How to Increase Creativity Through Daily Activities
Being creative isn’t just for artists; it’s how people express themselves and enjoy their lives on a daily basis. Explore how to be more creative in your life.
Creative expression doesn’t have to be limited to painters, musicians and other talented artists; everyone can learn how to increase creativity. Many people are creative in their daily activities without even knowing it. Making a meal, playing with children, planting a garden, planning an event, or telling a story are common ways of being creative. Most people take these activities for granted, but when recognized for what they are, these moments of insights, imagination and inspiration can be expanded into further creative expressions.
Where Creative Ideas Come From
Creativity isn’t a talent or skill; it’s something everyone is born with. For some it comes from imagination or inner insights; for others it is sparked by an external stimulus such as a sunset or romantic interlude. Some creative people view themselves as a channel for divine inspiration. Others credit their mental ingenuity, inventiveness or resourcefulness. Wherever it originates, all that is required is an ability to imagine, be spontaneous, or put together a string of words, sounds, movements, pictures, colors or objects to express an idea or vision, or simply create something new.
Professional artists have taken their natural creativity and honed it with other talents and skills they possess. Few are born with full capabilities of being an exceptional musician, writer, painter or sculptor. Most take their creativity and talents and then study techniques and methods while practicing, practicing, and practicing some more. Yet for those who simply want to create for the fun of it, no schooling or practice is required.
How to Be Creative
Increasing creative activities starts by recognizing the inventive, spontaneous, and inspired moments of daily life. What was involved in planning a meal, an outing, vacation or event? What goes into decorating a space, gardening, or throwing a party? How about organizing the budget, CDs, or paperwork? Many of these activities involved a desire, an intuition, a picture or vision. Some of these may seem practical, but required ingenuity or resourcefulness. All of these are aspects of creativity.
Once creative thinking is acknowledged as a natural way of being, people open up to further ways of being creative. They have the confidence to embark on new imaginative adventures. Garden design takes on an added flare. Singing in the shower adds a new octave. Cooking becomes more fun as people trust their taste instincts and make meals from scratch. Soon painting the house turns into creating wall mosaics, daily journaling turns into writing a memoir, and sharing funny stories leads to a nation wide stand-up comedy tour. Maybe that’s a little much, but you never know unless you try.
Enrich Your Life with Creative Expression
A way to open up creative expression is to take time each week for spontaneous creative moments. A helpful tip is to turn inward and take a few minutes to relax the body and calm the mind through deep breathing or meditation. Then allow intuition or imagination to take over. From this place you might try one or more of the following:
- Draw with eyes closed – Pick up a crayon or felt pen and let your hand express itself on paper by drawing lines, shapes or whatever you’re drawn to without thinking. Pick up another crayon or pen and add to the picture (keeping eyes closed the whole time). Once finished, open your eyes and see what is there.
- Express strong emotions with color on paper – Choose colors in paint, crayons, felt pens or pastels to express your feelings on paper with brush strokes, lines, shapes or symbols. Let the emotion guide the swiftness or slowness of movement.
- Play an instrument by ear – Trust your fingers and ears to create sounds and music regardless of whether you have any musical training or not.
- Create a new song – Create a song by humming, whistling or singing notes. Add words if you feel inspired.
- Write a spontaneous short poem by stringing together a list of words – Write down a color, object, and scene in nature. Then add adjectives, verbs and appropriate conjunctions to make a sentence. For example, the words blue, diamond, and sunshine could be turned into: the blue diamond shone brightly in the sunshine. Continue doing this until you have a short poem (poems don’t have to rhyme).
There’s any number of ways to express creativity if people acknowledge this as a natural way of being and allow it to bubble forth into daily activities. Being creative not only opens the mind, but expands the heart and frees the soul.
