Everyone is Creative.

No one is excluded from this reality. But there are some people for whom creative expression is vital. If these types don't produce, they experience pain, to one degree or another. Sometimes these creatives need Art Coaching in order to begin producing again.

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Highly Creative people must heed the creative call and take action.

If we ignore the Creative Call, it will always re-emerge to nip at our heels. We may have to find a creative space amidst other commitments, but we pay a price if we ignore the call completely, and sometimes a serious one indeed.

The good news is, everyone can expand their creative expression in a way that relieves the tension to one degree or another. Becoming a professional artist, though essential for some people, is for others not the only answer. There are myriad ways to live a more creatively engaged life. In the process of Art Coaching, the first step is to help clients mine intuition and to help them explore the possibilities.

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Belief patterns can be re-formed.

When a negative belief has ingrained itself in our minds, it can seem inescapable. To realize that we are in command of the belief pattern, and not the other way around, is the first step to eliminating it. We are larger than the old belief pattern. Regarding Creative Expression, our Creative Voice is infinitely larger than our Critical Voice.

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Creative expression is not born of ego.

The Creative Spirit arises from the depths. It is not of us, it is within and beyond us. It does not originate in the head, it moves through the heart and mind when we open to it. When we invite it, it will visit. We are not its source, but as it moves in us, our uniqueness is expressed. Creativity is not about receiving attention, it's about gaining and sharing a new view, a new angle, a new insight. It is not about consuming, it's about giving. It does not inhibit us, it frees us.

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The Inner Critic is a helpful servant in disguise.

I know, it's hard to wrap any arms around this statement. But it's true. Getting to know the Inner Critic is tantamount to new creative expression and power. If we push the critic away it gets stronger, if we are patient with it and understand its messages, it will yield to the Creative Voice. It will even play a supportive role. This process of transformation is about using one's "awareness mind" to listen deeply.

Every creative person is different. It takes some people longer than others to unleash full creative expression. But with practice, the Critical Voice is tempered into a helpful editor. As sure as day follows night, the Creative Voice is always waiting to take its proper lead. Art Coaching can help to nurture and speed this process along.

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Creative spontaneity can be re-gained.

When our Creativity is in retreat, we feel arid and unmoved. But as we find ways to lift the shades off, sunlight begins to pour back in again. This is a natural aspect of art coaching and the Creative Process. The ebb and the flow operate at various times, in varying degrees. Dry times can be disappointing, even alarming, especially if our livelihood is depending upon it. But there are many tools and techniques that help to ease those shades off.

The Creative spirit doesn't leave, it simply goes into retreat. And when we find the opening again, it returns in a way that feels at once familiar and new. Creative expression is in a perpetual, evolutionary stage. When it returns, we experience ourselves and our world just a bit more fully than before.

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Next: Creativity and Relationships

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©2008 Barbara Bowen. All rights reserved.

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