Get Creative

One way to add more fun and joy to your life is to incorporate creative pursuits! I am a huge fan of the arts including music, painting, drawing, coloring, theatre, etc. Using your brain in a creative way can activate a spark in your life. Music and reading music is showed to improve your math skills. Here is a study by Vaugh in 2000 regarding this topic: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3333641

My recent creative hobbies have included doing adult paint by numbers, adult coloring books, and attending Paint & Sip classes. I find the activities soothing, and I enjoy playing with colors and being creative.

In my young years, I was completely devoted to music. I played piano, clarinet, and sang, and I devoted hours and hours to rehearsing with bands, orchestras, choirs, and practicing independently to win school-sponsored competitions. I fell especially in love with the clarinet and singing. I was accomplished at the clarinet. It gave me such peace to play and practice. Also the processing of mastering something really lit my brain up. I felt truly elevated by being able to work hard and see tremendous growth month after month of practice.

Upon doing some recent inner work, I asked myself the questions “what would you do if you didn’t need money?” or put another way “what would you do for free?” And I felt my heart telling me to play the clarinet again. I have a high quality clarinet that needs some repairs, and I have investigated a couple options for repair. I also reached out to a local professor who leads the Clarinet department of a music college to connect me with someone who could give me lessons. There are parts of me that are afraid. What if I am cannot be good enough because I didn’t major in music? What if this is a waste of time when I should be building a business or making money? But isn’t that the point….to waste time, to do something I love, something for free?

I also was a scrapbooker when I was young. I enjoyed putting together a visual memory with a variety of textures and decorations. High School was a busy and somewhat happy time of life with lots of activities to document and photograph. What would I scrapbook now if I was scrapbooking?

Try some artistic or creative activities this month and pay attention to your level of enjoyment, ability to achieve flow state, and other reactions.

Dramatic moonlight that I painted at a Paint & Sip class.