After recording an oracle reading yesterday where the question was about how to make a living through being creative, my partner said to me – “Do you think it’s irresponsible to encourage people to be creative? To say that the Universe will help them make a living making art?”

Irresponsible? Yeah, maybe it is. After all, I don’t make much of a living through my creativity, so encouraging others to tread the same path may seem like a bit of a crazy thing to do. But I like to think that even though I may not be rolling in cash, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t other creatives out there who can make a decent living through their creativity. And also, at some point, I do hope that I can earn more money through my passion. In the mean time, I do what I need to do to survive, even though some of it is very boring and not at all creative.

(I think maybe the dragonfly was trying to tell me off for encouraging creativity. He was coming right up to my face!)

I guess I also feel that if you’re a creative person, that it’s impossible to live a life that is devoid of creativity, just in the name of earning an income. I find that when I have a normal job, and a regular income, though it feels good that I can pay my bills and buy things I need, my soul feels as though it is withering, shrinking, and fading away. You could argue that I could just do creative things in the evenings outside of work, but often I find myself so drained or tired, that the creative juices don’t flow in my free time. So the alternative was to do my creative work, and survive with the help of credit cards and some freelance work.

I must admit, there’s been more than a few times where I’ve wondered about the sanity of my choices. Where I’ve wondered why I continue to do the work I do, writing books and doing readings, and spending most of my time on social media, when it doesn’t yield the monetary compensation that fits the number of hours spent on it.

But after having received so many beautiful letters, emails and messages from people who have been helped or touched by my books in some way, I know that I cannot choose to ignore my creativity. That I cannot turn away from the words that flow through me. That I must write, I must share my words, I must publish my books, and I must connect and interact with my readers. It’s the reason why I’m here.

Yes, I could get another job, I could stack shelves, organise activities, do data entry or answer phones, but I choose not to. I choose to follow my soul’s purpose, to do the work I have been called here to do.

I also feel that part of the work I have been called to do is to help to change the collective consciousness that believes that artists and writers shouldn’t make money from their work. Their work is just as valid and valuable as work done by other professions, and it needs to be recognised as so. After all, can you imagine a world without art, books, music, movies or crafts? If it is possible to imagine it, lets me ask you this – is that a world you would like to live in?

As my partner pointed out, the same holds true for spiritual folk, for the healers and alternative therapists. There is this overwhelming feeling that to make money from helping and healing others is wrong. But doctors get paid, so why shouldn’t healers?

There’s a world that James Redfield describes in The Celestine Prophecy, an idea of a world where people are compensated for their knowledge, their wisdom, their energy and creativity. He talks of the playing field being levelled, and spiritual people being recognised for their value and worth. That’s always stayed in my mind, because it is something that I very much hope to see happen in my lifetime.

What do you think? Are you creative? Could you be happy if you weren’t exploring your creativity daily? Do you encourage others to be creative? Let me know!

Have you considered that perhaps none of it is ‘real’?
That everything that exists is really just a figment of our imagination?

NB: My partner is a very creative person himself, and is a potter, wood-turner, sculptor and artist. He didn’t ask me the questions above because he thinks that creativity is a bad thing to encourage, he just felt that perhaps people may have a rosy view of making lots of money through their creativity, and that perhaps encouraging that was not a good thing. But as I find with my author clients, there’s a really fine line between giving them a reality check and killing their dream and their spark of enthusiasm and hope. So as I like to say, if you have your head in the clouds, try to at least keep your feet on the ground.