Creative Living is for You

An excerpt from the Creative Living with Jamie podcast

Creativity is not only about the arts. Creativity is a way of thinking. It’s a way of being in the world. It’s a way of interacting with the world. And it belongs to you. As a human being, it’s one of the things that defines you. When you open your pantry and concoct tonight’s dinner from what you see, that’s creativity. When you’re wondering, “How will I present this to my boss?” and come up with a solution, that’s creativity. When you wrap a birthday gift for a loved one and it literally becomes a bonbon of celebration, that is creativity. Every moment presents us with opportunities for creative living.

Let’s talk about the art piece. I know a lot of us have been shut down when it comes to the arts. I’ve experienced it myself. I know what it’s like to have someone look at something I created and just sort of go, “Uh-huh,” and move on. I know how devastating that can be. I know what it’s like to pour my heart and soul into something, take the risk of sharing it and then not get chosen. I’ve been there. And these experiences hurt our tender creative hearts. They convince us that somehow we’re not worthy.

People have shared with me so many stories. We may have felt really self-expressed in the visual arts but been shut down as a dancer. We might have felt that we were pretty good at dancing but, man, we could not sing. Lots of us carry around this pain. We’ve been told not to sing so loudly because we sing so badly. We were laughed at when we danced. Our pictures never made it to the fridge or to the gallery. We didn’t get picked for the play. And so we shut down and figured out that the arts were for somebody else, not for us. But that is simply not true.

The arts are for everyone – and that means ALL of the arts and that means for YOU.

 
Everybody gets to dance. All of us have a voice to use and to share and to enjoy. Each of us has something to say and to spill out onto the page. Each of us can experiment with colour and get our hands messy in clay. All of us can have that gorgeous sensual experience of engaging with the arts and encountering our selves. All of the arts belong to all of us.

And our works of art aren’t just our paintings or our stories or our photographs.

Our works of art are our lives.

 
You paint your day. You sing your love. You dance your journey. And it matters.

Listen to the complete podcast episode  here.
Subscribe to the Creative Living with Jamie podcast.

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