Are you a creative person?

Here’s the plain truth – you ARE creative.

Don’t believe me? Let’s go on a journey.

Think of your dream holiday destination.

Now picture yourself there.

If you’re a beach person, can you feel that sea breeze cutting through the heat of the sun? Can you smell the sun cream? Can you hear the waves breaking?

If you’re a mountain person, can you smell the fresh air, feel it cool against your skin, see for miles? That sense of accomplishment, having hiked to the viewpoint?

Or maybe neither of those fill your cup and you’re more of a city break person. Can you hear the sound echoing through the cathedral as you walk around? Smell the pizza cooking as you wander the streets of Florence? Hear the creak of the drawbridge closing as the castle braces for attack?

Now, where do you think those feelings came from? They didn’t come from those far off places and times. They can’t have. You’re still sat there, reading this.

So where did they come from?

You created them. You brought those feelings to life using the creative power of thought.

You are a creator.

The thing is, we’ve been conditioned to think of creativity in a narrow way. An artist, a musician, an architect, an inventor. But here’s the thing – they’re no more or less creative than you are. So what’s stopping you tapping into that same force? Could it be your own thinking? Could it be that you’ve put the shutters up on your own creativity by spinning a yarn that you’re not creative?

Listen, we’re not all artists, or musicians, or architects, or engineers. If we were, society couldn’t function as it does. We need people of all talents. So if we cast aside the notion that creativity only belongs to those worlds, if we let ourselves see that we’re all creative, what becomes possible?

The examples above were all about things we enjoy. But the same is true of the things that make us freeze in panic, break into a cold sweat, lie, clam up in the face of a challenge. Those are the work of our creative powers too. It’s unlikely you’ll come face to face with a ravenous lion these days. And yet we conjure images that cause the same dread. Most people live in an almost constant state of psychological stress. But because we’re such powerfully creative creatures, these dangers feel so real we could almost touch them.

Sit with that for a while. Picture things that bring you joy, and notice – those feelings are only there because of the power of thought. On the other side of that are the feelings that cause you pain. Same source. Sit with it long enough and you start to see it. And once you see it, it starts to lose its grip.

Don’t believe me? Give it a go. Keep at it. Eventually you’ll see it. And when you do, your life can change in that instant.

None of this is to say I don’t fall into the trap myself. I do. More often than I’d like to admit. The difference these days is I come round to seeing I’ve been hoodwinked a bit quicker than I used to.