How I Tap Into My Creativity

Photo by Zulmaury Saavedra on Unsplash

The other evening, I was washing the dinner dishes and I glanced outside. What caught my eye was the colors of the sky when this ditty of inspiration came through.

“The clouds are ancient this evening. Alabaster and pink on a slate-gray sky. They stopped to say, hello. Are you okay? Close your eyes. Let’s stay here for a few and hold onto a piece of quiet. Just you and me and the earth, soaking up needed soul rays so you can stay close with the heartbeat of love and truth.”

Some of my best thought streams come in when I’m doing the everyday stuff.

It’s a wide-open zone of receiving limitless ideas, without walls and rules and it flows freely.

Some of those ideas work and others don’t. Some pieces feel too way-out-there but some are exquisitely juicy. So much so, that I get goose bumps.

Sometimes, I’ll know exactly what I want to write and other days I struggle. Ideas aren’t always neat little entities.

Nonetheless, when we allow our minds to go into a meditative state, such as doing normal routines, we inevitably tap into our creative channels of inspiration. Ideas are born from our unconscious mind as well as from serendipitous moments.

Harvard University researcher and psychologist Shelley H. Carson, showed in her studies,

“That not only are creative people more susceptible to “novelty,’’ and thus distraction, but that mind wandering itself is associated with highly creative people.”

When we get stuck, Carson continues,

“The subconscious mind has been working extremely hard to solve the problems you face and now that you let your mind wander, it can surface and plant those ideas into your conscious mind.”

So, if I’m feeling particularly stuck writing, I will take a shower, go for a drive, clean the kitchen, garden, or mow the lawn. When I do these activities, I’m doing something familiar, and it gives my mind space to daydream into abundant creative patches.

For example, in Alan Henry’s article, “Why Great Ideas Always Come in The Shower,”

“Your mind is free to wander while your body goes through the motions. It’s also a relaxing experience, and the combination of those two things — along with some brain chemistry that explains why taking a good shower feels so refreshing — are the perfect environment for ideas to spring forth.”

Furthermore, the science behind creativity suggests,

“Neural pathways are influenced by environment and habit, meaning they’re also sensitive to change: New sounds, smells, language, tastes, sensations, and sights spark different synapses in the brain and may have the potential to revitalize the mind.” ~ Brent Crane, The Atlantic

To me this is quite delectable to swim in a vivid stream of consciousness.

Creativity is like that.

When an incoming thought, phrase, or color catches my eye, I usually stop what I’m doing and follow it to see what delicious word play will marinate with me.

Keeping notepads nearby is helpful.

While in that magical transcendent space, the world stops spinning. Laundry doesn’t get folded. The dishwasher stays untucked. The vacuum cleaner wonders, are you ever going to plug me in? I’ve got a headlight that loves you!

Those tasks can wait, and I also thank them too because they are the exact reasons, I’m writing this.

And after translating a particularly creative moment, I notice how my shoulders slide down to where they need to live — a Mona Lisa smile finds me.

Gratitude and contentment coalesce into warmth.

When I write it’s a connection to something bigger than me — a universal channel of infinite possibilities. Together we welcome the magic of its unlimited source and let out a sigh of sheer adoration and contentment.
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Creativity is my companion. Grafted from the tree of life, superimposed with my spirit, sourced from infinite possibilities, and kindly united with my imperfect humanness.

Originally Posted on Storymaker via Medium: Tapping Into Our Creativity.