Gustav Carl Jung says: “The creation of something new is not achieved by the intellect, but by the instinct of play, acting from an inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.”
Art is a spiritual exchange, and creativity is the natural order of life. Life is pure creative energy.
When we open ourselves to our creativity, we also give the universe’s creativity a chance to manifest through us. When someone feels inspired, we say “the spirit is expressing itself through them.” Inspiration opens the door to creativity, to original new ideas, to problem-solving, and to new possibilities for our personal growth.
As we awaken our creative channel, many subtle—and other powerful—changes begin to unfold. Art is an act of faith.
Whether we know it or not, there is always a creative energy that wants to express itself through you. Creativity is a plant that, with just a little water and care from you, gives back abundant foliage.
Emotional blocks
To talk about this, there is a question that is always helpful to ask:
Do you remember what you wanted to be as a child? What were your hobbies and what did you dream about? What did you play and what stories did you tell yourself? And as a teenager?
Many of us, because of different life experiences, come to believe and fear that if we long for creative dreams, we are being selfish. If our parents at some point disapproved of or doubted what we dreamed of, the certainty we once had weakened and turned into self-doubt. That is how these desires were buried and forgotten. This is what is called a block.
Creative longings can take many forms, such as learning to play the piano, painting, taking dance or acting classes, or writing, to name a few.
We may also have other creative needs that are less defined, but that we hope will bring a new direction to how we live—at work, or in relationships with family and friends.
There is a way to discover this creativity that lives within us by exploring and observing our own spiritual process. Specifically, this happens when we pay attention to the anger or sadness that this inner search stirs up in us, and also to our resistance, our desires, and our hope.
We experience all of this when we return to our past, trying to recover the inspiration we once had and to face the “no’s” or walls we encountered—those that led us to step back from the great ideas or dreams we once held about ourselves.
In this way, we block certain aspirations in life because we may have sacrificed our own dreams for those of others. We put more energy into protecting a relationship or prioritizing other people’s dreams. Perhaps we did not know how to be assertive or set the boundaries we needed at the time.
One of the main ingredients of self-esteem is emotional support. Our need as creative beings is support. Unfortunately, this can be difficult to find in life. Ideally, we would be encouraged and nurtured first by our family core and later by friends, teachers, and people further out in our circle. However, it is very likely that we did not receive the support we needed to develop and pursue the aspirations we longed for in our younger years.
Feelings of inadequacy not only cause low self-esteem but also make us doubt our potential as artists. This is why many people who want to be creative hide in the shadow of what they might have been.
Just as creativity can be blocked in childhood and adulthood by our environment, the expression of a person’s authentic emotions is also affected.
The creative process can be wounded by childhood hurts that cause us to bury much of who we truly are. We can be intimidated to the point of blocking our artistic side. Difficulties in our early bonds create a low sense of self-worth that keeps us from recognizing ourselves and gets in the way of our artistic dreams. As a result, people remain “shadow artists,” choosing careers or hobbies adjacent to their artistic desire, but not art itself.
For example, a child born with a fascination for storytelling may grow up to be a therapist who listens to other people’s stories—because they have stopped listening to their own. Another example is an art critic who might actually be an artist suffering from creative block.
How do we know we are creatively blocked? Feeling jealous of others is an important clue. Are there people or artists you resent? Do you tell yourself, “I could do that if only…”?
Our artistic window
How do we recognize and return to our intact, unaltered truth—our essence?
It takes inner strength to face the world and be loyal to the artist within. It means confronting authority figures and fighting to protect our essence.
Social context plants doubts in us throughout life about who we want to be and which dreams we want to pursue. Deep down, we know we carry a dream, a feeling, an urge, or a desire we want to manifest, but we do not know how. If we manage to nurture ourselves as people, we will also succeed as artists.
For many shadow artists, life feels disjointed, without meaning or purpose. Many want to write, paint, sing, act, dance… but are afraid to leap and take themselves seriously as artists.
To leave the shadows and step into the light of creativity, we must start taking ourselves seriously as artists—with a deliberate yet gentle effort to nurture our inner artist, play with creativity, and allow ourselves this joy.
As Joseph Chilton Pearce says: “To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.”
We must protect the artist within by becoming aware of the following:
We have to remember that our artist is a child we must first find so we can protect them. Learning to let ourselves create is like learning to walk. Along the way, there will be falls. Early creative projects—poems, paintings, music, or anything else—will gradually improve as we reconnect with the artist inside.
Do not judge yourself. Judging early efforts as an artist is a form of self-sabotage.
In recovering from creative blocks, it is necessary to move gently and slowly, because what we are doing is healing old wounds. The focus is on artistic progress, not perfection.
We must be patient with the process of blooming as artists, even if we desperately want to be extraordinary from the start.
There will be many moments when we do not feel good enough—for ourselves or for others—and that is why we must accept ourselves and stop demanding perfection. It is impossible to improve and look good at the same time. To reclaim the inner artist, we must pass through some darkness to find our bright, creative side.
