Now that we are almost into the middle of March, so many people have been reflecting on what this month was like last year. I was going to write about my take on this reflection but am instead taking a bit of a different direction. The truth is, we all don’t need another reminder that COVID has been around for an entire year and that for all of us life has looked different and is still not normal (whatever that means right?). So I’m not going to do that-instead I’m going to share with you how to get in touch with your creative side, from my perspective of course.
Last May was when this website officially went live and I began calling myself a “blogger”. It was around this time though that I began doing some soul searching to come up with a name, and really a vision for what this could be. I remember how amazing it felt to go from being someone who had big dreams that seemed to be in the distant future, to becoming someone who was really taking action on those dreams. Around Easter, I found myself extremely upset that my mom had to cancel her visit to see us (yes, because of COVID). I did everything I could to focus on my wellness and take care of myself. I got in touch with my creative side more than I ever had before. And during a weekend spent camping in our backyard, I came across the name that was the ultimate definition for my vision of life, Start Going Further.
Over the last several months, I’ve found what ways work best for me to get in touch with my creative side. If you do anything creative in life I’m sure you can agree that there is no better feeling than being in that perfect creative zone and mindset where the ideas/creativity just keep flowing. I’ve been there several times before, and sometimes I haven’t taken advantage of it-then later wondered how I could get back to it. For me, the top three things that have helped are solitude, timing, and consistency. Let’s unpack these.
Solitude
Getting in touch with your creative side requires spending time in solitude. This has become so apparent to me recently. I’ve realized that so many of my greatest ideas or most creative moments come from bits of solitude. The clarity that silence can bring cannot go unnoticed. For me this can happen on a run or sitting on my yoga mat, but wherever doesn’t matter as much as I am focusing on the stillness in my mind. The key to this is eliminate other distractions such as the tv, talking on the phone, music, etc. You need to quiet and slow your mind. By doing this you are giving your mind the opportunity to process/create new ideas that you didn’t even know you had.
Timing
You can’t always control when creative ideas will come to you, and I’ve made the mistake several times of thinking “oh, I will remember that later” or not fully realizing how important an idea I had was. When you’ve got ideas that come to mind, do whatever you can to take advantage of these moments. You may not be able to sit down and actually write or really work through these ideas, but what can you do to ensure these ideas do not get lost? For me on a run, if some ideas come to mind for blog post topics or anything important I will type them out in the notes app of my phone. I do this throughout the day as well, and it’s been really crucial for me to not lose any ideas.
Consistency
When do you work best? For me, I haven’t given myself the space to think through this. Lately, at nighttime right before bed is whenI’ve been doing a lot of writing. I try to not go to bed with screens and have designated times where I write, but the reality is allowing myself to get out all of my thoughts/make progress on my Ebook or an upcoming blog post has actually gave me more peace at the end of the night. Force yourself to be consistent with your creative time because creativity is a lot like a muscle. When I’ve ignored my creativity for several days I find it even harder to pick it back up. However, striving for doing a little bit of work nearly every day has immensely increased my creative output.
In the Spirit of Adventure,
Demie