Manifesto #4 / A Manifesto for Creativity
Beginning again in the New Now
Today’s manifesto is from my book, The New Now: Manifestos, Reinventions & Declarations: Updated & Expanded.
Take a breath.
Now’s the time for every type of new beginning imaginable.
The beginning you planned for and expected, and the one that blindsided you and left your vision blurry for a time. The beginning that’s so different it’s like living in a dream. The beginning you had stashed away in your secret cupboard.
Each day begins in the same way and in a different way. It’s up to you to choose.
Imagine a beginning that feels like the best start of the best morning you can remember.
Write. Dance. Paint. Cook. Make tea. Meditate. Talk. Organize a Zoom meeting. Garden. Sew. Hum to yourself. Do yoga. Take a long walk. In whichever way your creative energy has led you, it’s taken you to this moment we’re all living in now.
Strange times, we all sigh, and say. And then we begin again.
All days begin, somehow, and someplace. Sometimes the same place. A place you’ve grown to know and love. Maybe you’re in a new place, a place that’s helped create good memories for many who arrived there before you.
All creative projects begin by just beginning.
It starts by making a mark on a page. Then making yourself into who you want to be.
How do you read a book? By scanning words and lines, and turning pages. Books are time machines, doorways to other worlds, and a perfect restful room to visit and reprogram your mind.
Every song, movie, novel, or play had to have a beginning. It started on one particular day. A single day out of a lifetime. Focused minds and hearts have created like this from the start, before there were words—only gestures and grunts, and a cave wall to paint on.
In our modern world, before the New Now, the time to create was usually carved out of a life. Grabbing a few hours here and there. Returning to a painting. Adding several paragraphs to a book.
Now, things are different. We’re awakening from transition mode. The whole world is coming back from being put on pause.
Something history-altering came along, and time was expanded. Here we are. We’ve lived through an expansive historical moment. How often do these come along? A global event true for everyone at the exact same time. Have at it, creators.
Remember, we are all wired to create. And remember this—we all want to feel better, and feel lighter inside. One of the best reasons to perform a creative act is how it makes you feel. It’s the feeling of time stopping, or expanding, or being in a space where time doesn’t exist. It’s how you feel being in the flow state.
Creativity loves the flow state of being. One of the experiences creatives access each time they move into the flow state, is the wonderful feeling of time stopping.
How does it feel for you? Being in the state of timelessness, and often feeling lighter inside.
The creative experience flows in two directions. Inward and outward. Like the everyday miracle of breathing.
We are at our best when we are present in the world, with ourselves or others.
If you feel stuck in the past, the unstuck pills are freely available, inside your mind. Take an imaginary pill for the imagination, and pick up a pencil, paintbrush, hammer, camera, or guitar. Begin making something.
It also begins further back, when you first saw a piece of art that made your brain tingle. How you felt when you experienced the very first movie that delighted and overwhelmed you as a child. How you felt when you were a bit older, and you heard a new song on the radio, or discovered how amazingly some buildings were shaped, or you were sitting with a crowd of people in a basement, and you listened to a poet read their poems aloud for the first time.
All of these experiences, people, places, had a beginning.
Turning creativity on by taking action is how it’s always been done.
See yourself picking up a pair of scissors, a musical instrument, or a paintbrush. Picture yourself pushing notes out into the air with your breath, or placing colors on a canvas.
Feel yourself making something destined to change how someone’s feeling.
Imagine making something to shift your culture forward. Envision creating a song, or a painting, or a character in a movie that will completely transform the world.
In creative flow, as in this historical moment, you don’t yet know how it’s going to turn out.
Take a breath, and pick up a journal. Capture your thoughts.
Take a walk. To the park across the street. To the hillside five miles away. To the spot calling you in a dream.
Look at the birds flying high above your head, and walking near your feet. The loudly shouting crows and the cheeping flitting little birds who live in the bushes.
See the world with fresh eyes. Do it again and again.
Ideas often come to you when you’re wandering around your city, or in a new town you’ve never been in before.
Open up to possibilities. Your mind will thank you later.
Creating is individual. Creating is collaborative. Creating is imagination plus action. Creating is necessary. Creating can be timeless and weightless.
Art saves lives and expands how you experience the world.
Being open to wonder is a portal to many other states of being.
Songs and movies have changed peoples’ lives. When the words in a song, or the emotions in a performance resonate deeply inside someone, they indeed changed the direction of a life—and art did what it’s supposed to do.
Envisioning it leads to doing it.
Some days call for small steps, and other days ask for you to get on a rocket ship to Jupiter.
You get to figure out which type of day you’re making for yourself.
Start today. Begin making something in this moment. It can be anything.
It’s time to create what you want to create.
If not now, when?
“Like” is woefully insufficient. A gorgeously profound topic captured in rich and powerful prose. You are the persuasive poet laureate of creativity, Russell. Long may you wave.
Thanks kindly, Alisa.