#creative muscle

[kntxt]

Never being bored = never using your imagination

Never using it = losing it

Allow yourself to be bored. More importantly, allow your kids to be bored.

This is how to train the muscle of coming up with something from nothing.

[sohaibsmart]

8 Creativity Prompts I Swear By to Get You Out of a Rut | Wit & Delight

Picture by Stephanie Sunberg for Maria Stanley Initially revealed in October 2021 Loads of specialists will clarify the advantages of each day creativity. This at all times used to baffle me a bit, as a result of I as soon as thought creativity was a sense or a mind-set that might simply magically present up, a spontaneous sense of inspiration price seizing. Over time, I’ve realized that…

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[launderground]

GAVLYN + DJ HOPPA : CREATIVE MUSCLE

[valoriedouglas]

Developing Creative Muscle

Creativity is a skill, and like other skills it can grow or atrophy depending on how it is used or not. There is a tremendous market for all things craft and creativity related: beautiful papers, paints, markers, kits, coloring books, journals, stencils, shape cutters, embellishments, albums, beads, baubles, and upcycled items. There’s magazines and podcasts and websites and blogs committed to amazing DIY creative projects. Pinterest! Etsy! YouTube! With all these terrific and low cost resources for building creative muscle, why should it ever get flabby?

 I can think of a couple answers: time and expectations. Creative projects take time, and for many of us, it’s not just the time of doing the project, it’s the time of gathering supplies and deciding what to do, and really, isn’t there something else we should be doing? On top of that is the feeling that the output doesn’t justify the time invested; this is where expectations can be a bummer. If I paint for two hours, what do I have to show for it? Certainly not that stunning artwork I saw a friend share on Instagram. Stories? Poems? Oh my, the inner critic says, these are not good.

 Remind the inner critic that perfection is not the point. Excellence or even proficiency is not the point. The point is to do it, to let go and keep that hand moving. It can be terrible stuff; who cares? Creativity is not something that - POOF - appears to the lucky; it is grown by the determined and exercised to remain strong. There are many ways to be creative, and some may be more active than others (think dancing or performing), but all share a joy of creation and deliberate presence. Yes, I am here! Yes, I am letting something of my inner vision shape my external world! Yes, yes, yes!

So with that being said, here’s some ideas:

Draw a picture – if you’ve never sketched before, start with step by step instructions using simple shapes like the Lee J. Ames series or Ed Emberley

Start a “moving hand” journal – open to a page and doodle, paste pictures and phrases from magazines, throw in a flower, a leaf, a ticket stub; let your hands move and NO CRITIQUING

Find a poem written the day you were born. Write a response

Paint a rainbow with childrens’ watercolor paints

Gather some paint sample sheets and match colors to the sky, to different trees, to your favorite flower….

Plant some seeds. If tiny plants do appear, it feels like magic

Wear headphones while you do chores around the house and samba while you sweep

Reread one of your favorite childhood books. Have a discussion with one of the characters 10 years after the story ends

When you buy a used book, imagine the life it had before it came to you

Identify 10 colors each day. Make up a name or two

My latest creative projects are collages and other card designs. I’m making “one a day” calendar stacks to celebrate creative works and designs for some of my favorite topics (science, art, literature). You can find these and more on my website: http://www.ofgoodcheer.com/GiftCenter.html and http://www.ofgoodcheer.com/GetCreative.html

One a days:

Spectacular science:

The artist’s eye:

Lovely literary:

[threadless]

5 Easy Self-Care Tips to Recharge Your Creative Mind - Threadless Blog

Every creative has experienced mental burnout from time to time. The struggle is real. And fellow Chicagoan, yogi, and creative Gina Martirano gave us some easy self-care tips to help recharge the creative batteries.

[rockyroark]

Personal Work | Exercising Your Creativity for Yourself and No One Else.

Something that I’ve begun to realize more and more recently is that we, as creatives, tend to forget why we do what we do. In this day and age we tend to get stuck in the trap of creating only for clients and not ourselves. I would find myself saying “Oh I’ll spend this weekend creating a few new illustrations!” The weekend would come and I created nothing. My creativity was being used but not properly exercised. I was creating day in and day out but I was going beyond “the call of duty” and creating things for myself, only clients.

Recently, I began picking up freelancing again. This brings the same challenges of flexing your creative muscles but not properly exercising them. Don’t get me wrong, I love client work (whether is freelance or work from my day job). Sometimes though you need to find time to exercise your creativity and even (more importantly) your imagination.

What I find is that if I spend an hour or so a night just simply creating my own ideas/visions then my creativity flows stronger each day in my other ventures. Your creativity isn’t just a bottomless well that you can pull from at will. It is a muscle that you have to exercise often to keep up it’s strength.

So the lesson to learn from my ranting is that when ever you can, take some time and create something for yourself. (:

Personal Work | Exercising Your Creativity for Yourself and No One Else. was originally published on Rocky Roark