Bringing fun to your creative life
Lets bring fun to our creative life, which is really our whole life.
Sometimes the thought of building a creative life can feel like a daunting task, no?
There’s so much expectation if we dare to be creative.
We feel pressure to be Monet at the first brush stroke? Need we be Hilma af Klint if we dare to play with creating a new inner world (more on this later)? Do we need to be Ansel Adams as we start clicking the camera?
Comparing ourselves is a sure fire way to pour water on our creative fire. We compare ourselves with others highlight reels and people that might be further along a particular track than we are. And just incase you aren’t nodding yet, do you ever find yourself feeling down after scrolling through Instagram? Sometimes I do and I’m not even conscious of that being the reason why till I get off the app & ask myself why. God I’m honest!
I’ve learned the past few years that our creative fire is a sacred part of you and me, it resides within us and should be protected at all costs (well, thats a bit dramatic I know). Its not called a creative fire for no reason, like a fire it needs kindling and logs, it needs to be stoked and tended to.
After hanging up my Yoga Mat, I’ve been having fun with my creative life, which is my whole life really as I’m creating it day by day by the food I buy, the meals I cook, the way I set the table, the shows we choose to watch, the way I arrange the cute throws, the stacking of books by colour on the bookshelf, the way I arrange my closet as a temple to beauty, the way we live is the manifestation of our creative choices so far.
But how do we have fun with life, with a creative life?
To keep stoking my creative fire, here’s a few things I’ve been doing that you might get some inspo from:
I’ve tidied up all my art supplies, and rearranged them. Which feels so good and so invigorating! I’ve got watercolours in a small box, candles in a bowl a friend gave me when I hung up my teaching yoga mat, I sorted out tickets and photos from trips and outings into a small file notebook, and I’ve put my perfume oils near my art space on a ceramic tray.
I put some art up in a little corner of our dining room that we bought in Dubrovnik (3 cute little paintings) and its giving life to that little space.
In cafes, I like to take a photo of my coffee and leave behind a print out (from this little Jett camera & printer) & on the reverse side, a handwritten note of appreciation for my coffee. In a cafe called Bun Bun, they put my note on the wall next to the coffee machine (wonder if its still there?).
I bought a small soft little blue leather notebook and keep it in my tote bag, incase I see/hear/feel words, things, that I want to remember. A quick jot of notes while its fresh in my mind captures any inspiration before it floats away. There’s something also about hand writing things down, its good for our brains and our souls to keep hand writing notes, cards and letters.
I have found some new fresh to me music on my Spotify and am loving new music in the morning while I sip my first cup of tea. I’m currently loving Japanese Kissaten Jazz playlists and it is shaking up my algorithm in the best possible way.
Can you think about your creative life, and introduce some fun ways of expressing yourself? You could link this to your values; how can you bring some life into your values, so they aren’t stade and stale, but as a lively expression of who you are with that »value«?
Jot down some notes, scribbles, words, anything that comes to you when you think about building a creative life.
