Ep. 01 The Value of Creativity and Spiritual Connection
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SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Hello and welcome to the Creativity and Consciousness podcast with me, Laura Lamn.
I am an artist, a community builder and a creative and spiritual facilitator, and I started this podcast because I know that when I put creativity and spirituality at the front and the centre of my life, my life works. And when I don’t—because I avoid, I procrastinate, I ignore those parts of myself—then everything falls apart.
So my work is in reminding myself, and in reminding myself I am courageous enough to share that journey with others, and that helps remind others to stay connected to creativity and spirit.
I wanted to share today something that we were discussing at my creative space. My creative space has been running on Sunday nights, 8 or 9pm, and it’s a little small window in the week to connect with creativity and altered states of consciousness.
Creativity is not just drawing pretty pictures or writing pretty songs. Creativity is connecting the dots and problem solving. And in writing songs and making art, what I do is I make meaning for myself and I make sense of things. And then, if I’m courageous enough to share the thing I’ve made that helped me make sense, that helped me make meaning, then others who are going through a similar challenge or are at a similar point in their life can receive the therapy that I received from myself.
My creative and spiritual connection—for me, creative connection and spiritual connection are one. In all my songs I’ve written and all the drawings I’ve done or any of my poetry, I don’t ever feel like I wrote it. I feel like I set aside the time and the space, got my equipment, and then I became a hollow bone. I became a vehicle for creativity to move through me. And when I allowed that, then I get solutions to the problems in my life.
At this creative space last week on Sunday, I arrive with my own connections I’ve been making, and then through connecting with others, even more dots get connected. I start remembering things I’d forgotten and reconnecting with my faith, my hope, my purpose—which is so important to me.
One of the things that came to me at The Creative Space was a reminder of a prayer that is associated with the recovery movement. They read this prayer, so let me read it for you. It’s called Just for Today:
Just for today I will try to live through this day only and not tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do something for 12 hours that would appall me if I felt I had to keep it up for a lifetime.
Just for today I will be happy. Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Just for today I will adjust myself to what is and not try to adjust everything to my own desires. I will take my luck as it comes and fit myself to it.
Just for today I will try to strengthen my mind. I will study. I will learn something useful. I will not be a mental loafer. I will read something that requires effort, thought and concentration.
Just for today, I will exercise my soul in three ways. I will do somebody a good turn and not get found out. If anybody knows of it, it will not count. I will do at least two things I don't want to do just for exercise. I will not show anyone that my feelings are hurt. They may be hurt, but today I will not show it.
Just for today, I will be agreeable. I will look as well as I can, dress becomingly, talk low, act courteous, criticise not one bit, not find fault with anything and not try to improve or regulate anybody except myself.
Just for today, I will have a programme. I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it. I will save myself from two pests: hurry and indecision.
Just for today, I will have a quiet half hour all by myself and relax. During this half hour sometime, I will try to get a better perspective of my life.
I feel like this prayer was written for me. I love it so much, and I want to pull out a few of the things that really stand out to me.
One of them is: I will do at least two things I don't want to do just for exercise.
We live in this culture of dopamine addiction and wanting more, more, more—wanting progress and instant results. But really, anything we truly want requires us to do things we don’t like. I love that this prayer includes that—that you will do two things today that you don’t want to do, that you’re putting off, that you’re avoiding. It’s the end of procrastination if you just decide you’re going to tackle something you don’t want to do.
I also love that it says, I will look as well as I can, dress becomingly. I know that when I fall into a bad state of mind, I’ll often wear my sloppiest, bottom-of-the-drawer clothes. But when I wear something lovely, it makes me feel lovely. That’s another really good one to remember.
And there’s one more—such a classic: I will not find fault with anything and not try to improve or regulate anybody except myself.
We need to take our own inventory and look at what we are doing wrong. It can be so easy, can’t it, when things in our life don’t work out or when somebody upsets us, to take their inventory instead of looking at what we’ve done, instead of clearing up our side of the street.
So this podcast is just a little taster. I am doing my own work to get out of my own way, because that’s what my creativity is. When I sit down with my guitar or I sit down to write a song, I just decide I’m going to get out of my own way.
And in many ways in my life I have got out of my own way—but in some ways I still try and hide. I still try and hide parts of myself, and I still avoid things. I know that with creativity, it works just by showing up. So my idea with this podcast is that I just show up and say what’s there, what’s present, and allow that to connect more dots in my mind—and for it to be an opportunity to connect with my wider community.
Because for me, spiritual connection and creativity are connected, and community is also connected. If I just do all this stuff on my own, it has no value, it has no meaning. It’s in sharing and connecting with others that everything really comes into being and comes into meaning.
That was episode one. Thank you so much for listening, and there is more to come. LOVE ALWAYS WINS
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