Is creative expression a “must”?

Questioner: I sincerely ask, for myself and from myself, what even is the point of “putting it out there” if it’s just for me and I’m glad it exists? This is what I personally wrestle with.

It’s the “people want to hear your story” that perhaps doesn’t sit the way I would (or would I?) like it to, in me.

Why would we put in the time and effort and energy it takes to “put our thoughts out there” – IG / blogging / YT / a book or whatever – if it were just for ourselves?

That act in itself drains the life force out of me (that just came out, and is something I will sit with). The moment any focus is on “putting it out there”, my desire for it diminishes.

To do it for myself and for the pure joy of it, I love it, I do it, presently and in alive flow. No reason to do it other than the joy of doing it for the sake of life force moving through me and a complete surrender to that.

But the moment agenda is put to it by “hmmm, the world needs this, let me put it out there”… then it becomes something else. Something that feels forceful and out of alignment.

Not that I don’t believe I hold gifted beauty & genius ability to add wonder to this world that has never existed before, because I DO. But the “must put it out there, it’s needed” feels like it’s coming from a place and push and rush and… it’s hard to put into words.

IF I feel inspiration at a certain point to put something out there, that is different, and that flows good in me. But if it’s from a place of pushing myself to put it out there, it’s sticky.

Simone: This is… exactly what i’ve been doing and teaching forever. Whether others need it has nothing to do with me, and when that becomes a thing in my creative process, it no longer belongs to me.

The reason we put it out there is because, for some people — not all — it feels stifling and like a violation of our creative drive, almost, to just keep it to ourselves.

Creativity — again not for all but for many — demands to be expressed out loud, shared, to take up space in the world. if that feels like a “should” and not like liberation, that path is not for you. you should not be sharing

So even when you put it out there in the world for many to see, it’s ultimately not for them, either. It’s for liberating what your creative work wants to do in the world

Questioner: I see, and agree.

It’s evident to me how I’ve benefited from the public release of the creativity of others. How gorgeous, and how grateful I am.

Putting things “out there” has felt like a “should” more than it hasn’t, which explains my current resistance to putting anything out there. I can no longer exist in that force.

But there may also be a bit of “who really wants to see my work anyway, and what if nobody cares” (even though that doesn’t feel true in my body, could be other life / karmic), so I will sit in contemplation of this.

“It’s for liberating what your creative work wants to do in the world” – this moves me, because I begin to see my “creativity” as a being of its own, and feel a shift as I digest that.

Like: my creative work wants to do it’s “own thing / own work / own journey”, and I just ALLOW it through me by honoring it – more than anything.

Simone: YES YES YES! Now your work is to sift through which part of the reluctance to show up is honoring the true impulse of your creativity, and which part is smallness

Questioner: Thank you, beautiful Simone! I’ve always found the sand mandala process of Tibetan Monks to ring deeply true in the core of my being. It’s been the foundation of most of what I do.

To create for the pure present joy of it. Then to wipe it away with surrender and effortlessness.

They throw the rest of the sand into the nearest living stream to be swept into the ocean to bless the whole world.

Perhaps that is what the outward expression of our inner creativity is: sweeping our beautiful creations (ourselves in all facets and essence) “into the ocean”, to bless the whole world.

Dispersing of it in whichever way feels true.

Simone: That is so so beautiful!