creativity

Creative expression is an essential aspect of the human experience. It can take many forms, whether it be painting, making music, writing, dancing, even cooking. I believe this is such a crucial aspect of our lives that often gets ignored or looked down upon.

It’s scary to put yourself out there — people are judgmental, especially when you can hide behind a keyboard. But authenticity is the best virtue a person can have. Be true to you, who cares what anyone else thinks. There will always be haters, and people who think you’re weird. But fuck it — who cares what anyone thinks except for the people that you know and respect?

“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.”

— Joseph Campbell, Reflections on the Art of Living

Despite the challenges, there are plenty of reasons why you should prioritize creative activities in your life —

It’s fun as hell — Being able to create something that is an expression of you is the ultimate way to communicate your feelings. Make a song that feels like driving late at night. Craft a bowl that is exactly the right shape and color that you want. Write a beautiful short story that conveys the painful or happy emotions that you are feeling. The feeling of taking nothing, and turning it into an expression of you is the ultimate feeling. It is legitimately magical. And seeing someone enjoy something that you made is the cherry on top.

It’s good for your brain — expressing yourself in whatever means you enjoy significantly improves your happiness and brain health. The interesting thing is that I think they’re related in a positive feedback loop — creativity improves your well-being and having good well-being improves your creativity. At its core, creative expression involves doing something you love. Why wouldn’t that make you happier?

It’s literally human nature — some of the earliest human discoveries are European cave paintings, dated to about 30,000 years ago at their oldest in Chauvet, France. Literally a caveman just carved some cool shit on a wall in a cave and we found it millennia later. Dancing, singing, painting, etc. It’s all been around for as long as humans have existed. Why would you not tap into that primal nature? It’s what makes you, you.

It’s been extremely devalued — go to work, get home, eat, watch netflix, scroll, go to sleep. There is no room built into your daily life for creativity, especially not working a corporate job. How can you be creative when you are analyzing excel spreadsheets all day? Have hobbies — play guitar, play soccer with your friends, draw something stupid, write a quick story, dance. Don’t just laze along through life doing nothing that expresses yourself. You will literally turn into normal SpongeBob…

At the start of this year I realized that I didn’t have enough creative expression in my life. I felt like I had all this pent-up creativity that never got out. I made a deal with myself — I would shoot more film photos, do more DJ gigs, make fun edits that I post on my Instagram, and I started writing this substack.

Being able to write has been huge for me as it’s allowed me to clearly express my thoughts on different things I am interested in. And you know what, it’s scary to post them. I only have a few subscribers but putting my original thoughts out to the world is not the easiest thing to do, but hey I’m doing it. And there are a lot of people who aren’t doing it.

At the end of the day, fuck it. I love what I love. Maybe people look at me and see what I’m doing and think it’s weird or dumb, but honestly who cares. I’m being me. I love to mix music and DJ, so I’m going to do it. I love to take photos, so I’m gonna do it. I love making edits, so I’m gonna do it. And the most recent discovery — I love writing. I’m gonna do it. It makes me happier. It makes me more… me.

And I appreciate anyone that made it this far. I hope you are doing what you want to do too.