True story: I used to haaaaate it when I would go looking for solutions to challenges and I’d be urged to Get Creative! I was an exhausted mom to three special needs kids and my husband worked for a start-up. (For those of you not in Silicon Valley, start-up = 80 hour work weeks.) I needed explicit directions, not Get Creative!
Fast forward many years and, dammit, the solution to a recent 18 month-long bout of writer’s block was…to get creative. Granted that dry spell included my father’s death, me getting Covid and a year of brain fog, but the thing that got my imagination re-fired and me writing again was getting my hands involved with creating something.
Some folks find repetitive hands-on tasks, like doing the dishes by hand or scrubbing a bathtub, to be helpful. The task doesn’t require you full creative attention and you get a dopamine hit from finishing a task. That didn’t do it for me.
I decided to take a break from writing and just focused my efforts on feeling better. I became obsessed with crocheting. I dug through my bins of half-finished projects and finished a quilt I’d started before everything came crashing down on me. This year I planted a small garden, and frankly, the giddy joy my little cucumbers give me is unmatched.
And suddenly, and by that I mean over the course of several weeks, the part of my brain that likes to write and create stories came back to me. It wasn’t because I took a break. I believe it’s a direct result of the kinds of activities I engaged in: hands-on activities that required I use both sides of my brain, but were low stakes and generative. I also appreciated having a solid result. The world may be on fire, but look, I made a hat!
There’s science to back me up, too. Here’s an article in the New York Times about it. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/28/well/mind/hands-mindfulness-typing-writing.html
The solution wasn’t to GET CREATIVE in the moment, like sit there and THINK, it was to allow myself to drop into creativity in a way that supported my brain and my general wellbeing. Knitting, crocheting, coloring, painting, gardening, sewing, doodling, woodworking…these are the kinds of creative endeavors that will fill your creative well.
So I urge you to Get Creative! Walk away from your keyboard, put your phone down, and put something in your hands that makes you even just a tiny bit happy!
Happy Creating,
Jill