Who Cares? .. I do

This election year it seemed to me that people really cared about voting. How interesting that it has taken such a long time to get such a high percentage of people out to vote. Could it be they finally started to care?

It seems obvious to me and probably to you too that we should all care about what happens to ourselves, our families, our country, and our world but often that is not the case. It sometimes feels like a struggle to care. That could be why you may not take time for your creative work as odd as that might sound. In order to put the energy into a task we simple have to care, be inspired, be enthusiastic or at the least concerned.

I believe there is a deadly dis-ease that has been going around called “I don’t matter”. I have to tell you that I did not really discover this myself until working under the tutelage of Eric Maisel who has been my teacher and coach in this new emerging field of Creativity Coaching. On one exercise he assigned I found myself writing this, “For as productive a person as I am and can be I have struggled with the idea that no one particularly cares about what I do or create. The realization of this thought came to me in the last year or so and I have been finding it surface to my conscious awareness not so much as a knee jerk reaction anymore but as a clear thought form.”

I was amazed to read this back the other day and discover that as a result of those feelings I found it hard for me to care about what I am doing at times. So I figured that other people might be going through this same kind of thought process and it would be good to shed some light on what it is all about.

Clearly we live in society where there is not enough time to spend with our children and even when we have time we are preoccupied. Today there are zillions (a creative form of measurement) of pieces of art works, books, music, performances, and on and on. Even if you do manage to care enough to put your creative work “out there” most likely it will rarely get very much notice. So why should you care?

Once again, we have managed to put our worth in the hands of our society instead of knowing our own true worth. Years ago philosophers, poets, writers and even politicians reminded us about the importance of knowing who you are. In the 60’s it was called, “do your thing”. We all need to get back to doing our thing so we can matter in our lives. Doing your thing doesn’t mean ignoring the lives of others around you or feeling superior to someone else. It’s about allowing your spirit, your nature, your inner guidance (whatever that may be) to allow you to contribute to your life in your own way.

It’s possible by doing this you might become famous but it’s also possible you will just do it because it makes you feel good. Because you matter and so does your creativity. Only you can care about what you do in this world no one can ever make you care. In my opinion, many depressed people have lost the ability to care about themselves. They may even be able to care about another person or a cause but when it comes down to caring about themselves they are at a loss of how to connect to the world.

Sometimes the act of creating something really special or beautiful can inspire us to care. Yet we still have to make that first step of caring enough to get to the act of creating so you can see what a circle this can become if we don’t pay attention or have some kind of support in our lives.
It’s often the case that when people age and no longer work they die fairly soon. Maybe it’s because they don’t feel like they matter anymore. It would be great to find the creative urge throughout your life that helps you to reconnect with what makes you matter in life.
But more than that you have to decide to matter. You have to decide that what you do every day matters. And once you get to that place you have achieved success. Real success.

So I hope you care. I do.

CREATING A COUNTRY

The labor pains were intense on this baby but we delivered a new President, Barack Obama, and it was a better than expected delivery.

Whether you were on one side or the other of the election process, as a Creativity Coach, what I observed was the perfect circle of creation. A vision, the belief, a direction, the tools, the effort to make it happen, the constant attention to details, the intensive labor, the results, the celebration or bringing the creation to the public awareness.

Yes, we did create, collectively, a new work of art for our country. It sounds, looks, feels and moves like the spirit of freedom and unity. We had to imagine it could happen and believe in the ability for it to manifest, which is what many people did, together.

Let this be a reminder that the process of creation is within us all as individuals or as a group.
Let’s make sure we create what we want, need and what is best for all.

CREATIVE WORRIES AND NO WORRIES

“Worry is like a rocking chair--it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere.” Glen Turner

In our every day desire to create we often get caught in the current of worries. It’s easy today to fall prey to such thinking with the collapse of the financial markets, elections, health care, world issues, finding jobs, paying for school for you or your child, and the list goes on.
So where do we find the time to create with all that noise in our heads?

If we are rocking away in our worries, it’s true; we are doing something but going nowhere. Why not invest that thinking into something that gives you a pay off at the end?

That’s right. Start creating. If you are an artist already than you know what that means. Get to work on that painting. How about worrying about what you are going to paint today or what colors you would like to use.
If you are a writer how about working on building those characters and let them do the worrying for you. A dance choreographer can be thinking about how to create some new steps for the dancers.


Worry ducks when purpose flies overhead. ~C. Astrid Webe

The African slaves had a way of dealing with their troubles. They created music and stories. In those stories they sang about their troubles so that they could release the pain and feel happiness. Those songs we now call “the blues”. People think that the blues give you the blues but as a matter of fact they were meant to help you get rid of your pain. These courageous people understood the deepest secret of dealing with worries in life – do something creative and expressive. So start singing your own song or one that helps you to express your inner worries and you will find that you feel much better when you are done.

If you are a musician, singer, or songwriter than grasp the moment of worry and write about it so that your “purpose” is to relieve your troubled mind. In doing so you may relieve someone else’s troubled mind too.

Worry is interest paid on trouble before it comes due. ~William Ralph Inge

So what about those of you who are worrying about your creativity or success in your creative career? How do you cope with those worries? Perhaps by becoming more interested in what you are creating than the outcome of your creation. Find the joy in doing the craft, taking the journey, and expressing who you are on the way. A reminder of why you have chosen this creative life is always a good place to start when you begin to feel the pressures of commerce and recognition in your work. Let things progress instead of pushing and take time to imagine the life you want to lead through your art. An important thing to remember is that life changes and changes you. So stay tuned in to how you feel each day so that you are not living out fears of the past or future.

My mom always says to me, “if you wait one more day something might change”. I always think about that when I start to feel worried. Every day does hold the promise of a new beginning, a new opportunity and a new direction.


I leave you with this thought:


I keep the telephone of my mind open to peace, harmony, health, love and abundance. Then, whenever doubt, anxiety or fears try to call me, they keep getting a busy signal - and soon they'll forget my number. ~Edith Armstrong