Unleashing Creativity And Inspiration

How do we limit our creativity and inspiration and which simple mindset changes can we make to encourage more of these useful qualities in our lives?

Join me on this short talk to discover how to tap into your innate creativity and inspiration without having to learn new techniques or routines.

Transcript

Hello and a huge welcome to this track about creativity and inspiration.

So today I'm going to be talking about these two things,

But I want to make it very clear from the start that this track isn't about becoming creative.

It's not about 101 extra tools to cram into your day to unleash creativity or inspiration.

The fact is,

You're already creative.

You can't help being so.

And yes,

You might be listing all the reasons now in your head why this isn't true,

But just think about this.

Show me a two-year-old child and we'll see a child bursting with creativity.

A child who plays,

Sings,

Dances and creates without a thought.

And I know that I can say with complete certainty that this was you too.

You still have this creative toddler lurking within you and the only thing that stops you?

Overthinking.

What do I mean by overthinking?

Overthinking is all the thoughts whirring through your mind about how creative you are or not,

How everyone else is far more creative than you or what conditions need to be in place before you can be creative or whatever other form your overthinking takes.

So let's get started and look at some of the ways our thinking about creativity gets in the way.

And if you're one of those people who tends to think,

Oh,

I'm not creative,

Let's get rid of that idea now.

Because if you get nothing else out of our time together today,

I would love you to broaden your view,

To think differently about creativity.

Because once you do,

It can transform your life in many ways.

So number one,

We have fixed ideas about what creativity should look like.

So you need to understand that creativity is not necessarily about being a great artist or writer,

But your creativity could be expressed in how you solve problems,

Make a family meal,

Sort out the problems in a car or make everyone feel incredibly welcome to the party you host.

It could be your ability to plan or see new options.

The point is we're all creative in our own unique way and in acknowledging your own unique way of creativity can help you tap into it even more.

Just understand that being creative is part of being human and if you're listening to this,

You can't not be creative.

It's who you are.

You have it in your DNA.

It's just that you might not have been tapping into it as fully as you can do and the more you believe you have it,

The more you'll tap into it and the more you'll notice how much you have.

It's sort of like a self-fulfilling circle.

Ask yourself,

How do I love to be creative?

What would I love to have a go at?

What am I interested in right now?

Number two,

We start to judge our creations harshly.

So remember that creativity you had as a small child to engage in make-believe,

To get completely absorbed in a game of your own creation,

To make messy scribbles on a blank piece of paper?

Well most of us eventually crush this by starting to judge our creations.

So if you ask a small child if they can draw,

They'll look at you in amazement and then proudly show their pictures but as we grow,

We tend to become more self-critical and start apologising for our creations.

We start to see the faults in what we've created,

To notice how that drawing looks nothing like the scene we could see,

To see all the nitpicky faults in the garment we've made that no one else notices.

We start to judge super harshly and then eventually give up doing anything in the first place.

So start drawing,

Making,

Singing,

Planning,

Baking without judgment.

You have total permission to do all of these things,

To engage in the joy of creativity without judgment of you or any of your creations.

Engage in the creativity to help you get through life issues by all means but do it as well for the joy of making or creating and see what starts to happen in your life.

One of my first ever knitting creations was a beret I very proudly knitted in my teens.

Now for some reason this thing I was knitting seemed to get bigger and bigger until it became a family joke and don't worry I did see the funny side but it looked eventually like some incredibly large donut on my head that I never wore but it also didn't stop me knitting and eventually some of my creations were wearable.

So dabble,

Experiment,

Allow yourself to have fun and play with it all and also allow yourself to fail without judgment.

And before we turn our attention to inspiration let me leave you with this final thought about creativity.

You see in a way creativity,

Our creativity,

Is even more fundamental than this.

It's not simply the way we express ourselves through making and designing.

It's how we live our very lives.

We cannot not be creative.

Physically our bodies are being created and physically our bodies are being created and recreated on a daily basis.

We create our relationships with others.

Some of us create dramas out of molehills.

We create our very lives.

It's what we do and without getting too heavy and philosophical it's who we are.

Let me repeat we cannot not be creative but we can become more conscious of it and once we do so we can harness it more than perhaps we've ever done so before.

So we've talked so far about being creative but I want to turn our attention to inspiration now and what I mean by inspiration is that sudden idea or insight,

That aha moment that pops into your head.

It's that wonderful feeling when suddenly previously unrelated ideas come together or you see things from a different perspective and then hurrah you have your answer and the answer is usually simplicity perfection.

Often so perfect and so straightforward that we wonder why on earth we didn't get the answer earlier.

So let me tell you a little about what's going on in our brain during this process then we can get out of our own way and allow inspiration to just get on and do its thing.

So when we're looking for inspiration we may have a couple of ideas in our head that seem to contradict one another or not make sense together.

