Investing in yourself and refining your skills makes creative projects more exciting, too. Whether you’re learning new literary techniques to aid your efforts to pen a masterpiece or are learning a new kind of joinery to improve your carpeting skills, investing in training helps you get more out of your favorite pastime.

Improving your skill set needn’t break the bank, either. Instead of spending a fortune on workshops and retreats, consider investing in cost-effective strategies like online learning portals and collaborating with other skilled creatives in your area.

Finding Inspiration

Finding fresh inspiration is a skill that all creatives must nourish. However, inspiration can be hard to come by if you’re a professional author, poet, painter, or photographer. It’s all too easy to spend an entire morning staring at the blank page, waiting for inspiration to strike, and you may find that the lull between projects leaves you feeling like you’ll never produce another noteworthy piece of art again.

In reality, the world’s most famous creatives find inspiration in unusual and unexpected places. Igor Stravinsky — a Russian composer — found inspiration for his melodies by completing a few headstands. Dali tricked himself out of a state of semi-sleep by holding a metal key above a plate during his afternoon siesta and then used his hypnagogic visions to inform his paintings. Agatha Christie ate apples in the bath while trying to generate some new ideas for her next novel.

As a creative, you can break new ground and enhance your own creative skills by investing in your own imagination. Get the ball rolling by exposing yourself to creativity. For example, if you’re a writer, consider spending the afternoon at a portrait gallery. Conversely, if you’re an artist, crack open a collection of poetry. Pay attention to the main themes that you notice and aim to explore any similarities.

If you’re a visual person, you can note down these themes by using an online whiteboard. Online whiteboards are the perfect place to store your sources of inspiration, as they’re highly collaborative and allow you to link directly to videos, blogs, or images that can generate new insights and help you beat the blank page.

Gaining Some Soft Skills

Many creatives inadvertently overemphasize the importance of hard skills in their daily work. This is understandable, as many writers double as digital marketers, while visual artists often use complex programs like Photoshop or Avid to edit their work.

However, if you want to last in the creative industry, you’ll need to find unique ways to develop soft life skills like communication, interpersonal relationship management, and emotional intelligence. You can hone your soft skills by playing games with trusted friends. For example, if you have a free evening every week, consider playing a combination of card games, cooperative games, and tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons.

By playing games, you give yourself a low-stakes environment in which to practice key soft skills. This is key if you need to pitch your work to clients or want to boost your brand by partnering with similar businesses. By investing in yourself — via games — you can hone your creative skills and improve your ability to network as a creative.

Remaining Competitive

When was the last time you assessed the state of the industry and looked through your competitor’s portfolios? If, like most creatives, you haven’t conducted any market research since launching yourself into the world of creative production, now might be the time to do so. This is a great way to expand your own portfolio, which can help you land new contracts if you’re a creative in a field such as marketing.

Get the ball rolling by finding out which qualifications your creative peers have pursued. Are there any new courses that you should be aware of? Is there a commonly used piece of technology that you’re unfamiliar with? Most folks will post their qualifications directly to their LinkedIn or portfolio site, which will streamline your efforts to enhance your creative skills.

You can also bolster your creative skills and become more competitive by finding courses and workshops in your city or town. Look for accredited workshops that feature folks who have the same creative interests as yourself. This will also help you add a few qualifications/certificates to your professional portfolio, which could reel in a few extra clients every year.

If you’ve been working diligently to improve your skill set and remain competitive, consider spending time on a creative project that has nothing to do with your typical creative output. For example, you may want to spend more of your free time exploring brain-boosting activities like:

• Meditation and mindfulness
• Test your memory recall
• Take up some engaging hobbies like cooking or reading
• Start reflecting on your day with journals and diary entries

These habits and hobbies help you remain mentally sharp and will enhance your creative skills. Journaling can help you reflect on your current skill set and set some goals for the future. This can be extremely useful if you’re new to the creative industry and feel like you’re behind the competition. By journaling, you can identify a few core skills that need some extra attention and begin to become the creative professional you always hoped to be.

Conclusion

Honing your creative skills requires a lifetime of dedicated practice. You can’t expect to become an expert overnight and should track your progress based on years and months, rather than days. You can make the most of your time spent honing your craft by exploring ways to find fresh inspiration and researching other creatives in the area. This will boost your self-awareness as a creative and give you a deeper appreciation of your craft.

