The holidays are coming up.
What a glorious time to nestle under a warm blanket, sip on hot chocolate/tea/coffee, and listen to your favourite holiday-themed music (and if you don’t like holiday-themed music, try not to let it ruin the imagery for you, ok?)
It can often feel like an internal tug of war during the holidays; do we indulge in a week’s worth of R&R or do we try to get a head start on our big plans, goals, and desires for the new year?
The seductiveness of relaxation at this time of year is always cut with the looming demands of new year’s resolutions hovering just around the corner.
As a veteran victim of this internal debate in the past, I’m adopting a new practice this year, and it’s one I think is worth sharing with you, lovely newsletter reader.
It’s called: doing creative things you enjoy.
Sounds simple, right? Childish, even? That’s the point!
How often in our every day lives do we pull out a sketch book with a freshly sharpened set of pencils, or a dollar store canvas and some cheap paint, or a journal and a pen, or a chess set, or some yarn and knitting needles, or a guitar, or whatever it is that scratches our creative itch, and dive right in? Not often enough.
This holiday season, I am prescribing a hefty dose of joyful creativity. Immerse yourself in it. I demand it.
Let yourself use your imagination.
We don’t use our imagination enough these days. When we were kids, it’s all we’d use. We hardly knew what the world was really like; we lived inside our imaginations. We knew Disney movies, the adults in our inner circle, our school teachers, and a few playgrounds nearby (who knew having unlimited access to playgrounds would seem like a luxury in 2021!)
With such limited inputs at a young age, we would simply imagine.
We would imagine what we would be when we grew up. We would imagine what we could make with finger paint and an empty page. We would imagine seeing a dragon right in front of us. We would imagine what it would be like to be a mermaid or Spiderman.
see above: child, awestruck by the windows media player,
imagining: what will it show me next?
In all seriousness though, have you ever hung out with a kid and they say something rather profound or ridiculously creative, and you think: wow, that was kind of brilliant.
That’s because they’re living in their own world; not yet shaped by the forces of society telling them what is and isn’t possible, or what they should or shouldn’t do.
They just are. They live. They create. They question. They wonder. And then… they create some more. All the while nourishing their most prominent urge: the urge to imagine.
As kids, we get lost in our imagination. As adults, we can hardly find our imagination.
Life as an adult isn’t designed to stimulate your imagination. It’s full of responsibilities and work and general adult-y things that are far too real and not at all mystical.
Fortunately, you’re never too old to channel your inner-child again.
It is up to us to recapture our imagination, to nurture it, to feed it, to encourage it, and to thank it for its brilliant ideas.
Because without imagination, we can’t create.
And when we can’t create, life becomes stale.
So this holiday season, when you’re tucked in under your blanket and wondering if you should reach for another movie or sit yourself down to write out your new year’s resolutions (or some other new-year-new-me-esque activity) - try meeting yourself in the middle:
Do something creative that you enjoy.
Nurture your imagination, and revel in what you can create.
Many of our best ideas emerge while we are steeped in creative endeavours, losing track of time.
It doesn’t matter what it is that lights up your imagination - find your activity, and dive in.
creative activities to explore:
- Photography
- Music (singing/playing an instrument)
- Making playlists
- Mood/vision board making
- Baking
- Cooking
- Knitting
- Beading
- Painting
- Pottery
- Writing
- Poetry
- Crafts (a quick google search will yield infinite ideas)
my creative activity this week: mediocre doodling