I’ve always said that I’m not a creative person. To clarify that statement, it only pertains to things having to do with arts and crafts. Although I appreciate and admire arts and crafts, it’s something I have never been really good at. However, as for being creative about other aspects in life such as in parenting and being a WAHM, I’d like to think I’m creative enough. In fact, I think being creative in one’s personal and professional life is a necessity. As WAHMS, we need to creative in finding ways to balance our work with our roles as wife and mom.
Take the case of my toddler, who’s now in that interesting Terrible Two stage. He’s known for throwing his fair share of tantrums every now and then. Mind you, it is very, VERY hard to coax him out of it. This can be especially frustrating when I have a deadline to meet at work. In order to calm him down, I usually try a variety of techniques. It changes every so often so it really requires a lot of creativity on my part to think of something that will distract him or stop him from crying.
It also takes creativity to raise tweens. My tween girls already have a mind of their own. They have their own preferences and tastes. They voice their own opinions and already have a very strong sense of what they like and don’t like. So, it’s sometimes a challenge to convince them to do or try something new. I have to constantly think of creative ways to alleviate their fears or worries about something.
Of course, we also have to be creative in our marriage. Just because we now have a spouse doesn’t mean we can sit back and let the relationship just be. With our busy schedules, hubby and I always try to think of creative ways on how to keep the fire of love burning, so to speak.
I always need to be creative with work as well. I need to figure out new ways of writing my articles, press releases, etc. I need to come up with ways to solve my VA clients’ various concerns.
It’s not always easy to be creative though. Things happen in our lives that sometimes leave us uninspired. Well, when those moments happen, take some ideas from this list I found on Pinterest on how to stay creative.
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I’ve done all those things on the list at one time or another and they all work! My favorite though would be to drink coffee (can’t live without it), listen to new music, make lists (I always make lists!), DANCE and of course, have fun. When something becomes not fun anymore, I stop doing it and either find a way to make it fun or do something else altogether.
I’d like to share some of my own ideas too on how to stay creative.
- Play with your kids. I find that when I play with my toddler, my mind is “forced” to think creatively because being with him makes me see the world with “new eyes”.
- Daydream. I do this a lot. This frees up my mind from thinking about my daily to-do’s and worries. I let my imagination run wild. In doing that, there’s no telling where your mind can take you.
- Commune with nature. Even if you live in the city, you don’t have to go far to do this. You can just go to the park, sit under the trees or look at the flowers. If it’s raining and you’re stuck at home, then go watch the rain! Nature just has a way of calming our minds.
- Sing or play an instrument. Maybe this will work only for the musically-inclined. But for me, since I love to sing, I try to do it as much as I can because music soothes me.
- Look at other people’s creative works. I love watching my hubby do his graphic design projects. By doing that, I learn a lot of things that I can apply to my own work as well. I also love pinning stuff on Pinterest. There’s so many creative people in the world who love sharing their stuff. Right now, I’m on the look out for creative ways to spruce up my home office and I am loving the many ideas I’ve seen on Pinterest (will share them with you soon!).
I guess, the key here is to just be open to always try something new. Explore (my one word for the year!) and you will discover new things, new people, new places, new ways of doing things. That will surely keep you creative.
How do you guys stay creative? Share your ideas with me.
