Why Are We Afraid to Create?

My son, now four, loves to draw people with very long necks, long oval eyes, a dot for a nose, a jagged line for a mouth, and sometimes there is a torso, sometimes arms and legs come straight out of the neck. He puts marker on paper, or chalk on the sidewalk and just does it. There is no pause. No doubt. No I’m worried it won’t turn out the way I imagine or what if no one likes this?

I can remember a defining moment for me. As a child, from the age of seven or eight, I sewed my own clothes. I loved it. They were awful and crooked and usually fell apart by the end of the day. The next day, I would sew something new. I got better over time and was the student designer in my high school fashion shows and loved nothing more than spending hours creating in my basement.

Then I spent four years in fashion school and never sewed again. The joy of creation came out of the creative process.

This, I believe, is what plants the first seed of doubt about our creations. We get too attached to the result, the critics, the judgments, the big end result, and the resistance becomes so strong that we don’t even begin the creative process.

It also applies to our work, you know. We have ideas – ideas for the company we work for, ideas for our own business or an idea of ​​a new business, hobby or initiative we want to do. We have a spark, we’re excited, and then we do nothing. We never make the first move. We’re afraid it’s stupid, or it’ll be too much work, or it won’t work and so… nothing.

taking the leap to create

One of my favorite moments in the job I do is his first week Culinary Nutrition Expert Program when our youngest students introduce themselves and share some of their personal history and inspiration for joining. There is always a vast majority of students who will include something along the lines of:

I looked at this program forr years and finally got tha jump

I am so excited to finally be chasing a dream of mine.

I’m retired/my kids are all gone/I quit my job… and I’m finally doing something for me.

There is an energy that comes from finally taking that leap to create. The creative process itself heals, grounds, and resonates in profound ways, and yet, we allow our fear to stop us before we begin.

how can we start the creative process?

What if creation could be a part of our everyday life? What if every day we set a goal to do one thing that tapped into that inner creative power we all have to create something? Can you think of what your thing would be?

Maybe it’s as simple as trying a new recipe and making something new for dinner. Maybe it’s writing the first page of a book you want to write. Maybe it’s putting the brush to the canvas or the fingers to the piano keys or the guitar strings. Perhaps it includes knitting needles, tap shoes, a garden hoe or a roll of wallpaper.

Creation comes in all forms, and bringing something new into the world that has never existed is a powerful part of the experience of being human. Creativity is built into our makeup – each and every one of us. It has nothing to do with left brain or right brain. Creativity is just the way our brains work, and what’s really incredible is like any brain wiring – the more you tune into the creative aspects of yourself, the stronger they become. Creative thinking, creative production, creative creation can be enhanced through practice.

how do i tap into my creativity these days?

As you may know, I’m working on two things mainly these days. The first is running the Culinary Nutrition Expert Program (it’s the tenth series!), and connecting with my students and answering their questions (and searching to find those answers) is a form of the creative work I do.

The other digs deep, within me and investigates to create my new program. What has been truly incredible to experience is that as I do more and more work to gain coherence, calm the mind, nurture the in-between space and learn about the mind, brain, body and our ability to create, the my creative drive explodes.

I’m finally back to sewing clothes, cross stitching, getting thrifty and creative in decorating my new home, and pouring my creative energy into this new project. The program it’s not about creativity or the creative process, but as I work through it, I realize that one of the ways it will serve those involved is that by doing the work we’ll do together, creativity will blossom.

I have long believed that whatever experience I have in creating something is the experience others will have as they participate in it. I believe that one of the greatest gifts to our well-being, growth and fulfillment and evolution as humans is to take the leap and create without fear. And that creative energy, all of us thinking and being in the zone of creation, well that’s needed right now more than ever. Go for it. Take it. Make it happen. Send me a picture!

Photo: Nikki McKean

On My Mind Episode 29: Why Are We Afraid to Create?

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