Creative Living

Creative living starts when people realize that by setting purposeful goals and make it a daily habit to achieve them, their lives will have meaning. They must learn that life is more than a succession of twenty four hours of nothingness. The major enemy of creative living is the passive scheme that people fall into, believing that they are meaningless particles in a huge world. And as a result, they become “watchers” in a world that passes them by. “If we fail to nourish our souls, they wither, and without soul, life ceases to have meaning…. The creative process shrivels in the absence of continual dialogue with the soul. And creativity is what makes life worth living.” ~ Marion Woodman Just as we get into habit of doing things without questioning ― buttoning a shirt, brushing our teeth, washing the dishes ― so we tend to adopt culturally stereotyped ways of thinking without making a real individual selection. Often we may uncritically accept patterns of thought which do not make real sense. “To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong” ~ Joseph Chilton Pearce About creative living for example, I believe that most people believe it is silly to devote time to thinking about creative living. They are of the opinion that One’s life pattern is either dynamic or static; and planning will not help. I disagree. I believe, firmly, that sound planning plants the seeds of rich, dynamic and fulfilling living. In rising above the animal state, man increasingly has used planning to achieve the goals he values, most of which are not spur-of-the-moment accomplishments. “You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win” ~ Zig Ziglar The forty two year doctor, with his comfortable practice, will have figured out his lifework perhaps in his early teens, as a high school student. The lawyer and the physicist, too, doing work they like and receiving rewarding pay for their efforts, paved the way for their successes with similar planning. The incomparable inventor Thomas Edison, was experimenting with his mechanical environment when he was six years old. Many of our timeless entertainers, such as Donald O’Connor, performed as children and enlarged their talents through experience and experimentation. When you are in high school, in college, starting your first job, raising your children, building your career, cultivating your mature ideas, visiting your grandchildren ― during these years, you should be going beyond your function, always looking to fill your years with life. The essential ingredient in your plans must be the development of your belief in yourself as a human being in the world, not outside it, living each day fully, not fleeing in fear from the demand of life. The search from childhood to old age is the search for a healthy self image. Fearful of approaching the threshold of adult life, we search for it during adolescence. We seek to strengthen it during adult life and spend a lifetime in this pursuit ― if we are wise and if we do not lose it in paying homage to false gods and worthless values. If we are sensible, we continue to build on it during our later years instead of finding the easy way out in a passive withdrawal from life. We have to realize that we must live fully today. We must understand that each day is a lifetime to be lived now and that the mistakes of yesterday must be left in the tomb of time.” When your past calls, don’t answer. It has nothing new to say”. The young become mature and the mature become young when they learn to deal with negative feelings and to rise through them to their full recognition of themselves as adequate human beings. We must learn to accept ourselves now in realistic terms. I do not mean that we should constantly tell ourselves how wonderful we are, or how much we are better than anyone else, as this is a narcissistic process of going away from oneself into a world of fantasy. Our estimate of ourselves must be valid and must take into consideration our fellows around us; aspiring to see ourselves in our best moments and trying to prolong and extend these moments. We must also honestly see our weaknesses and be compassionate toward them, as we would be compassionate toward the weaknesses of a loved friend. “It is a beautiful experience being with ourselves at a level of complete acceptance. When that begins to happen, when you give up resistance and needing to be perfect, a peace will come over you as you have never known.” My point is that we must, at as early age as possible, feel good enough about ourselves so that we need not run away from life. We must get into the habit of accepting ourselves, in the world, in life, without retreat, even if we find no perfection. If we truly accept ourselves and the world we live in, we are laying the groundwork for a creative, and dynamic living. This is the only solid base for real living. When you know yourself you are empowered. When you accept yourself you are invincible. ~ Tina Lifford