Everyone is Creative: 5 Exercises to Reconnect with Your Inner Creativity

1. Introduction: The path of accretive is never linear and it's easy to get discouraged. Having the right tools to push through these challenges is what makes a good creative, a great one. Hi, my name is Allison Keeler and I'm a graphic designer and illustrator. Many times throughout my career, I've come across these challenges where I've lost touch with my own inner voice and I've had to reconnect with it. So that's what this class is about because I truly believe that everyone is creative. As kids, our imagination is encouraged and fostered. It's okay to be a beginner and it's okay to wonder about things. But as we grow up, these skills are not fostered in the same way. And many of us lose touch with what we consider our inner creative voice. So that's what this class is about. We're gonna go through five exercises to not only help you reconnect with your inner creativity, but to strengthen that relationship. So moving forward, you can tackle any challenge. For your class project. You are going to create a visual journal to explore your creativity in a low stress way, and to document your progress as you move through the exercises. Each exercise, Lucas's on a different part of your practice. In exercise one, we will figure out what makes you feel creative. In exercise three, we will figure out what your creativity looks like to get a better understanding of how you work with it. And didn't exercise five, we will learn how to intentionally approached the world from a place of wonder and curiosity on a creative journey. There are many times when you're gonna get stuck and you need to have the tools to push threat, whether it's your profession or hobby. When you hit a wall, you need to have a way around it, even if it's just resting and trying again in the morning. This class is for anyone who feels stuck in their creative practice or wants to understand themselves and their inner creativity better to make the journey easier. I've created a blog for you to guide you through the exercises. By the end of the class, you'll not only have a completed quests log any visual journal, but a better understanding of how you work as a creative. So let's get started. 2. Your Class Project: Our class project is going to be a visual journal that documents your quest as you move away from the inner voice that says no, and towards the endless possibilities that await you. By the end of the class, you'll not only have a completed quests log, but a visual journal of your request. Any better relationship with your creativity and what you want out of your creative practice. This project is a fun, low stress way to explore your creativity. Most cases, I find that we get in our own way when it comes to our creative practice. This class, and specifically this project is meant to get you out of your head. Here are a few examples that I made of a visual journal. You can go for a more digital version where you can draw one or you can even cut out magazines, scraps and do it like a more traditional collage. Anything that works best for you to set yourself up for success with this class. I'm encouraging you to do two things. One, to keep your mind open as you move through the exercises and to, to check perfectionism at the door. You'll need a few things for this class, including the resource book at the Creative Quest law, which I created for you. Inside, you'll find decorative inventory, which focuses on figuring out what's missing in your creative practice. The creative schedule, which focuses on creating time around it. The most productive parts of your day. Your inner daimon, which focuses on your creative identity, as well as the identity of your creativity. Your creative support group, which focuses on building up relationships that foster your creativity. And finally, the artists quest, which is all about changing your perspective and doing things a little bit differently. And finally, you'll need anything that you need for your own creative practice. Before the main lessons, make sure that you download the workbook, grab any supplies that you might need, and really quiet that inner voice that says now. So I'll see you in the first lesson. 3. Exercise 1: Taking Inventory: When movies, when an adventurer gets lost in the wilderness and they need to figure out where they are. They always end up climbing a tree or a hill. They're trying to look for landmarks to pinpoint where they are so they can figure out which direction to go. Well, that's what we're gonna be doing in this lesson. We're going to be figuring out where we need to go by figuring out where we currently are with our creative practice. Everyone is creative, full stop. It would always make me really sad when somebody would see my work and they would say, wow, that's amazing. I could never do that. I'm not creative. What are you talking about? Of course, your creative. Let me break it down. When you were a kid, you probably played with blocks, right? That's creative. Maybe as you were growing up, you heard from somebody, creativity is nice but not a great way to make a living. So now you've pursued a career where you're not inherently in a creative field. And you think, well, I'm not creative anymore. Well, maybe you came up with a kickback way to reduce companies spending. Or maybe you wrote a really awesome e-mail but smooth over some friction with the client. Both of those things are creative or maybe you're not there