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Conviction.

Written by Juliet Bennett
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Life can be tough. It can be tiring and frustrating. In striving for any goal we face a road of trials. At times its too hard. We throw our hands in the air and shout “I give up!” How do you know when to push through? How do you know when to persevere? How does one come to the conviction that they can, or that they can’t? That they are right, or that they are wrong? That they should continue or that they should give up? And how does one find the determination, the motivation, and the energy, to continue on the journey?

I don’t know the answer to these questions. I don’t know where conviction comes from. But I know what it feels like. This little story, and the sense of conviction I felt at the time, is a landmark feeling I know I’ll refer to in the trials I face in my future.

The story behind a photo…

From the lookout at the top of Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina. I was exhausted. It was FREEZING cold. My wrists hurt. My back hurt. I tried. It was messy. My back simply didn’t want to bend.

I tried again. And again. And again.

“I give up.” I declared. “My body won’t let me. I just can’t do it.”

 

But sitting there watching the luminous sunset. The beauty in the trees, the mountains, the sky… changed me. Something inside me changed.

“Get the camera,” I instructed. “I can do this.”

I put my hands under my shoulders.

I thought of the journey I have taken – the most unlikely dreams that have already come true.

I thought of the journey ahead – the dreams in my life that I am working towards.

With all my might I took a deep breath, and lifted my body up as high as I could.

I held it and held it. The beauty before my eyes. The wind catching my hair. The freshness of the cold air permeating my being. The stars and my body aligned for one short magic moment.

And this is the shot.

Truth,

Potentialism: a new system based on humanity’s collective creative potential

Written by Juliet Bennett
2 Comments

I posed this question to Q&A, a political TV show in Australia, sometime last year. They didn’t air it but it’s had a lot of views on their website, and a comment or two…

“We need a new system”

There is something fundamentally wrong with a system that puts profit before people and our planet. Billions suffer so that few of us can accumulate more “stuff”, leading to poverty, depression, and pollution If we continue our current trajectory, our own consumption will cause our own extinction. Big problems require big solutions. We don’t need another meaningless tax – we need to change the system.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqrikYS3EuM[/youtube]

As embarrassing as it is to watch, and as blonde, simplistic, idealist and immature as I sound (“capitalism equals extinction” lol… I’m the first to laugh at myself, so you’re welcome to join me), I think the ideas behind the question are important to address.

As I see it, we are at the precipice… https://julietbennett.com/2009/10/20/at-the-precipice/ … and we have to do something.

These are questions I have posed many times on this blog, and doing a full circle post-India’s hit of realism I revisit them and some of my old answers today.

How can we shift our system to one that doesn’t dictate a worship of capital?

What kind of system would not be based on an infinite growth in consumption?

How about a “stationary” economy that John Stuart Mill suggested in 1848?

How about a system that focuses on IMPROVEMENT rather than GROWTH – one that values the quality of our lives, not the quantity of stuff we accumulate?

How about valuing creativity over capital?

Creativity is the most joyous part of life, it’s where solutions to our problems come from, it’s how we evolve. And creativity is infinite!

Could “Creativism” be the answer to our political, economic and religious dilemmas?

The Urban Dictionary defines:

Creativism = ‘The theory or practice of creation as a way to live and understand life.’

Creativist = ‘someone who is attuned creatively to their surroundings; a person who understands and expresses their life through creative works or motifs.’

https://julietbennett.com/2009/09/10/creativism-a-philosophy-for-life/

A seemingly similar philosophy has been called “potentialism”.

Potentialism is a fast-spreading trend. Already since the GFC, one in five Australians are downsizing their wealth in order to dedicate their lives to the things they most enjoy.[1]

As the flight magazine I read on Virgin Blue summed, “We got greedy in the 1980s, grungy in the ’90s and geeky in the noughties. This decade, we’re eager to explore our potential.” [2] Read more here: https://julietbennett.com/2010/04/26/potentialism/

I couldn’t find an official definition of “potentialist” so from what i have read on the topic, I made up my own: A “potentialist” is an alchemist of potential – someone who strives to achieve their mental, physical and spiritual potential.

… I wonder what a society with a stable economy, focused quality not quantity, valuing creativity not capital, and with it’s sight set on the manifestation of our collective potential, would look like?

