Estimated Reading Time 7 Minutes
Hey You! I’m Emily Romrell and this is The Vibrant Life Podcast. I am genuinely happy you’re spending a few minutes with me today. It’s a surreal thing to be a podcaster. I love creating the content each week and I feel like it probably helps me more than anyone else to remember my purpose and live my own vibrant life. But I’m sending these messages out into the void hoping they will reach someone. Then there’s you. I may or may not know you personally, but I feel like I do. And we’re connected in this magical way through technology. Whoever you are and wherever you may be, I want you to know that you’re important and you make a difference. The world needs you and I hope we can make the world a better place by living vibrant lives together.
If you enjoy the podcast, a review on iTunes would be so awesome. I’m trying to reach as many people as possible and taking a few minutes to show your appreciation in the form of a review helps so much.
Today we are discussing one of my all time favorite things about life, Creativity. This is a big topic, but it’s is critical to living your best life.
You know, society likes to sort people into groups and label them. You’ve got white collar and blue collar people. We’re divided into high, low, and middle class. We’re divided by race and cultural backgrounds. I really don’t like that. There are so many different parts that make up a person and I don’t like putting limits on people. One of these groups that we are usually put into when very young is we are either artistic/creative or practical/logical etc. This biases society into thinking that creative people are impractical and irresponsible and that non-creative people are rigid and non-expressive. Lies. Here’s the truth: every single human on the planet is creative. We just have different ways of showing it. Have you ever heard the expression that someone (maybe even you) is not the brightest crayon in the box? That can be a reference to intelligence, but it also has artistic tones. If you are thinking that you’re a dull crayon then this episode is for you.
One of my all time favorite personal development books is The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz. He has a whole series of books that discuss wisdom found in his culture of the Toltecs. The Toltecs were amazing artists and sculptors. They left wonderful monuments and statues that really are awe inspiring. The name Toltec actually means artist. But the thing I love is that in his books Ruiz teaches us that, “Every human is an artist. The dream of your life is to make beautiful art.” And later he asks, “If you can see yourself as an artist, and you can see that your life is your own creation, then why not create the most beautiful story for yourself?” It’s a great question.
Do you realize that you are creating your life everyday through your choices and actions? Your life is the biggest and most important artwork of all.
But besides the metaphysical aspect of creating your life, creativity is critical in living a fulfilling life. A great article that I recommend reading is “WHAT IS CREATIVITY AND WHY DO YOU NEED IT?” by Kacey Spencer on cornerstone.edu. This article covers why creativity is so important to all of us. In it the author explains:
Creativity drives us to not only create but to innovate.
Spencer, K. (2020, September 3). What is creativity and Why do you need it? https://www.cornerstone.edu/blog-post/what-is-creativity-and-why-do-you-need-it/.
Consider all of the minds behind what it took to give us the smartphone of today. Thousands of individuals, from the coders to the marketers to the app developers, conspired to bring something into existence that once was unimaginable.
Not only does it have a significant impact on their lives, but as one of the greatest single developments of any century, the smartphone has profoundly impacted the day to day life of every person who owns one.
Famed psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who first identified the mental state of flow, wrote the book “Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention.”
A leading theorist in the positive mental state, he describes creativity as, “a central source of meaning in our lives … most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the results of creativity … [and] when we are involved in it, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.”
As evidenced by our example of the smartphone, creativity applies to more than just a student sitting in an art class.
Creativity is about doing meaningful and fulfilling activities. This goes far beyond traditional “creative” activities, such as painting or writing.
Then there is the pure joy and the need in our souls to create. I know I’m quoting a lot of other people in this podcast. But these sources are so good and I’d rather give you the message from them rather than summarize it and take some of the magic away. These people have in fact used their own creativity when delivering their messages in their words, and I am being somewhat creative in my choice of delivery as well. But the credit all goes to the original speakers.
In his wonderful talk “Happiness, Your Heritage” Dieter F. Uchtdorf tells us why we feel the need for creativity so strongly:
The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.
Uchtdorf, Dieter. F. (n.d.). Happiness, Your Heritage. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2008/10/happiness-your-heritage?lang=eng.
Everyone can create. You don’t need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty.
Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty—and I am not talking about the process of cleaning the rooms of your teenage children.
You might say, “I’m not the creative type. When I sing, I’m always half a tone above or below the note. I cannot draw a line without a ruler. And the only practical use for my homemade bread is as a paperweight or as a doorstop.”
If that is how you feel, think again, and remember that you are spirit daughters of the most creative Being in the universe. Isn’t it remarkable to think that your very spirits are fashioned by an endlessly creative and eternally compassionate God? Think about it—your spirit body is a masterpiece, created with a beauty, function, and capacity beyond imagination.
But to what end were we created? We were created with the express purpose and potential of experiencing a fulness of joy. Our birthright—and the purpose of our great voyage on this earth—is to seek and experience eternal happiness. One of the ways we find this is by creating things.
If you are a mother, you participate with God in His work of creation—not only by providing physical bodies for your children but also by teaching and nurturing them. If you are not a mother now, the creative talents you develop will prepare you for that day, in this life or the next.
You may think you don’t have talents, but that is a false assumption, for we all have talents and gifts, every one of us. The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper and do not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before—colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter.
What you create doesn’t have to be perfect. So what if the eggs are greasy or the toast is burned? Don’t let fear of failure discourage you. Don’t let the voice of critics paralyze you—whether that voice comes from the outside or the inside.
If you still feel incapable of creating, start small. Try to see how many smiles you can create, write a letter of appreciation, learn a new skill, identify a space and beautify it.
Nearly a century and a half ago, President Brigham Young spoke to the Saints of his day. “There is a great work for the Saints to do,” he said. “Progress, and improve upon and make beautiful everything around you. Cultivate the earth, and cultivate your minds. Build cities, adorn your habitations, make gardens, orchards, and vineyards, and render the earth so pleasant that when you look upon your labors you may do so with pleasure, and that angels may delight to come and visit your beautiful locations. In the mean time continually seek to adorn your minds with all the graces of the Spirit of Christ.”
The more you trust and rely upon the Spirit, the greater your capacity to create. That is your opportunity in this life and your destiny in the life to come. Sisters, trust and rely on the Spirit. As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness, you improve not only the world around you but also the world within you.
Again, I know I did a lot of reading today, but I felt like I really wanted to share these specific words from the specific authors of those words.
The last thing I want to mention is that it’s fun to learn new skills and create something new. Whether it’s something traditional like a form of writing, music, dance, or creating a piece of art, or something like coding a new app, being creative in how you hold your work meetings, or how you decide to organize the furniture in your home; there is a pure form of joy that comes with creativity that can’t be found anywhere else. Even if you don’t care about the personal development side of creativity, you should do it for fun. Sometimes we get so caught up in all the things we should do or have to do, and it’s important to remember to do things in the moment for the joy of that moment.
I’ll leave you with a challenge this week to find some time to create. Find something meaningful to you and make it happen. Your life will be more vibrant if you do. Have a great week, Peeps.
