Cultivating Creativity Through Sowing Seeds

By Carol Woolum Roberts

This past weekend we started a new newsletter for our email subscribers called “Weekend Watering”.  The “Monday’s Mulch” newsletter is now for our Sacred Community Garden membership community.

In last weekend’s first issue, I compared how sowing seeds in the garden are similar to sowing seeds of creativity through our daily journaling.

I am going to expand a bit more on what I wrote last weekend, because I have been sowing a lot of seeds in our Grow Me A Story Garden this week, and sowing seeds in my journaling as well.

Yesterday, as I was sowing seeds in my garden beds, I was thinking of the correlation between sowing the seeds in the dirt and sowing the seeds in our creative lives.

The first item on our list of Five Ways to Cultivate a Creative Life is Sowing Seeds. 

Sowing Seeds can be done by writing about what is on your mind for an extended period of time or by writing three pages.  You want to make this a daily part of your life.

You can also draw pictures or make lists. Anything that gets down on paper what you are thinking about and getting your thoughts back to your authentic self.  You want to be able to see yourself as you truly are, instead of where we often go, to that negative place where we tell ourselves “I can’t do anything”.  That is not the authentic you.

What happens to our lives if we don’t take time to sow seeds, to write down our thoughts, draw pictures to process our own thoughts?  We are consumed with weeds, the weeds of doubt, negativity, resentment, busyness, anger, fear…oh, the list goes on.

Sowing Seeds on the paper helps us pull the weeds, prepare the soil, and then see what fruitful thing grows from our time of sowing.

There have been times when I woke up feeling like the biggest failure.  The resistance was strong (which usually means something good is about to happen!!).  One of the things that I do is write down positive things.  I have a list of Creative Affirmations from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.  Here is the list Cameron shares in the book:

1. I am a channel for God’s creativity, and my work comes to good.
2. My dreams come from God and God has the power to accomplish them.
3. As I create and listen, I will be led.
4. Creativity is the creator’s will for me.
5. My creativity heals myself and others.
6. I am allowed to nurture my artist.
7. Through the use of a few simple tools, my creativity will flourish.
8. Through the use of my creativity, I serve God.
9. My creativity always leads me to truth and love.
10. My creativity leads me to forgiveness and self-forgiveness.
11. There is a divine plan of goodness for me.
12. There is a divine plane of goodness for my work.
13. As I listen to the creator within, I am led.
14. As I listen to my creativity I am led to my creator.
15. I am willing to create.
16. I am willing to learn to let myself create.
17. I am willing to let God create through me.
18. I am willing to be of service through my creativity.
19. I am willing to experience my creative energy.
20. I am willing to use my creative talents.

When you look at this list, and start to personalize it for yourself, you counter that Censor in your head, that resistance we all face.  It helps us find our true self, and authentic self, not the lie we tell ourselves. 

That is one part of the process of sowing the creative seeds in our lives.  We realize that creativity is what we are supposed to be doing, and that it is God’s will for our lives.  We need to share our creative talent with others.

Once we convince ourselves of these truths, we can get back to doing the good work of creating the wonderful things God has given us to share with the world.

_______________________________________________________________

What do you do in your life when you encounter negative thoughts or come up against resistance when working on a creative project?  Share with me your process.

To leave a comment on our blog, you can use Disqus.  It is easy to sign up.  You can use Google, Facebook, Twitter or your email.  There is no cost.  Just put in your name and email address and create a password.  Then confirm your account with the email they send you.  Then you can use Disqus to comment on the blog.  We would love to hear your thoughts.