A Fountain of Youth

There IS a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.
 — Sophia Lore

Living Your Passion and Using Your Creativity

Authentic living means that we live our passion. Perhaps your dreams and passions were deferred for the first half of your life. It is time to correct that mistake. This is your chance to build a life that is regret proof.

Once again, it is a matter of really being in touch with the inner you and being absolutely honest about what you learn. Get out your journal and let your inner wisdom and intuition answer questions such as: If I could do anything, what would I do? What matters to me? What brings me joy? How do I want to spend my day? What do I do where I lose track of time? What do I love?

Your passion is not exactly like anyone else's. You are unique and meant to do what is in your heart to do. The world needs your style, panache, and skills. Believe in yourself and let your ideas shine. Are you ready to live life like it matters?

Write out a plan for how you can live out your passions. Write a mission statement for the second half of your life.

Aging and Creativity

The aging brain resembles the creative brain in several ways. The aging brain is more distractible and somewhat more disinhibited than the younger brain, and so is the creative brain. Aging brains score better on tests of IQ, and creative brains use

According to Gene Cohen, author of The Creative Age: Awakening Human Potential in the Second Half of Life, creativity plays an important role in healthy aging. Preliminary findings in Cohen’s new national study demonstrate that seniors actively engaged in creative activities have significantly better overall mental and physical health, including fewer falls and doctor’s visits; less use of medications; fewer vision problems; less loneliness and depression; and an increased level of involvement in other activities.

Creativity isn't just the arts. It is also found in biology, chemistry, astronomy, mathematics, etc. Creative thinking enhances our life and helps us to solve problems.
The benefits of creativity are many. It improves mental and emotional health. It gives a person a fresh perspective, strengthens our morale, improves our well-being, and makes us more emotionally resilient to life's adversities and losses. It improves our physical health. It makes us feel better overall and improves our outlook. This benefits our immune system and general physical health. It enriches our relationships with family and friends. It provides a legacy. The example you set to stay intellectually active, socially involve and creatively engage will have a positive affect on their children, grandchildren and society.

There is even a National Center for Creative Aging which is dedicated to fostering an understanding of the vital relationship between creative expressions and healthy again and to developing programs that builds on this understanding.

We are all born creative. As we grow up we learn to become less so. . We start to unlearn creativity at an early age in preschool or kindergarten. We are instructed to always stay within the lines. We are taught that the sky must always be painted blue with a giant yellow sun shining forever over the green grass of home. If a rare child disagrees with this artistic vision, their parents are no doubt called.

Most women live their lives with the creative life a far off dream for some other person. Their lives are consumed with responsibilities. Their creative energies are spent putting out fires.

Women must look for time to observe, listen and let in all our senses can bring us. We need to be able to let our intuitions be in charge. We discover synchronicities and miracles. We feed our spirits. We pursue creative activities where we enter a period of timelessness. Creativity is a process of transformation from which there is no coming back.

Don't say you aren't creative. It's like denying you're a human being. We are all creative. Some of us have buried our talents due to feelings of inferiority and unworthiness. When we raise our spiritual consciousness, we realize the selfishness of living without letting our light shine.

When we free ourselves to use our God-given talents we feel joy. We feel deep satisfaction. We are doing what we are supposed to do. We are in tune with our spirit.
When you stay committed to yourself, you trust and love yourself. You let yourself be the very one you are. You don't try to imitate another. You are working on your purpose of your life, and it feels like a deep calling from within your soul. Whatever comes from that place will be exciting, fulfilling and creative. Just listen to your inner being and stay true to yourself and you will retain your creativity.

Blocks to Creativity
1. You tell yourself you're just not creative. Stop it!
2. You doubt that your creative efforts "really matter."
3. We wonder if our work really matters to us.
4. We compare our efforts to that of others and decide we don't stack up.
5. We think we really don't have talent.

Do some breathing exercises. Meditate. Stop the negative thinking and replace it with positive messages. Get support from a friend. Go for a walk and come back fresh.

Following Your Bliss to a New Career
In this tough economy people are finding new ways to support themselves that don't depend on a traditional business which could go belly up. They are looking at things from different angles, assessing their personal skills and talents, going back to school in middle age and setting up home-based businesses that have nothing to do with the work they did for most of their career.
You may dream up an entirely new type of business that is based on an old dream you had put away years ago, when you stopped letting your creativity run free. Living authentically and in accordance with your spirit, intuition and inner wisdom, puts you in the right place at the right time, and the right people just might reach out and give you a hand. You will "follow your bliss," as Joseph Campbell, the mythologist advised, "and the universe will open doors where there were only walls."

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