yet. Maybe you're a student and you wrote a really awesome paper comparing the cellular structure of desert plants versus tropical plants. That's creative and creativity. Does he even have to be related to your profession? There are creative acts in everyday life. Watering your plants, singing in the shower, cooking, looking at clouds and imagining shapes. These are all creative acts. I believe that we all kinda have to persona's inside of us. Let me know if this is true for you. But for myself, I definitely have a more impulsive, childlike persona that's playful and curious about the world. And then on the other hand, there's a more serious inner critic, as I call it, which pays the bills and edits my work. It's important to recognize these voices when you hear them and not let them interfere with your work. It's also important to recognize that neither these voices is bad. They each have pros and cons. Introducing the inner critic too soon can kill an idea before it has a chance to be fully formed. You know that part of the project when you're staring at your work and it's lumpy halfway stage and you can see the structure, but you're not quite sure how it's going to come together yet half the time I end up just throwing the entire idea away if I let my inner critic in on the conversation. And sometimes when I listened to my inner child too much, I end up distracted, unfocused, and usually avoiding the editing stage because I'm chasing the next idea already. Alright, at this point, let's pull out our creative inventory worksheets. At some point you decided that you either don't feel creative or you would like to be more creative. That's great. That's a great place to start. It's really good to know where you are right now. But let's break it down. When was the last time that you felt truly creative? This time could be last week or it could be ten years ago. It could be when you were a kid. Whenever. Let's just break down that moment and write down those things on our creative inventory worksheet. As you do this exercise focused on what can be gained and not what is missing. You want to notice the past but not lamented. You want to focus on what you can be doing for yourself tomorrow. So on the left here I have describe your ideal creative situation. What's the location? Are you outside? Inside? Are you in a coffee shop? Are you at home? Where is this location for people who surrounds you when you feel creative for surroundings? Are you sitting in the comfy chair? Are you sitting in one of those chairs that helps you sit up super street? Are you laying down? Are you standing up at one of those fancy standing desk? What are the surroundings? What is the time of day? What sounds around you? Do you need it to be absolutely quiet, or can music be playing for sustenance? Do you work best on a full stomach? Do you need a fancy green tea latte? What do you need to feel good? And wardrobe? What are you wearing? Are you in a professional wear or can you work really well in sweats if you're having trouble thinking of any answers. Think back to that time when you felt really creative. In the top right, I have one was the last time that you felt really creative. If you'd like to do this question first and then use this answer to inform your ideal creative situation. Go ahead and do that. And finally, when I do these things, I feel very creative. What are the things that fill you up with inspiration? What are the things that inspire you to create? Spend about 15 to 20 minutes filling out your creative inventory. Really try to imagine yourself in that time that you felt creative. Look around and write the things down that you see for myself in this exercise, I wrote for location. I love to work in coffee shops or at home. At this point in my career, I have a whole little desk setup that's hard to move. But for simple stuff, I enjoy working around other people. For people I love to work with close friends or by myself. Close friends are good when I need to take a break and we can chat. I used to be super bad about just working with 0 breaks. So having others around can really help regulate me. Although sometimes when they need to really focus and do deep work, Being alone as butter for me to focus because it takes a long time to refocus for surroundings. I use an ergonomic chair and then ergonomic mouse, which are great if you work all day from a desk for time, my most productive hours are between 10:00 AM, 02:00 PM. For sounds, I need to listen to music that doesn't have lyrics. If I'm writing like lo-fi beats to study or relaxed to you. Or sometimes I can listen to other music if I'm just doing design work, noise canceling, ear buds are a godsend though, for sustenance, I almost always have some sort of Warren caffeinated beverage around. I think I've accidentally trained myself to be productive and creative when I have these kinds of beverages. Finally, for wardrobe, I usually am wearing comfy clothes when it's more casual work, but when I need to be productive, I have to dress up more formally. In your visual journal, you can write, draw, or express this ideal creative situation. In this lesson, you learned that everyone is creative and there are creative acts in our day-to-day lives. That we have two persona's inside us as creatives. And it's important to recognize them and not let them affect your work. In the next lesson, we're gonna be talking about being consistent and showing up for yourself. See you there. 