You can't use up creativity. The more you use the more you have. -Maya Angelou
You might not identify as a creative person or think you are capable of creative pursuits, but that’s just not true. Humans are born with innate curiosity and creativity that we often let diminish and escape us over time. It is my firm belief that one of the best ways we can get in touch with our true human selves and fulfill our deepest primal desires is to open ourselves up to vulnerability and creativity.
Every Person Is A Creative Person
Humans are born with a natural urge to create. Thousands upon thousands of years ago, humans began using things around them as tools to manipulate materials and make them into something new; they painted on cave walls. Today, we are no different, except that we do not allow ourselves to connect with this primal need that our species has. Humans are naturally curious, always wanting to solve the unknown questions of the universe, push the big red button, or see what happens when you try to turn plant materials into usable pigments. Our sense of curiosity and drive for exploration is constantly reshaping our perception of the world and the ways in which we can participate in it. As children, we have a spirit of reckless creativity; whether our interest was drawing, singing, dancing, or playing pretend, we had wild, bright, and active imaginations. It is part of who we are as people, but as time goes on, it often gets conditioned out of us. We are taught to sit still and follow orders, to take specific steps to get to a particular outcome. It is rare that we are allowed the opportunity to exhibit our creativity, especially to create without the pressure to produce. This is a huge gap I see in society today. Art and music, dance, theater, and free individual creative expression are not high on the priority list at the moment and I think this is a major detriment to the world. Opening up to creation is beautiful and beneficial to the individual, the community, and the world.
Why You Need to Tap Into Your Creativity
If you do engage in creative hobbies, you probably know from experience, and science can also corroborate that having a creative outlet is extremely beneficial to mental health. There is a wide range of ways that creative activities can be healing to the mind, body, and soul, but a few main positive effects on mental health include emotional regulation, cognitive flexibility, and social connectedness.
These benefits are discussed in a literature review from the University of Texas, which examines the positive impacts of various types of creative activities on individual well-being. The process of creating is an opportunity to consider, face, and transmute our thoughts, feelings, and emotions into tangible works that can be more widely experienced by others. Creative activities allow us to practice introspection, gain self-awareness, and release overwhelming thoughts and feelings we might have. Engaging with our ideas in this way promotes a sense of self-empowerment, agency, and autonomy. Also, creativity can foster social connectedness now more than ever. If you partake in any creative activities, over time, you might start to identify with the activity. For example, if you spend lots of time crocheting, you might start to identify as a crocheter; if you write, a writer; if you paint, a painter. You may then want to connect with other crocheters, writers, painters, pianists, resin artists, potters, or animators. When you connect with others in your field, you can experience their work and let it inspire you, you can share your work and get feedback, you can learn about new techniques and ideas, and maybe you might end up collaborating with some of your new colleagues on a project. The internet is an accessible and efficient place to make these connections, but in-person creative groups are often available, and I believe face-to-face interaction with your community is even better. Do what you can.
How to Tap Into Your Creativity
GCF Global has a great free mini-course about creativity. One of the topics discussed in this course is creative impulses. They point out the reckless creativity that children practice constantly, sometimes to the dismay of adults when they have to scrub crayon and marker masterpieces off of the walls. As we get older, we learn to reign in the recklessness, but sometimes, we can also become conditioned to let our creativity go, too. Social expectations, standardization in schools, and sometimes time and accessibility can drive a wedge between you and your creative impulses. It is up to you to make friends with your creativity again, and here are some things that might help you do it:
1. Freewrite
One of the best ways to break through any mental blocks regarding the worthiness of your ideas or how to express them is to take some time to freewrite. This type of writing can also be called stream-of-consciousness writing because the object is to write whatever comes to mind, whether you follow a long train of thought or bounce around between topics. Nothing is off the table. This can be a highly beneficial practice because it allows you to move through your ideas without judgment. You can also consider this sort of a brain dump; whatever is in your brain is coming out in your writing, no matter what it is. You can write about the mundane aspects of your life, like your grocery or to-do list, memories, and goals, and I even recommend writing how it feels when you don’t know what to write anymore. Set a timer for 5-10 minutes, or more if you’d like, and don’t filter your thoughts before you can get them out on paper.
2. Practice Creative Mindfulness
If you want to catch and collect your ideas as they come, carry a mini notebook or start a note on your phone where you can jot down your ideas whenever and wherever they strike. This is a good way to practice not shoving your creative ideas down as you are going about your daily life. Practicing mindfulness toward your creative ideas can help you feel a sense of agency as you are honoring your creative impulses and changing your perspective to say that your creative ideas are worth considering. Plus, taking note of these creative sparks in the moment can help you identify what kinds of things inspire you.
