What have you created today?
Creation A Day
“ How was your day?”
“ It was alright. How was yours?”
“ It was good. What did you do?”
“Well....”
We know this snippet of benign small talk conversation from our daily lives. The modern unconscious humdrum projection of starting conversations from learned and ingrained habits thrown upon us from previous social interactions. What does all this mean?
Sometimes I would find myself having a hard time trying to answer the “ How was your day?” questions. I would blank out and try really hard to think of what I did within the last 24 hours. What did I do? Sometimes I would do “so much” and forget some of the most important things later and regret not telling the person I was talking to as if it even mattered in the grand scope of things. Most of us would access our brain units to try to think of all the drab and routine to-do list type of tasks that happened within the day.
===================
I went to work.
Had to run to the bank.
Had a nice lunch with a friend at a soup and sandwich place.
Went to the gym.
Finished some house chores.
Made Dinner.
Watched Netflix.
Went to bed.
===================
We are creatures of habit and routine. We get locked in the habit of doing the things we have been doing with as long as we have been doing the things we have been doing. We do things without thinking about it. We get use to waking up at a certain time and taking that shower and putting on our clothes in the same unconscious ways. We get trapped in the hamster wheel of the monkey mind. Life becomes so “mechanical”. We give little “thought” or “attention” to what we are doing in each moment. We could certainly afford to be more conscious in order to bring more meaning and purpose in our lives.
Being present and giving full attention to each minute task or “doing” in a day is certainly a valuable thing, but what are we really doing? We are taught that productivity takes the cake over presence in our society. Most of the times we are just trying to occupy our minds and not really experience the fullness or totality of each passing moment. We want to make ourselves busy and distract ourselves from our insecurities, doubts and bad thoughts. God forbid we encounter any type of boredom. God forbid we do not have some type of fidgety electronic device to take us away from the suffering.
What if we were to look at things in terms of creation?
What if we were to not only put presence of productivity, but to truly access our ability to be creative?
Instead of focusing on what we did for that day, we can switch our attention to what we created. We can access the unknown and really make us excited and passionate about the whole time span of the glorious 24 hours we are gifted. No more benign To-Do lists. No more dreading of the tasks that we so blindly endure. We can focus on creating at least one thing per day to enhance our life situation, critical thinking, awareness and creativity muscles.
( This doesn't mean abandoning the things that we must get done. It means expanding our awareness to integrity creativity in every aspect of our lives and moving with what we must with attention and appreciation. )
Each day you can open yourself up to the opportunity of creating something no matter how small. No matter how badly constructed. No matter how trivial you make think it is. Create without the intention of making something good. Make something bad. Take that leap into the unknown and do something creative.
This may mean writing a small poem. Creating a small drawing. Writing for 5 minutes. Making a new dish. Rearranging your room. Making a weird mixed drink. Anything that would stimulate your curiosity and the willingness to let go of “trying to make something good.”
You may surprise yourself. You may learn that writing poetry gives you great pleasure and enhances your life. You may learn that you love to consciously cut tomatoes for an experimental salad. It is that experimental mindset that leads to the unforeseen and undiscovered deep seated within yourself.
No longer will you be constrained to the “Do as much as I can in a day” mentality. One small creation per day will suffice. One small creation per day are the baby steps towards living a more creative driven life.
Your daily creation doesn’t necessarily have to be material. It can be something like a small melody that you make up and sing throughout your day in the car during rush hour. It can be a weird small dance move that gives you joy and makes you laugh. It can even be the small declaration of committing to a creative practice. It can also be the act of creating more space for yourself to enjoy the things that you find intriguing and lovable. You can create a kind atmosphere by holding the door for a person behind you. You can create an atmosphere of appreciation by randomly giving a gift to a family member of friend. It is all how you perceive it. At the end of the day, you can look back at your creation(s) with gratitude and non-judgment. You can look back and look forward to the fun of creating in the upcoming days.
What you appreciate, appreciates. When you able to commit to this practice, you will notice a change in your life. You will be willing to take more risks and try new things with the intention of creating new experiences and art. It is planting the seeds of creativity and watering it see what comes up. Maybe after a few weeks of making little drawings, you will have more confidence in expanding outward and seeing where you can push it. You may have begun by drawing or writing on notecards, but you get the curious idea that drawing on old smelly book covers would be an interesting thing. There are so many unseen opportunities that will lead down different paths of self discovery and the cultivation of passion and creativity.
Maybe you have created something today that you over looked or didn’t think about. Think about and appreciate it when or if you find that little gem.
Move forth with appreciation, attention, and presence for the river of life and be not afraid of creating new things. You may create a bad painting, but you made it happen with every creative fiber of your being. It may not be your best creation, but you made the leap and that leap leads to bigger and more creative things. You can put that bad painting away and come back to it with a fresher perspective. Maybe it is not as bad as you thought it was. Maybe the imagery influenced you to create things like it. The bad painting could be a catalyst for things you would have never thought of originally. Each self perceived bad creation, leads to a more informed and conscious set of fresh and unique creations.
We can change,” What did you do today?” to “ What have you created today?”
Go forth and create without the intention of doing something “good”.
Without the intention of creating a masterpiece.
With the vigor of experimentation and the air of courage.
With the intention of just creating to create!
Create your life around you.
One day at a time.
One moment at a time.
Each conscious breath.