4. Exercise 2: Show Up for Yourself: Everyone knows that the real secret to making fantastic work is to be consistent. I'm sure you've heard on social media post three to five times a week, post every day, post three meals a day. Well, that's a little home possible, but being consistent with your creative practice, even when you don't share, it, is a great way to make leaps and bounds and progress with your creative practice. You will need your creative schedule worksheet from the log as well as anything that you need in your own creative practice. Most of the artists that we regard as truly prolific are only that way because of this year, the volume of work that they made. Picasso famously made close to 50 thousand pieces of artwork in his lifetime. And Beethoven wrote close to 700 pieces of music over the course of his life. And obviously that's insane. But the point is that if you continue to make work, you will uncover a few gems in your lifetime. Pull out your creative schedule on this worksheet we're focusing on specifically when you feel creative as a working professional, I understand how hard it can be to balance life, but you don't have to be making a big project. You can just carve out 15 minutes a day to feel more creative. And I found that that works really well for me. Sure, I don't make as big of chunks of progress as I would like, but I'm still slowly chipping away at my creative practice. On your creative schedule worksheet, I have two questions. When do you feel creative? When do you have time? And can you make time? This all centers around balancing life with when you have energy to be creative and under what conditions do you feel creative? This touches on a little bit in the last worksheet, but is more specifically focused on the time. Then to the right, I have the whole schedule split out into different time groups. Go through this chart and mark the times that you feel the most creative. It might not be the same times every day for people that are productive. First thing in the morning, they say that working first thing in the morning gets your momentum going. The first hour of the day is the most productive hour for night owls. Maybe you like to wake up slow and do other tasks in the morning and your energy comes at night. One makes sure that you get enough sleep, but maybe you enjoy working while everything is quiet and still in the world, middle of the day people. This is my ten to two crew. I would consider myself a morning person, but like at ten AM morning person, not super early, but also not super late and a three to six people. Who are you? I'm very impressed. This is where I personally have a natural low and my energy. But do you see the connecting thread? It's not about forcing your creativity. It's about learning what works for you. Create when you feel the most full of energy. For myself, I wrote that I am most productive between 10:00 AM, 02:00 PM, followed closely by 06:00 PM, ten PM. Occasionally on the weekend, I'll have a lot more luck working first thing in the morning as well. The conditions that I work best under our being well-rested, hydrated, and consistently creating. Well, you might be wondering, I have a full-time job and I am also created between 10:00 AM, 02:00 PM. What can I do? I try to carve out at least 15 minutes of time from my lunch break to do a little bit of art for myself. Whether that's just sketching an idea or looking for inspiration, whatever I feel like doing that day, I tried to do at least one thing creative for myself. Spend about 15 minutes filling out this worksheet and really thinking about the times that you feel creative. And I would challenge you for this week to spend at least 15 minutes a day trying to work on something creative. It doesn't have to be big. You don't have to make a masterpiece. Just try and do something a little bit creative during that time in your visual journal, you can write or draw specific times that you feel creative. Or you can find photos that express this ideal creative time. So now we know that the real secret is consistency. Practices the only way to get better. And even when it's hard and even find it stinks, that's okay. Because the point is that we're stretching our creative muscles. In this lesson, you learned that consistency is the key to making progress in your creative practice. You learn that Picasso and Beethoven are such prolific creators because of how much work they make. And you found when you specifically have time for your creative practice. The next lesson, I'm going to be chatting with you about how I approach creativity. 5. Short Rest: Your Inner Creativity: I want to tell you a little bit about how I came across these ideas and how I approach creativity. There almost seems to be this nebulous, mythical quality to creativity that I find to be really interesting. Artists are seen as a vessel to the divine in a lot of cases, which if you have a creative profession and it's your day job, it's not super convenient because it's not every day that you get a visit from the divine. I like TED Talks, I'm not afraid to admit it. And there's this one by the author of Eat Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert. That's just really fantastic. And she talks about how people would come up to her and asked her if she was afraid that she would never reach the heights again after she wrote, Eat, Pray, Love. And there's this conversation that she had with the poet Ruth Stone. I don't want to give away the whole topic because it's really