It Is Always the Right Time to Do Something Creative
. . . especially when we find ourselves stretched thin
Embrace Creativity when most Stretched?
It may seem ironic, but when we find ourselves stretched thin and feel ourselves most pressured by external forces, beaten down by the week, and otherwise just run over by life . . . it it then that it is most important to embrace a dash of creativity in our lives.
If anything, it is at that moment that we most desperately need the benefits of creative energy, as that creative spark has a way of reinvigorating us to seek unexpected or surprising approaches to those issues that have otherwise ground us down.
In her article Cultivating Creativity, author Donna L. Miller recounts a list of habits of a creative mind. In that, her last two points really stood out as being suggestions to be helpful to many of us facing challenges to our creative selves:
- presents uncertainty, surprise, disequilibrium; and
- takes interpretive risks
In this way, practicing habits to spur creativity forward can involve these, namely the area under the mists where uncertainty, surprise, disequilibrium, and the risk of new interpretations lives.
For those of us sheltering in place during the time of COVID, either working in our professional capacities in new ways or trying to create a new path in completely uncharted territories, this is what we need when facing a world that in many ways does not resemble what we already know.
It is when facing something new that we must use new methods. The old ways do not work when the horizons shifts out of recognizably, and we do everything we can to hold on and not be swept away.
Take This to Heart
I am taking this to heart this coming weekend with a full-day creative poetry workshop. This is double-irony, as I need this desperately to help me express and ground myself though the stresses of COVID, while also something that would not have happened had we not all faced the Coronavirus itself.
You see, this workshop was scheduled to occur in person, in another city, on another continent, from where I live. I was never hopeful for being able to attend it due to travel costs and the ordinary logistics of life.
I knew about it, though did not expect to be able to attend. That is, before in-person events ground to a halt and things moved online, including this poetry course.
I am now able to take it, so will make the most of this sudden opportunity . . . as we do well to embrace the unexpected!
We may longer have a sense of the ordinaries in life at this time, so all of this is out the window. If anything, I now suddenly have this wonderful opportunity to register and live this creative experience, one I would not have otherwise been able to explore. Yeah, sometimes challenges do present new opportunities!
What Is Your Creative Outlet?
Poetry my not be your thing, your creative outlet, your way to juggle the new world of stresses we all face in our different ways. Perhaps it is creative writing? Wood carving? Online gaming? Gardening? Mosaic creation? Playing the drums? Something else?
It is not important what it is, but rather it is important that it is.
What activities can you do that will help you throw off what weighs you down and invite a renewed energy through the wonders of uncertainty, surprise, disequilibrium, and all the wonders new interpretations provide us when we need that spark as our world is now new?
I am really eager to hear how this makes sense to you, and what creative recharging you seek out to help bring you balance, energy, and happiness!