How To Create Without Feeling Completely Selfish

When you create, are you able to do so guilt-free, unconcerned with what else you could be doing with your time?

Most of us struggle to get close to this state, instead being racked with guilt that we're even contemplating spending time on our own doing something as self indulgent as creating when our partners are seeking our attention, our children approach us with some new "emergency" every 5 minutes and there's an ever expanding stack of domestic chores nagging at our conscience. Ever been there?

If you can put all these factors to one side for just a moment though, you'll see that creating is actually one of the best things you can be doing with your time. Not just for you, for everyone. Here are the 3 big reasons why creating is not completely selfish:

1. When you create, you feel better. So do others. Creating is a natural need in your life, like eating, breathing and sleeping. If you neglect any of those three activities, your health will suffer drastically, and you'll not be around much longer! Lack of creating, whilst not as immediately and obviously life threatening, does have a serious negative impact on your state of mind and happiness. When you create regularly, you feel happier, more connected with yourself, more in touch with the world. You increase your sense of wellbeing and life takes on new purpose. All of this is reflected in your general attitude and behaviour, meaning the more you create, the greater the positive impact you have on those all around you. An investment in your own creativity is also an investment in your relationships with those closest and most important to you. Everyone benefits.
2. When you create, you become more efficient in everything. Creating is all about flow. Once you get into regular creative habits, this flow comes more naturally, as if you're removing driftwood and debris from a river that's wanted to rage but has been so blocked it's barely done more than trickled for years. This flow extends to everything you do, not just the time you're making art. You communicate more clearly, walk with greater purpose, and even mundane activities like vacuuming and washing up take on a new fluidity. The way you spend each day is the way you spend your whole life. Find the flow and you get more done, more effectively, and so free up more time for your creative pursuits.
3. When you create, it motivates and inspires others to create. When people see that you're stepping up and creating regularly, they're inspired in two ways. Firstly, by what you're creating, the art that comes from you touches them in some way, helps their troubles seem less and their lives make more sense. Secondly, just the fact that you ARE creating leads by example and shows others it's OK! Both of these help people to give themselves permission to be more creative themselves, and leads to them experiencing all these benefits we've been talking about in their own lives. They're not going to be inspired by your creative life if it exists only in your own mind -- they won't even have a clue it's there!

These are 3 major reasons you can create without feeling selfish. In fact, when you consider all the pros outlined above, wouldn't you agree it seems selfish NOT to create?