3 Ways to Unlock Your Creative Power
Image: The interior of Museum SAN’s mediation hall
‘Creativity doesn’t exclusively relate to making art. We all engage in this act on a daily basis. To create is to bring something into existence that wasn’t there before’ — Rick Rubin
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Most of us have been conditioned to see creativity as a quality that is reserved for a selective few: those working in the arts or those with a clearly defined creative talent or skill.
But creativity is something that is inherent to us all and that we can all access. I see creativity as the ability to receive (the right inspiration, ideas or intuitive guidance) and act (to channel that into a new way of being, doing or seeing things). This doesn’t have to be anything grand, it can simply be finding a new way of structuring our time or adopting a different approach in an interaction with someone to get a different result.
If we are feeling stuck in life - be it in our jobs, relationships or in our emotional state - it is usually a sign that we have become disconnected from our creative power. We are seeing ourselves as victims or bystanders in our lives and in the world.
In this state, we look outside of ourselves for the right answers; trying to emulate someone else’s formula or trying to find some bulletproof objective right way that we think will bring us success or whatever it is that we’re wanting.
Funnily enough, even those of us who are more spiritual can fall into this trap. Instead going within, we can find ourselves obsessing over ‘What is the Universe trying to tell me?’ ‘Why am I not manifesting?’ ‘Is this a sign?’ etc. We inadvertently replace one authority (culture/society) with another (a Higher Intelligence) and forget that we get to choose.
We get to choose how we perceive each situation, how we respond and what we make of it. We are always shaping our experience of reality and inviting in certain opportunities and potentialities.
Here are 3 ways that you can connect back with your innate creative power and allow more ease and flow into your life:
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Disrupt your habitual thought patterns
Our thoughts ‘compose the world we perceive’ as Rick Rubin says, so start paying attention to them! Notice the thoughts that come up for you when you’re feeling stuck, disempowered or defeated. Rather than trying to replace your negative thoughts with positive ones, ask yourself: What if there was another way?
What if there was another way of doing this?
What if there was another way that this thing I want could happen?
What if there was another way that this issue could be resolved?
Don’t worry about coming up with an idea or solution then and there; allow for the possibility and keep your mind open. You might get an intuitive nudge during your week that leads you to come across the right answer or you might get a download that gives you an entirely new perspective on how to do things.
To help prompt this, I strongly recommend getting your thoughts from your head onto PAPER as this directs your brain to more easily access the right information.
Write down what the problem/issue is, what you’re feeling and what it is that you’re wanting, and see what flows out. There have been times when I’ve done this and the answer has literally come straight away! Our brains can be incredibly powerful when we know how to direct them.
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Look at where you’re scared of making mistakes
When I first opened the Instagram account for Free Souls United I was terrified of being criticised. I was hyper-conscious of every post I shared and every word I wrote. I didn’t want anything to be misconstrued.
And so of course that’s exactly what happened: a guy with a much bigger following than mine messaged me out of the blue one day and aggressively accused me of ‘stealing art’ because of several photos I shared on my feed where I had not tagged the creators (I didn’t even know who the creators of the images were).
I felt myself getting angry, flustered and feeling the need to defend myself to this stranger. While it was an unpleasant experience, it was also liberating because it taught me to stop taking people and their opinions so seriously. I saw that it truly isn’t personal. People are mostly projecting their own internal dramas and narratives onto us and we can choose how we respond to it.
Unless we can accept being criticised, judged or failing, it’s very difficult to connect with our creative power. Because if our fear of getting it wrong is too strong we will either a) avoid taking any action at all; or b) choose the safe option - which also happens to be the option that has the least impact.
We have to give ourselves permission to take action and be visible.
We may fuck up, be criticised or be disliked, but we’ll also see that it’s okay: we’re still intact and we’re still breathing. So in this way, we’ll expand the capacity of our nervous system and the things which felt uncomfortable and threatening to us before will not provoke in us the same reaction.
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Practice breathwork!
Breathwork activates our creativity by moving us beyond the confines of the logical mind and into the space of possibility.
This is based on science: it’s been shown that when we practice breathwork we can shift our state of consciousness, moving from Beta into Alpha-Theta brainwave patterns. While Beta brainwave frequencies are associated with the rational mind, Alpha-Theta frequencies are associated with states of heightened creativity, intuition and insights.
If you feel like your mind has been looping on the same thoughts and you’re getting nowhere, set aside some time for conscious breathing.
While longer breathwork sessions are amazing for clearing the space for our creativity to come through, you can start with just a few minutes of deep conscious breathing every day to open up a new dimension of life for yourself. Try our 15 minute guided YouTube breathwork meditation created specifically to help you unlock your creativity, and let us know what comes through for you!
—Kat