10 Ways to Ignite Your Creativity

Creativity. It seems such a simple thing when you look at the definition of it — the state or quality of being creative. Right? It should be as easy to tap into as your multiplication tables.

But some days it just isn't happening and you feel as creative as a stump. The muse of inspiration has taken a vacation, and left you high and dry. Sometimes to free that muse and unleash your shackled creativity, you have to focus your entire being on something outside of yourself.

Here are 10 suggestions to step away from and ignore your uninspired self to reconnect with your creative self and enable your muse to re-surface.

1. Exercise. It doesn't matter if  you run, walk, swim, dance, do yoga, play tennis, or hike; just do it.
2. Meditate.
3. Visit an art museum.
4. Journal.
5. Learn something new — how to knit, speak another language, throw a pot, write code, paint, draw, make paper airplanes or origami.
6. Play with a baby — puppy, kitten, human — and watch the absolute joy of unselfconscious and innocent existence.
7. Get outside. Walk by the ocean, a lake, a creek, or a river. Walk a trail or visit a garden. Plant some flowers or herbs, deadhead some roses, pull weeds or mow the lawn.
8. Laugh! Tell a joke, listen to a joke, watch a funny video or movie, listen to a comic.
9. Make something. Bake a cake, build a birdhouse, build a house of cards or a tent fort in your living room.
10. Watch this curated collection of 10 TED Talks for a burst of inspiration.

What ways have you found to let your creative muse out of the bottle and re-ignite your creativity when you're stuck for inspiration?

 Image courtesy of Victor Habbick / FreeDigitalPhotos.net