Day 162/366 days Towards Self-Mastery.
For most of my life I've considered myself lacking in creativity. It's been difficult to find a creative moment to call my own.
Alongside that realisation I've spent a lot of time wondering why this would be. Why would any person not be able to access their natural birthright to creativity?
Explanations were discovered in various directions that helped to make sense of this rather senseless expression of self. That is what creativity is about. It's about being able to use the senses to make sense of the world around you and to create imaginatively through using those senses of touch, sight, hearing, taste and smell.
Sarah's suggests making a space, a small nook even, to be your own creative space.
A place where you can be totally you, express yourself in the way that is most natural. That is in itself an expression of creativity.
It could be a corner with a chair and table where you spend time with your art journal. A place to edit photographs or a sketch the view form the window.
When I studied the chakra system of energy flowing in and out of the body, I learned that creativity was a quality supported by the sexual chakra. That made sense as the sexual chakra is in the area of our sexual organs and procreation is a creative process right?
In order for the sexual chakra to be functioning well the base chakra has to be well grounded. The quality of the base chakra is supported by stability and a sense of security, which explained a lot as those attributes were lacking in my life experience for too long. When the mind is occupied with unfinished business there's little room for creativity.
As I studied metaphysics, it became clear to me that creativity is our natural predisposition. To be able to access that predisposition by satisfying my fundamental needs was a priority; the need for belonging and the need for growth and expansion. Those needs are tied up with the foundation needs for stability and security. Without them, there is no room for creativity.
As those needs were progressively met, there's room for creativity to emerge. It's a work in progress.
Initially I looked for ways to practice expressing creatively. A drawing class revealed that I had an eye for detail and drawing came naturally. Then my love of textiles opened up the world of scrapbooking to me. With a ton of photos and a curiosity about family history, I've brought those two ideas together to create family treasures.
Not content with that, I've discovering my love of water colour. Practicing brush strokes and foundational techniques of tone and wash, I'm loving exploring other artists and their advice via YouTube.
Of course my creativity is expressed in my home and garden, the way I dress and the way I prepare meals.
Feeling like a fledgling creator, I've recently explored creativity through understanding the forces of physics. Those divergent and convergent forces that exist in the field through which we naturally take in and give out of our being to the field of energy and information that we live in.
My space is limited so I came up with the perfect solution of 2 x 3 tier trolleys to carry all my crafting equipment and projects in progress. They fit nicely into a corner in my dining area between the dutch dresser and the bookshelves. I simply roll them out and set up on my dining table when I have a few hours free to explore. It's time to acquire another for my water colour kit of colour tubes, and colour blocks, brushes and water jars, pads and pallets.
They say that to become creative you have to practice. My experience is that it's not something you can force into reality. Creativity emerges naturally and then the practice is minimal. You'll access the perfect mentoring, whether in an online format or in person. It will be completely suited to your "here and now" situation and will simply flow.
The medium I love most in life generally is water, so watercolour has always been an interest. I've had the kit forever yet barely wet a paint bush. Now, however, I'm filling pads with little squares of practice washes and brush strokes and quickly becoming acquainted with the relationship between paper, water, and tone.
So I urge you to look into your life experiences and notice where your creativity is wanting to express itself. It could be anywhere at all. Somewhere where you feel completely at home with yourself and are able to express from the heart.
If you're struggling with creativity, it could be that your mind, like mine, is filled with chatter that is trying to figure life out. Get some help with that. Running your concerns by someone who knows just how to support you to relook at the meaning you've made of life can make all the difference.
366 days Towards Self-Mastery
When I considered my New Year's intentions for 2020 I had just one: To allow my heart to love what it loved...and let it lead me. (If not now, then when?)
I've spent months working on integrating my life. To live life more fully with my home life, my interests, my work, my responsibilities, all coming together, all connected. I want to give each the attention that they desire and need, and still have time and energy for the others. That means living and working from the heart.
As I was clearing out my bookshelf over the Christmas break I discovered Simple Abundance. I set it aside to explore it on New Year's Day as I lazed through another delicious day of nothingness. Sarah, the author, says this book is about living in grace. Living in grace I realised, is about Self-Mastery.
My thirst for understanding the human condition has driven me all my life, and hand-in-hand with self-mastery it has been a life-long goal. And seeing as I love to write, that living in grace is about self-mastery, and I love a bit of a challenge, then if I am truly going to let my heart lead, I really don't have any other choice. So scary as it feels, I'm starting out on a daily mission of leaning into the suggestions of this daybook and making a daily post to keep me accountable. If not now, then when?
I'm Josie. You can find out a little more about me here.
Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy: by Sarah Ban Breathnach.
This book is written for the Australian and NZ market because it refers to seasonal changes. It's available on Amazon here if you'd like to follow along.
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