by Emily Pattullo, author and creator of ’12 Creative Steps to a Fulfilling Life’.
With the distractions of every day life doing their best to externalise our attention away from how we feel about things, it is important to also find ways to be present with ourselves. And creativity is a great way to do that. Creativity allows us to tap into aspects that speak to who we are as individuals and identify what is important to us, as opposed to focussing on what others consider acceptable. As Pablo Picasso said, ‘Art is the elimination of the unnecessary’.
To take time to venture inside ourselves and understand how we feel, to identify emotions and then express them on paper, not only brings into the physical what we might find hard to process otherwise, but also now becomes a tangible element to work with.
For example: dissatisfaction with our life as it is now, leads to looking around at what other people have and wishing we could also have the same. That longing in itself will not manifest the life of others we so wish for. So what if we asked ourselves the question, what do I want? And then really felt into the emotions that question brings up. Where in the body am I feeling this emotion? What does it look like? Perhaps its anger sitting in your gut, it’s black and writhing, and makes you feel nauseous. Now your attention is internalised, there’s something there to work with, you are back in control. Perhaps you write about it, and draw what that looks like to you. Visualisation is now in play also.
This technique can work with any aspect of our life that we might long to change, eventually culminating in habitually going inside ourselves to feel for answers rather than constantly seeking them externally. How do I feel about my life right now? What would I rather be doing? What is stopping me from doing what I truly desire? And so on. Now you’re on a journey of self-discovery, an exploration into the heart of you; the internal workings that are crying out for your attention if only you would take the time to notice them.
Soon we get into the habit of noticing each time our body has a reaction to something. And rather than searching for the meaning externally, we know to go inside and explore what that might mean to us personally. What does it look like? How does it feel? Where in the body is trying to get my attention? Perhaps we write and draw about it in whatever way feels right to us.
Now we’re building a picture of how we really feel about our lives, and perhaps the next steps we need to take become clearer. More questions arise which cause other emotions and feelings to become apparent that we can now also work with. It’s a process, a journey, one that can be extremely confronting. But if we allow ourselves, we could also see it as an adventure; a rewriting of our life story in which we get to use our imagination to create the experience we truly want. Imagine not repeating the same patterns over and over, imagine what that would look like; how rather than going round in circles you could be moving forwards, towards your heart’s desire.
Using creative tools such as writing and drawing, along with imagination, ignites aspects of us that we had perhaps forgotten about. Our innate ability to make something out of nothing, to take a blank page and bring it to life, reminds us that with every step we take we are always creating something that before didn’t exist until we brought it into our reality. And that by utilising that skill every day we might remember how powerful we truly are.
‘There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.’ – Edward De Bono.
