“I’ve found that self-discovery is more like self-deceit unless I am simultaneously discovering my connection & relationship with nature & friends.”
A self-discovery quote for myself — I found this in a pile of partially started creative projects. Most of the stuff in that pile went into the recycling bin. But this (along with a small handful of others) I’ve saved.
There are many places (both physical and digital) where I’ve saved up ideas. Most of these are intended to be lyric ideas for songs, poetry snippets, musical themes, or my advice to myself. Unfortunately, some of them never get visited again. So, finding this quote to myself was a stroke of luck.
Self-deceit
If you scan across my life (or my blog or my songs for that matter), you’ll find a full share of moments of denial and self-deceit. Though I like to think that I’ve improved on this over the years, occasionally a friend or partner points out where my blinders are.
The trickiest part about self-deceit is that it can easily lead to a lack of integrity. And personal integrity is deeply important to me. In fact, it has become more so over the years.
Self-discovery
There are dozens or hundreds of ways to move into greater integrity. A significant number of these will involve self-discovery. And a few of those centers on or can be encouraged by creativity. These artistic forms of discovering myself attract me.
Like any attraction, I also know that this can become an addiction. If I use creativity purely to escape daily reality, I have turned it into (at least partly) an addictive behavior. And this brings us full-circle back to self-deceit and denial.
By contrast, I long for a kind of creativity that invites me — the artist — into full relationship with my loved ones and with reality. The people who are my closest friends hold me to this level of integrity. If they did not, they would not be my closest friends.
Creativity
How about you? How does self-deceit interplay with your creative work? More importantly, how does your creativity contribute to self-discovery and integrity?
I’d enjoy hearing your reflections on this. Leave a comment here or reach out to me on Twitter. Thanks for reading and responding!
Hmmm, I will ponder this, great post!