Creativity Belongs To All Of Us
Spiral Shower 6.10.22
Are you a creative person?
That is a trick question. If you are a living, breathing human — creativity is in your DNA. There are no chosen ones. Some of us may be born with a stronger desire to develop our artistic side, but nobody has a monopoly on creativity.
Creating is probably the most human thing you could do. When old religions say that God created us in “his image,” I interpret this to mean that what created us inspired us to create, too.
Some of us may identify as creative more than others. However, I’d argue that “identifying” as creative can actually be destructive to your creative ability. Much like how overly identifying with the ego can prevent us from finding the true Self.
Why do some of us feel less creative than others? This is due to none other than emotional resistance. It’s because we fail to recognize what creativity actually is. To describe creativity in my own words, I’d say that it is the art of allowing something bigger than yourself to move through you.
Psychologists get it wrong when we disregard the fact that the psyche is not just made up of our conscious parts — we’ve got unconscious components moving through us, too. Human beings are consistently being used as vessels for something bigger than ourselves. Anyone who has ever sung in a choir, completed an abstract painting, performed improv comedy, or done anything creative will tell you that. This is a truth that must be experienced to be fully known. A “gnosis”, if you will. The most revered artists will tell you time and time again that creating is about getting into that flow state where your instincts take on a mind of their own. For many people, this state of being is described as bliss.
Jungian psychologists will tell you that human beings can take on the role of a collective archetype via their personal complexes. Each complex has an archetypal core, and each archetype will describe an instinctual pattern of behavior from the collective unconscious. To me, this process feels very similar to the practice of creating art, music, or anything from scratch. It is often a process of letting go rather than exerting control.
Creativity isn’t about the ego making its mark. The ego accidentally makes its mark when it allows itself to get lost in something bigger than itself. Any idea that is truly brilliant or transcendent is intimately connected to something else that once was. When in a state of flow, your ego is simply discovering these ideas. Adding your personal twist will happen naturally, even accidentally. Your personal spin will occur as a miracle. Trust that.
Thank you all for reading! Many of you know that before I started making videos about personality psychology on YouTube, I’ve long been interested in music and performing arts. I graduated with a journalism degree in 2016 and spent my early 20s on the grind to find my “dream job.” I became interested in the idea of entrepreneurship and began working toward my Master’s in Organizational Psychology to take the step toward making my love of Jungian theory professional. 100% of my ambition that I have exerted over the years has been because I wanted to live a lifestyle where I had time for creation. I never cared to build a legacy or to get rich or famous. I wanted the freedom to be able to live with my heart wide open.
Now that I graduated with my Master’s in December, I had expected that I’d be ready to jump right into doing psychology professionally. However, now that I have more free time outside of work, it has been very clear to me that I need to dedicate more time to creativity. So, I’ve been doing that. I have been taking improv classes since January and it has helped me to release a lot of creative blocks I’ve had in other disciplines. My number one desire has always been to compose music. But while I’ve been dusting off the creative blocks I have toward music, I’ve decided to play with something new: visual art.
For me, I’ve never considered myself a visual artist so I had practically no expectations going into it. I’ve been experimenting with mixed media collage art as well as abstract painting for the past few months. I have been very pleasantly surprised with how much fun I’m having, how healing it’s been, and how it’s helped to open me up to more life.
Now that I feel a little bit less creatively blocked, I am ready to get back into experimenting with music again. My improv mentality has helped me to treat all of my pursuits with more of a go-with-the-flow mindset, and I couldn’t be happier. I feel more like me than I ever have, despite the fact that I’ve been wading in some darker emotions.
For those of you who follow my work, I am currently working on setting up a content calendar for YouTube and Substack. This time, I want to get ahead of my content so I don’t set myself up to fail. I want to make sure I am promising myself that I will schedule in time for self-care and hobbies, rather than going balls to the wall with creating online content. I don’t ever want to abandon myself again. I am hoping to launch Season 2 of Psyche Design sometime this summer. I am learning to find a balance between structure and freedom. I’m trying to take one step at a time.
Great column. And yes, The Creator made people in their image, meaning we are all creators too.