Access Your Creativity
How to tap into inspiration in a world where the desire for efficiency can override natural curiosity.
Human beings are creative by nature. It is our birthright. We have been granted free will to work with creativity on Earth. We make choices and then experience the results of those choices. We choose, then choose again, as often as we wish.
We are born curious. From the beginning, we observe everything around us and absorb as much as possible, especially as children. At first, we tend to imitate the behavior we observe, or we withdraw from it. We react almost reflexively. As our experiences become more complex, we may reserve immediate action to evaluate our response. We might continue to observe until we take action based on a combination of observations. At this stage, we start to draw upon inspiration.
Most of our actions are based on inspiration in the early stages of our development. As we grow, our experiences grow. A more varied array of responses come forth. Our creative efforts begin!
We continue interacting with the world around us, exploring, taking chances, and sometimes making apparent missteps. When choices lead to disharmony with our group, some prefer the emotional safety of not standing out. Purely instinctive responses are filtered or shut down. With this approach, we give up some of our inspirational, spontaneous reactions. However, adhering to a more standardized group behavior can create a more efficient way to deal with daily events.
Another way of dealing with the world is to rebel and resist conformity. This can help us to grow our intuition when we connect with our soul and the collective unconscious, but it also can bring forth ego-based responses if we don’t dig deep enough. For example, breakthroughs in science, art, music, and other areas often come through this channel, but so do lawbreakers. Few of us behave exclusively within one pattern or another; rather, we tend to vacillate between the two, usually falling into the ego’s grip when we feel vulnerable and reaching for soul inspiration when we are empowered.
Often, the desire for efficiency can override natural curiosity and we use the mind more and more over intuition to make everyday decisions. As a result, access to our inspiration or creativity can feel shut down. So, how do we access our creativity when we spend so much of our day using standardized behavior patterns?
First, examine your activities. Where do you feel overwhelmed? Why? Where can you make adjustments? Is there something you can drop? Examine the details of your daily choices. Can you reflect upon the value of actions, or are you moving through tasks just to get them done?
Inspiration comes when we take the time to absorb and reflect.
What about the activities you choose for enlightenment or recreation? Are you reading that book or taking that course to skim through the main points, or can you absorb the knowledge piece by piece? How can you use the information to make it yours, to add value to your life? How can you create something from what you have learned? What is the purpose of this activity in your life? Could it possibly be a diversion from a task you are putting off? Or is it something others are doing, and you want to be included? The point here is to understand why you engage in your activities and then evaluate their usefulness.
There is a great deal of pressure on us to be productive. We can exhaust ourselves easily and unnecessarily. It is up to us to evaluate how we spend our time. Find ways to simplify everything from home organization to spending habits, from activities to social life. Make adequate sleep a top priority. We need sleep not only for our physical bodies, but also to help us connect with our subconscious and guides while our minds are at rest. It prepares us to receive inspiration.
The next step is to allow inspiration during waking hours. Foster connection to our deeper selves. Our joy. One good way is to pick a time, even as little as 15 minutes, to devote to writing, singing a song, rhythmic body movement, creating a new recipe, whittling a toy from wood, ANYTHING that demands complete focus and draws on inspiration—no pressure involved. Be silly. Be serious. Just be.
A few minutes of devotion to the “Inspiration Experience” can relax you and open the connection to your deeper self. A sense of humor helps, but it is unnecessary if you feel poignant. Once you unplug, pay attention to where it leads. And follow that path to Joy.
