20 tips to boost your creativity
In this post, we’ll take a look at creativity and several tips and suggestions to stimulate and unleash your creativity.
Three video clips are also available on Youtube.
What is creativity?
According to the dictionary Le Larousse, creativity is defined as the capacity and faculty of invention and imagination. It is the creative power that everyone carries within them. I believe that we are all capable of inventiveness and imagination. Whether it is to create a new project, a new achievement or simply, to find a solution to an existing problem.
Creativity is needed everywhere and in all areas! You don’t have to be an artist to be creative. Creativity manifests itself not only in the arts, but also in communications and technology, for example. You can also find creativity in landscaping, home design, cooking and so on!
For me, creativity means freedom. Freedom of expression, freedom to think differently, freedom to put concepts and ideas together and make something unique. Creativity doesn’t have to be complex. It is about associations of ideas, concepts and knowledge.
What keeps you from unleashing your creativity?
There are many reasons that can prevent you from unleashing your creativity. Among others, there are:
- The limitations we give ourselves
- I’m not good enough, the others are better and me
- I am a rational person and not a creative one
- Fear of failure
- It’s not for me. I would never allow myself to try. I will not succeed.
- Always remember that failure is part of success. There will be a lot of trial and error before we achieve success.
- Fear of other people’s judgment or even, of our own judgment
- What will the others think? They will think that I am not good. I’ll never make it, I have no talent. Success doesn’t come with talent, but with hard work.
- Physical or mental fatigue
- This one can take away all your creative energy. A rested body and mind ensures much better ideas and creations.
Here are tips and ideas to help you boost and unleash your creativity.
1) Exercise to leave behind judgment and preconceived ideas
Draw a square on a piece of paper to make a box and leave some space around it. Write your judgments and preconceived ideas inside. Then, come up with opposing arguments or ideas and write them outside the box. Think out of the box! See the example below.
2) Take a break, rest, sleep well
If you are having blockages while you are at work or making an activity or hobby and have run out of new ideas, it may be a good idea to take a break. Whether it’s a few minutes, a few hours, or a even a few days, it can be to our benefit to rest our brain. This will recharge the battery and help inspiration and creativity to come back. Sleeping well definitely helps to have a mind fresh for creativity.
For tips on how to fall asleep and sleep better, you can go listen to my video on Youtube with 12 tips for getting better sleep.
3) Be in the nature
What a more inspiring place than nature! Take a walk or just sit in a park and watch. Observe nature, birds, people. These are guaranteed sources of inspiration.
4) Pick a theme from a box of words or images
Take a sheet of paper and write several words of a theme that you will cut out after. For example, fauna, flora, emotions, cities are some themes you could use. You can also search the web for word lists and print them out and cut them out.
Place the words in a box and identify your box. You can have one or more categories of words per box. Pick up a word. For example, you get the word Zebra. Use this word in your painting, your design, for writing or for your birdhouse activity! Use the theme to find out which aspect of the animal you can draw inspiration from. For example, stripes, black and white, Africa, cousin of the horse. Pick 2 different words and see what comes out! Zebra and Pink Tulip. Why not use a pink and black stripe design for your birdhouse!
You can also use random words that are available on the web. Here are two links : https://randomwordgenerator.com/, https://www.randomlists.com/random-words.
5) Browse a magazine or read a book
Get comfortable and relax with a magazine or a book in hand. Simply flick through the magazine automatically. Focus on the images and headlines that appeal to you. Simply read what interests you.
Read a book on a subject that interests you or just read a novel or a comic book to get you off the hook. Reading promotes relaxation, stimulates the intellect, which acts on creativity.
6) Take inspiration from the web
Google, Youtube, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and more are full of articles, videos, publications, tutorials from which you can draw inspiration to start your own projects. By adding your identity, personality and creativity to it, you will create something new.
It is true that all these platforms can inspire you but they can also harm you. By spending too much time on the web, there is the danger of procrastinating and staying connected as time goes by. It can be overwhelming when there is too much information. In order not to be on the web for too long, I suggest that you set yourself a time limit. For example, you can allow yourself 15 to 30 minutes to research a topic.
Drawing inspiration from the web is a good idea, but creativity is not about copying other people’s content but rather stimulating your intellect for your own achievements.
7) Subscribe to newsletters and groups of interest
Subscribe to the newsletters of your favorite websites. Several sites offer inspirational quotes or interesting content that can bring a spark in your day.
Facebook offers the opportunity to subscribe to groups based on your interests, as well as forums of discussion. These groups are great for finding ideas and interacting with other people with similar interests.
8) Visit an inspiring place
Visit a museum or an art gallery. Go to your library or a bookstore. These places are most inspiring and you will feel creative afterwards.
9) Listen to music and dream
Take time to dream, do nothing, and let your mind wander. Dream of places, stories, scenarios, colors, emotions.
For some relaxing music suggestions, see my article: Top 10 relaxing music for work, study, no stress, focus, concentration.
