5 Ways to Reconnect with Your Desire to Create
Creativity
often is mistakenly considered to be a destination — a mental state you need to
reach.
This is where many
artists and creators become “blocked” and engage in paralyzing self-sabotage.
How often do we hear that someone is “waiting for inspiration to come to them?”
However, creativity
is not something static. It is a fluid process that we can connect to with the
right mindset.
Here are 5 ways you
can reconnect with your inner motivation and desire to create art, finish your
novel, choreograph a new dance, or add an extra part to your piano composition…
5 Tips to Reconnect with Creativity
- Understand that creative ideas become better over
time.
It’s
easy to get discouraged when you begin to work on something and quickly become
your own worst critic by thinking something like “this is a bad idea” or “this
has been done before.” Creative ideas, artistic flow and divergent thinking
become reinforced over time and through firing of new mental associations. The
first idea may not be that good, but the second will be better and the third
even better than the second and so on.
- Keep asking yourself why you want to create.
It’s
common to forget why you set off to do something in the first place. Motivation
slowly gets lost and you lose track of what you initially hoped to achieve.
Whether it’s to become smarter, to heal from past trauma, to get in shape, to
make money or to be more marketable in today’s job market, it is important that
you keep asking yourself — and reminding yourself daily — what motivates you to
become creative.
- Minimize distractions or reasons not to create.
Naturally,
you might be facing some environmental circumstances that make it difficult for
you to create. Your children may be sick, you may be feeling depressed, there
may be construction in a nearby building or you simply may feel burned out from
day-to-day responsibilities. Whatever it is, it is very important that you
identify what these distractions are and tackle them one at a time in order to
resolve or minimize them.
- Get external stimulation.
When
you are waiting for inspiration to “come to you,” you are setting up a trap for
yourself. If you want to write a poem, reread your favorite poets. If you want
to put a dance group together, go to a dance show every week for a month. If
you want to add another chapter to your book, watch a movie, go to a museum,
have a discussion with a friend, anything that will add some extra mental
stimulation to your thought process.
- Talk about it.
An
artist often may feel compelled to keep his or her creative journey internal,
to quietly and discreetly surrender to the gradual decrease of his or her
motivation. This could be because it is too painful to bring up, or because it
is embarrassing to admit to a block, or even due to denial that low motivation
exists. However, by talking about it to a friend, a mentor or a counselor,
one’s intentions become more concrete, the obstacles to creativity become more
apparent and the problems begin to seem more manageable.
Daily life can
slowly chip away at your desire to create, to improve your skills and to become
successful in what you do. Hopefully, these five steps will help you reconnect
with your inner motivation to do what once may have seemed like the most
natural thing.
Olga
Gonithellis, MA, EdM, is a Licensed
Mental Health Counselor who specializes in working with artists, performers and
creative individuals. She lives in NYC where she works as a psychotherapist.
She is also a singer and a songwriter with years of performing experience. She
is a member of the Performing Arts Medicine Association and the Creativity
Coaching Association. Visit www.creativityandperformance.com for more information.
*You
can find the article here:
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/02/28/5-ways-to-reconnect-with-your-desire-to-create/
