4 Ways to Boost Your Creativity
I recently read Anne Lamott’s classic book on the art of writing called “Bird by Bird.” Among many fabulous insights, one of my favorites was her discussion on the subconscious. She personifies hers as a person who lives in the basement of her brain and works quietly away, handing up gems of insight and lines of dialogue to help her in her writing. This basement-dweller is her creative partner and is absolutely essential.
I can relate to this because I often sense that my writer brain is its own being. I am constantly demanding and asking things of it. I have very high expectations of it. But if it is its own being, that means we are in a relationship, one that requires nourishment and tender loving care.
This got me thinking about what a writer, or any creative person, can do to nurture their subconscious so that it can help us produce and create consistently and without limits. When we talk about boosting creativity, I think this is another way of putting it. How do you care for that little self inside you who is working very hard to help you create amazing [whatever it is that you create]?
Here are four ideas:
1. Consume nutritious content
There’s junk food, and there’s junk content. Think of your subconscious like your body—what you put in is what you’ll get out. It can only work with what you give it.
How do I define “nutritious content”? That which challenges your understanding, includes words you don’t yet know, requires concentration and focus, and leaves you feeling thoughtful and uplifted. (Read a book once in a while, will ya?)
Just like with food, in our modern day there are so many choices for content consumption, so being intentional is more challenging, and also more important, than ever.
2. Be observant
People don’t people-watch anymore, have you noticed that? Or perhaps we do it more than ever, but only from the anonymous confines of our phones. As a society we seem to have lost the ability to have nothing to do. When we’re waiting at the doctor’s office, in the pickup line at school, or at the airport, what do we do? We pull out our phones and scroll.
Now, I’m not saying that this is always a bad thing or that I never do it. But I do think we’re missing out on some fantastic observations. These times when you have nothing to do, you could be filling your subconscious with interesting details to be used later.
Like what? Like how dust specks appear when light streams through a window and your four-year-old thinks it’s amazing. How people walk and the way emotions appear on their faces—love, excitement, worry, despair. The sound of someone’s laugh. Examine the humanity around you. They have a lot to teach you. And who knows, you might find a fellow subconscious-nurturer staring back at you. What details might you be inspiring?
3. Be still
When you sit down to engage in a creative pursuit, I think it’s important to take a moment to be quiet and still. Release nervous energy by stretching and breathing deeply. Maybe even do a little yoga.
Then, when you’re ready to begin, approach your subconscious gently. Don’t demand. Invite. Be curious and open to what might come up the ladder today. Don’t scold if it seems like trash. Just keep inviting and keep receiving, and try to accept all of it in stillness.
4. DON’T be still
If you sat at your desk all day every day, I’m sure you would become very good at typing. But I don’t think you’d be very good at writing. What we write, be it fiction or non-fiction, comes from our own experiences. This is the raw material that we bring to our desk to be explored, pondered, and captured in some form.
So go out and have experiences. Do things that stretch you. Expose yourself to a variety of people and cultures, even sub-cultures within your own community. This will all become material for your subconscious to repurpose in your work.
