Creativity Is A Spiritual Practice
CREATIVITY IS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
What are some moments in your life where human endeavor has left you awestruck? Maybe visiting an elaborately designed temple is one such moment for you - the intricately carved stone sculptures and statues, or the prowess of the temple architects in achieving the impossible feet of building a temple on a mountain. It can leave us feeling uplifted and motivated because the inspiration for such human action feels like a labor of love, love for the divine.
'We are spiritual beings having a human experience.' Many of us resonate with this profound thought from French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Spiritual Psychology is also founded on the principle that we are already Spiritual Beings and not just human beings striving to be spiritual. Living in this material world though, we forget our reality.
Creative pursuits are ways by which we can reconnect to our true nature. Art, drawing, painting, photography, creative writing, poetry, singing, music composition, sculpting, animation, designing, dancing, woodworking, cooking, baking, gardening, acting, knitting, strategy planning, problem-solving, and even being a parent – there are many ways we use our creative pursuits to connect to our spiritual nature.
CREATIVITY AND SPIRITUALITY ARE CONNECTED
The act of creativity, though it feels like the height of individualistic skill and prowess, is usually described by creative geniuses as something which is only partly emerging from their conscious mind. Much of the creative impulse emerges from an unknown place, that even the most creative figures attribute to either the subconscious or their intuition.
It’s a unique process which harnesses the best of what we know, and what we yet don’t know, but are somehow able to sense. This unknown/ subconscious/ intuition is what we would consider in spirituality to be flowing from a deeper place than mind — which in Sanatana Dharma (the Eternal Truth) we recognize as the Universal Force which is the source of all creation.
In Sanatana Dharma, when we chant the simple mantra, ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ (I am Brahman) we are using sound to connect to ‘Brahman,’ our Supreme Consciousness. It is believed that this simple mantra was chanted by Lord Brahma himself when he was creating this universe out of his own body. This simple, ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ mantra means that we are not limited – we are ourselves the Supreme. We have the special ability to create. We can rise above our physical bodies and can create whatever our heart and mind desires or can imagine. And doing so leads us to the divine, a state of ‘Brahmanandam’ (Supreme Joy), a bliss that can be attained more permanently when enlightened, and experienced momentarily when in the creative mode.
This experience is similar to the state of ‘Flow’ as described by it’s leading exponent, Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi. Flow is experienced as dilation (slowing or speeding) of time, a vanishing of the personal self (ego), particularly stimulated when one is facing a challenge just beyond the amount of skill required by the situation. The state itself leads to a sense of calmness, awe, and bliss. Creative experts often describe this as a common state that they experience when they are in the midst of their creative process.
Operating within a creative Flow state, from a deeper place than mind, leads to a sense of well-being, contributes to meaning, and generates a lasting state of happiness (bliss, satisfaction, fulfillment). Within the Flow state, we are able to meet challenges with skill, while remaining even-keeled and focused. We are also able to establish deeper connections with each other which in turn also lead to well-being and happiness.
CREATIVITY AND ITS CORRELATES
Do you believe you are creative? Many believe that you are either born creative or will never be. But we need not despair if we are not already creative. The good news is that although creativity itself is a complex activity, it can be broken down into many different pieces. This is a function that can be increased in our lives by learning about the components and encouraging their growth and intersection.
Collaboration is the ability, interest, and willingness in wanting to work with others. This leads to creativity by creating more stimulation of ideas, encouraging cross-pollination, connection of ideas from different fields, and generally an openness to diverse perspectives.
Connection refers to the special bond that develops across two individuals when they are communicating in harmony, with a sense of truly listening and responding to each other, and a vulnerability that is willingly expressed, all of which lead to being able to engage with each other at a deeper level. This leads to creativity by allowing us to break out of our psychological constraints (fear, anxiety, hesitation, doubt, debate, denial, criticism) and allow our most genuine thoughts and feelings to emerge. It’s a mechanism which allows us to bypass the conscious mind to access what creative savants sometimes refer to as their sub-conscious or spiritualists would consider intuition.
Reflection is another skill critical to creativity. It represents the ability to step back from the habitual, automatic, routine, or mindless activities that preoccupy us most of the time to observe, evaluate, assess the bigger picture, the trends, and the significance of those activities. This leads to creativity by making us more insightful and thoughtful, as well as patient about what is unfolding rather than reactive.
Three other correlates, learning, curiosity, and growth mindset are interrelated. Learning is an inclination to know more about oneself and the world. Curiosity is a spark to learning. It’s having an interest in exploring a topic, a willingness to look up something or find an answer, not to take things for granted. Growth Mindset is a particular approach to learning which includes a constellation of behaviors and qualities — finding inspiration from others (rather than envy), applying effort to grow (rather than assuming it will just happen), being undaunted by any challenges (rather than becoming helpless), being open to taking feedback (rather than defensive), and being resilient in the face of setbacks (rather than defeated). The collective impact of all of these is to create a focus on improving and growing while learning how to convert potential challenges into opportunities. They lead to creativity because we are able to overcome our personal challenges which inhibit exploration and discovery, help us understand that growth and change are possible, and that whatever we are at present is not a fixed capacity.
All of these above creative correlates work together, and the good news is that ALL of them can be developed over time!
