When I was In primary school I loved to write stories. I used to fill pages and pages and pages. I really remember writing a story about a witch and as the story unfolded beneath my pen it expanded beyond anything I had imagined.
It grew so big that I filled an entire exercise book. So I took it to my teacher and said it was finished.
When she had read the story she returned my book. Inside she’d written "Keep going, I want to see how it ends!" And had stapled in extra pages.
I still remember how it felt that she believed in me and wanted me to keep exploring and creating. I just wish I’d kept the story because I have no idea how it did finally end it!
I lost my spark
Somewhere along the way from that eager writer to being a grown up in the busy world, I lost track of my creativity for a long time.
It happens to many of us I think. The demands of the world of doing take us further and further away from our playful inner world.
The relentless demands of busy-ness and responsibility and the pressure to be productive at all times is like poison to creativity, The trouble is that when we lose connection to that spark of insight and creativity, we also lose touch with our most precious unique gifts.
What is creativity anyway?
Not everyone is creative in the way our culture can often define it. We’re not all excellent at drawing or able to paint exquisite artwork. Nor are we all gifted writers or photographers.
Maybe we don’t have any discernible "talents" but I don’t believe that any of us aren’t at our core creative beings.
The word creativity comes from the Latin term create "to create, make". As human beings living our lives, we are always involved in the act of creation. We create our own existence, moment by moment, through our thoughts and our actions.
Life doesn’t happen "to" you
Of course there are things that happen that are beyond our control (like a global pandemic for example!). It can be tempting and maybe even understandable to feel like we don’t have choice about what happens to us, that it’s luck or chance.
But imagine if you allowed yourself to believe that you can shape your life every day?
That you could choose how you experience your life.
In fact we do all already have that power and you’ve probably already experienced it.
Here’s two ways that life is always a creation:
1. The different perspective
Have you ever had an argument with someone where they were completely oblivious to how much they’d upset you?
Or the opposite - where you walk away from a conversation and later discover the other person was mortally offended and upset and you didn’t have a clue?
If you have then you know that ‘reality’ is always about your perception. You and the other person experienced the same objective reality. The exact same thing happened to both of you - the same words, the same actions. But because we experience things through the filter of our thoughts, we shape it to be what makes most sense to us.
2. The false memory
Have you ever looked back on old photos and seen how smiling and happy you were and realised that you missed it while it was happening?
Maybe at the time what you remembered was the argument you had earlier in the day or how the sun was too hot and you were uncomfortable. Then in that moment of seeing the picture you realise, with the space of time, that it was actually a lovely experience and you had forgotten to notice.
Conscious Creation
What both of these examples show is that we are actively involved in determining our reality. In fact you could argue that objective reality doesn’t exist at all.
There’s a BIG opportunity that arises from that understanding.
Imagine living your life from a place of acceptance of that knowledge. Believing that you can influence how your life looks and feels by managing your thoughts.
But how?
Exploring how to change your relationship to your thoughts to create your best life is one of the four pillars of the Be.More programme, the 8 week transformation journey I take my clients through to achieve change in their life.
Meditation is the foundation and the scaffolding to transform our lives. But we don’t meditate to get good at meditation, we meditate to get good at life!
Would you like to Be. More?
In April, the next cohort of my Be.More programme will begin. You can find out more details here You need to be a member of my community for the duration of the programme and right now I’m offering free access to my 21 Day Mind Skills programme which is the foundation level for this course. If you know you’re ready to ditch stress and overwhelm and build a life that’s meaningful, then I’d love you to join us. Email Laura@bemodernmeditaton.com if you’d like to chat
Laura @ Be. x
"My life has been filled with terrible misfortunes, most of which have never happened " Mark Twain