3. Avoid Perfectionism
One major hurdle to unlocking your creativity is letting go of perfectionism. To start, there is no such thing as perfection, so there is no real point in attempting to attain it. The great thing about creativity, too, is that there absolutely is no right or wrong way to do it. Most of what this process looks like is giving yourself permission to take risks, try new things (even if they “fail”), be uncomfortable trying new things and be misunderstood. Perfectionism often stems from people-pleasing and wanting to be able to control the way others perceive us. When you are able to let go of those often self-imposed pressures, your creativity can flourish. Additionally, practice changing the way you perceive mistakes and failures. Oftentimes, these events do not mark the end of a journey but rather serve as a redirection that might take you to an even better end result than what you had imagined.
4. Say “Yes, and…”
This tactic is recommended by both GCF Global and the MCI Institute. When people do improv performances, one of the first things to learn is the “yes and…” segue. This simple phrase is a tool used to keep the ball rolling during a performance and to keep developing the story. This strategy can be used when engaging with your creative ideas as well. When you have a creative impulse, practice your creative mindfulness to stop and take note of the idea, then take it a step further. This might allow you to look at the idea from a new angle or add something to it that helps it grow and flourish into something more magnificent.
My Creative Journey
Just like most others, I grew up having and fulfilling many creative impulses. Starting when I was 18 months old I had a habit of watercolor painting every single day. Less than two years old, I sat at my plastic Little Tikes picnic table and spread color onto paper to my heart’s content. When I was a few years older, I drew backgrounds to put behind my Barbie dolls to have a wedding photoshoot, and when I was in third grade, I wrote songs and poems to express my little kid feelings. I was able to stay relatively creative for at least part of high school; even though I had already talked myself out of cross-stitching and crochet because I wasn’t good enough at them, I enjoyed creating jewelry by wrapping stones I found in wire and putting them on a simple string. Then, I got stuck for a long time. I had so little self-esteem that I couldn’t stand to try something new and be bad at it, or go back to any of the things I had tried and “failed” at before. For a few years, I didn’t create much of anything.
My last semester of college was a very difficult and scary time for me, and when I least expected it, creativity was my lifeline. It all started when I watched a TikTok of someone creating a collage journal spread, and I was instantly inspired. I was drawn to this creative activity because I didn’t actually have to make anything myself; I just had to take things that other people had made and put them together. I filled up a whole journal during that semester by taking these unrelated scraps and pieces and putting them together in ways that represented the things I was going through and how I was feeling. Being able to work through that period of my life in a visual, tactile, tangible, and creative manner was genuinely lifesaving for me. After that, I continued to create. I got into block printing for a little while. Then I did some felt sewing. I made beaded bracelets and keychains for my friends. I finally built up enough confidence in my ideas and my work that I was able to start writing again, something I loved to do ten years ago. Not only did this journey allow me to process difficult emotions and life events, help me build self-esteem, expand my self-perception, and engage with the world in a different way, but creativity has become a core part of my identity. For the first time in a long time, if ever, I can recognize that creativity is a part of who I am and what I value.
What I have also learned along this journey is that creativity is a muscle that you have to use often in order to be able to continue to access it. My story is the perfect example. I didn’t let myself exercise my creativity for a long time, but eventually when I started practicing again, I was able to build it up to the point that I manage a blog and engage in several creative hobbies in my free time. I am now at a point where I will never let my creativity escape me like that again because it is part of me. Kitty Knorr (@kittyknorr on TikTok) discusses creativity extensively in her content. She offers creative coaching to help others unlock the potential of their creativity by giving themselves permission to be vulnerable and misunderstood and break out of their normal cycles and routines to try something different and see if it works. She has been a great source of inspiration and encouragement for me. I highly recommend following her or finding another mentor to cheer you on when you find yourself in a slump.
Don’t be intimidated by this call toward creativity. The best way to approach any type of personal transformation is through baby steps. Take five minutes today to do a brain dump and organize and consider some of the creative ideas you might have been ignoring. Make this a regular practice, even just once a week. Over time, as you become more comfortable with yourself and your ideas and gain confidence in your ability to execute your ideas, you just might start to realize you were a creative person all along.
References
Baskin, Jenna. “The Positive Impact of Creative Outlets | MCI Institute.” Www.mciinstitute.edu.au, 31 Jan. 2022, www.mciinstitute.edu.au/wellbeing/creative-outlets.
“Free Creativity Tutorial at GCFGlobal.” GCFGlobal.org, edu.gcfglobal.org/en/creativity/.
Giordano, Joe. “5 Reasons Why Everyone Is Creative | Synecticsworld.” Syneticsworld, synecticsworld.com/5-reasons-why-everyone-is-creative/.
Jean-Berluche, Ducel. “Creative Expression and Mental Health.” Journal of Creativity, vol. 34, no. 2, 1 Aug. 2024, p. 100083, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2713374524000098, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yjoc.2024.100083.
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