Spontaneous Creativity

Inviting the Creation

 

"Spontaneous creativity is an affirmation of our deepest nature."  - Richard Moss 

 Sometimes authentic creativity can feel muddled and unformed at first. If we you are feeling stuck in inertia you have to start out practicing spontaneous creativity every day for your expression to come alive and find it's own living, eloquent language.

 

Often people say to me, "I do not think I have much to express. I do not know if I have an authentic self. I do not think I have much inside of me." I always say, "Begin expressing yourself. Intend to express yourself spontaneously. See what comes out and follow the threads from there. Your creative ideas tell you something about who you really are." 

 

I find that 30 days of committed creativity will always tell people something new and often startlingly fresh about themselves.

 

When I sense I want to create something, it is always the same process of simply beginning. Each spontaneous creation might out quite muddled and then with intention and direction begins to form itself. I often feel frustrated and confused when something larger wants to come into my life. I wear the creative question in my body. I ask myself..."What am I trying to express?" Throughout the coming days and weeks and even years, the creative insights form into a living language.

 

"Only in spontaneity can we be who we truly are." 

-John Mclaughlin

 

Your Body Knows the Next Step in your Life

 

Your authentic creativity is wider and more vast than your ordinary experiencing. There is an edge of growth that we are often barely aware of that we can learn to tune into. There is a deeper, authentic language that you can learn to sense from within your body that wants to speak to you and lead you into your authentically expressive life, step by step.

 

When we sense into the "edges" of our inner experiences, new information is revealed. Often we ignore our subtle inner promptings but there is a quiet, inner sensing process that can be learned. Answers are inherent in your questions. And with proper quiet witnessing you can begin to sense how your life needs to unfold for your growth and well-being.

 

You could try the experiment of "wearing" a question in your body all day. Ask your body..."What am I trying to express? What do I need to say right now?"

 

Throughout the day the insights will come spontaneously and slowly the words, life events or imagery will form into an honest, original living language. Life both inside and outside of you will come forward and speak to you because you have asked it to - because you have intended to express yourself and because you have made the effort to sense beyond your regular, everyday thought habits.  

 

Years ago when I was contemplating moving to Vancouver from the rural mountain town I lived I was ruminating on how people had a hard time being spontaneous in their lives and in their creativity. I was teaching spontaneous painting at the time and was aware of how most people simply cannot face a blank sheet of paper and wildly paint and draw from the depths of their souls unless they had done a lot of inner psychological work. It is very hard to let go of control and let the repressed parts of ourselves have a voice. As I was driving down the highway I got the message, "Teach collage!" Because the insight came in out of the blue and due to the fact that I had never even tried making a spontaenous collage, I took it seriously and began to explore the idea.

 

Living the Creation

When I tried spontaneous collage I loved it. My spontaneous collages flowed together with ease. As they poured out of me, I could begin to see all aspects of my psyche in full glorious imagery and bright color. Having always had a secret fear that I was not a very interesting person, I began to see myself in full color. I have made hundreds of collages over the years and have come to know myself profoundly. I came to understand that because of our varied, negative and positive experiences we can literally have hundreds of selves that beg to be integrated, properly felt and seen with honor. Some of our selves are more accepted and out front as part of our primary personalities. And many otherselves are much more hidden and rejected inside.

 

Because I have explored the deeper meaning of imagery in my own life, I have come to understand my waking and sleeping life as a living collage. Through my collage work I have come to learn how to "read the meaning" into life and behind events profoundly. Because imagery is the language of the soul, it is much more whole and all-encompassing in it's meaning than language. Life as it is appearing in it's technicolor visual pictures is also symbolic of a deeper spiritual reality. And as my collage practice has deepened I have come to learn to read the symbolic pictures of my life unfolding from a deeper more underlying truth.

 

It is the same with dreams. People often approach me looking at the deeper meaning of their dreams. I see dreams as the many apects of a person's psyche - often conflictual ones - that are trying to reconcile and integrate. This is the similar to making spontaneous collages. We are ever trying to express and reconcile with the rejected parts of ourself, re-own them and love what we have rejected. The journey to healing, authenticity and wholeness is simply to integrate, love and accept all parts of ourselves. When we do, our outer conflicts lesson and we feel less judgement towards other people.

 

Celebrating the Creation

I often say to people that creative vision is slow. When we recieve a large vision such as I did with the insight, "Teach collage!" it often takes years to bring all aspects of self into alignment to live the vision. I initially built a web-site and outlined all my courses even though I had not taught a single collage class. It was more of a case of intuition and a reaching forward into my creation - "Build a web-site and they will come!" Through the process of my creation of "teach collage" life reflected back to me that I was on the right track. People from various corners of the world would write me me and make suggestions for about what they wanted to learn. Following the threads, teaching intuitively, and training to become a registered therapist to ground my vision in the practical world has taken years, with plenty of mis-steps and doubt along the way.

 

Overcoming Creative Doubt

 

"Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads."

 

Whenever you bring something new into creation it will likely be accompanied by doubt and dark misgivings. We may invalidate our ideas and feel there is not much support for them in the world because we do not see anyone else doing it! However our souls intend for us to bring new forms to life even if they come to full fruition beyond our individual lives.We are meant to live into large visions. It gives our lives meaning.

 

What we see through our own hearts is what we are meant to offer to life even if it takes a lifetime or more of our best life energy to create it. The process of creating new forms takes everything within us. We can have our creative vision as our life guiding principle, and it may take years to realize our creative vision because it calls us to round out all the areas of our character which would rather stay small and hidden. 

Because bringing something authentic and new into creation can be so difficult, I see myself as an encourager of creativity. Anytime anyone expresses something true of themselves whether achingly beautiful, or profoundly dark and hidden, I rejoice and celebrate. I love people at any stage of the creative journey from fledgling to exquisitely honed.

 

I often say to people, that we all have creative inklings that we can choose to follow or not. Life in all of it's color and variety will speak to you if you ask it to - because you have intended to express yourself and because you have made the effort. Just begin and your life will express itself to you, through you, and all around you.