The Joy of Creative Expression

In this episode of I explore creativity as the very nature of being alive.

So many people tell themselves, "I'm just not a creative person." But every day we create.

We create conversations, relationships, meals, businesses, gardens, communities, and moments of kindness. We create through the way we parent, the way we work, the way we train for a race, and the way we choose to show up in the world.

At our essence, we are consciousness expressing itself through form. Each of us is a unique expression of life's limitless potential.

In this episode, I explore:

• Why creativity belongs to everyone
• Moving beyond the idea that creativity is only artistic
• Listening for what wants to be expressed through you
• The difference between creating for an outcome and creating as a meditation
• Why commitment allows creativity to deepen us
• Enjoying the journey rather than becoming attached to the result
• How expressing what is within us becomes a communion with life itself

The greatest gift of creativity isn't what we produce, it’s who we become through the act of creating.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Consciousness is constantly seeking expression. It doesn't need form to be consciousness. Consciousness is all that is and ever was. But it seeks form to express itself and it seeks form through us. Welcome to another episode of Piles of Wisdom. Today I'm investigating or exploring creativity, that wonderful force that actually is within all of us. We are all creative beings. We are creativity in motion actually. And I thought I'd talk about it because I hear so many people say to me, Oh, but I'm not a creative person. I hear it all the time. And actually, it'd be really good instead of saying immediately, oh no, I'm not any good at that, or I'm not able to do that, and I'm not creative, just to ask instead what wants to be expressed through us, what wants to express through you. Because we're not actually creative because we make things or do things or you know, artists, or all the things that are commonly thought of as creativity. We actually make things, all the things, everything, everything is creation. We are creativity, as I said, we're creativity emotion, but we make things because we are creation, expressing itself through us. So it isn't for us to really query whether it's good or bad, it's to allow it through, and and also really recognizing that creativity in the arts. I mean, the arts are an amazing expression of creativity, and often I think art does connect us all because it can express what sometimes we can't express ourselves, which is why we can get moved to tears through music or dance or or art, all the things that we see because it touches that aspect in us. But it isn't only creativity, isn't only art and music and dance and poetry and all the things we might originally think of as creativity, but it's it's you know raising a family, it's raising, yeah, when I say raising a family, raising children, being in a family, creating a family, and creating a business. It's incredible for us to create something that we it's alchemy, isn't it? We turn we create something out of nothing, but then it's still very, very creative to cook a meal, and it comes out again. Magic, magic. I always think it's incredible witnessing all the creativity in in motion and creating oh, it's beautiful, the gardens. I mean, I live in big gardens around Big Gardens, Hyde Park, and Battersea and Kensington Gardens, and the incredible creativity of seeing those beautiful, beautiful flowers and creating a celebration, an event. I I think it's awesome when you see everything come together, creating a creating a run, creating a walk, creating going off and just being out in anywhere, a city walk, a nature walk, a run, training for a 5k or a marathon, creating a relationship, a conversation. You know, conversations incredible. It's really important to really witness the creativity of a conversation, that it's it's weaving threads to make something because you know our world expands by every different conversation we can have, which again brings in the being able to really listen and stretch into the world of another. Then together we can create something new just by listening and sharing, and we create through conversation. Conversation is a most incredible creative force, and uh it's recognizing too that uh consciousness is constantly seeking expression, it doesn't need form to you know to be consciousness. Consciousness is all that is and ever was and is uh it doesn't need form to exist, of course, uh but uh it seeks form to express itself and it seeks uh seeks form through us, and we are consciousness experiencing itself in every multifaceted, incredible way of every single human on this planet. It's quite awesome. So it is a good query or a good question to just ask what wants to come through me, what wants to come through you, and this is where it's so important to suspend conditioning and um programming of it needs to be a certain level or the fear of other people judging it or what you think other people might think. Really just question what wants to come through you, and it can be anything from a you know a business, a garden, a book. Uh it can be it can be witnessing, watching, it can be creative to just allow your energy through to go and see it propel you onto a walk or a run or a conversation, as I said, anything. What does want to come through you? What gives you joy could be dance, it could be art, but don't judge it. Whatever wants to come through you, just don't compare it or um yeah, judge it or or feel that it isn't worthy or ought to be more, or you can't possibly do it, you know, it feels too big. Just listen, just listen to what comes wants to come through you because it's worth following it. Because if you if we really follow, if any of us really follow what wants to come through us and do it really, really fully and really joyfully, then that expression becomes a meditation. I've always said this about my running that it's a meditation on the move, and all my life, really from little, it was that, and then I got caught up in the chimera of chasing times, which in itself isn't a bad thing. It was just the the that the stress of chasing the times often, not always, but took me away from the joy of just the run, the step, being in the run, being in each moment. So, really, if you allow the expression through you, it becomes a meditation. But it's also good to just show up it again if we show up again and again, because it's often the conditioning that goes, Well, I'm it's not good enough, I'm not any good at this, that's never going to happen, and we'll get caught up again in it, it needs to be have an outcome, it needs to be a certain level. Whereas if we really keep coming back to the to presence, to ease, and think what