References:

[1] Deborah Robinson, Australians leading the way in a return to Global Financial Optimism (November 2009) URL: http://www.australianwomenonline.com/australians-leading-the-way-in-a-return-to-global-financial-optimism/

[2] “The Potentialists”, Virgin Blue Magazine (April 2010) pp. 34-38.

Photo: I snapped this on my phone on the weekend: kites, colour, sunshine, nature, friends – Bondi was alive as Sydneyites enjoyed the simple pleasures life has to offer.

Truth, ,

Potential: innate or situational?

Written by Juliet Bennett
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Does the value of life reside in a life form’s innate potential – the potential that their DNA allows one to have, or to the potential that a life’s situation provides the opportunity to achieve?

There is quite a difference and the implications are quite significant. You see, if innate potential is the dictator of life’s value, then I feel bad for cattle we breed to eat, for chickens that lay my eggs, and even for the horses whose sides I kick and neck I pull on to stop and go when I please. These animals have an innate potential that can only be discovered if they are FREE TO DISCOVER IT – something that, in these days of human dominion, such an opportunity is not really allowed.

But, how can the true potential of life be evaluated in our modern times?

In the last six thousand years or so, many animals have evolved into a state of dependency. Dogs, in the process of human’s domestication, have replaced the fierceness of their days as wolves with floppy ears and wagging tails. While they appear to like their new roles as man’s best friend and while they receive much love from humans in return… were they ever asked if they wanted to give up their freedom to roam the woods and instead spend their days lazing around our homes?

I guess this process of “co-evolution” wasn’t exactly a conscious decision of our ancestors – it just happened as a result of changing environments and changing levels of awareness – as a result of decisions made by ALL the species involved.

So… who is to judge what is right and what is wrong, what is the creative potential of these animals, and how this fits with the creative potential of other species, including our own?

Applying such ideas to human situations I consider those sitting behind sewing machines for 12 hour days 7 days a week, getting paid a pittance, and I try to think about the limitations their situation puts on their potential. But then I reflect – if I hadn’t made some pretty radical decisions about my own life, I may have been slaving away my life behind a computer pumping out 12 hour days 7 days a week working on spreadsheets (in a past life – around 8 years ago when I first left uni – I was an Accountant)…

And I ask myself: what allowed me the opportunity to pursue my own creative potential?

A few key people in my life who provided me the encouragement, and maybe even more so the people who provided me the dis-encouragement (which makes one even more determined to prove them wrong), spurred me to quit Accounting and travel to Japan where a new process of self-discovery first began.

It’s slightly controversial to say, and I know many will disagree with this statement, but in my opinion ALL humans have the innate potential to be academics, artists, accountants or actors – it’s just a matter of the opportunities they receive through their education and the cultivation of a vision of how they perceive their own capabilities in life.

This idea seems to make the ethical dilemmas of our unjust world even more difficult to deal with…

If I truly believe that anyone can achieve ANYTHING that they set their mind to – if they truly believe it to be possible – then where is the limit to anyone’s potential? Maybe there is no limit. So if you think of violence as being anything that prevents someone from reaching their true potential, then does that make everything in the world violent? Ok, now I’m really tying myself in knots.

Of course seeing the most unlikely dreams come true in my own life doesn’t this ask and recieve concept a universal law… yet when I combine these ideas with the concepts of innate and situational potential, I return to situation: if anyone else were born into my shoes, would be typing these exact words in this exact minute? I’m no psycho-analytical genetic expert, but my hunch is that they would… I’m not so sure how much of us is innate – might everything be situational?

What is it that prevents some dreams from becoming reality? In my observation it seems that it is fear and lack of confidence and faith in oneself, and a lack of ability to imagine the possibilities, that prevents ones ability to dream or prevents the dreams one has from manifesting in their reality.

Is it possible that we are limited only by our own minds?

Or, as Henry Ford put it: “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, either way you are right.”

But then, there’s something to be said for innate factors – like the genetics of our parents, the skills our ancestors have learned and passed on… but are these innate, or situational to the choices or our ancestors?

Maybe in the end it is a combination of both the innate and the situational potential we are each presented that dictates the creative achievements of our lives? Maybe this whole idea of one or the other is just a play with words and concepts and all dependent on my own culturally cultivated perceptions…

It’s nice to think we are all “worth the same”, but when you see in other cultures the lack of value placed on human lives, and the extra value placed on, for example, a cow’s life.. you remember that grand cultural influence that shapes our perspectives and values. Are our creative achievements something we can use to evaluate the value of one life or life form over another?

