Creativity Reboot

It's time for a creativity reboot - I'm nearing a transition into a calmer time of year, with no clerking and a milder childcare schedule, and I will have more time and energy to create stuff.

My ideal is an artistic practice for the end of summer that will give me a daily fun creative outlet that regularly fills my "creativity well". I want and need to do something meaningful each day, to move closer to my purpose; working on my priorities fills me and frees me.

Agenda:

1. Read "Creativity Takes Courage"

2. Evaluate my creative habits

3. Starting

4. Do the smallest thing

1. Read "Creativity Takes Courage":

I'm reading this beautiful book by Irene Smit and Astrid van Der Hulse (2018) with the subtitle of Dare to Think Differently. Every page is a work of art.

Chapter 10 is Dare to Be Mindful - about diving deep to catch the "big fish", and consciously choosing what thoughts to follow. Mindfulness is a way to break out of patterns and habits of thought, to be alert, to look at things afresh.

I value my morning time in the garden with a yellow pad, when I sit and look around at the bees and butterflies and let subtle thoughts surface. I want to add this brief mindfulness meditation:

1. Weather report: Check in with my body, thoughts, and feelings.
2. Mindfulness: Give attention to tensions and stresses.
3. Expand attention gradually to outside myself and the garden nearby.

2. Evaluate my creativity habits:

Once a week I try to take stock of my creative habits: 

Have I launched into a large creative project, one worth exhausting myself on, and if not, why? 

Have I constructed a schedule for my creative work and am I keeping to it? 

Do I set goals at the beginning of each week? 

Do I have a daily routine that that supports my creative efforts?

Journal: I've been throwing myself in to big projects - clerking, an earthcare event, and home renovation - at the expense of creativity, but this is a transition time. This next week I can start something new and compelling. What will it be? 

3. Do the smallest thing:

Eric Maisel has many suggestions for managing creative anxiety. Doing the smallest thing is a great way to make courageous creative work less frightening. In "The Sweet Spot", Christine Carter suggests finding the "minimum effective dose", the amount of work that keeps me challenged and joyful, and if I keep at it will get me to the finish line on time. The key is to create a pace and schedule that keeps me excited to get up in the morning, and feels ridiculously easy (so I will do it): It's effective but not stressful.

Today I will list specific goals for this week's creative projects and what to complete each day, and also itemize the preparation steps on a check list. My creative projects plan this week:

• Saturday: Brainstorm
• Sunday: Make fall felt stick-ups for pockets
• Monday: Build metal shelves
• Tuesday: Make pipe-cleaner numbers (with eyes)
• Wednesday: Decorate and sew a lunch bag
• Thursday: Clear studio table; Creativity reboot ceremony
• Friday: Lego building with Aldo