I’ve recently felt a growing urge to write more openly, and creativity has been on my mind. So here it goes.
To explain how I discovered my creative ability, I need to start with how I learned to listen to my body. I used to see myself as a logical, left-brained engineer type without creative talents.
I recently read Rick Rubin’s book, The Creative Act. Rubin presents a theory of creativity that — though a bit “woo-woo” — struck a chord for how I’ve experienced creativity.
He suggests that the universe has creative energy constantly flowing to those who are receptive. He believes that some people are more sensitive to these messages, allowing them to channel creativity. Moreover, artists can train themselves to become more sensitive to these messages.
From what I gather:
- There is a creative source that Rubin attributes to the universe, God, or simply “the source.”
- Artists are receivers of creative energy from this source.
- Artists can improve their ability to receive.
As I’ve become more creative over the past decade — writing, composing music, poetry, and contemporary dance — I can attest to the latter two points.
Certain activities definitely help enable my creativity. I’ve learned to create zones (physical or mental) that spark creativity in different ways — like playing music in a moonlit room, meditating before writing poetry, or dancing before introspective writing.
It’s difficult for me to make the leap Rubin does in attributing creativity to “the source” — a term often used by new-age spiritual thinkers to describe the origin of consciousness, God, or the universe.
However, I can share how I discovered this energy within myself. These creative zones and approaches emerged from explorations I made after learning physical introspection.
I discovered physical introspection during a Vipassana meditation retreat.
While many psychoanalysts or meditation teachers could provide a more coherent definition, here’s my simplified explanation based on personal experience: Consciousness isn’t limited to our minds; our entire bodies, from our toes to the top of our heads, are part of consciousness and hold information and intelligence. There are methods to expand your attention to encompass this information.
Years later, as I read Rubin’s book on increasing sensitivity through meditation, it became clear: without knowing it, I had awakened my creativity through meditation.
The technique was to first look inward and then channel it into creative endeavors, but it still took me years to unravel the cultural narrative that engineers aren’t creative (engineering is exceptionally creative!) or that artists are simply born that way (artists spend years honing their craft!). It turns out, all I needed was to think of myself as creative. That was the final lock on the door.
If you’re reading this and haven’t thought of yourself as creative — you are. Wake up to yourself 💛