Ok, I hope this entry isn’t too randomly haphazardly put together – I did warn you about my grasshopper mental state I blame on my PISD – my Post India Stress Disorder…

Anyway, in conclusion, let me just share that I’m starting to think that when it comes solutions to poverty and environment and conflicts and all the other stuff I rant on about, maybe the greatest gift we can give  is the ability to imagine the possibilities – the ability to dream… And to share a little secret: the only person who can empower you to achieve your dreams, is yourself.

Photo:

Set up by mwah and snapped by Lucinda Amon on the morning after my sister’s wedding in Bowral. Another one for my ongoing series – which I think I’m going to name “The Bridge” rather than “The Crab” so I can write up in artist blurbs as “symbolising the bridging of present to future” … opinions???

Academic, Truth,

POTENTIALISM

Written by Juliet Bennett
5 Comments

“We got greedy in the 1980s, grungy in the ’90s and geeky in the noughties. This decade, we’re eager to explore our potential.” [1]

On my flight home from Melbourne I read an article that excited me. It was called “Meet the Potentialists”. A movement I suppose we could label “Potentialism” is very much in line with what the approach to life I labeled “Creativism” – a life based on discovering and fulfilling one’s creative potential. I think potentialist and potentialism is probably better terminology than creativist and creativism – it’s broader and less close to “creationism”,  bit less confusing. What do you think?

(To see entry “Creativism: a Philosophy of Life”, click here)

According to social researcher Mark McCrindle, “The ’90s were about buying bigger, better and more, and then it all ended with a crash… as a result, one in five Australians have decided to use the downturn as a catalyst to reorient their lives.” ONE IN FIVE! That’s a pretty good start!!! “Working from home is one of the key drivers of what we call the ‘hobby-preneurs,” said Mark McCrindle. “Turning a hobby into a business is a way of having it all – of fulfilling your potential and turning something you really enjoy doing into an income earner.” Potentialists are men and women, of all ages and incomes (although I must note Sydney ranked fourth after Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane – come on guys, pick up your act!) still that’s pretty incredible! [2]

Australia isn’t alone in this trend. A quick google searched identified Canadians as movers and shakers too. A survey showed that more than a third of Canadians (38%) actively have a Potential List, and nearly everyone in this group (94%) predicts they will accomplish all or some of the goals they have set out for themselves.’ (A “Potential List” is like a dream board.) “Topping the items included in Canadians’ Potential Lists are travel (77%), philanthropy (41%), learn a new language (32%) and living in a different country (32%) – all activities that align with priorities previously identified by Potentialists to actively live an enriching life.” [3]

I couldn’t find a definition so I thought I’d make up my own:

A “potentialist” is an alchemist of potential – someone who strives to achieve their mental, physical and spiritual potential.

And I’m going start a little Potentialism Blog Series based on some writings I did a couple of years ago when I started the search of my own potential (a search which is obviously still under way). I don’t know, but maybe it will help all you potentialists or potential-potentialists out there as you look for ways to realize your own potential.

Picture:

My mum and my friend looking at my artworks that I am both inside and (sort-of) behind the lens of (I framed the shot but obviously I couldn’t hit the button) that are on display in the Manning Building at Sydney Uni. I still get quite a buzz out of the fact that at school I was the non-creative pimple-faced mathematical/business-minded nerd and now I am on the path to discovering my true potential.

References:

[1] Virgin Blue (April 2010) pp. 34-38.

[2] Deborah Robinson, Australians leading the way in a return to Global Financial Optimism (November 2009) URL: http://www.australianwomenonline.com/australians-leading-the-way-in-a-return-to-global-financial-optimism/

[3] ‘Potentialist’ Group On The Rise As Canadian Optimism Improves’ URL:

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2010/02/c5872.html

Based on online survey by Angus Reid Public Opinion on behalf of American Express January 21-25 2010.

Peace, Random Life Stuff,

Potentialism: a philosophy for life

Written by Juliet Bennett
4 Comments

Potentialism: a philosophy for life

Discovering your ultimate creative potential: you as your individual conscious, you as your society and you as the universe – playing your role in the creation of a future reality you desire.

Syncretic paradigms:

1. The purpose of life is to discover and fulfill your creative potential in a way that brings the most benefit to others.