Photo Credit

Photo is from Unsplash

Guest Author Bio
Charlie Fletcher

Charlie Fletcher is a freelance writer from the lovely “city of trees”- Boise, Idaho. Her love of writing pairs with her passion for social activism and search for the truth. When not writing she spends her time doodling and embroidering. And yes, she does love all kinds of potatoes!

Creative humans are capable of releasing their energy in the form of art. Be it writing poetry, singing a song, creating music, dancing, or drawing and painting pictures. Drawing is just one form of creativity.

So, what is creativity? To answer that question, let us explore the mind of a human. A tiny grain of thought is generated in the mind, which if the body chooses to, can turn into an impulse. If this impulse consumes the brain, the body produces a reaction which could end in creating a piece of art. The ability of the human mind to form a grain of thought is creativity.

While engaging with children who are interested in art books, it would be interesting to the child if books that recognize the human potential to spark a grain of thought are suggested.

In one of my art classes teaching visually challenged students, I observed the total number of students who produced a drawing. The students who were creatively motivated outnumbered the creatively uninspired students. This shows that a grain of thought is necessary for someone to draw.

One afternoon, we were drawing a red circle. My kids (I used to call them that, and, oh, I’m so proud of them!) used a mix of inspiration and instinct to be successful at this task. When a simple grain of thought takes root in a human mind, it has the power to gain momentum through becoming an impulse. It has the power to combine what you want to do with what you know subconsciously. The red circles I saw were an example of this.

A human is a human is a human. If students with special needs can indulge their creativity, so can children who are fully capable by themselves. It is important to invest in resources that are inspiring to children ranging across the spectrum. More important is the ability of these resources to gently encourage the child’s raw ability to form a grain of thought.

We’ve seen the case of humans. How does AI draw? AI is great at observing individual data points and recording them. It then plays a game of Situation and Response. Presented with a particular situation the machine can understand, it pulls out a data point and suggests it as a solution to the situation.

So how would AI draw a red circle? There would absolutely be no grain of thought, leading to an impulse, because machines cannot think and feel. At least not on their own. So the red circle would be one out of many red circles recorded in a database of colored shapes.

So no machine, software, or AI would be capable of generating art by itself. In training today’s children to interact with AI it is necessary to stock up on resources and actual software that cater to a child’s ability of thought. A dry laundry list of instructions, however, would not suffice on its own. The resources should help the child acknowledge their ability and match it up with what the software can pull out.

That’s the story of drawing, Creativity, and AI. I hope you liked it. This is my first time featuring at Life As A Human! I’ll see you again, soon.

G’Bye,

Gaurvi.

Image Credit

Image is from Pinterest

Guest Author Bio
Gaurvi Joshi

Gaurvi is a B2B Blogger with her own tech blog. She taught Art to visually challenged students while still at college. She observes artists and creators in her community while engaging in visual art once in a while.

Blog / Website: New Tech

Creative writing is a form of communication that allows us to share our thoughts without saying a word. Thoughts are no longer invisible to the naked eye but clear as day in the hearts of many. Writing is a language that breaks barriers within ourselves, shattering the mold of external factors that shaped us from birth. Whether painting lead portraits on paper or pouring our soul into a tablet or laptop screen, we can bring to life something beautiful on a once lifeless platform.

Let us explore this craft that has been around since the beginning of humanity’s inheritance of the Earth that continues to connect all customs and traditions. Whether old English from the era of Romeo and Juliet or hieroglyphics from the ancient Egyptians, words are like musical symbols that are symbolic of getting a message across in various tones and styles.

Self-growth

Writing leads to growth because it forces us to open our minds to information we may not have researched before stitching a project together with the needle and thread. Also, depending on the nature of a written piece, we may have to examine ourselves psychologically where the hard truths reopen wounds. The truth is very buoyant; no matter how much we suppress it, eventually, it will come up, one way or another. When writing, our verbiage broadens, and how we string together, thoughts become more efficient, one way or another.

In the same way, our bodies need physical exercise the same way we need to exercise our brain by sharpening it with the edge of life’s experiences. The confidence, maturity, and discipline it takes to create a masterpiece make us better students. It takes each cell of gray matter to ignite and cooperate to focus on every punctuation, word definition, and focal point that shapes paragraphs to understand new colorful topics.

