Having dinner with friends the other night, the conversation meandered to activities that nurture our creativity. One friend is a retired engineer, but late in life he began art classes. He discovered he has a talent for painting, and he said, “Art feeds my soul.” He spoke passionately about the significance of having a creative outlet in his life. Another friend is a retired physician who is an avid Bridge player, cyclist, and skilled amateur pianist and guitarist. These passions have become integral to both friends’ worlds — as essential to their well-being as water and food. Other friends are passionate about their avocations, too, including art, music, writing, flying, cooking, knitting and other pursuits.
What feeds your soul? How do you make time for these hobbies and interests? Did you develop these interests later in life? What advice and encouragement would you give to others who might be deferring pursuit of their hobbies, passions and interests because of jobs, families and other duties? Please share your inspirational “pep talk.”
Art, Nature, and Spirit have always nourished my creativity. Our task in the middle years of our lives is to become proficient and successful at our careers and to meet the challenges and responsibilities of family life. Often of necessity all of our energy goes toward our family and our work. Unless our profession lies within the sphere of the creative arts, creativity is often an avocation or an afterthought. I was a high school language arts teacher and a coach. I was fortunate to be teaching literature in my professional life so I maintained a direct river of influence to my own creativity. I enhanced that river by pursuing additional graduate degrees in literature and writing. I also maintained my connection to my own personal creativity through Reading, Hiking, and Meditating. These three practices allowed me to connect with those aspects of my consciousness that were not required to perform my professional responsibilities. I have found that creativity arrives at the crossroads where the four essential aspects of our consciousness meet. We need to think but we also need to intuit, to imagine, and to sense. Our western culture greatly values thinking but often relegates the other three aspects to a secondary position. When all four of these aspects are woven together we inhabit a creative center that allows creativity to occur. Spending time in pristine natural environments, spending time with Art by going to museums, attending performances of music or drama, listening to or playing music, reading literature and poetry, and spending time in practices like meditation and yoga that nourish your spirituality will move you away from your ego and toward your Self. The ego is an essential tool for creating success and navigating the stormy seas of life; yet it is the Self that is necessary if one is to be creative.