31 Ways to Spark Your Creativity – A Guest Post from Tess Marshall
| 07/11/2011 | Posted by Jane under bits and pieces |
I’m taking a break from writing for the month of July while I prepare for my Healing Touch certification. While I’m away, I’ve promised you a great line-up of guest posts! I’m super-excited to introduce my friend, Tess Marshall, creator of The Bold Life. She’s an amazing writer, and an amazing friend. Tess and her colleague, Lance Ekum have teamed up to create an e-book featuring more than 60 writers, with all proceeds benefiting the folks living in Joplin, Missouri. Please make Tess welcome ~
31 Ways to Spark Your Creativity
Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. ~Hugh Macleod, from the Gaping Void
We are born to create. Everyone is creative. The problem is we are socialized out of it, at an early age. My grandson used to sing and dance spontaneously as a toddler. He loved to glue, cut, and paste.
My granddaughter loved to paint and play dress up.
Creativity in a child is expressed when a box becomes a train car, a pile of sand becomes a castle or a colored picture becomes a precious gift.
Now they are teenagers and their artwork that was hung on the refrigerator, has been replaced, with basketball, baseball, and swim schedules.
Like us, they have been socially conditioned out of their creativity. Our creativity has been compartmentalized.
As adults, it’s necessary to remove the blocks that keep us from expressing our creativity or denying that it exists at all.
When creativity isn’t allowed to resurface in your work and play, life becomes stale and stagnant, we become the living dead.
What if we put as much time in our creativity as we do other things? What if we had a journal or a sketchbook in every bedroom instead of a television?
What if we carried around our pen and notebook or paintbrush and easel like we do our cell phones?
When you unleash your creativity, a whole new world opens at your feet. The sun becomes brighter and the birds sing louder. Like a child running free at recess, you laugh, run, and explore, thrilled to be alive.
You can feel your blood pulsating in your body, and your heart beats to the temp of nature. Beautiful as a butterfly, you flit from one activity to another leaving your unique stamp on everything you touch.
In the book Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, the Queen tells Alice she believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
If you believed in six impossible things before breakfast what would they be? Please take the time to reflect on your answer. The world needs your unique stamp on life. Believe again. Dream again. Create again.
The following are ways to get in the flow of your creative juices:
- Try a new restaurant or at least a new item on the menu.
- Ride your bike or walk to work one day a week.
- Rearrange the furniture in your home. Gain a new perspective.
- Wear an unusual color. It’s OK to stand out.
- Try a new coffee shop. Get out of your rut.
- Learn something that you know nothing about; a language, car mechanics, jewelry making.
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Every small out-of-the-ordinary thing you do counts.
- Go to the zoo and focus on the color of the animals.
- Visit the Farmer’s Market and concentrate on the smells.
- Take pictures of ordinary scenes in your neighborhood.
- Produce a video with a friend. You can be the star of the show.
- Focus on the smiles of the people around you. Everyone’s is unique.
- Observe a tree. Write down 25 words that describe the tree. If the tree could talk what would it say?
- Write a letter on stationary. Tell someone what they mean to you. Mail it.
- Replace your television with water colors, pastels or pen and ink.
- Dance. Put on your favorite music and just dance!
- Spend time under the night sky, watching the stars and the moon.
- Plan and plant a garden. Try new fruits and vegetables. Be brave.
- Create a card and send it to a friend. Use card stock, quotes, and bright colored markers.
- Become a tourist in your own city. Look at everything with fresh eyes.
- Attend a Broadway show. Experience the actors live.
- Take an acting class at your community theater.
- Plan a scavenger hunt. Invite your neighbors to participate.
- Sit in front of a mirror and draw a self-portrait.
- Learn a magic. Invite children to be your live audience.
- Learn calligraphy. It’s beautiful when it’s done by hand.
- Create a bucket list of things you want to do before you die.
- Plan a vacation. Go somewhere you’ve never been before.
- Take a train to another city. Daydream as you watch the world go by.
- Try out a new recipe. Get out of the rut of using the same recipes and eating the same food.
Tess Marshall is a speaker, author, fear shattering, calculated risk taker, obsessed with being loving, peaceful, and bold. Her blog, The Bold Life is a juicy mix of inspiration, spirituality, and personal development. Download for free her eBook, “Peace, Love, and Connection” and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.
Thank you, Tess, for this great list! I can imagine that even doing one of the things on the list could spur a series of creative actions … sometimes just as simple as doodling on a piece of paper. Doodle, and doodle some more …. as long as it feels good!
I just got home from my monthly Healing Touch meeting. So grateful to spend the evening with so many amazing people! Glad your post was here holding down the fort for me!
Love,
Jane
Jane Rochelle recently posted..31 Ways to Spark Your Creativity – A Guest Post from Tess Marshall
Jane,
I’m grateful to be part of such an amazing and talented creative do-ers! I’m inspired by your art, healing touch, and the love you share so freely. Thanks for being in my life.xoxo
Tess The Bold Life recently posted..How My Drug Addicted Daughter Found a Miracle
Hi Tess, I loved this post. This really resonated with me: “When creativity isn’t allowed to resurface in your work and play, life becomes stale and stagnant, we become the living dead.”
I loved all your ideas for shaking things up, especially the scavenger hunt and taking pictures of ordinary scenes in our neighborhood. It’s so easy to miss the beautiful things that live right under our noses, and so rewarding when we pay attention to them.
Dave recently posted..Whole Life Creativity: Rituals and Doors
Dave,
Yes it’s easy to miss what’s under our nose. I’m going back to MI this weekend and I’m taking photos of my old home town. I’ll probably be amazed by things I’ve never noticed.
Thanks for your kind words.
Tess The Bold Life recently posted..9 Awesome Personal Development Bloggers Give Away Their Best
What a great topic.
For years, from age 21 – 27 I thought I wasn’t creative! I was heavily involved in moving up the corporate ladder and thought I had found my life’s work (sounds crazy now). Those were the unhappiest years of my life. All I did was work crazy long hours.
Something clicked though as I approached 28 and started writing again. I thought I was just indulging in my childhood “hobby” but, it turned out I was exercising my long atrophied writing muscle. When I was 35 I couldn’t stand the corporate world anymore and quit and went back to school to focus on writing. Now, I can’t live without this creative outlet.
Thank you Tess for all the great ideas you’ve shared with us to spark are creativity!
Angela Artemis/Poweredbyintuition recently posted..Thoughts Are The Building Blocks of Life
Hi Angela,
I agree my 20′s were’nt easy either. And I did love my 30′s and it was all uphill from there! Yes the creative outlet of writing is awesome! You have a wonderful gift and I’m glad you’re writing forever!
Tess The Bold Life recently posted..9 Awesome Personal Development Bloggers Give Away Their Best
Wonderful post Tess! Creativity frees our spirit and our mind. It releases resistance and connects us to all things possible – it lifts us higher and opens possibilities.
I love your list of ways to spark creativity – there is definitely something for everyone is this list. The door to ones creativity will vary from person to person but we all have access. – Such a luscious list of suggestions!!!!
:)
Aileen | Kaizen Vision recently posted..Creating Affirmations That Work
Aileen,
Yes we only have to open the door to creativity for it to come pouring in. We are blesses beyond measure to be able to have the time to do so.
Tess The Bold Life recently posted..9 Awesome Personal Development Bloggers Give Away Their Best