Women & Design // Behind the scenes Creativity looks and feels different for each and every one of us. Conducting a deep dive within myself to explore my creative abilities and potential.
Creativity has so many meanings, one for each of us. It may mean something different for you than what it does for me. Starting this new year, I wanted to take a more internalized approach to my creativity. Throughout 2020 it was quite tough for me to stay creative for myself, creating for clients and freelance projects wasn't any trouble. Stepping into 2021, I wanted to make conscious effort to explore my creative depths to their fullest. I challenged myself to an experiment with no deadline, to meditate and create after exploring my inner being. How would that empower my creativity? Would I have the same style as I do now? How will that impact my creative decisions?
As creatives, we see the world in a unique way, and that has always interested me. I wonder how musicians hear the world, how artists see their surroundings, or how artisans see their material's potential — interpretations that are so intricately pure and different, and that's where our creativity stems from. The way we see, hear, understand, perceive the world around us to be — well that and how we internalize the external. In late 2019, I worked on a project that challenged and reorganized my beliefs and understandings of the world and myself; Nico changed my perceptions about our current reality. Nico aimed to allow users to regain control over their electronic devices and prompt them to interact consciously. I realized my interactions started shifting towards being 'robotic' over the years, to where if I turned my phone on with a purpose in mind, say I wanted to go to my calendar and add in an important event I had to remind myself of later in the day, I ended up mindlessly opening Instagram and scrolling the feed with no destination in mind. 10 minutes end up turning into half an hour and I've forgotten why I turned to my phone in the first place. This mindless autopilot mode that devices have trained us to zone into was one that was incredibly hard for me to not only realize that I'd fallen prey to, but to re-correct. (I'd say I'm still very much a work in progress on that front!)
My new found realization changed most of what 2020 looked like for me. The first half of 2020 consisted of me working on myself, building a routine, and eventually overworking myself to the point where the line between week and weekends was blurred. The second half of 2020 was as expected, a creative burnout and a creative block, fun. Finding that balance was tough, but my mistake wasn't to not create, it was to not prioritize my mental health. After all, it was 2020 and the world was crashing all around us, it's okay if creating wasn't a top priority back then. So, what do I mean when I say I wanted to 'Internalize my creativity'?
Internalizing my creativity, for me, was to look for inspiration inside myself. The long term goal was to ditch those external 'inspirations' and create confidently what I'm meant to create. With the aim to meditate daily, apart from gratitude and guidance meditations, but creativity meditations as well, I begun my new year. This month, I made it a goal to focus on my mental health and listening to my creative being, if I needed a break, I took one. If I wanted to create, I create. I wanted it to be spontaneous, yet with a hint of a planned skeleton in place. Here's a rough timeline of how I see myself progressing through the process of internalizing.
Phase 1 — Practice in depth meditations; striving to reach the 'flow' phase where you're so engrossed into what you're working on that time flies by.
Phase 2 — Channel your meditations towards creativity, activate your collective consciousness.
Phase 3 — Detach from social inspirations, completely look for creative solutions from within.
They may seem simple, but with meditation, practice is key. Soon enough, you'll reach a point where 'less is more' and you'll be able to conduct effective meditative sessions without having to spend hours on end trying to find your balanced inner center. I'm currently working on Phase 1, where I practice achieving depth in my meditative sessions to obtain flow. And, it's working! After even something as simple as a 15 minute meditative session, I can move on with my creative juices flowing, and feeling refreshed and energized! With the current routine, I'm not giving myself any deadlines for when to complete one phase and move on to the other, I'm going to go with the flow and let it progress intuitively. This month I've been feeling more creative visually, last month I was expressing myself through the written word, who knows what next month brings, but I'm here and I'm ready for it.
I prompt you to stop and analyze your actions before diving head first into the new year, I understand resolutions and goals can sometimes be daunting and overwhelming, trust me. But they don't always have to be, this year, I'm progressing intuitively rather than with set deadlines that prioritize quantity over quality. I'm hoping this is something that inspires you to challenge routine in your daily habits and progresses you towards a better version of yourself. I'm still learning and experimenting myself, I'd love to know what you do to tackle creative blocks or burnouts, and how you managed to keep yourself inspired throughout the chaos that was 2020.
We're always open to other perspectives, opinions and a good chat over some coffee or tea. We'd love to host a conversation with you, head on over to our Discord and get in touch! Much Love, Dhruti 🧡
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