Endless Adventure

We can travel to places not yet explored without having to pay a cent for a plane ticket. Explorations into the universe from our office, the train, or the bed go as far as we want the fiction to last. Love fills the tank that burns with passion for places we can visit when we close our eyes. The voyage into our soul isn’t such a scary place to navigate when we understand everything is connected by strands of light that encompass ideas and creativity.

A protagonist can sail the seas, blast off into outer space, or explore the thickness of a dense forest from chapter to chapter. We get to go along for the ride and let a story tell itself. Kids play hopscotch without a care in the world, and we can innocently hop back and forth between history to draw from events that happened before we were born.

Appreciation Of Life

Any muse brought into reality comes from an appreciation of something or someone. Even when life gets rough, we can take what comes with the draft and alter what we assume is written in stone. Life becomes a library with our spines filled with published content that is more valuable than any amount of gold or silver. All we have are our stories to leave behind that leave shiny gems of impressions. Our footprints don’t have to let time fade away.

Embellishing the hunt for curiosity establishes the same acceptance for understanding what is ok not to understand. Our hands become an extension of our hearts and mind to create a playground where anything is possible. Written expression, fiction or nonfiction, is the most potent silent outcry. The power of words can inspire to create a new reality between the lines. Life becomes our playground, and the writer who embodies the index can call the title their name.

Muse

A writer’s job is never done because when meaning is supposed to be ejected out of openings that stream consciousness, it’s time to get to work, no matter what the clock complains about. It can come from a painting, a note from a song, a conversation in passing, or a sermon that can cause tiny wings to grow in our heads and get high off the aspirations that guide the pen to structure an article, novel, or poem. The origins of this blissful experience are when an idea refreshes our spirits and grant’s us the privilege to express ourselves. Self-expression is a gift that enables us to bleed ink and use our hands to spread it around everywhere.

Our story doesn’t perish when we are lowered into the ground; they become more embedded in the roots in which everything started in the first place. When raindrops hit the earth by the millions in seconds, that special moment the needle hits the record activating melodies, or the first time you look into your lover’s eyes, a muse manifests, born as an infant, crying out for us to nurture it into written expression.

Photo Credit

Image by Ghinzo from Pixabay

Guest Author Bio
Michael Colon

My name is Michael Colon born and raised in New York City. I am a content writer for multiple platforms with a deep passion for the craft. My mission is to continue to impact the lives of others positively and productively. My writing is unique and can best be described as reflective, thought-provoking, and direct.

Follow Michael On Instagram

Some of my finest work:

I love you Mom, I want you to know that
I know you are something
than just an old doormat.

You are my dad, I am your daughter
I love you more
than a swim in the water.

Around the same time, I started writing letters, thanks to my mom. She’s no longer with us, but if you filled a room with family and friends and asked them what they remember most about her, it would be her letters (her laugh would be a close second.) I’m honored to carry the torch.

Whispering Seaweed

Now I’m all grown up. I’m still making my own cards, with original art along with my original photos, but now I have them printed, which makes them look a tad more professional. I’m leaving them blank on the inside in the interest of versatility (for now; you never know when a good rhyme will strike.) You can see them here at Good Wares. And I still write letters, but I’ve upped the ante and am now making my own envelopes too.

Running in a Sundress

Here’s the thing. I woke up one day and realized it’s what I want to do. For serious. As a day job. Age has changed the way I look at things. For years, I never thought I was good enough at anything to go all in, to really chase it. Today, being good enough doesn’t even enter into it. Passion, fulfillment and pure joy are my guides. And even though the line between exciting and scary is extremely thin, I’m going for it, propelled by one very thought-provoking question:

If not now, when?

Image Credits

Photo and artwork  ©  Carol Good

Visit Carol’s Website: carol anne good

Yep. Sock monkey portraits.

Sock Monkey Portraits

The series of paintings began as a tribute to my late mother. Not long after she passed, I found the threadbare monkey among her belongings. He was missing a pom-pom, and his little body needed shoring up, but his big wide red grin was engaging! I knew I had to take him home with me.

A few years passed before I began to create the tribute painting. As I decided what items to gather for a still-life painting competition, I remembered Mom’s sock monkey. I laughed and knew that he was the perfect item to add to the still-life.

It turned out that the sock monkey was a great choice! It embodied Mom’s playful, loving spirit. The painting was infused with her energy, and I was happy to discover that people could feel it when they encountered my work.

