One of the acts of everyday creativity I love is filling the well on Pinterest. I love mood boards, and because I’m a very visual person, they’re a tool that I use with my writing as well.
The thing that I've stuck with the longest and found the most useful has been an adapted version of mornning pages. If I'm feeling fragile or tender and can't manage three pages long hand, that's fine. If I want to type/be on my phone, also fine. But I do find it to be a very useful way of clearing the crap from my brain/body and come back towards myself. That 'self' is often wrecked and broken and struggling, but seeing her there, knowing that's still alive, is often enough.
Thank you for the prompt Esmé! It's nice to reflect on what I *am* doing, even if that doesn't feel like very much.
Love this - I just told my students (I teach poetry for queer teens) that I try to focus on a daily creative moment over the pressure to write something daily. Lately this has looked like singing renditions of Fiona Apple songs to my dog (who is also Fiona) while in bed, or thinking about writing while I go on my favorite walks around the neighborhood. I find that I like my writing a lot more when I don’t feel the pressure to produce it nonstop or at a certain rate - it feels more authentically me.
Nov 17, 2023·edited Nov 17, 2023Liked by Esmé Weijun Wang
I've thought about this a lot. Stillness helps me to breathe new life into ordinary things. We live most of our lives in a trance state and running around constantly. But that's not how creativity works. Sometimes, the small and ordinary things inspire us the most, and we have the best ideas. I love this quote by Peter Bregman: "Being bored is a precious thing, a state of mind we should pursue. Once boredom sets in, our minds begin to wander, looking for something exciting, something interesting to land on. And that's where creativity arises." So, it's not always about writing another page or drawing another sketch, chasing more and more creative practises; sometimes, boredom or just listening to a beautiful song can be as fruitful for our creativity. Thank you Esmé
Thank you so much for reading and engaging with this. I so agree with you about stillness—and what looks like stillness usually has so much underneath it.
I appreciate you sharing this, especially now as I m berating myself for not writing every day. Music has always been a place that I go. I also have been making my own stickers to stick everywhere that makes me happy, and I have been having fun experimenting with my instax camera.
I love thinking about how to stay creative and inspired, and your suggestions are just fantastic! My favorite way is to feed myself with high-quality inspiring content every day. Sometimes I listen to a podcast or a book, sometimes a bit of a webinar, etc. Allowing myself to follow whatever impulse I have, whatever is drawing me in, is itself a creative awakening.
Cooking is an oft overlooked creative practice. After you get past the following recipes stage you'd be surprised by how much can be communicated with a meal.
I also try to be creative every day. I practice many of the things you shared. I think sometimes doing something creative with our hair, clothes, nails etc. can be a great way of being creative. This is something I don't do as often as I'd like, but it came to mind.
Thank you for this - I loved it. Especially the note-taking whilst reading - I annotate but I think it would be more useful if I made the notes in a notebook - easier to refer back to.
i have been in such a writing slump over the past few weeks and reading this was so validating that the little acts i do almost every day, like journaling RE: books, are creative!! i love this list and especially the reminder to do draw Tarot more often. thank you!
Once again, Esmé, you have precisely hit on my own mental/emotional state. I had a sort of epiphany yesterday during a beach walk: I've been obsessing so much about *why* I'm not writing (at all!), *why* I'm always in my own way, *why* I haven't been able to draw or paint or experiment with collage. *Why* I put prioritize everything else in my life above my creative flow.
Yesterday I simply sat down at my laptop, opened a new document, and wrote. I'm working hard now on the *how* of things, the entering into a state of work and concurrent learning. As Roethke wrote, "I learn by going where I have to go."
Thank you for your lively, intelligent guidance; you inspire me.
I live with limitations due to chronic illness, and my kids’ school just let out for winter break, and so I was journaling this morning both about how to find ease in the chaos and noise of the next few weeks (I have three rather rough-and-tumble boys) and about how to make peace with the fact that little/no writing is going to happen, and this notion of everyday creativity is exactly where I landed! (Does writing an obscenely long sentence count as an act of everyday creativity? If so, I just nailed it.) For me, this means taking pictures of beautiful little things like raindrops or patches of moss. It also means singing (I talk to myself in song) and playing piano or guitar. And it means parenting creatively, too!
One of the acts of everyday creativity I love is filling the well on Pinterest. I love mood boards, and because I’m a very visual person, they’re a tool that I use with my writing as well.
