Sometimes I get overwhelmed... in fact, if you have been reading this blog for any amount of time, you will see this is a re-occuring theme. Getting overwhelmed with the responsibilities and demands of being a grown up in this world is pretty common, I think.
Often times it is our creative desires that suffer and our creative work that we wish we could be spending time on that we spend no time on at all. Then, slowly & over time, we lose contact with that part of ourselves. We get so far beyond it before we realize that it has atrophied and has become something filed in the "Things I used to wish I could do" category of our lives. So, I got to thinking about the essence of being creative the other day. What if you took all of this complicated thinking and just boiled it on down to the easiest things I can do today to reconnect to that free-thinking & intuitive part of myself that keep me creative and hopeful. I thought, 'Hey, most things involve three parts. Any good "how-to" always seems to have three parts, so certainly this has a three parts as well!' So, here you are: The Top 3 Ways to Begin Nurturing Your Creativity Today 1. Dream Go for a walk, stare out the window, turn off your cell phone or leave it behind for the 15 minutes it takes to walk outside around your block or down the street. Be alone with yourself and let your mind wander. If you can get alone and just breathe and let your thoughts think, with no interruptions, even if it is just a few moments, do it! A few moments is better for your creativity then no moments. Give your dreams time to form and float and be in your brain again as opposed to being repressed or pushed aside. Give them and yourself the space you both need. 2. Jot it down Second, jot it down. I like to say this because it is a lot less pressure than saying journal or sketch or keep your sketchbook with you at all times. When I set these high pressure standards for myself of "all" or "all the time" or "always" I tend to freeze up and do "none". So when I use a low pressure term like "Jot it down", I am giving myself the space I need to be free with my creativity and to allow it to gently take root, even if my ideas are complex or farfetched or will take many steps or years to accomplish. The thing with 'jotting it down' is that it wont just live in your head and then fly away. Giving it some concrete-ness like words on a page is the first real step to bringing those creative dreams to fruition, especially if you had just been forgetting them and re-remembering them cyclically for years. 'Jotting it down' gives you a stepping stone on the path and keeps the wheels turning by giving you a place to build upon. 3. One Small Step So perhaps the first two steps have taken all of 20 minutes of your time. But you are feeling a little looser in the creativity department, a little more hopeful, a little freer and maybe a little more open. Now, figure out one small step. What could you do, just a little bit to bring those creative dreams into reality today? Is it research? Is it getting a book from the library? Is it buying some vegetable seeds to plant? Is it drawing up a garden plan? What is the smallest first step you can take to get you on that path? Just think of one tiny one. Don't make it too much, or you will not do it, just enough to get you going. One. Small. Step. So, there you have it, the essence. The boiled down goodness. The root. What you can do today to begin nurturing your creativity. These are my touch stones and I always go back to them, especially if I am in a rut or if I am in a transition into a new project or am tired and overworked... I go outside and take a walk or find a nice sunny spot to sit and stare. After my mind has had some time to unwind and detangle, I jot down a few notes. Maybe just a word or two. Then, I think of one tiny thing to do to move it all along a bit. Maybe it is ask a friend for help or read a book about what I need to learn more about, whatever it is it moves me ahead a bit, slowly but surely and most certainly sustainably. Happy Art Nurturing! -Court
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