To create using AI is to deny the world your unique expression

You are a creator. Full stop. You were born this way. You can refute it as much as you’d like, but if you’re depressed, bored, numb, unfulfilled, or mad at the world, it’s because you’re not allowing the natural flow of creative life-giving energy to be expressed through your being.

Most people who work with me are frustrated creators, though they don’t necessarily perceive themselves as such before we meet. They just think there is something wrong because they don’t like their job. They come to realize what they are really searching for is work that is satisfying to their soul, and the only remedy to that ailment is to create it.

The role of AI in society

As we all know, AI has come onto the scene fast and furious over the last year and seems to be taking over. One of my mentors has been talking about the arrival of AI technology for decades. He used to say things like it will cause humans to get stuck in mass consciousness. Now that AI has embedded itself into our daily life, I finally understand what he meant.

I find some of the uses of AI to be undermining to humans. Consider this sales headline posted on social from a well-known online entrepreneur: “Let AI match your skills and experience to a profitable idea”. On the surface, it might sound enticing, but let us consider the deeper messages in this pitch:

• It invites you to seek answers outside of yourself. It dismisses the fact that you have your own internal knowing.
• It strips away your autonomy. You’re being asked to allow someone else to make life choices for you.
• It’s limiting. It restricts the number of potentials available to you.
• It’s disempowering. It denies that you have access to your own energy with which to generate your own ideas.
• It implies that the only valuable ideas are the “profitable” ones. What about the ideas that serve humanity? Or contribute to your evolutionary growth? Or bring beauty into the world? Or love? Or are satisfying to your soul? Where is the desire for these ideas?

To be clear, I’m not opposed to AI. I appreciate its value and its beneficial role in society. It can free humans from rote tasks, such as writing contracts or generating computer code. (Though, it must be said, there are some people for whom this work is actually creative.) AI can also help us increase efficiency in arenas like scheduling and forecasting. Ultimately, it can take on many of the tedious computative tasks and free us to do the more enriching, soul-satisfying work we are here to do.

AI will free humans from the mundane so that we can be the creators we came into this lifetime to be.

However, AI is not a souled entity unto itself, so while its products may be functional, they may even be smart, they have no spirit. AI is the lowest common denominator of all the thoughts that have previously existed. It’s an amalgamation of mass consciousness thinking. It’s not capable of creating anything innovative. That is the role of humans.

The role of humans in creating

We humans are souled beings who live in an evolutionary world. The nature of evolution is that it requires innovation. It needs new ideas to be formulated in varied and original ways. We are not here to regurgitate the past, we are here to birth the future, and we do so by embracing our roles as creators. The desire to create is the urge of the soul to express and experience life through the human facet of who we are. When we get caught up in the everyday hustle, I think we often forget we are here as a part of something much bigger than just ourselves.

Each of us is a being through which our soul expresses and evolves.

Creating is the act of receiving energy in the form of ideas from the non-physical world and channelling that energy into action so those ideas become real in the physical world. Only you can bring forth the ideas in the way that you can. Only you can create work in the way that you can. From the infinitude of potentials available, you have the autonomy to choose, and how you translate those ideas into reality is shaped by your unique imprint.

Each individual is born into this lifetime with specific strengths, gifts, and talents. As we move through life, the medley of experiences we go through further to distinguish our singular perspective. This diversity allows each of us to create work that contributes our own distinct flavour to the ice cream sundae of humanity. Alternatively, when we create using AI, we homogenize all of our offerings to be vanilla. Poor vanilla get’s so maligned as boring. Vanilla is versatile and delicious, it’s just we aren’t all vanilla. Some of us aren’t even ice cream. (Side note: It’s the hottest day of the summer today, so this might be why I have ice cream on my mind.) My point is that your particular point of view adds tremendous value to the world and to minimize your voice is to deny the world your unique creative expression.

As I mentioned above, AI is a conglomeration of thought, which is a function of the mind. True creating does not happen in the mind, however, it flows through the heart. To realize the evolutionary creative impulses that arise from our soul requires us to open our hearts. To learn how to be vulnerable and receptive is what I consider to be some of life’s most challenging work. This is one of the key aspects in the development of our inspired work. It is a journey for those who have been trapped in their minds and want to free themselves to live from their hearts.

