It’s hard to know what to stand for these days. Especially because there's a high chance your stand will offend someone. Hence all the self-censoring going on these days. We’ve been scared off from saying what we truly believe. If we take a political stand that’s unpopular we might get beaten up or screamed at or shunned. If we don’t bow to group think we might get publicly shamed. Plus there are so many contradictory ideas pumped out through the strato-blogo-twitto-mediocre-sphere that it’s hard to know what to think. So we don’t. We abdicate our individual right and responsibility to form an opinion about everything.
“If we don’t stand for something, we’ll fall for anything.” That's the worst of it.
When did all of this mind control start? Wednesday? But seriously, how has this happened? How have we lost the ability to speak our minds freely? And will we ever restore our ability to think for ourselves? Or are those days over?
Creative thinking is a good start, but it's not all there is.
The loss of our freedom of thought is a complete catastrophe. It's the loss of human freedom entirely. The essential aspect of being human is our ability to think and imagine and create. The good news is this - human creativity does not reside in the head. It calibrates at an ever increasing frequency of limitlessness (which is why technology fails and humanity thrives) that is centred in the heart.
And regarding self-censoring, I may have a solution, a creative one - Make Art.
I believe we all desire to create something beautiful. In truth, I believe our survival depends on it. As we develop a relationship with our inner imagination to create our art we are deciding for ourselves what spirit is. We’re communicating with our deepest self. We tune in to good vibrations. Communicating with our imagination puts us in touch with what matters in a very real way.
If you're having trouble standing up for yourself, carve yourself a walking stick.
Make manifest your creative passion: paint a painting, sculpt a sculpture, write a story, play an instrument, get your hands into the soil and grow a garden, sing a poem, dance a jig, keep it to yourself or share it with the world, professionally or in the company of your cat, make art.
Our creativity is born in our heart, and our heart can't lie.
Or maybe we could call it making heArt. If you want a clear indication of what you stand for, ask your heart. Ask your heart anything, listen and follow your own good advice. Stand up and make your art.