8 Ways to Nurture Your Creative Genius
Read on to learn how to up your creative genius, improve your immune system, and ramp up the Bliss in your life.
So many of us marvel at other people's artistic achievements and ingenuity. But most of us fail to to nurture our inner innovator.Actually, we are all creatives. It occurred to me the other day, how many of my clients and students are creative geniuses. I wanted to compile a fun and interesting recipe for spicing up our creative self. I hope you enjoy these tidbits as much as I do.
1) Search for Inspiration; It's Everywhere
Each time I slow down, I see a new miracle; a lovely rose bush on my street, my neighbor's kitty with his tail up, waiting to be scratched, a friendly face. Boredom plagues the depressed. I know. I whined about being bored for years. Now, I see excitement in the aesthetic details all around me. You will too.
2) Daydream:
Distant thoughts can actually spur creativity. Dream it and then DRAW it. I tell you this works! I keep a sketch padby me in my living room. You needn't be an artist to scribble your dreams.
3) Get Mindful and Hear Your Song:
Each time I use this wonderful Buddhist principle, I SLOW down my mind-chatter, and get to the heart of what I really care about. We can hear our songs, as Lesser says, only when our minds are quiet, when we can reflect on what is truly engaging and important to us----what brings us the greatest sense of belonging and accomplishment. Finding our song means discovering our fierce and tender heart, where we feel deeply connected to all that surrounds us.
4) Pray. That's right, pray:
From Sonia Choquette, who reminds us that if we do our part to reach for our heart's desire, the universe will meet us halfway.Pin this to your ceiling, and say it each morning, especially if you have been feeling like the world has offered you a poop sandwich lately:"Divine Spirit, bring to my dream all necessary support." "Divine Spirit, move me. Take me this day to my highest good. Make me aware of all that will guide me toward my heart's desire."
5) Savor a Poem
In high school, overwhelmed and unsure of my path, I copied this poem at put it on my bedroom wall. My deep soul hunger was well-sated each time I read it. I hope it nourishes you as well. Here it is:
MY CAR SLIDES ALONG THE ROAD
At first there's a lizard, cradled between two rocks,
then the mesa massed against a strip of sky.
What protection.
What an embrace the clay is completing.
My feet shine from a notch in the floorboard,
and the moon passes as though lifted into its groove.
I have no choices.
Everything I love is near at hand.
~Sarah Gorham (from Love Poems by Women; An anthology of poetry from around the world and through the ages).
A few more poets:
Ada Limon, Robert Bly, e.e.cummings, T.S.Eliot, Rumi, Hafiz, David Whyte,
Ellen Bass, Sarah Gorham, Maya Angelou, Mary Oliver, Sharon Olds,
Nikki Giovanni, Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonya Sanchez, Rabia, Kabir, Pablo Naruda, Mira
6) Write About Something:
Ruth Richards, an everyday creativity champion, and psych professor at Saybrook University, shows us that expressive writing has been shown to improve immune system functioning, and makes us more dynamic, conscious, non-defensive, observant, collaborative and brave. (Psychology Today, December 2009). Need a few prompts? Check out Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones.
7) Grab a marker and paper and write these words:
“We're like lightbulbs. If bliss starts growing inside you, it's like a light; it affects the environment."
~David Lynch, from Catching the Big Fish; Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity
Please buy this book.
8). Get your butt outside:
Many of us work in windowless cubicles or offices, and wonder why we feel blue. This time of year, when the sun sets earlier, we must ‘s dark out in autumn and winter, get a light, get some sun, get some more sun. And if there is no sun in your world, then buy a full-spectrum light.