I painted and painted and painted and painted. Did I tell you I painted? Over the course of 25 years, I have created 50 sock monkey portraits. It was a great way to process my grief. The artwork has been licensed on several products. I once had a painting teacher that remarked, “You’re the type of person who believes if a little bit is good, a lot is better.” I’ll admit I lean in that direction, and it’s been a fun journey.

Oddly enough, until recently, I never successfully sewed a sock monkey of my own.

I attempted to create a sock monkey in the early years of this venture, but it sure wasn’t pretty! First, the seams were wonky, and much stuffing escaped. Then, the monkey unraveled when I tried to remove the stitching and rework it.

I admit I was frustrated, and a bit unraveled myself! I quickly lost interest in the project. In the end, I threw what was left of the poor monkey into the trash. From then on, I figured I wasn’t up to sock monkey-making and that I should stick to painting.

Recently, I was compelled to try again. My creative life and business revolve around sock monkeys, and I felt that I needed to make one from scratch to be authentic with my work. So, I gathered all the supplies and made a play date with my twin sister. (Yeah, I’m 63 and still have play dates with my sister.)

I’m not sure if it’s a twin thing or a sibling thing, but we seemed to revert to our childhood ways during the merry monkey-making. We giggled. We shared insight. We competed. It was a day well spent. Here’s what I learned along the way:

Just because I couldn’t do something in the past doesn’t mean I cannot do it in the future.

Sharing challenges lightens the load. We offered encouragement and insight to one another.

We marveled that, like life, sometimes you need to tear things apart and reinvent them in a brand-new way.

Patience and careful planning truly are a virtue. That old saying “measure twice, cut once” was passed along for a reason.

Infuse play into the project and quit taking myself so seriously.

Have a plan but remain flexible. Things will happen along the way that requires Plan B, C, or even Z! Embrace the challenges and learn to trust that the diversion is the right path.

Michele and Leonato

Meet brothers Michele and Leonato. They are named after two of our ancestors. Michele was made by my sister Cheryl, and I created Leonato. They are joyful proof that if you change your thoughts about what you think you can’t do, you might just create something wonderful.

If you’d like to make a sock monkey of your own, visit How To Make A Sock Monkey.

Photo Credits

Photos are by Shannon Grissom – All Rights Reserved

This is a statement, pillar — heck — a philosophy that I am constantly exposed to and will always stand by.

But some people — whether they are aware of it or not — are convinced otherwise.

I’ve come across people who have felt they weren’t creative at all or have said to me “I’m not as creative as you.” This will forever be an odd comment, because it simply is not true.

If you think you’re not creative, it’s because you are not allowing yourself to be. The belief that you are not creative is the exact block that disables you from being just that.

But these limiting beliefs about your creativity (or lack thereof) didn’t come from just anywhere.

Let’s break down some common and widespread misconceptions about creativity:

1 – You have to be highly skilled at something to be considered creative.

Creativity has nothing to do with being good or excellent at something. That’s called skill and whatever skill an individual has developed took hours of practicing to master.

2 – Creativity solely refers to the arts.

This is the misconception that bothers me the most. Perhaps it’s because artists often identify as “creatives” as well, which may unintentionally create the perception that creativity is exclusive to artists. Regardless, this is not true. There is a difference between being artistic and creative — and while artists are usually both, this doesn’t exclude someone who is not an artist from being creative.

3 – You have to be a genius to be considered creative.

Picasso. Einstein. Beyoncé. Kanye West. These are all people who have been deemed creative. Sure, they’ve gotten a lot of recognition and air time for their creative prowess and their ability to shape culture, but being creative doesn’t require that.

Oftentimes, creativity is a process that you do alone, without an audience. In fact, it doesn’t require attention or recognition at all. It simply requires an idea, an intention and action.

4 – Creativity is on a spectrum.

“You’re more creative than I am.”

“I’m just not that creative.”

These statements are emblematic of a culture that pushes unhealthy competition. People tend to think that there are those who are simply better at generating innovative ideas.

Here’s the thing, thousands of people probably had the idea to develop the computer or the smartphone, but guess what? Only a few had the skill and the resources to do so.

Creativity is not some innate trait that only a few have. It is a quality that all humans possess, but we are fooled into thinking that people who have a certain knowledge base, resources and the drive to manifest an idea are more creative than us.

