“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” — Aristotle
Have ever been in or felt a creative slump? Feeling uninspired, or perhaps burnt out? Days where everything feels like an uphill battle and you seem to run into roadblock after roadblock.
The more resistance you feel the harder you seem to try. You ignore the inner guidance and just try to push through. Yet often the harder you push against the resistance the stronger it seems to grow.
The things you’re working on keep running into problems, so you keep trying harder. Often when you are running into such resistance, it is the Universe trying to send you a message. The more you resist, the louder it gets. It starts as whispers within of urges or feelings of burnt out, whispers of maybe you need to slow down, take a break or try something new.
The message is not to give up on your dreams, no. The message if you listen is trying to tell you to take a pause, go within, and pivot. There is more than one path to take to accomplishing your dreams. If your creative spirit is feeling stuck, stifled or stagnant, it is time to listen to what it needs.
The creative spirit is the same spirit that produces life and that allows you to build on your dreams. It is an energy that can be tapped into, but is not something that can be forced.
You must learn to honor it, protect it, and nourish it.
The creative spirit does not care how much money you want to make or the recognition you get. The creative spirit cares about spreading empathy, knowledge and inspiring others to tap into their own creative spirit and sense of wonder. It has morals and guidelines. The creative spirit has honor.
“There is a creative spirit in you desiring to be free, and you may as well get out of its way for it will give you no peace until you do.” — May Caroline Richards
If you find yourself procrastinating, feeling uninspired or burnt out, have you considered that the creative spirit may just be tired of your demands? Consider the way you have been stepping into this companionship, as it is a relationship you have.
What if instead of conforming to the societal pressures of mass producing content, you focused more on quality instead of quantity. The creative spirit does not care about chasing what the ego desires. It wants to explore, experiment and play. Slow your pace, and give room for rest and play. Watch your creativity begin anew again. Like a wilted flower blooming into its full beauty once again.
Creativity thrives in spaces of joy and curiosity. The space of curiosity understands that the pressure of perfectionism and rigid expectation need to gently be put to the side at times. These systems and structures are designed for mass output, but not for authentic play.
Just like a child, your creative spirit flourishes in the spaces of wonder and curiosity. The spaces that go deep within the mind and awaken the spirit. It takes diving deep within these depths to sprout new ideas that the world may never have seen or felt before.
It urges you to embrace moments of solitude and stillness.
You are faced with distractions and to-do lists daily and you will need to choose wisely to allow your mind to roam freely and your imagination untethered. You will need to learn to be present.
The following three tips below will help gently cultivate a beautiful relationship with your creative spirit. One that is carefree, playful and limitless.
PLAY
Your creativity cannot be fully controlled, despite your best efforts. The magic cannot be predicted. If you try to control your creativity you just become a machine in an assembly line. You have to create the necessary space for your creativity to come out and play.
Allowing time for play is your creative spirit’s playground. This type of freedom creates space and freedom to let your creativity wander unleashed. To let your mind daydream and think of all the possibilities. To let your heart wander and dream of all that could be.
Sometimes when you keep yourself too tightly restricted to societal pressures of what success looks like, you set limits to your limitless potential. Your creativity wants the freedom to just be, to play and be unleashed. Allow time to play and be playful with your art. Allow time to let your inner child run free.
“Imagination is a flame that ignites the creative spirit. Imagination lights up your mind by stroking mental fires. It can be stimulated from the outside through the senses, or from the inside through the driving power of curiosity and discontent.” — Wilferd Peterson
REST
Your creativity does not live inside strict deadlines and structures. The creative spirit likes to flow with flexible rhythms. Yet, it is possible to be in a flow and execute at the same time, you just need to be patient with the rhythm it wants to flow into.
Allow for periods of rest. When you push yourself too hard constantly trying to achieve and not give yourself anytime for rest in between, it can lead to burnout. We live in a hustle culture where grinding hard everyday to no end is given accolades and a sign of achievement. We don’t give enough praise to periods of rest.
You may feel you are slacking or underachieving by giving into these periods of rest. But what if these periods of rest were more productive than you gave them credit for. What if these periods of rest gave you insights to where the next steps along your journey need to be taken. What if these periods of rest allowed your creative spirit to be free.
Give yourself the gift of rest. You are nurturing yourself and your creative spirit all in one moment.
EXPLORE
Curiosity is one of the most powerful things you own. Curiosity is the creative spirit’s playground. Following the path of your own curiosity and seeing where it leads will ignite what lays dormant within your subconscious mind.
Into the depths of your conscious mind and deep into the subconscious layers is where the true creative spirit lies. Allow it to unfold as gently as the petals of a flower. Allow the little sparks of curiosity to lead you down paths towards your wildest dreams.
Allow for periods to explore new things. Explore new things about yourself, creative endeavors, and ideas thought up. Allow yourself to try things you’ve never done before. Give yourself the grace to be bad at something new.
Everyone has to start at the beginning when trying something new. Be gentle with yourself in those first few steps you take. You never know where that new journey might lead. If you never give yourself the chance to explore new realms, you will never give yourself the opportunity to find your true potential.
There is beauty in the unknown. There is beauty in the journey of self discovery. There is beauty in allowing yourself the freedom and the space to explore new ideas and creative sparks. You never know where it might lead.
Final Thoughts
Do not fully fixate on the end result. Creativity is not about a destination. It’s about a journey that slowly unfolds with every brush stroke, picture captured, film taken, words written and ideas explored. Your creativity is a spiritual journey and as you allow it to unfold the more you will discover yourself.
Your creative endeavors are not bound by external expectations or validations. Do not limit yourself within the walls of expectation and external validation. Your creative spirit wants to be free, free to express yourself authentically and explore all the depths of your imagination.
Allow yourself the freedom and space to be playful, to allow time for rest, and to let your imagination roam and explore new possibilities. These activities will nurture your creative spirit and everything that it desires to express and be.
“The world that we must seek is a world in which the creative spirit is alive, in which life is an adventure full of joy and hope, based rather upon impulse to construct than upon the desire to retain what we possess or to seize what is possessed by others.” — Bertrand Russell
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