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How to Tap Into Your Creativity and Ignite Your Creative Muse
Creativity often feels like an abstract concept, yet it’s a vital part of our human experience. It’s about bringing something new and unique into existence, something that has never existed before. Every person has a unique lens through which they view and experience the world. Creating and expressing yourself through the creative process allows you to share this perspective with others and discover who you truly are. Creativity is not about perfection; it’s about sharing who you are in this very moment.
When you view creativity as a journey of self-discovery and expression, you grant yourself the freedom to experiment, try new things, and release the pressure to create something perfect. Embrace creativity as a process, and you might be surprised at where it leads you and who you become along the way.
My Personal Journey with Creativity
Recently, I struggled with my own creativity a lot. I was exhausted from work, juggling multiple tasks every single day, striving for perfection, and spending my free time distracted. I leaned into my fears too much, didn’t allow myself to experiment, and put immense pressure on myself. I tried to control the creative process with my analytical mind, imposing limitations on what I thought I was “supposed” to create. I forgot to ask myself what I wanted to create and what brought me joy.
All this prevented me from enjoying the creative process. I didn’t allow myself to be still and create more silence and space in my life. Yet, I realized that the source of all great ideas comes from moments of rest and enjoyment. Have you noticed how great ideas often come when you least expect them, when you’re relaxed and present? You don’t need more inspiration or extraordinary events to start creating. Sometimes, the simplest things can trigger powerful creative ideas.
When you’re relaxed, present, and aware when you pay attention, you start to have all the greatest ideas. You don’t need to ‘’search for more inspiration’’, you don’t need more information, or have extraordinary things happening in your life to feel inspiration and start creating. Sometimes it’s the most mundane and simple thing that can trigger a thought, an emotion, a memory that is so powerful that you can’t help but need to express it through your creative work. But are you aware and present enough to notice it? Or do you distract yourself constantly, try to avoid boredom and constantly watch over your shoulder what somebody else is doing, instead of digging deeper into who you are and asking yourself what you really want to create?
Embracing Boredom Fall in love with what you create
Another thing that helped me is to let myself to be bored, be still, don’t try to search for distractions all the time and stimulate my mind constantly. When you create more stillness in your life, ideas often appear in your head spontaneously, without effort, without you having to force anything.
I have a difficult time dealing with boredom myself. I often seek distractions, but now I’m learning to sit with my boredom and be aware when it happens. I believe that without boredom, there is no creativity. Allow yourself to be bored, be present, and don’t seek instant gratification. When you enjoy the process of creating, it reflects in your work and influences the end result. Your energy, state of mind, and presence shine through your creations, attracting and touching others.
How often we just create something with hopes to get somewhere, to receive the praise, the money, the recognition, which makes the process of creating itself so hard to enjoy. When you don’t enjoy the process itself, when you’re not vibing with yourself, it’s usually reflected in your creative work and influences the end result of your creative work. This directly influences your energy when you’re creating something, as your state, your energy usually shines through the things you create. And when I personally see a person who is so devoured by the process itself, so present, so open, I can’t help but be attracted and touched by the things that she creates. What about you? What makes you stop and enjoy somebody else’s creative work? Have you ever thought about it?
Nurture your energy and be aware
Nurture your inner self, and your energy, and pay close attention to how you feel when you’re creating. As it’s exactly this energy that will allow you to create something great. Your high energy state makes art inevitable and touches people around, even if they cannot sometimes explain logically what attracted them to your art in the first place. We would like to rationalize and analyze, and explain everything logically, but many things in our lives happen unconsciously and cannot always be explained logically.
Too often we try to control a creative process with out analytical mind, when in fact, your analytical mind has nothing to do with creativity, it can though, help you to bring something to life, once you start and act on your idea. I really like this idea, that I read for the first time in Elizabeth’s Gilbert book called “Big Magic”
– “All the ideas are already exciting in the universe, and it’s not you who are directly responsible to investing them. They come to you when you’re ready to receive them, very briefly, when you are aware, when you pay attention, when you’re present. And if you have an idea, but you don’t act on it, it will find somebody else who is ready to take action on it and bring it into life.”
I found that seeing all creative ideas this way allows you to detach yourself from the outcome. If your idea works out – great, but if it doesn’t it’s fine too, as it wasn’t completely your fault.
