Learning Creativity, Focusing on Here and Now

I walked into the little shop off of Kenwood Trail, situated in a strip mall next to CVS and Jimmy Johns, I thought nothing of it. I was cold and my goal was to get myself and daughter inside where it was warm. 

We were there for a birthday party for a close friend's daughter. Little did I know the gift was really being given to me.

As soon as I walked in I noticed all the white pottery. The soft humming of people painting and talking was soothing and my body instantly relaxed. I had just discovered Manic Ceramic. Their website describes this shop as 'A Paint Your Own Pottery Studio', but it's so much more.

After one afternoon painting my sister a coffee mug for Christmas I was hooked. I've been back two more times, but I've thought about it almost every day. This is odd because I am not an artist. At all. 

I didn't understand what was happening to me until I read an article by Martha Beck, author of Finding Your Way in a Wild New World. In her article "Now Don't Get Excited..." She talks about what gives us true happiness:

"Sustainable delight in the beautiful moments of an ordinary life."

I can get behind that, I thought; my life is very ordinary. But then I read this:  

"You won't notice happiness when it first appears, because in true presence, the mind's frantic searching stops. In its place arises a fascination with what's occurring here and now."  

That's what was happening to me at Manic Ceramic, I was completely focused on here and now. I didn't think about that training document I had to finish at work. I didn't think about my children's homework that needed to be completed, or which part of my house had reached the threshold of 'tornado messy' and needed to be cleaned.

I was just there.

With a friend.

Painting.

Only thinking ahead to the next move my brush would make. 

It was happiness.

Martha Beck agreed and she went on to say:

"The aftermath of a creative surge, especially one that involves a new skill, is a sense of accomplishment and increased self-efficacy - which psychologists recognize as an important counter to depression."

For the price of a night at a movie, I had countered depression, gained a sense of accomplishment and finished a Christmas gift.

And here I thought I was only going to a birthday party that cold December day. I realized the reason I enjoyed Manic Ceramic so much was because I was allowing myself the freedom to just be.

For everyone that's going to be different. For some it's reading, or carpentry, but it's important that we find what that is for ourselves.

We need to learn what allows us to be focused on here and now.