Creative people are happier, healthier, and more fulfilled.
Try these practices to bring more creativity and inspiration into your life!
- Dreams – Your nighttime dreams are a natural source of inspiration and intuition. Keep a journal by your bedside to record the images, feelings, and stories that come through your dreams. You can even ask your dreams for guidance, ideas, healing, and insight.
- Synchronicity – In addition to a nighttime journal, keep a record of daytime “coincidences.” Does a friend say out loud the thoughts you’re thinking? Do you find yourself noticing the same numbers on clocks, license plates, street addresses? Does a particular song come on the radio just when you’re humming it? These patterns can alert you to pay attention to what’s happening in your mind.
- Do something new – It can be easy to fall into habits that keep our mind lethargic. Do something new every day. It can be simple, like trying a new food, driving a different way to work, talking to a person you’ve never met before. Pay attention to how much you learn by being curious and exploring.
- Silence – Spend an hour a day in silence. You might go for a walk in nature, sit quietly in meditation or just enjoy the silence. You may be surprised at how relaxing it can be. Notice the impressions that come to you: thoughts, feelings, ideas, and inspiration.
- Explore your senses – Look for ways to experience the joy of the senses. Go outside and listen to the wind, the birds, the rustle of leaves. Smell flowers, trees, baking bread, or spices. Taste new foods (you can combine this with #3!) See how many different ways you can view a scene; for example, go to the same place at sunrise, mid-day, sunset, and after dark. Touch different fabrics or try on clothing made of different fabric to feel the textures.
- Make something – Being creative encompasses much more than making “art.” Experiment with putting two or more things together: combine different foods to make a new dish. Collect objects from nature and put them together into a sculpture. Cut out inspirational words and pictures from magazines and make a collage. Take empty boxes and make a sculpture, a dollhouse, cover it with fabric and use it to hold sewing supplies, cover it with colorful duct tape and use it to hold tools or odds and ends. The possibilities are endless!
- Discover something new where you are – Look for something new in your environment. Go for a walk and see something new in your neighborhood. Clean out a closet or a drawer and find something you didn’t know was there. Have a conversation with someone you know well and learn something new about him or their history, their beliefs, their loves.
To learn more about how to live a creative and purposeful life, contact Laurel Clark at laurel@laurelclark.com for private mentoring, creative workshops, and 90-day programs.
Copyright by Laurel Clark Creations and Whole Life Resources, www.laurelclark.com