Blog for Self Improvement

All of us who create go through phases of feeling blocked, stuck or uninspired. If we don’t create for a while, whether it’s 10 hours or 10 years, it’s easy to soon get caught up in negative mental cycles and paralyse our creativity further.

We’ve no doubt all experienced the paradox of knowing that the solution is just to create and yet creating is also the problem!

So here are 5 gentle steps you could take to get your creativity flowing again:

1. Write spontaneously for an hour. Whether writing is your major creative outlet or not, sit down somewhere you won’t be disturbed for at least an hour with a pen and paper and just write.

“I couldn’t think what to write” I can hear you cry! Just write and ideas will flow, even if you start by writing a page of lines saying “I can’t think what to write!”, the process will at some level unlock your creativity and give you permission to be more creative and imaginative. Write without stopping for an hour if you can. Make it 30 minutes as an absolute minimum.

2. Visit somewhere completely different. Somewhere you’ve never been to before. It could be somewhere connected with the arts and creativity like a gallery or exhibition. It could be a building or monument you’ve always wanted to go to. It could be somewhere deep in nature, such as in a forest or up in the mountains, or simply your local park or nature reserve.

Wherever you choose, make it somewhere that will give you a major change of scenery from where you are right now. Somewhere that will stimulate and energise you and give you, even for a few moments, a completely fresh outlook on the world.

3. List all your positive achievements. It can be easy to forget and overlook all that we achieve in our lives, or dismiss them saying “ah it’s nothing, anyone could’ve done that.” Yet each of us are unique and have our own combination of creative abilities.

Make a list of every possible thing you can think of that you’ve done that’s creative. Start with the bigger events that instantly come to mind, or alternatively start by listing everything you did yesterday that was creative, from the simplest things - like making a meal, the way you dressed or an idea you had - upwards.

4. Be a camera. Go somewhere where there’s plenty to see and use your eyes as if you were a camera taking pictures all around you. Adopt the attitude that inspiration is in the tiny details. Imagine you have to document a scene in pictures as thoroughly as possible, catching every last subtle feature and element.

Spend at least an hour gathering pictures in your mind. Then, remove yourself from the scene and write and/or draw as much as you can remember.

5. Create a powerful future vision. Either through writing, drawing, painting or any other medium you choose, create a vision of how your creative life is going to be in your wildest dreams in 3, 5 or 10 years time.

Pick a future date and write from then in the present tense as if you’re there already. Be bold, daring and imaginative, cram in as much detail as you can. Describe where you’ll live, who you’ll be with, what you’re days will be spent doing, what you’re creative achievements have been and connect yourself with it as fully as you can.

Any of these techniques can help to get your creativity flowing again, try them all and see which works best for you. The one thing they all have in common is they’re about taking action and doing something different. So next time you’re feeling your creativity is in crisis, be brave, take a positive new action and see how soon your creativity flows again...

© Copyright 2006 Dan Goodwin

By: Dan Goodwin

Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

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