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Understanding Your Personal Creative Nature

Knowing and Flowing with the Authentic YOU!

By Chris Dunmire

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(Tangent #2: I happen to live with a very endowed artist in that respect, and let me tell you how blown away I am at his attention to detail and expertise in rendering completely scale subjects. I honor his nature.)

Because we are dynamic and ever-evolving beings, I believe it's important to regularly assess where we are with our individual passions and skill sets so that we are always spending our creative energy wisely and effectively on projects that bring us the most joy and satisfying results. Notice I didn't say "do what other people think we should do." It's not up to them to influence the direction of our creative life and decide how we should be. It is our own journey to awaken and unfold to our own preferences and attractions in this life and we honor ourselves by putting our own inclinations first.

I used to get frustrated over my lack of fine artistry skill until I learned that it's okay to relax and embrace what really is me at this time. This has been an ongoing process that I still nurture each day and will continue to affirm for as long as I need to. There is nothing in the world making me have to be a representational artist. Yes, I still feel resistance in structured drawing classes, but my inner authentic voice screams with delight every time I create a new witty cartoon, April Fool's Day joke, or whatever else flows naturally from my cerebral core and serious soul. That's what I'll tag right now as "knowing and flowing with my creative nature", which is what I'm promoting here for you as well.

Understanding the value of both sides of the coin, I still intend to enter challenging creative territory every so often for the purpose of stretching myself, learning, growing, and seeing what I'm capable of. In fact, every time I visit an art gallery, I am inspired beyond words to pull out my paints and allow the muses, gods, or subconscious flow to express itself through me. Intuitively I know that those hands-on, raw material, artistic mediums are just prime for primitive payback.

I know this is true because one day I did pull out my acrylics after deciding to paint something from my imagination AND I was OK with ruining the canvas if it didn't turn out. Surrendering to that, and being fine with "messing up" or "failing" in my painting venture, I simply let go and let my vision come through. What eventually manifested itself into form is the painting you see above which I aptly named "Earthscape".

In the midst of creating "Earthscape" I realized how much I enjoyed expressing mySELF through the painting medium on my own terms: in a no-pressure, non-still-life environment. With no expectations, I was able to relax into my own creative process and enjoy the journey — and with pleasant results to boot! I like approaching art and life that way... the end result is not always the destination for me; although when it unfolds nicely, that's serendipity (or is it serene pity?). Being open to experience, I find the process is always laden with lessons I soak up and apply to further understanding my own creative nature (see how nicely that comes full-circle?).

So how about it? Are you ready to begin 'knowing and flowing' with the authentic creative being that is you? Why not try that on for size this week? •

© 2007 Chris Dunmire, CoachingYourCreativity.com. All rights reserved. (3/17/07).

About the Author
Chris Dunmire is the founder of the award-winning Creativity Portal® Web site and is a Master-in-training Kaizen-Muse™ Creativity Coach who supports clients through overwhelm, procrastination, perfectionism, and other blocks to their creativity AND celebrates the joyful, expressive parts of being . . . an imaginary being! Connect with Chris to experience how creativity coaching can enrich your life.