Embracing The Creative Journey

Creativity is an outward expression of your inner world. The sum total of your collective emotions, thoughts dreams, and experiences. This is unique to all of us. In this talk, we discuss key concepts of embracing the creative journey you are on. This talk will help you unlock your unique design and walk a path of freedom.

We unpack;
- A little of my journey
- What does creativity mean?
- How do we start the journey
- Exploring other art forms
- The dangers of conforming
- Possibilities in your creativity
- Your capacity for growth
- Sharing your music.

Thank you so much for listening.

The music in this track is one of my productions, called "Preparing For Deep Sleep & Rest". You can find this track on my Insight Timer page if you are interested.

Transcript

Creativity is an outward expression of your inner world.

The sum total of your collective emotions,

Thoughts,

Dreams and experiences.

This is unique to all of us.

We have unique and individual desires,

Filters and expressions.

We also have unique motivators and inspirations.

Tapping into creativity requires us to honour these things and recognise the unique role they play in our life.

To accept what is part of us and embrace the things that make us who we are.

Creativity does not conform to popularity.

It does not follow the masses.

It does not obey a set of rules.

Creativity has no limits.

Embracing the creative journey can sometimes mean throwing away everything that you thought was true.

It can mean throwing away your boundaries,

Your comfort zone and your perceived limitations.

The creative journey invites us to enter into a new space.

To connect to the source of whatever is inspiring us and whatever we have within us that drives us forward to create.

My own journey with creativity did not start until I was in my twenties.

Prior to this,

I had a limited ability to think outside the box with music and express my inner world.

In Australia,

Our children's music education system takes school students through certain levels each year where you are required to perform written pieces in different genres,

Understand theory and be able to complete set scales and arpeggios.

And this was the world I found myself stuck in.

I was used to having someone write the music for me and I was required to follow it exactly.

Practice and precision can have a lot of positives,

Especially when you're learning.

You can learn to develop new skills and techniques that can actually enhance your creativity.

However,

In this stage in my life,

For me personally,

I found that this limited my ability to express myself through music.

It wasn't until I was almost 30 that I fully started to embrace creativity and began to explore the possibilities of what music can do for me.

I started to learn and I started to tune into different kinds of music,

Instrumentation and soundscapes that I found inspiring and motivating.

I discovered certain chord progressions and timbres and sounds that brought up emotion in me that I could not describe.

It was at this point that I knew creativity through music was a part of my purpose and that if I didn't follow this passion,

It would lead to frustration.

There is a reason why they call this a creative journey.

We start out finding our feet,

Not quite sure where the road will take us.

We don't follow a map.

We follow impressions,

Emotions,

Feelings,

Motivations and a lot of it is based on our intuition.

If we follow someone else's journey,

We're not being true to our own creativity.

We can certainly draw inspiration from other people,

But we need to understand that no two journeys are exactly alike.

No two journeys are identical.

We must follow our own path.

We must break into the unknown and explore what creativity means for us.

Creativity is about pursuing your love.

What do you find inspiring and motivating?

Take a moment now to stop and reflect on what sounds,

What instruments,

What experimentation and what chord progressions resonate with you?

What genres,

What textures of music and sound brings you alive?

What is it that connects you to yourself or Source,

Whether that be God,

The universe or yourself?

What examples can you think of?

It might be classical music for you.

It might be the sound of a waterfall in the rainforest.

The sound of birds.

The sound of thunder or rain.

The gentle ambient hum of nature when you sit in silence.

Whatever it is for you,

Think about those things.

Maybe you would like to journal about them.

Maybe you would like to write and explore your motivators and inspirations through words on a page.

Being creative is not necessarily producing what you think others will like or what will be popular.

If you do this,

If you focus on this,

You will not produce your best work.

Creating music based on what someone else would like or what you think they would like.

Clinging onto the perception of what that person may like often produces less quality work from your part because you're not being true to yourself.

And you're only guessing.

Creativity is an expression of you and who are we to assume that we know what everyone else likes.

We may have an idea,

We may have an inkling,

But we will never know what truly connects with them and their souls and their spirits.

We will never truly know what creativity personally means for them.

Therefore,

We need to focus on our own creative journey and that journey being about our expression and our passion,

Our own colour palette,

Our unique set of colours.

The creative journey can often lead us to exploration through other art forms and other mediums.

For example,

I love to paint and I love to colour.

I find these activities very inspiring.

I find the tactile touch of a pencil and paint extremely soothing.

And I love bright colours.

I find that bright colours inspire me in my own music and I'm expressing myself in a different way.

Other art forms translate to the music that I write.

I am a person who thinks in colour in my thoughts.

Everything is coloured.

Numbers,

Letters,

Songs,

Even people's names.

For example,

There might be a song to me that sounds red or a song that sounds purple.

So this is why for me using colour in art and art therapy inspires me to write music.

So I encourage you to explore other mediums on your journey.

Have a think about it.

What things inspire you?

It might be cooking.

It might be writing.

It might be walking through nature.

It might be visiting art galleries.

