Tonight I have decided to begin blogging anew. Inspired by the movie Julie and Julia. In the movie Julie (I think thats here name) began a blog, a cathartic process in which she was reborn and started a new life through her writing. I am not looking to start a new life, instead I am inspired to share and transform myself through the act of communing with the word and allow my heart to pour forth on these pages and access the force that assists all fellow creatives souls. If it assists anyone, even a single person (this may well be me) then by God thats great!

Well this is potent. There are so many feelings that move through anyone that chooses to harness their creativity in earnest. Vulnerability definately is shared amongst most creatives. 

Why? Why choose to express yourself creatively? Why, when most of the world chooses to dumb their creative selves down. Why, when we are taught in school that choosing to be creative won’t get you anywhere. Why do we do it? Why do people make music, sing, dance, paint and do all manner of crazy, weird things. Why do I say crazy and weird? Because creativity is not often seen as being necessary in the rational world. It’s not deemed as being functional and productive.

Yet here we are 6,973,738,433  people on the planet (according to Google) and all of us here because of pro- creation. The result of an act that wasn’t purely done because it’s productive or rational. Most people make love or have sex because they simply love it. It sometimes happens to create something as a result.

Similarly creative activities are done because they bring the us so much joy. They bring us closer to a source that is beyond us. Beyond our rational minds and into a world that seems akin to Creator/God/Spirit or whatever word works for you. Here I will use Creator for the purposes of this Blog. Feel free to substitue that word with whatever works for you.

There is a force that moves through me that is far greater than myself.

Many artists report of being touched by something akin to Creator as they move beyond themselves and cross over into the ‘zone’. It’s that moment when the identity has died like Christ on the cross and the greater self has been born and awakened to it’s own divinity. But why do it? What purpose does it serve? Will it put food on the table? Will it help me take out the trash? Will it support my children? Will it clothe them? There are no guarantees. In a world where our culture is gripped by functional values you would be forgiven for doubting your creativity.

Yet so many artists are reborn in the act of creativity. They turn to it when in love, they turn to it when walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

Not everything has an answer. The deepest mysteries are the ones best left unanswered. Perhaps in that space, in that zone of creativity, Creator and creation merge. Where that separation between the self and all that encompasses yields something the mind cannot grasp. Resurrecting the soul.

Jhana is a published author and illustrator. He draws on ancient wisdom and dreaming that reveal the bridge between consciousness and creativity. Discoveries of the healing capacities carried in painting, yoga, massage, meditation and art therapy inform his practise. He has taught, mentored and exhibited in India, America, Germany and Australia over the past 20 years. https://www.facebook.com/JhanaBowensArt/ https://www.instagram.com/?hl=en