“I’m going to make something every day this year,” I announced in December.
When I saw my friends’ responses, I thought perhaps this might be too ambitious an undertaking. However, I’ve really just decided to turn more of my attention to creativity this year.
Why? Well, when I peek back through the years and squint at the more unhappy periods of my life, I detect a common thread: I wasn’t creating much of anything. Maybe I was working overtime at a day job. Maybe I was in a season of editing instead of writing. Maybe I was just uninspired. But a dearth of creativity and a general malaise seem to go together. Which causes which? I’m not sure. But I know that when I’m working on a creative project, I feel more alive.
I know I’m not alone. Matthew Crawford, author of The Case for Working With Your Hands traded his job in a Washington think tank for a career fixing motorcycles, because “knowledge work” made him feel tired and useless. “Seeing a motorcycle about to leave my shop under its own power, several days after arriving in the back of a pickup truck, I don’t feel tired even though I’ve been standing on a concrete floor all day,” Crawford writes. I think we can all relate to that thrill of making or fixing something with our own hands.
In her book Lifting Depression, Dr. Kelly Lambert explains what might cause the burst of happiness creating gives us: “When we knit a sweater, prepare a meal, or simply repair a lamp, we’re actually bathing our brain in ‘feel-good’ chemicals.”
So this year I’m making things.
I’m off to a great start. In the last month, I’ve knitted half of a scarf out of bamboo silk, made kombucha and St. John’s Wort oil for the first time, wrote a handful of poems, brainstormed a new novel, and churned out quite a few drawings. Mostly I’ve had a lot of fun. But I’ve also remembered what makes creativity hard: there’s often a lot of groping around, stumbling, and failing involved.
But I’m going to do it anyway.
Perhaps you’d like to join me in paying more attention to creativity this year? If so, here are five things experts say can help stoke our creative fires:
- Spend time in nature
A University of Kansas study of a team of hikers found that a four-day backpacking trip boosted the participants’ creativity by 50 percent. You might need to leave your electronic devices in your backpack to reap the benefits. Ruth Ann Atchley, the researcher who conducted the study, suggested the results may have been due to turning off the distractions of modern life as much as the natural setting.
- Embrace boredom
Researchers at the University of Central Lancashire in Great Britain found that boring jobs encourage creativity. It turns out performing dull tasks lets us to detach from our surroundings and daydream. So committing to creativity might mean committing to some mental downtime.
- Focus on the process instead of the results (or just dance)
“Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free,” the poet Rumi wrote. In an interview, artist Dana Lynne Andersen said that one of the biggest mistakes beginners make when sitting down to paint is focusing on the end product. To get her students focused instead on the process of being creative, she encourages them to dance. That makes sense, since dancing is a creative process with no real end product. It may be worth a try, and as Rumi points out, there’s really no reason not to dance.
- Learn from kids
One afternoon I watched a soccer coach force a group of elementary-aged kids to run laps around the track. They looked like deflated balloons as they trudged along, and it occurred to me that kids should really be coaching us on joyful, exuberant outdoor play. Similarly, young kids are experts in creativity. In a famous 1968 study, George Land found that 98 percent of three- to five-year-olds showed genius levels of creativity on a test developed by NASA. By the time the kids were 15, only 12 percent exhibited divergent thinking. And when the test was given to thousands of 25-year-olds, only two percent showed divergent thinking. So what makes kids such creative geniuses? They ask lots of questions. They marvel at things. They find any excuse to play. It’s a model worth studying.
- Commit to practicing
All humans are creative. But a lot of us don’t commit to creative work, and perhaps the biggest reason is that it forces us to confront our own mediocrity. We likely will never compare to the best artists, musicians, novelists, designers, and even home-brewers of the world. Of course, the one way we’ll get better is practice, and Ira Glass offers some wise words about recognizing your creative work sucks and doing it anyway:
For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. … You’ve just gotta fight your way through.
Here’s to creativity!
If you liked this post, check out more of my popular posts about creativity:
- Is Knitting Better than Prozac?
- Depression-Proof Your Life
- Do Real Men Knit?
- Why Spring is the Best Time to Start a Project
What are you creating? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
I’ve committed myself to writing something new every day: not to post on my blog, as some of it I don’t really deem worthy, but just to keep a pen in my hand or fingers on keyboard. I love it.
I agree, from experience, with everything you say! Creativity has been a lifeline for me through very difficult times. In my case what works is knitting, coupled with switching off the phone and getting rid of the television (but not the DVD player!). But solutions are as unique as we are….
Lots of studies also say that spending time in a natural environment has positive effects on creativity – detaching oneself from all the input overload we are subject to leads to new connection and new ideas to rise. Have an amazing creative time 🙂
Hi, I felt sad hearing about those soccer kids trudging along in laps. All he had to do is make up a big game of tag and they would run more, run faster, have more fun and they would change the game (create).
I’m working on creating a quilt, still picking out colors. I’m also planning a mini-wardrobe to sew.
As always – your post inspires, motivates and nurtures – so glad you’re creating those!
My project this spring is taking the bare pallet of the land surrounding my new tiny home and creating a garden paradise :>) While the snow blows and the ground rests – I’m learning to use Google Sketchup to try different lay-outs for a meditation labyrinth. I take breaks from computer work, to look at the Garden Ideas Pin Interest page, which lights the fuse to an explosion of creative possibilities.
I’ve also started experimenting with all my recipes, to cut down on electrical prep work and to fit in a toaster oven or crock-pot, in preparation to moving to a solar cooker (to be built in my dream outdoor space!) – – And let me tell you, some of those ‘creative works’ definitely sucked! LOL – I’m starting to enjoy cooking again, after viewing it as a chore for the past couple of years. – – There is a true joy in trying something new without worrying about if it will turn out or not – And I’m diving into that pool with both feet for the first time in years –
It’s Awesome. For me, my periods of unhappiness are always connected to pressure to ‘rush deliver’ my work from the environments I placed myself in – my choice for change this past year was to quit putting myself in those environments. And boy, has it unleashed my enthusiasm and creativity – now, I’m having fun with the ‘practice till you don’t suck anymore’ phase – – LOL
You’ve inspired me. I think I need a different perspective on creating. I “make” every day by writing, cooking from scratch, and gardening during the growing season. Because those activities are the norm for me they don’t feel like creating. Well, at least in the way that something new can, you know, the mind-stretching, spirit-enlarging aspect of learning to dance the tango or trying to paint a mural on the wall. You’ve given me the push to do more than the occasional art project. I’m aiming for weekly. Thank you Abby!
I have my sewing machine out of storage and a new journal. 2013 – I am creating more joy in my life by surrounding myself with more beauty. Sylviaglobal.com thanks you for nourishing my soul.
I just love this post and have already shared it profusely. I don’t think of myself as a creative person, certainly don’t do any creative work in my day job, yet find myself hungering to produce tangible things.
This year my creative endevors seem to be converging–I feel “juicy” with creativity. I’ve put a large dahlia garden to bed for the winter–with many new dahlia tubers coming in the spring. I’m in the pottery studio creating large leaf-shaped bowls to float the dahlias in this summer. I’m learning more about how I can use and combine glazes for batik affect. And, am working on several quilts–always more ideas than time. The overall draw is playing with color–flowers, fabrics, glazes. It gives me great joy. Of course, being outside, nature, the trees and river are always my ground note. Nothing else matters when you are in the creative flow. Ideas swirl and converge, energy explodes. Thanks for the blog. Justine