Living life on autopilot is unfortunately par for the course for most of us these days. So what is the answer? We’ve all got to find ways to deal with the things that life throws at us, but the vast majority of people go into escapism.
Escapism, of course, is a very natural option for us because it’s a way of bearing our heads in the sand. But if you are someone who’s looking to benefit your life and be sure that you are progressing in the right direction, creativity is something that is endlessly fulfilling and rejuvenating.
Being a more creative person is an excellent approach to giving meaning to life. As vast as this sounds, we don’t need to have a seismic impact on the world. In fact, all we need to do is learn to fire those synapses a little bit better. So here are some approaches to bringing more creativity into your life:
Try Hands-On Hobbies
Hands-on hobbies, whether it’s calligraphy, painting, crafting, or writing, stimulate your creativity. Like anything else, we spend a lot of time now engaging with screens, and slowly, it appears that the negative effects are being felt by younger generations. People in their 20s are not able to engage on a human level as previous generations did, and rather than blaming younger generations, we have to remember that they’ve grown up in a different type of environment that favored isolation rather than socialization. Therefore, to counteract this, hands-on hobbies can be fantastic for well-being as well.
There’s an abundance of anxiety-oriented coloring books that teenagers use, and this is something that we can do as well, especially if we’re feeling strung out by social media. Plenty of hands-on hobbies can stimulate creativity but also give you that all-important focus that can distract you from those inner anxieties.
Photography is a wonderful example because it forces you to be dynamic in an environment that’s constantly changing. But there are no limits as to how you can capture a moment. You can focus on a portrait of an individual or a landscape, and play with saturation, hue, colorization, brightness, and so many other variables. You can even get a DJI drone or any other type of drone and take it to the air so you can create amazing imagery that gives you a sense of satisfaction while also hammering the point home that the world is a vast and amazing place, which takes this nicely onto the next point.
To inspire creativity, a large part of engaging your brain is getting outdoors. There’s so much to see and experience just by stepping outside. One of the best ways to force yourself outside everyday is to get a dog. Labrador Retrievers are ideal home pets that need to be walked everyday and are wonderful sociable dogs. In addition to helping you to explore new places, a dog can also help you to meet new people and you’ll find your creative flare sparked every time.
Go Outside or Travel
There’s a reason why people never want to come home after traveling, and it’s because they finally understand how big the world is. We can all become stuck in our own self-made box where we don’t venture outside the norm and try new things because, of course, it’s easier to stay safe. Trying new things can, for many people, feel like it leads to failure. Nobody knows unless they try, and of course, that age-old expression that we should tell our kids “try it, you might like it” springs to mind here.
Learning new experiences is just one part of the equation because once you start to embrace new perspectives, it can be incredibly humbling because it hits the point home that your life has given you plenty and that when you start to see how other people do things, taking inspiration from a different approach to a daily routine can inject a whole new way of life for you. We can be constantly on the go, and when we start to believe that we need to live to work, this is when we have to go traveling and see how the Europeans do it or how Australians work to live.
Ultimately life is for living, and if we find ourselves stuck in a routine that’s not forcing us to think in any way differently, exposing ourselves to different cultures and the other assorted offshoots, whether it’s music, art, religion, or anything that speaks to you, can inform how to be more creative with your lifestyle.
Experiment
There’s a big difference between taking risks and living outside of our comfort zone. What we need to remember is that if we want to be more creative, whatever that means for us, being willing to experiment should be a simple part of who we are. We need to be eternally curious because this is what can integrate new perspectives on life.
Creativity is a part of innovation, and having the bravery to do new or different things can ensure that life doesn’t get boring or predictable. Lots of people love predictability, but is this because there are so many other aspects of life that are eternally stressful? This is why our aforementioned escapism is so key. We live a life where we need routine because this is what we as humans crave, but we also need to learn how to push the boat out ever so slightly.
The best approach is to incorporate the 5% rule into your life where if you are living a predictable existence 24 hours a day, incorporating just 5% of that 24-hour time stretch will slowly expand your horizons. We have to remember that whether it’s learning a new language or getting into painting, we can’t know everything and this is why being creative is an amazing tool because you learn new things but you don’t need to dive in wholeheartedly if you don’t want to.
Just 5% risk-taking versus 95% comfort and safety means that you are getting out of your comfort zone, and then before you know it, 365 days have gone by and you’ve completely changed different aspects of your life and they have become habits. We also need to remember that learning a habit doesn’t occur overnight; it can take up to three months or even longer depending on the person. Creativity is about curiosity, and the more we start to question things, the more it fires those synapses and the more we get out of life.
Get Bored
We are a society that fears boredom, and it’s a tough thing to explain to younger people because they’ve never had the opportunity to actually wonder what to do. There’s always something, but we live a life that’s easily full of distractions. Those moments of boredom are crucial because, in one respect, it gives our brains the opportunity to rest. When we physically exercise, the process of adaptation is about giving your body a stimulus and letting it rest so it builds back stronger.
From the perspective of our brains, we don’t have this in our lives because we don’t have the same level of rest as we once did. The term “hyper fatigue” is a very popular one now because of bad news and a world post-pandemic; we are all feeling stretched beyond our capabilities in one way or another.
When we get bored, it can lead to deeper thinking, which means that we become more creative. In short, it means we end up actually using our brains. That’s not to say the internet or social media is not stimulating in the right ways; however, we’ve become dopamine addicts which means that we need those instant hits. Allowing ourselves to get bored can be like an epiphany but it also means our brains have the opportunity to rest which then means it can build back up stronger.
There are things that we can do to give our minds hygiene practices, for example, meditation or non-sleep deep rest, but when we start to look at how we can rest our brains in order to be more creative, boredom is undoubtedly the key.
Practice!
The most important thing to remember if you want to bring more creativity into your life is that indulging your curiosity is the key to creativity. There are things that we want to do, but we tell ourselves we don’t have the time for. Now there is a sea change in people’s attitudes to nurturing themselves.
Because of fantastic online resources, we’re able to see that actually if you don’t use it, you lose it. We hear more about age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease than ever, and the very best way to do this is to constantly stretch your brain.
The biggest problem we all have with this is that it requires effort, but whether you want to take better travel photos or you have considered learning a language, it’s vital to keep pushing. Of course, there are other supplementary practices that are very beneficial, such as exercise because it can strengthen your mind as well as the right type of nutrition, but if you’re not pushing forward and are never learning anything new, society is going to progress, and you will be stuck where you were, and you will feel like the outsider.
Of course, we can all go on social media and find someone that shares our opinions, and yes, social connectivity is amazing for our well-being and our creativity, but it’s vital to seek out those people who challenge us no matter how exhausting it can feel from time to time.
Creativity is the key to our existence and now, more than ever, it’s important that we unlock it.
