creativity

Spring Clean Your Way to Increased Creativity

Lynette M Burrows

It’s spring in the United States and time for the ritual of spring cleaning. It’s almost a compulsion. And you know what? Done right, you can spring clean your way to increased creativity. Why Spring Cleaning? According to How Stuff Works, the ritual of spring cleaning probably originated in the Iranian New Year’s tradition of khane tekani, the Jewish Passover, and the Chinese tradition of sweeping out the old year before the New Year begins. The time-honored traditions repeated over thousands of years make the ritual feel instinctual. How Does it Help Us? A thorough house-cleaning has health benefits according to Healthline. A clean home can strengthen your immune system. An uncluttered home can reduce stress and depression. A clean home prevents the spread of illness. A decluttered home reduces your chances of injury. According to the article, spring cleaning your home may also lead to more healthy eating and physical activity. Spring cleaning your office may not lead to better eating and more physical activity, but it couldn’t hurt. Clean Your Workspace If a cleaner home improves one’s health and mental outlook, a cleaner workspace will too. Set aside as much time as you need to do a deep […]

13 Ways to Be Creative When You Feel Unimaginative

Lynette M Burrows

You are a creative but when you sit down to create you go blank. What do you do? All creatives have bad days. Sometimes a string of bad days. Do you have a toolbox of ways to be creative when you feel unimaginative? Read on for 13 ways to be creative when you feel unimaginative. Give Yourself Permission to do Badly Often the reason you cannot create is because of expectations you have. Perhaps you need to be creatively private. Or you expect yourself to create when you are undergoing personal upheaval. Maybe you’re ill or too tired. Give yourself permission to do the work badly. Challenge yourself and deliberately make your creative endeavor as flawed as you can. Allow yourself to fill it with mistakes. Sometimes, a mistake becomes inspiration. And if it doesn’t? Then you’ve learned what not to do. Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Mary Tyler Moore Turn it Upside Down One way to shake loose your creativity is to change things up. For example, if you’ve been writing from the viewpoint of a woman—change it to the viewpoint of a man or a child. If you’ve been trying to design a pattern for […]

Your Creativity is Born of Your Vulnerability

Lynette M Burrows

You’re at a cocktail party or talking to a new acquaintance. The response that person makes when they learn you are a creative, is someday I’m going to (insert your type of creativity) too. Most people never get around to it. Why? Because they are afraid to be vulnerable. But your creativity is born of your vulnerability. With apologies to Brené Brown, the only way to be creative is to go through your vulnerability. What is Vulnerability? Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines vulnerability as “capable of being physically or emotionally wounded.” In this case, you need to go deeper. To be vulnerable is to expose yourself to physical or emotional wounds from your past or present or future. And it means to expose yourself to failure and fear and shame. Vulnerability Sounds Scary It is scary. It’s the thing many of you avoid as much as you can. You numb yourselves so you won’t feel the fear, the pain, or the shame of not being enough. Some people numb themselves with drugs or alcohol or even food. Other people numb themselves with being too busy to be vulnerable. Some tell themselves that being vulnerable is weak, so they construct psychological and physical […]