wants to come through us, and we don't judge it, as I said, do it with joy, do it fully. Then it is a meditation, and I I recognise that as I said in my running, I've been running since I was six, so that's 61 years. I've been competing in races a lot of the time, not always, I've had long patches where I did other things like decided to run across Spain in my bare feet. That was actually an incredible experience because I did seven weeks of running across Spain and just stayed in the steppe, stayed in the steppe. It was an awesome experience of many people gathering, and every day we chanted in the morning and we chanted in the evening, and I had different people with me all the time, and we just practiced being where we were, being wherever we were in Spain. We used to um watch the little dot going down the map as we were making our way, but being every day in the steppe meant that yes, I arrived in the south of Spain having started in the north, but what was more important was what I became during that journey, and that's been the same as the whole of my running journey because I've had different things I've done different times, I've been stretching for results. As I say, stretching for results in itself isn't a bad thing because it can mean that you show up, you're disciplined, you're consistent as I was, and there can be huge growth in that because it was my creativity. Running was my what I felt to me or is my soul's expression. So, yes, I had to work then with losing the joy by having a an agenda about whether I thought my result was good or bad, and that was something that I needed to clear away, which is why I'm encouraging you to just if you have a goal, and as I say, if you if you're keen to have a result, whether that's an you know, on a personal level, professional level, sport level, art level, it's great, it's it's wonderful to stretch for a result, but to be able to then trust the expression of your consciousness in motion, your your unique expression that is no one else's, let your creativity flow through you and not attach to the outcome. But who, yeah, not not what the outcome is, but who do I become on this journey? And I still on the I'm still on the running journey. I still love showing up, I still love training, and I still love the the learning and the deepening of of knowing myself in the creative expression. So, and also obviously I have other creative expressions, one of them being this. I love this, I love this podcast, and I just show up every week and I share with you, and I enjoy it and I allow it through me. Not always exactly sure what I'm going to say. And um, the other thing, actually, I thought is I read a book by Paul Oster, who's a a writer, and one in one of his books, which unfortunately I can't remember the title of, but it was a more of a story about his own life, and he was in Paris and he met this person who was a composer, and this this composer was composing a symphony that was so hard and big and long that he knew he was never finish it, and that was his connection to God, it was his connection to the divine. So I think that again, if we are in motion, if we recognize ourselves as um creativity in motion, consciousness in motion, then we we're not attached to the outcome, but we also surrender any of the is it good enough? What do people think and judgments? So having a goal without attachment is so powerful. So the goal that goal does serve a journey, but on the other hand, you don't have to have a goal. Your creativity could just be I say just, I don't mean just in any just way, but it could be um showing up to cook lovely food for people every day, your family, or again in restaurants. I always think the chefs are incredible, they create these incredible, beautiful, creative um pieces which then disappear, they're all consumed. It's absolutely you know, just the the creative act in motion all the time. So it doesn't have to have a goal, it just could be you know just being able to. I keep saying just I don't mean just, I mean I mean that as in uh a way of going, do whatever you want to do. Go running if you want to go running, go walking, sit and watch people, drink coffee, they're all creative. It's whatever's wanting to come through you to be and become you. You is a meditation on the move, and the purpose, really and truly, it's not to go and create something amazing, and although that's lovely when amazing things emerge, but then everything is amazing, extraordinary. It's it's basically recognizing what's already inside you, and or rather, it it's existing, it then comes out in the expression, it all it already is in you. Your your essence is pure potential, everything is possible, and the truth of you is so magnificent that if you surrender to all the judgments, all the am I good enough, is it okay, it's not alright, and allow this through you. It is then it is allowing that extraordinary that exists within you, it allows it expression. And really and truly, you don't need to query, is it good enough? So stop judging, stop judging. Creativity is you in motion, so stop asking, is it good enough? And that is so common. As I said, I hear people saying I'm not a creative person, but I also hear people saying, um, you know, it's not good enough, and or being embarrassed about it, or worrying what people will think, or all manner of things, but instead just allow it through you and instead uh ask if it's a true expression of you. Is this really truly me? Is this something I want to, you know, have come through me? Because then it will be alive and you know, query, is it alive? Is it alive and light? Um you know, I I had a runner's prayer, I've mentioned this before, that I wrote when I was about 40, so 27 years ago. I don't know if I can remember it, but it went something like this um let love and light no, what was it? Let love and light shine for me, and as I run, let me become more free, more me, and as I run, let others see it for themselves, so they can find it. It was something like that. That's really not it, but it was that kind of theme. It was something like that, like let love and light shine for me, and um, as I run, let me become more me, and then basically, if others can see it, then they can find it for themselves. So that was the sentiment, but I've completely forgotten my own poem, but never mind. Um, but yeah, is it alive? Is it true? And does it want to come through me? Because I always felt that that I wanted to clean up anything about my running which had the judgment or the is it good enough or you know, all that stuff, and I just wanted to allow the essence of me to shine through the run, and then you know, when we when we express what wants to come through, then we know ourselves better. We when we create, you know, we get to know ourselves more deeply, and then we end up we are creation, creating creation.