DG
“ How was your day?”
“ It was alright. How was yours?”
“ It was good. What did you do?”
“Well....”
We know this snippet of benign small talk conversation from our daily lives. The modern unconscious humdrum projection of starting conversations from learned and ingrained habits thrown upon us from previous social interactions. What does all this mean?
Sometimes I would find myself having a hard time trying to answer the “ How was your day?” questions. I would blank out and try really hard to think of what I did within the last 24 hours. What did I do? Sometimes I would do “so much” and forget some of the most important things later and regret not telling the person I was talking to as if it even mattered in the grand scope of things. Most of us would access our brain units to try to think of all the drab and routine to-do list type of tasks that happened within the day.
===================
I went to work.
Had to run to the bank.
Had a nice lunch with a friend at a soup and sandwich place.
Went to the gym.
Finished some house chores.
Made Dinner.
Watched Netflix.
Went to bed.
===================
We are creatures of habit and routine. We get locked in the habit of doing the things we have been doing with as long as we have been doing the things we have been doing. We do things without thinking about it. We get use to waking up at a certain time and taking that shower and putting on our clothes in the same unconscious ways. We get trapped in the hamster wheel of the monkey mind. Life becomes so “mechanical”. We give little “thought” or “attention” to what we are doing in each moment. We could certainly afford to be more conscious in order to bring more meaning and purpose in our lives.
Being present and giving full attention to each minute task or “doing” in a day is certainly a valuable thing, but what are we really doing? We are taught that productivity takes the cake over presence in our society. Most of the times we are just trying to occupy our minds and not really experience the fullness or totality of each passing moment. We want to make ourselves busy and distract ourselves from our insecurities, doubts and bad thoughts. God forbid we encounter any type of boredom. God forbid we do not have some type of fidgety electronic device to take us away from the suffering.
What if we were to look at things in terms of creation?
What if we were to not only put presence of productivity, but to truly access our ability to be creative?
Instead of focusing on what we did for that day, we can switch our attention to what we created. We can access the unknown and really make us excited and passionate about the whole time span of the glorious 24 hours we are gifted. No more benign To-Do lists. No more dreading of the tasks that we so blindly endure. We can focus on creating at least one thing per day to enhance our life situation, critical thinking, awareness and creativity muscles.
( This doesn't mean abandoning the things that we must get done. It means expanding our awareness to integrity creativity in every aspect of our lives and moving with what we must with attention and appreciation. )
Each day you can open yourself up to the opportunity of creating something no matter how small. No matter how badly constructed. No matter how trivial you make think it is. Create without the intention of making something good. Make something bad. Take that leap into the unknown and do something creative.
This may mean writing a small poem. Creating a small drawing. Writing for 5 minutes. Making a new dish. Rearranging your room. Making a weird mixed drink. Anything that would stimulate your curiosity and the willingness to let go of “trying to make something good.”
You may surprise yourself. You may learn that writing poetry gives you great pleasure and enhances your life. You may learn that you love to consciously cut tomatoes for an experimental salad. It is that experimental mindset that leads to the unforeseen and undiscovered deep seated within yourself.
No longer will you be constrained to the “Do as much as I can in a day” mentality. One small creation per day will suffice. One small creation per day are the baby steps towards living a more creative driven life.
Your daily creation doesn’t necessarily have to be material. It can be something like a small melody that you make up and sing throughout your day in the car during rush hour. It can be a weird small dance move that gives you joy and makes you laugh. It can even be the small declaration of committing to a creative practice. It can also be the act of creating more space for yourself to enjoy the things that you find intriguing and lovable. You can create a kind atmosphere by holding the door for a person behind you. You can create an atmosphere of appreciation by randomly giving a gift to a family member of friend. It is all how you perceive it. At the end of the day, you can look back at your creation(s) with gratitude and non-judgment. You can look back and look forward to the fun of creating in the upcoming days.
What you appreciate, appreciates. When you able to commit to this practice, you will notice a change in your life. You will be willing to take more risks and try new things with the intention of creating new experiences and art. It is planting the seeds of creativity and watering it see what comes up. Maybe after a few weeks of making little drawings, you will have more confidence in expanding outward and seeing where you can push it. You may have begun by drawing or writing on notecards, but you get the curious idea that drawing on old smelly book covers would be an interesting thing. There are so many unseen opportunities that will lead down different paths of self discovery and the cultivation of passion and creativity.
Maybe you have created something today that you over looked or didn’t think about. Think about and appreciate it when or if you find that little gem.
Move forth with appreciation, attention, and presence for the river of life and be not afraid of creating new things. You may create a bad painting, but you made it happen with every creative fiber of your being. It may not be your best creation, but you made the leap and that leap leads to bigger and more creative things. You can put that bad painting away and come back to it with a fresher perspective. Maybe it is not as bad as you thought it was. Maybe the imagery influenced you to create things like it. The bad painting could be a catalyst for things you would have never thought of originally. Each self perceived bad creation, leads to a more informed and conscious set of fresh and unique creations.
We can change,” What did you do today?” to “ What have you created today?”
Go forth and create without the intention of doing something “good”.
Without the intention of creating a masterpiece.
With the vigor of experimentation and the air of courage.
With the intention of just creating to create!
Create your life around you.
One day at a time.
One moment at a time.
Each conscious breath.
DG
Comments
Post a Comment