'Creating Creative Moments'

a sample writing by yasha husain

When we're inspired by something, anything, our senses open up to the world and in time become One with it. This happens subconsciously, I think.

If we are willing, we can tap into our unique, creative energies and produce something material out of ephemeral layers of inspiration and personal growth which, though subtle, underlie all that we do during periods of focus and openness in our lives. It's when we are feeling this alive that our sensitivities are enhanced and become ripe. In this state, the meeting of our minds with imagination may spark or give birth to some sort of raw or pure creation that's made from the essence of our being and its relationship to the outer world.

However, this takes some directing on our part. At these ambiguous moments of heightened inspiration, and I call them ambiguous because we never know quite when or how they'll happen and we can rarely look for them to happen, if we are open to it, we'll know the timing is right and we'll be able to reach in to our inner selves and pull out a song, poem, painting, or idea for a larger project to later be produced.

Perhaps singers and dancers experience moments of superb creation that go beyond the technicalities of singing and dancing too. Writers often have tiny epiphanies when they're walking or doing something other than focusing directly on what it is they hope to write, and singer-songwriters perhaps sit at a piano or keyboard, or I can picture them doing something completely ordinary, while anticipating moments of inspiration to come as they compose in their head fragments of a whole piece.

Painters must have similar inspired moments, and then they may find, too, inspiration in every stroke as a picture evolves, either slowly, or in a sprint of creative thought that occurs randomly.

No matter the art, we need to be open to the creations that will emanate from our minds.

As an extension of the arts, I've even heard used a reference to a “creative realist,” which describes someone who takes what's happening in the world, over the short- and long-term, and actively creates something material from it. A creative realist, for instance, could be a politician who, in order to write a piece of legislation, accessing inspired moments, draws creatively from that which is idealistic and or that which is realpolitik.

Nader Khalili, who invented Superadobe architecture, could also be considered a creative realist, since his design draws from previously existing constituent parts of the whole: the kiln, the traditional adobe house, and the laws of science.

I suppose being with someone you love can also resemble spontaneous, creative energy, since between two people sometimes there's a similar magic to the magic you make when you make art.

Art has calmed me so much and brought with it a deep joy that resonates with time. If you develop creative projects that are ongoing, they will hopefully lift your mood or sustain it; to watch them as they evolve, week by week, or month by month, ought to be fulfilling and a good challenge.

Of course, a few days ago, I wrote the simple line 'the smell of fresh paint is like the essence of spring in the air' in a matter of seconds as I was in the middle of writing this book, and it's stayed with me until now. For a split second, before writing the line, I caught a whiff of something that reminded me of the smell of wet paint, and then I thought about my long-deceased father and how I'd recently read in a private correspondence he'd painted a woman's porch for her in her time of need. Though I was primarily focused on the book I've been writing, also on my mind was my father and what I'd been inspired by recently, which involved reading about ancient Indian customs; the country, India, and the Islamic and Hindu religions. My aim currently is to know more about India's history and the way of life of both Muslims and Hindus so I can know more about my father as well as the country in which he was born. In a split second then, from a level of consciousness that was underlying my main train of thought, I experienced a heightened moment of creative energy and reigned in on the possibility that was suddenly there by pressing out and releasing a line of a poem, a dash of thoughts in word-form. I felt an extra boost of positive energy related to my interests in Indian culture, and created a new memory or imprint in my mind, a single line that could evolve into a poem. But then I also went right back to working on this book because it means so much to me.

From brief moments of intrigue, like the one I had when I thought I smelled paint, and my subconscious suddenly emerged, artists and creators are able, either right away or as they return to an earlier source for inspiration, to tap into their well of energy and visualize, design, or write a finished poem, novel, song, picture, painting, dance, film, building or other creative work, usually out of a sense of need, a need to express themselves. I find that if the source of what is created is the real thing, pure inspiration that has its own will or the will of God, then it will always stay with you, and hopefully the audiences brought to it, because it's bigger than you are. In a sense, by making creations, you're contacting a greater power that's a universal truth we all can share.

A word of caution applies, however. I write about the benefits of tapping into creative energy explicitly to relay that it can be done, and by everyone, in order to better the quality of a person's life, or lifestyle. In order to do this and do it right, I believe one has to simultaneously be thinking about the big picture, and that includes the picture of their overall health, mental, physical and spiritual. Becoming or accessing what is creative I don't think should involve sparking imbalance, like when becoming over the top obsessed with creating something new and out of the ordinary, leaving the real world to try to find a better and more remote one, or taking drugs. Creative energy should instead, when utilized in a way that makes sense, improve someone's overall state.

That said, reading a good book, going to a museum and seeing amazing paintings, or watching a brilliant film, all also leave me with a feeling of awe, but the feeling is not of the same caliber, I think, and doesn't provide the same sophisticated energy that comes along with creating something out of your own inner wisdom, whether a drawing, a poem, a song or even a political work.

© 2006. Updated 2012. Yasha Husain. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright 2009-2013. Yasha Husain. All Rights Reserved.