Keep Creating
Why do I go on and on about the importance of having a creative practice? Because I have seen time and again for myself and for my clients that filling a page with paint, doodles, magazine cutouts, lists, scribbles, journal entries – whatever comes out – builds a lifeline, a way to emerge from confusion, anger and despair into a place of possibility.
A creative practice is a way to reconnect with yourself and what matters most to you.
I recently watched a Ted Talk with Amie McNee. She talks about how necessary it is to make art when the world is on fire. Why? Because a creative practice teaches you about making something out of nothing.
Speaking in an animated way, Amie wears a vivid orange floor length coat – her feet are bare. Ah, this woman is strange, you can’t help but think. She is daring to be herself.
She says that the creative practice of MAKING something gives us agency, which is all the more important when we’re living in a world with problems so huge that we feel small, inconsequential and helpless.
The way we feel most of the time becomes the way that we feel all of the time. Small, inconsequential, helpless – there’s no point, we say. Before we know it, it has become a practice, this way of thinking, then feeling — small, helpless, not helpful, inconsequential.
We need art BECAUSE the world is on fire, she says, because we have to learn to have agency.
What a Creative Practice Gives You
Her words remind me that humans are master extrapolators. Capable of extending the application of what we learn in one situation to another situation.
That is, we can learn something in one situation and then find a way to apply that learning to another situation. And at first, it may not seem as if there is a practice that is relevant and applicable. But if we are patient and curious, noticing what we are learning, then we can see how to apply that learning to another situation.
The container of a creative practice allows you to experiment with thoughts, feelings and observations in a contained way, which then helps you to go outside the practice container and be different, act differently. In the container, you can explore and reflect on how you are:
Practicing appreciation,
Practicing curiosity,
Practicing willingness to make a mistake,
Practicing getting support, asking questions, being humble,
Practicing receiving.
If you are willing, anything can be an entry point for creating.
Being willing to not know what you will create generates a field of possibility.
Try it:
- Grab crayons, markers, paint. Whatever you have.
- Look around you and write down three things you see.
- Look inside you (maybe close your eyes) to notice your feelings. Then write down three sensations or emotions.
- Then turn to the page and doodle, paint color, write words inspired by your observations.
- It doesn’t have to make sense. Just allow.
Create your own container of possibility. Create because the world is on fire and we need you.
