Growing creativity... how do you boost yours?

Share

CREATIVITY - The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc. [Creativity week begins here. Click for this week's Bliss Initiatives.]

Photo by-Delphine-

Welcome creativity seeking, sharing, loving, bliss boosting friends. As I sat down to think about boosting creativity I couldn't help but think that MOST of you have even better ideas then I could come up with if I scoured the internet and other reference material for years. Fully half of my readers have ETSY shops showcasing their talents (if you haven't done so you should click on the Bliss Shops tab at the top of my blog and take a look!) and those of you who don't have an etsy shop probably should (Jingle you come to mind immediately!) think about opening one!

So, today I am revisiting some of my favorite Creativity Boosting ideas. Click on any of the links to find more ways to get the creative juices flowing but at the end of my list I'm going to ask you to share your favorite tips. 

Learn something every day 

I live by this one. Good advice for living!"Creativity often involves adapting an idea to make it your own. Continually expose yourself to new ideas and the creative well will never run dry. Always have a book on your nightstand, if you can. Download audio books or check them out from the library to play while driving or exercising. Above all, learn something from every  experience."                      

From the web site Here to Create's post entitled 9 tips to be more creative. The tag line from this blog is "We are here to create, not merely survive."

Dictionary Diving 

This is a fun idea, I've tried it with the dictionary and other books. Works with pretty much any written page. "If you're stuck for an idea, open a dictionary, randomly select a word and then try to formulate ideas incorporating this word. You'd be surprised how well this works. The concept is based on a simple but little known truth: freedom inhibits creativity. There are nothing like restrictions to get you thinking."

From Jeffery Baumgartner's Ten Steps for Boosting Creativity.

Creative Sparks

Go to the website "Inspire Me Thursday" and click for a creative prompt... the questions are interesting and it is a lot of fun even if you aren't looking for creative direction. Lots of other creative ideas at the site. "Use these random prompts to jumpstart creative play in your art journal, to encourage creative writing, to overcome a creative block, to spark an idea…"

From the site:  Inspire Me Thursday - Amuse your Inner Muse

Do something childlike once in a while. 

 "...and you don't have to have the children there as an "excuse" to do it. Sit and play on swings/draw/paint "silly" pictures — have fun. Children are incredibly creative and as adults we could learn a lot about how they view the world." I have the built in "excuse" for this one!

From 10 Ways to boost your creativity by Julie Plenty

Read Random Magazines

"Every once in a while, I pick up several magazines that I would never ordinarily read. It’s surprisingly interesting and useful. And I love the feeling of possibility that I get whenever I browse in one of those stores that carries 500 different magazines."

From Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project: Eight tips for sparking your creativity. 

I expand on this tip by gathering a bunch of these random magazines and I rip out pictures or words that inspire or interest me. Just the act of grabbing and ripping the paper seems to get my creative juices flowing. Sometimes I make collages or vision boards to support what ever project I am working on, other times I just file any pertinent scrap that inspires in a folder I keep just for that purpose.

Yesterday in a comment, Ryan mentioned that he used meditation to get his inspiration flowing. My friend Jaye peruses dozens upon dozens of books (She is a Librarian after all! Happy Library week dear friend -- tell a Librarian thank you today!) to find some of her quilting mojo. So what about you? What are your favorite creativity boosting tips? We would all love to hear!!

Next Post: Creative Prompt Day!

Have something to say about Creativity? 

Written a a fun post about your creativity challenges or successes? 

This is the place to share it! 

New and old favorite posts and essays are welcome here!

I have something to say about Creativity!

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Easy-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
For best results, use HTML mode to edit this section of the post.

My 13 bliss virtues are  

joy, order, creativity, passion, whimsy, serenity, inquiry, 

community, romance, gratitude, moxie, humility, and surprise. 

 [Click on any virtue to see all the Everyday 

Bliss Posts on the topic.]