Tap into Your Creativity

I believe we are all creative beings. Just by our existence alone we create conditions which effects our world around us. Our behavior, words, and temperament creates how things, people and our actions reflect back on us. It can’t be helped. We, by nature are creators.

What do I mean? Aren’t only artists, writers, actors and so on, are the creative people. No. I’m saying all people are creative, they just haven’t honed or acknowledge the creative process they are engaged in on a daily basis.

People in creative fields have learned how to acknowledge and practice tapping into their creativity process, and I believe everyone can and should do the same. The benefit of taking a creative approach to life leads to better problem-solving, life enriching experiences, and a fuller life.

Not to diminish creativity to a step-by-step recipe, but let me offer these guidelines as a starting point:

Keep an open mind

Take the blinders off, dismiss your own beliefs and question your own motivations. To find a new solution, idea or approach means you have to think in new ways, and that means letting go of patterns of thought. It’s as hard or easy as you make it. Look at a child draw, on how they approach a drawing. They don’t think of line quality, composition, realism or color theory, they just draw by gut feeling. They let go of their beliefs of how the world looks and let their creativity flow freely.

“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. - Picasso”

Break habits

Its easy to do things the same way. Break your patterns, your daily routine. Listen to different music, read a book in a different genre or try eating eating something new once a week. Expose yourself to new cultures and discover how and why things are done differently. Learn something no one would ever expect you to try. In other words, get out your comfort zone.

Be positive

The right attitude makes all the difference. Nothing kills creativity like a negativity. In some ways, having a negative attitude is a defense mechanism. Its a feeling or manner that is not constructive, and cooperative, and in order for creativity to grow, it needs optimism.

““If you don’t try at anything, you can’t fail… it takes back bone to lead the life you want” - Richard Yates”

Fail

Failure is a requirement. If you don’t fail it means you’re staying safe and thinking too much. Often the best ideas come from failure and experimentation. Consider all the options and see the bigger picture. If you need to get the elephant out of the room, you can’t do it if you’re only holding the tail. you need to see the whole elephant before you can push it through the door key hole. You may fail at first but eventually, you’ll find your creative power.

Do it again

Doing it again sounds like you’re forming a habit and it’s true, but you’re new habit is you bringing you to live a creative life. It’s a scary thing to live without a safety net, but once you get used to it, you’ll find yourself leading a fuller life!

On a personal note, a friend saw that I had become frustrated and negative. To help me break out of it, she suggested I try “The Artist Way” workbook. I thought it was worth a try. The end result, it launched me to writing my memoir.