Creativity Challenges

 

Happy Sunday!

While coronavirus and country woes are going on with the upcoming election and critical things facing our freedom,  you can always count on our blog for your creativity and professional questions in your field that you prefer.  Maybe you are looking for a nich and just trying us out.  Look around.  Check out the first few articles.  Maybe you're just passing through.

Many times we are right where we're supposed to be  Today's times are challenging indeed, but many artists and writers are still making beautiful pieces and working through the tough times.  How is your quarantine going by the way?

Finished both books during this time and currently homeschooling because numbers keep fluctuating and see what happens in the next nine weeks.    Recently our son finally had his ear surgery, tubes put in.  Six months ago it was postponed due to the pandemic and he might have had an ear infection that he didn't communicate to us he was uncomfortable or in pain.  The ENT put in one tube as the otheer eardrum had ruptured during the time so prayers his eardrum heals fully.  If not there maybe another surgery to patch it up etc. As a domestic engineer with two degrees, I have a natural instinct to multitask.   However, burning the nightly oil to write or tend to my illustrations for the book can be equally exhausting so getting enough sleep is crucial to function the next day. 

How do you keep going with the creativity process during this time?  I made up my mind to stop reading up rehashes of the news on global/ national issues as it disrupts the creative process.  

I recall Julia Cameron's  Consistent creativity requires a system. There’s a bit of up-front work putting the system in place, but once it’s there, it proceeds naturally. Julia Cameron likens the creative process to a radio — with a transmission and a receiver. You must gather enough “inputs” (receiver) so that you can continually broadcast your creativity (transmission). You can also think of this process like refilling a well so that it’s always full when you need to draw from it every day. To put it simply we are all creative in our own way. Somehow you just did it. You sketch, you draw, you wrote out an idea.

So many tips from great writers. Journaling or freewriting really clears the mental static so you can zero in on the significant areas of your story or just a self discovery process. Vestibular input. If you have a yoga ball, lay your back on it and have your head hang close to the floor. Rock back and forth for five minutes. This gets the blood flow to the brain for cognitive function. I watched our son, four get this in his therapies and decided to give this a try. Whoa it really helps and the cognitive flow goes and goes... If you don't have a yoga ball, get one. They are under $20 at Amazon.

Go for a walk. We all need a change of scenery so with the weather and colorful fall foliage, get out and let your sensory input take it all in Recharge, rejuvenate, reset. A lot of times I will gather in visual details through my walk or just shut my mind down totally to enjoy the view.

On a final note, if you are stuck in a creativity route, keep in mind this is temporary. Have a mini notebook and just write down new ideas that come to mind, or list dialogue that you hear daily. I tend to use social media as my lab or social gatherings and so forth. Anything said goes in the notebook that I think one of my characters would say. If you are still stuck, give yourself permission to take a break for a day or so as needed. You deserve it.