Why Courage is the Key to Living a Life of Creativity

On Dr. David Hawkins’ groundbreaking ‘Map of Consciousness’ model, courage is seen as the catalyst that transforms a persons energetic state from lower frequencies such as shame, fear and guilt, into higher frequency states such as peace, joy, and love.

Many creative people, particularly artists, have turned to a life of creativity because of early life events that kept them lingering in the lower frequency states of shame, fear, and guilt. People crippled by these states of being generally carry an energetic heaviness around with them.

On a personal level, this is certainly true, as my experiences of domestic abuse and violence for the first eleven years of my life kept me in a dissociative state of mind; living very much in a state of fear, as I wondered when the next home makeover might be. Coupled by the fact that I grew up in the UK’s equivalent of poverty, I also had some unconscious feelings of shame hanging over my head for much of my life as I ate free school meals, struggled to keep up with trends and wore low quality clothing on non-school uniform days. If I add to this even further, there were also some feelings of guilt present in myself, as I had no way of preventing the pain that was being caused to loved ones by the male guardians inside of the home.

In my adult years, I have managed to make peace with my pain, and it is through creativity that I have managed to do so. I realise that it all had a purpose, and that I chose all of these experiences – they didn’t happen ‘to’ me, but instead, they happened ‘for’ me.

On a fine summers’ day back in 2022, I was writing on a bench beneath the cherry blossom trees that are rooted beside the Montgomery Canal here in Welshpool, when an elderly, free-spirited, tobacco-loving man that I often had conversations with around the town came over to sit beside me.

He was curious about my writing and so we engaged in a conversation about my love of nature, photography, and philosophy, and how I am blending them all together with my writing. He proceeded to tell me about his own love of art and how he attended art college when he was younger and regularly enjoyed exercising his own creativity until life and love had grabbed hold of him and took him on an adventure around the world.

In recent years, he had been busy with his pencils and paints in his humble abode back here in Welshpool. When I asked with curiosity whether he would show his creative work to anyone, he told me that he had always kept it to himself through fear of what people might think. I sensed a hint of regret in his voice and, in particular, his eyes, as though, perhaps, he wished that he would have tried to make something more out of his art. The same heaviness that I mentioned earlier seemed to be present within him. He passed away just a few weeks later.

I was completely shocked to hear of his passing, and wished that I could have seen some of the art that he had produced before he left this world. He was a deep soul, and from the deep souls, I have found, the most beautiful things are created. Something about the man told me that he had some artistic talent and that his creative works might have touched my heart and soul, and, perhaps, made the world a better place. The world needs as much beauty as possible to make up for the ugliness that we are force-fed by the news headlines on a daily basis.

‘If only he had found courage, and wasn’t crippled by his fear of what people might think’, I kept thinking to myself.

The quality and depth of his art is all left to my imagination now though, of course. I did take an important lesson away with me upon introspection following his passing. His apparent longing to share what he had created with the world made me think deeply about my own art of photography and writing, and it made me ask questions about some of the things that I have been holding back from the world because of my own shame, guilt, and fear throughout my life.

It broke my heart to see this fragile man at the other end of his life sitting on a bench, with such an energetic heaviness, and what seemed to me to be something of a desperation to share some of his own beauty with the world. The following quote came to mind. I believe that the words came from Henry David Thoreau:

‘Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.’

It takes a certain level of courage to open up a heart in this world, there is no doubt about that. It can be incredibly cruel and nasty at times, particularly throughout our childhoods. We all carry our fair share of scars from experiences throughout childhood in which we have been burnt with embarrassment when we have done so. I watched on as bullies targeted the weak and the vulnerable people in school. I was a target for the bullies on occasion, and I even played the role of the bully once or twice, too. I know what it is like to be hurt, and I know what it is like to be the one who is doing the hurting. Neither is a pleasant place to be.

Over the past few years, I have been working hard to overcome the barriers that I have put up around my own heart to guard it from breaking even further; barriers which prevented me for a long time from revealing more of the beauty that was inside, speaking my truth and shining my own light in this world. What I have found by doing so, is that there is equally as much, if not more, love and light out there, and there are people who are willing to support someone who finds the courage to open up and share whatever imperfect mess is inside.

By finding the courage to step out and make our voices heard, we cross over the all-important level of 200 on Hawkins’ ‘Map of Consciousness’ model. It is at this level that we feel a sense of empowerment, and give ourselves a chance to attribute meaning to some of our most painful experiences.

If we can just find the courage to share what it is that we create, then maybe we will all find out that the world, in our adult lives, isn’t quite as judgmental and cruel as it once was when we were younger.

For some people, it may be enough to simply create art quietly for themselves in the confines of their own homes. It makes me sad to think that there are some who harbor a desperation to share their beauty with the world, but their own past experiences and fear hold them back. If this is you, then I hope you find the courage to make your voice known to this world. It desperately needs your beauty and sensitivity.