After experiencing burnout last year, I realised it was important for me to make some changes to the way I lived my life. One of those things was ensuring that I make space for creativity regularly.
I’ve been consciously making an effort to do this, and I can safely say that it’s made a difference to how I feel. I wanted to start this blog series “Making Space for Creativity” to share some creative prompts and activities for you to try yourself. It doesn’t matter if you think of yourself as an artist, a writer, a creator or even if you don’t think of yourself as a creative person at all. To quote Elizabeth Gilbert, “If you’re alive, you’re a creative person.”
The activities I share in this series are things I do as I search for inspiration for new collections and refine ideas…but they’re also things I do to work through worries - sometimes thinking about things through a new lens can help find clarity.
You don’t need to use creativity to make something to share with the world, but I find it a great way to offload what’s on my mind, to clear the fog a bit. So I encourage you to give it a try too…who knows what you might uncover!
So, onto the first Making Space for Creativity piece…
Theme: Dreaming of Home
I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of home recently. Especially through lockdown, when we were forced to spend more time at home than ever before. I started dwelling on the concept of adornment and how adorning your home can have just as much of an impact on your comfort and wellbeing as adorning yourself.
For this prompt, I simply suggest taking a notebook or piece of paper and creating a mind map or word cloud of what “home” means to you. Here are some questions to get you started.
What does home mean to you?
If home is a physical space, what does it look like? Colours, textures, motifs?
Is home a feeling? What words describe that feeling?
Where do you feel like you belong the most?
If you could create your own nurturing space where you can rest and come back to yourself, what would it look, feel and smell like?
How would you use this space? Meditate, yoga, draw, write, rest, play, dance?
Now, let’s get visual! You can do this on Pinterest, or save images in an Instagram collection for you to come back to, or simply create a collage using images you come across.
Create a mood board based on all of these words from the first activity.
What colours would be in this space?
What do you need in the space to make you feel cosy and safe - think about textures. What about blankets/ cushions?
How does it smell? Incense, oil burner, flowers and plants?
And finally…
This visual collection or word cloud can act as a piece you come back to. Perhaps when you’re feeling flustered or you can’t find serenity, you can revisit these pages and remind yourself of your vision of a nurturing space.
But if you want to take it further, has this triggered something more creative in you? Perhaps inspiration to write some words, craft an object or paint a picture?
