On my previous post, I was talking a bit about how we need to be a little creative when marketing and selling in this time of pandemic. After all, we need all the help we can get to make sure we can still financially survive this crisis despite all odds. On this blog post, I’d like to delve into the topic of creativity a little bit more by mentioning the ten basic principles I learned before from a 12-week course I took on the Artist’s Way (a course in discovering and recovering your creative self created by Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan). These ten creative  principles are:

1. Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy.
2. There is an underlying, in-dwelling creative force infusing in all of life – including ourselves.
3. When we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the creator’s creativity within us and in our lives.
4. We are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves.
5. Creativity is God’s gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.
6. The refusal to be creative is self-will and is counter to our true nature.
7. When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we open ourselves to God: Good orderly direction.
8. As we open our creativity channel to the creator, many gentle but powerful changes are to be expected.
9. It is safe to open ourselves up to greater and greater creativity.
10. Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. As we move forward our dreams, we move toward our divinity.

These days, especially in these times of community quarantines and lockdowns, we see more and more people practicing creativity in their own ways to fight boredom, anxiety, and stress. People are turning into TikTok more to display their acting, dancing, singing, and improvisation skills; Our frontliners are finding ways to make dressing up with PPEs more fun and colorful; Ordinary citizens are creating face masks out of available materials they have at home; Celebrities and influencers are finding ways to put their talents into philantrophic causes; and many more.

Perhaps, by summoning our creative juices, we can think of many more ways to make this collective crisis we are in more bearable and productive. If you feel like you are stuck where you are (not just because of the lockdown but perhaps because of a job that’s starting to bore you or task you don’t like, a relationship that has become stagnant, a life of sickness and chaos, etc.) read these ten basic principles of creativity every day and see how your life slowly transforms for the better… you’ll be more inspired to do things you’ve always wanted to do despite our global pandemic situation and you see yourself starting to listen to the creative forces within and around you.

Once you start feeling happier and less skeptic of other people’s happiness and blessings, less critical of their sense of art and creativity, that means that you’re starting to unblock your own creative self and you’re going to appreciate more the beauty underneath all this gloomy situation.

God bless, everyone, and stay safe and healthy!