To live a fulfilling life, we need to have a grasp on our personal values, what lights us up as individuals, and how to connect to ourselves and our communities. Exploring my individual creative expression is my personal favorite way to do all of that. But so many people have buried their creative expression deep inside of them. Did you cringe when you read the term creative expression? Twenty-five-year-old me would’ve rolled her eyes at that woo-woo, arty term. But 35-year-old me holds that term close to her heart. If you feel uncomfy associating yourself with words like creative or artist, or you roll your eyes at phrases like creative expression or creative practice, you’re not alone. But let’s dig into why you feel that way.
Our experiences as children inform so much of our perception of self as adults, so if we didn’t have a champion as a kid, we may not even know our preferred form of creative expression.
First, there’s the cultural conditioning around terms like creative practice or creative expression. We might automatically assume that those terms refer to oil painters who spend their time working on canvases, in overalls with paint splotches all over them. When I visualize a person who represents creative expression, I think of a woman in a warehouse loft in New York City who is preparing for an art show at a bougie gallery. These conceptualizations aren’t necessarily wrong, but [the terms] don’t represent only these types of people.
Now let’s get into the reasons why you may not feel connected to the terms creativity, creative practice, or creative expression. Maybe you had an art teacher in elementary school who criticized your drawing, so you internalized the idea that you’re a “bad” artist. Maybe your grandmother tried to teach you to knit, but you never got the hang of it, so you gave up on creative hobbies altogether. Maybe your upbringing didn’t allow for much experimentation or play, so you’ve never even tried to be creative. Our experiences as children inform so much of our perception of self as adults, so if we didn’t have a champion as a kid, or we never got the opportunity to explore, we may not even know our preferred form of creative expression.
But all humans are creative. Creativity is not just making oil paintings that hang in galleries across the world. Creativity is literally just the process of bringing something into existence — to create. When we shop for our meals for the week, we’re creating a plan. When we build a spreadsheet to help us manage a budget, we’re creating a system. When we’re inviting friends over for dinner, we’re creating an experience. We make choices daily to create a life. These are all literal forms of creative expression. It hurts my heart when I hear people say, “I’m not creative.” Babe, you are! You just associate creativity with the eccentric expression you see from me and other artist freaks (compliment) instead of a wide-reaching, broad term that applies to everyone. We just have to find our individual versions of creativity and embrace them. But if we’ve got those limiting beliefs that have been comfy, cozy in our brains since childhood, how do we find our creativity?
I’m constantly inspired by little weirdo kids. They’re not yet programmed to conform to expectations from others, to feel shame, to make themselves small.
I’ve taught various parts of this book through workshops, courses, and webinars, and I always ask my audience: “What’s stopping you from prioritizing play in your life?” One of the most common answers is “I don’t know how to play.” As we get older, so many of us follow those societal expectations, including the idea that play is childish and a waste of time. Or rather, that it’s not a good use of time because it’s not directly correlating to our work output and productivity. But it’s actually the key to accessing our creativity.
We’re starting here because in order to relearn how to play, we have to think back to a time in our lives when we played regularly, without even realizing it: when we were kids. Children play so naturally and regularly. I’m constantly inspired by little weirdo kids who don’t think twice about having fun. They’re not yet programmed to conform to expectations from others, to feel shame, to make themselves small.
When I think about play, I like to imagine a backyard barbeque party with a kid who decided that he’s going to put on a one-person performance of a musical he made up in his head. When this kid is dancing, singing, and switching from character to character, he’s fully committed. In that moment, he’s immersed in this world he’s built, and he’s having so much fun. He’s not thinking, I’m a natural performer. I’m so good at this, so I should put on this show. He’s just following his fun, intuitively playing, and allowing things to unfold in his performance.
We adults find it endearing. We may laugh along with him and watch him having fun. But (hopefully) there’s not someone saying, “Hey, kid, you’re not a good singer, you can’t keep the beat while you dance, and your story doesn’t make sense.” We all just recognize it as human nature — kids being kids. Kids playing and having fun. So, why did we lose this in adulthood? Why did we stop performing one-man shows just because? Why do we feel that we need to be good at something to feel valid in wanting to do it? We don’t! We’re allowed to play just like this hypothetical backyard performer kid.
This article To access your creativity, start playing is featured on Big Think.
