6 Steps for Connecting to Creativity in Times of Transition
Transitions can be challenging, especially for creatives—artists, techies, and engineers alike. Because consistency of practice is a cornerstone for the flow of ideas, change can steer energy away from our creative projects. Moving, a new relationship, or seasonal shifts can often bring with them creative droughts.
Periods of feeling stuck or uninspired can creep up on anyone and remain unidentified for some time because they tend to manifest within a cocktail of other uncomfortable feelings such as anxiety, depression, mental fog, lack of motivation, numbness, and irritation. With such emotional complexity brewing inside, it’s easy to confuse cause and effect and assume that your creativity is suffering as a result of depression or anxiety due to dissatisfaction with change.
What if you flipped the script? Have you ever considered that the root cause of your negative emotions might be depleted creativity?
Though frustrating and at times persistent, creative blocks are normal. What’s problematic is when this blockage leads to doubts about ability and purpose and when these doubts pervade other areas of life such as relationships, career, and physical health. In the face of self-doubt, people can experience all kinds of symptoms such as moodiness, weight gain, and fatigue. Mind, body, and heart are intricately connected.
If you have been feeling off lately, I invite you to pause and reflect. Your health and well-being may be suffering from creative blockage. Try these 6 steps for connecting to your creativity and sense of purpose:
Discover
1. Fill yourself with experiences
Take a walk. Go to a movie. Plan a trip. Try out a new recipe. Have a party. Spend time with your family and friends. Fill yourself with experiences that bring you joy and inspiration. They don’t have to cost a lot of money. You are building a well of content, which given half a chance will transform into a creation.
2. Observe with all your senses
As you fill your life with experiences, try to stay present in them as they unfold. Focus on taking in moments through the senses. What colors and shapes stand out to you? What do you smell? Do you taste anything? What sounds do you hear? How does your body feel? What’s the texture of touch? If you feel inclined, jot down or illustrate some of these details in a notebook to help you remember them.
Nourish
3. Show up
Make time and space for yourself to create. Maybe that means decluttering your office or hanging vision boards above your workspace. Surround yourself with inspiration, including things that motivate you. Set a schedule for creating, and put it in the calendar. We all have busy lives—jobs, errands, chores, friends and family to tend to. Obligations, work, and daily tasks can consume your creative time if you don’t carve it out in advance. What times work for you to create on a regular basis? Don’t overwhelm yourself by thinking too big. You can make a lot of progress in ten or fifteen minutes. Setting a timer can be helpful.
4. Be kind
Be gentle with yourself and open to adjusting the schedule you set for yourself to create. Life is unpredictable. It’s important to meet yourself where you are and start from there, even if it changes daily. Be aware of critical thoughts about how your creative time should look. Avoid “shoulding” on yourself.
Create
5. Let go of judgments and outcomes
As you create, let go of critical thoughts about your work that will creep in from time to time. Acknowledge the thoughts, even write them down or kindly talk back to them and then continue creating. Creativity wants to be playful. Experiment and let go of the outcome. Allow yourself to meander and stray from what you originally intended to create.
6. Share your work with supportive people
It can be helpful to share your work, even brainstorm ideas, with trusted friends, family, or creativity/mastermind groups. Feedback can encourage, inspire, and motivate. Understanding how your work sits with someone else can unlock fear of expression and spark a sense of connection, purpose, and meaning.
Typically, it takes 30 days to form a new habit. Try this process over the next month. See if you can shift your states of mind, body, and heart before they shift you.