Inner enemies: negative beliefs
Most of the time, when we are blocked in some area of life, it is because we feel safer that way. We may not be happy, but at least we know where we stand. Much of the fear we have about experiencing our own creativity comes from fear of the unknown.
When we want to open up creatively, we face doubts and questions like: If I become fully creative, what will that mean for my life? What will happen to me and to others when I express myself creatively? These questions are rooted in negative thoughts about what might happen if we express our emotions and life purpose through art in any of its forms. That is why we often choose to stay blocked instead of discovering our inner world.
To uncover and confront our negative thoughts, we can look at the following common beliefs and begin to consciously release them from our inner world:
- Everyone will hate me.
- I will hurt or offend my family and friends.
- I will abandon my family and friends.
- I do not know how to write.
- I do not have good ideas.
- I will have to be alone.
- I will do a bad job without realizing it and look like a fool.
- I will feel very angry.
- I will never have money.
- My partner will leave me.
- I will feel bad because I do not deserve to be successful.
- I will create just one work of art and nothing else.
- It is too late. If I was not an artist before, I certainly am not now.
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We need to remember that not everything we think is true—our negative thoughts included. These thoughts are shaped by our parents, religion, culture, and the fears of others, and each of them reflects our ideas about what it means to be or become an artist. All of this external influence shapes our self-concept.
Beliefs or negative thoughts are just that: beliefs, not facts. Underneath them lies fear, and negative thoughts keep us afraid. These thoughts attack our sexuality, intelligence, ability to love, and capacity to be creative.
Each negative belief has an opposite or a positive alternative, and we can practice turning what hurts us into an opportunity for healing.
Exercise: artistic window
- What do I know about myself that others do not know?
- What do others know about me that I do not know?
- What do I not know about myself, and others do not know either?
- What do I know about myself that others also know?
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The leap of faith
“Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in life has a purpose.” – Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Creativity requires faith, and faith requires letting go of control. This scares us and creates resistance.
Our resistance to our creativity is a self-destructive way of treating ourselves. We sabotage ourselves to maintain the illusion of control and to avoid change.
Each of us has a dream we can make real if we find the courage to admit what that dream is. For this to happen, we must trust our inner voice, which guides us toward where we need to go.
To rebuild trust in our creativity, we must take a leap of faith into the parts of ourselves we do not yet know.
Leap of faith
The shift toward spiritual dependence is gradual. We have been making this shift slowly and steadily. Each day, we become more truthful, honest, and loyal to ourselves and more open to what is positive. Over time, this also transforms our relationships.
We begin to speak more from our truth, listen more deeply to the truth of others, and adopt a generous attitude that includes both ourselves and those around us.
We become less judgmental toward ourselves and others.
Relying on the creator within us frees us from all other dependencies. It is true freedom from attachment and, paradoxically, the only path to real intimacy with others.
When we free ourselves from the terror of abandonment, we can live more spontaneously. When we loosen our need for rigid security, others can love us back without feeling burdened.
As we listen to our inner artist-child, it will feel increasingly safe. Feeling safe, it will speak more loudly and clearly. Even on our worst days, a small, positive voice will say: “You can still do this,” or “It would be fun to try that.”
One barrier to accepting the great creator—the generous universe—is our limited idea of what we can achieve. Even when we clearly hear the creative voice and its message, we often dismiss it as crazy or impossible. On one hand, we take ourselves too seriously; on the other, we do not want to look foolish for reaching toward something “unattainable.”
When we remember that the universe is our source, we place ourselves in the position of having an unlimited spiritual bank account. We rarely consider how powerful this creative force truly is. Instead, we impose limits on the power available to us. We ration it for ourselves, and when we receive a gift beyond what we imagined, we often send it back.
It may sound as if this chapter were about a magic wand—ask the universe and it appears. Sometimes it really does feel that way. But we must remember that we have gone through an inner cleansing, written our morning pages, and made space for magic and synchronicity. Little by little, our vision of what we want becomes clearer. We learn to accept small pieces of that vision, and one day, it materializes. In short: pray to catch the bus, then run as fast as you can.
The first thing we must believe is that we are capable of catching that bus. We must believe that everyone has access to the universe so we do not feel guilty for receiving abundance. Because abundance is available to all, accepting it does not mean taking it away from someone else.
We are often stingy with ourselves because we believe our luck has a limit. We treat the universe like a strict parent deciding what we do and do not deserve. When we remember that the universe is a source, a flow of energy that loves to expand, we become more able to receive what we desire.
The universe is a multimillionaire, overflowing with resources: countless film ideas, novels, poems, plays, paintings, loves, friendships, houses, dream jobs, and more. Sometimes we cannot find enough supply because we look for it in a single person, when the search must begin and end within ourselves. We need to let the flow show up how and where it wants to—not only how we want it to.
Believing that the universe is your source of supply is, in itself, an effective plan. It helps prevent negative codependency and anxiety and reassures us that we will be provided for. Our only work is to pay attention to how this provision arrives.
One way to pay attention is to write morning pages. At night, before bed, make a list of the areas where you need guidance. In the morning, as you write about those same areas, you will discover new paths. Try this two-step process: ask for answers before you sleep and receive them when you wake.
