Legendary New Age author Doreen Virtue is back with a new book which encourages us to get creative. Here she introduces the book to The Best You readers
It takes courage to be creative. I know from personal and professional experience, as I’ve been self-employed as an author and speaker since 1993. During that time I’ve learned a lot—including from making mistakes.
True creativity is channeling divine inspiration and expressing the infinite mind of God. Creativity is akin to patiently waiting for beautiful butterflies to flutter by and land upon your shoulder. Since I’ve taught intuition classes for over 20 years, I’ve also learned how to help people overcome fears and blocks to receptivity.
Yes, it takes courage to be creative, and I will hold your hand throughout the upcoming chapters to help you muster that courage. I’ve experienced and overcome each of the fears about being creative. After all, expressing yourself creatively means:
- Facing your deepest feelings and authentic truth, as they are the inspirations for your creativity
- Exposing your most vulnerable feelings publicly
- Sharing raw and real information about yourself, which may be embarrassing or unflattering
- Receiving criticism and ridicule from those who don’t resonate with your work
- Confronting the possibility of your work not selling or being commercially viable
- Isolating yourself while you work on your creative project
That’s why I admire creative folks. They’re real, they’re brave, and they’re healers in their own way, because when others relate to their painting, book, photograph, or other art form, those people know that they’re not alone… that someone else feels the same way.
If you’re drawn to a creative career or you feel guided to have creative hobbies, then you recognise that creativity is a calling that can’t be ignored. Even though you know the risks listed above, you’re also in touch with the compelling feelings driving you to create.
Some people think that creativity is the same as making things up and imagining things. Well, that’s only a small part of creativity. The larger part is being a mirror, reflecting how things are right now, and being a channel of authentic, raw emotions. Creativity is problem solving and inventing ways to meet needs and fix issues. For every risk associated with being creative, there are many more blessings.
All your efforts are rewarded when people tell you how your work has helped them, or you see your creative project making a positive difference. In early 2014, my Hay House editor, Alex Freemon ,suggested that I write a book about creativity. The idea intrigued me, as I always enjoyed teaching writers in my classes and seminars, at Hay House Writer’s Workshops, on AngelUniversity.com, and at the UCLA Writers’ Program. I also loved encouraging people to follow their purpose and passion.
But it’s one thing to have an idea, and another to know how to bring it to life. And that’s what this book is about: diving deep inside our feelings, including recognising and healing blocks to creativity and enjoying a full-time creative career.
When I began writing this book, I knew the basic concept was to discuss the process of creativity. I knew it would be about all forms of creativity, not just writing. To bring this book you’re now holding into being, I used the very creative process that I outline here and that I recommend for you. It’s one I’ve used for all of my creative products and services, and it works!
Some of the most creative people I’ve met are also the most sensitive. Their sensitivity makes them receptive to divinely inspired ideas. Yet, that same sensitivity makes them shy to reveal their ideas to others. In studying creative individuals’ processes, I find that creativity is one-half the ability to listen and be receptive, and one-half the courage to put the creative idea into action.
This is a book about both receptivity and courage. It’s about having the courage to be yourself , because the true you is highly creative. After all, you’re the creation of the creator, in whose image and likeness you were made. So, therefore, you are creative yourself.
Some people think that the word creativity applies only to writers, artists, musicians, and such. Actually, creativity is practical, with applications in business and daily life, including relationships, parenthood, health, and so forth. In its purest form, creativity is the outward expression of an inner voice, vision, or idea. That’s the type of memorable creativity that ends up on museum walls, on the radio, and in bookstores.
Yet, creativity for most people is more ‘ordinary,’ in an everyday sense. Practical creativity means the ability to solve problems in new and innovative ways. A study by the Institute of HeartMath found that highly successful people gave themselves permission to be intuitive and creative. They’d intuit future trends and creative ways to solve problems down the line (Tomasino 2007). Creativity can help you take your business to the next level, assist your child’s learning, increase your enjoyment of necessary activities like housework and exercise, and boost your self-confidence and happiness.
So, let’s get courageous and let’s get creative!
