Creativity Part 5
May 27, 2025
Creativity Part 5
Sometimes, we hit a mental, emotional, or physical wall. But if we tap into the creative energy available, we push through the walls to unexplored territory. By enlarging our scope and perspective, our heart, body, and mind capacities increase, and we are no longer slammed.
One wall we all frequently run into is our inner critic. It demands that we stay within its rules and regulations. The inner critic is part of our super ego structure which contains all our “oughts and shoulds,” our standards, ideals, morals, and ethics. Our internal monitor slaps our hands and even punishes us when we don’t live up to its expectations. And it loves to make us feel guilty.
The Inner Critic is essential, because when it is doing its job well, it keeps us within the guard rails. But from time to time, many of us experience a ruthless inner critic who pours on so much guilt that it tears down our self-esteem. Sometimes, it takes hours and even weeks for us to recover from our inner critic’s attack. Because the Inner Critic is always reprimanding us, many of us think others are criticizing us too, when they aren’t. It is just our inner critic’s interpretation of what the person said or our inner critic’s projection on someone else. Many years ago, Lark and I attended a Mardi Gras party at which something strange happened. There was a lot of alcohol at the event, as there usually is. I will never forget a lady in the crowd who was obviously sloshed, came up to me and said in a mean tone, “I know what you’re thinking about me!” I hadn’t even seen the lady, much less had any thoughts about her. It was her inner critic who for some reason, (possibly the booze) over activated her inner critic.
We can deal with the inner critic through the essential gift of creativity. Sacred Creativity is Point Four on the Enneagram of Soul and is a quality within all of us. Creativity helps us approach our inner critic in healthy ways. In co-creating with the Divine, we realize that a new thought process must be brought into the picture in order to survive an over-active inner critic.
How will we come by a new thought process that is powerful enough to replace our inner critic’s lambasts? A dear soul raked himself over the coals for days about a mistake he made at a college reunion. He called a buddy’s new girlfriend by the name of the buddy’s deceased wife. The faux pas was so apparent and shocking that it temporarily halted the conversation. Luckily, someone changed the subject. But the dear man was shaken to his foundations about his mistake.
Yet he did something very creative to relieve himself of wave after wave of self-condemnation.
To put things in perspective, he visited another friend who was critically ill. He’d wanted to visit this friend anyway, but now he wanted to talk with his friend for his own benefit as well. Sitting with his friend who was very sick, he found himself comforting him. As he encouraged his dear friend, he got in touch with the source of healing inside himself. The scope of his friend’s health challenge was far more serious than the mistake he made at the reunion. This visit put everything in perspective for the man and also put him in touch with the source of the healing, of all things great and small. His creative idea about making the visit to his ill friend was a very creative way to out-smart and silence his inner critic.
Spiritual practice: Compare your current dilemma to one far greater than yours. What does that do for your perspective?
Self-inquiry: Why was the visit to his friend an act of creativity?
Dear God,
I pray to see all things in creative ways that further my growth and the growth of other dear souls. Amen