This couldn’t be farther from the truth. People with a knowledge base, resources and drive to manifest simply have the upper hand. It doesn’t make you less creative or them more creative.

5 – Creativity is inspired.

Creativity is not just about drawing inspiration from your imagination. Oftentimes, it’s a combination of both inspiration and knowledge.

A defense lawyer in court doesn’t refute her client’s prosecution through pure inspiration. She already has hard data and talking points prepared from studying her client’s case. She uses these talking points and data to creatively defend her client against the charges presented by the court and the prosecutor.

Look, if you are alive and making decisions every day, you are a creator. Therefore, you are creative.

Creativity can be defined as “the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others.”

There is no other way around it. Every day we are tasked with creating our own realities.

How we choose to confront our crush or our bully requires creativity. How we choose to dress ourselves for an interview versus a barbecue requires creativity. How we tell a story versus how we write one requires creativity.

Creativity is about self-expression and problem-solving. It’s about designing your desired reality by producing what you want to see expressed in the world.

This takes analyzing the several possibilities at your disposal and making a choice.

We all do this and the irony is: we don’t have a choice.

The truth is, you come up with creative ideas all the time, you just don’t bring them to life.

Why?

Maybe someone already did.

Or, you shot them down because you were sure that somebody else would.

Maybe you’re in an environment that would not support it.

Or you’ve fallen under the spell of believing the misconceptions listed above.

All of these reasons are valid and reflective of environmental and societal conditioning playing a huge role in how we view creativity.

But imagine what could be produced if you decided to listen to and manifest the ideas that pop up in your head, big or small.

Let’s cut to the chase:

You don’t have to be brilliant to be creative. Or highly skilled… or artistic… or inspired 24/7.

That song you’ve always wanted to write, that business venture you’ve always wanted to explore and that invention that you want to patent is waiting to be expressed.

You want to be creative? Understand that you already are and take action.

Photo Credits

Creative Doesn’t need limits via Unsplash

Guest Author Bio
Ashley Renee

Ashley Renee is a creative copy writer and content marketing strategist. She holds a B.A in Communications with a focus in Public Relations. Ashley loves all things the arts, wellness and creativity and loves to learn new things. She is specifically interested in how participation in the arts or creative practices promotes self-expression and overall well-being.

Blog / Website: Ashley Renee Creative Copy

It wasn’t until I was in my mid-forties during the Y2K Scare, I took action. I thought, if the world was going to end, I, at least, wanted to take a watercolor class before it did. That greater fear prompted me to enroll in a ten week, continuing education, beginning watercolor class at a local community college. I’ve kept painting and never looked back.

Triad Tree, © June Rollins

Twenty years have passed since that beginning class. I consider an encouraging teacher and a commitment to practice as two of the main components to my progress. But, by far, the greatest contributing factor to my becoming an artist, has been having a spirit of experimentation and play.

One of my favorite quotes is:

“It’s a happy talent to know how to play.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I love the association of “talent” and “play” being used together.

Because of a spirit of play, I developed a unique way of creating texture in watercolor using a primary triad and later became the originator of Alcohol Ink Dreamscaping. Both techniques use very little brush work and are simple, easy and fun.

Dreamscape No. 352 © June Rollins

If you feel like I did, I encourage you to explore online classes and art books. Begin with a spirit of play. Delight in mingling colors and interesting edges. Turn off that, “inner critic,” and get lost in the process of creative discovery.

“Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist once you grow up.” ~ Pablo Picasso

Enjoy the journey.

Image Credits

All Images Are © June Rollins

Guest Artist Bio
June Rollins

June Rollins is an artist, art instructor and author of “Alcohol Ink Dreamscaping Quick Reference Guide,” available on Amazon. She is currently working on her first novel, “She Lost Her Muse.”

Blog / Website: June Rollins Art

Follow June Rollins on: Twitter | Facebook

Though the left brain and right brain might be associated with logic vs. creative thinking, the brain is extremely complex and the two sides don’t operate independently. Turns out, there are different types of imagination and creativity—and you might just be able to teach yourself to be more creative in the future if you put in the work.

