The Primal Urge to Create: Unleashing Your Inner Artist
Hello friend- Welcome back! Today, I'm coming to you from the beautiful heart of Mexico City. I have my mobile setup going on, so please excuse the audio quality – you might hear some music and cars in the background. But trust me, the inspiration I’ve found here more than makes up for it.
I had an incredible experience exploring the Anthropology Museum here. If you ever get a chance, spend a day there – I highly recommend it. Honestly, I could have spent three days soaking in all the history and art. Mexico City itself is a full-body sensory experience, with its vibrant art, mouthwatering food, rich textures, and stunning architecture. It’s an artist’s paradise.
Why You Are an Artist (Yes, Even You!)
While wandering through the museum, I kept thinking about the role of art in our lives. So, I thought, why not dedicate this episode to talking about what it means to be a creator and an artist? Now, if you’re someone who doesn’t consider yourself an artist, this episode is especially for you. You’d be surprised to know that being a creator and an artist is actually a fundamental part of the human experience.
My Journey with Creativity
Growing up, I was surrounded by talented artists – my grandmothers and aunties. But I never saw myself as one because the only thing I could draw were stick figures. I can’t paint, and I have zero sense of style. My wardrobe? Mostly black clothes.
It wasn’t until college that a professor changed my perspective. She asked, “What is the most primal human instinct?” The class answered with things like eating, drinking, and having sex. But her answer shocked me: “To create.” She said creativity is our most basic primal instinct. We’re all artists at our core, and this urge to create can’t be removed. It can be suppressed, but it will always be there.
The Role of Art in Human History
Every time archeologists uncover ancient signs of human life, they find art. Cave paintings, embellished pottery, tools with intricate designs, musical instruments, jewelry – all these were more than just utilitarian items. They were vessels for creating beauty and telling stories.
Today, walking through the Anthropology Museum, I was blown away by the intricacy of ancient tools and pottery. These weren’t just practical items; they were created to be beautiful. And it made me realize how often we overlook the artistic qualities of our own creations.
Art is Everywhere
Art is not just painting and drawing. It’s everything. It’s the way we dress, the jewelry we wear, the food we cook, the songs we sing, the color and texture of our bed sheets – everything around us.
Look around wherever you are. Right now, I’m sitting in an Airbnb in Mexico City. I see a kitchen, a couch, a TV, plants in beautiful pots, art on the walls, and a cozy blanket. All these things are the result of someone’s creative process. They didn’t just show up. Someone imagined them, brought them to life, and made them tangible.
In today’s society, we’re really disconnected from the creative process behind the things we use daily. We order something on Amazon, and it shows up at our door. We buy food without appreciating the process of sowing seeds, tending plants, and harvesting. We turn on the sink without considering the complex system of pipes that bring us clean water.
I lived in the rainforest for three months with no utilities – no kitchen, no bathroom, no water, no electricity, no house. Just a hammock. This experience left me fascinated by how things work, like how the hell water gets into the sink? Since that experience I’ve always been facinated by how people create things.
Becoming the Artist of Your Own Life
More importantly, it’s crucial to understand that we are the artists and creators of our own lives. We design our experiences, how we spend our days, our relationships – everything. Being an artist isn’t just about creating tangible things; it’s about designing our lives.
It can sometimes feel like life is just happening to us, but that’s because we haven’t taken an active role in designing it. When I talk about manifestation, this is what I mean. We have to create things in our minds before they become a physical reality. Whether it’s money, love, or experiences, we first have to visualize them. So, what does being an artist mean to you? Do you consider yourself an artist? Maybe you have an urge to bake bread, cook something delicious, knit, draw, sing, dance, plant, make jam, or write a book. These are all artistic urges. You can suppress them your whole fucking life, but they’ll always be there, clamoring to come out.
The same goes for your life. You can go through life reacting to what happens around you, or you can step into your power and become the active designer, creator, and artist of your own fucking life. What do you want to do? How do you want to show up?
Alright, friend, I’m off to explore more of Mexico. Have a great week !
Transcript
Welcome to the Magnetic Creator podcast. I'm your host, Melanie Mishler, and each week we have intimate conversations about the things that matter most in life. My superpower is helping you remember who you truly are. A powerful, magical creator. I give you proven tools to help you get unstuck and manifest a life that sets your heart on fucking fire. Are you ready? Let's go. Hello, friend, and welcome back. Today...
I'm coming to you from beautiful Mexico City. So please excuse my audio quality because I have my mobile setup going on and it's not the greatest. So you're probably going to hear like some music and maybe some cars in the background. Again, I apologize. Today I had such an amazing experience exploring history and art at the Anthropology Museum here in Mexico City. And if you ever have a chance to come and spend a day here, I highly recommend it. In fact, I
probably could have spent about three days at that museum because it's so huge and there's just so much information to take in. And honestly, just being in Mexico City is like a whole body sensory experience because there's art and food and textures and architecture and it's just so beautiful and really engages all your senses all the time. So today, when I was going through the museum, I was really thinking a lot about the role of art in our lives.
And so I thought this would be a great episode to talk about what it means to be a creator and an artist. Now, if you are someone who doesn't consider yourself a quote artist, then this episode is especially for you because you'd be surprised that being a creator and an artist is actually a fundamental part of the human experience. And throughout this episode, I'm going to use those two words interchangeably. So if I say artist, you can easily substitute it with creator and vice versa because
To me, I really consider them the same thing. Now, for those of you who say, I'm not an artist, don't identify as an artist, it's like not your thing, I want to talk to you first because I felt the same way when I was growing up. I was surrounded by artists actually. My grandmothers and my aunties were all very talented, talented artists, but I just didn't see myself as an artist because the only thing I could draw still to this day or stick figures, I can't paint.