CREATIVITY IN THE SHASTRAS (THE GITA)
At its essence, Creativity is Excellence in Action which is also the core message of Karma Yoga. When you take action, without concern for the outcome, without attachment, without thinking about self, without desire or control, and focus on the process or the inputs to the action instead, then you are acting in alignment with the Divine. Thus, creativity is not necessarily a magical or mystical activity, it is the result of a methodical and disciplined process of working which refines our day-to-day actions into something more sublime.
This essence of spiritual wisdom is encapsulated in one of the most well-known verses of the Gita (BG 2.47) which we also referenced in our last blog:
karmaṇy-evādhikāras te
mā phaleṣhu kadāchana
mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr
mā te saṅgo ’stvakarmaṇi
You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions.
Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your actions, nor be attached to inaction. (BG 2.47)
Many times, when we use our actions as a means to attain our daily material and financial needs, we may lose our true creative spark. For example, a writer can get too attached to his writing and lose readership because of his strict requirements or he may be compelled to write to please the audience or the editor, or publisher. The creative process gets impacted by the ‘outcome’ mindset. The writer is limiting himself in these cases, there is attachment to a particular anticipated outcome. Instead, if we follow the message of the Gita and surrender to the Divine, focusing on the excellence of the inputs to the action instead, we can become a medium for creation, we can become an extension of the divine.
ACCESSING SPIRITUALITY THROUGH CREATIVITY
Spirituality is often difficult to appreciate directly for many people because of its subtlety and seeming polarities. In this context, creativity and other related practices (collaboration, connection, reflection, learning, curiosity, growth mindset) can serve as very helpful bridges as they simulate and stimulate the deeper understanding of reality.
How Can You Develop This Connection?
1. Find time in your day to explore your creative side. Time is often the singular challenge that prevents each of us from doing more of what we love or what we know we should/ want to do. How to find time for focusing on all the things that you would like to do is itself a complex topic of its own that we will explore further in a future blog. At a high level, the main approaches to solving the time paradox can be categorized into time management strategies (how to prioritize your day, how to align your work with your goals and purpose, how to say no, how to organize your work) and into time mindset (abundance vs scarcity, if you perceive time as scarce it will be, and if you approach it as abundant, it will open up to you). The bottom line is that we can always find time when we need to and want to.
2. Observe how creative pursuits lead to a state of Flow. Turning theory into reality is the art of spirituality. It’s one thing to conceptually understand the connection between creativity and Flow, but it’s another completely to experience the connection for yourself. When you are in the midst of a creative activity, how does it make you feel? Do you experience a slowing down or racing forward of time? Do you experience a loss of sense of self (ego)? Do you experience a greater sense of fulfillment afterwards?
3. Identify which activities in your life help you experience Flow and work to increase those activities in your day to day. Fill up your life with that which fulfills you and let the benefits of health, well-being, and creativity flow. Everyone has different triggers for Flow, but there are some common ones, which include reading, exercise, meditation, conversation, and of course creative activities, as well as a broader category of activities which may not be creative per se but involve learning and growth (pushing the level of your skill to meet a challenge).
4. Understand and nurture the correlates and elements of creativity (collaboration, connection, reflection, learning, curiosity, growth mindset). As these elements grow in your life, they will bloom into creativity. Simple ways to enhance these in your life is to journal about them, for example, ‘Learning Something New Every Day’ and/or track each element in terms of how prevalent it is for you day to day. When someone asks you a question you don’t know the answer to, look it up.
IN CONCLUSION
Julia Cameron sums it up nicely in her book, the Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity: ‘Creativity is GOD ENERGY flowing through us, shaped by us, like light flowing through a crystal prism. When we are clear about who we are and what we are doing, the energy flows freely and we experience no strain.’
Cameron says that spirituality and prayer can deepen our creativity and vice versa. ‘I have found that if I teach people to work on their creativity, their spirituality wakes up. And if I try teaching about spirituality, their creativity wakes up.’
When we embrace the wisdom of the scriptures as stated in the Gita verse (BG 2.47) above and we consider ourselves as a medium of God’s expression, or when we learn to surrender as suggested in the Gita (BG 4.11 below), we rise above the dualities of attachment to being creative or not creative, to creative expression being right and wrong or even. Our past experiences, upbringing, samskaras, and many factors may be responsible in shaping us, but all we need to remember about our creativity is that we just need to open ourselves to be a channel for God Energy!
ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāns tathaiva bhajāmyaham
mama vartmānuvartante manuṣhyāḥ pārtha sarvaśhaḥ
In whatever way people surrender unto Me, I reciprocate accordingly.
Everyone follows My path, knowingly or unknowingly, O son of Pritha. (BG 4.11)
OUR STORY
As four co-authors and two couples, our spiritual journeys have been catalyzed, stimulated, and encouraged by the companionship of our spouses. Through a few different spiritual study groups, we have noted that couples participating together have found the learning and growth to be beneficial as it is mutual in nature and perceived more supportively. The learning is also more applicable because it is based on practical examples and realistic challenges from the lives that most of us lead as couples and family members. Based on our experience in learning from each other in these study groups, we decided to establish this platform where we can share our experiences with other couples in order to support the journeys that many of us are on. We hope you enjoy this forum and share with us your feedback as well as your experiences along your journey to further enlighten us all!
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