Someone says, ‘I want to be creative but I don’t know how. I don’t seem to be able to get my project off the ground.’

Why is it that this is so true for many of us? You have ideas of some project or creative venture that you would love to do, and yet it never seems to happen. Daily life takes over and the project gets squeezed out. Or you have managed to create a space for it, but when you are there, faced with the blank canvass or whatever, you no longer have the inspiration or motivation. Other things in your life get in the way, or seem more attractive somehow. How come it can be so difficult to actually get down to something and make a start?

There may be several forces operating here, some you may be aware of, and some are less conscious, when you are saying ‘I want to be creative but I don’t know how’. The clue to finding this kind of inner conflict is to say, ‘I want to, but I don’t.’ For instance, if you want to write a book or an article, or you want to paint and nurture your creativity, but somehow you just don’t get around to it. You may find a hundred other things to do that seem more important.

But what could be more important than following that creative impulse. It may keep reminding you that it is there. You might find there is a cycle of thought that keeps coming round. It doesn’t leave you alone. Something is wanting to happen.

This is where Focusing can be so useful. See what happens to it when you sit down with it and pay it careful attention. You will find there is a wanting, right there. Something is wanting to happen. It helps if you depersonalise it like this. Rather than saying, I want to paint, draw, write, whatever. It supports the process if you can say, this is what is wanted. You can then re-personalise it, by saying, ‘something in me wants to…’ Then you can sense for how you can serve this wanting, or meet that need in you. It’s as if the life force in you is calling you to action.

Use your imagination, or visualise yourself doing the wanted action. Use your inner senses to hear how it would be if you were doing this creative work. You can sense further, by paying attention to your body. See if you can get an overall, global feel of the whole thing. For the moment, move away from the specific action steps that need to happen, and look for the overall quality. It’s broader, more generalised. You can feel it there, in your body, definitely there. It has a certain kind of feel to it.

Something is wanted here, and you can invite a sense of it to come forward and to show itself more fully. It needs a safe space to come into, meaning that it doesn’t want to be judged. It wants to be accepted. Stay with the wanting until you have a good body sense of that. Describe how it feels. Look for what it wants if the creative thing you do happens. How would it want you to feel, if you were to write the book, or paint, etc. Look for the why and what for. Ask it what does it want for you and for itself, and for others. What does it want if you achieved what it wants you to do. For instance, it may want a sense of fulfilment, satisfaction or connection with others. You are finding your deepest motivation, and also what is your life force asking of you, or less personally, what is life wanting for you and from you.

Get as specific as you can. Stay with your bodily felt experience and find an image or a description that captures the essential quality of that. This gives you a firm foundation for your creative work. You might want to often return to this inner knowing to keep you on track, and you may find it changing and unfolding as you progress.

If you find yourself saying I want to be creative but I don’t know how, try Focusing with it. Through Focusing, you are allowing your own inner wisdom to support your process of creativity.