27 Jan 7 Steps to Conscious Creativity
Break out of your established patterns, illuminate your life with imagination, and look at your world in whole new ways. These 7 steps are sure to get your creative juices flowing!
1. Seek Variety
“Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns
in order to look at things in a different way.”
-Edward de Bono
“Variety is the spice of life.” Shaking things up can expand your perspective, allowing you to experience things in an entirely new way. For many people, new experiences are an ultimate source for creativity. Fresh perspectives open your mind, leaving plenty of room for creation. So go on… give your days some flavor.
Try this: Build in ‘fluff time’ to your daily schedule to allow yourself to get curious along the way. Take a different route home from work, or a different running trail and pay attention to the ‘newness’ around you. Be aware of what’s going on around you and get in on the fun. Incoropate change and variety into your life, and watch yourself open and expand.
2. Pick up a pen (or whatever your tool is)
“You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.”
-Ray Bradbury
“To begin, begin.” This is the key to getting started with a creative project. Remember – It isn’t a business plan or a to-do list. It’s a journey of self-expression, and in order to go deep you simply have to start digging.
Try this: Next time you want to ‘create’, simply pick up your tool and begin. Whether it’s doodling, brain dumping, or splashing paint all over a canvas (and the walls and floor) let yourself go. No inhibitions, no hesitations – just pure creation.
3. Express (and accept) yourself!
“Another word for creativity is courage.”
-George Prince
So many times the idea of expressing ourselves is appealing, but the act can be daunting. Many of us judge our work before we even get it onto paper, for fear of how others will see it, or what it will mean once it’s out. This is the surest way to kill an idea before it’s even born. The essence of creativity is uninhibited self-expression. We must allow ourselves to open up, exactly as we are, and fearlessly create from the deepest source within us.
Try this: As you begin a project, fully acknowledge and understand that you are creating for your OWN sake, and no one elses. You don’t have to share the end result with anyone – it’s exists just for you. Commit to “dancing as if no one is watching.” Then begin, and pour everything you are into it.
4. Get it all out
“Sometimes you’ve got to let everything go – purge yourself.
If you are unhappy with anything,
whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it.
Because you’ll find that when you’re free
your true creativity – your true self – comes out.”
-Tina Turner
Creation comes from emotion. It is one of the purest forms of self-expression. When you have something inside of you use it in your art – release it. Allow yourself to leave it all on the table – squeeze out every last drop. Free yourself, and be amazed by what you produce in the process.
Try this: Give yourself freedom of time and space with your next creative project. If that means staying up late after the kids go to bed, then so be it. Limitations can hinder imagination. So don’t limit yourself. Sometimes freedom can be the key to freeing creativity.
5. Use your body
“Emotion comes from motion.”
-Tony Robbins
Emotion is the body’s language. Learn to speak it. Generate movement in your body and your life. Wake up to yourself. Use your being to create motion and generate emotion. Then express those feelings.
Try this: Throw yourself a solo dance party. Turn on some of your favorite music and completely let go. Just move. Let the energy build inside you and feel yourself moving with the beat. Feel the motion creating emotion inside yourself.
6. Turn on the tunes
“Music and rhythm find their way into the secret place of the soul.”
-Plato
Music connects us with a deeper part of ourselves. It wakes us up to our experience and can completely change our state of being. We can use music to tap into the depths of our thoughts, emotions and imagination.
Try this:Give your life a soundtrack. Give yourself a reason to crank up some noise, move your body and let out your voice. Whether at work, in the car, painting, or cleaning, put your whole life to a beat.
7. “If you have nothing to create, create yourself.”
“Our imagination flies. We are its shadow on the Earth.”
-Vladimir Nabokov
Maybe you’re not the greatest painter, writer or chef. But the beauty of life (especially a consciously designed one) is that you CAN be. Anything your mind can imagine your mind can create. You can choose to implement something into your life, and make it a practice. You are a Lifebook Member – consciously creating yourself IS a practice! So let your imagination fly, and learn to become its shadow…
Try this: Identify some creative endeavours that you enjoy. Forget about whether you’re “good“ at them or not. The purpose of art is to get in touch with a deeper part of yourself. What methods do you feel allow you to do that? List some of them, and begin practicing them on a regular basis.
Do you have another “tip for conscious creativity?”
How do you connect with your source? What are your greatest creative talents, and how do you harness them to continually imrpove your life? What does creativity mean to you?
Share your thoughts with the Lifebook community by posting a comment below!