Global Values
A New Paradigm for a New World
by Karin Miller
VII. Creativity
At our deepest level, we are creators and the architects of our world. We have the awesome ability to manifest our will in material form. our thoughts and values drive our actions, and our actions, interpersonal relationships, and collective agreements co-create our entire world. We co-create to build societies and systems—health, housing, education, transportation, economic, etc.—that answer our collective needs. We engage in recreational activities to renew and refresh ourselves and enjoy our lives. We procreate to birth children and propagate the species, and as we grow and change we recreate and reinvent our identities. Creativity is the way we manifest life into our environment, craft our self-expression, and express our unique talents and identities. Creativity is not just reserved for art; it is our very means of survival. It is the lifeblood of existence itself, and it is the means through which we can effect transformation and change.
The life force that animates all living things is innately creative. It is driven to express itself through form, and it infuses all forms of life with its immense power. Life’s purpose is to continuously evolve all forms of itself in beautiful ways. Life expresses itself through us and our creations, and it uses us to evolve itself. In this way, all living things partake of the collective body of life. Like delicate seeds, we are planted in the essential clay of creation—from which all things arise—so we may grow and co-create with life. Each person is like an individual flower that comes into this world with different characteristics and beauty that no other living thing can express. We leave our seeds in the Earth for new life to emerge. Though we eventually wither and die, we pass on our creative impulses through our will and actions while we are living and impact generations to come.
A unity perspective can be beneficial when we think about creative expression. When we adopt a larger vision for ourselves, above and beyond or small individual lives, we begin to see the vast beauty of the creative expression of all. When each of us matches our individual will with the greater will of life, we each become co-creators with life in a complex and beautiful web of diverse viewpoints and expression. Our free will allows each of us to direct our thoughts and intentions in support of life, or against it. When we manifest our will in support of life, and the survival of the whole, we co-create in alignment with life itself. When we manifest our will to destroy and inhibit creative expression of others, we fall out of alignment with the creative expression the universe and rather work to block the free flow of life like circuit breakers in an electrical system.
It is easy to believe that our actions do not affect the whole. However, our thoughts and intentions are directly reflected in the world around us, and like begets like. As previously discussed, when our thought forms are based in fear, we produce more fear in our lives. For example, an anxious person may isolate and protect herself from criticism or attack, and in the process lose opportunities to connect with people with whom she would find she has quite a bit in common. By focusing on self-protection, she notices those who would attack rather than those who would be supportive and actually attracts people who would treat her as the victim she believes herself to be. She’s an easy target for a narcissist who is seeking someone to control. Taken one step further, when our societies are based in and on fear, we perpetuate that fear at a societal level. By focusing on our differences with other cultures and countries, we may lose opportunities to collaborate for collective good. We may seek to imprison and go to war with those that threaten our way of life rather than seeking mutually beneficial solutions to our shared challenges.
Fear makes us feel like victims, and thereby robs us of our truly great powers of creation. It’s hard to be creative and fully express ourselves when we feel others are out to get us. We get what we give in this world both as individuals and societies—a fear-based mindset creates more fear; love creates more love. We have the power to heal the wounds of separation and isolation that have kept us feeling like victims and perpetuating fear. When our communities are based in love and collaboration rather than fear and separation, we create things that support and reflect a loving environment. We come to see that our fears were blocking our true potential, like clouds covering the brilliance of the sun. As we shift our perspective from fear to love, we can shift from victimhood to be conscious co-creators with the universe empowered by the love that connects us all.
We are all collaborators in the creation of our world— more than seven billion individuals each with infinite potential. The creator is not separate from the creation, and the parts cannot be separated from the whole. We are one body of life creating together. We have the option to co-create in support of life and all of creation, or to align ourselves with forces that oppose life. We are the ancestors of the future that is ready to be born anew. What will we create?
When we work in creative collaboration with life, we actively participate in the evolution of humanity, life, and the universe. If we wish to align ourselves with a new, holistic paradigm that integrates co-creation with life, we will have to shift our consciousness and actions. With courage, compassion, and determination, we can transform ourselves and the world as we express our individual gifts of originality. The destroyer will become the creator. The warrior will become the peaceful collaborator. We will replace our separateness with oneness and our fragmentation with wholeness. Our fear of others will transform into love of the whole. When we creatively transform our thinking and our consciousness, we are that much closer to realizing a holistic paradigm that works for the benefit of all creation.
We are not powerless, we are creators.
Now, more than ever, our entire world is in crisis, and we often feel powerless to do anything about it. Things are spinning out of control, the world is teetering on the brink of destruction, and it is difficult enough for many of us to struggle through each day. Worrying about expressing our fullest capabilities and achieving our highest creative potential seems like a luxury afforded to a select few. Apart from all that, we may feel trapped by circumstances, unable to live the life we truly want. Rather than striving to fulfill our wildest dreams, we believe we have to settle for merely getting by. Sadly, living life in this way often leaves us feeling as though we have missed the mark, and we can be left questioning everything. What if things had been different? Would my life have been better if only I had taken that path instead of this one? What could have been?
Without a doubt, life’s constant challenges can be exhausting and overwhelming. However, we are only powerless if we believe that our choices and actions do not matter. We can choose not to get stuck in disempowering "what if" loops of continual questioning, or "if only" loops of second-guessing. We can stop looking outside ourselves for the source of our discontent. We can recognize that we are the sovereigns of our destinies, and that our creativity is the means through which we can effect transformation and change—in ourselves and the world. This is not an egotistical recognition, but a claiming of the true power we hold. Instead of exchanging our power of creativity for powerlessness or helplessness, we can choose to harness it—we can choose to become active creators and co-creators of our world.
Given our increasingly crisis-filled world, it may seem absurd to suggest that we have the power to create anything that will effect positive change. We will not magically create a world without crises or challenges by simply valuing and embracing our creativity. Creativity is not meant to be understood as a panacea for all our ills, nor is it a suggestion that we should all adopt artistic lifestyles and professions. When we value creativity it is a recognition of our fundamental nature as creators—a recognition of who we really are, and a recognition of our innate power to create, transform, and change things. When we value creativity we actively participate in the creation of the world we want to live in by directing our thoughts, intentions, and actions to achieve our goals.
Creativity—our power of creation—is a great gift and a great responsibility. Our thoughts are forms of energy that shape our words and actions, and this energy travels throughout the world in a great chain reaction of life. Life’s energy flows through us through our creations and it ultimately comes back to us in the great circle of life. When we choose to co-create in conjunction with the source of life and consciousness that resides within us, we embark on the creation of a world that supports the highest development of all. Whether we add our creative power to the very source of life, or not, is up to us.