In my big long practical guide to cultivating authenticity from the new year, I recommended reconnecting with your creativity to help discover your authentic voice, because creativity and authenticity go hand-in-hand. A creative practice is a wonderful arena for self-discovery and genuine self-expression.
I wanted to expand upon that a bit, so today we’re getting into two ways a creative practice can help in cultivating authenticity.
May this also serve as extra encouragement for anyone out there thinking they’re not creative to give it a shot. After all, you are! You just haven’t found your medium yet.
1. Learning to colour outside the lines
If you’re reading about cultivating authenticity, I imagine you might have found yourself stuck acting in accordance with external expectations or social cues. An image has been provided to you, and all you have to do is colour within the lines.
We can accept this because we love to follow roadmaps. We like benchmarks. Instructions. After all, someone has given us the rulebook for social acceptance and success – pure gold! So we learn the conventions, such as the “good” way and the “bad” way to answer interview questions, the proper etiquettes at family gatherings (or specifically your family gatherings which are different from everyone else’s), the social conventions with your friends, how to be excellent at your career, and so-on.
Nothing wrong with that in and of itself.
The issue is that we sometimes take it too far and we stop coming up with cues of our own – the ones we generate internally. Why would I try to figure out who I am from scratch when I have parents, employers and media who do that for me?
Creatives are not exempt from this, either – for any creative medium there are countless pieces of advice, guidance, and tutorials on how to do it someone else’s way and why it worked for them.
This is all useful stuff, but only if you learn how to apply it in a way that works for you.
If you want to cultivate an authentic voice, you will need to take a break from being told what to do and how to do it, and you will need to try things for yourself. This is why I love creativity for cultivating authenticity.
There are no external expectations (who’s sitting over your shoulder while you make stuff? Probably, hopefully, nobody). You might dip your toes in by trying things via tutorial, sure – but you get to choose which ones you follow, and then you get to decide whether you want to continue in that way or not.
Eventually, hopefully, you try some stuff on your own, and learn not only that you can colour outside the lines, but you can actually create your very own unique-to-you colouring page to begin with. (On which you can still colour outside the lines – we are always evolving, after all!)
2. A safe space to get to know yourself
The creative playground is a safe space in which you create your own stuff. Your own creative piece, sure. But also, your own persona. Your own preferences. An alter-ego you love. Your taste. Your beliefs and values, which shine through your work.
You don’t need to “put it all out there” in the world. Create yourself a private little sanctuary for the mind, and explore you in there. How you feel. What you would say to the whole wide world if you could. What you think the world needs, and what you think you need. What you believe in.
A creative practice is a direct link to you. I often say when we create we’re “making something from nothing”, but I don’t think that’s technically true. I think we’re making something tangible from something intangible and intrinsic to us as human beings.
One journal, one room, one sketchbook, or one block of time where you make stuff in secret, for your eyes only, can set you on a path to some major self-discovery. Set the intention, make the time and space, and then invite yourself to come out in that space. Be kind, be curious, and see what happens!
By the way, I talk a lot about tangible things like writing and painting because that’s what I like, but there’s also physical movement, and thoughts – yes, even philosophising on aspects of your life, society, humanity, the human condition – is an act of creativity. You’re coming up with new concepts and understandings. In that way, engaging in a lot of reading and piecing together new ideas from what you’ve read? Also an act of creativity.
Do I need a creative practice to cultivate authenticity?
Nope.
It’s just that I can’t think of a better arena to do it in.
I see a lot of people that have organized their lives, values, and belief systems around the preferences and conventional wisdom of others, to fit into a family, social circle, or job description. This is perfectly understandable since most of what we experience on a day-to-day basis involves other people!
A creative practice is by definition something that comes from you, and therefore automatically pulls you out of the monotony of following the pre-organized or expected, without having to make much effort and without the need for justification.
It’s an ideal arena to cultivate authenticity because it can be a uniquely solo activity if you want it to be, and it can be whatever you want. This means that there are no people to please or roadmaps to follow or successes to achieve, unless you want there to be. This automatically nudges you to decide for yourself what it is that you want.
It’s hard to be really, truly authentic out there in the world. It takes confidence and unwavering self-love. Nobody can give that to you or approve it for you – you have to cultivate it yourself, and then you have to turn around and live it… Among the preferences and conventional wisdom of others.
If we never give ourselves the opportunity to cultivate that self-awareness, we can easily find ourselves walking through life unaware of where our authentic wants and needs are misaligned, and so we start to feel conflicted, lost, and yes – generally inauthentic.
It feels like something is missing… And so we begin searching.
In the next post I’m rambling about what it is we’re searching for, and why we can’t seem to find it.
Until then, lots of love!
