Creation, Recreation, or Decay

Every waking moment, you are in one of three spiritual states: creation, recreation, or decay.

Humans have an instinctive drive to create. We must create material goods to survive and thrive. We also have a need to create spiritual goods, like beauty and self-expression.

We also long to learn and grow: to acquire new knowledge, skills, and virtues. Learning/growth is self-creation. In creating new annexes of our selves, we increase our capacity for further creation. Self-creation — learning and growth — can occur through work, study, and creative play.

To maximize our creative potential, we need to take a break once in a while: to enjoy life, or just simply zone out and rest. During such wholesome breaks, our creative powers are given a chance to refresh and renew, and our brains are given the chance to integrate the products of our self-creation: the lessons we’ve learned and the growth we’ve undergone. This kind of creativity-enhancing rest is recreation.

But beyond a certain point, non-creative leisure consumption is no longer recreation. At that point, your creative powers atrophy and wither. Your soul begins to decay.

You can generally tell which state you are in by how you feel.

When we are doing something creative, we feel engaged, attentive, and fully alive. We are brimming with self-efficacy and purpose. When we are in a state of restorative recreation, we feel relaxed and satisfied. And when we are in a state of spiritual decay, we feel either anxiety or boredom along with a degree of self-loathing.

If you are feeling low, try creating. Find a corner of chaos and sort it out. Bring into actuality an idea you’ve been kicking around. Research or try your hand at something new and useful. Do something difficult.

Be of service. Create something of value for someone else. For money, if possible. For free, if not. Persistent value-creation for others will eventually result in reciprocity.

To feel happy, create. It’s what you were born to do.