Creativity in every form empowers.
The truth is that not everyone is an artist. Some people don’t have the spark or find joy in painting, writing, sculpting, acting, singing, woodworking, or any other creative endeavor you can imagine.
That doesn’t mean, however, that non-artists aren’t creatives. The truth is that everyone is a creative. Some forms of creativity and making are so mundane, overlooked, or taken for granted that people are denied or deny themselves a belief in being creative.
Why does this matter? Because change is the only constant in the Universe, and it’s frequently created in one form or another. Stories are told, colors come together to form pictures, materials are assembled to build homes, and new life is born of creative acts literal and figurative.
Some people are led to believe that if they aren’t an artist, they’re not a creative. This is simply untrue. The trouble is that the power of empowerment that being creative sparks is frequently disregarded, lessened, and treated as less worthy.
Let’s explore this in greater detail.
Mundane activities of creativity
Here’s a list of actions you might take on any given day that you consider mundane. Dull. Routine. Yet, in truth, they’re creative. Because they’re creative, they can empower you. How? Active conscious awareness – mindfulness – of them.
Creative activities of this ilk include:
- Choosing what you wear when you start your day.
- Making a meal, whether from scratch or preparing and plating something.
- Choosing any route you walk or drive.
- Writing any email, social media post, direct message, and the like.
- Signing your name.
- Choosing any exercise, whether weightlifting, stretching, walking, and so forth.
- Starting any conversation with another person. You’re creating as you converse.
- Doing household chores. Vacuuming, dusting, cleaning, organizing, and the like create a clean space.
Most, if not all of the above, are easily disregarded as just being or not creative. Yet, consider that each act above, if you think about it and feel it out in doing it, is a creative act.
Do the above by rote, routine, and habit, and of course, you won’t think of them as creative in the slightest. Yet, in truth they are.
Recognizing and acknowledging the inherent creativity in the above opens you to seeing yourself as a creative.
It doesn’t take an artist to be a creative
Why are such things disregarded for their creativity? Because society loves labels.
Look at how you label yourself. My labels include male, short, stout, American, liberal, Jewish, cis-gendered, dark-eyed, deep-voiced, middle-aged, and lots of others. Most of these labels are simple and largely accurate. They’re neutral, in and of themselves.
Many other labels you encounter regularly might begin as neutral, but get weaponized in some way or other. These include immigrant, refugee, Jewish, “woke”, woman, homosexual, trans, and lots of others.
Labels are too frequently used to disempower by creating a group to be oppressed, disregarded, ignored, and maltreated. What’s more, labels often deny humanity.
Artist is a label applied specifically to artistic creators. You know these labels – writer, painter, singer, seamstress, and so on. Some artistic creators and swaths of society will suggest that non-artistic people aren’t creatives.
That’s not true. See the previous list of mundane activities of creativity. So, why call non-artists non-creators? Disempowerment.
If acts of creativity are empowering, then denying creativity – or someone being a creative – is an act of disempowerment.
Why is that done? Because of false beliefs in lack, scarcity, and insufficiency, as well as artifices put in place to make some groups and people feel powerful (which seems to require making other groups disempowered, disenfranchised, and the like).
When you recognize and acknowledge mundane activities of creativity, that’s the first step. To be empowered by this comes down to practicing active conscious awareness.
Mindfulness of a creative
Active conscious awareness is mindfulness. Mindfulness, in this practical application, is being present and aware, here and now. With that present awareness, you open yourself up to recognizing what you’re thinking, what and how you’re feeling, what you intend, if your approach to the present matter is positive or negative, and what actions you do or don’t take.
Hence, choosing what you wear. Done subconsciously, you simply throw clothes on. Done consciously, you might be more creative. You make choices about material, color, cut, fit, and other bits that go into dressing yourself.
It might seem like very little, but it’s still a creative endeavor. What’s more, it’s empowering. Why? Because you’ve made choices.
The basis of empowerment is active choice. You choose anything at all, you’ve taken the power into your own hands. This is how the mundane like signing your name to something becomes creative. Look at the shape and lines and swirls of your signature, feel how you hold a pen, and consider the swoop of the movement when you sign something. The spot was blank before you did a creative thing and signed your name to it. That was a choice.
Choosing is empowering. Creating and being a creative in any form empowers. You are worthy and deserving of recognizing this because you deserve to have the power to create your life experience, whether you’re an artist or not. Because no matter who you are, you ARE a creative in your own way. That empowers you to do (or create) virtually anything you can conceive of.
Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey with you, I conclude with this: How are you inspired to be your own creator – whatever form that takes?
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