#12: The Power of Creative Self Expression in Everyday Life
For today's episode, I wanted to talk about creative self expression and how that actually helps you to change your life in some way. What do I mean by creative self expression? For me, creative self expression means anything that you feel called to do, to make, to create, or to express in some way from your being. This is very much about the mind body connection in a way because it's really looking at what you feel called towards. Creative self expression could be things like playing an instrument or trying out pottery or photography or learning some type of new skill or playing a sport. The important thing is that it's a way that you feel called to express something about yourself. It doesn't have to be super formal. It can be both structured as in taking classes around something, or it can be really in the day to day moments even when you're just by yourself around your house.
What do you feel called to?
For example, sometimes I sing when I'm just by myself in my house, or I'll start I'll start singing when one of my daughters is around, and they'll sing the same song with me. It can be really it can be in those structured intentional moments, and it can really also be in those, let's say, random type of moments. Creative self expression is really anything that you feel called to be doing or making or expressing in some way, and we're going to talk about how you get to that and how you find that for yourself.
As adults, it's really easy for us to ignore our creative self expression. So even when I just said those ideas to you, you could have thought - I always wanted to play an instrument, but I never really got around to it. It's too late now. Or there's no point, or I don't have time. Could be any of those things.
If you had any of those types of thoughts, it's to be expected because we've lived a long time with suppressing our creative expression in a lot of ways. I encourage you to be open to trying it out and exploring some new things of what are the things you've always wanted to do in some way or wanted to try. The important piece to note is that there doesn't have to be a rational explanation or reason for why you want to try it. You can just try it because you're interested and feel called to trying it.
There doesn't have to be an end goal “I can't ski because I'm not going to be in the Winter Olympics skiing”. It doesn't have to be so extreme. I would say it happens a lot, especially in The US, but I I'm sure other places in the world as well. Let's take sports, for example. The competition level is so high from a pretty young age. I would say even in in middle school, depending on the school, some middle schools start to have tryouts for sports. And if you're not good enough, you don't get on those teams, and then there's not necessarily outlets for you to play if you aren't that good. There are recreational teams depending where you live and everything, but at some point, you even age out of those, and then there's not much else to offer. That continues with us into adulthood that there aren't places where we can try new things without it having to have some type of goal or some type of achievement tied to it. Take a look at where are those places where you talk yourself out of a certain type of creative self expression because it doesn't make sense, or it's not rational, or there's no point in some way. What we want to talk about here is how you can unlock your creative self expression and really incorporate it into your day to day life in some way. Even if it's not going to the Olympics or winning some type of award or being on a bestseller list or anything like that.
How to Unlock Your Creative Self Expression
Let’s talk about how you can unlock your creative self expression. I heard a story from Elizabeth Gilbert once that I really liked, and she was talking about the approach for how you find your purpose. And in it, she talked about following the nudges. She talked about how we get nudges towards certain things. It might not be one big, let me go find my purpose, but it can be nudges towards what we feel called to, what we feel interested in in some way. And we have to act in those small moments on those small nudges in order to lead us down our path. It's kind of like following the breadcrumbs. And I really like that analogy because I feel very strongly the same way. It's not going to all appear in your lap one day. That's not how change works. It's not how transformation works.
When you get better at paying attention to your own personal nudges, it's going help you unlock that next step in your journey. And the same can be said for creative self expression. What is something that you feel called to try even if you don't know why? Maybe you've always wanted to take photos. Maybe you've always wanted to take a pottery class. It doesn't matter what it is, but think about one of those times in something that you've really wanted to try. And if that is still something you want to try now, how can you make that happen in some way? And
I understand there are different levels of financial investment depending what type of activity you want to do, but maybe there are creative ways that you can go about it.
Here are ideas of ways you can find support related to your nudges of creative self expression:
You can look up lessons or instructions for learning a new skill online
You can see if your library is offering any classes or courses
You can find groups online that support these different hobbies.
I know during COVID when I started guitar lessons, I ended up following some YouTube channels to learn to play, basically. And I taught myself using songs from artists that I really liked because that's another way to keep yourself interested in something is because you really want to be interested in the thing that you're learning about. I didn’t want to learn just any song. I wanted to learn songs that I already liked because it would be easier for me to still be engaged in it.
There's lots of different creative ways that you might follow one of your interests. But the thing is to really follow each of those nudges. And, you know, we're talking about creative self expression, let's say, more for your life in general. And there's ways that this applies to work specifically, also at home. And if we go to that if we go to the premise with Elizabeth Gilbert talking about the nudges related to purpose, you could see the same thing in in your work or at home.
For example, for myself, I worked in manufacturing for a long time. I did a lot of transformation work. I studied with McKinsey and learned their lean transformation model, which had three different parts to it. It had a systems piece, a management infrastructure piece, and also a people piece. And I did a lot of different projects, went to different manufacturing sites, and worked in all of these areas. These three key pillars, let's say, and supported the sites in changing their overall approach and transforming how they operated the site. Over time, what I found that I liked the most out of all of that was the people piece, because I really liked doing the things around teaming. And then I really enjoyed the coaching aspect and working on the mindsets and behaviors with everyone and how they all interacted. And knowing that led me down more of my path to then where I am today, where I do a lot more of the one on one work. I do a lot of the mindsets and behaviors piece. I do a lot of, let's say, personal development, executive coaching, all of these types of things. Because I realized I could do the other pieces, the systems piece and even the infrastructure. Yet those weren't my favorite. So I just kept following those nudges through my career to see, okay, where are the places that I really enjoy, and then how can I do more of that piece? And so it's the same here with creative self expression in this way. It can be for these hobbies. I would really love for you to start with it for hobbies, but you can also see the link to how it impacts things like career, and then how it also ties at home.
