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.
