Solitude is one of the keys to creativity and yet, in order to be effective, solitude must be accompanied by self-awareness. Solitude without awareness can be nothing more than daydreaming without a purpose and leading you in the direction opposite to creativity.
Encouraging your creativity to emerge requires delving into that space that solitude brings forth and being willing to stay with the emotions or experiences that come as a result of it. Understanding what those emotions are, how they feel like to you, and how you relate to them is what will help you explore them and express them; to answer these questions and help your creativity emerge, you need to be self-aware.
The importance of self-awareness
Not being self-aware is like going into the battle without knowing who your enemy is. Self-awareness is your internal shining compass and the one tool that can show you what’s going on inside and how you can help yourself. Without it, you’re constantly lost and frustrated, not knowing what to do. Despite the myth that creativity springs up out of nowhere, it is important to remember that above everything, creativity is a process that requires introspection, thinking, and feeling and without some level of awareness its’ emergence is little likely.
The difficulty of self-awareness
Self-awareness takes a lot of honesty, so you must tread lightly. Your internal compass does not discern between the things you like and those you don’t. It points you in a direction and sheds light onto what is not working right now. In the direction it’s pointing, there may be dark things, hidden things that you tucked away a long time ago; things that must be revisited in order to untangle the reasons why they appeared right now. It might show you parts of you that you despise and other parts that feel completely unfamiliar, and all of them provide you with the foundation or the structure for your creative endeavor.
It can be terrifying digging so deep, and not all are ready, but the rewards…well, the rewards make it all worth it.
It won’t always be bumpy; It tapers off, and then it can become a reflex. Maintain self-awareness by using it along with solitude to reach into the depths of yourself and pick up on the emotions and experiences that feed your creativity.