This is the purpose of all life

This is “living God’s will”

This is expressing Who You Truly Are and Who You Want To Be

This is discovering your inner being, your intuition, and listening to it

As Shakespeare said, “Above all things, to thyself be true”

2. We are defined not only by our separate identity, but are in fact a collective identity of humanity, of living organisms and of the universe.

In the same way that our body is not separate from the living micro atoms that make it up

In the same way that science describes all matter, us included, as made of the same substance: atoms, which at quantum levels flash in and out of physical existence

In the same way the Buddhists imagine God to be everything

In the same way Christians describe God, as three forms: the father, the son and the Holy Spirit, yet one God; simultaneously omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent ie all-knowing, all-powerful and present everywhere.

These ideas do  not contradict – they complement. They are each other’s missing link – the way such abstract concepts maybe by physically actualised.

3. Peace is a state of harmony, when the body, mind and spirit are united

Key principles:

4. Listen to “God”/ The Universe / Your Intuition

Thoughts – ideas, images, and words that come into your mind

Intuition – the deep feeling inside that says ‘yes’ or ‘no’

Omens/signs – notice the things in the world around you that you are conscious of at each particular point in time

Words of other people – be it in conversation, a religious, fiction or nonfiction text, or a song on the radio, everything that enters your world is God communicating with you

5. Minimize fear and maximize love

Fear leads to insecurity, hate, and greed

Love leads to security, generosity, and kindness

6. Commit to the process not the result –

Creative potential is infinite and there is no end. An end means a beginning, and the circle of life continues.

Living in the present – it’s a present, a gift from God, pre-sent to you as an accumulation of all your life experiences and thoughts.

7. Realise that all problems can be solved with:

Will – desire to solve the problem

Honesty – about everything

Empathy – understanding where the other is coming from

Creativity – finding solutions

Transform and transcend:

8. Equal care for self and others

When we understand the inseparable connectedness between ourselves and others, we realise our happiness depends on the happiness of everyone else.

Hence our goal: to maximise our collaborative creative potential – expressing our own creativity, and encouraging others to express theirs

9. Consequences of this paradigm:

Selfishness transforms into selflessness – I want the best for me, and since you are me, I want the best for you.

Greed becomes generosity – I want everyone else to have as much as they can, because everyone else is me.

Jealousy and envy becomes pride and happiness for one another – others achievements are achievements of other expressions of myself

The concept of hate disappears – we cannot hate what is you

Self confidence increases, as we feel other’s trying to bring us up, not put us down

We truly put into action Jesus teaching to “do unto others as you’d have them do to yourself” (check wording + add equivilant teaching from other religions)

10. Self-reflection and self-transcendence

Breaking down defensiveness, building up confidence to critically evaluate one’s self and acknowledge our wrongs or harms we have done to others – allow us to repent and allow them to forgive

Rid yourself of your own grievances and any desire for vengeance for injuries inflicted by others – through empathy with the Other, we learn to forgive and move on

11. Create your own happiness

Make the decision to be happy – it is the biggest decision you will ever make in your life.

Begin with gratefulness, for what you have, even if it is little

Study the past, analyse different perspectives, take lessons from it and use it to expand your creative potential

Don’t cultivate feelings of regrets, everything has happened for a reason, figure out what that reason is, and how the past can help you in your quest for creative potential.

Bad decisions do not exist, that is judgement you make yet instead you can realise that this results may have led you to challenging times, from which you can now learn. These consequences were a small sacrifice, part of the process of discovering your creative potential.

Do not cultivate feelings of guilt. Guilt is of no benefit for you nor for those around you. Forgive yourself and let it go. Learn from the past, but keep your mind in the present, and an eye on the future

12. Cultivating wisdom

Facts are never static, but are the closest statement of the truth, at a particular point in time. If the data changes, facts also change. We must remain open to new data, ready to evaluate it in order to constantly progress towards a more truthful truth.

Taoists belief “what is impossible today may become possible tomorrow, and what is good today may become evil tomorrow; what seems right from one point of view may from another view seem completely wrong.”

13. The pleasure of extremes, and joys of balance

Life and death, hot and cold, love and hate, good and bad – you can’t have one without the other. This is the dualistic nature of life, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’d prefer a passionate love, even if it sometimes slips over to hate, than a mediocre love all the time. The extremes are much more fun. Ups and downs are what make life interesting. It’s the challenges that bring the most satisfaction.

