I watched Julie Burstein's video: 4 Lessons in creativity. The video teaches us about how to create during the challenge of self doubt and losses by embracing them, and here are what I learnt and my views on what I learnt.
The first lesson refers to us and the Japanese art of making a clay pots, "Raku". After moulding and choosing the glaze, it has to be fired in the oven. After being fired in the kiln, cracks and imperfections appear on the pot and the pots were admired and treasured for their imperfections like the crackle pattern, which is stressful on the pots. Although it is difficult to let go of something you have painstakingly moulded, painted and baked, those are clay pots after all, and might shatter upon impact. I feel that this can be applied to a few aspects of life, like ourselves and the people around us.
Just like the art of Raku, we mould and paint our own personalities, life and futures. Imperfections in ourselves might appear after going through hardships and challenges in life, just like the imperfections appearing on the pot after going into the kiln, which is the first thing we will experience. After that, we might "shatter" any minute when met with hardships, like any clay pot would shatter upon impact - but sometimes it doesn't. But then is where you have to learn to let go and move on, even if we might really be "broken" Julie said "Creativity also grows from broken places.", and we have to embrace and accept our flaws and the things that has happened. You have to pick yourself up after some time of mourning and get on with life as a stronger and more experienced person that will be able to think deeper, wiser and more openly, that's when you will be all pieced back together, although different, but more beautiful than you were before with the new weathering and paint that explains your experiences to people.
The second lesson is about being open. Being open and doing what you love will lead you to more opportunities in the future, and you might eventually end up doing something that you love instead, which is living for the sake of working instead of working for the sake of living.
The third lesson is embracing experiences, challenges and limitations. You need to be able to embrace them in order to do what you have in mind, do not let these challenges barrier you, as there are wider horizons outside of the tiny well you are inside of. The first step is to bring forth the determination, courage and strength to step out of your comfort zone and take small steps in learng from your limitations. Very soon, we'll be climbing out of our little "well" out into the big world.
The final lesson is about embracing loss. However, I did not fully comprehend what Julie was talking about.
The message in the video was very deep, although I may not be able to explain much in words and may not be able to fully comprehend some areas, I have definitely learnt a lot. Creativity is essential to everyone, even if you are not an artist and we can draw creativity from any kind of situations, like the cycle of creation and destruction, control and letting go, picking up and patching up.
