“In the end, creativity is a gift to the creator, not just a gift to the audience.”
The circumstances that we are being forced to live under are making us reconsider and re-examine the ways we have worked, lived, and socialized in so-called normal times. The whole world is turned upside down, most people are trying to do their part and that means staying home and practicing social distancing.
Staying home and social isolation doesn’t mean we have to do nothing all day either. I try to stay positive and use this time to focus on my physical, mental and spiritual health. It’s a good opportunity to be more productive at work, to meditate, to practice yoga, to draw, to read books, to work on my photography and all kinds of other projects.
I’m also grateful for the friends and family checking in, for FaceTime with my parents, for the time spent at home with my sister playing games, working out, cooking or going for a walk to enjoy the fresh air a little bit.
Manoush Zomorodi’s TED Talk ‘‘How Boredom Can Lead to Your Most Brilliant Ideas’’ says that when we get bored we ignite a network in our brain called the default mode and that is when our brain gets really busy. In the default mode is when we get the most ideas, we solve our most nagging problems and we do autobiographical planning, create a personal narrative and set goals and take steps to make it happen. In other words, boredom is good for creativity.
I’m using this time where I’m forced to be home and ‘‘be bored’’ to live a more creative life because a creative life is an amplified life. It's a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life. This worldwide pandemic has made me realize that our life is short and rare and amazing and miraculous, and I want to do really interesting things and make really interesting things while I’m still here. While most things have already been done - they have not been done by me. So I will say what I want to say and say it with all my heart. I will share whatever I am driven to share. I will make art to relieve myself and do whatever brings me to life. I will follow my fascinations, obsessions and compulsions. Trust them and create whatever causes revolution in my heart.
As Elizabeth Gilbert wrote in Big Magic, ‘‘my soul desires only one thing: wonder and creativity is the most efficient pathway to wonder. As long as I'm still moving in that direction - towards wonder - I know I will be fine in my soul, which is where it counts.”
