Activities to boost creativity
Submitted by Bumsita.
Activities to boost your creativity, and to stay moving through this whole thing with a touch of curiosity, not unlike a rising tide pushing itself to kiss the edges of your toes as they poke past your beach towel (except you are the tide, and they’re god’s toes).
Author’s note: many of these were activities that I discovered while completing my weekly Artist’s Date, as part of the Artist’s Way program. I encourage that program as an activity in and of itself.
Other relevant information: the activities listed below will only carry you as far as you allow them to. Recommended components for optimal enjoyment include a general opening of the senses, via the thoughtful disassembly of expectation, and a drunken enthusiasm to metabolize what you find into your medium of choice. The latter action should be conducted, again, without expectation. Let what you find use your body as a channel.
Activity 1. Where am I? Close your eyes and think of the neighborhoods near you. Picture the homes and stores that can be found there. Which neighborhood is your favorite? Once identified, forget this neighborhood. Which neighborhood is strange to you? This is your job today—to find out why it is strange. Get in the car and drive to this neighborhood. Notice clues along the way that may help you understand what is going on, to make that neighborhood strange. Pay attention to foliage and architecture. Pay attention to the flow of sidewalks and whether the ground feels cursed. Find a place to park and spend at least an hour collecting evidence. Write up an informal report of your results. You are a doctor of place, of setting—make a diagnosis.
Activity 1.5. Who lives here? Now, pick a neighborhood that is dense with houses that are different from one another. Park near an intersection and remember the names of those two roads—please, write them down. Walk up and down the streets and create characters that live inside each of the homes that you pass. Do this in a backwards way, by letting the houses pick their inhabitants. What type of person would make this house happy? Take notes of any people you create that excite you. Dispel suspicious gazes from actual residents by doing this all in a suit or gown. Should circumstance prohibit this as an option, opt for clothing that is comfortable to run in.
Activity 2. Mad-dash book sale: best performed on a rainy day and entirely by accident. Visit your local library and notice large signs with arrows and the words “book sale”. Follow arrows until you arrive at the event, and turn to your right to see the old woman living in Your Community who helps run the book sale. See as she hands you a bag, and tells you that the sale closes in four minutes. Hurry up and down rows of low tables, covered in boxes where books hold one another tightly, spines upward. You do not have time to read the backs of these books, and must grab what calls you, muting the part of your psyche chanting for order, order, order. You will feel how the last five minutes of a library book sale are an orderless, jangled terrain. You will know that, and there you are, at the bloodied center. A child counts quarters at a snails pace in the line in front of you. We all have to learn, somehow. The old woman living in Your Community who helps run the book sale thanks you for your purchase, and says that she will see you again in June. You feel you will be back, because you do not want to disappoint her. Go find a chair and examine the books you’ve picked. Examine your subconscious laid bare.
Activity 3. Fishing at the amusement park. Look up amusement parks in your area. Note that, for the purposes of this activity, the objective quality (in terms of selection of rides, size, etc.) of the amusement park is not integral to your goal. Any park where people can be found, in lines like streams, entering and exiting attractions, will do. Upon arrival complete a lap and take stock of all you see. Then, complete another lap, this time looking for a comfortable place to sit near the exit of a ride—usually, parks will install benches near these exits, for nauseated parents to wait with their sun-stroked infants for older siblings. Go and sit beside them. Watch the steady flow of characters leaving this ride. Are they exhilarated? Are they tearful? Are they in sticky clusters of friends, or tacked to the hip of their paramour? Go fishing for their stories. Eavesdropping is not considered rude here. Take conspicuous notes and hydrate adequately. For enhanced enjoyment and social reward, invite the wittiest of your friends, and have them complete the same exercise. Compare one another’s observations about the fish that swim by.
Activity 4. I am a lobster (if I try). Plan a road trip that will keep you out of town for multiple days. Pack exactly one day’s worth of clothing (the exception being underwear, of which you should pack an adequate amount to maintain crisp hygiene). Consult a map and select thrift stores that are either at or on the way to your destination, and make a loose plan to stop at each of these stores within the first or second day of your trip. Your mission is to purchase all of the clothes that you will need for the remainder of your journey. Salvation is bestowed by highway anonymity, and you are not saddled by the personality that lives in your closet. Try new styles or colors. Nobody you meet in the next few days will have any preexisting idea of who you are; they will not compare the person you present yourself as to anything at all. You can play dress-up and nobody will know. Who will you become, dressed in a stranger’s clothes? Notice how these risks are no longer risky. When you return home, keep wearing these fantasy clothes, and remember who you were on that road trip. Note: this activity is best completed once a year, and should be directly proceeded by a systematic review of all items currently in your closet.