So how does creativity work, and how can you possibly get better at it? It’s all in your mind—but that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with the level of creativity you were born with. You can’t wait for your “muse” to show up. It all comes down to practice and exposure—training your brain and your mind to come up with “divergent thinking” and imaginative ideas by being exposed to and practicing creativity. It’s important to realize that the brain is different than the mind. If you change your brain, your mind follows. Whether you use it for solving a complex problem, creating a beautiful work of art or writing compelling prose, your creativity has many uses.

Creativity and the Mind

People who are creative might label themselves as “right brain thinkers.” However, this idea that one side of the brain controls logical thinking (the left) and the other controls creative thinking (the right) has no real basis in reality and is essentially a myth. Though the theory’s origins are grounded in science, more recent research has shown that this is an oversimplification and that the two halves of the brain mostly work together.

So what does this mean for creativity? That you don’t have to put yourself in a box. You can train your mind to become more creative through deliberate practice and exposure. That might mean taking a writing or painting class, improv practice, or lots of exposure to creative works made by others. By exposing your brain to creativity, your mind becomes more creatively-attuned and able to practice imaginative and divergent thinking.

Finding Your Zen in STEM

When you think of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields, creativity may not be the first thing that comes to mind. However, creativity isn’t just required to write a novel or an opera. Creative thinking is essential for solving increasingly complex real-world problems using science-based methods. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) forecasts openings in STEM related fields to surge from 1 million to 9 million jobs by the year 2022 and employers won’t just be looking for technical skills—they’ll be looking for innovative and creative thinkers. As we teach robots to make decisions and work to edit out diseases, divergent thinking is just as crucial in traditional “left brain” fields as it is in the arts.

Exercising Your Creative Muscles

If practice is the key to building creativity, where do you start? Small, yet consistent action can help you build your confidence and ability to think creatively. The brain isn’t a muscle, but it does require plenty of exercise.

The first trick to exercising your creative muscles? Carve out some time to just do nothing. Yes, it will feel uncomfortable at first, but that’s the point. Your brain will start to get bored, looking for something to do. You’ll get crazy ideas that you might want to consider running with!

Freewriting, listening to music, collaborating with coworkers, making a list of terrible ideas—these are all ways to stretch your brain and change your thinking patterns. Little by little, these creative practice efforts will help you change your mind and become more creative.

Learning to Think Creativity Can Improve Your Life

Developing your creativity might seem unimportant if you don’t have plans to write a novel or become an artist. The truth, though, is that learning to think creatively can improve your life in many ways. You’ll be able to solve everyday problems more easily, you’ll perform better at work, and you’ll likely be happier and more enthusiastic about life. Logic and technical ability are important, but they’re not the only skills that are important. Everyone can use a bit more imagination and creativity in their lives—both personally and professionally.

Photo Credit

Photo by Steve Johnson at unsplash

Guest Author Bio
Sarah Daren

With a Bachelor’s in Health Science along with an MBA, Sarah Daren has a wealth of knowledge within both the health and business sectors. Her expertise in scaling and identifying ways tech can improve the lives of others has led Sarah to be a consultant for a number of startup businesses, most prominently in the wellness industry, wearable technology and health education. She implements her health knowledge into every aspect of her life with a focus on making America a healthier and safer place for future generations to come.

It comes down the connection between expressing creativity and a human’s general wellbeing. While some may turn to alcohol or video games to improve their mood, a creative person may instead opt to visit websites such as https://www.raaaft.com/ to purchase materials with a view to crafting an item.

Why are Creative People Happier?

Many will lament their lack of talent when it comes to music, art, or writing, but the truth is that there are a number of different ways to be creative. This applies to arts and crafts, where many are probably unaware of the skills they may have. When it comes to being creative, the typical feature of the creator is one of being open-minded. From problem-solving when filing taxes to creating a delicious meal from scratch, creativity can be found in many different places.

Common scientific opinion is that there is a strong connection between a creative mind and general wellbeing. There are many factors which come into both wellbeing and a creative mind, of course. Generally speaking, a creative mind tends to see things which other people might miss, and this can mean thrill seeking and persistence. People are also more likely to be creative when they are in a positive mood as they tend to cast less of a subjective mood over their environment and can think more clearly.

A positive mood also enhances attention to detail, which can increase one’s chances of finding solutions to problems. This makes a creative mind a necessity in more than just producing art; a company director or manager will tend to be among the best minds in a boardroom when an action needs to be initiated in order to fix a problem.

