What do the words ‘creative ease’ mean to you?
If it’s not something you’ve considered I recommend a few moments of pondering, because cultivating more of it in your life has infinite potential benefits.
For me it means living in a more expanded energetic frequency, where flow is commonplace, and not just in my art but everywhere in my life.
What that translates into is more joy, more inspiration, more peace, more excitement, more colour, more ideas and a greater capacity to inspire others to find their own.
I truly believe it contributes to my physical and emotional health and wellbeing, and allows me to operate from my best self more consistently.
In a pleasing display of assonance, I discovered after some pondering of my own that my creative ease can be distilled down to five words or principles that begin with E.
I may not sit down and consciously run through them or think about them each day but they are principles by which I live and which enable me to thrive creatively {and by extension, everywhere else}.
Encouragement
This includes things like support, a sounding board, a champion, permission, a cheerleader, accountability, positive and useful feedback on your work, essentially someone who believes in you.
Naturally, providing these things for yourself is the ideal, but for times when you just can’t stretch to it, finding it amongst a like minded group or with a teacher or mentor is invaluable. In fact I’d go for All The Options.
Experimentation
This means openness of mind and heart, an explorative mindset, a willingness to play, a ‘try it and see’ approach that does not attach to outcomes.
Sometimes I think of my studio as a lab where I conduct experiments; I effectively ignore the end result and experiment with what ifs and how abouts.
It’s fun, freeing and in amongst the inevitable messes and disasters, leads to all kinds of new discoveries and satisfactions.
Engagement
No amount of theory and looking at and for inspiration can substitute taking action, or provide the fulfilment action will give you.
Engagement means having a practice as individual as you are, self care and kindness tailored to you, a conscious choice to step forward, over and over again, in spite of stumbles and long periods of ‘sitting down’.
It’s not about being fearless, it’s about choosing your creative dreams over what your fears tell you.
Enthusiasm
From the Greek ‘entheos’, meaning ‘the God within’, which I rather love as a reminder that it all comes from inside us, not outside.
This is about curiosity, a game mindset, light heartedness, a willingness to hold it all lightly {which does not mean diminishing the depth of its value to you}.
Creating can be deeply meaningful and important without being heavy and difficult; nurturing and maintaining enthusiasm makes that possible.
Expression
Lastly, why we do any of it:
To express what’s in your soul, your deepest self, the true you.
Creativity is a way to give shape, weight and texture to your feelings and thoughts about the world and about life.
It’s a way to tell stories, show love, work through emotions of all kinds, heal, relax, and to truly find yourself as you lose yourself in the flow.
It may feel like some areas are stickier for you than others, but truly, they’re all inside you already.
We are full of infinite realms of creativity; even if you’re already exploring them, there are always more.
And if they feel as yet undiscovered and untapped in you, it’s much easier than we tend to think to open them up and get everything flowing!
Do you have your own Creative ‘E’s? Perhaps they begin with a different letter!
If all of this sounds like marvellous theory to you, but not something you feel able to put into practice on your own, the Creative Spark ecourse might be just the thing to help you find or recover your own creative ease. It’s available inside the Happy Artist Studio with instant access so you can start today!
