After a long hot, dry spell last summer, rain came. I live in the high desert of western Colorado, so any rain is cause for celebration, but this time it was especially welcome. We’d come to expect the infamous “oppressive” heat day after day, and gray skies, cool temperatures and pouring rain made us feel like we had been set free.
When they heard the wet drumbeat on the roof, my son and his friend dashed outside. I squelched the urge to call after them about not coming back inside in their wet clothes and sitting on the couch, or making the floor slippery, or whatever other horror a couple of drenched little boys could produce.
My husband and I watched them out the window as they jumped in puddles and floated sticks in the small river forming on the edge of the road.
“We’re not going to let them do that all by themselves, are we?” he asked.
“No, we’re not,” I said, and soon the whole family was dancing in the street, soaking wet and fully dressed.
Photo by Daniel Jordahl
For a while, I had stopped doing stuff like that.
If Creativity were a superhero, its nemesis would be Inhibition.
It occurred to me that perhaps being uninhibited could be practiced.
When I sat down to do creative work, I hoped something brilliant and original would flow out of me. Then I would start to work and feel wrapped up like a mummy. My body would get tight, and Inhibition moved in.
Could this be at least partly because I allowed my normal state to be uptight? Maybe my self-expression muscle was simply out of shape.
What if I purposely set out to do uninhibited things every day? The regular practice of things like singing, dancing, splashing, jumping and just being silly might help me produce a more uninhibited state on demand.
As I’d continually added responsibilities to my life (read: job, home ownership, parenthood, eldercare), I’d become more and more serious and inhibited. My joyful and creative self was locked up most of the time, and when I tried to release it, it often shrank in the corner, asking, “Are you sure it’s okay to come out?”
What do you think? What do you see as the connection between inhibition when doing creative work and being uptight in the rest of your life? Do you think being uninhibited can be developed through practice?
Beautiful post, Sue!
I do believe that becoming uninhibited takes practice and making it a point to take spontaneous action when the opportunity arises is a great way to work that muscle!
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It’s kind of sad that we have to consciously practice it, but I think we do. We get so used to all our actions being judged (or at least we feel like they’re being judged, even when they’re not!) that it’s easy to become inhibited. There’s no place for that in the creative process!
Thanks for stopping by, Amy!
Sue Mitchell recently posted..When Was the Last Time You Danced in the Rain?
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How nice to be able to look back at an old post and realize that you no longer feel so uptight. Now that is progress of the most wonderful kind!
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Yeah, I was pretty happy about that!
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Young kids are great for bringing lost playfulness back to adults. I have a 7 year old son and we love puddle jumping when it is raining. There is a lot of benefit to watching how young kids just play in the moment not giving a thought to what others think. We need to be up for re-learning how to be more child like and to play more with total abandon.
Twitter: ali_davies
You’re right about how young kids can bring back our lost playfulness. Oddly, having a child made me more of a fuddy-duddy. Of course I played with my son, but life just felt a lot more serious to me and let’s just say I became a little too grown up. Training as a creativity coach with the very silly, pro-joy Jill Badonsky was just the ticket!
I like the idea of watching how kids play with total abandon. Definitely a lot to be learned from them!
Sue Mitchell recently posted..Subscribe to Creative Juice!
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Uninhibited … oh what a delicious word, it’s oh so easy to think and analyse before being expressive. I was thinking of a baby laughing, it doesn’t know what it’s laughing at and yet it obviously feels good and is how it expresses that feeling. I’m thinking how I might uninhibit myself today – dancing anywhere sounds good – even round my writing chair!
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Yes, dancing to me is the ultimate in free self-expression. Sad that so many people don’t feel comfortable dancing once they reach a certain age. I’ve included regular dance prompts in my Creative Juice program. Every so often, I wonder if people will be receptive to them and question if I should include them, but then I remember that, really, the more they resist the idea of dancing, the more they can benefit from the regular reminders to do it.
Dancing is also wonderful for keeping your brain sharp. And if you think about it, it engages body, mind and spirit. We should all be dancing as often as possible!
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We need to become less inhibited in our life, Sue. I think the main reason why we curb ourselves from doing silly but wonderful things on the spot is because we are always conscious of people’s opinions around us. We fear people’s perception but actually they hold no powers over us. We are the ones holding ourselves back when it is time to do fun stuff.
Kids are best at this kind of things because they do not worry about what people think, including their parents. All they care about is how much fun they can have in any moment. What great lessons we can learn from the younger ones.
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Very true, Jimmy. We are the ones who hold ourselves back. And probably most of the time what we imagine people are thinking of us and what they’re actually thinking are very different (if they’re even paying any attention to us at all).
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