3 Ways to Spark Creativity
Whatever our creative interests, we’re all unique in our talents. Moreover, we all have our own ways of sparking creativity. Whether it happens accidentally or on purpose, a little inspiration can be just the thing to turn wide open that spigot of creative flow. Here are three ways to jumpstart creativity, whether you’re a musician, painter, writer, inventor, or anything else!
1. Go Outside
The best ideas often come when you’re not sitting around trying to think them up. It doesn’t matter where you live or work – your mind just needs a change of scenery in order to get going. You could be glamping at your favorite national park, commuting on a scenic train, or walking down your street … it doesn’t matter. Staying still in one place is not good for a brain which is hungry for a change of scenery.
If you make it about being in nature, there’s the undeniable relationship between creative output and the natural world. We’re planning a whole other blog post about that. For now, suffice it to say: go outside!
2. Refer to the Greats
Do you have some favorite artists you read, listen to, or enjoy watching? Perhaps there’s a favorite writer, musician, or actor who captivates you and commands your attention in a meaningful way. When you need to jumpstart creativity, why not dig through his/her work and dissect aspects of the work you really like? Tap into the mechanics by writing down what you observe. Take the time to drill down and get detailed. Later you can read through your notes and – bam! – you never know what might come up for you just by having done this exercise. Apart from the fundamentals and analysis of the body of work, tap into the feelings, the emotions, and the sentiments that the work stirs around for you. Think about how you felt when you read a certain book, watched a certain movie, or danced to a beloved ballad. That emotional response of awe and joy could be just the push you need to spark creativity.
3. Pay Attention to your Dreams
As weird and nonsensical as your dreams may seem, they often contain nuggets of your unconscious mind. If you’re the kind of person who remembers dreams regularly, consider keeping a dream journal of sorts (either in a book or on your phone or on a laptop) and refer back to those notes when you’re lacking that creative spark. If you’re going to record your dreams, be sure to do them as soon as you wake up, when your dreams are freshest. I often write out my dreams on my laptop without stopping to think about the meaning of what I’m writing – I just let all the words, phrases and images pour onto the page unfiltered to get the dream down with as much detail as possible. It’s useful (and entertaining) when I go back to the journal months later and see what I wrote. I almost always come away with a different set of thoughts around the dreams than at the time I dreamt them. Sometimes I get song ideas from these passages. It may sound silly, but tapping into your sleeping mind can really enlighten your awakened mind and jumpstart creativity!