Creativity Is For Everyone
How to tap into your own creative spark
Hi there, friend! What does the word “creativity” mean to you? Do you consider yourself a creative person? Why or why not?
Although I’ve always identified as a creative person, I now realize my definition of creativity was very limited for most of my life.
For many of us, the word “creativity” brings to mind works of artistic expression—paintings, sculpture, novels, poetry, dance, pottery, musicals, plays, architecture, and so on. My idea of creativity lived entirely in this sphere for a long time. I thought of creativity as a special gift bestowed to artistic types. I considered myself a creative person because I’ve always loved making art and making up stories.
Then Elizabeth Gilbert utterly shattered my precious notion of creativity. When I read her wonderful book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear for the first time several years ago, Gilbert’s frank words gave me a revelation that felt startling at the time but—in hindsight—now seems clear as day:
“To even call somebody ‘a creative person’ is almost laughably redundant; creativity is the hallmark of our species,” Gilbert says. And she goes on to state very simply, “If you’re alive, you’re a creative person. You and I and everyone you know are descended from tens of thousands of years of makers. Decorators, tinkerers, storytellers, dancers, explorers, fiddlers, drummers, builders, growers, problem-solvers, and embellishers—these are our common ancestors.”
At first, I confess, I felt selfish disillusionment: I’m not as special as I thought. However, the more I considered Gilbert’s universal classification of creativity, the more I understood that this innate human quality makes every single one of us special, and there is enough specialness for everybody.
Now my definition of creativity is much more expansive. I think of this quality simply as the willingness to seek new perspectives.
Whether we’re searching for the solution to a problem, striving to make ends meet, or aspiring to make something beautiful, tapping into creativity helps us achieve results we wouldn’t be able to obtain by doggedly following the same well-worn principles, habits, and routines.
What if you’re not sure what creativity looks like for you? In this second installment of my series on unpacking the gifts of slowing down, I’ll share a few ideas that may help get your own creative juices flowing.
(You can read the first post in this series here. For brief descriptions of all the gifts, see my earlier posts, The Gifts of Slowing Down and More Gifts of Slowing Down.)
Practice being a beginner
Many of us tend to resist—consciously or subconsciously—situations in which we are completely ignorant. This is understandable. To encounter a new discipline or task we’re unfamiliar with can feel disorienting. Depending on the situation, our feelings of discomfort can range from unsettling to embarrassing to stressful. And yet it is this very disorientation that can catapult us into new insights, new problem-solving methods, even new versions of ourselves.
When was the last time you felt like a beginner? When did you last attempt to do something you’d never done before? Choose one new activity or skill that’s moderately challenging and give it a whirl.
Need some ideas? Well, if you’re the least bit curious about exploring any kind of art, I absolutely encourage you to do it! I’ve had so much fun and received a lot of personal fulfillment from dabbling in various artistic activities: drawing, fiction writing, poetry, singing, photography, beading, card making, paper collage tiles, etc. But you don’t have to make art to find your creative spark. And you don’t have to invest in an ongoing hobby. You can start small with a low commitment. How about signing up for a one-off cooking class or volunteering with a local nonprofit for one day? Maybe you can research and work on a minor home improvement project that can be done in one weekend.
As you’re doing this new activity, be as fully present as possible. Pay attention to your thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. How do you feel? Also take note of how you feel afterwards. Did you have fun? Did you get frustrated? Why or why not? What new skills or troubleshooting strategies have you learned? What did you learn about yourself that you didn’t notice before?
Put yourself in a new environment
When we work in the same environment, go to the same places, and take the same routes day after day, week after week, we tend to get stuck in a sensory rut. We stop paying attention to sights, sounds, scents, and tastes in our everyday experience. Sometimes our autopilot mode takes over so completely that our days begin to seem like a rerun of the same TV episode over and over again. I am all too familiar with this kind of rut!