The thing that I've stuck with the longest and found the most useful has been an adapted version of mornning pages. If I'm feeling fragile or tender and can't manage three pages long hand, that's fine. If I want to type/be on my phone, also fine. But I do find it to be a very useful way of clearing the crap from my brain/body and come back towards myself. That 'self' is often wrecked and broken and struggling, but seeing her there, knowing that's still alive, is often enough.
Thank you for the prompt Esmé! It's nice to reflect on what I *am* doing, even if that doesn't feel like very much.
Keeping up morning pages (your version) is terrific! And I love how you give yourself grace if the full three pages just aren’t possible that day.
Love this - I just told my students (I teach poetry for queer teens) that I try to focus on a daily creative moment over the pressure to write something daily. Lately this has looked like singing renditions of Fiona Apple songs to my dog (who is also Fiona) while in bed, or thinking about writing while I go on my favorite walks around the neighborhood. I find that I like my writing a lot more when I don’t feel the pressure to produce it nonstop or at a certain rate - it feels more authentically me.
Yes! A creative *moment* is such a delicious thing to think about. I love that you’re teaching this to your students.
Loveee this Lyss :) the singing to your dog part if my fav!
I've thought about this a lot. Stillness helps me to breathe new life into ordinary things. We live most of our lives in a trance state and running around constantly. But that's not how creativity works. Sometimes, the small and ordinary things inspire us the most, and we have the best ideas. I love this quote by Peter Bregman: "Being bored is a precious thing, a state of mind we should pursue. Once boredom sets in, our minds begin to wander, looking for something exciting, something interesting to land on. And that's where creativity arises." So, it's not always about writing another page or drawing another sketch, chasing more and more creative practises; sometimes, boredom or just listening to a beautiful song can be as fruitful for our creativity. Thank you Esmé
Thank you so much for reading and engaging with this. I so agree with you about stillness—and what looks like stillness usually has so much underneath it.
I appreciate you sharing this, especially now as I m berating myself for not writing every day. Music has always been a place that I go. I also have been making my own stickers to stick everywhere that makes me happy, and I have been having fun experimenting with my instax camera.
I love thinking about how to stay creative and inspired, and your suggestions are just fantastic! My favorite way is to feed myself with high-quality inspiring content every day. Sometimes I listen to a podcast or a book, sometimes a bit of a webinar, etc. Allowing myself to follow whatever impulse I have, whatever is drawing me in, is itself a creative awakening.
Cooking is an oft overlooked creative practice. After you get past the following recipes stage you'd be surprised by how much can be communicated with a meal.
I also try to be creative every day. I practice many of the things you shared. I think sometimes doing something creative with our hair, clothes, nails etc. can be a great way of being creative. This is something I don't do as often as I'd like, but it came to mind.
Thank you for this - I loved it. Especially the note-taking whilst reading - I annotate but I think it would be more useful if I made the notes in a notebook - easier to refer back to.
i have been in such a writing slump over the past few weeks and reading this was so validating that the little acts i do almost every day, like journaling RE: books, are creative!! i love this list and especially the reminder to do draw Tarot more often. thank you!
Once again, Esmé, you have precisely hit on my own mental/emotional state. I had a sort of epiphany yesterday during a beach walk: I've been obsessing so much about *why* I'm not writing (at all!), *why* I'm always in my own way, *why* I haven't been able to draw or paint or experiment with collage. *Why* I put prioritize everything else in my life above my creative flow.
Yesterday I simply sat down at my laptop, opened a new document, and wrote. I'm working hard now on the *how* of things, the entering into a state of work and concurrent learning. As Roethke wrote, "I learn by going where I have to go."
Thank you for your lively, intelligent guidance; you inspire me.
PS, I forgot to mention that I also baked a blueberry cake yesterday. 😊
I live with limitations due to chronic illness, and my kids’ school just let out for winter break, and so I was journaling this morning both about how to find ease in the chaos and noise of the next few weeks (I have three rather rough-and-tumble boys) and about how to make peace with the fact that little/no writing is going to happen, and this notion of everyday creativity is exactly where I landed! (Does writing an obscenely long sentence count as an act of everyday creativity? If so, I just nailed it.) For me, this means taking pictures of beautiful little things like raindrops or patches of moss. It also means singing (I talk to myself in song) and playing piano or guitar. And it means parenting creatively, too!