The Creative Process: Permission to PLAY
Overcoming creative inertia
It is a serious thing
just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
— Mary Oliver, the Invitation
Well hello,
It is a fresh morning here on Portugal’s west coast.
It’s been a while. I have written and created a lot this year, shared very little. As I move into a new era of work and existence, this will change, so brace yourselves.
While resuscitating these letters and a few other projects that ended up in my virtual desk drawer, I thought about why it is so difficult to get into a creative habit and easy to abandon one’s projects.
We have ideas that seem important enough for us not to ditch but difficult enough to abandon for long stretches of time.
I know I’m not the only one so let’s talk about it.
But first, to clarify:
Creativity is not just for the creative
If you feel the urge to write a poem or draw your cat, try your hand at theatre or woodwork, knitting, ceramics, learn how to dance or play the dulcimer, you name it — don’t squash the thought. If you deny yourself this time, you will never experience the joy and contentment that comes from expressing yourself creatively.
This is not a luxury either. Creativity solves problems and fuels change. It’s good for the soul. It heals. Anyone, at any time in their lives, can benefit from it.
According to the godfather of creativity and flow (I am paraphrasing as I have the German translation of his book “Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention”):
“Creative people have the incredible ability to adapt to almost any possible situation, to use whatever is available in that moment, to reach their goals.”
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