Creativity and Health
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Stress and Illness
Creative Self
^ “Know Thyself”
Sometimes, it's as if we're lost to who we really
are. Maybe we find ourselves held hostage to anger or fear. Maybe we're trapped into a stereotype. One example is to be always striving to please others yet keep on getting stung by guilt. Another is to suffer from the opposite problem, and never feel satisfied however much others do for us.
It's like there's a movie director that operates behind the scenes, one that
forces us to stick to the script and to play the part that it
decides. All the while, the person we
really are can go ignored and unknown.
An answer according to the ancient Greeks is to "know thyself", the advice they inscribed on the ancient Temple of Apollo at Delphi.
In response to the sages of Dephi, aren't we simply the person with the name on our birth certificate, living at Address X, of Age X and Passport Number Z?
Of course we are, but how relevant are such markers of identity? Aren't we more the words used to define us?
Isn't the
human being too full of innate creativity - and potential, love, imagination and joy - to
pin down through narrow labels?
^ Fear and Other Spoilers
What spoils the party and distracts us from being real are "stress forces" like fear.
These take us over from inside and leave us lost.
Imagine being so scared of change that we can't escape a bad situation, or having such cravings for something strong enough to cost us everything, even our very life.
These are just two of the ways we can end up slaves to forces of stress such as fear and compulsive desire.
These same forces can keep us sticking forever to the same, losing routine, a fate captured precisely by the Ancient Greeks in their image of Sisyphus, a mythical figure condemned to keep rolling a rock up a hill, only to see it keep rolling back down again.
Just like Sisyphus, we can be suspended in a state of perpetual misery by fear etc., these being forces of stress that lend us our natural compulsive to be "one-track minded" - and locked into unhealthy compulsions.
^ More than Monet
Human creativity goes beyond Monet paintings and Einstein theories, however incredible those might be. Human creativity is about so much more than elite achievements and superstars. Human creativity is there within each of us - at our very heart.
Original music comes to musicians as spontaneously as acts of kindness come to us upon seeing a stranger in distress.
A random act of kindness can be every bit as creative as a catchy tune; both arrive as a "law unto itself". Both speak the truth about our real identity.
Every moment of self-creativity says something about who we really are, no less so than each piece of music or film shows the distinct style of the composer or director.
Compassion and joy can't be faked or forced. That makes them only more precious.
Original music is impossible to mould or mass produce, and the same can be said of creative “self assets”. These just need “permission” and space to develop on their own terms - and through their own, innate potential.
These are possessions that can really be counted as tokens of who we are are.
Let these grow within us, and we'll know real wealth.
^ The Way Back To Self-Creativity
No matter how much forces like fear, anger
and craving work to "program" and condition us, we are creative - and so beyond definition.
To be true to who we really are, we need to take a stand and reject rule by fear etc.. These only manufacture false self-identities by which to fool us.
What defines us are the likes of courage, compassion and inspiration - qualities that come as second nature just so long as we keep fear etc.
at bay.
Embodying our own true, creative self is how we find our way back to true happiness.
Freedom from the Stressed Self
Find out about the "Four Steps To Freedom from Stress"
[Nb this website is not a replacement for professional help where needed.]