Happiness when pushed to the extreme becomes sickly and dull.  Beauty overdone becomes ugly. Even too much chocolate makes feel sick…

14. Rid your life of fear

In the same way that millions of skin cells die every day, and yet our human body continues to live

Our consciousness is already connected, and will continue to be connected even when the separateness of our present memory no longer functions, our consciousness will continue to live on through others – that are ourselves

15. Cultivate faith

Faith is about cultivating a state in your heart and mind whereby you give yourself to God* – not about conforming to a set of “beliefs”

Don’t worry, don’t struggle, allow the will of God/ the Universe to be done

Is not about belief in hocus pocus or confession to any kind of autocratic dogma – faith is about a state of heart and mind

Even things that seem to have no reason whatsoever, in time, you will see how it expanded your, or another’s, creative potential

16. Get in-touch with your creative side

We ALL have one, you just have to give it a go

Try everything, don’t be afraid of anything

Know that time and effort are what give results; if you are prepared to invest yourself in something, you can do whatever you want to do.

In order to maximise happiness in life:

17. Right investment

(a) Of your time

Spend it with people who motivate and encourage

In an occupation that allows you to learn and express your creativity

Feelings of daily happiness are essential to stimulate your creative potential

Expanding other’s creative potential, and the creative potential of other forms of life, including the planet

In ways that will provide maximum benefit to the most people

Spend some time in silence, connecting to your conscious and giving it room to create; meditation, walking, driving, prayer

(b) Of your money

Money should be a reflection of the amount of time and effort that you have expended, and can henceforth use in exchange for others’ time and effort.

In your purchases, buying what is good for yourself and good for others

In your financial investments, in businesses that are helping life move toward it’s creative potential

18. Not no conflict but no violence

No circumstance ever substantiates violence

The ideology of Potentialism must never be fought for – this is against the nature of creative potential. Fighting for an ideology destroys creativity, which may be trying to morph into new forms, in which case, this is it’s achievement of creative potential.

Fighting against nature is fighting against the will of God, that is, fighting against the deepest drive of each of us,

Potentialism seeks organic expansion through love, it is never forced or forged, but is the result of a synergy between selfish and selfless – working together for the good of all-life itself, all which is God.

19. The power of the mind

The universe operates through spontaneous creativity, and through patterned phenomena – your role may be to contribute to either

Thoughts are powerful in ways we don’t yet understand. We do know they are measurable on wavelengths, like radio waves, but have not tapped in to harness them yet. Experiments have shown the incredible impact of positive thoughts on plants, water molecules, and even the nature of atoms.

Harness this power. Dream, make goals, pray, meditate, make them reality.

20. The power for world peace lies with you

Each of us have, together, the power to change the world

All it takes is a vision: what do we want the world to look like?

And then in each of us the will to reconnect with our life’s purpose and play out our roles in this transformation.

It begins with finding the peace within ourselves.

Anything is possible!


Some notes on terminology and origins:

What is a Creativist?

A Creativist is someone who sees Creativity as the expression of the Divine Creator present in all life and the universe. Creativity is humanity’s source of greatest pleasure, satisfaction, and act of generosity. Creativity expresses your individual consciousness and shares it with others, simultaneously expressing the collective conscious and providing avenues for your individual conscious to learn.

Creativism or Creationism?

Just to clarify – this is NOT to be confused with “Creationism” which refers to a belief in a 6-day creation 6000 years ago. NO. Creativism is about CREATIVITY and the role WE play in the ONGOING CREATION PROCESS of our universe. These ideas are a work-in-progress (that I wrote one year ago and haven’t touched since) hence I thought I’d put out there. Everything in life always seems to be a work-in-progress, so carpe diem…

Expressions of Creativity:

Creativity is not only for those left-brainers; creativity is for everyone. Analyse the sources of pleasure in your life, you will probably find they involve some form of creation that you contribute to. For example:

–       art of any kind: photography, draw, write,

–       in numbers, in science, in business: look for creative solutions to problems

–       food and wine: play with life’s little pleasures

–       breathe: take pleasure in every breath, it feeds your cells and contributes to the production of new ones

–       look for improvement: in every aspect of your life, each little bit of creative expression adds value

–       in interior and exterior of your house, fashion, self expression

–       make babies: the most amazing creation a human can make

Did I make this up?

