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Are you one of those people who says, ‘I’m not very good at coming up with ideas’? Do you find it difficult to free your mind up to be creative and think outside your usual patterns?

Here are five really quick ways to get your brain working in a different way. Whether you want to solve a problem, or just come up with a new approach to something in your life, try these tips.

How much of your life do you spend simply killing time while waiting for others?

And at the same time feeling you really could be getting on with something more creative..?

We all seem to have busy lives these days and anything that can help us to make better use of our time is usually gratefully welcomed.

The act of creating each day and getting into this rhythm and discipline is one way we can begin to work towards this.

Even if we do this however, many of us find we still “waste” much time in waiting around for others.

One of the oldest questions and dilemmas for artists and creative people is the consistency of their output.

Is it better to maintain a steady output, write/ paint/ compose a little each day, even if it’s just for ten or fifteen minutes?

By developing this kind of “everyday creativity” habit we create an ever-open channel for our creativity to flow steadily through.

It never becomes intimidating or disheartening if we create a little less some days because we know that the next day, or the day after that, we’ll return with something amazing again.

We live in a physical, dualistic, relative universe. The concept of relativity is what allows us to experience the physical and the non-physical, the spirit and the ego, the seen and the unseen. To use this powerful tool of relativity and to experience what we know ourselves to be, spirit children of God with all of God’s abilities, we must first come to know the opposite.

When God created the physical world and the physical concept of relativity, he had to bring into existence the opposite of those aspects that define God. Love is at God’s core. This is what God is. In order to experience love, God had to bring into the relative world the concept of the opposite of love.

Finding your creative groove is another way of saying finding your creative voice, expressing yourself in a way that’s purely and honestly you, sharing the things you’re compelled to share with the world through your art and creative work.

Another, equally important, part of your creative groove is creating in a style and a rhythm that works well for you and allows you to create as freely as possible. This includes having (take a deep breath here) habits and systems in place that allow you to be as creative as possible.

You may have heard and read much in the last few years regarding creativity and innovation.. Or you may even have attended a creativity workshop that you found interesting, fun and helped you come up with some new ideas. Now your current employer may be requiring innovative input. However, you find that your suggestions are mostly ignored or frowned upon. This is mainly because nobody has told you the ‘the secret’.

Last time, I talked about creativity in general,
discussed creative ‘blocks’ and provided strategies for Generation as a
way of being more creative.

This month, I’d like to focus on the second broad area I identified in the field of creativity – Synthesis.

The word ’synthesis’ is derived from the ancient Greek and
describes an integration of two or more pre-existing elements which
results in a new creation.

Using the creative process of Synthesis results in
modular thinking – “What if I took a feature from this thing and
added it to that one?” The process is one of breaking something down
into its component parts or features and then combining some of those
with elements from elsewhere.

One of the keys to being more creative is BELIEVING you can be more creative.

If you have the belief and the mindset that your creativity is limited, and that someday – maybe today even – it’s going to run out and you’ll never create anything worthwhile or interesting again, what kind of effect will that have on how you create?

Here are some likely ways this will have an negative impact on your creativity:

- You’ll feel you have to make your creativity last, you’ll have the rationing mentality. This means you’ll only allow yourself to create in small bursts, or only work on small projects, just in case you “run out of fuel” half way through.

In the past it was very difficult for artists to connect with other artists and the majority worked alone, silent toiling with little support or interaction from others who are like minded.

These days though, the scene is very different.

With the explosion of ways to communicate via the internet, creative artists all over the world can exchange ideas, collaborate on creative projects, share resources and support each other from the comfort of their own homes.

Although much creating still needs to be done by the artist alone, they have the knowledge that a supportive group of other creative people can be literally at their fingertips.