What is Creative Living?
We’ve been enjoying some warm temperatures in the northeastern part of the United States. One afternoon was so nice, I took a long walk on one of my favorite trails. I usually walk without listening to anything, but on this day at the beginning of a new year, I wanted to invite some fresh ideas.
So I searched my Audible library and found an audiobook that I bought a few years back and never listened to. It was by musician Jeff Tweedy titled How to Write One Song. I was drawn to it not only because I've been listening to his music for more than 25 years, but because during that time, he's allowed us to witness his growth as an artist, from early beginnings to flashes of brilliance to commercial challenges.
As I walked and listened, I got much more than I anticipated. While my senses were soaking in sunlight and the warm breeze, my body was moving in sync with his narration and I was completely absorbed in his story.
The book is part memoir and part how-to, as he gives us insight into the mystery of songwriting, of taking personal insights scribbled in a notebook and musical ideas, and then alchemizing them into a transcendental shared experience. But aside from the songwriting process, he talks a lot about how he structured his life to support this thing he loved to do.
I listened to half the book and then returned home that day with so much energy. It's a wave of inspiration I'm still riding. And in the wake of this experience, I started a personal writing project that continues to draw me in.
It has also led to deep conversations with my writing friends on what it means to live a creative life. It's hard to define. It's about shaping your life based on your beliefs and values, regardless of outside opinion. It's about living wholeheartedly, doing what lights you up with the people you love. It's about the importance of qualities such as autonomy, curiosity, self-reliance, exploration and growth. And from a wellness perspective, living creatively increases well-being, because those who choose to live this way find deep and meaningful connection with their lives.
The more I learn about living creatively, the more I've come to value my own quirks because now I see the connection. Things like: creating structure and habits so I can satisfy my need to let my mind wander; being open to where ideas may come from and creating an environment where they feel welcome; enjoying the sensual elements of everyday life; my need for privacy for my creative work, especially when I'm just getting started; and fiercely protecting my private time to work on my creative projects.
These character traits aren't oddities so much as they support and infuse my life with creativity. For me, living creatively is about making sense of my world. And I seem to need the slow-moving analog parts of life to balance the fast-paced virtual ones. There's also an element of risk – of living in a different way, trying new things, being more visible, investing in myself, and then honoring that investment.
Bottom line, creative living isn't just for artists. It's about life engagement. It’s daily choices and actions that uniquely shape a life. It's following what intrigues you, whether it makes logical sense or not. It's being open to unique problem-solving opportunities.
Most importantly, it’s a willingness to be in full contact with your life, especially in the ordinary tasks of the day, like baking bread. I was late to the sourdough bread craze a few years back but recently decided to give it a try. As I was feeding the starter last weekend, I realized I liked the ritual and the sensuality of it. The yeasty aroma reminded me of sipping those first teenage beers decades ago. And as the starter activated on my kitchen counter, what seemed to be inert began bubbling up in a matter of hours.
And I wondered, how does this mixture of just flour and water come to life? It turns out, it's the wild yeast and the bacteria in the flour and the microflora in the environment that begin the fermentation process, feeding off of the sugar and the starch in the flour and producing carbon dioxide, which is what makes it bubble.
I realized that my creative projects are just like this. All of the filled notebooks, photos, audio files, clippings, book passage highlights, notes, articles, snippets from conversations, images of art, advice from mentors, lessons from nature, spiritual connection, all of which gave me insight into basic components of my life – that's the flour and water of my creative process.
On the surface, it all looks ordinary, just notebooks sitting on a shelf. But when I sift through them and make connections that bring me to a new place, like the wild yeast of the Universe helping me ferment. Another word for ‘wild yeast of the Universe’ is inspiration, or simply mystery.
Like how Jeff Tweedy organizes his life so he can create song after song and then share those songs with an audience who have their own individual experience with that song, yet they're together as an audience sprinkled with the wild yeast of the Universe. That's what transports them to a collective euphoria in listening to the music together.
Now to you. Maybe you're struggling with your creativity and feel blocked. Or you're in a good flow and want to go deeper. Or perhaps you don't even consider yourself to be creative in any way. I asked you to consider this: Your greatest creative act is how you live your life.
Twyla Tharp wrote, in my view, one of the best books on creativity I've ever read. If you're unfamiliar with Twyla, she created her own dance company in the 1960s and worked with all facets of movement from ballet to modern dance to Broadway, where she created shows that incorporated dance and music from artists such as Billy Joel (Moving Out), Bob Dylan (The Times They Are a-Changin’), and Frank Sinatra (Come Fly Away). And she's still creating today.
In her first book, The Creative Habit, she cites Harvard psychologist Stephen Kosslyn in presenting four ways to act on an idea: generate it, retain it, inspect it, and transform it.
I love this framework. It's so simple, yet so powerful.
So my takeaway for you is this: In one area of your life that can be infused with a little inspiration, how might you generate some new ideas? And once you do, how can you find a way to retain them? When you have a collection, take them out and inspect them. And then let them sit and allow the wild yeast of the Universe to help you transform them into something that delights you.
Experiment. Dabble. Break the rules. Create new ones. Have fun in your creative lab. It's a wonderful place to balance your human experience with divine mystery. Just because.
Creative living is a reflection of who you are. And you may find, as I have, that you like moving through the world this way. You are the amalgamation of all the bits and pieces you've collected throughout the years. Enjoy this world. It's one that you've created. After all, your life is a work of art!
Journal Reflections: Do you think of yourself as creative – why or why not? How might creativity enhance your life? How can you incorporate creativity into your daily routine?