Let's talk about creativity
I’m asking if you have any creative habits, because (a) I do and (b) I’m re-reading THE CREATIVE HABIT: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp, to which I will post a shopping link below. Because after I finish talking about it a bit, it may be something you want to look into.
My Creative Habits
The things that I do that I consider creative include writing, making art, singing, cooking, baking, and the occasional bit of dancing. Those are creative tasks. Creative habits are something else—they are the habits you have that support your creative practices. They can include ritual (like doing things to mark the start or end of your creative time), or having a certain order of operations for yourself.
My creative habits include not letting too much time go by between creative endeavors, whether it’s writing (for you all or otherwise), painting or otherwise making art, which I do for fun and also for my small arts business. I don’t necessarily do something every single day, but I get in the studio more days than not, even if it’s just for a few strokes of paint on something in progress. When making art, I’m all about high vibes, so I’ve always got happy tunes playing, lots of light, and (often) some essential oils diffusing that raise my vibe even further.
Creative habits also include finding inspiration for creative tasks from things that I watch or read, places I go, and more. Creative habits encompass how you do things, why you do things, and also how you recover when things don’t go as planned. For me, it includes scheduling myself to write things like these weekly blog posts and my newsletters, as well as scheduling time for myself in my art studio.
Learn it and Use it for Life
“Learn it and use if for life” is the subtitle to Twyla Tharp’s book, THE CREATIVE LIFE. Tharp is a renowned dancer, choreographer, and director. And she quite literally wrote a book on how to develop a creative habit for yourself.
She didn’t come to play, either. (Though play is a creative endeavor.) Her book contains 12 chapters, and along the way it also includes 32 exercises that anyone can do in any creative field to help themselves form or improve their creative habit.
It also includes two pages of questions (on pages 45-46) to get you to write your own “Creative Autobiography”, starting with “1. What is the first creative moment you remember?” and going through to “33. What is your greatest dream?”
This book is helping me to find a way to better articulate what it is I want to be doing here with this business to help women in midlife reclaim themselves, and to find a pathway to what they want to do moving forward. I went back to the book after The Declutter Course didn’t take wing. (But I’m super proud of myself for creating it, and I am positive it will help a lot of people one of these days)
It’s reminding me of the benefits of creativity, and that every creative person has learning curves and failures. It also reminds me that taking action is the best way to start most anything. Think about cycling, if you’ve ever done it—starting from a complete stop takes a lot of doing. But coasting along isn’t difficult once you’ve started. Because once you’re in motion, it’s easier to stay in motion—you can either roll along or accelerate.
Almost anything you can do to START is great, even if you have to go over whatever that is or got back and get rid of it later on. Writers do this all the time by cutting what doesn’t work; artists paint or paper over the parts that aren’t working, flower arrangers can move things around, and so forth.
“Reading, conversation, environment, culture, heroes, mentors, nature – all are lottery tickets for creativity. Scratch away at them and you’ll find out how big a prize you’ve won.”
The thing about Tharp's book is that it is for all creative personalities, regardless of their chosen means of expression. It's for choreographers and dancers (like Tharp), but it's for writers and poets and fine artists and pop artists and jewelry designers and songwriters and actors and muralists and fashion designers/costumers and, well, anyone who works in the creative arts, whether on a full-time or part-time basis. I think it applies to people with creative hobbies, as well.
All people are creative beings
Twyla Tharp believes that all people can learn to be creative, even if they don't consider themselves so, which is something I happen to agree with.
The creative spark is inside every human being, if they have the time and the means and the encouragement to develop it. Of course, there are those who have had that spark nearly snuffed out by circumstances outside their control - if you're focused on survival, for instance, it's hard to develop artistic creativity, although doubtless you're using your creativity to stay alive.
There are also quite a number of people (maybe you are one of them?) who had the misfortune to be told by parents or teachers that they were no good at things—maybe just one thing, like singing or dancing or drawing, or maybe all the things.
I used to think I couldn't dance. Like, at all. I believed that until I went to college, in fact, and figured out that it wasn't true, but years of my mother laughing at my dance efforts at home, pointing out the clumsy bits and calling me "Grace" (sarcastically) had convinced me I couldn't do it. Not that I'll win any awards, mind, or that I could have been the next Twyla Tharp, but hey, I can dance, at least a bit.
I also believed I couldn't draw. I don't recall why I thought that—it may have been me comparing my efforts to someone else's in art class and deciding I was awful. But it turns out that's not the case, either, and that all I needed was a lot of practice. I'd say that I digress here, but these examples are probably familiar to you, whether they overlap specific areas in your own life or not.
One of the main points about creative work in the book is that is a form or work; it requires practice in order to develop it. It requires other things, too, like stretching or challenging yourself, and coming up with new ideas or themes to explore. And Twyla Tharp's book is all about that--how to come up with ideas, develop ideas, explore new possibilities, find your own strengths, identify your weaknesses, etc.
So, how about you?
Do you currently have a creative habit? Do you have creative pursuits that you want to pursue that you haven’t gone after yet? If so, what would help you get there? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Oh—and before I forget, here’s a link to THE CREATIVE HABIT at Amazon, where I’m an affiliate. I highly recommend this book, whether you buy a copy or snag it from your local library!
