The Alchemy of Radical Creativity
embracing the glory and gravity of bringing new things into the world
If you are a first-time reader or listener, these posts make the most sense when you start here.
Listen to this audio version of The Alchemy of Radical Creativity or read below.
As I said at the end of last week’s post:
Like a master gardener who understands that growing a magnificent garden requires both vision and careful stewardship, Radical Creativity demands that we fully embrace the glory and gravity of bringing new things into the world.
From my vantage point, it feels as if humans, by design, arrive with creative potential baked into their operating system. As if The Divine Mystery of It All wants to offer us a path aligned with freewill: the creative process.
When we engage with a creative process, we work toward bringing something of ourself into the world, which—because of the nature of individual uniqueness—ends up bringing something new into the world as well. The process itself, like our height or eye color, is judgment neutral.
Your support inspires me to reach higher, breathe easier. A free subscription is splendid. A Paid Subscription helps support my independent writing so I can offer you more!
And within the shape of any creative process we are given the opportunity to freely choose from endless possibilities that arrive minute by minute throughout. We have the option to delete, cross out, erase, transpose, transition, complete, return, edit, destroy, start over, this mark, that mark, this angle, those angles, ad infinitum.
We are given the thrill of a realized creation on one end, and the disappointment of a failed creation on the other—along with every other possible feeling up and down this continuum of myriad choices with myriad results.
What greater freewill template could we humans ask for?
Activating Radical Creativity
In the last post, we’ve went over a range of the most popular creativity characteristics, such as novelty, problem-solving, divergent thinking, and imagination vs practicality.
Moving forward, I want to elevate our most common understanding of creativity by offering a more personal, hands-on approach: Radical Creativity. Since Radical Creativity is expansive, it includes everything we’ve been discussing up to now and more.
Radical Creativity isn't about quick fixes, productivity hacks or inspiration techniques. And, as a noun, it can only flourish when you pair it with an urgent, action verb: to activate.
Once you activate Radical Creativity, it gives you a sustainable Framework of Intentions that comes alive in three parts.
1. Take 110% responsibility for all aspects of your creativity
2. Foster your CreativeSelf, and its natural connection to your Inner Teen, through self-awareness and self-reflection
3. Pay attention to creative stewardship, beyond the creative practice and the creation itself, to the glory and gravity it has on the world and in the world
Defining Radical Creativity
RADICAL CREATIVITY
(n) A creative practice with intentional stewardship and your Inner Teen’s insights, which values how every creative project ripples into our aching world, affecting not just you, the creator, but all who encounter the visionary energy of your boldness
RADICAL CREATING
(v) Taking 110% accountability, through self-awareness and self-reflection, for ownership of all areas of your creativity, including how you honor and dialogue with your Inner Teen
Using accountability, vulnerability, and the native wisdom of your Inner Teen to truly see where you are in relation to where you want to be—from vision to initiation to production to intentional stewardship and next steps
(a useful mantra)
Activating Radical Creativity
with the insights of our Inner Teen
makes the soul of this truth
visible to all:
To be human is to be creative.
Vision -> Initiation: From The WindyWild Notebook
I journaled with my non-dominant hand and asked my Inner Teen, WindyWild, What would you like to add to my approach for Radical Creativity?
WindyWild, direct and unedited from her notebook:
When I want to create a stone sculpture here on my beach, I begin by centerg my connection to first the whole beach. After I’ve immersed myself in all of the senses, What I hear, what I smell, what the air tastes like, what I see, then I turn to my body to see what I’m feeling: quiet, warm, energized, light-hearted, bold & from this internal awareness space, I begin circling the beach 4 my 1st stone.
Because I’ve put myself in a state of self-trust where I’m giving myself permission to flow w/ my inner knowing, allowing my thinking to follow the knowing instead of leading that knowing.
That’s at the heart of Radical Creativity.
When Radical Creativity Washes Ashore
Being radically creative transforms your one-off, isolated acts of creating something into a holistic practice where the one who creates, you, are intentionally aware of not just 'Can I create this?' but 'How do I want this creation to be birthed, tended, and released into the world?'
By embracing a Radical Creativity approach, you move from being merely productive to being purposefully generative.
With each creation, you are building a creative practice that nourishes you, the creator, and the community most important to you, while fostering an intentional impact for your creation in the world at large.
Activating Radical Creativity sustains the creator, enriches the work, and consciously contributes to our collective flourishing.
All well and good, you might say, but how? How does this Framework of Intentionality for activating Radical Creativity work?
What’s Next?
Once you activate Radical Creativity, it gives you a sustainable Framework of Intentions that comes alive in three parts.
Next time, let’s dive into each of these three sections and see what you and I can do to breathe life into each one.
How does it work to include the innate wisdom of your Inner Teen and…
1. Take 110% responsibility for all aspects of your creativity
2. Foster your CreativeSelf, and its natural connection to your Inner Teen, through self-awareness and self-reflection
3. Pay attention to creative stewardship, beyond the creative practice and the creation itself, to the glory and gravity it has on the world and in the world
Your support inspires me to reach higher, breathe easier. A free subscription is splendid. A Paid Subscription helps support my independent writing so I can offer you more!
Meanwhile, please …
Add a comment to this post because I really, really need to know what’s intriguing you, if there’s anything else you want to know/hear, or if you have a question or a thought. Controversy welcomed!
Tap the heart icon if you’re finding this thought-provoking or just because it lights up my day to know you’re out there and care!
Discover why Inspiration changed from a what to a Who.
Come Meet The Goddess of Inspiration and expand your creativity: an original, guided meditation for any time you hit a roadblock or doubts are taking over.
P.S. To continue this series, scroll down and hit “next.”
To reacquaint yourself with My Premise / My Promise, click here.