You put the joy in your work

As I guide people through the Vision Program, a theme that arises over and over again is the necessity of removing internal barriers so they can return to their natural, receptive state, which is essential to creating. One of the many barriers people encounter when creating their own work is to be overly focused on the outcome, especially if there is fear around that outcome – be it fear of failure or fear of success. (My experience is that more people have a fear of success than failure, but I will save that topic for another post.) When people attach the value of their creative process to its commercial viability, they can block themselves from receiving their highest potentials, which, ironically, can also include blocking themselves from their highest financial potentials. This is one of the reasons I encourage people to find treasure in the process of “creating” rather than in the prize of the end goal, the “creation”.

My biggest bugbear about the use of AI is that it negates the value of your input and puts all the emphasis on the “output” of the creative process. Every product I see in the marketplace trying to capitalize on the advantages of AI all use “increased output” and “profits” as the rewards. Sales headlines promise “These AI prompts will 10x your productivity and get you ahead of your competition”. But when you focus on the output, you are missing out on the biggest reward there is in the creative process, which is joy.

When you create using AI, you rob yourself of the joy of the creative process.

Joy comes from experiencing the flow of creative life-giving energy through your entire being (not just your mind). It is the most satisfying feeling there is. This is why “sex sells”, because ultimately, the ecstatic movement of energy through your being is what sex is selling. I have a little more difficult time trying to convince people that your work can provide the same euphoria, but it can. Your inspired work is the intimate relationship between you and your own soul. To birth an idea that didn’t previously exist and bring it into realization can also tingle your toes.

5 tips to unleash your unique creative expression

As we grow up, it’s rare we are taught how to create, especially work. Most traditional schooling is focused on teaching us from the pool of knowledge that already exists, priming us for jobs that are already established. Sure, there are art classes and some people choose that path, but there are few classes that teach us how to pioneer our own path. That’s one of the reasons why I created this school. Personally, I am fascinated with the creative process and it’s one of my favourite subjects to share with others.

After 15 years of helping people to discover, create, and live their inspired work, I have distilled that the capacity to authentically express comes down to these fundamentals:

1. Embrace your role as a creator

Most people don’t perceive themselves as creators because they were taught to equate creating with art, but art is only but one category of the endless potentials. Any real-world form could be your medium. For example, your work could be to create a scientific discovery, a food festival, or a health-related business. Take a look around you right now. Every single thing you see or experience started as an idea. There is no limit to what’s possible.

2. Be present in your physical body

The soul communicates with us through our bodies. Creative impulses first arise as sensations. Our minds then translate that energy into thought forms. To connect with your creative ideas requires you to be present in your body. Practice feeling for your ideas rather than thinking for them. It’s as strange as it sounds, but great fun when you get the hang of it.

3. Open your heart

Our hearts are the bridge between the non-physical and physical worlds. To bring energy into the world as form requires the courage to live with an open heart. This is what inspiration actually is – life-creating energy flowing through our open hearts into the world.

4. Trust yourself enough to take action

After opening to receive, the second part of the creative process is having the courage to take action. You must trust that your soul knows what is in your highest and best interest and also in the highest and best interest of humanity. To bring any new idea to fruition requires a commitment to follow through. Generally, it takes a lot longer than most people like to bring their ideas to their fullest realization (raising my hand here), which is why I’m such an advocate for embracing the joy of the journey.

5. Let go of attachment to any outcome

The key is to not try to affect any specific outcome, in fact, to keep your mind out of the entire process as much as possible. Those pesky self-doubts and limiting beliefs will cut you off from your energy every time. It’s not your job to judge your creations, your role is to be a creator and to let the energy flow. No more holding yourself back.

This is one of the most creative and innovative eras in the history of humanity. It is no accident that you are here at this time on the planet. The invitation for you is to celebrate who you are and what you have to offer and to create the work that will move the world forward. You might not yet see your creative ideas as that significant, but they are.

There’s no denying AI is here to stay, and its usefulness will continue to improve and integrate itself into our lives. However, it will never replace your unique creative expression nor will it bring the joy that comes from opening to receive your own energy. AI may be the latest, greatest advancement in technology, but your soul always has been and always will be here forever – and it wants you to create like no other.