Melanie Mishler (:I have zero sense of style. So like, if you look at my wardrobe, you're gonna see mostly black clothes because growing up, I was very, very plain. It didn't really consider myself to be an artistic person until one day in college, I had a professor who said something that really changed my perspective. And it's always stuck with me. She asked the class, what is the most primal human instinct?
And people raised their hands and they answered with things like, you know, to eat, to drink, to have sex, you know, things like that. And her answer shocked me. She said, the most basic primal instinct of humans is to be creative. It's to create. She said, we're all artists. We're all creators. It's inside our nature and it can't be removed. We can't take that part of us away. It can be suppressed.
but the urge will always be there. And she pointed out that every time anthropologists uncovered ancient signs of human life, they were always, always accompanied by art, whether it's cave paintings or embellish pottery, tools with embellishments, musical instruments, jewelry, they were always there. And these things weren't just utilitarian.
They were vessels for creating art and creating beauty and telling stories. And today, when I was going through the Anthropology Museum, I was just blown away by the beauty and the intricacy of some of these tools, like tools made out of bones thousands of years ago, and pottery with these beautiful, intricate designs. These things were created not just to be a bowl, not just to be a tool, but to be beautiful. And I think it's really common for us to discount this
primal urge in ourselves and even to overlook the artistic qualities of the things that we do. Because art is not just painting and drawing. It's literally everything. It's the way we dress ourselves. It's the jewelry we adorn ourselves with. It's the food that we cook. It's the songs that we sing. It's the color and texture of the sheets you choose for your bed. It's basically everything that we see around us. So I want you to take a moment and just look around wherever you are right now.
Melanie Mishler (:and look around and kind of take in what you see. Right now, I'm currently sitting in this Airbnb in Mexico. I see a little kitchen, I see a couch, a TV, I see some plants in beautiful pots, there's some art on the wall, there's a blanket. And all these things that I'm looking at are the result of someone's creative process. Because they didn't just show up.
Maybe the person who owns this Airbnb thinks they showed up because they went to the store and just bought them. But someone had to imagine them in their mind. They had to go through the process of bringing them into reality and making them tangible. That is a creative artistic process. And I know we're really disconnected from this process in today's society because everything is just instant gratification, right? If I want something, I just go to Amazon and it shows up at my door.
and I'm disconnected from the process that it took to create that tangible thing. The same thing with our food and our utilities. You know, we go to the store and we purchase food, but we rarely appreciate the process of sowing seeds and working the dirt and tending the plants and harvesting, just like we go to our kitchen and we turn on the sink and water comes out. But we're so disconnected from how that actually happens.
from the creative process that many, many people had to go through to envision and create this whole system of pipes and routing clean water and processing water. This is another creative process that we're totally disconnected from. I'm always blown away by that. I think it's because I lived in the rainforest for three months with no utilities, like no kitchen, no bathroom, no water, no electricity, no house, actually. I lived on a hammock in the rainforest.
And so these kind of things have always fascinated me. Like how the hell does the water get into the sink? I know most people don't ponder this, but I ponder it very, very often. Anyway, more importantly than appreciating and understanding the value of the creative process for the tangible things around us, it's important to know that we are the artist and we are the creators of our own life, the designers of our own experience.
Melanie Mishler (:of how we spend our days, of how we spend our time and experiences, how we interact with others. We're the designers of our relationships. Being an artist isn't just about creating tangible things. It's about designing our life, designing our experiences. And I know it can sometimes feel like life is just happening to us, like all these things are just happening to us, but it's because we haven't taken the time to really take an active role.
and being the designer of our lives. Now I know I'm going all over the place here today because, well, this is a big topic and so I'm sorry if I'm confusing you, but friends, when I talk about manifestation in other episodes and when people ask me about manifestation, this is what I'm talking about. We have to create things in our mind before they become a physical reality. And everything is first created in our mind, not just our art, but the life experiences we wanna have. This means,
the money you want to create, the love you want to have, all of those, we first have to design them in our mind before we can actually experience them. What often happens is we just get into the process or the habit of looking at the results that are showing up in our life and reacting to that instead of using our minds to imagine a different experience and using our minds to create a different life for ourselves and for our future. So.
I want you to think about this. I want you to think about what it means to be an artist. What does that mean to you? Do you consider yourself an artist or not an artist? And sometimes it's easier to start with the tangible things. Like, do you have an urge inside you to bake bread or cook something savory and delicious or knit something or draw or sing or dance or to plant something?
to make jam or write a book. All of these are artistic urges and you can suppress those urges. You can suppress them your whole fucking life, but they're gonna be in there. They're gonna be in there like clamoring to come out. The same thing with your life. You can go your whole fucking life just reacting to what's happening around you.
Melanie Mishler (:letting life just come at you and not taking any active participant role in creating a future for yourself. You can do that. Millions and millions of people do that every day. Or you can step into your power and you can become the active designer, the active creator, the active artist of your own fucking life. What do you want to do? How do you want to show up? All right, friend.
I'm out to explore more of Mexico. I hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you soon.
