From Consumer to Creator

I came up with a plan of leaving my business life, five years ago. I quit it all. My escape plan was no plan, just an abrupt downfall into whaterver it is.And it worked somehow.

In the beginning, not having a daily schedule was the most radical thing that I could do. No timeliness, no obligation..I learned to flow.

And yes, big question, who are we when there is no meaning to organize us, a plan, a deadline, a place?

I would go even further,what happens where there is no cultural meeting, a theater, a social gathering, an exhibit, a show that we have to attend?

And yet the hard part is to leave a career, because this career pays for our needs. Existential needs, but not only. It used to pay for an outrageous amount of shoes and clothes, for objects that truthfully, I didn’t even need it.It also used to entertain my social life and the status that came with.

Because beginning a consumer in this late capitalism is not only about our needs but it is about our status identities. Is like filling an imaginary character with all sorts of items and accessories. Peackocking with someone else ‘s feathers.

Basically is like I was trying to prove myself in very creative ways , building this character with my consumption habits. As a sociologist by nature, I would call up Bourdieu and his social classes and habits theory.

Why identity and social consumption are so interrelated? Like drinking Pepsi or Cola, wearing Nike or Adidas, Oisho or Lululemon, all this will broadcast symbolic hints about your status, power, or value.

But, I realized the more we stuff our identities with the objects of our consumption the more empty we became. The more we consume and the less we question, debate or refute this model of living.

And do not be duped, it is not only about objects, is also about the information we consume, the media , the culture we digest, etc.

The mécanism is simple, I put my energy in a job, project in order to be able to validate, sustain or create a social status, joy and happiness trough the subjects of my consumption. If you look at it this way, that would also suppose that, You, as an individual you’re simply not enough; that you are worthless on your own.

I used to tell my students at the end of my yoga classes “ lI n'y a rien à faire pour être”. There is nothing to do,in order To Be( basically you don’t need to prove your value, because you had intrinsic value all the way).

So now let’s get back to the creation part, the creativity.

If i wake up one day and I say I m the creator of my world..it sounds empowering, no?And, in a way makes sense, if I would not be here to watch all of this, they would not be here also. “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a soud?” That is the philosophical dilemma.

And yes, let’s look at nature, the most innate instinct in nature is to expand, grow and reproduce. Why would we be so different of it?

Instead we srink, we collapse and we feed our energy to an imaginary system that tells us in order to exist we need to consume.

I’d go for something more radical”In order to exit we need to create “. And, maybe co-create with nature.

It you go to the basic sense of creativity, you can think mostly of arts,but the subject is far broader.

We are builders, not only of homes, but gardens, stories,and melodies.We can bring to life ideas, get excited about them, share them, weave time into moments of bliss and presence. Then, at some point, something asks to come through our own hands, our own voice even the body itself. We pick up an instrument, write a paragraph, plant a garden, cook something, give an idea a shape, into clay, wood of simple movements that become dance.

It is as though, somewhere along the way, we have been deprived of our own uniqueness and connection to life itself. We have been deprived of our creative power and joy.

When we become creative, we change our lives because we change how we inhabite them.We reclaim our power back and maybe we become a lilte but more unhinged.

When we are in our original state, we don’t need a schedule, a timeline to feel good, we simply let the fire of our own excitement to take over: the inner song, the joy that guides us through the day.

‘The way out is in’, as Thich Naat Hanh beautifully said. You don’t need that extra pair of sneakers in your wardrobe; you just need to feel what sets your heart on fire, move with it, smash it, let it spin, and dance with this light of life.