I think you’ll find there’s nothing really new about what you’re read above … we are all so connected that I have this feeling when you finish reading this, you’ll feel like I’ve just typed out a transcript of your own mind. I may be wrong – all of the following may make no sense to anyone other than myself…

The writings above are a summation of my beliefs around July 2008. They outpoured form my brain as a stream of consciousness and are most likely inspired by all the books I’ve read and all the experiences I’ve incurred, so I don’t take credit for any of it. That’s how ideas grow and form – a culmination of the past, remoulded/stated a little differently, into something that can be used for the future.

I’m not sure how the term “creativism” first came into my head, probably on one of my long walks, where all my other ideas come from, and when I googled it I discovered it was a term being used by a few people to describe a similar concept of what I wanted to use it to describe.

There is even a definition in the Urban Dictionary: Creativism = ‘The theory or practice of creation as a way to live and understand life’ and a Creativist = ‘someone who is attuned creatively to their surroundings; a person who understands and expresses their life through creative works or motifs.’

I came across the term “Potentialist” in an article inside a flight magazine. See: https://julietbennett.com/2010/04/26/potentialism/

I couldn’t find a definition of “potentialist” so I made up my own: A “potentialist” is an alchemist of potential – someone who strives to achieve their mental, physical and spiritual potential.

The end and the beginning

Anyway if you have got through this essay then I have to say I’m extremely impressed. Six pages worth of babble… anyway I would really really really love to know what you think. And do you like the title Creativism or Potentialism, or can you think of something better???

Thank you!!!

Juliet xxx


Truth, , , , ,

Meaning of life

Written by Juliet Bennett
1 Comment

Something sure to come up a lot on this blog is the question of meaning – why the f**k are we here on this planet??? It is something I contemplate regularly.

The human condition is a strange one –  born no different from other animals we are educated into languages, enculturated into structures of thinking, sets of values, morals, dreams. We grow up and play out our roles in society, dedicating our life to our relationships, our religions, our jobs, the building up materialistic goods, searching for our identity, trying to achieve the world’s ideals, create a family, pay off our mortgages or work for whatever other causes we see as valuable. But WHY??? Only to blink and find ourselves retired then old and dying. We may travel, meet people, enjoy food, beautiful sites, other cultures… still what’s the purpose of it all?

I have come across a fantastic fantastic website that contains interviews with some of the most amazing minds in our world today. www.meaningoflife.tv.

So far I’ve watched Karen Armstrong (a scholar of religion) and John Polkinghorne (a Cambridge scholar of physics and Anglican priest), and I definitely recommend both. Each interview is long but well worthwhile 🙂

Adventure, Random Life Stuff, Truth, , , , ,

Creativism – a philosophy for life

Written by Juliet Bennett
17 Comments

Creativism… the beginnings of a new philosophy, with positive implications on social, political and economic theories.

Ok – with that amazing very creative photograph that won “Portrait of the Year 2009” by  Sydney photographer Pippin Schembri – I now divert your attention to something close to my heart – for now I’m calling it “Creativism”, but it seems that “Potentialism” also fills the bill. (Click here to see Potentialist version of below)

I think you’ll find there’s nothing really new about what you’re about to read … we are all so connected that I have this feeling when you finish reading this, you’ll feel like I’ve just typed out a transcript of your own mind. I may be wrong – all of the following may make no sense to anyone other than myself… Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and please post your thoughts!

Just to clarify – this is NOT to be confused with “Creationism” which refers to a belief in a 6-day creation 6000 years ago. NO. Creativism is about CREATIVITY and the role WE play in the ONGOING CREATION PROCESS of our universe. These ideas are a work-in-progress (that I wrote one year ago and haven’t touched since) hence I thought I’d put out there. Everything in life always seems to be a work-in-progress, so carpe diem…

Creativism: a philosophy for life

Discovering your ultimate creative potential: you as your individual conscious, you as your society and you as the universe – playing your role in the creation of a future reality you desire.


 

What is a Creativist?

A Creativist is someone who sees Creativity as the expression of the Divine Creator present in all life and the universe. Creativity is humanity’s source of greatest pleasure, satisfaction, and act of generosity. Creativity expresses your individual consciousness and shares it with others, simultaneously expressing the collective conscious and providing avenues for your individual conscious to learn.

