How Can We Maintain Integrity While Being Creative?

Why do we create? What is it in me that propels me to write a blog almost every week or work on a book? Writing a book is a massive undertaking - you get an idea, then you get snatches of some scenes, write some chapters, and then scratch most of it and write it again. All because I cannot-not do it. And then there are times when I feel the need to dance. After having a weekly class for almost five years, I teach Bollywood Dance for private events and functions. It’s like my body has to move once I listen to music.

For any creative activities, you have to suspend belief for some time. But, it is real when you are creating it. Like I listen to a song - and it is just a bunch of words set to a tune - but then I move to it, and it becomes real. If I told you that music tells you what steps can be taken, some of you may believe it, and some may not. But the choreography is an act of faith.

I was watching the YouTube video of Javed Akhter, a famous Indian writer and lyricist. He writes songs and scripts for movies in India and has written scripts for twenty-odd movies that have all become Blockbuster movies. In one of his interviews, he says that you have to suspend belief at times as a writer. The story he told was when he was writing a song for a movie in the sweltering heat of Bombay, and the lyrics were - ‘In these moonlit nights…’ You have to be a little mad to suspend belief and write. And I can associate a little bit with that - throughout the days, my mind is busy thinking of scenarios of what could happen and what should have happened when reality is passing me by. Even in the book I am writing - I have a creative license. If I want my character to have blue eyes, they can - but he mentions another thing.

He talks about ‘Dharma’, which has no exact translation into English, but the closest explanation is the law of nature. The meditation I do, Vipassana, also talks about the same thing, which means that there are certain rules of nature, like if you drink hot liquids, you will feel hot inside, and if you eat spicy food, you will sweat. If you get angry inside, then you have generated negative feelings inside of you first, and if you generate negativity, then you feel its impact first. Similarly, every creative act has its nature. For example, if the tune is upbeat, the steps must be foot-tapping. If the tune is set in rural areas - then your steps mirror that. And if your writing is modern, the language characters must be contemporary. While composing a brilliant step or a scene, it may come to your mind - it has to be true to your book’s song or central theme. You may end up sacrificing the fantastic idea to maintain integrity with your creative act.

Similarly, I think creativity is a means to maintain integrity in ourselves. Something in us is waiting to unfold and burst out—and we are only the medium for it. It is in our nature to let it unfold through us. Now, how much we recognize and honour it is up to us.

Are you in alignment with the creativity that wants to be expressed through you?