It might even be conversations with people.

Tuning into their words and their language and their tone of voice and their hand movements and their body language.

It's all art.

It might be going to see an opera or a ballet.

Whatever that is for you,

I encourage you to explore it.

Remember,

There is no wrong answer.

Nothing that you find inspiring is wrong.

Remember that we are all unique and we were made that way.

We were designed to be unique.

We were not designed to follow the masses and conform to the crowd when it comes to art.

Conforming is one of the issues we face today in the music industry.

If you watch documentaries or movies or stories on musicians,

You may find that many artists struggle to produce and release their own unique sound due to the limitations of record labels and radio producers.

This is one of the reasons why mainstream music,

Or pop,

Can sound the same.

There is a certain sound that is popular.

There is a certain sound that is required for radio and record labels.

They have a certain sound that they are after.

And often,

If your music does not meet that requirement,

It's rejected.

Or they ask you to change it.

This is certainly not true in all cases,

But I think this is an issue today that creates a roadblock for many artists.

Writing music to appease record labels can sometimes turn creativity into commerce.

You unfortunately become a slave to someone else's opinions and expectations in music and unfortunately,

It's how a lot of us have to get by.

It's how many musicians have to earn an income.

It may seem like the only way,

Especially if your music is a little different.

It can take a lot of work to break through the mould and have permission to produce your own sound.

It can be really tough not being true to your own style.

When you feel you're becoming a slave to capitalism and you're becoming a slave to business and you're becoming a slave to the record label who wants to make money and wants to make a profit.

I'm sure there would be many record labels out there who don't operate with this ethos,

But a lot of them do and unfortunately,

They have no choice but to operate that way.

How else will their business be successful?

So,

I impose no judgement and no criticism on the individuals caught up in this web.

Sometimes it's just how it is and a lot of people just find themselves in that boat and have to ride that wave.

This is why it is so essential to tap into your personal and individual creativity.

The more of us that do this,

The more we embrace our own creativity and our own journey and our own expression,

The more we stay true to our path,

The more freedom we will find.

We may find we grow as a society.

We will experience things that we never thought possible.

We can create sounds that we never thought existed.

Following your own creative path and expression can sometimes feel like an uphill battle and I've personally experienced this.

When you swim against the current,

The reward is so much greater in the end,

So I encourage you to stay true to your path.

Your creative journey will also be one of humility.

Do not start your journey thinking that you have it all together,

That you have all the answers,

Because we just don't.

We can have the perception that we know.

We can have an idea of what works.

But we are always evolving.

We are always growing.

We are always learning and it's important on your journey to tap into that and learn off other people and note that I said learn,

Not copy.

Use other artists as inspiration,

But not a blueprint.

We all draw inspiration from each other and that is the most wonderful thing.

We are all collaborating without even knowing it.

I look back on some of my work when I first started producing music and at the time I thought it was the best thing ever.

And I look back now and I think,

Oh,

How much have I grown?

I'm actually so proud of that journey and I'm so proud of the way that I have grown because producing music is not easy.

You can spend over 12 hours at a time producing one track,

Not knowing whether it's going to be a big success or not.

And you put it out there,

Not knowing where it's going to go or how people are going to receive it.

Again,

This ties back to that concept of not producing things for popularity,

Which is really tempting because we want to feel popular.

We want to feel connected.

We want everyone to like our content because music is so personal.

Explore different ways to share your music and your creativity.

Don't stick to one streaming service or one social platform.

Try many.

I'm finding that different types of content has different effects depending on the platform.

For example,

If I produce educational videos,

They are popular on TikTok but might not have as much attraction on YouTube.

And the reverse is also true if I produce something funny.

It might be popular on Instagram,

But it'll be a bit of a dive bomb somewhere else.

We also have the algorithms to consider as well.

The algorithm is different on every platform,

So we will have different responses.

So again,

Circling back to the idea of not trying to be popular,

Not trying to create the in thing,

Because you can see how it just gets so confusing.

So you may as well just stick to what you love because that is the one constant you're going to have.

Do not submit your creativity to someone else's framework.

Do not sacrifice your imagination purely to be accepted by other people.

This will not lead to fulfilment.

So in closing,

I encourage you to reflect on your own journey.

What are some of the things that are causing blocks in your own creativity?

What perceptions or messages or concepts have you been led to believe or have you been told to pursue by someone else?

What limitations do you have within yourself?

What is stopping you from being fully committed to your creative journey and your unique set of abilities?

Perhaps it might be fear.

Fear of failure or fear that people aren't going to like your music or art.

Perhaps you're afraid you're not good enough.

Maybe you're simply too overwhelmed and don't know where to start.

Perhaps the creative journey seems too much and the mountains are too big.

I've personally experienced this and I encourage you to reflect.

Learn to understand yourself.

Learn self-awareness.

And above all things,

Have compassion on yourself.

I hope this talk has provided inspiration and encouragement to you.

I hope I have encouraged you to explore your unique creativity that was specifically designed for you.

Have a blessed day and I'll see you soon.

Thank you.