MANIFESTING YOUR TRUE PURPOSE

PRIORITIZING CREATIVITY

Making Time for What Feeds Your Soul

If you are anything like me, prioritizing your creativity sounds like a luxury you rarely find time to fit into your schedule. Being in a state of creative flow is what refuels us and gives us the energy to take on the challenges in life that we face, big and small. My poor therapist spends every session forcing me to look at my calendar realistically and literally schedule a time for me to do my art at the end of my session. (I love that she pushes me!) My husband begs me to do that for myself almost daily. Yet, I end up getting derailed by all the other “things” that pop up throughout the day because I haven’t yet mastered making my mental well-being non-negotiable. Sound familiar?

We recently got back from a two-week trip to Italy. I’ve wanted to go since I was five years old. Standing in my great grandma’s kitchen as she made the most amazing Italian dishes felt like I was seeing their homeland play out in her dining room. My great uncles shared stories and laughter over homemade wine, cheese, fruit, bread, and all forms of pork-based cold cuts. It was what I assumed pure joy looked like. Her house was filled with amazing smells too and I wanted to experience what their lives must have been like over there. In Italy, as we walked around eating gelato in the piazzas or having an un café or an amazing dish of carbonara, we happily observed their way of life. It felt laid back and was lead with a zeal for everyday experiences and interactions. Their deep sense of community and loving rituals left a lasting impression on me about how I’d like to live my life going forward.

BY LISA WAGNER

own miracle work and living from a place of Divine love. A Course in Miracles states, “Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle.” You have a divinely given birthright to experience those miracles and find your joy.

When we ignore the call from our souls to do the things we love and celebrate the everyday like the Italians we witnessed do, we choose to live life chaotically (like most people in our country). Most of us ended up becoming more stressed and anxious. We miss the little things, like how the fall leaves colors reflect off the calm water. Or how the cool breeze smells of freshly fallen leaves. Our hearts, instead of feeling contentment and in the moment, feel like they’re running a marathon. We are tapped out and can’t take on one more thing. Our stress cups (as my therapist refers to them as), are already overflowing. Adding more angst to that cup only adds to our inner pain and exhaustion.

How many times have you sworn you were going to turn your phone off or never look at social media or the news? I’ve personally lost count of my own calls to hide away in a cave somewhere where I’m unreachable and know nothing of the outside world’s craziness or what anyone needs from me. I’ve officially never found the cave anyway. Instead, we all continue doing what we’ve always done as women; be the one who solves all things, finds the keys, gets the kids to soccer on time and knows everyone’s birthdays to send out the cards on time. Don’t even get me started about the upcoming holidays. By the time everyone has gone to bed, you get to breathe. Here’s the kicker, though. When we don’t show up for our creative voice, we can’t be fully our best selves. We show up as the half-drained shell of a human that could cry at the drop of a hat if one more thing lands on the to-do list. We have given those around us the clues that read as though we are continually available to them at our own expense. We then reinforce our own damaging self-beliefs that we come last. Martyrdom becomes our norm, and we wear it like a badge of honor. When we show up filled with resentment, people around us feel that and it slowly damages not only those relationships but our own level of self-love.

I was once the worst offender of this kind of self-loathing. I wasn’t mad at others. I was so mad at myself for not prioritizing my own joy through the act of creating. It had become so second-nature that I still slide back into that way of being when I’m not living mindfully. Especially in my new town where things have challenged the self-love practices, I had just gotten good at.

We currently live in a quiet area that is three hours from my family and most of my friends. Having to rediscover myself in a place that I sometimes feel disconnected from has me relearning how to be the person I had just become shortly before moving. I have had to allow myself to drop my pride and accept the loving hand my husband continually offers to me. Our role reversal has been a challenging adjustment for me but one that I’m now realizing probably resisted for decades. Now, it feels like we are equals and one heck of a great team. It’s too bad it took me so long to realize I’m deserving of that kind of love and support.

“Surrounding ourselves with a team of people we trust and have our best interests at heart is a powerful tool. ”

Surrounding ourselves with a team of people we trust and have our best interests at heart is a powerful tool. Take time to look around you and feel into who amongst those you know and love who can be that for you. You deserve that as much as I or anyone else does. It’s okay if you feel the need to start fresh and join a book club, take a class, or check out the local yoga studio to find folks that share your core values and cheer loudly for others’ success. When I call on them during my best times and my worst ones, I feel buoyed by their encouragement or their sitting with me through the hardest moments. It’s an allowance and a gift they give you to just “be.”

My therapist asked me just today what just “being” looked like to me? Luckily, I’ve asked myself that question countless times. It gave us time to develop a plan to make that reality for me by week’s end. I felt myself take a deep, cleansing breath when I physically put it on my calendar. What would that look like for you? Does it involve the phone on airplane mode and letting folks know that on Friday you will be taking four hours of time just for you to paint uninterrupted?

That scenario or something beautifully similar, is possible. Even if it’s just for a few minutes or a week or maybe two. Share that with someone you trust, and they may want to take up that practice for their own hearts, too.

Taking steps towards “me” time also involves loving boundaries around a self-love practice. Imagine yourself inside of a bubble filled with bright, sparkling light that feeds your soul and honors your deepest wishes for your life. Would you allow anything negative or fear-based into that bubble? Probably not wittingly. When you find yourself in a position of choosing between your joy and self-sacrifice, reside in that bubble for a bit to weigh out whether you’d like it to come in and would it be of service to you and all others? If the answer is “no,” let it bounce off your bubble like a ping pong ball. If it’s a “yes,” welcome it in with loving arms for as long as it is of service to do so. You get to make that call. It also strengthens your ability to feel good about the boundaries you’ve created for yourself without having to explain them to a single soul. Just be sure that your boundaries not only honor you but also honor those they can affect. When we live from a place of pure love for ourselves and all others, your choices are received with respect and gratitude by people who truly care about us. The rest will fall away.

Marianne Williamson states that, “we are all meant to shine as children do.” Prioritizing your purpose and contentment can not only help you to shine but also lead others towards their own lights simply by honoring your own. Like I have said in almost every article; you are that powerful. You can be the catalyst for positive change. You just have to decide you are worthy of that peace and profound happiness (because you are!). You and I will continue to forge that path for ourselves and lead the way for others who are new on a journey towards prioritizing their creative side. Taking time for things that renew hearts and strengthen our divine light not only makes us better human beings. It also sends genuinely needed love out into the world and our Universe. We become leaders towards something richer where those who were afraid before can now feel safe to just be themselves. It’s an expression of love that we are nurturing not only for ourselves but for all beings when we value our need to live the life we’ve been called to lead.