One of the best ideas on creativity I’ve ever encountered comes from author Ray Bradbury’s work.
As someone who is prone to overthinking, this is something I need to remind myself of again and again.
If you are someone like me, this might just be the missing piece you’ve been looking for!
Many years ago, when I was struggling with my creativity, I heard this interview with Ray Bradbury in which he talks about something that felt revolutionary to me. In the conversation, he says that thinking is merely a “corrective” in our lives. That’s all thinking is supposed to be. It’s not supposed to be the center of our lives.
That knocked my socks off.
What! Thinking was not supposed to be the center of my life?
But I was always thinking. I was always trying to control the outside world by thinking of all the possibilities in my head beforehand. I was constantly ruminating, something I learned later is something sensitives are prone to doing, especially those of us who have experienced trauma in the past.
What was I supposed to do, if not think and try to maneuver my way through life?
This is, in part, what Bradbury says and I think it is one of the best interviews on creativity that I have ever heard:
“The worst thing you do when you think is lie — you can make up reasons that are not true for the things that you did, and what you’re trying to do as a creative person is surprise yourself — find out who you really are, and try not to lie, try to tell the truth all the time. And the only way to do this is by being very active and very emotional, and get it out of yourself — making things that you hate and things that you love, you write about these then, intensely. When it’s over, then you can think about it; then you can look: it works or it doesn’t work, something is missing here. And, if something is missing, then you go back and re-emotionalize that part, so it’s all of a piece.
But thinking is to be a corrective in our life — it’s not supposed to be a center of our life. Living is supposed to be the center of our life, being is supposed to be the center — with correctives around, which hold us like the skin holds our blood and our flesh in. But our skin is not a way of life — the way of living is the blood pumping through our veins, the ability to sense and to feel and to know. And the intellect doesn’t help you very much there — you should get on with the business of living.”
Wow! Over the years, this is something I have both learnt to do more and more and really struggled with at different times — to get out of my mind, to stop avoiding living by thinking, to use thinking as a “corrective,” and to not use it to avoid doing things.
I needed to remind myself of this again today, and I thought you might need it too.
Ritu Kaushal is the author of the book The Empath’s Journey, which TEDx speaker Andy Mort calls “a fascinating insight into the life of a highly sensitive person & emotional empath.” Ritu is a Silver Medal awardee at the Rex Karamveer Chakra awards, co-presented by the United Nations in India.
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