[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”on” specialty=”off”][et_pb_fullwidth_post_title admin_label=”Fullwidth Post Title” title=”on” meta=”on” author=”on” date=”on” categories=”on” comments=”on” featured_image=”on” featured_placement=”background” parallax_effect=”on” parallax_method=”on” text_orientation=”left” text_color=”dark” text_background=”on” text_bg_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.9)” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” /][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” color=”#ffffff” show_divider=”off” height=”15″ divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on” /][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]

There are only a handful of subjects where I will, without remorse, stand my ground and argue come hell or high water for my own view point. For the most part, I’m a live and let live kind of person. Yeah, I’ll explain why I do what I do, but I don’t expect you to do what I do, or believe what I believe. But I have to resort to meditative breathing exercises when I see someone say they aren’t creative. I call bullshit.

You are too creative.

Creativity is a state of mind, and one that can be learned, at that. It’s a way of approaching the world – it’s being open to seeing and experiencing the world around you, and allowing yourself to have something to say about it. It’s being receptive to things from outside of you, and allowing them to interact with your own way of perceiving the world. It’s a curiosity, and a willingness to ask questions… and then spit it out, somehow. How doesn’t even matter, as long as you do it.

THAT IS BEING CREATIVE. That is what it boils down to. Not the mind-blowing art you see in viral videos. Those are something else – those are the lighting-strike-rarity combination of advanced skills, exceptional taste, and creativity. The only one of those that can’t be learned by damn near everyone is taste; that is unique to each of us. Even then, you can refine your own tastes.

This point, that creativity exists in all of us if we’re willing to let it be part of our way of seeing, IS IMPORTANT. Creativity, and the expression it takes (in whatever form) as a result of making space for creativity, is life changing.

It is world changing.

Allowing yourself to be creative – without requirements for taste or skill – is so important to the development of the human spirit. Our creative expression is how we discover who we are, beyond just being another cog in the machine of the soul-grinding capitalistic society we live in. It gives us a tool for discovering the feelings and thoughts that we may not have even realized we had, a tool no one can take away.

Creativity – creative expression – is how we discover who we are, and how we see the world. It’s how we make the world a better place, too. Without it, we are simply fodder for the 1%, mindless consumers feeding a system that relies on our compliance. When we allow ourselves to create – just for ourselves; not for money, not for fame – we step out of Kansas and into Oz. Our world becomes technicolor, and we discover a depth of spirit that we may have never known we possessed before.

It’s terrifying, taking that first step, and sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom – to have nothing else to lose, to take the first step. Sometimes, you have to decide that life is not worth living as a cog. It is terrifying to allow that the Mythical Everyone is wrong, that those elite Creatives do not possess some divine gift of creative ability. Often, those same creatives are being used by the media machine, a convenient story to feed and pacify the masses into staying a grey cog in their machine. Don’t believe the propaganda. You are creative, and opening yourself up to it is the most effective way of challenging the status quo, of defying the power structure of our era.

Don’t believe me? You know what many of the great world changers had in common? Nothing left to lose. They had nothing but, and sometimes not even, death to fear. They decided that it was not worth living another day as a cog. The world called, and they answered. You can answer too. You don’t have to change the whole world. You don’t have to make a statement. You don’t even have to show anyone what you make. You don’t have to be good. You can think you suck.

But by all that is holy, stop telling yourself you are not creative. It’s not that you aren’t creative – you’re just afraid of what you might discover about yourself if you try. You’re afraid you’ll find out you’re ‘bad’ at another thing, or that maybe you don’t know what you think, or you can’t say what you think well enough. And all of that is perfectly fine. You learned to speak one word at a time, you’ll learn to express your innate creativity one project at a time.

Just don’t say you’re not creative and deprive the world of another view point. Do not leave it to the ones the gatekeepers select, the select creatives chosen by those who will use anyone they can to maintain their power. Create, with everything in you, just start creating. Make the world a more colorful place, make it better. Do not let them silence you.

Create something. Make something. Anything.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” color=”#ffffff” show_divider=”off” height=”15″ divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on” /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_post_nav admin_label=”Post Navigation” in_same_term=”off” hide_prev=”off” hide_next=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]