We recently connected with Sam Stokes and have shared our conversation below.
Sam, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
We are all “creators” – it is human nature to create. Some of us create art, some music, some pottery, some create skyscrapers, some create medicine, some create trains, some create safe spaces for children to play.
Humans are by default creators. We take mere ideas, small little fantasies in our minds and create them into this physical world. We hear the music, so we play the music for others to hear. We see the art, so we paint the art for others to see.
I believe the act of creation is really more an act of translating that which we see/hear/sense and bring it into the physical realm for others to see/hear/sense.
So in that, it’s impossible for creativity to be anything but alive. We create our food, we create our coffee, we create money on our bank accounts for us to go and buy our food or coffee. Everything we do is creation.
So to me, to create is by definition to be alive.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
As an artist, my main intention is to create space for all of the aspects of myself so that others may have space for themselves.
By this, I mean, if I can hold space and love my shadow, my demons, my ego, my inner child, my higher self, my divine feminine and my divine masculine, my subconscious and my conscious — if all of these pieces of me are welcome to a seat at my table to have tea, if all of them are allowed to exist and fluidly switch between one another at any moment, then perhaps there is space for others to feel and live expressively as well.
In our pursuit for individuation, we can sometimes limit ourselves and others to the boxes we check off on a census survey, but we are all so much more dynamic and expressive than this.
Every single person is a single pigment of color in a rainbow with billions of single pigments of color, not two speckles are the same shade and yet we are all the rainbow.
These are just some of the topics explored in my debut album “Common Ground” coming out this October 2023.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Openness This is incredibly important, if you want to make new choices, try new things, you have to be open to things you’ve never done before. This is simple to say, but that moment when you feel your heart open to new possibilities is so critical.
Playfulness
Try things out. You’ve now said you’re open to new ideas, but now is the time to play with them, to try them out and see how they feel. They say that children who are playing on a playground are at such a high state of presence and awareness. They’re not thinking about “where to go” or “how to play” they’re just completely present and surrender to the moment.
Acceptance
As you try new things, you’re gonna be bad. If you can let your ego get a little bruised, if you can accept that you gotta work through the not so good moments to get to the better moments, you will have long term success. It’s courage that allows us to stand in a room and not be good at something long enough until one day we kinda get good at it and then all of a sudden we’re completely comfortable with something that was once so foreign to us.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
Illusions by Richard Bach
The layers of synchronicity and profound moments surrounding this simple, short book are long enough to be their own book at this point. So I will keep it brief and share that this book came into my life and helped me answer a lot of questions right at the moment when I needed it most.
The best nugget was helping to connect the dots of what we perceive to be impossible versus what we perceive to be possible and how our minds can limit or expand upon those ideas as we see them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.samstokesofficial.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sam.stokes.the.fire/
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/artist/5FeemN2z4fkKCrtZKV8rXT?si=T5-5Kve2RT2v6Tx9t3iYuQ&nd=1
Image Credits
Judy Lin Photography https://judylinphoto.com/
