Be careful what you wish for
I was born stupid and non-creative. I have nothing original to say about anything and it hurts.”
— a teenager We both know you aren’t stupid, so I’ll leave that out. But don’t convince yourself you aren’t creative. Most of us tell ourselves negative things and believe them as true. “I’m not cool”, “I’m not attractive”, and stuff like that — or occasionally- as you seem to be chanting — “I’m not creative”.
It’s a universal principle of nature that you become what you believe. The world has a way of manifesting your deepest thoughts and convictions — so be careful of what you believe for that has a way of coming true.
If ever you go deep enough inside your mind and touch the very roots of your negative thoughts, you will have to recall your early childhood and relive the experience of how different people — your own father, mother or brother or friend or teacher — screwed up your mind and shoved a whole bunch of fears, anxieties and insecurities inside you — things which you believed as true then because you were very young and didn’t have the mental power to know it wasn’t so.
All growth in life is essentially an unlearning, an effort to reverse the deep negativity that is choking you up. Start by asserting the very thought you refused to believe so far. Say, “I am a very creative person. I can come up with an original idea for almost anything.” Say it as many times a day as possible and allow the words to sink inside.
Creativity is an expression of two basic streams of consciousness. The first stream is the subliminal flow inside you. By that I mean half-conscious thoughts your mind naturally throws up all the time. You are responding to everything around you in a naturally artistic way, but that artistry is subliminal — not easily accessible to your conscious mind. This is the reason why you can enjoy a song or a movie or a painting. Your mind is responding creatively to the artistic effort and because of that response you enjoy it. If you weren’t naturally creative, you couldn’t appreciate art or music or a movie. But the difference between you and a movie director is that he knows how to tap his subliminal mind and you don’t.
The moment you start asserting “I am creative”, you open a window in your conscious mind and allow the subliminal creativity in you to start flowing in. You will become sharply conscious of beauty everywhere, you will start appreciating artistry more acutely — and soon enough, you will start getting new original ideas from deep inside.
Know this friend — all creativity is only a tapping of what is thrown up from within. If you relax and allow yourself, your unconscious mind can throw up such fantastic ideas, such great music, such awesome visuals, such complex beauty that can mesmerise you and the world with its grace and power.
But wait, there is a second stream of consciousness that you need to express for the circle to be complete. Let’s do a deal. You make a beginning by reasserting yourself this week — and watch out for this space next week.
The moment you start asserting “I am creative”, you open a window in your conscious mind