FROM A PLACE OF LOVE

Hi everyone! Welcome to blog#3! Today I share one of my experiences with the ‘P’ word. One of the biggest buzzwords, and also a word of dread. That word. PURPOSE. 

In the midst of figuring out what my thing was, I got invited to a wonderful workshop organised by my lovely friend Keri Clarke and her mentor Peleg Top. As we were wrapping up the session, Peleg asked us this “What question do you have, that if you had the answer to, it would change your life? “ and ofcourse you can guess what I asked! “WHAT IS MY PURPOSE!??” Peleg then asked me what I THOUGHT my purpose was. In that moment of pressure, without even knowing what it meant yet, I blurted out 2 words that came to mind. And that was Joy and Healing.

Peleg’s next response was something so simple, organic and clear in its nature that it shifted everything for us all.

He said “I think we all share a common purpose, but that purpose gets articulated differently from person to person based on each of our talents, gifts and who we are. Our soul. But at the core, we all share a similar purpose, and that in my opinion is to love. My purpose it to love. How I do it, is unique to me based on my experiences. If your purpose is to love and you want to do it through bringing people joy and healing, that is awesome. What does that look like specifically for you? Are you actually practicing that in everything that you do? If that is a purpose you can connect to, what does a purpose of love mean to you and look like for you?

LIGHTBULB!

This gave me immense relief, immediate clarity and reassurance.

Immense relief, because it turned out I already have a purpose. It was simply to love through joy and healing. I did not really need to quantify, explain or write a bio beyond that.

Immediate clarity, because based on how I identified with that purpose, I was able to look at the various things I had going and filter them through what allowed me to experience and share more love, joy and healing. It gave me the courage to let go of things and narrowed down my list very quickly.

Reassurance, that it was okay to change direction and I don’t have to figure out or nail a career to practice that purpose. I could be practicing it in all aspects of my life. In the way I honour and look after myself, figure out what’s important to me, improve my relationships, improve my conversations, interact with strangers. Pretty much how I show up to everything I do. Easier said then done right! ;) Definitely the work of a lifetime!

So really things that I learnt and have to keep reminding myself of every now and again is that:

1. My purpose can be just a word or two or a feeling. Does not have to be a well executed bio.
2. My purpose doesn’t have to be unique to me but is unique to how I practice it
3. There is ultimately only one purpose. To see, and do from a place of love.
4. Overthinking is not my friend!
5. Spontaneous moments of combustion = Clarity!

So what does operating from a place of love look and feel like for you?


With love, light and a massive splash of joy

Akriti
Creative Curiosity Advocate


Ps. You can find out more about the wonderful people I mention in this post and how they are following their creative curiosities below. :)

Peleg Top - www.pelegtop.com
Keri Clarke - www.heroines.co.nz

 

A WONDERFUL CRIME OF PASSIONATE FRUSTRATION

Hi everyone! Here goes blog number 2! It feels surreal that it has been already and also only a month since we sprouted! Today, I talk a bit more about how curiously creative came to be. In particular, how the name came to be. I would love to say it was a sophisticated, magical process with visits from Yoda. Instead it came from a frustrating, shameful, annoying, anger inducing, and flailing process!

I mention in the last blog, (and probably will in every blog here forth) that I am a lover of many things. I am a designer, dancer, teacher and creative thinker for a lot of things. And I LOVE all of them! Trying to choose one thing was like being told you could either be a sister or a friend, mum or a wife, potayto potahto!! A part of me knew that I just needed to follow my curiosity(s) and that would help me. But then the other part wanted to scream, WHICH CURIOSITY DO I FOLLOW FIRST!!??

You can imagine how this demoralizing dilemma would carry forward when being unemployed and looking for work. And as you sometimes feel when looking for work, is that you should go to networking events. I absolutely DREADED going to these and being asked what I did. Uh~ I’m kind of a graphic designer and a vintage jazz dancer and teacher… also an information designer… and no that is not I.T… Moving on… I am also kind of a service designer...  improving services with blah blah blah... Oh I was a university lecturer too. Instead, what I REALLY wanted to say was that I have been doing bird illustrations lately and flippin stoked I just finished a fabulous cat!!!?

Then one day.. I got asked to write my bio! Everything I am in 100 words or less. CRAP! What do I write!!? Unemployed, passionately confused, stoked about cat illustration!? Umm. Yeah. That is not going to cut it.

I remember talking to my husband about my insecurity on how to best describe myself. After what felt like gazillion versions of glorified lies written in different sentence structures, I had a hissy fit! Deleted all my drafts exclaiming, “you know what! I am curiously creative! There!“ Snapped the laptop shut and went to bed angry with myself, and my husband for not telling me who I should be.

To my surprise, the next day, as I calmly voiced it out loud, curiously creative felt right. It felt honest. It felt like me. From there, the bio wrote itself in 5 minutes. The more I used it, the more attached I got to it and the more it felt like my home.

What I got from this experience, was that sometimes allowing yourself to feel everything you feel, the anger, the shame, the frustration, can reveal more clarity and truth then trying to pretend to feel what you think you should be feeling. Secondly, rather then trying to be defined by what you do or did, really thinking about who we are and where we are right now.

