Creativity requires craziness

Posted on Jul 25, 2008 in Spiritual living

One of my favourite films is Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner. In it, he plays a struggling farmer who follows otherworldly inspiration and builds a baseball pitch on his corn field because, he is told, “If you build it they will come”. And you know what? They do, but not before everyone around him thinks he’s gone completely mad.

The thing is, he honours his creative inspiration, he makes the space into which his dream can grow and manifest, despite his friends, family and colleagues telling him he’s lost the plot and it’ll never work. For many of us, this is the hurdle at which our own dreams fall and all those stories never get written, the images don’t get committed to paper or canvas and soul songs remain unsung.

Creativity is lifeblood to all of us, whatever form it takes, including building a home, nurturing a child or cooking a delicious meal. We are created by a creator to be creative. Jungian psychologist Clarissa Pinkola Estes says creativity requires us to be wild. That means we must be prepared to look a little stupid in front of others, to not censor ourselves, to be brave enough to experiment. In a lovely touch of synchronicity, I was listening to a brilliant song by Elbow as I was preparing to write and some of the lyrics leapt out at me as illustrating this idea perfectly – “It’s silly wrong but vivid right.” How accurate! If no one risked doing anything because it might make them look foolish in other people’s eyes, how dull, flat and colourless life would be.

My partner and life coach, George, would add another key to creativity. Focus your intention on your desired outcome and then take action to move towards it. Yes! Decide what you want to create in your life and then set about creating it, one step at a time. Don’t take no for an answer, don’t let anyone tell you it can’t be done or, worse, that you’re not good enough to do it.

Finally, be like Kevin Costner in that film. We’re not all going to build baseball pitches in our back gardens, but we all have an equivalent – a small art studio, a music room, an hour or two of uninterrupted writing time, an experimental session in the kitchen, a window box of herbs. Set time aside regularly for creating whatever you want to create. It’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity!

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Semele Xerri

© Semele Xerri is a psychic intuitive guide, healer, animal communicator, and Reiki Healer / Master Teacher. To find out more about her and her services, go to her Work with me page.
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