The Creator's Way

Apparently, I’ve been trying to get myself to start this blog since 2013. Last week I reopened abandoned, unposted blogs from 2013 saying the exact same shit I keep getting stuck on today. That being that I'm struggling to get my writing past sharing all the reasons I’ve been avoiding writing a blog, and how uncomfortable I am sharing my writing voice publicly.

I wasn’t sure if I should approach this fear head on and share it with you, dear reader, or if this was the stuff to keep in my journals. Who wants to read about how scared I am to get this blog started? I know I need to push through fear, so I just have to start this first post by confronting it head on.

Fear blocks creativity. I know there are people out there who say they don’t have a creative bone in their body, but I think it’s a natural part of being a human - self-expression through some sort of action that bring the expressions of your thughts into existence. People become so intimidated by the arts. They think if they can’t make something perfect, they shouldn’t make it at all. Well, I say fuck that. We all need creative outlets. For now, mine is writing.

The idea for this blog is to commit myself to writing a weekly, optional biweekly post on the array of topics that help me find ways I try to improve my experience of life. I am shamelessly obsessed with self-help. Scoff all you like, but if it wasn’t for Brene Brown calling me to be vulnerable, or Mel Robins kicking my ass with her podcasts, or Jay Shetty putting out the most powerful love and support into our shared consciousness, I wouldn’t be writing this blog. If it wasn’t for Rich Roll and Andrew Huberman, I’m not sure I would be engaging in all the habits that help me function. I wouldn’t be laughing out loud daily if it weren’t for Smartless, or the Conan O’brian Needs a Friend podcast.

I could just keep going, there are so many more voices that keep me company during the day. I can’t turn this into an actual list though, because I’m digressing. But I like the idea of amplifying their voices. I’m not sure if all of these people consider themselves to be in the self-help category, but I use their content to help myself so that’s what they are for me.

I imagine I will reference a lot of my self-help gurus in coming posts. You may have noticed that this blog post is titled, “the Creator’s Way.” That’s a big wink to Julia Cameron who wrote the lifechanging book the Artist’s Way. Actually, hang on, let me go in order here. Let me start with the ultimate guide, the original creator, the force that creates the energy that expresses itself in the existence of every single particle of the universe, and inside ourselves. This force goes by many names.

Meditation can bring you to a broader perspective of this force, to the point where you begin to understand you are not separate from the force, you are a piece of it. Let’s call the force, God. Though I like that Julie Piatt calls it the One Breath, I think more people will understand what I mean by god. It’s not that god is inside of you, it’s that you are inside of god. God being the energy or force that makes the trees grow and the sun shine and our brains operate.

It’s the force of creativity. That is how I think we are meant to engage ourselves in times of security. When we have the luxury to be bored and use it to be introspective, we are meant to create.  

Perfectionism can produce amazing creations into the world, but I think it prohibits more creations than it enables. We decide we don’t have the right skills to paint. We think if we can’t make anything amazing we shouldn’t create at all. I call bull shit. I think that’s fear. To those people who say they have no artistic ability and can’t even draw a straight line, I say, so don’t draw a straight line. But draw. Putting all your focus and energy into applying pencil to paper is so meditative. Especially if you let go of your perfectionism.

Human beings have evolved to do certain things to stay alive, healthy, and happy. Get sunlight, eat from the earth, run for their lives when necessary, and conversely, when possible, relax and enjoy. I’ve heard it been said that this is the best time in world history to be a human. Allegedly the highest percentage of the human population have access to food, water, and safety. (That’s as specific as the data is gonna get here, people. This aint a fucking research blog).

Unfortunately, we deprive ourselves of certain needs like sun and food from the earth. As a result, our bodies, and via our body’s brain, the mind is negatively impacted. With the invention of smartphones we also place ourselves into an incessant trance, putting our focus into watching and appreciating other people’s creative work.

Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t be able to relax and enjoy other people’s creativity. The entire point of creativity is to entertain. Not all creativity is meant to entertain an audience, but all creativity is meant to entertain at least the creator.

I might even argue the entire point of creation, our very existence, is to entertain the creator. I want to propose a hypothesis to you, dear reader, that in addition to sun and food from the earth, if we want our brains and our minds to expand to its full capacity, we have to stimulate our creative senses. What could be a better signal for the mind to relax and expand than to be in a state of such safety and relaxation that it can shift from existing in the present environment into the creative process.

What could be a better signal of peace to the brain than creativity? It’s that state of pure and pleasant relaxation and play that small children engage in so well when there’s still no such thing as self-consciousness. It is so therapeutic to get rid of one’s self-consciousness for a while.

I believe journaling is one of the most sacred habits. I learned this by doing the Artist’s Way’s 12 step program (thank you, Julia Cameron). Writing your thoughts out and bringing them into physical and shared consciousness seems divine. I’ve probably also been influenced by my Jewish upbringing, in which the written word as well as shared knowledge through word of mouth is so crucial to the Jewish religion. 

My blog comes from a place of intended service. I realize that sounds kind of self-aggrandizing to suggest that I can provide some sort of service to my readers just by letting them read things I think about and do. Why should anyone care. No one asked. I am literally an expert in nothing. I sometimes hear people who know me say I’m an artist. I agree that I do seem to be among a group of people more naturally inclined to create.

In the past I have been a person who was not naturally inclined to do much else, particularly when it came to tending to my physical needs. My mind and body became profoundly disconnected and I neglected my body enough to make myself very sick.

My point is, I’ve done a lot of work on myself. I dare say I’ve grown. I won’t list my hardships here. We need not compare hardships to deem someone’s shared wisdom worthy or unworthy.

I don’t know if I will reveal anything profound here in this blog-o-sphere. The thing is that I have a voice and I feel like I’m holding it in by not sharing. I’m going to bring this back to “god” for a second. I am not a particularly religious person anymore, though I have been in the past, but I am an extremely spiritual person. Being a more religious Jew in the past has shaped the lens through which I perceive spirituality.

In Judaism, we are taught that we are created in the image of god. View that through the lens that is me, my upbringing, my experientially formed beliefs, and what that means is, from my perspective we are all some version of god. That force of life exists in all of us. We have the force of god in us.

Nothing in the universe is separate as it seems. We are all part of one greater whole. And that whole is holy. So we need to honor it and honor ourselves. And for god’s sake, literally, we need to honor the natural world.

Alright my dear reader. I appreciate you making space in your world for my thoughts. I am signing off for now, but remember you are godly. Creating is one of our essential needs (I think) so honor your creative voice. Honor your body. Give it sunlight, food from the earth, movement, community. Give yourself time and space to create. Protect the natural world.