Each of us have basic needs that are essential for a healthy life. Sleep, food and oxygen are three of the most crucial. For creative people like you and me, the need to be creative is right up there too.
Often we forget how vital it is for us to create though, or we dismiss its importance for some reason or other.
The result of us not creating freely is at best a persistent underlying sense of frustration and being unfulfilled. At worst we’re depressed, cranky and withdraw from relationships and daily life.
Think about those 3 examples above of essential needs. Let’s look at what happens if you deprive yourself of each:
Sleep deprivation at first leads to us just feeling tired and irritable. We’ve all experienced this. Go for more than a few days without sleep and it can start to have a serious effect on your brain function and even suppress your growth hormones. In fact sleep deprivation has been used around the world as a form of torture.
Food deprivation has obvious detrimental effects. Food is the fuel our bodies need to function, to grow, to heal. If you don’t put any fuel in your car it won’t even start, let alone get you anywhere. Same with your body, quite simply you need to eat to stay alive.
Oxygen deprivation is by far the quickest of these three to have adverse effects. Mountain climbers who reach altitudes with a seriously reduced oxygen level experience headaches, nausea, poor judgement. Like the other two, a lack of oxygen quickly leads to a deterioration in health then death.
Now, whilst not being creative won’t actually kill you in the direct way these other will, it can cause serious damage and unhappiness.
You know you’re creative, and you know you need to explore and express this on a regular basis to be at your most fulfilled, your most alive and your most enjoyable to be around.
The saving grace with creative deprivation over sleep, food or oxygen deprivation, is that it’s not a terminal condition.
How ever long you have been deprived of the opportunities to create, it’s NEVER too late to give it the kiss of life and start creating again. In fact you can start today, right here and now.
Think for a moment about the fatal effects of depriving yourself of sleep, food and oxygen. Then ask yourself whether you want to submit yourself to the same kind of pain and torture by depriving yourself of the chance to create each day. I think the answer you come up with will be obvious and resounding. Act today, start creating something.