On being creative ~ the yin & yang of creativity ~ ideas are easy, following through is what makes them valuable

“I have never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.”
~ Albert Einstein

Yang = action, motivation, movement, color, intensity of focus
Yin = contemplation, patience, non-movement, stepping away

The creative process is an interesting and mysterious subject, so much so that such a topic could deserve a whole book dedicated to it. Creativity, as we are all familiar with, is not a linear, step by step, rational process as a lot of other things in our lives tend to be. Creativity, like the flow of yin and yang, comes and goes. If you’re lucky, it is there when you need it, but it is often not there when you need it most.

The yang of creativity would refer to the actual act of doing it, of writing that book, of painting that canvas, of designing that graphic, and so on. Yang provides us with the energy to put our visions and ideas into some tangible form to bring it into the world.

What you may find, and what I have observed time and time again, is that during the initial stages of any creative project, there is plenty of yin (inspiration) and yang (doingness) available so we thrust ourselves into the project full steam. After a while, however, the energy of inspiration tends to fade and we are left with a giant task we have started out on and are now beginning to doubt if we can actually finish it. In such times, be comforted by the fact that this is a natural part of the creation process.

Inspiration tends to come and go like the seasons, so it’s easy and great to jump on board when it’s there, but what do we do with ourselves when it fades away? In most cases, I have found and observed that it is worth continuing to work on the yang energy, which means to keep chipping away at it.

Just keep digging into it, day in and day out. You can always take a moment to revisit the original inspiration that got you going in the first place, if you need a little boost. What tends to happen when you work in such a way is that eventually the inspiration will rise up again and come through reaffirming the work you have done. If you were to work on your projects only when you were inspired, it would take a very long time to complete or you would never actually finish it to the end. Yin is the capacity to have inspiration and vision whereas yang is the capacity to put it into real world action and complete it to the end.

If you want to learn more about being a creative and have not yet read, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield, than be sure to check it out.

In the creative process, yin is the primary driving force and it is the yang that brings it out of us. Yin provides us with the insight, the vision, the dream, and the idea to express ourselves and to potentially enhance our lives in many ways. Yang is actually doing it.

Having great ideas is easy, we all have them daily, but not many people actually focus in one great idea, dig in, apply themselves, and actually make it real.

Those who do follow through usually end up with higher self-esteem than the rest of those who dreamed but never actually did anything because we gave up too easily or were to unwilling to follow through.

There is a tendency I have noticed in some people to claim that they are not creative in any way and I have found that it is nonsense. Every day, we are creating our lives, we choose our clothes, we choose our foods, we problem solve at work. All of these activities is a creative process. Every moment we are making decisions, do we go with that or this, do I say that, or this. Therefore, creativity is a fundamental part of being human and a direct expression of the yin and yang that flows through us.

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