Unleash Your Creative Thinking

So how do you unleash your creative thinking?

For one thing, creativity LOVES solitude. Provide yourself some quiet creative time regularly. "It can first fit into the cracks of your life, and as you nurture it, it will expand into a glorious interior garden." SARK

Sound like work? Heck no...in fact most people find that their most creative ideas appear when either on vacation or in a very relaxed state. Yet the problem for many of us is that we don't ALLOW that relaxed state very often, we stay to busy, to regimented with schedules, clocks and more to let creativity happen. Turn off the screens and the noise, listen to pleasant music and just doodle.

Find a few minutes daily to allow focus on a creative activity. Even doodling is a creative activity. Don't let anything hinder you. Mindlessness may not seem be a creative activity, yet a needed release for people who are just starting to unleash a little bit of creative thinking in their lives.

Another cool idea is to write by describing something with your five senses. Try to avoid vague adjectives like "marvelous," "amazing," and "delicious." Before you know it, you'll have built yourself a tiny portfolio, and you'll be amazed at the growth you've undertaken after amassing all those works of art. Who knows, you might actually take to liking those things you do everyday. Pretty soon those things will become a part of you and you'll be addicted to these creative exercises.

While we are focusing on fear, worry, or hate, it is not possible for us to be experiencing happiness, enthusiasm or love. -Bo Bennett

Try something NEW! Let your experiences broaden your perspective. It doesn't HAVE to be as daring as bungee-jumping (though why not?) ... maybe just explore a new area. Go to a museum or a park. Take an art class. Open up to the creative people around you. As you thrust yourself out of your comfort zone more and more each day, your sense of adventure grows and so does your zest for life. Think about it. When was the last time you did something for the first time? If it's been a while, I tell you, you've been missing out on a whole lot of experiences that could have added to your growth, emotionally, mentally, physically, or spiritually. Not only will you learn, but you will also have plenty of stories to share, enabling you to practice your storytelling skills and making you the life of the party.

There are two sorts of curiosity -- the momentary and the permanent. The momentary is concerned with the odd appearance on the surface of things. The permanent is attracted by the amazing and consecutive life that flows on beneath the surface of things. -Robert Lynd

Embrace insanity. As John Russell once said,
"Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting."

Every creative thought was once deemed insanity by other "normal" people at one time or another. Luckily, that didn't stop the creative geniuses from standing by them. The thing is, sanity or being normal confines people to think...well, normally. Creativity is essentially breaking through barriers. Yes, this may include the bizarre and the downright strange, and I'm certainly not saying that you must develop a creative personality, simply consider the alternative if you don't. An example of a creative personality would be George Washington, who often rode into battle naked, or James Joyce, who wrote "Dubliners" with beetle juice due to an intense fear of ink, or Albert Einstein, who thought his cat was a spy or arch nemesis sent by his rival. Find a balance to ALLOW allow your creativity yet not get you detached from the real world completely.