fantastic and you should go watch it. But this poet used to work in the fields during the day. And she said that she could almost hear poems coming at her from across the hills. And she would have to run back to her house and hope that she could find a pencil in time so that she could break down the poem as it passed through her. If she didn't make it in time, then the poem would go on it's way to find somebody else. So there's a real sense of urgency here. There was one day that she was running and she almost didn't make it in. The poem had passed through her, but she grabbed it by its tail and started to pull it back towards her writing with her other hand. And she ended up writing the poem perfectly from the last word, the first word. And I think that this is a really great illustration of what I mean by creativity is its own entity. This has been really popular throughout the years and I need really throughout the years, it's gone by many names. Amuse, a genie, a gin, a daemon, et cetera. And Damon is my favorite one. It comes from ancient Greece. And it was a benign spirit that existed between the gods and man. They were responsible for whispering inspiration into your ear. And now, I don't think that creativity may be a separate entity, but I think that it might be helpful for our purposes. No matter what you believe there is a mythical quality to creativity, it can come and go. But here's the good news. You don't have to wait for inspiration to strike. But if you and your creativity as a separate entity, You can care for it as such, nurturing and allowing it to rest. So as we move forward through the lessons, keep in mind this physical manifestation of your creativity because we're gonna be using it in the next lesson as we explore identity and how that relates to your inner demons. 6. Exercise 3: Your Inner Daemons: As I've gotten older, I've noticed like getting to know yourself as a truly intentional act. And this really interested me because as a graphic designer, I create identities for a living. So as I was navigating interviews and dates and other places where I was meeting new people. I noticed that we were having the same sorts of surface level conversations. What do you do? What's your favorite color? What's your favorite type of food? And I swear as soon as I hear these questions, my mind just completely goes blank. Which is interesting because I feel like as a kid, I knew the answers to these questions, like right off the bat. I knew what my favorite dinosaur was. I knew what my favorite color was. I knew what my favorite part of my favorite movie was. So I'm inviting you to revisit some of these questions with me as we explore our creative identities and how that relates to our inner creativity. Time to intentionally good to know yourself, you will need to enter Damon worksheets from the Quest slog and the questions that I have for you are, What's the most magical or surprising connection that you've had with a stranger. And how did that situation happen? What do you want more of in your life? What would your younger self be surprised by in your life today? And if you could have any super power, what would it be and why spend about 20 to 30 minutes filling out your first inner daimon worksheet. What are some things that surprised you about your life today? Think about times that felt truly out of the ordinary. What happened? For myself? I wrote about a time when I was walking down the street and I noticed this really cool individual. And as I pass them, they reached out to me and they said, Hey, you seem like a really cool person. Don't let anyone mess with you. I definitely want more spontaneity in my life. I'm very planning oriented. My younger self would definitely be surprised that I work in a creative field professionally. I don't even think I knew that was an option when I was a kid. And the superpower I'd want is that whatever beverage I have, hot or cold, it would always be the perfect drinking temperature. And the second worksheet is focused on this separate creative entity that I'm calling your inner daimon. What does your creativity look like? What if it had form, draw, right? So et cetera. Imagine what it would be like to talk to your creativity. Use that space to write about your inner creativity. Really try to imagine what it would look like if it was real, is the disparate, nebulous and pulsing with iridescent light? Is it a butterfly or a blade of grass? Or is it you as a kid with a drawing of a house, or does it look like a six headed monster with wings and horns? Then I've left space for you to draw what it looks like. And at the bottom, I have a space for you to write anything that you'd like. You could write the level of your creativity or what inventory your creativity has. What does your creativity carry around with it? And this is for no other reason than it's just fun. Spend about 20 to 30 minutes filling out your second inner daimon worksheet. What does your creativity look? Sound and act like? Spend some time reading about and visualizing your creative entity. For myself, I wrote that my creativity would definitely look like a very kind but slightly off humanoid. Maybe they'd have a third eye or other indicators that they aren't quite human. They'd be soft-spoken and gentle, but sassy, definitely very logical, but would meditate and be still when need be full of wonder at the world around them. Their inventory, they'd have tweaks, rocks and other trinkets at the desert. They'd be in