Rediscover Your Creative Self

As we grow older, many of us feel that our creative side has gone for good. We wish we could be more creative but we don't know how. Chances are that our creativity is just sleeping, and if we try, we can reawaken it. Do you wish you could get in touch with your creativity? Chances are that your creative self hasn't gone away, it's just buried under a lot of stuff that life has thrown at you. How can you find your creative self again? What is keeping you from being more creative? Is it your job? Your family? Your upbringing? Your fear? Many people who wish they were more creative, say they have had all their creativity crushed right out of them by the demands of life, their jobs, their work schedules, and the negative people all around them. In some cases, parents or teachers made insensitive remarks that crushed the creative hopes of these people when they were very young. Since that time, they haven’t found the courage to pursue creativity again. We wish we weren’t embarrassed to try creative pursuits. We may have fears about trying to express ourselves through the arts. We wish we had the courage to try new things, and we wish we had some creative ideas. Many of us who say we wish we were more creative wish we could come up with some new ideas once in a while, but it feels as if the creative well has run dry. Why do we lose our creativity as we get older? When we were young children, we were very imaginative. When we were children, we could think of many different ways to use the objects around us. In fact, many of us as children were so imaginative that every object around seemed to have a real personality. It was easy to believe that a broomstick or a toy could come to life. As we grow up, we often lose touch with our imaginative minds. Is our creative self still there? How can we find it? What can be done to resurrect our inner creative being? Here are a few ways that can help you reconnect with your inner creativity. Spend time with young children. Don’t play with them simply as an adult. Let yourself be drawn into their world of imagination. You may be able to get in touch again with the imaginative playful mind within you. Practice various creativity exercises, such as “imagine ten uses for a hat”. You can make up your own creativity exercises, and then carry them out yourself, or get a creativity buddy to help you. Look for a teacher, colleague or friend that has the ability to inspire you creatively. Join a club or guild to meet other people who are interested in developing their creativity. If you can’t find a teacher or a group who is inspiring, look for books to read about artists who may inspire you. Do something different than you usually do. If you are usually a homebody, get out and try some new things. Visit new places. If you usually go out socializing every night, try staying home for a change. Afterwards, explore your reactions. Write a song, or a poem about the experience. Compose a dance. Create a short play to explore your reactions to the change in your life. Carry a notebook with you everywhere you go. Keep a pen and paper beside your bed so that if you wake up with an idea you can capture it. Many people who think they don’t have a creative bone in their body, discover that if they carry a notebook with them, they can write down some fleeting creative or artistic ideas that would otherwise get away. If you can’t find people in your life to support your creative ideas, look for inspiration in books, on the internet, or create your own club or support group to spread the creative encouragement around your community.