Perhaps you keep telling yourself that you are not creative, or that you’re too busy to allow this part of you to open up. Maybe you see the creations of those around you and feel like you’re not good enough because you aren’t artistic or musical or crafty. Or maybe you’ve been wounded from a time in the past when you shared your creative expressions and someone put you down, invalidated your gift, or misinterpreted the ideas you portrayed. It hurts to be misunderstood.
We all have an inner muse that is calling to be seen, expressed, and released into the world. Look at the natural world around you and see how the trees bear fruit, how the birds call out in song, how even the fungus expands into curls and caps with a multitude of shapes and patterns. We are no different.
Our very existence is a creative expression of nature and spirit, of life being released into the world. We often think of creativity in the realm of the arts - painting, crafting, singing, dancing, designing. We live under the guise of “creative thinking” as if we must think up an idea before diving in, but authentic creation actually happens when we ask our thoughts to step aside and allow our inner muse to move through us. For some, this might look like a wonderful work of art, but for others, it could manifest through a meal, a touch, an encounter with a loved one, or simply the way we arrange the magnets on the fridge.
Creative expression is not a thought process, it is a flow of the spirit of creation moving through us as we live our lives. A dance between spirit and self. Surrendering to this current is akin to intuitive connection. When we have been blocked or disconnected from our creative spirit, it is a practice to woo our inner muse to the surface, a continuous conscious effort.
Prioritizing our relationship with our inner muse may seem like a hefty task, but it doesn’t have to be. When we open to the flow, we might be expecting a gushing river that washes over us as brightly colored beams of light come bursting out of our wide-open arms. Maybe this does happen from time to time, but in order to find the river, we must follow the stream.
Little nudges from our inner muse begin as droplets. A sly smile, a faint daydream, a gesture, or a pause. When we accept these droplets with open-hearted curiosity, our muse is awakened and slowly moves to a trickle. A doodle, a hummed tune, a sprig of parsley on a plate.
Enthusiastically welcoming this trickle opens us to the stream. A written letter, a style of attire, a potted plant on a windowsill. Playfully courting our inner muse ushers us into the flow of creative expression. Being creative doesn’t have to take up a lot of time, we don’t need to pencil in an art day or plan hours in our week to design something new or get crafty. Creation is life moving through us, it is already woven into the fibers of our being, waiting to be romanced into a relationship. Listen here as Audrey Ducas tells her story about weaving creativity into being.
When our inner muse is pained by negative assumptions about ourselves, by having been neglected, or by old wounds from the past, these cause blocks in creative flow. The river becomes dammed up and the false beliefs become self-fulfilling prophecies. With a bit of courage and a whole lot of compassion, we can choose to let go of these harmful beliefs little by little and replace them with a deeper truth. Just like Ayesha Ophelia explains in this podcast about reclaiming your creative vision (bonus: check out her workshop Creative Alchemy: Activate Your Vision).
Creative expression is your birthright. You can break down the dam brick by brick and reclaim what’s been lost, scared, trapped, and conditioned out of you.
Can you name a droplet you’ve recently witnessed from your inner muse? Validating these little moments as your authentic self calling out to be seen and heard and expressed creatively through you is how you cultivate a deeper relationship with your intuition and set your inner muse free.
And you don’t have to do it alone. Earth Speak has so many resources to support you on your journey into authentic creative expression. You can start here with Natalie Ross’s blog post about Healing the Witch Wound which includes a potent exercise for rewiring your nervous system to understand that it is safe to step into your calling as a creative being. Then, hear how Elan Fraser found her medium of creative expression through herbalism and soap making on this podcast episode.
When you’re ready to dive in deeper, come check out the Earth Speak Collective where we have weekly calls to reset our energy and connect with our most authentic selves, monthly rituals where we can share and partake in sacred creative expression by way of ceremony, and several meetups like BIPOC Magic, Danceformation, and Creativity Club where we can get together with other like-hearted folx and explore in a safe and nourishing space. The Collective is a sacred container to connect with people who get you.
