Finding and Encouraging Your Creativity

Examining The Create/Consume Balance

“I’m not really creative.” This is something that I’ve heard more times than I can count. I’ve spent over 20 years helping people in a bead shop or teaching them jewelry-making and it never ceases to amaze me how un-creative people think they are. I’ve also come to learn that those same people definitely have specific creative insight, opinions, and talent; they just don’t realize it’s there. Creativity is in all of us.

I think the first block comes with how people interpret the word itself. Creativity. Being creative. We tend to immediately think of artists, painters, dancers, writers and so on. But it’s time to start seeing creativity for what it really is. It involves the act of creation, of creating something that hasn’t been before. This could be a garden, a doodle, a spreadsheet, a good meal, a joke, a business plan, a new living room layout… you get the idea. We all need to create and we all do create. It satisfies an inherent desire to add value to the world around us and it makes us feel better!

The other thing all humans do and need to do is consume. At the most basic level, we must eat and drink. We also enjoy consuming thing that make us happy: purchasing goods, reading a book, watching a movie, listening to music. These are all forms of consumption, most of which are beneficial and pleasing.

…this is not an article on how we all need to throw away our phones and stop watching the news… This is, however, an article about rediscovering the balance between our need to consume and our need to create.

Creativity and consumption exist in balance and too much of either keeps us from a full expression of our human life. Overwhelmingly, it’s the consumption side of this balance that is out of whack. The current prevalence of media and media devices offers us an unlimited array of things to consume and more and more ways to do it. We can have the TV on while we’re reading a text while we’re downloading a song while we’re eating our lunch. And that’s not unusual! Now, this is not an article on how we all need to throw away our phones and stop watching the news. I love my phone and I spend plenty of time consuming all day long. This is, however, an article about rediscovering the balance between our need to consume and our need to create. And this balance is important for artists and non-artists alike.

We can start by recognizing the ways we are naturally creative, and to feel good about that creativity. Cooked an egg this morning that was perfectly done? It’s a masterpiece! See a sprout popping up in your garden? You’ve created life! Developed a new way to organize data at work? Creative problem-solving! The more we see these seemingly mundane moments as actual moments of creativity, the more we begin to nurture that part of ourselves. As a result, our creativity grows and is easier to harness on demand.

The other thing we can do is start recognizing our consumption. Since we tend to over-consume, try replacing an act of consumption with an act of creativity. Instead of reading the news first thing in the morning, try writing down your thoughts. Instead of watching videos online, go take some pictures or video of the world around you. Rather than scrolling through Pinterest for inspiration, pull out a sketchbook or notebook and brainstorm your own ideas.

As we nurture our creative side and bring creativity into balance with consumption, we will be adding more to our world and living a fuller, happier life.