Creativity Tips for All Weekly

Get tips that can help you nurture your spontaneous impulses and leverage your innate creativity in all areas of your life.

Ben Long: Creativity Is a Skill

• What is creativity?
• What is an impulse?
• The start of an idea
• Spontaneity
• Impulse roadblock
• Tying up your rational self
• Lost in the noise
• Nothing to fear but...
• A taxonomy of creative fears
• Antidotes to creative fears
• Creativity and self-confidence
• Creativity as a practice

Amy Wynne: Obstacles and Antidotes

• The creative cycle
• Connection through meditation
• Journaling for self-reflection
• Trust the process
• Multitasking vs. monotasking
• The joy of letting go
• Engagement through ritual
• Natural curiosity
• Bring back boredom
• Don't think too much
• Connect to your senses
• Pure perception

Stefan Mumaw: Hands-On Exercises to Boost Creativity

• There's no one right creative process
• Problem-solve with relevance and novelty
• Restriction in the creative process
• Remove implied restrictions
• Document to promote novelty
• Divergent vs. convergent thinking
• Others' opinions in the creative process
• Start from scratch
• Hyperfocus
• Everyday inspiration
• Unexpected associations
• Novelty is worth the effort!

Denise Jacobs: Hacking the Creative Brain

• Creativity is our natural state
• Tap into your imagination
• Relax your brain
• Our creative brains are always active
• Put your relaxed brain to work
• Remove distractions
• Silence your inner critic
• Laugh yourself creative
• Get your creative brain moving
• Embody creativity
• Incubate ideas by immersion
• Experiment yourself creative
• Set the stage for flow
• Intend inspiration
• See with new eyes
• Engage in a dialogue
• Be bad on purpose
• Expand your inspiration input
• Actively embrace boredom

Julian Velard: The Craft of Creativity

• How do I start?
• Inspiration is a child
• Evolving your process
• Stop making sense
• The brain likes to build
• When you're out of gas, you're out of gas
• Creator versus editor
• Clarity is everything
• How to know when you are done
• The rules of sharing your work
• Do it all again

James Krause: Creative Cross-Training

• What is creative cross-training?
• A notebook and pens
• Cameras teach art
• Taking photos vs. making photos
• Brainstorm yourself
• Learning aesthetics
• Bite-sized writing projects
• Amalgamate: Now!
• How vital is vitality?
• Great movies for creative inspiration
• Master the mini movie
• Be a shriner
• Show it off

Tracey Clark: Everyday Creativity

• Introducing creativity into your daily life
• Everyday creativity begins with what you wear
• The details are in the accessories
• Culinary creativity
• Creating with table-setting ambiance
• Display creativity in your home decor
• Add creative touches with wall art
• Life enrichment through homemaking
• Creativity in the garden
• Creativity with plants and flowers
• Finding creativity with writing
• Enrich your life with music
• Find creativity with photography
• Find creativity with crafts and hobbies
• Bring creativity into planning a celebration
• Creativity with thoughtful gift-giving
• Bring your creative self into relationships
• Plan travel with creativity
• Nurture creativity with movement
• Add creative spirit to your spiritual practice

George Maestri: The Creative Mind

• Until something is created, you are not creative
• Create new brain patterns to create new ideas
• Get more dots to connect
• Feed the brain, then give it time to digest
• Think inside the box
• Change the process
• Create by subtracting
• Do things for the first time
• They're just ideas; don't marry them
• Meditation to help creativity
• Stop thinking and start doing
• Get out of your own way and into flow
• Be consistent
• Fitting in is overrated