Be A Creator

100 years of being a passive consumer is over.

Jul 20, 2023

Creativity is the solution to much of the suffering we experience in life. Specifically our own need to create.

Depressed? Create

Sad? Create

Broken? Create

Lonely? Create

Addicted? Create

Envious? Create

Author Steven Pressfield explains beautifully in his book “The War of Art” what I have come to know.

“We are only really at war with ourselves”.

A war between answering the call to create or letting it go unanswered.

We are all born with an identity in tact. We don’t necessarily know that identity right away. It is in adolescence when the struggle begins. The search for the answers to questions like, who are we? what do we love? what gifts do we have to offer?

It’s an ongoing quest to find and express our identity. Our true self. This need is innate, universal and natural.

Pressfield describes what he calls the resistance. A power within that works against us in our pursuit to express our true self. It’s you against you. Self against the resistance of expression of self.

The expression of our creativity is the way we connect. Our expression of self is what we all are here to do.

Whether it’s caring for children, playing music, dancing, writing, making great food, gardening, building, solving equations, practicing medicine or building . Whatever it is we all have contributions to make. Expressing ourselves is key to health and happiness.

For the last 100 years we’ve been enticed into a culture of being consumers. The ego has been weaponized and often takes the form of “resistance” to drive our consumerism. “You can’t make money doing that. You’ll be a loser”.

All this consuming is offered to us as the way to happiness. We’ve become so conditioned to consuming that we pretty much consume on autopilot without much concern for necessity.

This hasn’t happened by accident. The king of marketing and propaganda Edward Bernays believed that businesses should respond to peoples desires. He initiated the idea of people not being active citizens, but passive consumers.

Bernays believed this was the key to controlling democracy. That the people were not in charge of democracy, but that the peoples desires were in charge. If you can cater to their desires they’ll do most anything to get them.

This push into passive consumerism rather than active creation has landed us into a heap of dysfunction.

.

It’s given us a dependency on consuming stuff and convieninece. It’s conditioned us to put priority on jobs, money and experiences like travel rather than our physical health and wellness.

To an outsider this must look ridiculous. It’s obvious that we can’t do anything without health and wellness. So why wouldn’t that be our first priority?

A good measure of just how off course people are from connecting to self? Let’s look at some numbers.

Over 20 million people in the US are addicted to drugs and or alcohol.

According to cchrint.org 45,204,771 people are on anti-depressant’s and 31,229,150 people are taking anti-anxiety medication

That’s a lot of escaping from self!

Instead of working to solve why so many people seem to be off course with fulfilling self the free market place offers solutions. Some in the form of medication, but others in the form of other products and services for self care. Just indulge and all your problems will disappear?

Forbes wrote an article about the self care market.

“In the past, joy and escapism were a big part of self-care routines, including “Insta-worthy” experiences, boxes, kits and surprises, travel and indulgence. However, as consumers are adopting mindfulness — not escapism — when dealing with the everyday struggle with stress, brands can build loyalty by helping consumers help themselves”.

The article goes on to explain,

“Recognizing the importance of mental wellness, consumers are coping with stress and anxiety in myriad ways, many times referred to as "self-care." Google searches for “self-care” have been experiencing a steady climb worldwide in the last five years but have reached an all-time high during the Covid-19 pandemic”.

“Self care” has never been more popular.

Take, for example, the Jade Roller, a best-selling beauty product described on the Sephora product page as “relaxing and de-stressing,"

I don’t think we need more self care.

I think we need to start caring about the self. Care enough about self to discover what we can create to express our true self to fulfill our purpose.

I think the answers many are looking for lie in discovering and expressing self. Connecting to true self and learning to create more and consume less. This innate urge to be an active creator is going unfulfilled for too many and instead of allowing creativity to flow in many cases we are suppressing it or covering it up. Hence the pills and products.

The remedy isn’t in pills and products. The remedy is in answering the call to create.

Nothing can fulfill us more than knowing that we’ve created something that nobody else could ever duplicate in exactly the same way. Whatever it is, it’s uniquely ours. Your name, your indelible brand, your divine stamp of human-ness. Your offering to God. It’s your contribution to our network of life.

When we are busy creating there’s no time for arguing, complaining, judging or worrying. All energy goes into creating. Just a flow of one idea into the next.

So many of us have gotten used to working jobs we don’t like for pay that helps us get by. We’ve completely forgotten about that self inside that needs to be expressed. Some of us are convinced we don’t even have it! Impossible, you are human it’s there you need only to seek it.

Beware of the Resistance

As as soon as you decide you are going to create the “resistance” will promptly respond. “Who are you to create this?” “There are plenty more qualified people to create this”. “What do you know?”. “This is a waste of time there’s no money in it”

This is a sign you are on the right track. Be ready, expect it!

Blow past resistance and remember creativity specifically our need to create is the solution to much of the suffering we experience. Your creativity is innately yours and it is a necessity to express it

Become A Supporter Today for Exclusive Content Like Commercial Free Podcasts, Radio Shows, Health Tips And More…