The heart-work.

“The work of the eyes is done. Go now and do the heart-work on the images imprisoned within you.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke.

Rilke’s words soothe me. They confirm what I’ve always known deep inside my heart. Through creativity, we connect to our highest selves; that is how we can best express the purity of our message.

If we remain faithful to that message and work to strengthen our inner voice, then we become more consistently connected to our higher selves. And ultimately, this connection leads us to greater mastery of our craft and deeper service to humanity.

1. Creativity is an internal process.

“Nobody can counsel and help you, nobody. There is only one single way. Go into yourself. Search for the reason that bids you write; find out whether it is spreading out its roots in the deepest places of your heart, acknowledge to yourself whether you would have to die if it were denied you to write. This above all—ask yourself in the stillest hour of your night: Must I write?”

2. Creativity is cathartic.

“…depict your sorrows and desires, passing thoughts and the belief in some sort of beauty—describe all these with loving, quiet, humble sincerity, and use, to express yourself, the things in your environment, the images from your dreams and the objects of your memory.”

When we create, we venture into our past and confront painful moments stored away in our subconscious. Through our creative practice, we confront that hurt, rather than judging or numbing our feelings away for fear of facing them.

3. Creativity pushes us to live a richer life.

“If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for to the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place.”

The content of our art directly reflects what we do with our lives. If we live in a mundane way, then our experiences, emotions and thoughts will be equally ordinary.

4. We can’t be attached to the results of our creativity.

“Perhaps it will turn out that you are called to be an artist. Then take that destiny upon yourself and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without ever asking what recompense might come from outside.”

The Bhagavad Gita shares a similar message. We should not attach ourselves to the fruits of our efforts. We must create for the pure joy of the process. When our motivation is intrinsic, rooted in self-satisfaction, we enter a state of flow in which time and space collapse.

It’s difficult not to check the statistics on our blog post views or books sales. It’s hard to not be discouraged when an 18-year-old writes a Pulitzer Prize-winning piece of writing. It’s nearly impossible not to compare our creative successes to other people’s.

However, when we are clear about our motivations, then our expectations are thus defined.

Excerpt from Mohammed Issa + Rainer Maria Rilke