Creation is an act of Self-Love

February is the shortest month yet there is so much that taps on our corazóncitos: Black Futures Month, g/valentines day, and my birthday, of course - shoutout to my fellow Aquarians! Although, love can be complicated and complex I don’t believe it has to be, especially self-love. (I acknowledge that self-love can be a fraught journey for so many of us who don’t feel like we fit the mold of what white, capitalist America has taught us to love. Yet, that is why self-love is so radical. Society expects, teaches, and reinforces our self-loathing, therefore self-love is the antidote.)  So let’s start, with easy, gentle curiosity and watch how that blooms.  

What is Radical Self-Love

“Radical self-love is our inherent sense of worthiness. 

Our own divine enoughness, absent of any need of comparison.

Our inherent connection to our own divinity.” 

Sonya Renee Taylor, author of The Body is Not an Apology reminds and affirms that we are human, we are whole, and we are innately divine. We each have an inherent connection to divinity, and it “exists regardless of the external conditions of the world. It exists despite the efforts of oppression to suppress it. It is our birthright. We came here with it” (Taylor). Despite the greatest efforts of white supremacy, capitalism, trans-/homophobia, cisheteropatriarchy, ableism, & all the -isms, no one and nothing can take away our inherent worthiness.  We don’t have to earn love, we are love. 

Self-love becomes radical as it impacts the political, social, and economic systems that exist in the world. According to Taylor, radical self-love moves beyond the individual and moves into a collective movement. That is what BIPOC cultures are all about: the collective.  Communities of color have always nurtured our sense of “we” and not just “me”. We see this communal care manifest in mantras such as In Lak’ech, Ubuntu and Isang Bagsak.  

Therefore I ask: how am I nourishing and honoring my connection to my divine source? Because when I tend to my own garden I am planting an offering for the greater collective. 

Creativity connects me to my divinity 

*Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, talks about creativity as a spiritual practice. The more we allow ourselves our creativity the more we allow ourselves to experience a spiritual path. Could creativity be a way of nourishing and honoring our connection to our own divinity and our own inherent sense of enoughness? Here are few of her basic principles that support my hunch:

• We are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves.

• As we open our creative channel to the creator, many gentle but powerful changes are to be expected. 

• Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. And we move toward our dreams, we move toward our divinity. 

Therefore, if Julia is telling us that creativity is a source of divinity, and Sonya is telling us that radical self-love means we are inherently divine, then self-love is a divine act of creativity. This is an affirmation that our creative play is an act of devotion. Basically, our self-love = our divinity = our creativity.

I like to imagine that together, they are rooting for me and you, encouraging our creative play as an act of self-love.

Let’s recall the reminders that we are enough. That there is no need for comparison. That we are inherently worthy. Therefore, we don’t need to compare our art or to devalue our art. In fact, we must continue to make art and play creatively if our self-love is to be radical, if it is to impact political, social, and economic systems.  

So my answer to the question earlier about how I nourish my divine light - I make art and I play because my creative ritual is a manifestation of my divine source, my enoughness, my radical self-love. 

That Art Party invites you, my BIPOC adult friends, to choose your own self-love through art and play as ritual. Make time for your creativity as an act of devotion to your own altar. If you are looking for inspiration on how to do that here are some ways I choose my own radical self-love through creativity:

Three ways I choose radical self-love

• Affirm, Affirm, Affirm 

• Prioritize Play 

• Rest is Resistance

Affirmations 

Affirmation are one of the main ways I show myself love. I like to write them down and say them aloud. I keep them visible and posted all around so that even when it feels hard to reach, I can look up and receive that gentle reminder I need. (and, yes, this is a creative act) Here are some of my go-tos:

• I am love. I am loved. I am worthy. 

• I am creative. 

• I am playful. 

• I am the art. 

• I co-create my reality. 

Prioritizing Play 

Play has been another form of radical self-love. Reacquainting myself with play has been a healing practice for my inner child.  My art feels playful to me. I have learned how to get messy and be comfortable in the messiness of making art.  I sit with all the silt of the clay embarrando mi ropa, or the many little pieces of magazine clippings and remember that creativity, play, and art should be messy. It is a manifestation that I am allowed to take up space, I am allowed to expand, I am allowed to spill out and color outside the lines. It reminds me that I am limitless. 

Rest is Resistance

Rest comes in all shapes and sizes. The trick is knowing what type of rest you need at any given moment. Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith is the author of one of my foundational understandings of rest. She talks about the 7 types of rest, one them being creative rest, and how when we actually allow ourselves to rest we can feel more restored.  See my instagram post for more examples of creative rest. Spoiler: creative rest involved art and play!

I hope I have convinced you that art and play is not only a matter of rest, but it is a matter of your own self love. Watch out, because it has the power to transform the world.

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*This author is not one of my favorites. I acknowledge that she makes problematic representations of race, culture, and eating disorders that I do not condone.