If you’re in a sensory rut, challenge yourself to visit a new place you’ve never been to before. You can scale this challenge as big or small as you like, depending on your budget and sense of adventure; a Saturday afternoon jaunt to an unfamiliar part of your hometown or a weekend trip to a nearby destination can be just as enlightening as a two-week vacation to another country. What’s important is deliberately putting yourself in an unfamiliar place that feels foreign to you. The more unfamiliar the environment, the better. Keep your eyes, ears, and mind wide open as you explore. Take note of new sensations that arise for you. (If permitted, take some photos, too!)
Not sure where to go exploring? Search for a local restaurant that serves a cuisine you’ve never tried before. Bonus points if the menu is full of ingredients you don’t usually see at your favorite grocery store. Speaking of grocery stores, how about visiting a specialty ethnic market that sells imported food and home goods? Perusing aisles of produce, snacks, and kitchen items you’ve never seen—especially if the product labels are printed in a different language—can be as fascinating as going to an art museum. An art museum is often a go-to source of creative inspiration, but you can also visit a natural history or collectibles museum. Even exploring a different trail at your favorite park counts as uncharted territory if you engage your full attention.
After you return to your familiar surroundings, reflect on your outing. What’s fascinating or unusual about the new place you visited? Did you feel differently about yourself in this environment? How does this experience help you see your familiar surroundings—your home, your neighborhood, your workplace—with fresh eyes?
Listen to someone else
Spending too much time in our own well-worn thoughts can trap us in a mental rut. Not only does bouncing around the echo chamber of your head tend to obscure clarity, as I share in my previous post, but it also tends to block access to creativity.
When you’re tired of hearing yourself think, strike up a conversation with someone who can give you a fresh perspective. This person could be your best friend, spouse, partner, or family member. However, in my experience, talking to someone I don’t see all the time—a long-distance friend, a former co-worker, a neighbor down the street—reveals insights and inspire ideas I wouldn’t discover as easily from my nearest and dearest. Again, stepping even just a bit out of the familiar—in this case, away from your closest relationships—can ignite your creative spark by tapping into the part of your subconscious that thrives on variety.
While you’re spending time with this person, make a deliberate effort to listen more than you speak. For every comment you give, ask two questions to encourage the other person’s feedback. Pay attention not only to the words they’re saying, but also to the intonations of their voice, their body language, and their energy. What kinds of topics are they enthusiastic about? How does their perspective differ from yours? Where does it overlap?
After the conversation, reflect on what you observed. Are you able to see your current dilemma or burning question differently now? Sometimes I gain a fresh perspective on whatever has been bothering me even if I don’t actually mention it in conversation; simply listening to someone else speak from their experience can get me outside of my own echo chamber long enough to see my way forward.
Be still
Even when we manage to quiet our own minds, our fast-paced world with all its noise and busyness can often distract us from tapping into our unique creative sparks. Sometimes the best way to unlock your creativity is to be still—to simply pause and let the world keep spinning without you for a while.
Meditation is an effective practice for cultivating stillness, and if this works for you, I highly recommend it. But if you don’t find meditation helpful or appealing, you don’t have to sit in lotus position and close your eyes (although there are many other ways to meditate as well, so you might want to experiment with different methods). You can sit on a park bench, watching all the people and animals come and go. You can look out the window, letting your eyes wander and your mind drift. You can take a nap, allowing your subconscious to braid new connections and ideas while you rest. You can even go for a bike ride or dance in your room if motion helps you find a calm center away from the hustle and bustle of the world.
After practicing whatever form of stillness works for you, I recommend staying grounded in your body for a while. Don’t reflect or evaluate; simply return to what you were doing with a calm but heightened awareness. Let your creativity approach you in its own time.
Note: if your mind at first feels ambivalent or cloudy after practicing any of the other ideas above, don’t force an immediate self-evaluation. New ideas and insights will make their way to you when you’re not anxiously grasping for them.
How about you?
Have any of these practices helped you tap into your creative spark? What else sparks your creativity? What’s your favorite creative activity?
May you discover the practices that ignite your creative spark and inspire you to find new meaning in your everyday life. 🐌