Have you ever felt creatively stifled or limited by your circumstances or career? Do you regret giving up on your wish to be a writer, artist, or some other creative pursuit, all for the sake of financial security?
Today's article is about recognizing the Creator in you, redefining the essence of creativity, and integrating your creative side with other parts of your life, to help you feel more whole and complete.
Read on to learn ways to recognize, embrace, and magnify your creative potential, and have a wonderful week!
Reclaiming Our Creativity
How we create at multiple levels of being
Have you ever felt sad about not being creative enough or not creating what you wanted?
Before I chose a career as a psychiatrist, I defined and measured my creativity through my creative writing achievements. My focus was to "be an author someday." So when I switched my major to biology and later when I got into medical school and found myself memorizing facts all the time, I felt half-dead with boredom and heartsick from the absence of creativity.
However, life taught me over the years that my definition of creativity needed to change. It was simply too narrow. Though medicine was indeed a do-as-you’re-told and memorize-these-facts kind of profession, and although I believed that my life lacked creativity, I still continued to create. How?
Well, creativity is a multilayered thing. Even if we are prevented from being creative at one level, creativity is such an inherent part of living that we continue to create at other levels of being: in my case, through my patients and my own evolution.
For years, I mourned for what I had not lost. The journey of becoming a holistic psychiatrist challenged me to create, change, and heal myself. Every day, as I chipped away at mental illness, I felt like Michelangelo freeing the true magnificence of each patient's life through their successful recovery. And of course, I witnessed the creative process of my patients as they manifested their miraculous healing journeys. These creative processes were happening within, around, and through me, and I didn’t even realize it.
Sometimes, we minimize and take for granted our creative efforts. When I began writing these Holistic Updates, I often told Jack, my editor, that they were crap. If he hadn't been so positive and uplifting all the time, I probably would have given up a long time ago. But this month would be the second year of consistent weekly articles.
Today, an anonymous person wrote on my YouTube channel:
Dear Dr. Lee,
I made it. I am free. You were my biggest support. I love you and thank you. I was only watching your videos. It took me about 8 months. Now I am myself. This sh** blocked me all the time. What a huge difference!!! I am able to feel all kinds of feelings.
This letter helped me to understand the importance of creating no matter what the medium is.
Some problems that had blocked my creativity involved my fragile ego, fear of others' judgement, and lack of confidence. I've worked on healing from these issues through the same energy medicine techniques that I recommended to my patients. Today, I worked on releasing a powerful block to my creativity by using Logosynthesis on: my identity needs to be one that others accept. After I used Logosynthesis on this problem, I felt lighter and freer as a creator.
How are you creating at different levels of being? Perhaps you don't believe that you are very creative or hold a very specific definition of what it means to be creative. You may compare yourself to that ideal and feel inadequate. I encourage you to enlarge and redefine your assumptions about creativity to include how you express yourself creatively and acknowledge its value in your life.
Our creativity is such an innate and intimate part of ourselves that it's easy to take it for granted. Even if you cannot see yourself as being a creative person, the creator in you is still busily creating. For, just living our lives is a daily process of creation. Like an elaborate and intricate novel, our lives can be divided into pages and chapters, with its fascinating unveiling of events and climaxes. As a holistic psychiatrist, I always find people's lives riveting and interesting—each as unique and amazing as a snowflake.
Sure, sometimes we feel as if we're frozen in the winter of our creative seasons. All seem to lie asleep or dead beneath the white, undisturbed surface. However, even during such times, I believe that there is a grand design, bigger than the moment, hovering over our lives. Have faith and persevere. For, there is no force or circumstance strong enough to separate you from your creativity. We are Creativity in human form.
Have a wonderful week!
Speaking of creativity, I'm excited to share some wonderful, creative comics from Sara Bloem, my favorite artist in New York, who happens to be my daughter. 😄 I hope you'll enjoy her humor as much as I do. To enjoy more of Sara's art, visit her Instagram account: Sarabloemart.
