Exploring Creativity

Creativity is an interesting theme for me. I spent years saying I wasn’t particularly ‘creative’. I loved to be surrounded by it; by fashion, the arts, writing and publishing but I always viewed myself as an organisational cog in those machines, the one assisting with the creative process but never responsible for having the ‘big ideas’.

I worked for a big fashion house in London in my early 20s, in a business support role and was left believing the only way I could be ‘creative’ was by designing clothes or working on photoshoots. I would attend art shows and feel drawn to working in events, acknowledging my organisational and project management skills, even if I couldn’t paint or draw. I’ve always been interested in writing and spent some time working at a publishing house but felt unless I was writing the next Harry Potter, I wasn’t being creative.

Signs from the Universe have been coming thick and fast the last few months and I have started to listen to them. At the start of the year I signed up to the creative writing course Unlocking Creativity at The Writers Studio in Bronte. I also joined Samantha Wills CREAT(iv)e SPACE online workshop, designed to cultivate a daily creative practice by dedicating just 15 minutes a day to some kind of creative activity. I was gifted the wonderful book The Artists Way;A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self by Julia Cameron. And read Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic; a book wherein Liz speaks passionately about feeding creativity like it’s a loved one, if we want it to thrive and survive.

Each of these things offered encouragement in different ways and spurred me on in my own search for a creative life. Slowly but surely, I am starting to understand that we all have creativity inside us, we are all creative it just looks different for everyone.

My mind-set has changed. Through reading, listening and experimenting, I’ve realised creativity cannot be defined so easily. For one thing, you don’t have to make a living out of your craft to be considered creative. Liz Gilbert’s Big Magic taught me that creation does not belong to us. We care for it and nurture it and maybe it will manifest into something that is ‘ours’ but if not, the idea is free to move onto another person.

Samantha Wills places focus on the time you spend being creative, rather than the results; “Creativity is the process. Creativity is flow state. Creativity is the joy in the moment. Creativity is following your intuition to turn right when technically, you’re meant to turn left.”

I am also not ashamed to admit I’ve felt competitive with my creativity. It’s true what they say about comparison being the thief of all joy. I see others achieving, doing better, writing things I wish I’d written. Gilbert says we have to take care of ideas and for a while, I was not. I now understand implicitly that creativity is NOT a competition.

I know now that the source of creativity is not important. It could be writing or painting; it could also be cooking, dancing or the styling of a wardrobe. It could come from walks in nature, travel, reading, flower arranging or a yoga practice. The options are absolutely endless.

Creativity is the place where things feel in flow, a place of connection in the present moment. And it takes time and a committed practice to improve. But the end outcome is not the goal. As Gilbert says, “creativity itself doesn’t care at all about results – the only thing it craves is the process.”