I had a client that had a pretty intense job. And while she liked her job, she realized that at home, it was just she didn't have an outlet, and she wasn't making time for things that would help her release some of that energy, some of that intensity for work from work. And what we came up with is that, actually, she loves to do crafts. She loves crafting, making different things, gifting things to people. When she allowed herself more time and space for that, it became a great way for her to process that energy to kind of decompress from work, and also do something that she enjoyed, so that she felt more of a balance between, let's say, work life and home life in a way. Right? And really was expressing herself in a bunch of different ways. So it can look different to different people.
The main thing that I want to share with you here is that if you follow those nudges, whatever they are, they'll impact all the different parts of your life. They won't only impact one part even if you're starting with one certain part. So even if you're focused on okay. Let me find, let's say, a hobby that allows me to express myself creatively. That is going to ripple into the other parts of your life. So just keep that in mind.
The main thing is to keep allowing yourself to follow those nudges, whatever they are, even if it's a very small step. Again, it doesn't have to be this big grand gesture of some kind, but it's like, oh, you know what? I always wanted to learn how to play the piano. Let me take a few lessons and see what it's like.
Also, it doesn't mean that you have to stick with something either. I personally also feel that it's a lot about experimenting. Right? And it's following those nudges in those calls. And then if you feel like, okay. I'm actually ready to move on or that wasn't what I was expecting. Be okay with letting that go and trying something else. There's something to be said for all that too so that you're not feeling that you're finding this way that you want to express yourself, and then it's not aligned. But you're still keeping yourself in that box because that's what you said you wanted to do. Be mindful of that on the journey if something feels like, oh, you know what? That kind of that ran its course. Allow yourself to put that down and pick something else up instead.
Another piece to unlocking this and really having it change your life is if you can look at it in terms of it's a relationship with yourself and it's a relationship with your mind body connection. It’s about honoring how do you feel in a certain moment and going with that feeling. And I know we have work, we have responsibilities, but it's really paying attention to those tugs and maybe putting a little, let's say, marker in. It's really about paying attention to those nudges and then putting a marker or a pin in it to save it for when you can do something with it.
It's important to pay attention to that connection that you feel within your body because that's really what's most connected to your purpose and your soul and what you truly want to do. It's not going to come from your mind. So you might have a thought about something, and that's fine. But pay attention to those pulls and those nudges from in your body that are that feel like they're trying to pull you along in some way because those are the places where you can go more deeply to really feel this creative self expression in a different way and to honor it in a different way. So, you know, again, like, I sing at home sometimes. I sing in front of the girls sometimes. Finding those ways to bring yourself these little pockets of joy and not just say, oh, adults don't do that. Right? It's about how can you embrace some of that childlike innocence… not quite that, but I think you know what I mean.
It's about expressing yourself without all of the doubts, limiting beliefs, and conditioning that you get as you grow older. Children have so much more to them that they don't mind. They're willing to try things. They learn to walk. They learn to talk, and they keep at it until they get it. As adults, we give up easily, or we talk ourselves out of things. Children are actually pretty good at also being adamant about things. So, you know, it's trying to adopt some of that in your life, bring some of that play and joy back into your life in a way that's supportive to you and in a way that allows you to also express yourself.
At the end of the day, connecting to this piece of you that maybe is already around or maybe has been dormant for some time. Connecting to this creative self expression is something that's really going to awaken more within you and bring you more joy in your day to day life. Because we can so often go through the motions and follow the same routine over and over, and that's okay.
If you want to have something different, if you feel unsettled in your life in some way, it's important to start following those nudges and those feelings that bring you the most excitement, that bring you the most interest. Because the more you can follow that excitement and that interest, the more aligned you're going to feel in your day to day life. And that is going to really shift a lot of things for you, not only your self expression, but a lot of other things.
Conclusion on the Power of Creative Self Expression
The homework for today is to really take a look and see:
Is there a nudge that you've been ignoring? A nudge that you feel pulled to that you've been ignoring in some way.
If so, get curious about it. Reflect on what is calling you forward.
What do you feel pulled towards in some way?
How are you going to allow yourself to follow that pull, follow that nudge, and honor yourself by allowing yourself to create and express what wants to come out of you?
So that's your reflection and your homework for today. I hope you found this episode helpful for where you are right now. Creative self expression is something that's so, so, so important for life, and I hope it's something that if you don't already enjoy doing, you find joy in the process because it really is a lot of fun to learn new things and grow in different ways and expand yourself. Even as an adult, you don't have to be set in your ways.
Thank you so much for listening today. Thank you for your support here. If you want to reach out for any reasons, questions, or anything, please feel free. All of my links are in the show notes, and I'm wishing you a really wonderful rest of your day. I'll talk to you next week.
Resources mentioned:
If you’d like to connect further about unlocking the next step in your personal development journey, please feel free to reach out. I'm on LinkedIn and Instagram. I'm also on Voxer at @MaryClavieres.
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Previous Podcast Episodes to Listen to:
Transformation Tip: Be Willing to Do Things Differently
4 Keys to Create Lasting Change
3 Things that Hold You Back in Life and Business
3 Simple Ways to Reconnect and Embrace the Present Moment
How to Get Different Results in Life & Business Using the Results Pyramid
How Small Steps Lead to Big Changes
How to Overcome the Fear of Making Decisions
The Easiest Way to Practice Gratitude in One Minute a Day
