My work as a life coach is to act as a guide, supporting you in reconnecting with your essential soul self, so that you can start to create a life more closely aligned to your values, your joys and your choices. Many of us don’t know that we have lost touch with our souls, until things in life start to fall apart, or just feel not quite right. Also, many of us think we know what we want, but our actions are driven by what others want from us, and we don’t even consciously realize this. The notion of soul can be confusing, but getting to know your soul, the truest, most honest version of yourself, and live your life guided by it, is how we live lives of greater strength and purpose. This is the whole mission of Soul Geography.
One of the best ways of getting to know your soul and what it has to say and how it wants to be in the world is through creativity.
The way I think about creativity is that to be creative is to see deeply and differently. This view of creativity is closely akin to play. It has no real product in mind and is all about the process. Creating helps you tap into the quiet, subtle parts of you that you might have left behind from your younger years. Those times when you did something creative, just because it delighted you. In these moments, we begin to re-learn the language of ourselves.
The point of allowing space in your life for creativity is not to fix anything, but to discover everything. Discover what feels good to you. The point is not to publish, perform, evaluate, critique or solve problems, the point is to flow in joy and presence in the act of creating. Research shows that engaging in creative activities can improve your mood, ease anxiety and stress, combat depression, and even improve immune function.
Even so, deciding to take time for creativity is a hard thing for our Western productivity culture brains to do. I’m sure many of us have had thoughts like, I can’t write, unless I am writing a book. I can’t paint unless I’m going to sell it, I can’t plant unless I’m going to have a garden that will feed myself all summer, I can’t play music unless I’m going to strive to get a record contract. We can have this all or nothing mentality with creative acts that end up squashing our inspiration before we even take one step to do anything. We think, this thing I am spending my time on has to be useful, it has to produce something, or it’s not worth doing. Not only does it have to produce, but it has to be the best, or as close to the best as I can make it. I can’t do this thing for the joy of it, because it would be a waste of time. But I kindly and gently ask you, whose time?
My wish for you would be to find something that helps put you in a creativity flow state, just for fun. For me it’s cutting out random words and pictures from newspapers and magazines, then using them to create a poem or message for myself. For you it might be watercoloring, gardening, knitting, cooking new recipes, playing guitar, dancing, creating videos, etc. Give yourself permission to take the time to play with creating, so you can connect with the soul part of you that wants to always be free.
Soul Geography 