Expressions of Creativity:

Creativity is not only for those left-brainers; creativity is for everyone. Analyse the sources of pleasure in your life, you will probably find they involve some form of creation that you contribute to. For example:

–       art of any kind: photography, draw, write,

–       in numbers, in science, in business: look for creative solutions to problems

–       food and wine: play with life’s little pleasures

–       breathe: take pleasure in every breath, it feeds your cells and contributes to the production of new ones

–       look for improvement: in every aspect of your life, each little bit of creative expression adds value

–       in interior and exterior of your house, fashion, self expression

–       make babies: the most amazing creation a human can make

 

Syncretic paradigms:

1. The purpose of life is to discover and fulfil your creative potential in a way that brings the most benefit to others.

  1. This is the purpose of all life
  2. This is “living God’s will”
  3. This is expressing Who You Truly Are and Who You Want To Be
  4. This is discovering your inner being, your intuition, and listening to it
  5. As Shakespeare said, “Above all things, to thyself be true”

2. We are defined not only by our separate identity, but are in fact a collective identity of humanity, of living organisms and of the universe.

  1. In the same way that our body is not separate from the living micro atoms that make it up
  2. In the same way that science describes all matter, us included, as made of the same substance: atoms, which at quantum levels flash in and out of physical existence
  3. In the same way the Buddhists imagine God to be everything
  4. In the same way Christians describe God, as three forms: the father, the son and the Holy Spirit, yet one God; simultaneously omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent ie all-knowing, all-powerful and present everywhere.
  5. These ideas do  not contradict – they complement. They are each other’s missing link – the way such abstract concepts maybe by physically actualised.

3. Peace is a state of harmony, when the body, mind and spirit are united

Key principles:

4. Listen to “God”

  1. Thoughts – ideas, images, and words that come into your mind
  2. Intuition – the deep feeling inside that says ‘yes’ or ‘no’
  3. Omens/signs – notice the things in the world around you that you are conscious of at each particular point in time
  4. Words of other people – be it in conversation, a religious, fiction or nonfiction text, or a song on the radio, everything that enters your world is God communicating with you

5. Minimize fear and maximize love

  1. Fear leads to insecurity, hate, and greed
  2. Love leads to security, generosity, and kindness

6. Commit to the process not the result –

  1. Creative potential is infinite and there is no end. An end means a beginning, and the circle of life continues.
  2. Living in the present – it’s a present, a gift from God, pre-sent to you as an accumulation of all your life experiences and thoughts.

7. Realise that all problems can be solved with:

  1. Will – desire to solve the problem
  2. Honesty – about everything
  3. Empathy – understanding where the other is coming from
  4. Creativity – finding solutions

Transform and transcend:

8. Equal care for self and others

  1. When we understand the inseparable connectedness between ourselves and others, we realise our happiness depends on the happiness of everyone else.
  2. Hence our goal: to maximise our collaborative creative potential – expressing our own creativity, and encouraging others to express theirs

9. Consequences of this paradigm:

  1. Selfishness transforms into selflessness – I want the best for me, and since you are me, I want the best for you.
  2. Greed becomes generosity – I want everyone else to have as much as they can, because everyone else is me.
  3. Jealousy and envy becomes pride and happiness for one another – others achievements are achievements of other expressions of myself
  4. The concept of hate disappears – we cannot hate what is you
  5. Self confidence increases, as we feel other’s trying to bring us up, not put us down
  6. We truly put into action Jesus teaching to “do unto others as you’d have them do to yourself” (check wording + add equivilant teaching from other religions)

10. Self-reflection and self-transcendence

  1. Breaking down defensiveness, building up confidence to critically evaluate one’s self and acknowledge our wrongs or harms we have done to others – allow us to repent and allow them to forgive
  2. Rid yourself of your own grievances and any desire for vengeance for injuries inflicted by others – through empathy with the Other, we learn to forgive and move on

11. Create your own happiness

  1. Make the decision to be happy – it is the biggest decision you will ever make in your life.
  2. Begin with gratefulness, for what you have, even if it is little
  3. Study the past, analyse different perspectives, take lessons from it and use it to expand your creative potential
  4. Don’t cultivate feelings of regrets, everything has happened for a reason, figure out what that reason is, and how the past can help you in your quest for creative potential.
  5. Bad decisions do not exist, that is judgement you make yet instead you can realise that this results may have led you to challenging times, from which you can now learn. These consequences were a small sacrifice, part of the process of discovering your creative potential.
  6. Do not cultivate feelings of guilt. Guilt is of no benefit for you nor for those around you. Forgive yourself and let it go. Learn from the past, but keep your mind in the present, and an eye on the future

12. Cultivating wisdom

  1. Facts are never static, but are the closest statement of the truth, at a particular point in time. If the data changes, facts also change. We must remain open to new data, ready to evaluate it in order to constantly progress towards a more truthful truth.
  2. Taoists belief “what is impossible today may become possible tomorrow, and what is good today may become evil tomorrow; what seems right from one point of view may from another view seem completely wrong.”

