How to Maintain Creativity in your Brain! - a Series, Part 1

Since my last post, I have been BUZZING with creativity!

On Sunday, I started a new Bardic piece for a Gulf Wars party! I am about 85% done with it now, and it's - different from what I normally write. I enjoy pieces that are dramatic and humorous. I won my local Bardic Competition for the first time after reading out an original poem about missing someone you love while they are at war. I have written more pieces that are more humorous, including a dilemma a fighter has about entering a tournament, when they'd rather drink a cocktail named after them. But this piece: it's a song warning men not to be selfish in love. I'm interested to see how it's received. 😊

Also on Sunday, I started planning a Pokémon themed mocktail menu: I am VERY enthusiastic about mixology, but my family and I don't drink. But lately, there's this cocktail menu based on the 9 Eeveelutions that was floating around Facebook - they are described as 'floats', where different colors of alcohol float on top of each other to create beautiful colorings in presentation. Since they are 'floats', and since we don't drink, I decided to based the mocktails off of soda & ice cream floats. And not gunna lie, I was nervous about how I would do a couple of the floats, but as it turns out, there are some fun ice cream flavors out there that should pair VERY nicely for each Eeveelution. I will post about those later, I can't wait to share! 😄

And today, I created the first logo for my husband's new cleaning business! I helped him name it: his business is called "Grime Fighting Services" - so guess what the logo is based on? Superheroes of course!

I did my first render, and he absolutely loves it. We talked about possible changes, but he is very happy with how it is now, and it should work for business cards he wants to produce for a networking event this Thursday.

Excited by all the various creative pursuits I have been doing in such a short amount of time, I posted on Facebook that I was feeling especially creative today - and one of my friends asked what my secret to maintaining creativity was.

Now that's a good question!

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I decided to sit and really think about it; after all, I have been a creative person my whole life, but the last decade or so, I have had a sizable chunk of Artist's Block. It wasn't until I started writing about my self-love and healing journey on Facebook that I began to exercise my creative muscles, and since then, I have had spurts of creativity here and there: I have a YouTube channel that I produce videos on every now and then. I designed and produced a Mascfemme photoshoot, where I explored my gender and identity - one day, I would like to show that collection here. I kept writing about my healing and self-love journey. It wasn't until last year when I really started to delve back into regular creativity.

And since then, I have maintained it - it's not perfect, by ANY means, but I feel myself finding inspiration for projects more regularly now.

And it's wonderful!! 😁

So what have I learned about maintaining creativity?

1) Don't Stress

    I feel the biggest thing that blocked my creativity from 2011 - 2018 was stress.

From life things, like money problems, and dating, to my own personal trauma from a hard upbringing - stress was EVERYWHERE during that time.

When your brain is focused on worries, it's very hard to focus on something else - and consequently, you won't be able to create anything except more worry. Stress is a creative person's worst nightmare, especially if you have contractual agreements to produce creative work within a set amount of time.

I KNOW you can't eliminate stress - life IS stress sometimes, believe me - but you CAN shift your focus.

A small exercise you can try is grounding yourself - don't roll your eyes at me, it actually works.

Sit in a chair, and close your eyes. Relax your body, and use your other senses to focus on your surroundings: what does the arm rest feel like? Do you feel heat or cold? Can you hear the heater or air conditioner running? This exercise is even better outdoors, because you can feel the warmth of the sun, smell the fresh air, and touch the grass (or snow, if you live in a place like I do).

Focusing on your surroundings in this amount of detail causes your focus to shift from the inside of your head (stress and worries) to the outside of your head (your surroundings). Another exercise you can try is a gratitude journal. Again, do not roll your eyes at me, this actually works: by mentally taking note, and physically writing down what you are grateful for, your brain is now not occupied by things that bring you stress, but by things that make you happy and feel at peace.

By doing these simple exercises once a day for a few minutes at a time, you can start exercising your focus muscles - because creativity does take focus. How did Micheal Angelo finish the Sistine Chapel? Or how does James Gunn take about a decade to produce 3 amazing Guardians of the Galaxy movies that show a character's growth and development through Rocket Raccoon? They focused up - no distractions, no outside noise, no stress - just mental focus.

Focus is the creative person's best friend, and is the antithesis of worry. Feed Focus - Wipe out Worry. And you are one step closer to being more creative.

And this is only one part of the mindset you need for creativity to prosper.

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Tune in for the next steps on fueling creativity - I hope this first part helps you to find more control over your mental and emotional state. If you feel so inclined, I would love to hear if you were able to try either or both of the exercises I outlined above. Feel free to share in the comments below, I look forward to reading them!

 See you in the next part! 😊

XOXOX