On July 13th, 2009, I found this thought provoking article posted on: The Naked Soul (Blog).
When we think of people who are creative we often think of people who can create songs, music, dance steps, paint, sculpt, create vivid art from piecing together little objects to create a mosaic or string words together in way that form poems or writes in a way that captures are attention. When we reflect on creative people, we may call out people like Michelangelo, Brahms, Billy Joel, Martin Scorsese, Michael Jackson or Charlie Chaplin.
For most of us it is easy to recognize the creative genius of others. When asked if we are creative, many people will quickly tell you that they are not the creative type. Why do many people believe that they are not creative? Many people do not believe they are creative because they have a very limited view of creativity. When they think of being creative they think of people in the arts. This is a very limiting view and understanding of creativity.
The truth is we are all creative and weather we acknowledge it or not, we are creating all of the time. Creativity is thought, when we think we create; now that is a very broad statement so let’s dig into this thing we call creativity a little bit more. We are all creative, even the most linear thinkers are creative. Take someone who appears to be non-creative such as a data analyst, a number cruncher; some even refer to these people as “bean counters”. One would think that this is a purely analytical thing to do, yet this very same person who lives in an analytical world creates spreadsheets and graphs and discerns what the numbers mean and provides commentary and findings, all of which are very creative tasks.
On a broader spectrum each morning that you wake up you are creative. As we begin thinking we begin to create. We create the fact that we are going to have a cup of coffee or that we are going for a morning jog. We create our day as we mentally review what lies before us and how we will approach the day. We create our mood by the thoughts we have and the perspectives that we develop.
Even those who believe they are not in the least way creative are in fact often very creative. The creativity that I am speaking of here is the darker side of creativity, we often refer to this type of creativity as fear or worry. When a person thinks about the possibilities of what can happen in the future and they begin to formulate worst case scenarios they are in a creative mode. Albeit, worry and fear are not typically viewed as creativity they none the less are, as a matter of fact this is a type of creativity that almost everyone engages in.
Bottom line is, we are all creative. Creativity is viewed as a positive activity, however as you can now see we also use creativity in way that does not serve our wellbeing. If you are apt at creating fear and worry about things which have not yet happened than it is my hope that you recognize that you are indeed creative. Once we recognize our creativity it is simply a matter of how we choose to use our creativity. In other words, we being the limitless beings that we are have a choice to be creative in a way that creates a world of peace, love and harmony for ourselves and others.
As you can hopefully see, you are creative, you are going to create, you can’t help but create so why not go forth and create the world you desire!
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