The Key To Creativity
“How to be more creative” is a topic that has fascinated me for years. As a student of design in the early ’90s, it became imperative for me to develop my creativity. I have a good working knowledge of the major techniques for enhancing creativity but I recently learned how powerfully a spiritual life can lead to automatic growth in our ability to create.
I was recently asked what a person can do to become more creative right away. My answer to that question was to pursue inspiration. Inspiration is nothing more than to have someone or something else influence you in your problem-solving efforts. Creativity is fueled by inspiration of which there are two types:
1- External Inspiration
External inspiration is where we take ideas in the world around us, let them brew together in our subconscious mind, and wait for the highly coveted “Aha!” moment. As ideas percolate in our mind our subconscious is constantly plugging away like a computer to produce a solution.
This is a very practical and reliable method for enhancing your creativity and I speak more to this idea as one of my Quora answers here. (I have lots of other practical input on creativity, imagination, and other topics there so if you are interested in those topics please give me a follow.)
2- Divine Inspiration
And then there is the part that really fascinates me—the secret that launched my own creativity into the stratosphere.
In original Latin, inspirare was a concept that said the divine “breathe into,” or inspire, the lives of men. The Greeks and Hebrews were the primary cultures that maintained this belief of divine inspiration.
Similarly, the Romans believed in the idea of genui, or genius, a spiritual guide that influenced man’s creativity (the Latin definition implies per Wikipedia “to bring into being, create, produce.“
It is interesting that the most advanced of the ancient civilizations believed in these concepts.
I can imagine it is easy for many in our modern time to dismiss these traditions as archaic superstition.
But it isn’t an unheard of concept today either.
Modern Day Genius
Fellow blogger, Ed Lester, shared an interesting fact about my favorite band, the Rolling Stones. In an interview, Keith Richards stated that he and Mick don’t write any songs. He said, in fact, “The angels write all the songs.“
That thought gave me an eerie feeling when I read it but I understand what he is saying.
The Rolling Stones have been incredibly prolific creatively. A few guys from London have been producing great work, year in and year out, for over 50 years. They have released some 25 studio albums, numerous compilations, and almost a dozen live albums as well. Of course, they might be their biggest fans but they refer to themselves as, “The world’s greatest rock and roll band.”
Half their lives were probably spent on tour or in a room practicing the songs they already had or promoting or all of the other things a successful band has to do and yet they continued to churn out amazing work.
The ideas came from somewhere.
And one of the greatest guitarists and songwriters of all time said they didn’t generate the inspiration—it flowed through them.
I’m not personally sure that angels were the supply of that inspiration. I believe strongly you have to go to higher management for that job title.
The Source of Inspiration
The Bible records in numerous places the concept of divine inspiration, the process of God imparting some kind of truth into the hearts and minds of men. Here are just a few that come to mind:
Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. Jeremiah 1:9 ESV
For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:21 ESV
And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 1 Corinthians 2:13 ESV
If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. James 1:5 NLT
It is God who imparts the truth and wisdom man needs in order to create.
But can I prove it?
My Experience With the Divine
I started this blogging venture with absolutely no idea what to write about or how to do it. Understandably, I began by devoting myself to researching the ideas of others. That, of course, is the logical and practical way to start. I gathered and organized notes from hundreds of blog posts, read and dictated notes from a book a week, and tried to imitate the writing format of the best writers.
But it stunk and it wasn’t me. It wasn’t creative.
I had my training wheels on and my life vest wrapped around me. My creativity and authenticity were completely stifled.
And then something interesting began to happen that I didn’t even instigate. I stopped searching without and looked within. I quieted myself from all that other noise and listened for the faint rustling of God’s inspiration.
It was like I stepped out of the boat and started to walk on water.
Ideas as fresh as the morning dew began to settle in my conscious. They were right there like ripe fruit ready to pick and eat.
These weren’t just any ideas I was getting, these were GREAT ideas. I could NOT have produced them. These ideas were not from me and yet it was as if they seeped through the essence of me to produce something truly authentic to my DNA.
The ideas keep building on each other and they didn’t seem to ever conflict. There is a consistency over time and a real cohesion among them. And they keep coming and coming faster than I can get them typed and organized and published. I have a backlog of dozens of starts that I could complete if only I had the time to flesh them out. I see no end to this creativity in sight.
So what was the key to harnessing this divine inspiration?
Encouraging Divine Inspiration
I think first was awareness and then acceptance.
Without some level of spiritual awareness, a person will consciously or subconsciously throw up barriers to this type of thing. A person has to have awareness in order to shelf the logical, left-brain restrictions.
I would have continued with my research and my reading and my note organizing forever if something outside of my control hadn’t changed. I honestly believe this process of awareness I have been going through gave me the ability to shirk the “right” way of seeking inspiration and trust another way.
And by acceptance, I mean the ability to surrender my ways of creativity and accept that God is the source of what I need. I have to give up on my sole reliance of finding inspiration my way and TRUST, with a hearty faith, that God will supply what I need just as He does my next meal.
The Balance
And yet, creativity is ironically an art. A key principle in art is balance.
We have to be able to balance both types of inspiration. We have to know when to rely on the first type and when to shut it off entirely and rely, in faith, on the inspiration that we get filled with from outside of our own efforts.
The first type of inspiration is not in any way, shape, or form wrong. It’s part of my process every day.
But the divine inspiration is the key to real breakthrough. Your real creativity will lie in finding the balance between the two.
Take Away
I believe, without a doubt, that we are on this planet to create. We create to supply our own needs, to contribute to humanity, and even to glorify God.
Especially if you believe that you have been given a calling you need to get about the business of creating.
Yes, we are all at different levels of creativity in our lives. But all can begin right now to become better.
You do have a responsibility to gather and absorb ideas from numerous sources. These will influence you in ways to help you be more creative. I would say that you can even trust that God will guide many of the right resources your way and give you discernment as to which are helpful and which are detrimental.
But you can also learn the process of trusting. It might not be easy at first to neglect the research for a while but try to let that lifeline go. Trust that ideas will well up from inside you. Let your mind put its own thumbprint on them and begin producing something divine, yet authentic to you.
This is the key to incredible creativity.
Hello, my name is Aaron Force. I’m a blogger based in Seattle, Washington. I’ve been spiritually-minded for most of my life. Unfortunately, I’ve been carnally-minded for at least as much. I felt a seed of greatness hidden somewhere deep down inside but was blinded from it. That is until I experienced an honest-to-goodness calling and moment of awakening. I would be lying if I told you I had it all figured out. But I’m here to tell my story and maybe, just maybe, help you become aware of an even more amazing universe than the one your rational mind already knows.
Aaron Force is a blogger from Seattle, Washington. He writes to educate others about the nature of an expanded consciousness to evolve humanity. Aaron unexpectedly experienced his own profound awakening and ego transcendence in 2015 and soon understood that the qualities of his own experience (a greater expansion and evolution in his life) could be applied to mankind collectively.