What happens to the creativity you have as a child? And how to find it.

What happens to the creativity you have as a child? 

It’s my brother’s birthday tomorrow, and I wanted to draw him a quick birthday card that would make him laugh, so I decided to cartoon him in the way I know him best – in one of our epic made-up games of “ROLLERPONGSQUASH” ™

ROLLERPONGSQUASH™ was a very elite game invented by Blake and I, which involved wearing rollerblades, leaning our giant ping-pong table up against the outside wall and using our ping-pong bats and ball to play “squash” against the ping-pong-table-wall.

It was ingenius.

And actually, in all my 32 years, I’ve not come across any other game quite like it.

(As an aside: I do really think there is scope to take this to the Olympics, but that’s not the point.)

The scoring was a simple first to 21 points, but the entire game evolved to an almighty 5 day tournament event. If you felt you were “wrongly” beaten – you were allowed to call for a “challenge” match.
Yes, we invented “CHALLENGES” before Wimbledon.

(And hence why the monthly tourney took 5 whole days of our lives.)

Anyway, the merits of our great game are not what I’m here to discuss. The reminiscing over ROLLERPONGSQUASH™ got me thinking about how we are ALL natural born creators and inventors and so really the question I want to pose is at what point in our lives do we stop inventing?

At what point in our childhoods do we stop creating?

And then following from that –  what point in our lives do our creative games/ thoughts/musings/art/words/writings/poetry become “not good enough”?

I mean, let’s be real, if one of your adult friends invited you to a game of doubles tennis – you’d probably accept and then head over to play a game of tennis.

It’s highly unlikely that you’d say -“Yes! Let’s play a game of tennis, but let’s play with ping pong bats and balls and do a leap frog with our partner every time we hit a shot.”

No, you wouldn’t.

BUT THINK HOW MUCH FUN THAT WOULD BE.

For the most part – all those “crazy/fun/wild/inventive/creative/hysterical games” are played/invented/created when we are drinking (or drunk).

Why?

Because we aren’t able to access that level of vulnerability when we are sober.

When we are kids we create, we invent, we make new things ALL. THE. TIME. We create with reckless abandon.

Then somewhere along the line a small inner voicebox starts chattering to us –

And when we are kids, this little inner voice is very small. Young kids can’t even hear it.

But then as we get older, as we mix with older kids whose voiceboxes have grown a bit bigger or we get feedback from our parents who have their own “well-developed” inner voiceboxes – we start paying attention to what the tiny box is saying.

Suddenly playing ROLLERPONGSQUASH™ really does feel a bit lame when all your cool school friends are coming round.

And, as the little voicebox happens to work – the more we pay attention to it, the bigger it grows.

…until eventually it is staring us right in the eye, (which makes us feel like it’s the actual truth, not just an imaginary thing in our head) and we feel we need to quickly abandon our creative quests in favour of something more ordinary.

So then one day when your school friends come round it’s –
“Oh, ping-pong – yeah, we can play ping-pong.”
But the random game which we created – no I couldn’t possibly share that.

And then creativity for most of us, just. shuts. down.

BUT – when we can OBSERVE this little inner voicebox- almost from above, rather than becoming sucked into it eye-to-eye, that is when we start to release some of the power that it has over us.
The OBSERVATION is the practice of yoga and meditation.

I believe creativity is SO important to our natural state of being. It IS our natural state of being.

When we are exploring the edges of our personal creativity we are fulfilled.

It’s the very reason why I built a platform to bring creativity, movement, meditation and journaling together.

Creativity is innate.

Creativity is something which can be developed and grown.

Creativity can look like different things to different people.

It can range from the way you dress, how you cook, the way you approach your boss, the way you choose to decorate your house, the way you play with your children, what you choose to do for fun, the way you problem solve, the way you write, draw, sing, sew, bake.

5 tips to re-find your creativity

1. PLAY.
   Remind yourself of what it means to be a child. To PLAY. To dive into your activity for the sheer joy of it.
2. Revisit favourite activities: 
   List 3 activities that you used to do just for fun. Then make a plan to do at least one of those activities this week!
3. Let go of the outcome. Repeat: LET GO OF THE OUTCOME.
   (When Blake and I “invented” ROLLERPONGSQUASH (tm.) we certainly didn’t envision it becoming a Olympic Sport 5 day tournament. We just played and played and created and evolved as we went.)
4. Stay curious
   Stay curious to what peaks your interest, stay curious to the world around you, stay curious to positive feelings and then follow them further. Ask “what if” questions – and then act on them. “What if… we just hit this ping pong ball against the wall…?”, “What if… I just added an extra handful of coriander…?”, “What if I decided to wear orange with blue today….”
5. Tune into your “FLOW STATE”
   Find the activity in which you become so easily absorbed in (not social media) in which you lose a sense of time. This is an area/activity which is part of creating a “flow” state for yourself. Happiest people are those who are most often in a state of “FLOW”

Now – go play!

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If you are looking for external accountability and some thought provoking creative prompts, tools, yoga practices, meditations, journal exercises and an all round program to guide you back to your creative centre  – have a look at my Voyage to the Soul program.
7 weeks worth of content with weekly skype check ins.
The next one is running May 24th to July 5th. Get in touch if you’re interested in joining!

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