To listen to my chill out down tempo style music, you can click here.
10) Keep an note book with you to write your ideas
Inspiration and creativity can come anywhere, anytime! To make sure you don’t lose this momentum, keep a notebook with you to write down your ideas, concepts, etc.
This can also be an application on your mobile device that you can use to take notes or even record your voice.
11) Brainstorming
Brainstorming is the act of writing down everything you can think of about a topic. Ideas may or may not be related. It frees the mind and helps put ideas, concepts and words into perspective. It’s about writing down whatever comes to mind on a topic until you run out of ideas. By reading your brainstorm paper, certain things may appear following this exercise such as steps, concepts, processes, projects, orientation, evidence.
Brainstorming with others can be really interesting for getting other perspectives and ideas. This technique is often used when starting a new project.
12) Take inspiration from our favorite personalities, listen to inspiring videos
People we admire are often a source of inspiration for our own projects in life. Without imitating them, we rather want to know their approach and to know what brought them to success. Whether through biographies, documentaries, videos, articles or more, our favorite personalities have a lot to teach us.
If you prefer to listen to content, maybe you would like to listen to podcasts or lectures on TED for example. It’s a great way to fuel our own creativity.
13) Take a course
If you are new to a topic of interest, training will give you a foundation on which to build. There are tons of online or face-to-face training. This will bring you basis on which you will be able to use your creativity.
14) Meditate
Remain silent, practice breaths and meditate. 2 to 5 minutes are enough to enter a state of calm, from which can manifest creativity.
You can also listen to a guided meditation with positive affirmations that will energize you. For example, my Motivation Guided Meditation. It is available on Youtube and offered for free when you subscribe to my newsletters.
If you think you cannot meditate, read my article with 4 easy techniques to meditate.
15) Drawing a mandala or a zentangle
With a sheet of paper and a pencil, you can draw a mandala or a zentangle with random repeating patterns. See what comes out of you. Think about shapes, textures, subjects. You could use the word box for inspiration.
To learn more about mandala, see the article What is a mandala, purposes and how to make a mandala.
To learn more about zentangle, see the article Active meditation through drawing mandala and zentangle or the video on Youtube that show you how to make a zentangle.
Get a mandala for coloring, a zentangle template, and a guided meditation by subscribing to my newsletters!
16) Make a mind map
This tool is very powerful, and this, for all types of subjects or projects. In fact, the mind map allows you to make connections between concepts and ideas which can give surprising results and awakens creativity.
With a sheet of paper and a pencil, write your subject in a circle in the middle of the sheet. Then, link from that circle to other circles with words related to your topic.
If we take our example of the word Zebra, we think of Stripes, Africa, Animal, Black and white, Cousin of the horse. Each of these words are therefore related to Zebra. Subsequently, we take each of these words and then we decline their relationship. In the example shown, our canvas project can be summarized as follows. An abstract painting with stripes themed and in the colors of Africa.
Take a large sheet of paper if you have a lot of ideas! There are also some software that allows you to do mind mapping.
17) Make a mood board
Another variation with a theme or a keyword is to make a mood board. It is a collection of images, music, textures, sounds and more, arranged in a board. This collection of items is related to the chosen theme or project. You can also combine other ideas into your inspiration board.
One way to create your mood board is to use parts of a magazine and make a collage on a cardboard.
There is also the technological way. Any software allowing to make collage of photos in a worksheet can be used. Photoshop, Canvas, and Powerpoint are examples of tools that can be used for this purpose.
Pinterest also lets you build a board with the pins that inspire you. They can be published or private. This gives you the flexibility to create your board for yourself, for public distribution or to share with collaborators.
18) Free your mind from old projects
Make room for something new! Lots of old ideas and projects hang around in our heads and in our creative environment. This creates unnecessary noise in our brain. Free your mind by making a list of uncompleted activities and unfinished projects. Prioritize everyone by questioning their relevance to your current life. By prioritizing projects and entering them in an Excel file, for example, it will free your mind and make room for creativity and new projets.
19) Clean up your work environment
A messy work environment can kill your creativity. Whether you have a small office space or a complete room to work in, take the time to unclutter what’s unnecessary. Organize your space to be able to breathe. There is nothing like old files lying around to draw your attention to something from the past. See the future in a clean and organized place!
20) Don’t use any of these suggestions!
Well, all of these suggestions can certainly stimulate inspiration and creativity. Maybe only one of these suggestions appeals to you? Or maybe none! The important thing in the creation process is to let yourself be guided by your inner voice and your heart. Doing nothing at all can also trigger a click!
So, I hope you enjoyed this post and that these suggestions will help unlock and spark your creativity!
To see the series of three videos, here are the links below!
If you enjoy this article, please share it on your social networks!
May your life be filled with colors, music, and loving kindness.
Chantal Rioux 😊
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🎁You will receive a guided meditation in MP3 format, a zentangle template and a mandala for coloring! In addition, you will get a 10% welcome promotional code on several products from my shop.
