Cross-pollinate...

...your creativity

Here’s a tip if you get stuck during a creative project: cross-pollinate your creativity. For instance, if you’re a writer and find yourself at a loss for the next sentence, draw something or pick up some sort of other craft and do that for a few minutes. If you’re an artist or musician and you get stuck, write a poem or write in your journal.

Whatever form your creativity takes, nurture an alternate creative outlet. It could be needlework, crochet, drawing, writing, working with clay or something else you feel drawn to. By letting yourself engage in a different creative pursuit, you allow your creative muscles the chance to relax while also flexing them in a different direction.

I’m a writer and teacher most of the time, but I also play at drawing and I crochet. When I get stuck with my writing or designing a class, I pull out my sketchbook or my latest crochet project and do that for a few minutes until the block clears. Taking a walk or doing some sort of physical project also works (except housecleaning and laundry, of course), but I find engaging in another creative form the best way to jumpstart my creativity. I think cross-pollinating various forms of creative pursuits enhances all of them.

Many people have told me they aren’t creative because they don’t draw, paint, sing, write, or play an instrument. Oh, dear. We’re all creative. We’re creating right now. At the most basic of levels, we’re constantly recreating our bodies every second. We might not be aware of this, but it’s happening whether we’re conscious of it or not. For instance, we replace our skin cells every 39 days, the scientists tell us. Liver cells are replaced every 300-500 days and they say we replace our skeleton every ten years. If that isn’t being creative, I don’t know what is!

Rather than declaring yourself “not creative,” identify the ways in which you are. Do you cook? That’s creative. Do you garden? Keep a diary or journal? Help your child with their homework? These are all creative outlets that can be nurtured and transformed into ways for you to express yourself creatively.

When we’re being creative, we’re mirroring the Universe, God/dess, Divine Mother because this is what They/He/She does best: create. And they never stop. Why should we?

Living in grace and ease,

Krysta