Jean Harkin's Blog - Posts Tagged "creativity"
Restarting Creativity for the New Year
New year and new decade—a great time to restart and revive creativity that you may have set aside during the busy holidays and for any other reason that’s been stifling creative energy.
Creativity is possible for everyone—not just writers, poets, artists, musicians, teachers, engineers, etc. etc. As author Elizabeth Gilbert states, “A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life. . . continually and stubbornly bringing forth the jewels that are hidden within you—is a fine art, in and of itself.”
Turning to the outdoors and finding resources in hobbies are methods to fire up creativity encouraged by Portland writer Teri Brown and New York blogging teacher Josh Sippie.
In her August 2017 blog, Teri writes how finding awe-inspiring beauty encouraged her to take creative risks and to “open my heart.” The feeling of being awe-struck is healthy, she writes. Finding breath-taking views in nature can spark joy and gratitude, lower stress levels, and refresh creativity. Spending several days outdoors, meditating and focusing can revitalize the creative muscles. Teri said she likes to go out into the wilderness and do “poetry slams” where she sits down and writes words to describe what she is seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling, touching. She “melds mindfulness with creativity” by experiencing nature.
Josh, writing in the June 2019 “Writer” magazine, says that hobbies need not be distracting; sometimes they enrich creativity. He eliminated most of his hobbies as distractions but found that one—playing video games—complemented his creativity. (Young writers should love to hear this!) He explained that video games are story driven and give him “ideas, inspiration, and fuel for writing.”
And Writers—don’t neglect the jump start of reading! Focusing on an author’s writing you admire can quickly send you back to your writing desk with fresh words and sparkling ideas. Another way to get going is “writing practice” advocated by Natalie Goldberg: the exercise of putting pen to paper and writing whatever comes to mind.
Teri reminds writers that creativity is more than word counts and high production. It is “the use of the imagination or original ideas” in producing something new.
Additional reading on reviving creativity:
Teri Brown’s August 2017 blog: https://medium.com/@terijbrown/courti...
Josh Sippie, “Creative Distractions,” “The Writer” magazine, June 2019
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/...
Elizabeth Gilbert, “Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear”
Natalie Goldberg, “The True Secret of Writing”
Jennifer Pastiloff, “On Being Human”
Florence Williams, “The Three Day Effect”
Creativity is possible for everyone—not just writers, poets, artists, musicians, teachers, engineers, etc. etc. As author Elizabeth Gilbert states, “A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life. . . continually and stubbornly bringing forth the jewels that are hidden within you—is a fine art, in and of itself.”
Turning to the outdoors and finding resources in hobbies are methods to fire up creativity encouraged by Portland writer Teri Brown and New York blogging teacher Josh Sippie.
In her August 2017 blog, Teri writes how finding awe-inspiring beauty encouraged her to take creative risks and to “open my heart.” The feeling of being awe-struck is healthy, she writes. Finding breath-taking views in nature can spark joy and gratitude, lower stress levels, and refresh creativity. Spending several days outdoors, meditating and focusing can revitalize the creative muscles. Teri said she likes to go out into the wilderness and do “poetry slams” where she sits down and writes words to describe what she is seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling, touching. She “melds mindfulness with creativity” by experiencing nature.
Josh, writing in the June 2019 “Writer” magazine, says that hobbies need not be distracting; sometimes they enrich creativity. He eliminated most of his hobbies as distractions but found that one—playing video games—complemented his creativity. (Young writers should love to hear this!) He explained that video games are story driven and give him “ideas, inspiration, and fuel for writing.”
And Writers—don’t neglect the jump start of reading! Focusing on an author’s writing you admire can quickly send you back to your writing desk with fresh words and sparkling ideas. Another way to get going is “writing practice” advocated by Natalie Goldberg: the exercise of putting pen to paper and writing whatever comes to mind.
Teri reminds writers that creativity is more than word counts and high production. It is “the use of the imagination or original ideas” in producing something new.
Additional reading on reviving creativity:
Teri Brown’s August 2017 blog: https://medium.com/@terijbrown/courti...
Josh Sippie, “Creative Distractions,” “The Writer” magazine, June 2019
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/...
Elizabeth Gilbert, “Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear”
Natalie Goldberg, “The True Secret of Writing”
Jennifer Pastiloff, “On Being Human”
Florence Williams, “The Three Day Effect”
