In this episode, I’ll talk about following your creative impulses. I’m also going to give you a creative prompt, something you can do easily and in a short amount of time, to get some creative play into your day.
A small caution might be in order. If you’re sensitive to language, I must warn you that the occasional swear word might slip through the cracks when I edit. That might happen if I’m talking about something I’m particularly passionate about.
19 - You should follow your creative impulses
Show Notes
You should follow your creative impulses
As children, we act on every creative impulse. Whether it’s drawing with fine-liners on the kitchen wall, making mud cakes, or trying on our mother’s shoes. But as we grow older, we’re taught not do. We’re taught:
How to create: Stay within the lines, a dog doesn’t look like that, red doesn’t go with pink.
What to create: Draw a nice picture for grandpa, build a tower with the blocks, use this pattern for the mittens.
Even when to create: Homework/housework first, maybe after dinner, wait until the kids are asleep.
Some of these things are things we tell our selves. Limitations we place upon our own lives. Because of these limitations, many of us end up where we’ve shut off our creative impulses completely, to the point where it’s affecting our whole lives. It affects your:
- Moods
- Relationships
- Health
- Finances
When you deny yourself to express your creativity, everything suffers.
To get our creative impulses back, we have to re-learn how to act on them. When you get an impulse to do things differently, act on it (if possible). The voice of that creative impulse may be just a whisper but listen to it, as much as you can.
- Take that quirky family photo instead of the regular, posed photo for Christmas.
- Decorate that cake any way you want, instead of the way your mother always did.
- Doodle during the meeting or phone call if you want.
- Wear a funny hat.
- Skip along the sidewalk.
When was the last time you followed a creative impulse without questioning it, without applying any of those limitations to it? I’d love to hear this, so please leave me a comment on the blog, where the show notes are. I really hope I hear some of you say that you’ve done it within the last year at least.
If you want some help with this, let’s have a virtual cup of tea and talk. This conversation is about helping and supporting you, not selling.
Today’s inspirational words are by Criss Jami, and she says; “The best ideas will eat at you for days, maybe even weeks, until something, some incident, some impulse, triggers you to finally express them”. Some of my best paintings have been done on impulse, I bet your best creations will be too.
Today’s Creative Prompt is to create space. Grab yourself at least five minutes to be yourself. Whether that’s creating or relaxing with a cup of tea.
I’ll be sharing some gift ideas for a specific type of person for my blog post on Friday so keep your eyes out for that one. Last time, I shared gift ideas for the officer’s partner. There’s less than a month until Yule, and a month until Christmas. It’s time to get those gifts done.
That’s it for me for today. Thanks for listening to the Creative Explorer Podcast. The next episode will, among other things, be about c arving out some time for yourself. If you have any questions, just reach out to me at linda@lindaursin.net. Remember to rate and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.
Honestly, arts and creativity are what keeps me sane a lot of the time. For me it’s often music and dancing. I have intense moods, and this is a wonderful, physical way of grounding 🙂
It’s part of what keeps me floating too 🙂
This is so important. I really should paint again. Thanks for the inspiration
Yes, you really should 🙂
Yes, you really should 🙂