We want to build our business through public speaking but we think we've no ability to talk in front of others.

We want to juggle every member of the family's criteria for a perfect holiday but we can't seem to make them all fit together into a family break that's going to keep everyone happy or we might want to solve an issue or a problem but have no clue how we're going to do it and all the possible options seem way off the mark.

Whilst we're trying to resolve these dilemmas we draw our attention inwards.

We become less focused on what's going on around us and more concentrated on what's going on inside our head.

Scans of the brain have discovered that just before that aha moment our brains give off alpha waves.

Now this is interesting because alpha waves create links across the whole brain and usually we experience them just before or after we're coming out or going into sleep and they're to do with allowing the unconscious part of the mind to do its work and then suddenly we have it,

The idea.

It's perfect and that rush of pleasure we get when we suddenly get it is caused by adrenaline being released,

That wonderful feeling of pleasure when we've solved the crossword puzzle or suddenly worked out how to keep the family peace.

That's our brain making new connections.

Again according to scientists at this point the brain gives off gamma band waves.

These are the band waves seen when the brain is processing information across different parts of the brain forming a new mental map.

So let's look at some of the ideas we need to bear in mind when we're trying to find inspiration.

We try too hard.

The thing about inspiration is that it's a gentle shy creature and very often the more we try and struggle to have it,

The more it eludes us.

You've very likely had this experience yourself.

So you're struggling to find a solution,

A way out of a tricky problem,

So you think and think about the problem,

You analyse and get caught up in thinking about it but nothing.

However hard you try there seems to be no solution at hand.

So off you go and do something else.

Your attention relaxes and then all of a sudden boom,

A solution to your earlier problem arrives smack bang in the middle of your mind.

It's obvious,

Usually really obvious and you wonder why you didn't see it earlier.

But it happens now because you've given your unconscious mind time to process the problem and solve it in its own time and way.

So if you're looking for the answers to a problem,

By all means do some research,

Look at options,

Have a bit of a think about it but stay comfortable with not knowing the answer.

Don't rush into making a decision unless you absolutely have to do so and you know that the perfect answer is most likely going to happen when you're relaxed.

This is all backed up by a survey that asked US executives where they got their most creative ideas and no,

It wasn't in business meetings or when under pressure.

Most said it was when they're in the shower,

Relaxing on their holidays or out for a walk,

When the unconscious part of the brain is mulling the problem over.

So you see inspiration is most likely going to strike when you're mentally and physically relaxed.

So when you're struggling with a problem that you just can't seem to solve,

Give your mind some quiet time and space.

We have to be comfortable with not knowing.

All of us have our comfortable range of how much uncertainty we like to live with and most of us,

I suspect,

Would rather live with certainty than uncertainty.

Uncertainty feels uncomfortable,

It feels incomplete and sometimes it's a little bit uncomfortable.

It feels incomplete and so most of the time we'd rather live with the certainty of a not-so-perfect solution rather than rest in indecision and not knowing,

Hoping for the perfect answer.

In many ways we like completion,

We like things to be filed away neatly in our mind.

So as much as you can,

Get comfortable living with uncertainty.

Start noticing the inspiration and the ideas you get because the more you notice how often it happens,

The more you'll learn to trust and relax into the process.

Cultivate a quiet mind.

So creativity and inspiration don't like noise and by that what I mean is all the mental noise that can be going on inside our head.

Think about the thoughts you have sometimes and it can be like a loud band playing music in your head.

There's little space to hear anything else.

Inspiration and creative thoughts can sometimes be more like a whisper and if there's lots going on you're never going to hear it.

So we need to learn to quiet the mind in any way you find you can do that so the ideas and inspiration can be heard.

That's not to say that you'll get immediate answers.

Sometimes that's not the way it happens and oftentimes the answer will come into your mind over the next few days when you're least expecting it.

That's fine.

Allow the process to work in its own way in time.

Once we recognize how fully creative we all are,

We can start living life with more conscious creativity.

It can add an extra zing to life and help you tap into resources you might not have known you have because ultimately there's no end to our creativity,

Resourcefulness and power of inspiration.

So I hope you've enjoyed listening to me today.

If you'd like to find out more about the tracks and the courses that I offer,

Have a look at my profile and I do hope to be back with you again very,

Very soon.

But in the meantime,

Have a wonderful day and I'll see you soon.

Bye-bye.

Reviews

You restated for me some beliefs, ways & mindsets. Great bolstering - great support of one being true to themselves. ty. peace. ..

Thank you for reminding me to get out of my own way! I know that taking a problem, or in my case the Blank Page, for a walk or to do some gardening frequently results in a💡moment but too often the Blank Page convinces me that I’ll never have a good, fresh idea EVER again and I get despondent. So, thank you again, I’m off for a walk now 🙏🏽