Level ten creativity, Damon, I have no idea how many levels there are, but Level ten seems good. So my challenge for you is to fill out these two worksheets and really spend time like seriously considering what your creativity looks like because you can carry this forward into whatever project that you're doing in your visual journal, you can draw this creative entity or include the drawing that we've already done. Or you can find images online that truly feel like the aesthetic of your creativity, whatever helps you to imagine it as a separate entity other than yourself. In this lesson, you learned that learning about yourself is an integral part of the creative practice and you need to make time to intentionally sit down and do it. And we also went over imagining your creativity as a separate entity in order to have a better relationship with it. In the next lesson, we are going to be going over how to build up a creative support network. 7. Exercise 4: Your Creative Support Group: For this lesson, we're gonna be focusing on building up your creative support network. So who are the players in your creative support network? Are they the people that you can go to when you need to brainstorm? Are they the people that you can go to when you don't feel creative? Or are they the people that build you up and hype you up when you have great ideas. These could all be the same person, but we want to focus on who's on your bench, who are your creative height people. As a freelancer, it really felt like I was working alone. Even now as I work from home, it's still feels that way. So I think that we need to be super intentional about building connections. I really think that social media is a great tool for connection because there are so many friends that I made through social media that I would've never had a chance of connecting with because they live halfway around the globe. But I think that we need to be intentional about building actual genuine connections. I've started to learn Spanish on Duolingo this year. And there's always this little blurb that pops up that says you are 70% more likely to finish your language course. If you follow friends. 70% more likely to finish your language course. That's insane, which I think is a really good case study for any habit. Building. Any habit that's hard for us to build is much easier if you are accountable to somebody else. So think about those when you're building up your creative practice, it truly is a habit in and of itself. It's much easier to do it when you're not alone. So pull out your creative support group worksheet. I split this up into three different categories. Your writer dies. These are the people who are your inner circle. They know you, you know them. You can always go to them for support, your mutual secret admirers. Maybe you follow these people on social media and you just don't talk that much, but you always like each other's posts. And finally, your casual fans. These are people that support you and follow you, but maybe it's more distant. For myself. I wrote that my writer dies or my Instagram followers and I personally know and longtime friends and family for mutual secret and Myers, I wrote Instagram followers that are mutual followers they may not talk to. And acquaintances that I know in real life. And my casual fans are my Instagram followers, I don't know, and old friends. Before moving onto the next lesson, try and spend about ten to 15 minutes writing two or three names in each of these categories. Then reach out to at least one person and tell them about your artists quest in your visual journal, you can include photos or drawings of your creative support network. Or if you feel that you don't have those people in your life right now, try writing about what you would like to see in those relationships so that when they do come along, you can recognize them. In this lesson, you learned about the different types of people that exist in your creative support network. And you also learn that doing things as part of a group is way easier than doing it alone. So reaching out to people on social media is a great way to build your creative support network. In the next lesson, we're gonna be focusing on changing our perspective and embracing them. Wonder that's available in the world. 8. Exercise 5: Artist Quest: In this lesson, we are going to be exploring perspective and embracing the wonder that's available in the world. Because trust me, it's abundant and not just in big moments like an epic road trip or seeing a friend get married. It's available in everyday life. You will need your artists quests, worksheet from the log. There's this term from Zen Buddhism called the beginner's mind. And essentially what it means is that you abandon your ideas about what it means to exist in the world. And you really ask yourself, why we do things a certain way or how things work. Being a beginner definitely has a negative connotation, especially as an adult, because you're supposed to know everything already. But I think it was Jake, the dog that said sucking at something is the first step to being good at something. So that's what I'm going to encourage you to do in this exercise. Be radical. Suck at something. Dance around, flail your limbs just because it feels good. Singing in the shower badly. Make art that's just for your eyes. There are so many people out there that don't do things because they're afraid of what other people think. They don't even try. Try. There's this