“The air is full of ideas. They are knocking you in the head all the time. You only have to know what you want, then forget it, and go about your business. Suddenly, the idea will come through. It was there all the time.”

~ Henry Ford

Imagine walking into a local bookstore.

On display is a pile of books, ones that bubbled up from the author’s insides and poured onto the page. People are buzzing around the table and walking off with copies, eager to get reading.

At a small art show an artist excitedly talks to a reporter. We overhear the conversation as it picks up energy. Inspired by her work and creativity, the reporter plans to print a featured article on the artist’s work the following week.

Imagine being the blogger who opens her email and find that a recent blog post has touched someone’s heart deeply. The life of this person is now filled with more clarity, love and inspiration.

What do these scenarios have in common?

Each are examples of the power of harnessing our creativity, and the powering of standing in our authentic self and sharing it with the world. When we do so, confidence and abundance follows naturally.

The good news is we can start harnessing our creativity today. We can transform the way we express in the world with three simple actions.

1. Surrender.

When we think about creating something, our natural tendency is to jump right into planning. We want to have the ideas fully formed and ready to go. Often there is a desire for creativity to hit us with such force and power that we will know exactly what to do and how to do it.

However, creativity doesn’t work like that. Realistically it comes in beautiful sparks. It appears in pulls of the intuition and knowings of the body— those “aha” moments that seem to jolt us awake.

We need to listen to these creative sparks.

We need to learn to recognize them. This means turning our critical mind off. It means surrendering to the creative process. It means trusting that the work is already present and will come to form in its own beautifully surprising way.

Eckhart Tolle speaks of his writing practice when he states:

“Stay present, stay conscious. Be the ever alert guardian of your inner space.”

Our creativity is alive within us. When we let go and surrender to the abundance of our inner worlds we emerge with ideas, images and words ready to materialize in our creative work.

We emerge changed for the better because we have experienced internal creative abundance and felt the courage of letting go. This will translate into our work.

2. Come into relationship with the inner critic.

When we surrender and try to avoid our critical mind, it will put up a fight. It will do so by manifesting in fear, self-limiting beliefs, resistance or negative self-talk. This is our inner critic.

The reason it fights is because it is used to being top-dog. This is the ego. When we surrender we tap into our inner creative world which is extremely strong and powerful and so it threatens our ego mind.

Additionally, when we near something that is important to our personal growth, all those negative and sneaky feelings will pop-up.

We must take a witnessing stance when this arises and know this negative voice is only one small part of ourselves.

This voice needs an outlet. When it pops up and interferes with our creative process we can tell ourselves that there will be a time to edit and refine our work.

Befriend this critic. Make it a helpful editor that adds finesse to the work rather than take power away from it.

3. Practice gratitude.

Practicing gratitude amplifies what it is we are giving appreciation to. When we take on a mindset of gratitude our perception shifts; we bring more of what we want into our lives.

Gratitude is so important for our creative work because this work can trigger fear, resistance and comparison to others. Recognizing the moments in our practice that we are grateful for keeps our work sacred and breathes more life into it. We strengthen our muscles to surrender, to trust and love our work.

There are various ways to start practicing gratitude. For example, before bed each night I reflect on what I am thankful for, where I feel abundant and creative. I carry these thoughts with me as I sleep.

Others may write down their thoughts or meditate on them in the morning. Create an inspiration binder—full of images, colors or words that feel creatively charged. We can each find a practice that works for us.

The imaginings, the dreams of living a more creative life are within our reach. Living a life that is creative and in line with our power and abundance is not abstract or in your distant future.

We have the tools within us to live more fully in our potential.

We must make the decision to harness our creativity.

The world needs our unique and beautiful expression.

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Apprentice Editor: Kim Haas / Editor: Renee Picard

Photo:  Eric May via Flickr