Today I saw a clip of a Ted Talk by Ruha Benjamin. In the clip she was talking about how we have to stop being “the gatekeepers of our imagination”. She went on to talk about this in terms of global visioning.
I didn’t go on to watch the whole thing, I picked up my pen instead.
Because the thing that came to me immediately was that for most of the humans I work with, global visioning isn’t actually the problem. Most of us can easily imagine a better world.
But for most people I work with - most people I know - the most important gatekeeping of our imagination happens at an individual level.
It’s not as easy to allow our imaginations to run free in our own lives.
And in my opinion, no change in the world will happen as long as we are the dragons at our own gate. When we are stuck there, we can’t put the energy into creating that world we long for.
We are Creators. If we are honest, we know that. But. But but but but but. We are also well trained not to want too much. We are trained to doubt our wants. We are trained to compare ourselves to others who are finished before we have even started the project.
We are trained to work for grades, for marks, for likes, and for money. We don’t let ourselves want or create purely for our own sake or for the sake of creation or personal expansion.
My husband has said that one of the worst things to ever happen to personal creativity was Pinterest. Why? Remember when you had to make a birthday cake shaped like a cat or the moon or a space ship and you figured it out on your own? Remember when you presented a wonky, imperfect cake (or whatever) to people and they loved it?
Remember when you had to be creative and rely on your own self for inspiration?
Every day in every way we are presented ways to compare ourselves to others. That beautiful glimmer of creative spark within you - the one telling you what it is that you are here to create next - is diminished every time you step up to the banquet of sleekly moderated content that the world has become.
We learned early on that we weren’t ‘good’ at things and now the world shows us that we have to be good at everything already for it to be valuable or worthwhile.
If you have an inkling about changing the world, and you feel at all stuck or powerless, I implore you to start with your own self. Become the conscious and creative and fierce gatekeeper of your own imagination (what goes in and what comes out.)
Start to practice letting yourself create - anything - without first looking it up or comparing it to something already done. Make lists of what you might want. Follow the tiny glimmers to create something, to make something, to wonder something, to play something, and just let them lead you.
This will feel wildly awkward at first, but I believe that the more we let our own imagination be our guide - the closer we will come to the magic we are looking for - and the better off the whole world will be.
With so much love,
P.S. If you want a super boost of creative inspiration, my course Seven Stories is now open for registration. You get one magical, fantastical story a week with prompts for you to wonder about, AND you get a guided meditation that is based on the story! SO YOU get to become a part of the story. You walk through the doorway into the magic and you get the clarity and the inspiration and the a-ha’s that you love watching characters in stories get.
It’s the metaphorical fantastical e-course you didn’t know you needed.
It’s pretty much guaranteed to get your imagination going.
And that’s just the beginning….
The first story comes out on April 19. Join me?
xo
We are the dragons at our own gate. Love this so much because it is true. Thanks for a great piece.