I’m on Day 17 of daily blogging and of course every day the question “What shall I write about today?” comes up. Not everyday maybe as on some days I suddenly get lots of ideas and I write them all down to keep them for a rainy blogging day.
Other days are more difficult and I feel a little bit stuck! It made me think about creativity and how we can be more creative. It also made me think about what prevents me to be creative and I do believe that all the information around us has something to do with it!
I never thought of myself as a very creative person by the way. I’m rubbish at drawing, I’m not really into fashion, I don’t write music and since about a year ago I didn’t write anything either! It’s something that I’ve always enjoyed, however. I just somehow forgot that I did along the way… Anyway, I now call myself a blogger so I need to make sure that I produce something of reasonable quality once in a while!
Information Overload
I do think that information plays a big role in all of this. We are getting bombarded every day with information on social media, on the radio, TV etc etc. Yes information can be good for inspiration but I don’t think it nurtures my creativity. I think it prevents me from being creative.
I really love social media but it’s a love-hate relationship at the same time as it can be all consuming. Just think about all those notifications!
What I also mean by too much information is that the more I learn, the more blog posts I read, the more ideas I seem to get about what I should or shouldn’t do. This can be useful and it’s good if you are looking to be more strategic but sometimes you might find yourself blocked.
“Should I really be doing this? I’ve read that it’s not how you do it.”
“This person is doing that so maybe I should do something different.”
“Someone else has done this a lot better than me so maybe it’s best if I don’t do it at all!”
All this mental chatter is not helping me to be creative. It’s stopping me and I believe you can apply this to whatever creative field that you are in. There is a danger of comparing yourself too much, overthinking and simply burning out!
So what helps me be more creative?
Going with the flow: don’t analyse, don’t overthink, don’t try to be strategic when you want to be creative. Be strategic when you want to create a strategy but not when you want to create something that comes from yourself. You can always use it for your strategy later.
Doing what you enjoy doing: go for a walk, take a hot shower, spend time with the people you love. Happiness nurtures creativity!
Meditation: just 10 minutes to empty my mind helps me to “reset” and come back to myself. I now do this every day – it’s one of my non-negotiables!
Do something really boring: I get the best ideas while cleaning or ironing! Just taking your mind out of the thinking mode while doing something else like washing up or hoovering works for me!
Retreat: switch off your phone, don’t watch TV and spend time in nature.
I think that you can also practise being creative so the more you do it the easier you will find it! That’s what I’m doing with this blogging challenge and it seems to be working although it’s hard! But it wouldn’t be called a challenge if it was easy, right?
Let me know what you think about creativity! What helps you to be more creative? Do you think information can kill your creativity?
Ooo, yes! So much information is negative (well it captures attention… you do a post on 3 great poses and compare that to 3 poses that you should never do) and it activates our inner fears.
Sometimes just “doing” is therapeutic.
PS as to creativity, we’re all creative. We just tend to be told we’re not or creativity is art. I also can’t draw, sing or do anything that’s considered creative. My superpower is I think, therefore I’m creative 😉
That’s such a great example and so true. It’s actually depressing to think how we are probably drawn more to negative information as you say! Thank you so much for taking the time to read this 🙂