I know that the principles in Living With A Creative Mind (amongst many other things) have helped me find a balance and perspective with these conflicts. They have helped me shift my focus beyond my self without being abased in the process.

I learnt that as an artist, I could be excellent; I could be pure in my creativity and be successful; I could work with the Spirit and be skilled, and there didn’t need to be any walls to create boundaries as to where my gift could be used.

So, even though it’s been sometime since I was in those classes, I really feel the principles and skills gained there have helped shape me into who I am to day as a full-time singer, and assist me to remain focused, grounded and purposeful as an artist in an industry where it’s so easy not to be so.

As a creative person, our greatest strength is also simultaneously our greatest weakness. The fact that I am creative gives me great power of expression, but it means I often lack the focus and drive to express it completely.

So how do we do it? What’s the secret? How do we master the eternal dichotomy of the creative mind – living within a box while forever thinking outside of it! The principles that Jeff and Julie Crabtree uncovered for me in Living With A Creative Mind made it understandable and achievable for me.

As a full-time graphic designer and part-time, professional singer, I have found embracing my own contradictions and applying certain personal disciplines to be my ‘secret to success’. Graphic designers need to be creative to a deadline – they need to be organised and methodical, while simultaneously expressing themselves artistically. Singers as well, need be rehearsed and proficient, but also train themselves to stay unaffected by life’s ‘stuff’, so as to express themselves as freely as possible.

Of course, it’s possible to be creative without personal discipline – anyone can pick up a brush and create – but to be truly effective, you need to understand your own ups and downs. There are disciplines that harness the power of your creativity, and channel it into true, focused expression.

Creativity is not something learned but something that’s directed, inspired and held loosely for others to shape and include into their world.

It’s a chain reaction of inspiration that comes from something first inspiring the creative playfulness. You have to learn not to hold on too tight and if you completely let go there will be someone else somewhere picking it up – it’s a community. It’s relational. It’s living.

Anyone who works out of their true creativity honestly cannot help but cause change. Touch hearts; open that place inside that is endless with possibilities. Like a ripple effect it’s what you do with that emotion/thought/idea that counts for creative action.

One of us has used it as one of the main driving forces behind our career. The other simply enjoys exploring it as an expression of life. Yet both of us have found that there is something so freeing in understanding the creative mind. Why you think the way you do. Why your spouse goes off on random tangents of imagination. And, more importantly, how to reconcile the differences in the way two individual minds process the world around them.

The work of Jeff and Julie has taught us so much. As a result we’ve come to learn that there is a moment when something sparks, and you realize that perhaps your crazy way of looking at things isn’t just strange, but maybe, just maybe, it’s beautiful as well. From that place, our relationship has grown, as has our patience and understanding of each other. It’s a journey to be sure, but Jeff and Julie have helped set us on the path.

The creative mind can be messy. The main two challenges for us are these: First, we have trained ourselves to edit and improve our ideas, and therefore we have developed a critical reflex which can easily spill into areas of our life beyond the creative process. We both get paid to be critical! Second, our life can quickly become overwhelmingly complex, because we see things for what they can be, rather than what they are: which is often just another project and there are only 24 hours in each day. We get exhausted because we try to take on too much. It’s when we get tired that we tend to “spiral” and lose focus. Jeff and Julie call it high tide and low tide. It’s tricky for us because we are both creative and we tend to drag each other into our low tide, but, even over the last year since the conference, we are getting better at recognizing where the other person is at and we recover much more quickly. Our marriage is what usually suffers first, but Jeff and Julie’s words of wisdom encourage us to value each other as we ride the emotional roller-coaster that can be the creative process.

The creative mind is such a rich thing to possess. Even though it comes with its difficulties, the world needs ‘cartographers of the soul’ as Jeff put it. And if we are able to walk in a parallel, peaceful path tit can be done. Not that we have mastered this by any means, but we do know that it can be done, and knowing is half the battle.

Having been in multiple creative cultures, Jeff and Julie were amongst the few with the ability to pinpoint specific features in artists that define and explain why we are how we are. Their knowledge and ability to explain such concepts are defined by who Jeff is as a musician and Julie’s experience as a psychologist – even though they aren’t limited by these careers.

Anyone privileged enough to receive some of this precious insight to a creative mind should pay close attention and attempt to gain as much information as possible. Jeff is a creative artist who discusses and understands that each individual is quite unique with something special to offer. Julie is a psychologist with a special love for creative people.

Studying under Jeff and Julie Crabtree led me to understand that I was indeed an artistic person with a unique ‘creative mind’. This is a revelation that has certainly changed the way I view my personal make-up, relationships, creative endeavours and spiritual life. I now believe that to tame my artistic visions and expressions is to deny my true person. I’ve discovered that though creative stimulation is necessary, it can be accumulated without destroying relationships. I’ve learnt to embrace reality whilst avoiding the downward spirals of depression that occur in the mundane. But most of all, Jeff and Julie have empowered me to understand that my vivid imagination is not a ‘escapist curse’ but rather a precious gift.

]]> http://livingwithacreativemind.com/unique/feed/ 0 http://livingwithacreativemind.com/get-the-keys/ http://livingwithacreativemind.com/get-the-keys/#comments Wed, 06 Jul 2011 06:01:20 +0000 Dee http://creativemind.marnico.com.au/?p=229 During my time at SCA with Jeff and Julie, they helped me to learn to live 24/7 in who I am, where I am, what I can do, when I have to start, where I have to stop, which areas are my strengths, what are my weaknesses, where my comfort zone is and what my boundaries are.

They helped me to trust enough to dream bigger and see further. A dreamer can live inside out between their dream world and the real world! They can open their eyes to see over the now situation and then can see further!

BUT a creative person has to get the keys…

NO Copy

NO Repeat

NO Hidden

NO Compare

NO Limitation

During the last decade I found out that being a creative person is a LIFE STYLE – a whole life journey, not just a one shot action!