Eight Ways To Get Your Creative Juice Flowing

People often treat creativity as something you are born with. Artists are called 'talented' more often than 'skilled.' Luckily, this is not the case. Anyone can learn to be creative with some effort and time. Here are some easy tips to get you started!

1. BE CURIOUS

Ask a lot of questions about everything. Research and investigate stuff you're not familiar with. Always ask yourself why something is the way it is, or how something can be used differently, or how something can be improved. A creative person wants to learn about everything because they never know what will inspire them.

2. DOODLE

Doodling is a quick and easy way to boost creativity. You don't need any special tools, and you can do it anywhere. It has been proven that doodling helps improve focus, so you can do it while brainstorming ideas, while learning something, or even during work meetings. Keep a sketchbook with you at all times and doodle!

3. WRITE

Writing improves thinking, and it encourages you to think deeper about concepts. It doesn't really matter what you write. You can start a journal or a blog. You can write short stories and fiction. Your writing and ideas will improve with time. If the idea of writing makes you feel overwhelmed, try writing flash fiction. Flash fiction stories are only 100 words long, so no one can say that it's out of their league.

4. TAKE A CLASS

Learning something new will put you out of your comfort zone and expand your worldview. You can sign up for art classes, such as pottery, painting, or playing an instrument. You can expand your horizons by learning a new language. Or you can combine creativity with practicality and take a cooking class. There are a lot of options!

5. DECLUTTER YOUR SPACE

Your environment plays a great role in creativity.

Being surrounded by too much clutter can ruin your concentration and focus and kill your creativity. Before you start working on anything you should make sure that your environment is clean and free of unnecessary things. On the other hand, having a creative mess (being surrounded by inspirational objects) is completely fine and can be beneficial.

6. PLAY GAMES

Video games get a bad reputation sometimes, but playing them can actually help with things like concentration, spatial skills, problem-solving, inspiration, and many others. Of course, it's important to choose the right games. Interactive games, such as Wii Sports and Dance Dance Revolution are the most recommended, however, you won't be wrong if you choose a game with strategy and puzzle elements.

7. GO BACK TO NATURE

Nature always served as an inspiration to the artistic and the scientific minded people alike. Spending time in nature is very refreshing and calming for the mind, especially if you spend a lot of time in the city or indoors. Nature is also very varied; it's colorful, it's both simple and complex and something is always happening.

8. USE YOUR HANDS

Making something with your hands is active and very rewarding. There are a lot of options to choose from. You can try pottery, woodworking or sculpting. If you're crafty, you can knit or sew. If all these sound overwhelming, you can even build something with Legos, or have fun with some Play-Doh.

If you would like to chat online with me, I'm available most days during the daytime. Don't hesitate to reach out to me to discuss how to get creative.

Always with love and gratitude,

Ane Howard