings who traveled here from the Universe to be born through my womb? Pretty creative. And watching them grow, change, evolve, and create their paths in miraculous and beautiful ways. As a homeschooling mom, most days are an exploration into creating... creating how we do each day, with ideas pulled from the source of all creation which lives within us all.

My husband has always created with his hands... he's a builder of things. Houses, furniture, and pretty much anything else you can imagine. Meticulous, careful, precise, meaningful, beautiful. That is how I would describe my husband's own creative process. My favorite pieces of furniture in the house were made by his two hands.

Bookcases and dressers that were once trees, cut, sanded, stained, refined, into masterful works of gifted carpentry. When I've seen an empty piece of raw land... the earth's canvas, and watch a dwelling... a house... a home... rise up at the hands of my husband, I am awed. People will live in his creations. People will love in his creations. They will shed tears, share meals, and grow old in his creations.

But yet... the other night when he saw my first completed intuitive painting, he said to me "you are so creative. That is powerful and stunning. Creativity is just not my gift." I was speechless. Well, ok only for about five seconds lol. But it shocked me to hear one of the most creative people I know say they didn't view themselves as creative. I brought up the obvious...creating and building with his hands. To which he said "well, I guess I'm creative in some ways, but not artistically." So I then asked him what he believed artistic means, and he said "I guess painting, drawing, that kind of thing". Hmmm.

So I reminded him about Christmas and the elephant poo paper.

A few years ago I purchased a huge bunch of paper from a company that was dedicated to saving the elephants from the ivory trade. The way they do this is to collect the elephant dung (poo) and dry it, sanitize it and turn it into paper. I bought it online - sight unseen, or rather, unsmelled - and to my surprise it was awesome. What I failed to realize was that it was miniature, like post-it size without the stickiness. Not really that practical. So it sat in my office for a while. Until one day, my husband started taking the pieces, one by one, and drawing love notes on them. Every. Single. Day. For a year. And, every single day, he would come to my office, stand outside the huge windows, and tape one of them onto the glass so I could see it. Then at the end of the day he would take it down. My clients would often laugh and say "I hope you know that guy".

Well, much to my surprise, Christmas that year, I opened my gift from my husband. It was a large photo album with hundreds of individual square plastic sleeves, each containing a hand drawn love note from my husband. Creative??? YESSS!!!!

So in my recent venture into painting, the conversations that have been sparked have shown me that there are so many people who do not have PURPOSEFUL access to their creative flow. What I mean by that is, they are creating, but not necessarily on purpose, with intent, and not freely. The flow is restricted for many, but only because of the false belief that you are not creative. You are. It is your birthright.

Here are some tips that can get you to move into your flow:

1. "ART" as in painting, drawing, coloring, pottery, etc... is not the definition of creativity. Those are all varying ways to express your creativity, but they are not creativity in and of itself.

2. Think outside of the box. What ways does creativity show up in your life? Cooking, fashion, makeup, parenting, crafts, artistic pursuits, singing, dancing, writing, business creation, idea generating?

3. ALLOW yourself to see yourself as an inherently creative being. Trust yourself to explore without fear. Fear is anathema to the creative process. It lies to you and tells you that creativity is reserved for only a few people who have a specific type of "artistic" ability.

4. Try something creative that scares you. The scarier the better. When you approach your creativity with reverence and a sense of surrender, the Divine will move through you in ways you probably never even imagined were possible.

5. The world does not consist of "creatives and non-creatives", but rather, some people who are in direct communication with their creative force and others who are not. Did you know that newly released research findings in the field of neuroscience have proven through resonance imaging and brain scans that there is no evidence that indicates that some people are right-brained or left-brained?

We often use that terminology, but truth be told, it's a cultural myth. But think about it... if you've been told you're right brained, not good at math, and not analytical, you have probably come to believe that, and don't explore your brain's other functions as often. And vice versa, if you've been told you are left brained and analytical but not creative, you probably live your life without unbridled access to your creativity.

So while it is true that certain functions take place in specific regions in the brain, a healthy brain has access to all regions. And neuroscience has uncovered the remarkable neuroplasticity in the brain, even into late adulthood, giving us an amazing ability to form new connections between brain cells, continually learn new things and modify our behavior.

6. HAVE FUN. LOTS OF IT!!!!