Creativity Enhancement
Living The Creative Life - Make More Mud Pies!
By Corrie Woods
Jul 13, 2008

Sandra Magsamen once said, “To be human is to be creative. You don’t have to go outside yourself to find creativity – You already have it. It lives in your heart and mind in every moment of every day.” As people we are each born to create; some people create children, some art, some a life they love and some a world of confusion.

At times, in the middle of our busy lives, we do not remember that we have ALL the power. It is our choice to embrace joy, love, comfort and freedom or frustration, loss, emptiness and suffering as a way of life. Creative living is not just for artists, musicians or fashion designers. Creative living is for everyone and when creativity becomes the cornerstone of your day-to-day experience you uncover passion, fervor and excitement you didn’t even know was there.

Living the Creative Life: Inspire the Child Within
A downpour on a hot summer afternoon was always a call to action for my two children. As soon as the clouds parted and the sun came back out, they would spill out the door to do the inevitable – squishing bare toes in the ooze of soft dirt and making mud pies from a secret family recipe. A bit of this, some special gravel from the bank behind the house, a few leaves, an herbal powder of mashed greens plucked out of the garden with clenched hands and . . . Voila!

What made those times, and many times like them, so magical was the wild abandon with which my children created their masterpieces. No worries about doing it right or wrong, no concerns about messing up clothes, no hesitation. The quality of curiosity, of wonder and of beauty in all their creative endeavors wafted in the air like an old time rose heavy with blooms.

It is interesting how easily creative freedom slips by as you grow older. You worry: How will I look? What will they think? What if I fail? All these worries creep into your language and beliefs. The view of what is possible narrows, your resourcefulness to see past the obvious is dulled, and the creative spirit that pranced about unabashed gets tucked away in the shadows of a cobwebbed corner. Whether you are stuck in career burnout or caregiver burnout rekindling your creative spark requires a call to action, it requires change!

Living an extraordinary life requires that you infuse it with a creative spark. Fan the flames of that spark and it becomes a creative bonfire. The more intention you bring to nurturing creativity in your life, the more resourceful, motivated and playful you become. Try having a conversation with yourself. What activities make you feel joyful? What are your favorite creative outlets? Would you feel different if you tried creative living?

Play more music, dance more freely, learn to splash brilliant colors on a canvas, write more poetry, stitch a colorful line across colorful fabric, see more possibilities in every direction, inspire innovations, transform the ordinary into the extraordinary and live amazing experiences. Coax your creativity out of the corner and celebrate its return home!