Public Service Announcement!  If you are experiencing a creative block that is negatively impacting your creative spirit, please read on.  Or if like me, you wish to counteract that looming January slump, that leaves you like ‘meh, what’s the point‘ … this is the post for you.  I for one am not going to let the January blues dampen my creative fire for yet another year in a row.

My creativity levels plummet when I’m super stressed or just plain bummed out.  So this year I’m giving myself a pre-emptive booster shot of inspiration to avoid another case of the whytrysies.  I’m determined to keep writing and painting with alllll the colours.  Let’s beat the January blues and avoid getting stuck in a creative rut…

It’s time to turn our creative resilience up to eleven baby!

Post Christmas Limbo Land

I have a love hate relationship with Winter (stick with me on this tangent.)  From November to December, I’m super stoked.  All the best things happen during this time frame.  Halloween, Bommy night, my Birthday (the most important one obvs) and the fantastic festivities that occur in the run up to the big one… CHRISTMAS!

Yes, the festive season is busy as heck and it can be exhausting both mentally and physically.   With a constant flow of inspiration and magic every where you look…The excitement in the air can be truly tangible.  But, it can also prove a difficult time for those of us that have loved and lost.  Christmas can be a painful reminder that our nearest and dearest are no longer with us.

I struggle the most in that weird limbo land post Christmas but pre January.  It seems a natural point to reflect upon the year as a whole.  Oh and by the way, that’s another full year of your life gone biatches!  Did you live up to all those unrealistic expectations?

This leads me to January.  I find the month as a whole to be especially difficult.  The nights are still long and cold.  But with no bright flashing lights or festivities to carry us through, it’s all a bit meh.  Plus, there is new year, new me fever everywhere, adding unnecessary pressure to an already long and cruddy month.

I can feel the creativity hemorrhaging from my soul already.

ENOUGH preamble woman, give me the quotes now gosh darn it.  Said you and me both.

5 Epic Quotes to Inspire your Creative Spirit

I love this quote because it reminds us that creativity is a muscle.  You need to flex that bad boy regularly or it will atrophy.  With this is mind, I try to do something creative each day, even if I don’t feel like it.  Actually, hold that thought, especially if I don’t feel like it.

I don’t create daily under the illusion (or even with the intention) that I will produce a masterpiece.  I’m fully aware that eighty percent of what I create will be total dog sh*t.  But I’d rather try and fail, than fall into the void of perfection and create nothing.  Been there, done that and bought the depressing and overpriced t-shirt.  A life without creativity SUCKS!

This may sound a tad dramatic, because well, it is.  But, tough love time… it’s your duty to keep creating.  Not just for your own peace of mind, but to inspire those around you to live a beautiful life.

There is a whole world full of lonely, confused and depressed people that need you and your creative spark.  They need you to shine your light as brightly as you can into the void.

We creative types bring magic to this otherwise mundane world.  Pick up that pencil.  Whether it is to draw, write or make a flippin’ sculpture with it!   What you create today matters.  You bring a net positive to the world.  Yay!

Creative people are brave as heck.  We have vision and we see things that others can’t.  OR in some cases don’t want to see.  As creatives, we bring these visions into conscious reality.  Often met by fear and anger from those that are scared of the self truth that creativity can reveal.

Being creative can be a lonely pursuit.  I do my best work when I’m alone.  But spending so much time in my own space, gives me the opportunity to think, like a lot.  Sometimes excessive thinking, does not a happy Rachael make.  But when I see the beautiful colours of these thoughts translated onto my canvas… It’s SO worth while.

If you are a creative person reading this, I want you to know how much I appreciate what you do.  I appreciate the journey you take into the wilderness, every time you sit alone with your own thoughts.  Matisse hit the nail on the head.  Creativity really does take courage.

I’m proud of you!

Walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk!  How can you have fun breaking the rules if you don’t even know what they are?  How do you learn the rules in the first place?  By PRACTICING.

This means making a commitment to your creative pursuit and sticking to it.  Even if this is dedicating ten minutes every day to being creative.  You CAN do it.  Whatever you do, be consistent.  You owe it to yourself and your talent.

This goes out to all my blogging peeps, my artist peeps and my gosh dang creative peeps!  BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.  Give yourself permission to try.  Don’t get me wrong, you will most likely fail the first few attempts.  Unless you are the luckiest person on Earth … In which case … Hi my name’s Rachael Hope, please share some of that sweet, sweet luck nectar with me.

From my own experience, a lot of my creative blocks have emerged from a lack of self believe.  Remember you don’t have to create the Sistine Chapel on your first attempt.  But the price of failing is nothing compared to price you pay for never even trying. 

FIN

I’ll end this post in the only way I see fit.  A creative spirit is magical and difficult simultaneously.  But when we get it right, jeepers ain’t it great?  Give yourself permission to try today.

P.s. If you liked this post why not check out my previous post by clicking the image below:

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