The Shed Notebook: Need A Creativity Boost?

Recently I did a talk to at a PEO meeting about creativity. After a long winter and a spring starting out with rain and gray skies, I hoped to provide a little seasonal boost to the audience. Yes, we are all creative. Go forth and follow your muse. You might find somethink on the list to spark your creativity.

According to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention "creativity is the vivid expression of who we are in the world—our imagination begets our thoughts, our thoughts beget our words, our words beget our actions, our actions beget our experience, our collective experience and expression begets our culture. Each of us is contributing to the creation of the cultures we participate in."

The world is not divided into two groups of the creative and the uncreative. If there’s a distinction, it’s between those who are creatively productive and those with unexpressed potential. We’re creative by default. We’re genetically predisposed to create. Each of us, to varying degrees, is intrinsically motivated to create, to be original and to solve challenging problems. The question to ask is not, “Am I creative?” but rather, “What inspires me to create?”

Sometimes we are just not inspired to be creative.

Here is a list you can turn to when you want to spark creativity in your day.

Journal

Carry a camera or your phone and take photos

Spend time with a group for the purpose of creating what you love

Coloring and/or doodling

Create something with your hands

Do yoga

Unplug and just do nothing

Try something new: a new recipe, a new stitch, new pattern, new route walking

Allow yourself to have fun

Browse in a fabric shop, yarn store, book store,  pottery shop, or art museum

Create plants into beautiful arrangements in pots or garden beds.