Good Morning Westco’ers , on today’s episode of Westco Let’s Go, we are turning our focus to the arts, and creativity, and the impact of both in our lives. In the Northwest, we are truly blessed to have inspiring natural beauty around us. On top of that natural beauty, our communities have cultivated a rich culture of arts, and creativity. Home to many amazing and diverse artists, Terrace boasts dozens of vivid murals, public art installations, art galleries and artisan shops. These works showcase both professional and emerging artists in our community.
The amazing support we have for the arts is encouraging aspiring artists and a real testament to the value art holds in community. It is also important to note , it shows a new generation of artists that art is a viable vocation and can be a career.
On the flip side of making art a career, and/or monetizing your creativity, the act of art is holds so much more value and healing. Art and creativity , in any form , in any medium, can be extremely impactful for our mental health.
Art can be any activity that takes over our focus and makes the intangible of inspiration come alive in the tangible reality of life. Art and creativity can be expressed through: painting, drawing, pottery, building (legos included obviously), gardening, cooking, dancing, gymnastics, music, photography, and so many more things I cannot possibly list them all .
Participating in creative activities allows us to :
- Process our emotions and the world around us
- Feel connected to others and to something bigger than ourselves
- Rein in our focus on one task at a time
- Rewire connection between body and mind
- Manage stress in a healthy way
Those all sound pretty great right?
Most people can attest that their lives are quite the opposite of everything listed above – unfocused, full of unprocessed emotions and events, disconnection from our bodies and in our relationships , and finally, coping with stress in unhealthy way.
So how do we incorporate creativity into our lives to reap these benefits?
I have broken this down into four points to kickstart (or revive) the creativity in your life .
Before jumping into it, a quick caveat here, I am by no means a expert , life coach or maybe even someone to take advice from. I am, however, working through this same stuff in real time to rediscover my creativity (outside of work) and seeing the real impact of it on my overall wellness.
Commit
Starting off with something I think we all struggle with on some level – commitment. For a variety of reasons we all have had experiences which have shaped our ability to commit to people, goals, obligations, and most importantly ourselves. Without diving too deep into the reasons why we are so adverse to commitment, we will explore why commitment to ourselves is necessary to revive or kickstart creative activities in our lives. Committing to ourselves is habit forming. Even setting aside 15 minutes a day to engage in creative endeavour can be impactful. It also sets us up for success by creating momentum. For myself, I took a look at how much time I was wasting scrolling and/or reading way too much of the news. I figured that ate a good hour of my day up (maybe more) , and determined it was completely possible to set aside at least 15 minutes to engage in a creative activity . Once I got started again , I realized how much i was drawn to the creative process and became intentional about making more time for that, and less time for activities that were less fruitful – such as getting trapped in the ever-evolving news cycle. I also watched as my level of fulfillment in my day increase and how I begun to look forward to the time I could be creative without boundaries or without an audience to create for. Which leads right into the next point…
Creating for Self
Creating can be daunting and for many of us the fear of failure prevents us from even starting the process.. How I overcame this hurtle of getting started was reminding myself I was not doing it for external validation, but rather internal contentment. Starting the creative process with no intended audience helps removes self doubt, and judgement that impairs our ability to start creative endeavours. This requires both patience and practise to work through. There is freedom in creating for an ”Audience of One” – and that “One” can be yourself or a higher power. That freedom allows us to harness the natural creativity we all possess and gives us a sense of fulfilment things of this world cannot satisfy.
Complete
When it comes to art or creative processes the word “complete” can seem a bit foreign. Sometimes projects never feel fully completed, however I do feel there is a naturally ending to each and every creative project. This is still a struggle for me when I am creating, to be able to walk away and call a project complete.
A strong sense of humility and grace for ourselves must be exercised in these projects, when we know that we given our best attention, skill and diligence to any given project. For other creative projects, finishing it to completion will help build confidence.
In my work life, producing and finishing projects are imperative. I commit to these project with little or no resistance. In personal creativity endeavours, I will admit I have many “unfinished ” projects I wish had that I had the same level of commitment to see them through to completion. Making promises to ourselves (committing) and actually keeping those promises (creating for self) will help and have helped ease that my resistance to completing these projects.
Share
You may be thinking sharing your work completely contradicts point #2 “Creating for Self” . And in a way, you’re right. The intention behind Creating For Self is to get you out of your own head, out of your own way and to get you started. With this, you still may never want to share what you create and that’s okay. However, I have learned, that to be brave and share what you have created can benefit you and others greatly. Despite the discomfort and vulnerability in sharing something deeply personal you have created, sharing it can help give others the permission to share their works of art too. It can also help other feel not so isolated in their life experiences, and circumstances. Sharing art creates human connection and builds relationship in a truly authentic way.
Before we sign off , please engage in the comments by answering these questions:
-What creative activity do you love and long to either start or restart?
-What prevents you from pursuing this activity or restarting it?
-What do you think my creative pursuit is (outside of work)?
Thanks for tuning into this episode of Westco Let’s go, hope you found it helpful and inspiring.
As always, let’s go have a day!
#arts #creativity #westcoletsgo #smallbusinessownerlif
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