Of all the challenges people share with me about creative living, finding the time shows up the most. How do we take time for our creativity when we have demanding jobs, families, schedules, when we have errands, chores, responsibilities? How can we sit down and write morning pages or pull out paints or dance when there are dishes to be done, lunches to be made, bills to be paid?
Here’s the thing. There will always be other things to do – important other things to do. If you wait until everything has settled, until all the to-dos are done, until wide open spaces show up on your datebook, you will be waiting a very long time. Maybe forever.
That’s why it is so important to figure out how to integrate your creativity and your self-expression into your life as it is right now. It may not look like a 3-hour class on a Tuesday night or a whole day of painting or hours on end of delicious writing time but it can be something that will bring you to life, that will nourish your creative heart, that will sustain your creative soul.
When I get really, really hungry, I used to believe that what I needed was lots and lots of food so I’d get myself a really big meal. But what I’ve learned (after many, many way too big meals) is that I don’t need lots of food to satisfy my hunger – I need food now.
This is also true of creative hunger. If we’ve been feeling deprived, perhaps for a very long time, our need for creative expression can be deep, intense and painful. We are ravenous! And in response, we think that the only thing that will satisfy our need is to dedicate our whole lives to our art, to quit our day jobs, to be painting/writing/photographing/decorating/designing all day, every day. And when that seems unattainable, we get frustrated, overwhelmed, depressed and angry. We give up (at least for now). We stay put and we stay hungry.
Now, it may be true that our heart’s desire is to become a full-time artist of one kind or another, but it may also be true that what we really need is something creative RIGHT NOW. We need to make a flower arrangement or create a stellar outfit or go to a coffee shop and write a poem. And tomorrow, our creative appetite needs to be satisfied again. And the next day, we need to be fed again. And again. And again. And again.
So start today. Find one way to invite creativity into your life as it is right now. How can you express yourself today? What can you make more beautiful, more interesting, more provocative? Where can you let your mind wander and explore? What words can you choose? What outfit will you try? Write one sentence. Take one picture. Draw for 3 minutes. Dance to one song. Sing along.
You are a creative spirit every day. Bring your self to life.
Enjoyed it? Share it.
Email It | Tweet It | Stumble It | Digg It | Save to Delicious
Subscribe to the blog.
Get the blog in your inbox.
Follow me on Twitter
Join me on Facebook
Subscribe to Podcast
{ 16 comments }
This is such great advice that will help so many people. Thank you!
What a good analogy. Just a snack can satisfy hunger and just Doing Somethng can help us to feel creative. Who, short of retirement, is going to have endless hours of time to fill with painting or writing?
Great advice, Jaimie! Thanks for a great website!
So true Jamie (and I discovered the same thing about chocolate – you don’t actually need to eat the whole bar!). I am finding that little doses of creativity are very good for the soul… Now I just need to get around to completing my tax form…
What? You don’t have to eat the whole bar!? ;) Love it!
Wish you had told me this a few pounds ago!! :)
This post is dead on. It’s so easy not to start even being creative because you don’t have the right studio space, a block of 3-4 hours to work, the perfect idea…or any other of the excuses we let get in our way. There are so many ways to incorporate creativity in our lives (cooking, parenting, dancing, painting, organizing, etc..) that just showing up is the first step to achieving the big, loft creative goals.
Thank you for the reminder that I want to put my creativity first…even if its only 15 minutes today!
love your website, as i have said before.
and this was super! thank you so much for sharing.
annie
This is one of those things that just makes me want to shout YES!
Because it feels so true to me.
It’s so easy to let the day get eaten by busy. To wait for some time that may never come.
Making space for our creative schtuff is so important. Even if that space looks more like little bite sized nuggets instead of a five course meal.
I always start my day with sound stuff. Always. No matter how busy the rest of the day looks, I make sure I have at least five minutes where I can drum or chant or play the bowls.
Sometimes I have 15 minutes. Or 30 minutes. And those are delicious days.
But I make sure I always have some time every day. That’s what keeps me going.
I love the idea of starting with the creative stuff first! I started my day with dancing, Fabeku! Thanks for the idea!
Great post! Thanks for reminding us that there’s so many different ways to express our creativity, we just need to think a little differently.
Well said! Thanks so much. This is very inspiring for me.
Your words came at the perfect time for me. I have spent so much time lamenting “not having the time” and now I am in the process of relearning how to be creative and exactly how I want to express myself. I love the idea of starting the day with creativity as Fabeku suggested; putting the important stuff first, not the stuff we have been “trained” is important. Thank you all for your inspiration.
Right on Jamie! This insight is indeed nourishing for our creative souls. I think I’ll go do a little Happy Dance right now!
oh yes! i remember sitting in a job for way to long, stifling every bit of creative energy, and feeling dead inside. we all need creativity. and…i like to think of it in comparison to having children. who really sits down and says i have absolutely everything i need in place perfectly…and now i will have a child?! we make the time, money and space that we didn’t know we were capable of creating until we did it.
Thank you so much for this Jamie… you touched on just about everything I’ve been feeling, and yet…have been starving myself creatively a bit…hve to learn to give myself permission to create, and then to move on with the day…to learn I don’t have to gorge myself in creativity, and then feel bad ’cause nothing else got done.. what a cycle! I’m feeling energyzed now..and will once again I will “begin again.” Thank you. ;
This is such an important message..it is so easy to get so caught up in the fast pace of the world and forget to be still enough to feed our spirits. I have a friend who resents that I stay at home and create as my full time job. She is actually one of the people who have told me to “get a job like everyone else.” I realise this is coming from a place of pain for her. What frustrates me is that when I try to encourage her to find even the smallest place and time to express her creativity, she says she has no time. I don’t believe this is always the truth. It is about priorities..if we really look at how much time we waste on things that don’t matter…pointless t.v. shows that means nothing to us, hours on the phone, even being on the computer too much…there is usually some time that could be made if we prioritized what is really important to us. I am not perfect at this by any means..I just think that if you have a thirst for creativity, it is because it is a need that needs to be filled. Otherwise, you would not feel so desperate to have it…and the idea that you can satiate that hunger with the smallest particle is a real gift to those who think you have to have all or nothing. Thanks for this! I will share it with my friend…
Comments on this entry are closed.
{ 1 trackback }