Depression and Creativity

An interesting aspect of the link between creativity and wellbeing is that creative people do tend to be at a greater risk of suffering from mental health issues. Depression bi-polar disorder, borderline personality disorder and more can occur in the minds of those with mental health problems. What makes this intriguing is that science suggests that it is not creativity that leads to these problems, but ruminating on one’s past mistakes and reflecting on perceived shortcomings.

It is these problems which can affect a creative person’s ability to create, but once they do, the process can be massively beneficial to their wellbeing. There is a very tangible link to mood improvement when an individual with a creative mind produces a painting, or uses arts and crafts to make their own jewelry or other products. For this reason, it is always something which is encouraged by those practicing in psychiatric or medical professions to assist a patient’s move out of a slump or a troubling period.

Photo Credit

Photo is pixabay creative commons

Guest Author Bio
Stephen Jacobson

Stephen Jacobson is a freelance writer for ModestMoney.com. In addition to writing about finance he also covers a wide variety of other topics.

Set goals regularly

Whenever I feel like I’m getting bored of what sounds come out of my bass, I know that I need to change something. Boredom is just one step away from the undesirable zone where no progress occurs. That’s when I know that I need to set some goals immediately. It can be long-term goals, such as reaching higher levels of technical proficiency or short-term goals, like learning new songs or some complicated bass line from YouTube.

Goal-setting is important for you to have a sense of purpose on your musical journey. Make sure that the goals are SMART.

Learn another instrument

Experimenting with other instruments will help you better understand what exactly it takes to compose a great song and the role of each instrument in the mix. Currently, I know how to play bass, a bit of guitar, a bit of keyboards, and I can hold a drum beat. This understanding has allowed me to compose and produce music all by myself. That alone has been a huge motivator that hasn’t allowed me to quit music, although I did have periods of bass-hiatus. Audio effects such as reverberation, delay, overdrive or compression are great to have for experimentation and essential for recording. Know them well and new doors will open.

Experience different genres

You are the sum of your own flaws and strengths. Your guitar style is the sum of everything that you’ve played so far, but that doesn’t mean that it should be limited to one genre. The genius in many guitar players came precisely from their willingness to incorporate other genres of music in their solos or riffs. Jimi Hendrix used to listen to lots of classical music and you can really feel the complexity and beautiful connection between guitar parts, the same as you would hear in a classical piece.

There’s nothing better for an artist than having his own distinct style, so keep an open mind and experiment without setting limits.

Imitate another instrument

Alright, if you’re too into your own instrument or don’t have time, that’s perfectly understandable. A fun thing you can experiment with is copying what other instruments do. Flea and Larry Graham have created their own popping and slapping technique by using the bass guitar as a kick and snare drum. You can use a guitar to play vocal melodies. Some songs have really amazing vocal phrases and learning the notes can open new doors and boost your creativity. Also, a good synthesizer can imitate lots of instruments.

Watch videos
Some musicians make their instruments seem so easy to play, with them being so relaxed and not even looking at the frets. Of course, it’s perfectly obvious for the rest of us that it takes lots of work and serious attention to detail to play an instrument like a pro. There are tons of videos spread across the web that will help you refine your style or incorporate new elements.

Surely you have some favorite artists with their own signature techniques. There are few things that you cannot find on the Internet these days, so why not at least explore those flashy licks or breath-taking guitar solos and incorporate a thing or two?

Have a break

Playing your favorite instrument daily for long periods of time can be a lot of fun and you will see your skills soar through the roof… until you’ve reached that point when things don’t really seem to sink in anymore. Maybe you don’t know what else to learn. That’s perfectly fine. Taking a break from time to time will make it more fun the next time you do play. You will also have a new perspective on things, especially if you’ve been honing other music-related skills.

If you are a musician reading this, and you have some additional ideas that can help others get out of a rut, please share them in the comments!

Photo Credits

Guitar Player – Pixabay Creative Commons

Hendrix on stage in 1967 – Wikimedia Public Domain

Guest Author Bio
Adrian Carol Szasz

Adrian Carol Szasz is the editor-in-chief at Groovehunt, an electronic music production blog. He bought his first bass guitar when he was 15 years old and started making electronic music at 19. Now he’s combining music with writing and follows an entrepreneurial path as a producer and writer. He also plays bass in a reggae band.

Follow Adrian on twitter.