Creativity isn’t something that we can just expect to be there. The truth is, our brain is a big intellectual muscle that needs to be regularly exercised.
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not a matter of “I’m creative only when I’m inspired to be creative.”
If there’s something that I have learned from my major in Industrial Design, it’s that you’re not always going to be inspired to create, but you CAN be trained to keep your brain active and make it work FOR you instead of AGAINST you. Especially now during quarantine, I know it has been exceptionally hard to focus what with many of us in lockdown with so many distractions around us.
I KNOW your brain was worked against you many times. Overthinking is one of creativity’s biggest enemies. It lurks around your best ideas and nibbles away at them slowly until it’s got you thinking that none of them are good enough. Let’s get rid of that overthinking monster… It doesn’t belong in our beautiful creative brain! These 4 simple daily creative exercises will get your creative mind-hamster running in the wheel!
1. Start a Morning Journal
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You know what’s also the most important thing of the day? Knowing where you are and what your focus is going to be for the rest of the day.
Take one of those 1 million half-used notebooks that you have lying around your home (yes, I see you!) and use it as your Morning Journal.
In there, you’ll write the following thoughts every day:
- Your hopes for the day
- Your fears
- Tasks that you will achieve
- Your prayers
- An inspiration that will help today. This can be a person, a quote, a landscape that you have in mind, your partner, your kids, a wish, etc. (and yes, you can repeat inspirations every day.)
2. Fully Dress up for the Day
Let’s face it, it’s been fun getting to know yourself these past few months in all of the pajamas in your closet, but it’s time for them to go.
If you’re going to have an active, creative brain, then you’re going to have to tell it to dress up! It’s a scientific fact that people feel powerful, prepared and confident when they’ve dressed up for the day. An experimental study by Lefkowitz, Blake, and Mouton shows exactly HOW influential dressing up can be for the people around us, just IMAGINE the power that dressing up could have for ourselves.
3. Unplug for a few hours
Leave your phone in the bedroom, face down for an hour or two. If you’re like me and have a mean dependency to it, then follow these tips to be a little calmer with this exercise:
- Turn off all non-essential notifications. I know you might feel it’s super important to know the precise second when someone likes your photos on Facebook or Instagram. Trust me. IT’S NOT. This is a great practice to continue even after you’ve unplugged for a few hours.
- Leave the sound on and turn the volume up on your phone. It’ll help with the anxiety behind the “what if my husband/kid/mom calls?” Keep calm, you’ll be able to hear it in case anybody needs you.
- Keep it face down. This helps with the nervous tick we all have when walking by and saying ohhh, X replied to my comment!
Extra points if you can unplug for a full day!
4. Practice a New Language
This is one of the strongest and most amazing things to do to rewire your brain and help it come up with some amazing creative ideas. Check out Duolingo to learn a new language for free.
It’s so easy, it literally could only take 3 to 5 minutes a day. You could be speaking a new language by the end of the year. How many languages are you learning by scrolling through Instagram or Facebook for an hour everyday?
Delete Old Photos from your Phone
All those extra photos or screenshots are cluttering your phone and your mind. By letting go of them, you’re also making space in your mind and getting organized! This simple thing will do wonders for your creativity!
To recap:
Your brain needs to exercise as much as your body (if you haven’t been doing one or the other, blame it on quarantine for 5 minutes and then make an active decision to make a change!)
I want to make it clear: during these lock-down times you don’t have to find a cure for cancer or make world peace. People are making it seem like they’re the productivity masters… That should never make you feel badly.
We are real people with real lives and real problems. If you take one day (or one week) to rest, it was probably long overdue. Take these simple tasks as inspiration as to what you can do to easily keep yourself active everyday.
A happy creative brain makes for a happy life!
If you’re looking for more tips on how to stay creative and how to work and love your hobbies and creativity, then I’d love to see you in my monthly emails! I would love to connect with and to help you get back on the creative horse. I love to share a bunch of freebies all the time!