In my case, no matter what curiously creative looks like in 1 month, 6months or 10 years, I know I will always be curious and always be creative.

BEHOLD! An ode to Curiously Creative! A wonderful crime of passionate frustration!  
 

With love, light and a massive splash of joy

Akriti
Creative Curiosity Advocate

"CREATIVITY IS THE WAY YOU SHARE YOUR SOUL WITH THE WORLD"

Hey Everybody! Welcome to Curiously Creative’s first blog post! And my first blog write up EVER! So I think it is fitting to share the curiously creative story. Which however is virtually impossible without diving into my own personal relationship and journey with creativity. So here goes.

CREATIVE WORTHINESS
I have been a creative soul since I was a kid. This sentence seems simple enough to say but boy, owning it, living it, feeling it, being it, has not been a simple process. Growing up, my creative pursuits were taunted by someone I loved and craved attention from, as being frivolous, unworthy, illegitimate, of no service and a reflection of my future inability to support my loved ones. In other words, it was a thing you can do, but not a thing you can pursuit. Although I never gave up on being creative, naturally my sense of worthiness of receiving love became tied to the value of my creativity. So my relationship with creativity became one of proving a point. The point that it WAS of value. Not of value to me though, but of value to others.

THE CREATIVE SUPERHERO
So I went about “legitimizing” my art by choosing Graphic Design for University, because it would be more of a “real” job.  But this wasn’t enough. I went volunteering in “third” world countries to figure out how design can save the world, then did my Honours on creating HIV Awareness for an Aids organization in Kenya, and then my Masters on designing information that would TRANSFORM health care! While these are ofcourse important problems and experiences I do not regret one bit. I realised that it was all a sneaky internal game to validate my creativity. All the study helped me pretend I was doing important things and fueled the idea that it had to be grandeur and world dominating for it to be of value. But never feeling enough or fulfilled. So it was only a matter of time, when I started asking myself ‘what was it that I really wanted to do?’

THE ONE THING!
The thing was though, I quickly found that trying to figure out what I loved to do was not the problem. The problem was CHOOOOOSING ONE THING! This idea that your passion had to be this one vocation was driving me nuts! I am a dancer, designer, teacher and creative thinker for a lot of things. And I LOVE all of them! I also love Elizabeth Gilbert! Who’s talks and book Big Magic has helped me understand a lot about myself in my creativity.  So you can imagine my excitement on finding out she would be talking in Auckland and I would get ALL the answers I needed! Her response to not knowing your passion - "follow your curiosity". I remember thinking, ‘well.. that doesn’t help me..  I have been curious my whole life. How long do I have to be flippin curious for??!'  Tell me how to choose and find focus..  JUST TELL ME NOW PLEASE! I Lined up to ask this during Q&A, only for time to run out just as it was my turn.

PANDA WISDOM
Oh well.. That is okay. Cause you know what! Kung fu Panda 3 came along and I got my answer there! When you are seeking, sometimes, answers come from the most unexpected places. But seriously Kung Fu Panda is some deep shit guys!  Go see it! There is this scene where PO finally finds his chi from all the things he is. He IS all the things! So maybe all the things is what makes me up too!

THE ROSE IN THE THORN
This wasn’t the point where I suddenly figured how to make a start at something, OR anything though. It wasn’t until hitting a real low point after returning from an inspiring trip to Europe, where I suddenly found myself out of work, broke, emotionally displaced and not knowing my next direction. This was when all the accumulative experiences and growing awareness were starting to trigger some clarity and action in to the acknowledgement that for a very long time I  had denied myself creativity for creativity sake. Not for saving the world, not for others opinions but purely for joy.

FOLLOWING THE FEELING
This is why I started creating artwork for friends, which helped me stay sane and active. I found myself getting delightfully surprised at the enjoyment I was getting from creating them, and the joy it gave others. And in these cases, when you aren’t sure what to do, the best you can do sometimes is to follow the feeling. And the feeling felt great.

CREATIVE HEALING
This is the artwork that you now see as products on curiously creative. But it isn’t just about the products. The products are what they are because of the journey.  In a conversation with Elizabeth Gilbert on creativity, Brene Brown mentions that during her research on shame, she found 85% of men and women interviewed remembered an event in school that was so shaming, it changed how they thought of themselves for the rest of their lives. For HALF of those people, those shame wounds were around creativity resulting in art or creativity scars.  This reminded me that my story is not an isolated occurrence. Sharing the story is just as important in the process of healing and finding courage as the act of creating. Because as Brene Brown Puts it. “When you are taking on creativity you are taking on soul work, this is not about what we do, it is about who we are”

So here we are, with Curiously Creative. Lovingly created products and conversations that hopefully bring you joy and inspire you to honour your own creative curiosities. Because as it turns out, we are ALL creative and must remain more curious then we are afraid. That may be how life gets a lil scary and uncomfortable, but is also how we grow and how life gets fabulous! Lets see where this journey takes all of us.

With love, light and a massive splash of joy

Akriti
Creative Curiosity Advocate

PS. Below is the list of inspiring resources I mention above!

- Big Magic. Creative Living Beyond Fear. Elizabeth Gilbert
- Magic Lessons Se.1, Ep. 12: Brene Brown on "Big Strong Magic"
http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/magic-lessons/