So if you’re constantly searching for ideas, and forcing a creative process it isn’t the best strategy for creativity, what should you do instead you might ask? Well, probably the best way will be to create more space for yourself, a space which is free from fear and limitations of your own mind, a space where you perceive all the information with delight, where you don’t compare it to what you already know or believe, where you don’t attach yourself to the story, but just stay open, curious, and constantly pay attention. As the biggest obstacle I believe of any creative work is your own mind, your fears and what you believe is possible for you to create.
Being constantly aware of what is happening outside and inside of yourself allows you to expand your perception of the universe. Awareness allows you to see the moment unfolding as it is, without attachment, without your trying to control it, forcing anything, but just be present and watch it. Being constantly aware can reveal so much more about the universe that you could have ever imagined before. It’s what can allow us to perceive and catch all the great ideas out there. Everything in your life can be a source of inspiration, a beautiful sky, a random conversation with a stranger, a memory, a weird shape of vegetables while you cook, an event that triggered some emotions in your body, a beautiful bird you notice randomly, your everyday rituals. You just need to be present enough to notice all this.
Be curious and experiment more
Be curious, and open to everything that is happening around you. Be open to new experiences, different perspectives, and unconventional ideas. Don’t attach yourself to stories, but try to perceive everything like a child, with an open mind and curiosity.
Play more, and discover who you are through the creative process. It can be an amazing path to self-growth and self-exploration. Sometimes without creating and expressing ourselves through our creative work, it’s not possible to find out who we really are.
Creativity is not about perfection, it’s about experimenting and trying new things. There are no right or wrong ways of creating something, there is just a way, and your perspective. Allow yourself the freedom to take risks and embrace the possibility of failure. It is through these experiences that you grow and refine your creative voice. You need to take action to bring something to life. Thinking about something, analyzing it, and rationalizing will never help you gain real experience and become a master of your craft or bring something to life.
Try new things and experiment to find out what you enjoy. What do you care about? What change do you seek to make in the world? What your values are? How would you like to impact the world in the positive way? Have you ever thought about it? As creative work is very personal, and even something you would like to create was already done by somebody else it was never done by you. Don’t limit yourself by thinking that everything was already created and that you have nothing to add. If you create something just for money or praise, if you just imitate what everybody else is doing it won’t be an authentic piece of creative work, I can guarantee you that! There are no rules, no exact blueprints, you create them.
Be a leader and express your ideas baldly
Be a leader. Lead yourself and lead others. It’s a pretty hard thing to do, cause nobody really teaches us how to be a leader. But if you want to be a powerful creator, you need to be a leader. You need to trust yourself, and your vision, believe in yourself and that you’re capable of bringing your creative vision to life. It’s your responsibility as a powerful creator.
Express your ideas, don’t hide. Often we would like so desperately to hide and not express what we really think about something. We would like to please everybody and be liked by everybody, which isn’t possible. What it does is that it creates a generic and faceless creative work that nobody will ever care about. If your creative work is for everybody, it’s for nobody. Your creative work in any case will be the reflection of you in some way, your perception of the world and your life’s experience which is unique to you. As there was never somebody like you and never will be. So why not to learn to embrace all of yourself, your story, and express your vision and ideas baldly without thinking how somebody else might react?
Make a creative process easy and be patient
Make the process as easy as possible. As sometimes seeing any kind of results might take you years. There will be hard times, times when you don’t know where you are doing, times when you doubt yourself and everything you’re doing, when you won’t know how to do something, and times when you feel lost. But often you need to step into the unknown to create more possibilities, cause if you keep doing what is familiar and known, nothing new can come from this.
Learn to be patient and sustain yourself on this journey. Don’t cling if something you create isn’t performing that well. Learn to let go, and pass to the next thing.
Final Thoughts
Creativity is a beautiful and transformative process that allows you to explore your innermost thoughts and express your unique perspective. It’s not about achieving perfection but about enjoying the journey of creation. By embracing boredom, staying present, and being open to new experiences, you can overcome creative blocks and find inspiration in everyday life.
Remember to trust yourself and your vision. Take action, experiment, and don’t be afraid to fail. Your creative work is a reflection of your personal experiences and unique perspective, which makes it valuable and authentic. Embrace your role as a leader in your creative journey, and be patient with yourself as you navigate the ups and downs of the creative process.
Thank you for joining me in this exploration of creativity. Feel free to share your creative process, struggles, and any creative blocks you’ve experienced. I’d love to hear from you.
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