great book called On Looking, a walkers guide to the art of observation. And the author talks about going on a walk over a city block and just talking about how boring it was and how there wasn't much to look at. But then she took the same walk with a variety of experts, entomologist, geologists, architects, all those sorts of people. And she talks about how the all pointed out different things to her and how the same walk widths transformed. There's so much in the world to see and wonder about if you give yourself the space and time to do so. You don't have to have a field of experts at your disposal, but you can still ask yourself why something is the way it is, or ask yourself how we do certain things. Allow yourself to step back and be a beginner. There's this great project that Stefan Sagmeister dead for the music venue casa de music in Portugal. He wanted to create a project that wasn't just another facade of a building and he wasn't sure how to start. So he used this method that's called the Edward de Bono approach, which is where you start with a completely separate idea or object. And your brain trust to figure out how the two are related, which opens up new pathways in your brain. And he came up with this idea where they would use every facade of the building. And they created a custom software that pulls colors from whatever media they are presenting the logo width, such as a painting of Beethoven when they were featuring his work. And each color from the painting would populate the logo. A completely new and novel approach to logo design that he found by just looking out his window, if you're having trouble accessing the beginner's mind, try role-playing as yourself as a kid. What would your self at age 12? Think of this, or age eight or even age for what kinds of questions would they be asking? So for our last exercise, we are going to be going on a quest and then take out your artists quest worksheet. This worksheet is meant to help you document your artists quest. The purpose of the artists quest is to do things that you might not normally do. But the most important aspect is that you're setting a goal to achieve. There should be a clear checkpoint at the end in the first box, right down your objective, I'll give you a few examples of good ones. They don't have to be related to your work. In fact, I would actively encourage you to think of one that isn't. This is meant to get you out of your head and interacting with the world in a new way. Go find a Ferris wheel, take it to the top. Leave notes in your favorite books in a bookstore for future readers. Go to an art supply store and buy as much glitter or confetti or little glittery stickers as you can find and do a photo shoot with your friends. Try to find as many cloud shaped like drafts as you can for the entire day. Every staircase you come across, slide down the rail. No exceptions. Go to a restaurant and order your meal backwards. Desert on trade than appetizer, take a class at your local community center, find the most ridiculous car accessory that you can find and buy it. You could even go to your local botanical gardens and spend some time with some butterflies as a creative professional that works primarily at a desk behind a computer, I find that I get a lot of energy and a lot of joy for being around nature and being around a different sort of environment. Not only was it an opportunity to get away from my desk, but I ended up seeing an atlas model, which is a rare sighting because they only live for a week. Look how dry it is. Next, write down any potential obstacles. This could be something like overcoming fear, entering a new space that feels intimidating or not having the materials to learn a new skill, etc. And finally, after you're done with your artists quest, write about how it went. Did you surprise yourself? Did you make a new friend? Did it end in complete disaster? And if it did, why did that happen? And what can you do differently next time, spend about 15 minutes filling out the details about your artist's gloss. Be very specific about your goal and make sure it's something that you can actually do and then go do it in your visual journal. You can document your artists quest. You can come up with ideas for new ones. Or you could even imagine what your highest self or you as a kid would do in these situations. In this lesson, you learned from unlocking that there is wonder available everywhere. And that new ideas can be sparked by random objects that create new neurological pathways in your brain. And that the beginner's mind is a way to continuously learn and be curious about the world. That was the last lesson. I'll see you in the wrap-up for final thoughts. 9. Wrap Up: Thank you so much for taking this class. I hope you enjoyed it. In this class, you learn that checking in with yourself every once in a while is a really good idea. Find out what makes you feel creative. Visualizing your creativity as a separate entity is a great way to have a healthier relationship with your creativity moving forward. And utilizing a tool like the beginner's mind is a great way to open yourself up to new wonders that are available in the world. Please post your visual journals and any work in progress in the project gallery tab. I would love to take a look at what you're creating if you'd like to connect with me, all of my information on where to find me on the Internet is on my teacher page. Thank you again and remember, everyone is creative. See you later.