13. The pleasure of extremes, and joys of balance

  1. Life and death, hot and cold, love and hate, good and bad – you can’t have one without the other. This is the dualistic nature of life, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’d prefer a passionate love, even if it sometimes slips over to hate, than a mediocre love all the time. The extremes are much more fun. Ups and downs are what make life interesting. It’s the challenges that bring the most satisfaction.
  2. Happiness when pushed to the extreme becomes sickly and dull.  Beauty overdone becomes ugly. Even too much chocolate makes feel sick…

14. Rid your life of fear

  1. In the same way that millions of skin cells die every day, and yet our human body continues to live
  2. Our consciousness is already connected, and will continue to be connected even when the separateness of our present memory no longer functions, our consciousness will continue to live on through others – that are ourselves

15. Cultivate faith

  1. Faith is about cultivating a state in your heart and mind whereby you give yourself to God* – not about conforming to a set of “beliefs”
  2. Don’t worry, don’t struggle, allow the will of God/ the Universe to be done
  3. Is not about belief in hocus pocus or confession to any kind of autocratic dogma – faith is about a state of heart and mind
  4. Even things that seem to have no reason whatsoever, in time, you will see how it expanded your, or another’s, creative potential

16. Get in-touch with your creative side

  1. We ALL have one, you just have to give it a go
  2. Try everything, don’t be afraid of anything
  3. Know that time and effort are what give results; if you are prepared to invest yourself in something, you can do whatever you want to do.

In order to maximise happiness in life:

17. Right investment

(a) Of your time

  1. Spend it with people who motivate and encourage
  2. In an occupation that allows you to learn and express your creativity
  3. Feelings of daily happiness are essential to stimulate your creative potential
  4. Expanding other’s creative potential, and the creative potential of other forms of life, including the planet
  5. In ways that will provide maximum benefit to the most people
  6. Spend some time in silence, connecting to your conscious and giving it room to create; meditation, walking, driving, prayer

(b) Of your money

  1. Money is in fact, a cumulation of time and effort, that you have expended, and can henceforth use in exchange for others’ time and effort
  2. In your purchases, buying what is good for yourself and good for others
  3. In your financial investments, in businesses that are helping life move toward it’s creative potential

18. Not no conflict but no violence

  1. No circumstance ever substantiates violence
  2. The ideology of Creativism must never be fought for – this is against the nature of creative potential. Fighting for an ideology destroys creativity, which may be trying to morph into new forms, in which case, this is it’s achievement of creative potential.
  3. Fighting against nature is fighting against the will of God, that is, fighting against the deepest drive of each of us,
  4. Creativism seeks organic expansion through love, it is never forced or forged, but is the result of a synergy between selfish and selfless – working together for the good of all-life itself, all which is God.

19. The power of the mind

  1. The universe operates through spontaneous creativity, and through patterned phenomena – your role may be to contribute to either
  2. Thoughts are powerful in ways we don’t yet understand. We do know they are measurable on wavelengths, like radio waves, but have not tapped in to harness them yet. Experiments have shown the incredible impact of positive thoughts on plants, water molecules, and even the nature of atoms.
  3. Harness this power. Dream, make goals, pray, meditate, make them reality.

20. The power for world peace lies with you

  1. Each of us have, together, the power to change the world
  2. All it takes is a vision: what do we want the world to look like?
  3. And then in each of us the will to reconnect with our life’s purpose and play out our roles in this transformation.
  4. It begins with finding the peace within ourselves.
  5. Anything is possible!

A brief note about the word “Creativism”:

I’m not sure how this term first came into my head but when I googled it I discovered it was a term being used by a few people to describe a similar concept of what I wanted to use it to describe. There is even a definition in the Urban Dictionary: Creativism = ‘The theory or practice of creation as a way to live and understand life’ and a Creativist = ‘someone who is attuned creatively to their surroundings; a person who understands and expresses their life through creative works or motifs.’

Anyway if you have got through this essay then I have to say I’m extremely impressed. Six pages of babbling… anyway I would really really really love to know what you think. So please make a comment or send me an email.

Thank you!!!

Juliet xxx

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