In Monday’s blog post I posed the question, how do you nurture your creativity? Today I think it’s only fair I share with you how I nurture my own creativity, in case it might give you some ideas you hadn’t thought of. 

So here’s a list of my favorite ways to nurture my creative self and cultivate inspiration, in no particular order.

Nature. I think many of us creative types share a sense of wonder at the beauty of nature, whether it’s forests or deserts, coasts or mountains, or even just our gardens. Time outdoors inspires me in at least two ways I can think of. First, simply gazing on the beauty of trees, stones, soil, and sky fills up my senses and makes me itch to honor that beauty with words, or stitching, or some other art form. Second, there’s something about moving my body outdoors, breathing in fresh air, feeling the wind in my hair, the rain on my face, and watching the light move over the landscape, that shifts the cadence of my thoughts. If I’m in a foul mood before I step outside, the  jangly discomfort is often soothed. If my thoughts are racing too fast to keep up with, being near water or under trees slows them down and smooths them out. Time outdoors changes my consciousness, usually in a way that makes it easier to settle into a creative flow once I return to the studio. I suspect there are many more ways contact with the rest of nature makes creaivity easier. I just haven’t recognized them yet.

Journaling. Once again I can think of two distinct ways this practice feeds my creative work. When my mind is too full of ideas, too chaotic and swirly, a brain dump spills a lot of the excess mental chatter onto paper or my computer screen, letting me see the tangled threads of my many thoughts in physical form. After fifteen minutes or so of scribbling or typing as fast as I can, the thoughts start to slow down. Often one idea or topic steps out of the chaos, and I can focus on it at last. Typically, brain dumps aren’t something I need to do every day, but they’re a valuable tool in my creative life.

The other side of journaling is slower and more deliberate. When I need to explore a topic more deeply, I generally start with journaling about it. I know there’s science that explains how the process of hand writing affects the brain, but I can never remember what it says. I just know that sometimes I don’t even know what I think until I start writing, and then the various threads of a topic begin to weave together in a way that makes sense.  Journaling is my favorite way to explore my own thoughts, and more often than not that exploration leads to creative ideas I don’t think I could find any other way.

Variety. I talk about my AuDHD brain a lot, I know, but I’m going to talk about it some more here. Specifically, the ADHD features of the brain, which have historically caused me a lot of distress. The truth is, I get bored easily. My attention vacilates between being so excited about a project I can  hardly remember to use the bathroom, to being so sick of it I don’t even want to look at it, much less work on it. This used to feel like a defect, maybe even a failing.  But the more I understand how my brain works, the more I realize this is just what she does sometimes. I could argue with her about it, but that just makes me tired, and makes me feel bad about myself. These days, if I need a break from a project, I take it. I put it away and turn my attention to something else, trusting that if the original project needs to be finished, I’ll come back around to it eventually. Sometimes it only takes a few days. Sometimes, as with the piece I’m showing you today, it takes months. 

I started this stitched piece over a year ago, and worked on it intermittently until I finished it very recently. I never stopped loving it. The muted colors and gentle movement of the piece make me feel peaceful and joyful every time I look at it. But if I’d forced myself to finish it all  in one go, I would have ended up hating it and being reminded of stress and boredom every time I saw it. Giving myself time to come and go, to work on it as my brain desired, has led to this piece being one of my favorites. 

For me, discipline, like productivity, is mostly bullshit. Beyond showing up every day with curiosity and a desire to create, insisting on discipline kills my creativity. As with the rest of life, showing up looks different every day. And there’s nothing wrong with that. The less I insist on being a disciplined maker, and give my brain variety and freedom, the more my creativity grows and flows, and the more joy it brings me.

Spirituality. I don’t even know if I can say spirituality nurtures my creativity exactly. It’s more that my creative work is the expression of, the outpouring of, my spiritual life. Creativity is a spiritual act, a devotional act, whether I’m overtly creating a piece to honor a deity, to honor the land, or just to express an emotion or idea. I have more thoughts on this than I can share in a single blog post, and those thoughts are very rambling and disorderly. So I’ll just say that creativity and devotion are inextricably intertwined in my life. Do they feed each other? Or are they really just aspects of the same thing? I have no idea. This is one of the big Mysteries, and I feel so lucky to be able to explore it every day.

The Creative Work of Others. This is a big one for me. Looking at art, reading stories, watching movies, and listening to music made by other creative souls inspires me like nothing else. I can’t count the number of times a song or painting has inspired a story, or the number of times a story has set the mood for a piece of stitching, or … you get the idea. Creativity feeds creativity in an endless spiral of inspiration. We artists don’t need to compete with each other when we can, instead, inspire each other simply by doing what we do. There’s endess space for creative work in this world, and I’m so grateful there are so many other unique creative souls. I used to envy skilled artists whose work I thought was superior to mine, but the more I let myself create in the way that flows naturally for me, the more I’m able to simply enjoy beautiful work that I couldn’t begin to make myself. 

Peace. Finally, I find the best way to keep my creativity flowing is to keep my life as simple and peaceful as possible. I know there are artists out there whose work thrives on chaos or even, sometimes, self destruction, but I’m definitely not one of those types of artists. Stress and crisis freeze me in every way, and I find it almost impossible to make art or write stories or do anything creative when I’m in a state of heightened anxiety, or when I’m overly busy. I find I do my best work when my life is right on the verge of boring. Or at least, boring to others. It seems a little bit counterintuitve to say I need an uneventful life in order to be creative, when I just said I need variety and novelty to stay inspired. But when day to day life is very subdued, my mind seeks out creative novelty as a way to entertain herself. My brain may enjoy being busy, but my nervous system loves quiet and stillness.  So the perfect scenario for me, as an artist, is to keep my daily life simple and wholesome, while letting my brain have as many flights of fancy as she desires. As with all things, your mileage may vary.

So what about you? How do you tend to your creativity to keep it healthy and happy? I’d love to know.

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