Creating Out the Wazoo. When is it addiction?

7 things that free up flow and what to watch out for

It’s overwhelming. In a single month, I published The Art of Ensoulment: A Playbook on How to Create From Body and Soul, exhibited a year’s worth of new paintings and shrines alongside accomplished artists in an open studio showcase, and signed people up for my Fall course: Creative Strategies for Efficiency of Energy, Clarity of Vision, and Courage.

I didn’t plan for all my showy bits to coincide and frankly feel embarrassed about mentioning my prolific nature. Am I going the speed of body and soul? I hear, “You are so creative!” Do others compare themselves to me? Aren’t we all madly making things-making up our minds, our bed (sometimes) our meals, our work and joy as we sing, dance, and share stories with friends? SO. MUCH. CREATIVITY.

I intentionally gave myself permission to create in my 20s and still do as I venture into new territory. It helps to be part of the InterPlay Experience where folks learn how to affirm one another in our creative experiments. Pretty soon, filmmakers bloom, artists sprout wings, and the voiceless sing and shout. Check out Sacred Play: The International Week of InterPlay! October 14-22 all free!

Humanity is mega-prolific! Our blessing and curse. Productivity a.k.a. creativity also agitates our tendency to rank one another instead of connect. Our output too often gets channeled into marketplaces that radically deplete our personal and earth ecosystems. Curses!

I love to create so much that I confess I’m a bit of a gluten. Each creative form is a fruit tree in life’s orchard, bearing specific wisdom and beauty. I love all the fruit and want to partake. If you know the Enneagram, you won’t be surprised that I identify as a 7 with an 8 wing. The Opportunist! I started out dancing and singing. I designed rituals, wrote poems, and, eventually, books. When I finally learned that thinking is a creative act, I rejoiced.

Can creativity be an addiction? Read or listen to Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence by Dr. Anna Lembke and the secret to finding balance by combining the science of desire with the wisdom of recovery. As a recovering work/create-aholic, I own my hunger for dopamine/pleasure, my training to over-produce, and my privilege to create as I do. What I create has a cost!

Yet, creativity is also prayer, anxiety alleviator, and deep listening. If we create presence, time, and spaciousness it’s a gift to the planet. Art, ideas, and beauty dedicated to where we live are humanity’s best hope for joy and sustainability.

With cautions in mind, I’m a-slosh with creativity when it–

Loves. I feel an unstoppable affection for life that flows from big Momma Earth Source. Nature and energy move in such beautiful ways. This body and soul says yes to being part of it all. As I make every effort to stay connected to Source, I also take care to surround myself with playmates, people who share the desire to create from flow and love.

Is Right-sized and Kind. Too strong a flow of possibilities floods me. I flourish in kind, right-sized explorations. I’m responsible for choosing mentors, training, and projects that honor creative action one moment at a time, move at the speed of body and soul, and at my scale of energy and attention. I recommend listening to the magical Makers and Mystics interview with Qais Essar an Afghan composer, instrumentalist, and producer who channels melodic designs through the rabab, a 2,500-year-old instrument from Afghanistan. He challenges our current plethora of content-driven creativity alongside what is required for sacred lineages of art.

Feeds Curiosity. Horsing around, making things up for the heck of it, is both an ideal playground and a Pandora’s box. Curiosity casts light on truth, imagery, and sensations that I do and don’t want to look at (or am told I shouldn’t.) Any dangerous territory demands skillfulness. So I get curious about the skills I need. How glad I am when we are free to explore silliness and wildness and don’t have to navigate harm. It frees up energy. Again it depends on the kind of people I’m around.

Allowed to Hide and Reveal. There are reasons to hide creative life. Judgment. REJECTION. The Creative Voice rising in opposition to powers that be. And, the simple need to stay close to the me-of-me. As an introvert, energy replenishes in me-time. While the world glamorizes those who produce, my Hidden Monastery reminds me that I don’t have to turn creativity into a job. I can turn the lights down low and be released from the marketplace or other forms of scrutiny. When it’s time to share I rely on a gentle rhythm and places to share offerings like this weekly substack at The Dancing Center.

Both hiding and sharing take courage and energy if I am to craft a life sourced from soul. It may not always be restful to live at the threshold between hidden and on-view, but I accept the doorway. As William Blakes says,

 "In the Universe,

there are things that are known,

and things that are unknown,

and in-between,

there are doors."

If you need to upgrade the Permission to Create find a slip and pin on it things you want more of. Voila A PERMISSION SLIP! Or, make a creative driver’s license with your picture on it. That might do the trick.

Joan Reynolds and Cynthia in a permission slip ritual.