Creativity Muscle Workouts: Everyone is CREATIVE

Everyone is CREATIVE...

Look at any 2-4 year old when you hand them a blank sheet of poster paper, a container of paints, and a paintbrush. They create without reservation. They don't stop and say, "I don't know if I'm creative..."

• There is no self-doubt.
• There is no perfection.
• There is no expectation.
• There is only CREATIVE.... 

Being 25, 45, or 65 is no different. We just may have allowed our creativity muscle to atrophy a bit. It may have been discouraged when someone said our dinosaur made out of a toilet paper roll, cotton balls, and purple paint was lame.  But that muscle is NOT gone. 

• We can awaken it. 
• We can strengthen it. 
• We can believe that it is real and powerful. 
• We can enjoy it. 

Therefore, I'm committing to post a Creativity Muscle Workout daily for the next 100 days...  One exercise at a time, we will get your creativity muscle revived and primed to CREATE.  

While most of the exercises will center around words and writing, there will be days I suggest... no words, just images or color to give our creativity muscle some workout on the other side. You know, like biceps and triceps in the arm. Different exercises for each. Both are necessary for strong, toned arms. 

You can choose to do these in a sketch book with blank pages, a flowery journal with lines, or on your computer... but the key ingredient is FREEDOM for your mind to go explore places, words, ideas, emotions, colors, metaphors, and meaning.

• Don't restrict yourself, unless the exercise calls you to (which will always be purposeful and articulated).
• No EVALUATION or EDITING. Spelling and grammar does NOT matter during creative exercise. And whether your ideas are lame or fantastic... the creative muscle needs FREEDOM to express and get things on the page. Don't evaluate or edit the creative freedom during exercises. Just relax into them and enjoy it. 
• Environment will affect the workout. Sometimes the exercise will call for specific environment, like stand or sit in water.  Or close your eyes and listen to sounds in your world etc. If it's not called out as part of the exercise, select a space that FEELS FREE for you (whatever that means for you). 
• Allow yourself the time to go back and explore more deeply if you feel so inclined. 
• Always take a minute or two at the end to debrief the exercise so you can see your muscle grow, develop, tone, and reveal to you what it's capable of doing :) 

I'm excited to hear about how the exercise is awakening, strengthening, and bringing you into enjoying your creativity. So please share as you do them... 

Happy CREATING!!! 

Creativity Muscle Exercise #1

Open your new Creativity Workout Journal and finish this story. Whether you choose10 words or 500, what happens? 

As the sun set, the light between the trees flickered with golden tones. I love the woods at dusk. But tonight was different... 

DEBRIEF: 

1. Did you picture this place before you started writing? Was it a place you had been before? How did that picture influence what you wrote? 
2. What were you feeling? How did those feelings affect what you wrote? 
3. Were you more descriptive of the environment, the action, or the feelings? This might be an indicator of what you like to write. 
4. What was hard about writing this story? Why do you think that part was hard?