Creativity over Consumerism
We are innately creative.
When I remember this, I realize that anything is possible.
Over the years, I taught art to children and discovered that each of us is born innately creative. Even if you're not a visual artist, your unique creative voice may be expressed through music, acting, poetry, dancing, sports, philosophy, engineering, and more.
As the teacher, it was up to me to unearth and support each child's gift.
Discovering and cultivating our unique creative voice is essential to our health and well-being. We can feel stuck, numb, or helpless when we ignore this. On the other hand, when we use our creative wisdom, we feel vital and alive!
Recently, our family went through a massive purge of stuff.
After I blogged about our story, I received a text from a friend who asked:
"What's next?"
What a perfect question because, in some ways, our life now feels like a blank canvas.
My first thought was….
NOTHING.
It feels like looking out at the newly fallen snow before anyone walks in it.
In Yogic philosophy, there is a universal energy called Spanda.
It refers to the expansion and contraction of life and, with life, a collection of more things. And let's get real; marketing of more beautiful stuff is always around us, and I am a sucker for beautiful things.
With the awareness that my life, like the fresh blanket of snow, will not stay that way forever, I put some thought into "What's next?" and I came up with my 4-part process to making lasting change - while adding more vitality, saving money, and slowing down the numbing consumerism that can be so toxic to our personal and world environment.
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PURGE!
Let go of what is unnecessary and does not lift your energy. Read last week's blog for more.
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DIGEST.
We live in a culture of fast food and working lunches; digestion is NOT an area of focus in the American lifestyle.
Yet, it is a crucial factor for good health.
It’s as important to digest our emotions as much as our dinner. Undigested emotions will eventually show up physically. So the next step is to allocate time to DIGEST the PURGE, which lets you get clear on your present and active values, directing your "Now what?"
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DREAM…
Insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result. You have heard that our patterns become our habits. Our family calls our life patterns our "PERSONAL-REALITIES," which inevitably become our "PERSONALITIES. So choosing our living patterns becomes uber important when looking at a post-PURGE blank canvas - When we dream, we open doors to new possibilities. And since our family is now staring at a blank canvas, I am committed to using our values as a compass and dreaming as big as we can BEFORE we begin throwing paint around (i.e., making a million life changes:).
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CONSIDER.…
If there is one thing that I have learned while living in Costa Rica, it is that we don't need much stuff to be happy. I think about all that we got rid of, and while a lot went to charity, a lot could have been repurposed that instead went to the dump. It made us cringe as we watched the trash truck pull away.
Caring for this earth is one of our values. So before we bring something new in, even something very small or inexpensive, we consider it deeply because we know that everything will eventually end up back in the dump one day.
How conscious can we be with our purchases?
Do we really need the things we buy?
Does this purchase align with our values?
I love to pause in the check-out line and ask these questions.
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GET CREATIVE.
This is the fun part!
When we were having our greatest money challenges, we used it as an opportunity to learn how to be Creative instead of Consume.
Creativity vs. Consumerism became the game.
Remember the story Swiss Family Robinson, where the shipwrecked family created a sustainable life and tree house with whatever they could salvage from the wreck? Circumstances dictated that they had to be creative to survive. And while they were obviously struggling to survive, there was a joy that came from living in the creative process and pride in their creation!
The Creative process opens up new channels in our brains.
Creativity makes us feel alive, inspired, and vital. Creativity can be a support for the environment.
Instead of spending money on new things, we learn new skills and care for things that we already own.
Put our love and intention into what we have instead of reaching for more that numbs and fuels consumerism.
