Tag: creativity

creativity every day even when…

I’ve written before about how it’s important to me to create every day. Even if it’s not much and not for long, I paint daily, and it’s something that helps me with calming and grounding and getting through.

There have been some big life changes that I’ve been dealing with, and there have been all the emotions that come when those things happen.

My hubs is officially retired now, which is a time of transition and brings adjustments to daily life and daily schedules for both of us. And our lives and our home are also very different now because our sweet 14-year-old calico Chloe passed away the week before Christmas after a long fight with cancer.

Only two and a half weeks after Chloe passed, my mother died.

And while none of these things were unexpected, they are still very big changes.

There’s a lot of grief. A lot of adjustment. A lot of feeling like life is just…different.

Through it all, every day, I continue to paint.

I paint because it calms me. It grounds me. It settles me. It brings me moments of joy even on days that are terribly difficult.

Even if I only paint for a minute, even if I only paint a heart or a circle, I paint every single day.

I do it because it helps me.

Even when life is hard, creativity helps.

What creativity can you bring into your life today, even if life in general is bringing challenges and struggle? What creative outlet gives you joy, even if you only have the time or energy to do it briefly?

Please let yourself do it. Because it can help.

♥

 

 

 

 

 

creativity every day…

Years ago, I made the decision to deliberately and intentionally stay connected to my creativity – no matter what was happening in my life. I made it my dream, my goal, to keep this relationship going on a consistent basis.

It’s true there are ebbs and flows with creative projects and the creative process in general. But even so, I believe it’s possible to stay connected with creativity. And I’ve been determined to do it… because creativity is vital to my mental and emotional well-being.

Writing, especially writing fiction, is the creative outlet with the longest pull on me. I started writing little stories with thick markers as soon as I could write sentences and put them together.

I don’t write every day, though.

For me to write fiction, I need a certain amount of feeling settled inside, and there are days the anxiety I experience (not anxiety about writing, but the daily anxiety I deal with) doesn’t calm down enough. That’s especially been the case over the past several years. And although I’m now writing more often and more consistently again, it’s not an each-and-every-day occurrence.

But there is a certain creative outlet I do on a daily basis. Whether I write or do any other creative activity on any given day, what I do each day, without fail, is paint.

Every single day.

It doesn’t have to be for a lengthy amount of time. It doesn’t need to turn into anything. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks about what I paint or how I do it.

All it requires is for me to pick up a paintbrush and move paint on canvas or paper.

That’s all.

But that’s so much.

There are days when I paint for less than five minutes. And that’s okay. There are times I paint a few hearts or circles or squares in the morning, and then paint a few more in the afternoon. That’s fine too. Sometimes I fill an entire page with paint, at other times one page represents a week’s worth of painting a small bit every day, and at other times I’ll spend weeks or more painting on a single canvas. All of that is also satisfying and good, as far as I’m concerned.

For me, it’s about the doing of it – what I call paint play – every day. Because it calms me, it helps ground me, and it brings me joy.

What creative activity does that for you? (And don’t say you’re not creative, because you are!)

Is it painting, sketching, drawing, writing, sewing, quilting, photography, pottery, cooking, calligraphy, knitting, playing an instrument? The list of possibilities is huge. Find the one (or ones) that bring you joy.

Even if you rotate through a variety of creative activities instead of sticking to just one, and even if it’s only for a few minutes when you do it, make time to connect with your creativity every day. 

It really does make a difference.

remembering how much it helps to write…

Although I’ve gone through periods of time when I didn’t write much, writing (especially writing fiction) has been a through-line of my life.

Writing mini-novels as soon as I could form words and sentences with whatever writing utensils were on hand. (And I do mean “mini” – as in 3 or 4 pages of large, fat font.) Scribbling longer stories and short poems as I went through elementary, junior high, and high school. Pouring out my heart in diary entries and journals. Writing stories and novels over the decades. Writing papers and reports, and freelance greeting card work and nonfiction projects and blog posts.

Although I enjoy a variety of writing, fiction has been my big love. Having characters and dialogue in my head, and taking stories on the journey from vague thoughts in my mind to words on paper, and creating something from nothing.

When I’m writing fiction regularly, it does something to me. It does something for me.

Simply the process of working on fiction helps me.

It gives me energy, and a sense of purpose, and a feeling of being alive.

It helps me deal with day-to-day life because…well, I don’t even know how or why that happens, it just does.

Writing fiction helps me stay sane when it might seem like things are far from okay.

I KNOW all of this.

I’ve known it for a very long time. Decades.

But when I get away from writing fiction for a while, it’s as though I forget these things, at least in some way. I don’t actually forget, because I can repeat all the above to myself or to others, remembering and knowing that all of it is true. But I sort of forget – or maybe it’s that I forget on some level. Whatever it is, though, some part of me (even though I know and remember) will lose sight of the reality for me of all of the above.

And then…

I’ll get back to writing fiction regularly again.

And I’ll be reminded of the truth all over again. About how writing fiction is healing for me. How it helps me with living life. How it helps me get through.

There’s just something fiction writing gives to me that goes missing when I’m not writing fiction.

For a while this year, I got away from my fiction writing but now I’m back to it consistently. Getting out of the house to write in a different location has helped me get back into a fiction-writing routine. I grab my smallest tablet – and I recently got a small, lightweight, foldable bluetooth keyboard that I LOVE and I grab that too – toss them into my purse (because that’s how small and light they are, but they do what I need!) and I head out for an hour or two.

And I write.

For the past couple of months I’ve been leaving home to write at least a couple of days each week (usually more often). This isn’t new for me – I’ve gone in cycles of writing somewhere other than home, and now I’m in another cycle of doing it…and as with writing itself, it can feel a bit surprising to be reminded, to remember how much it helps me to go somewhere else to write.

I’m not sure why we sometimes forget what we know, but I’ve talked with enough people about this to realize it’s not uncommon. We know what we love, what makes us feel alive, what helps us…and yet, on some level, we forget or we lose track or we don’t put it into action.

Then when we do it again, it’s as though we’re reminded all over again of what a difference it makes.

I’m going to do my best to hold onto remembering for good this time.

♥